"I can't wait to turn eighteen, so I know exactly who my soulmate is," Darren said aloud to his parents. He turns eighteen at one o'clock today, and he's itching to know what name will be engraved on his body tonight.
"Honey, you know that the tattoo will hurt for a few days, right?" Darren heard his mother add in concern.
"Of course mom, but it will be worth it. Their name will be on my body forever. I wonder if I've already met my soulmate, or maybe just seen them around at the convenience store!" Darren exclaimed, his voice going one hundred miles an hour, as he runs up the stairs to his bedroom. His phone screen lights up displaying the time is only 8 p.m., still five more hours until he will be able to see the name. He sighs, running his slender fingers through his short, ebony-colored hair. He won't be able to sleep when he's this excited, so he grabs his X-Box controller and plays some Mario Cart to pass time.
-
Darren had officially defeated four levels on the game, when he heard the alarm on his phone go off, signaling that he is now eighteen! A minute passes, then another, then another. It felt like 10 years had went by before he realized that he will not be getting his tattoo tonight as he had planned. It's a devastating, heart-wrenching, gut-pulling sadness that washed over him now, like a storm. No, it's like a hurricane. A hurricane he can't escape, and he's drowning in the sorrow for himself.
"This isn't what's supposed to happen," Darren swallowed down his tears, before finally drifting off into an uneasy slumber.
-
When Darren got up, he sprinted down the stairs, not wasting a second of time before telling his mom, who was sat at the table eating breakfast, "My tattoo didn't show up last night Mom. You told me it would! You and Dad have said to me my whole life that it would happen the moment I turned eighteen! Well, clearly, it hasn't, so what am I supposed to do now?" The words come out like bile he couldn't keep from spitting up.
"Darren honey, slow down! You'll choke on your own words," his mother replied slyly, "if your tattoo doesn't show up the moment you turn eighteen, then it means your soulmate isn't of age yet."
"So, they are out there, right? They aren't dead, or nonexistent?" He furrowed his eyebrows as his sat down beside his mother.
His mom pondered for a moment, "They could be, but it's highly unlikely that they would have passed away. It's your soulmate. You are both meant for each other; meant to meet at the very least," she retorts like reading from her very own mind-dictionary.
Darren let out a breath he didn't know he was holding in, and the corners of his mouth upturn slightly. "Okay, so I just have to wait," he breathed, "I just have to wait."
-
The leaves are changing color for the third time since Darren's eighteenth birthday. There is still no sign of a tattoo on his body. Every single one of his college buddies had already been shipped off in pairs of two, holding hands and smiling at one another, but not himself. He was cursed to wait.
Darren was beginning to believe his mother had been lying to him merely to spare his feelings, and give him hope when there wasn't any left to have. Three years is a long time to be expecting something to happen, especially something that makes living your life 100 times better than beforehand. That's the point though, there is absolutely nothing he can do about not getting his tattoo.
It's another cynical night, where he fell asleep dreaming of a pretty personality to go along with his own, when suddenly, he awakened. There's a searing pain on his left wrist, and he winces with a hiss as he's getting up from his bunk to grab some pain killer. Well, I did try to work out earlier, he thought to himself, I probably just twisted it the wrong way.
Once he's finally back in bed he grabs his phone, so he could wait for the pain to subside before he falls back asleep, and clicks the home button. The screen light catches his left wrist, and he cocked his head in bewilderment as his eyebrows raise all the up to the ceiling.
"Oh, my gosh! I can't believe it, oh, my gosh!" He screamed in delight, and jumped up from his bed to do a little dance before having a proper look at the name inscribed across his skin. 'Kendall York' is seemingly his soulmate. He thinks they have an amazing first and middle name.
Immediately, Darren took ahold of his laptop and searched the website he had almost given up on. He inserted his personal information, and finally got to the soulmate part of the website. This is the website used all across this state for people to meet their soulmate on. You just type in the name that appeared on your body, and if that person has you for their soulmate too, then you get to chat-up and meet-up. There isn't a notification for him right away and he gets slightly disappointed, but shrugs it off. He waited three years, and it if takes another one he'd be happy to wait for his soulmate to be ready to meet him.
-
The very next day, Darren's phone vibrated furiously in his pocket. He picked it up only to see that the call is from an unknown number. He slid his thumb to accept anyways answering with, "Hello, this is Darren Trace, may I ask who's calling?"
"H-hi," the other person on the phone reciprocated with a slightly shaky feminine voice, "t-this is Kendall York. Your name showed up on m-my right wrist last night. You're my soulmate?" She asked.
"Yes!" Darren exclaimed into the mic, "I am your soulmate! Your name showed up on my left wrist last night! Did you find me on that website?"
"I did find you on that website, yes," Kendall responded, clearly feeling much more confident about the situation, "I actually live on the same campus as you! Would you like to meet up for coffee before your next class? I have all of today off classes."
Darren was shaking to the core with a buzz in his brain as he spoke back, "Yeah, of course, I'd absolutely love to actually! In thirty minutes, at the coffee shop across the road, yeah?" When he heard a hum of agreement, he said goodbye, and hung up the phone to start toward the shop.
When Darren met Kendall's hazel eyes he immediately knew it was her and walks up to embrace her tightly. They stay there for a while before starting to talk about things they are interested in, and what they want to do with their lives. It'd been five hours, and Darren had officially missed his classes for the day before they decide it's best to head back to the dorms.
Together, they agreed that they were meant to be were very close friends as soulmates. Their advice for one another was the better than what anyone else could offer them. They were like polar opposites, but they got along so well. The crinkles around Darren's eyes never faded while Kendall was around. Darren was happy he held onto the hope, and ended up with the best person he's ever had in his life.
