Emo Soulmate AUs

Reading Is Overrated - Peterick

Pete was getting frustrated now. He had been standing in his best friend's bedroom in just his boxers for half an hour at this point and he was prettysure that Brendon was just mocking him.

"Be serious dude," he grumbled, rubbing his forehead with the side of his hand. "Just tell me what it actually says."

Poking his finger into Pete's lower stomach, Brendon read the words printed on the skin out loud for what felt like the thousandth time.

"It's never really bothered me that I can't see my soulmark since I can't read anyway," he said, no hint of a smile or a jokey tone in his voice.

Frustration was bubbling through both of the of the boy's veins at this point. They had agreed that, since you can't see your own soulmark until your soulmate says it, they would find and read each others. Pete had very quickly found Brendon's, 'I could see myself falling in love with you' branded just below his collarbone. However, it took a while longer to find Pete's.

Tucked just below where the waistband of his boxers naturally sat the words were located. Apparently. This whole thing was starting to feel like more and more of a wind up and time went by.

"Look, I've had enough. I'm gonna head home now," Pete explained, grabbing his clothes off the floor and pulling them on.

Awkwardly, Brendon stepped back, grabbing his own shirt off of the floor and putting in back on his body.

"I'll see you at school tomorrow then?" he said.

Sighing, Pete shrugged, mumbling a 'spose so' as he trailed out of Brendon's house. Unfortunately for him, he was still gonna have to wait another twenty minutes for his mum to come collect him from her work.

Wishing he could just read his own soulmark, he slumped down onto the curb outside his friends. He wasn't entirely sure why it mattered so much to him. Not even a week prior, he was parading around the maze of school corridors, happy and single and ready for that to never change. But for some reason it had hit him since then, he was starting to see just how lonely he really felt. There was just something about being in year 10 that put an overwhelming pressure of being in a relationship onto Pete's shoulders and made him feel left out.

"Are you okay?" A soft voice called out from behind him.

Quickly, Pete turned to face that short boy who was making his way out of his front garden to join Pete on the grubby curb. Pale grey jeans covered his legs and wore a white shirt covered by a burgundy cardigan. He wasn't wearing any shoes, his mismatched socks being the only thing separating his bare feet from the bricks. On top of his head, a mess of strawberry blond curls were partially hidden by a fedora and a pair of wide rimmed glasses resided on his face.

"Yeah, just waiting for my mum to pick me up," Pete explained.

The boy nodded before asking, "Any particular reason why you're waiting on the curb?"

Pete sighed, replying, "Brendon was annoying me. He kept winding me up, obviously just joking about when I asked him to read me my soulmark."

Shyly, the blonde boy nodded, allowing a semi-confortable silence to descend upon them for a moment until he spoke again.

"It's never really bothered me that I can't see my soulmark since I can't read anyway," he said. "I think we go to the same school. I'm Patrick, I'm in year 7."

"Yeah," Pete replied, vaguely recognizing the boy sat next to him. "Pete, year 10. You're friends with Gee's brother Mikey, right?"

Softly Patrick nodded. However, as he went to speak again, he was interpreted by a car pulling up across the road.