You've Got to Be Kidding Me (boyxboy) ON HOLD

2. Second Chance's

The thing about being a pessimistic person is that you're usually always right or surprisingly proven wrong. I mean it would've been great to have been proven wrong; to know that my soul mate was a beautiful person and I had worried for nothing. In my case, I was sadly right this time around.

I glanced from my chest up to Luke's, my eyes wide and unbelieving. Emanating from the center of his chest was exactly what Mr. Anderson had described; a beautiful hue of white and gold light that swirled together as if they were dancing. "No," I muttered, closing my eyes and rubbing my hands across my face. "No, no, no, no. Why is this happening? I'm not even eight—"I stopped and glared up at Luke who looked as if he was in shock.

He squeezed his eyes shut and took a deep breath before saying, "I turned eighteen two days ago."

"Goddammit!" I screamed, shoving my fist into the locker beside me. I guess that even after all that time I had spent worrying about who my soul mate would be I had had a bit of hope. I didn't want to be right. I wanted so badly to have been proven wrong and a part of me had wanted it to have been like a movie scene. That the second we laid eyes on each other, our pulse would start to beat faster, and my chest would warm as it began to glow, and we would just know.

But it wasn't like a movie scene. My chest burned and the light only seemed to grow brighter. I don't know if it was because of my chest glowing, but my heart began to ache and it hurt. My whole body hurt. I put my head down as I braced my arms against the lockers and took deep breaths. No matter how much air I breathed in it didn't seem like enough. Eventually I realized I was hyperventilating.

"Hey," his voice said from behind me. I felt his hand touch my shoulder.

"Leave me alone," I screamed. Or at least tried to scream. It came out more as a strangled cry as I shoved his hand away from me.

He grabbed my wrist and turned me around to face him. I noticed that the glow of his chest was beginning to dim. "You need to calm down," Luke said.

"I—I can't breathe," I gasped, scratching at my neck with my free hand. My vision was beginning to blacken at the corners.

Luke slapped my cheeks lightly. "Open your eyes," he demanded, guiding me to the bench that sat between the lockers. After sitting me down he knelt down in front of me and grabbed my face. "Take a deep breath. Breathe in . . . hold it . . . now breathe out." We continued that for a few minutes; Luke telling me how to breathe and me doing as he said in an attempt to calm down.

Eventually, I was able to breathe again and when I could he was still holding my face. "You good?" he asked, his eyes searching mine. I nodded and he said okay before standing up and turning away from me.

I wiped away the tears that I was unaware of shedding and after a few minutes of silence I decided to break it. "You have to stay away from me," I said quietly looking up at him. Luke glanced back at me and then back down with a slight nod.

It's been three weeks since the incident in the locker room and not once has Luke approached me. To say that my life has been infinitely better for the past three weeks would be an understatement. Before finding out about the whole soul mate thing there hadn't been a week that went by in the past five years where I hadn't been tormented by Luke. Not one. But now I had him out of my life once and for all.

            I would no longer have to deal with the physical pain of being hit over and over again. I wouldn't have to deal with being shoved into locker, or being tripped, or having my books thrown out of my hands. I was free.

            Geez, I sounded like Dobby there. 'Master has given Dobby clothes, now Dobby is free!'

            "Christian!" someone yelled snapping their fingers in front of my face. I looked over at Michelle, finally noticing her. "Dude, I've been trying to get your attention for the past five minutes!" She said glaring angrily at me. Michelle was my other best friend. We met in the seventh grade when she saved me from being hit by a car. I know, exciting. She had pulled me onto the side walk, slapped me, and told me to watch where I was going and after that I thought she was the greatest person in the world. Really other than her and Jake I had no friends, except for the occasional kids in class who are like 'Hey, I'm a loner, you're a loner, let's be friends'.