All Roses Have Thorns

Erin III

She sat at one of the tables outside of the school, drawing on her tablet. Nothing to do but wait for her friends. She had gone to the bathroom and washed off her marks from last night. Her soulmate's encouraging words were still on her, so she pulled on the fingerless gloves that Safiya had given her last year.

Erin hummed to herself and sketched out what she imagined her soulmate looked like. The girl had dark bangs and short hair that swayed around her chin. Her face was pale with flashing green eyes and a mischievous smile that was always hiding something. She wore all black, with a crop top jacket, ripped leggings, a spaghetti strap tank top, and boots. Erin sighed. The probability of her soulmate actually looking like that was really small. She saved the image and opened a blank file when she was disturbed by a presence only known as Maggie.

"Hey Rin!" Maggie ran toward her and jumped up, leaving Erin to catch her.

A few seconds later, Dema, Safiya, and Sierra rounded the corner to see Maggie flipping her hair while Erin held her. "Can you tell her to get down?" Erin grumbled.

"Down, Mags!" Sierra pointed at the ground. "Or no microwave popcorn for you!"

Maggie slowly climbed down from Erin, "Fine."

"Let's go!" Safiya yelled, pumping her fist in the air. "To the grand house I call home!"

Fifteen minutes later, the group was sitting down in the beanbags at Safiya's house. "So, time to get serious." Maggie turned to Erin, "Who do you have a crush on?"

"Are you serious?" Erin rolled her eyes. "I don't have to have a crush on anybody, you imbecile. It's not some life requirement that I must be romantically interested in anyone... So stop asking me. It's literally been a month since I said I wasn't going to be interested in anyone any time soon... a few months maybe? Ask me something of actual importance."

Maggie put a hand to her chin, "Is it someone we know?"

"It's nobody! They're nonexistent, so shut up!" Erin glared at Maggie. She was Erin's friend of many years, so she should know not to approach the subject. Erin hated talking about things that could relate to her soulmate. "This is getting really annoying. I'm going to the bathroom." She stood up and stormed through Safiya's house, shutting the bathroom door behind her. She sighed and took a black pen from her back pocket. Erin started drawing on her left leg. She started with the hair, floating in wavy lines before going onto the face.

She had planned to draw someone happy, but it took a dark turn, just like the rest of her art. The girl was crying and one of her eyes was bruised and shut. Yeah, she hadn't planned to draw a girl with a black eye, but she had messed up one of the eyes so it was a bit larger. Flaws resulted in depression, as shown by most of her work. Stupid Maggie and suspicious tendencies. She always wanted to be the first to know every bit of drama, even if there were no secrets to be exposed.

Leaning on the edge of the bathtub, she pulled her pants leg back down, covering her newest creation. She stuck the pen back in her pocket and left the bathroom.