A Touch Of Colour

Curtains Drawn

"Kevin? Don't move—there's glass everywhere," Archie said, voice small. He leant down to pick up the shards of glass from the glass he just dropped.

"Let me help," Kevin said, carefully picking up the large pieces.

"Is everything okay up there?" Fred called from downstairs.

"Yeah, everything's fine, dad," Archie yelled back. "Kevin, there's some paper towel in the kitchen—actually, nevermind, I'll get it."

Kevin made a pile of the smashed glass on the floor, avoiding the small shards, he didn't feel like pricking his fingers.

"What happened? Smashed glass?" Fred asked Archie, who was rummaging through the cupboards to find a roll of paper towel.

"Yeah. Just shocked, the glass fell out of my hands."

"Shocked? Why were you shocked?"

"Uh..." Archie found the paper towel, and shut the cabinet.

"Archie? Everything okay?"

"Yeah. Yeah, everything's fine."

"So what shocked you?"

"Found the paper towel." He held up the paper towel for his dad to see, and turned to go upstairs.

"Archie, why aren't you telling me? You can tell me anything, you know that, right?"

"I know, dad."

"So...?"

"So, I'll tell you later. It's not a big deal." And with that, he turned to rush back upstairs.

"Find the paper towel?" Kevin asked when he heard footsteps approaching the room.

"Uh-huh." Archie unraveled the paper towel and mopped up the spilled water.

"Everything is so... different," Kevin commented.

"I know. How do people know what to call colours? Veronica said my hair's red. I don't know what that means. I don't know how she knew."

"Betty probably helped her. She used to see in colour, remember?" Kevin answered.

"Right."

"Archie said this thing to me today," Veronica furrowed her eyebrows.

"Was he not supportive or something? Did he say something to upset you, V?" Betty asked, reaching for Veronica's hand.

"No, it's not that. It's... he said that not all soulmates have to be involved romantically."

"Are you saying some soulmates just use each other for sex or something?"

"Ha! No. He said that some soulmates are just meant to be platonic. Like, a friend soulmate," Veronica explained.

"Oh. Are you suggesting....?" Betty's face fell.

"No—I mean, if... if you don't want to explore things with me... romantically, we could try that," Veronica offered.

"Is that what you want?" Betty asked.

"Is that what you want?"

"No." Betty frowned.

"I don't know." Veronica replied.

"Wait, are you considering this? You don't... you don't want to at least try?"

"Betty, I'm not saying that. It was just a suggestion. I don't want to force anything with us if there isn't supposed to be anything there, or if thing don't work out—"

"How will we know if we don't try?" Betty asked.

"Then let's try," Veronica replied.

"I wasn't expecting this," Kevin smiled.

"I wasn't either. But if I'm honest..."

"What?"

"I think I was kind of developing feelings for you," Archie confessed.

"You were?" Archie nodded in response. "If I'm also being honest, I've had a crush on you for a while."

"You have?" Archie chuckled.

"I have."

There was silence for a moment, while the two of them comprehended everything that happened that day. Veronica had announced that Betty was her soulmate, and then they found out that they were each other's soulmates.

"Kevin, what did you mean when you said your only love ran away from you?" Archie asked.

"Oh, you remembered that?" Archie nodded. "Back in Greendale, I was dating this guy. His name was Joaquin. We met at a party, we hooked up, and we started dating. He was my first everything. My first boyfriend, my first kiss, my first love, my first time... We were both kind of desperate, that night at the party. I was upset because my friend had just found his soulmate. I had a crush on him at the time, so that really bummed me out. Joaquin was desperate because he was trying to make his crush jealous. I probably should've seen the red flags right there and then. But nope, I was desperate for a boyfriend," Kevin laughed sadly. "Anyways, we dated for a while, and it was great. I was in love. But then he had to move away. I loved him, but I didn't want to be in a relationship that would be just texts and facetimes. So I said that we should break up, but stay friends, because I still wanted him in my life."

"Let me guess, he wanted to do long distance," Archie laughed.

"He wanted to do long distance. I said it was never going to work out, long distance relationships never do. He said he didn't want to be with me if I was going to be so negative. So, we broke up. He moved away, and he blocked me on every social media possible. He even blocked my email address, as if I was going to email him."

"You'd only know he did block your email address if you tried to email him, Kev," Archie raised his eyebrow. Kevin stayed silent.

"Anyways, we lost contact after he moved away. We haven't spoken since."

"Do you regret dating him?" Archie asked.

"If I'm completely honest, yes. I wish I hadn't hooked up with him that night. I lost my virginity when I was drunk and not completely conscious. He was drunk too. And if we hadn't hooked up that night, we wouldn't have dated, and just... I don't know. I just wish my first love wasn't in spite of my friend finding his soulmate."

"Have you ever dated anyone since then?" Archie asked.

"I've been on a few dates, but never been on a second with any of them."

There was a pause.

"Have you ever been in love?" Kevin asked.

"No. But I'm hoping for that to change." Archie didn't smile, but his eyes said it all.