Inked [oney x oc]

6 - Chris Tells a Big Fat Lie

(Chris' POV)

"Okay, everyone who thinks Noelle got kidnapped, raise your hands," Zach spoke up.

"Maybe she fell in," I laughed, sipping my drink.

"I can check on her. She didn't seem upset or like... sick though?" Jaxxy said, glancing around to see if she could spot Noelle anywhere.

"She's fixing her makeup, it could take a while, probably," Tomar shrugged. "I'm not saying that as like a 'women take forever' thing, either. I'm just saying makeup doesn't come off easy and she's a little bit of a perfectionist."

"Wow, Tomar. Misogyny. I expected that from Chris, but you?" Zach sighed. "Damn. The truth hurts. Don't meet your idols. They're all sexists."

"Shut up, Zach!" Tomar laughed, rubbing his face with his hands in exasperation. "You know what I meant!"

Noelle appeared at the table at that moment, sliding back into her seat beside me.

"Hey, sorry. I know that took forever. There was the girl in the bathroom and she was telling me all about her soulmate," she rambled. "It was weird, I don't know, but she was nice."

"So you had a whole conversation in there? For seven minutes?" Zach laughed. "Well, I ate two breadsticks in the time you were gone, and I would've kept going."

"I know you would have," Noelle sighed. "Anyways... did I miss anything?"

"No, not really," I spoke. "Besides Zach eating breadsticks. The waiter came by twice to try to take our orders though."

"Oh, gosh, sorry," Noelle apologized. "Well, I know what I want when he comes back, if that helps."

"It's okay! You were helping that girl, there's no need to apologize. Is she still here?" Jaxxy asked.

"She's at the bar. I saw her with her date after I fixed my makeup. I guess it's going well. She smiled at me, so..," Noelle shrugged. "Her soulmate died. What a shitty thing to happen."

"Oh, man. That is shitty. I can't even imagine...," Jaxxy trailed. "Have you talked to your soulmate any, Noelle?"

I glanced over at Noelle. She'd never talked about having a soulmate before. I hardly knew mine. Maybe she'd been getting along with hers a lot more.

"Um, well... honestly, we've been talking a little bit?" Noelle said, cracking a small smile. "I don't know much about him. Or, them? I don't know a lot at all. We've been talking for a couple days. I don't even know their name yet."

Well, we were basically in the same boat then. Good for her though. Hopefully she ended up liking whoever her soulmate was. She certainly didn't like most people. At least, she didn't like me or most of my friends.

"Wait, why didn't you tell me?" Zach asked, clearly a little hurt. "I'm just now hearing about this, what the hell."

I was also keeping things from Zach, so now I really didn't want to tell him the truth about my soulmate. It was just so he didn't constantly ask me about it, though. I trusted him. It just wasn't priority to tell him yet.

"I don't know. I didn't want to jump the gun if things didn't work out, I think," Noelle admitted. "I don't know what to do. I don't want to exchange social media or anything yet. I don't want them to know everything and judge me or... or just find out we don't get along."

She was conflicted, and it was obvious. I kind of understood. I'd taken more efforts to date non-soulmates in the past though. I wasn't too worried if things with my soulmate didn't pan out. Most of my relationships hadn't gone anywhere serious.