Spirit Animals Oneshots

Rollan x Conor - Roses are Supposed to be Red

Rollan's PoV -

     I wake up feeling well rested. That's unusual. Then I see the blue light of the digital clock beside me. I squint my eyes, adjusting to the light, 7:40. Shoot. School starts at 8:00 and the first bell rings at 7:55. I jump out of bed and speed run through my morning routine. I throw on a plain navy blue tee and jeans. The tee is low cut and shows off the small pink rose tattoo on my collar bone. I sigh. A pink rose means you still haven't found your soulmate while a red rose means you've found your soulmate. I wish my soulmate would hurry up and find me. Regardless, I have to hurry. I throw on my black jacket and hurry out the door to school.

I arrive at school and get to class just before the late bell rings. I hurriedly take my seat. The class is silent and the teacher is staring daggers at me. "Rollan, would you care to explain why you were late?! The rules are you have to be in your seat when the bell rings!"

     "I'm sorry I..." I can't get the words out before she's writing me a tardy slip.

     Then suddenly her eyes soften, "Oh, I'm sorry, I'm surprised you came to school at all today, if you need to talk to the counselor feel free to leave."

     "T-thanks," what just happened?

     She crumples the tardy slip and throws it away. I don't question it, I just got out of a detention.

     Throughout the class the teacher keeps shooting me sympathetic glances. Finally, the bell rings and I leave first hour math. My friend Meilin walks over to me with tears in her eyes. "I'm so sorry for you, Rollan," she hugs me, "I'll call you later to check in."

     With that she left before I could ask what she meant. As I walk down the hall people avoid me like I'm breakable. They keep eyeing me sympathetically and some of my fellow football teammates bro hug me and say, "I'm there for you man if you need anything."

     I'm weirded out. Do I look depressed or something?

     At lunch I sit at a table by myself. I feel lonely but today no one seems comfortable enough to spend more than a few seconds near me. I get up and throw my trash away. Then I see Abeke who just got out of the lunch line carrying a fresh tray of cold bean salad and chicken nuggets. I hurry over to her. "Hey, Abeke, can I sit by you?"

     Then I notice she's crying. "Abeke are you okay?"

"N-no," she sniffs, "c-can we t-talk?"

"Of course," I reply and I follow her outside to the unused picnic tables.

It's cold outside but I tolerate it because Abeke obviously needs me right now. She sits with her tray in front of her, aimlessly stirring her bean salad but never taking a bite. I take a seat in front of her, I open my bottle of chocolate milk and take a sip. Abeke sniffles again, "M-my friend C-Conor was just k-killed by some man w-who was driving d-drunk..." she's sobbing all over again.

I take her hand, the one that's not fiddling with bean salad, and rub circles into the back of her palm. "I'm so sorry, Abeke, if you..." I'm cut off.

"Rollan, I'm s-sorry... I d-didn't even n-notice," she drops her spoon and gently brush's her fingers over my collar bone, "you w-were supposed t-to be w-with Conor."

"What?" I immediately find my reflection on my metal water bottle.

My once pink rose is now black... but that means my soulmate died. I never got the chance to meet him. Tears whelp in my eyes and suddenly I'm crying as much as Abeke is. Why am I crying, I never knew him? Yet I feel as if I did. Without ever seeing Conor I know he had beautiful blond hair, pale skin, and kind eyes. I miss him.

     I leave school after that and go home. Mom is at work so I'm alone. I guess I'll have to explain everything to her later. Still sobbing I crawl into bed, clothes still on, and curl into the fetal position. I grab my phone and go to Facebook. I scroll through Abeke's friends till I find him. Conor's face stares up at me, in his profile picture there's a happy looking wolf-like dog next to him. Conor looks just as happy. He's even more beautiful than I thought. I scroll through his photos. I can tell he cares about his family and his dog named Briggan. Abeke's even in a few photos with him. I guess they were archery buddies. He even had a previous profile picture of him in a V cut shirt showcasing his then pink rose tattoo. There is a small rose emoji in the lower right corner. Why couldn't you find me sooner? I'm sobbing even more now knowing the friend request I sent will never be answered.

    Days pass and it's Conor's visitation. Abeke is dressed in beautiful black slacks and a loose fitting black shirt. I wear a black blazer over a white shirt and black slacks with my Converse underneath. Abeke and I scraped our money together to buy some flowers. Abeke said green was his favorite color so Abeke added some nice fern leaves as filler. I of course gave Conor the red rose we could never share.

     After signing the guest book we joined the line forming around Conor and his family. Abeke was first and knew Conor's parents and brothers from archery tournaments. She introduced me as Conor's soulmate. Conor's mom sobbed after seeing my now black rose tattoo in the same place as her son's tattoo. Then I saw my soulmate for the first time in person. He looked peaceful with his hands gently folded across his chest. He wore a dark blue blazer and light blue under shirt. I could still see his tattoo. Except I watched as the black faded slightly to a very dark, almost black, red? "I love you," I told Conor for the first and last time before turning away and leaving with Abeke.

     I was sobbing. Abeke and I didn't want to stick around and talk with anyone so we went back to my truck in the parking lot. We sat there drying our eyes. "Rollan, look at your tattoo," Abeke said through tears.

     I was to sad to argue so I pulled the visor down and looked in the mirror. My tattoo was a very dark red, like Conor's. I had finally found my soulmate, I was just too late.