"Wait, it's you?"

chapter one

What's your name? Was written in messy scrawl the first time his soulmate wrote to him. The words were accompanied by a small drawing of a bird. It wasn't a bad drawing, though it reminded him of a bird he had seen that day.

He remembers writing 'Jeremiah' in somewhat loopy cursive, the dot of the I replaced with a heart. It was a somewhat cliche thing, but it hadn't mattered back then. He also remembers sending a 'what's yours?' back in the same lettering.

Richard was the reply.

He also remembers how livid his mother was when she found out. He remembers the late-night yelling about it and about what they would do with him. His father argued that she shouldn't get so worked up about it and his mother shoots back saying it's unnatural.

She left not too long after that. Now it's just him and his dad.

Jeremy's suddenly brought out of his thoughts by his best friend, Michael.

"You okay, Dude? You've been staring at Rich for a while." He puts the back of his hand to Jeremy's forehead as if checking for a fever. Jeremy bats it away, a slight flush to his cheeks.

"I'm fine." He looks down at his arm just as something appears on his hand.

Care to talk? Is written with the same messy font as it was years ago. He reaches into his bag and pulls out a pen before pushing the sleeve of his cardigan up his arm so he'd have room to write.

"Your soulmate?" Michael asks. Jeremy nods before he writes 'sure!' on his arm under what was already written.

Five questions? Is written back and Jeremy can't help but feel his cheeks redden as he writes another 'sure'.

Is cereal soup? Jeremy groans at the question. It was a frequent one that they never seemed to agree on and Richard always seemed delighted to ask, as if he knew it was an annoying question. He writes a 'no!' before looking up at Michael's confused face. Then he looks at the question and seems to be holding back a chuckle.

Of course, it is! Jeremy looks over at Michael with a dead expression before he rolls his eyes and writes, 'my turn. Favorite subject?'

Killjoy. Richard draws a frowny face before adding onto it. It's history. Or art. You?

'Makes sense. Mine's theatre.' Not that he had been in a production of anything since elementary school since it "wasn't cool". Though all the popular kids seemed to do it here, even if it was forced, so the coolness of it wasn't an issue now.

But then there was a thing called "anxiety" that appeared. It was something he definitely did not want to deal with if he didn't have to.

That's actually really cool. I think I'm taking theatre, too. What productions have you been in? The answer was long and took up a lot of his arm, so he waited for the message to disappear before replying.

'I actually haven't been in any recently, but maybe I can tell you about the next one?' he writes, but then he realizes that means he might actually have to sign up this year. Except, he's already written the message and Richard is already replying.

Go ahead! Jeremy lets out a breath. So he was going to sign up this year. Great.

"Instead of frolicking with fairies, you'll be fleeing from zombies!" Jeremy honestly hopes that Mr. Reyes doesn't give him a big role in this. Even if a zombie apocalypse based on a piece of Shakespeare's work was somewhat interesting.

'Shakespearean zombie apocalypse.' After he writes that down, he looks up, accidentally making eye contact with Rich Goranski. He looks away quickly, not wanting to give the bully a reason to come find him later. Even then, he can feel his face heat up, either from confrontation, nervousness, or whatever else Jeremy couldn't identify.

It sounds interesting at least? Jeremy frowns when the sentence is crossed out and a new one takes its place: you're doing that, too? That was interesting. He looks up again with a strange urge to check the arm of everyone in the room.

He lets out a breath when he notices everyone paying attention to either Mr. Reyes or their phones. Maybe he could be wrong.
-
Rich knew the kid kept looking at him. It was obvious. Though the only thing Rich didn't understand was why. Why was this nerd so interested in him?

Though the kid was cute, he'll give him that. If Rich was into nerds he probably would have liked him. (Looking back, he was very wrong.)

Don't worry about it, a voice in his head snaps. He waves the thought away as neat cursive appears on his arm. Really? The side of his mouth twitches as he gets a ridiculous urge to smile. Don't.

'What a coincidence, huh?' he writes back. The response is quick. I don't think so.

Rich glances up at the kid and makes eye contact again. The kid looks away pretty fast, red coloring his cheeks.

'Do you know something I don't?' he writes, hoping that it actually comes off as flirting. Fortunately, it does as Jeremiah responds with a maybe, I don't know. and he replaces the comma with a heart. Do I?

Rich can feel a blush forming on his face as he tries to think of a response. He looks up again, catching the nerd's gaze for the third time. Rich makes a mental note to learn his name at some point.

Then rehearsal is over and he hears a shout of "Jeremy!" coming from a kid in a red hoodie. Hoodie holds up his keys, shakes them once, and walks out, leaving Rich alone with the cute nerd. Was his name Jeremy? It suited him.

Then he notices the rolled-up sleeve of his cardigan that exposes an arm with fading chicken scratch that seemed familiar. Jeremy also seems to notice, since he pulls his sleeve back down.

They make eye contact one last time before Jeremy walks out the door.

Do you have any nicknames? Jeremy frowns as he tries to think about all of the names he's been called over the years.

He decides to answer with, 'The good ones or the bad ones?' Richard seems to think before he responds with whichever ones you want to tell me.

'Well, there's-'
-
Well, there's Miah, tall-ass, Jere, and most people call me Jeremy.

The pen drops from Rich's hand and rolls under the chair he's sitting on.

There aren't many apart from those.

Rich knew there was a reason why that writing was familiar! It was his!

That means that Jeremy kid was his soulmate.

Fuck.
-
When Richard doesn't answer for a while, Jeremy gets worried. Did he say something wrong?

'Richard?' he writes. It takes a moment for Richard to reply, but the relief that he hasn't left him fades quickly.

You're the nerd. The one that kept looking at me. It sounds like he's stunned that he's figured it out.

'What?' Jeremy writes back, confused.

That's why we were both doing the same production.

'What are you talking about?'

I'm sorry.

'Richard?'

It's Rich.

The name is crossed out and replaced with another one.

Rich Goranski.

Oh fuck.