All Roses Have Thorns

Erin XIV

When she saw Sebastian's family's hotel at 5:43, she picked up her bag and jumped out of the van before it stopped moving. "Erin, you knucklehead!" Jake yelled after her, but she was already running into the building.

She stopped after she entered the lobby and nearly ran over a middle-aged woman. She looked around before excitedly yelling "Sebby!" and running over to the boy.

He looked up from his book and smiled. "Eri!" He put the book on the side and stood up as she ran over. She nearly knocked him over as the two embraced.

Erin stepped back and smiled. "I missed you, dude!" She let out a small whistle as she looked at the design on his arm. "Would you look at that improvement."

Twisting around his arm was a Chinese dragon. It wasn't shaded particularly well or anything, in fact, it wasn't shaded at all! It was done in white, with all of the individual scales and spines lined. He looked down at it and smiled. "It looks that much better, huh?"

"I mean, you were good before," she laughed, "but this is sick."

He looked toward the door. "Where are all of your friends?"

"Ah." Erin bit her lip. "They should be here in a sec."

As if on cue, the small party of eight stumbled through the door, holding all of their bags. They frantically looked around before Safiya spotted Erin. "Aha!" She pointed and stomped over. "Did no one ever tell you to wait until the car stops moving to get out?! Don't jump out of moving cars! And don't leave your friends! We haven't been here before and we don't really know where we're supposed to go!"

Sebastian turned toward Erin. "You did what now?!"

"Nothing."

He turned back to Safiya. "Hi, I'm Sebastian. It's nice to meet you." He extended his painted arm.

"Hel-" Safiya reached out to shake his hand, but stopped when her eyes fell on his arm. "You-" Her eyes flickered up to meet his. "Holy fU-"

"BEEEEEEEEEEP." Maggie, the censor, ran onto the scene and lunged in between the two, holding both of her arms out.

The arm that was holding her bag began to shake and she let go of it. Erin caught the bag by the strap before it hit the ground. "Oh- Oh my god." She shrugged her jacket off her shoulder, showing the top of the white design.

Sebastian's jaw dropped. "Holy sh-"

"BEEEEEEEEEEP." Maggie was now sitting criss cross applesauce on the floor, still in between them, only moving her mouth to censor the two.

He turned to Erin and started vigorously shaking her by her shoulders. "Oh my god, oh my god, oh. My. God. Is this why you wanted to bring your friends?!"

"W-What? No." She looked off to the side and gave a sheepish smile.

He let go of Erin and turned back to Safiya. "Um, hello, Sapphire." He gave an awkward nod.

She smiled as they recovered from the initial shock. "Morning star."

"It's unfortunate that your soulmate shares a name with a maniacal antagonist, don't you think?"

She shook her head. "Not at all."

Erin smiled as she watched the two. A first meeting... and she was the one who had made it happen. Even though Erin wasn't particularly happy with her own predetermined destiny, Safiya had been dreaming of her first meeting for as long as she had known about soulmates. When they had sleepovers, she'd sometimes let Erin peek at her notebook, where she wrote about every version of her first meeting she could think of. Erin was happy for her.

Erin shook her head, ridding herself of her thoughts. "Well, I'll let you two talk." She pulled Maggie off the floor.

"S-Sure." Sebastian nodded and handed her two small packets. "Three oh four is for the girls, three oh three is for the guys."

She took them in her hands. "Thanks, Sebby. Now I'll actually leave you two." She pulled Maggie over to the rest of the group, who were still standing in shock. "C'mon guys, I've got our room keys." They walked over to the elevators, all wondering about the newly acquainted soulmates.

Sebastian offered his hand, and Safiya took it. The two walked outside to watch the sunset and do whatever soulmates do at their first meeting besides go into shock. Erin smiled. If only all soulmates were this perfect.