Soul Search

I'm About 100% Sure This Is A Bad Idea

    I had finished my red cardinal painting. It was probably my best work so far. Mr. Barton wanted to hang it up on his wall (I was very flustered) but I had already promised my mom I would bring it home to her.

    "I know I ask you this every week but how are things doing with that girl you like?" Mr. Barton asked.

    My face heated up a bit. "Nowhere actually. I just can't bring myself to talk to her, I mess up too easily."

    "Have you tried, just like asking her out?" Mr. Barton continued.

    I shrugged. "No, that's also way to easy to mess up. Plus she's kinda already dating someone right now."

    Speaking of Arthur, he wasn't in art class today, weird.

    Mr. Barton blinked. "I assume that someone isn't her soulmate?"

    "Yeah, but there's this other boy she's also been kind of...hiding? I don't know. She's like friends with him but I don't actually "know" anything."

    "You're thinking she might have already found her soulmate." Mr. Barton continued, easing up an eyebrow.

    "Maybe." I explained.

    Mr. Barton smiled at me in the way a knowing parent does. "Well Micah, there's really only one way to find out, you have to give it a shot."

    He was right. Ugh, I wasn't gonna like this. Things would be simpler after I find out Julia's my soulmate, then we can run off to New York and get married. I guess this was a particularly unavoidable step though.

    "Okay, what do you suggest?"

    He shrugged, mimicking me. "You could ask her out."

    "Something less life threatening please." I rolled my eyes at him.

    "Well my son's having a party this weekend, you should invite her." Mr. Barton offered.

    Except I already knew she was busy. Maybe I could talk to her about it, this did seem like a goldmine opportunity for me here.

    "Okay," I started. "I'll think about it."

    Mr. Barton shook his head in amused disbelief. "Have a nice day Micah."

    On the way home from school, I called Abby and told her what Mr. Barton told me. I was instantly met with a loud scream.

    "Micah this is perfect! Interaction outside of the play! You already know each other, so you would already be friends. Surely it can't be the hard to shake hands at a party."

    "Are you sure this isn't a bad idea?" I whined slightly.

    "It's a wonderful idea!"

    "But I would still have to invite her to it." I pointed out. "And tomorrow's Friday, the last day before the weekend. We don't have play practice on Friday. When would I talk to her?"

    I heard Abby scuffled around for a bit. "I'll try and talk to her, I've been seeing her a lot lately so she knows me. You get some sleep though, it's super late."

    We said goodbye to each other and as I laid back down on my bed to try and fall asleep, I realized that would be hard. I had a knot forming in my stomach as I thought about going to a party. I had never been to one before, so I was bound to mess up on something. I didn't even know if I would be allowed to go.

    My entire future with Julia depended on it, so I would have to push away the knowing feeling at my throat and suck it up. For her.

    This was a terrible idea.