A Chemical Imbalance (BoyxBoy Soulmate Au) **ON HOLD**

Arrivals

A ring of a phone alarm had interrupted Rhys from continuing his Netflix marathon. With a quick glance towards the now bothersome device, he made his way out of bed, bringing the blaring to a transient stop.

Seven o'clock already? Damn.

After scatterbrainedly tossing an outfit together - a gray sweater complimented with light blue jeans and worn out black Converse - Rhys brushed his teeth, grabbed his brown backpack and placed his laptop in it, before finally making his way towards his school via foot. A junior on the bus was killer weak, after all.

On the way, he stopped by Poppy's house, only to see the vibrant girl sitting on her doorstep, apparently having been waiting for him. Her hair was all kinds of new colors, which was rather typical for her by now. One half of her hair was a bubblegum pink, while the other stayed a turquoise blue, from which she had previously dyed it two months ago. She had cut it above shoulder level, too, and was now styling it wavier than her last look, sleek and straight. It oddly suited her, and Rhys maybe would've mentioned how nice it looked, had she not bounced up from her peaceful sitting position to an accusing, arms-crossed one.

"You were supposed to be here ten minutes ago!" She exclaimed, causing him to roll his eyes.

"And America was supposed to have been taken over by aliens at this point. We can't all get what we want." He quickly countered.

Poppy cocked her head, briefly nodding at his statement, before running back to her doorstep and grabbing her holographic clear backpack.

"You got me there, mister," She started, slinging the straps around her shoulders and beginning to walk towards the school, Rhys shortly following after her.

"But hey, guess what happened?"

"Don't make me actually guess, I hate it when you do that." He groaned, earning a snicker from the cotton candy-haired girl.

"I found out how I'm connected with my soulmate!"

Rhys glanced over at Poppy with a tilt of his head, waiting for her to elaborate. She grinned, taking that as a cue to continue.

"I'm pretty sure this is how it goes: if one of us loses something, it ends up with the other person. Just last night I forgot where I had put my headphones, and when I went to look for them, I ended up finding a tiny turtle keychain on my computer! Wasn't mine, of course, but it somehow ended up in my house." She explained.

Rhys shrugged, picking up his pace.
"Sounds like you're both forgetful, then."

Poppy happily nodded her head, skipping along the pavement to keep up with him.

"That's one way to say it!"

*********

Eventually, the pair had made it to school. Rhys internally sighed as Poppy had begun to insert herself into ongoing conversations with people she apparently met over summer, which left him to wander around the building and grab his schedule from the auditorium. The perks of having an extroverted friend.

He had been stopped a couple times by freshman and sophomores asking where a class was, though nonetheless arrived and got in line by last name.

While waiting, Rhys had felt a light tap on his shoulder. Once he turned around, he was met with a girl much shorter than him. She had wavy black hair cut around the same height as Poppy's, though looked almost like the counterpart to her. Somewhat mischievous eyes, a tired expression, and a calm look displayed along her face.

"Is this for the B's? I can't see over the others."

Rhys nodded before speaking.

"B's, yeah." He confirmed, causing the girl to nod back at him.