Soulmates

~1

Soulmates? Whether you believe in them or not it's my reality, if you write or hurt yourself your soulmate gets the exact same mark on their body. Apparently you feel a weird tingling whenever it happens, not that I would know.

My mum told me stories every night of how her and my dad wrote to each other all day until the day they could meet, they were so in love back then. I longed to have this kind of relationship with whoever my soulmate was. Instead I sat at school watching everyone else writing on their arms and talking to their other half while all I got were unexplainable cuts and bruises. I knew it was my soulmate, I just wished they would say something to me, I didn't know how to start talking with them so I've been waiting for eighteen years for anything that could show they want to speak with me.

I finally gave up waiting on my eighteenth birthday, I was completing the homework set by the teacher for the day. My parents had never really celebrated my birthday, since they are too busy to care, but that just meant I could continue my schoolwork and keep my grades up.

I felt a sharp pain in my right leg and looked down to see my skin practically ripping apart. I bit my knuckle as the pain intensified, until it finally stopped. My leg now had a big bleeding gash to the side, I stood and went to go and get my first aid kit. It sounds surprising that I have a first aid kit but I use it a lot of the time. I'm not sure if my soulmate is doing this to themself or what, but it's always them being injured rather than me. So long as the time when I tried to climb through the cat flap doesn't count, my waist got stuck and I ended up bruised for weeks since the fire brigade had to come and rescue me.

I bandaged my leg up for the third time this month, this one was way worse than the rest though. The blood seeped through the dressing and I had to throw it away and start again. "Why can't they just talk to me" I mumbled to myself whilst wrapping the bandages round tighter this time.

I limped back to my desk and continued answering the maths question I left myself to do.

An hour later I was splayed on my bed, scrolling through Instagram when suddenly my phone began to ring, I picked up without seeing the caller ID. "Hello?" I put the phone to my ear and looked up at my ceiling. "Hey Y/N, it's Maleli." I heard from the other side of the phone. Maleli had been my best friend since forever and we talked about everything together. She started talking to her soulmate when they were six and they had plans to meet up sometime soon. "Why'd you call?"
"I wanted to tell you that I'm going to meet my soulmate, it was a rushed decision, but me and her are both ready. I think it's now or never!"
"That's amazing, I'm so happy for you!" I couldn't help but feel a tinge of jealousy since all I got from my soulmate was injuries.

I told Maleli all about the new cut on my leg, she told me to stop waiting, that I shouldn't be afraid to put myself out there. So I stopped waiting, at five o'clock I put my hand on my desk, took out a black pen and wrote the five letter word which started most conversations, 'hello.'

The seconds that followed were nerve racking and they soon turned to minutes, but after about five minutes I felt a sort of tingling on my arm, I looked down and watched the ink begin to make shapes on my bare skin.