Love Song | p. parker (BEING EDITED)

1 | Can We Be Friends?

"This is it, you can do this."

You took a deep breath and walked out the door into the busy and rainy street. Car traffic stretched along the road, people in suits and everyday clothes walked briskly past, and colorful signs and advertisements battled for your eyes and attention.

You joined the stream of people and pulled your hood up over your head to shield the rain.

Shoving your hands in your jacket pockets you looked up at the flashing signs and posters. They were everywhere, and almost all of them focused on the same thing: finding a soulmate.

You glanced away. Soulmates might sound like a foreign concept to anyone hiding under a rock their whole lives, but to you– and everyone else here– soulmates were old news. Sure, they were extremely important, but it was normal. The ads, the slogans, the agencies drawn up to organize the search, all of it was focused on finding your soulmate, and all of it was old.

You certainly hadn't found your soulmate yet at any rate. And you hadn't had much hope for it in your life, until very recently.

For a few months now, ever since your parents' separation, you had begun to hope.

Your parents had fought your entire life which hadn't encouraged you to seek out your soulmate. You were just fine being alone and happy rather than with a soulmate and arguing all the time.

But ever since the move with your mom at the start of the summer, your outlook had shifted. New city, new school, new friends, there were all kinds of opportunities to find your soulmate. And it wasn't a guarantee that you would turn out like your parents. Maybe things would go right?

The tattoo on your inner arm seemed to tingle as you thought about it. Splashing across the runny street, you hitched your backpack higher and squared your shoulders. This first day of school nothing was going to go wrong, you just knew it.

~~~

Pretty much everything was going wrong.

Not only had you gotten lost and turned up late to your first class, but your phone had gone off in the middle of the lecture, you'd answered a pop quiz question wrong in front of everyone, and on your way to lunch you'd slipped on some stray rain water and fallen in front of a whole hallway of students.

A boy passing started laughing and pointing. "New girl! Aren't you supposed to be smart to get into this school?"

A few people passing snickered.

You bit your lip in embarrassment and gathered your books on the ground.

People began to walk around you. You were so upset you didn't dare look around.

Then out of the corner of your eye you saw someone kneel down in front of you and grab a few of your things. Thinking they were going to take them or throw them you looked up, about to cry out, but then you saw that the boy was holding them out to you.

"Here you go," said the boy. "Sorry about Flash, he's mean to almost everyone."

You took the slightly damp books from the boy and stood up. "Thanks."

The boy nodded. "No problem. What's your name?"

"___. I just moved here over the summer."

The boy nodded again. "I figured. I didn't recognize you. My name's Ned, and I think we're in the same calculus class."

You cringed. He had seen you make a fool of yourself there too.

"It's okay." He said sympathetically. "No one will remember it. You seem smart, I'm sure you'll show 'em."

This was very kind of him to say, you thought.

"Do you have anyone to sit with at lunch? You could come sit with us."

You raised your eyebrows. "No, I don't. That would be really nice."

Ned smiled. "Great! I'm on my way there now, let's go."

You walked with Ned to the cafeteria, a sense of relief coming over you.

"I've been the new kid before, it's not very fun." Ned said. "I'm glad you're going to come eat with us. Sometimes it gets a little..." He looked slightly hesitant, "one sided."

You frowned. "What do you mean?"

Ned shrugged. "You'll see. Hey Peter, MJ!"

Two people looked up from their lunch and grinned. "Hey Ned," said the boy.

He raised his hand and did a quick handshake with Ned as the two of you arrived at the table.

Ned indicated you both sit down, so you took your place across from the girl.

"___, this is Peter and MJ." Ned pointed in turn.

MJ gave a robotic wave and Peter grinned lopsidedly at you.

You nodded. "Hi,"

"___ is new," Ned explained. "Flash was making fun of her in the hall. I figured she could sit with us."

Both Peter and MJ agreed good-naturedly. They seemed nice enough.

"Flash is the worst; I'm always on the lookout for an excuse to punch him." MJ said, stirring her cup of noodles.

Peter half nodded. "He's definitely got an issue. I'm sorry you had to deal with him already. He likes to pick on new kids."

You shrugged. "I've been through worse hardships, I'll probably recover."

"Let's pray that you do." MJ said with a mocking smile.

Ned laughed and you got out your lunch.

Peter, who had been checking his phone, put it face down on the table and said, "So, ___, what do you do for fun?"

Having just bitten into your sandwich, you swallowed and then answered, "Usual stuff. I like music and movies. And the rain, and dogs, and weird looking plants."

Ned snickered. "That's not very usual. Peter just likes to watch Star Wars."

"Hey!" Peter protested, "I like dogs too!"

"What kind of music do you like?" MJ asked you, raising an eyebrow.

"Um, well," you stalled, "I actually like to write my own."

All three of them looked up at you.

You swallowed.

Ned broke the momentary silence. "That's pretty cool."

Peter nodded. "Do you have, like, a sound mixing system or software that helps with that?"

You shrugged. "I play around with a few free sites but really I just like to play guitar chords and make up some lyrics on the fly. It's relaxing. I've gotten pretty good at adlibbing."

MJ nodded and went back to her noodles. "That's officially a cool hobby. I move we accept ___ into the group. All in favor say aye."

"Aye!" Ned said enthusiastically.

Peter laughed and bumped MJ's shoulder playfully. "Aye," he agreed. He was mostly focused on MJ but you appreciated the gesture.

"Motion passed," MJ said in her aloof and calculated tone. "Welcome to the group ___."

You smiled.

Ned gave you a fist bump under the table.