I walked through the crowd, excitement building in my chest as I followed the red string tied to my pinkie, the red sting that only I and one other person could see. The string got tight, I was getting close. Then it went slack. I looked up. Fuck, not him. his were eyes wide and lips turned down in a frown. I dropped the string too. As he opened his mouth I turned on my heels and started to walk away. Once I got out of the square I felt a tug on my right hand. I looked down. Shit. I struggled to untie the string, when that didn’t work I tried pulling it off. The string was up off the ground again. I tried to pull it off so hard I thought I might dislocate my pinkie, but still to no result. He placed a hand on my four arm and opened his mouth again,
“Get you hands off me!” I shouted, jerking away as much as I could with his tight hold on our red bond. He lifted both hands in defense, the string held between his thumb and index.
“Can I please speak?” I breathed heavily, honestly considering his question. I didn’t what to hear what he had to say. But if we really were going to be stuck together by this string, we should probably talk. At least until we find out how to get it off. But I was still mad at him. I shook my head lightly and he let out a sigh rolling his eyes.
“Just, can we just walk a little bit? To somewhere more quiet.” I nodded to the loud group of people, all giddily looking for their soul mates. I silently hoped they would have better luck then I.
He agreed and we walked in silence, until the square became a distant memory and all we could hear was seagulls and the sound of waves at the docks. We sat in a park not to far from the harbor.
He sat with his legs fully extended, with his arms behind him, looking very relaxed indeed. I on the other hand was not. My knees were drawn up to my chest, my arms wrapped around my legs. There was silence for a long time, before I asked, “Did you know?”
“No.” He said with a slight chuckle.
“You find this funny?” I asked dropping my legs into a crisscross He shrugged,
“You always did use humor to cover up you real emotions.” That wiped the smug grin off his face. He curled up slightly, his legs also going into a crisscross.
More silence.
“What are we going to do?” I broke the silence, again.
He took a long inhale, “I don’t know.”
“Surely you don’t want-“
“No” he interrupted
“Could there have been like…”
“A mistake?” He finished for me,
“Yeah.”
he took another deep breath, “I don’t think so. I mean, I don’t want this” he lifted our string. The only thing making us interact “but I don’t think Cupid is known for fucking up.”
“Fair” I said. “How have you been doing?” He gave me a look. “Well I don’t know!”
He leaned forward “Laya, we are not soulmates.”
“I know that! I was just trying to, I don’t know. Screw you.” I went to get up but he held the string again. “Do that one more time Rune and I swear to god I will strangle you.”
“I’ll stop pulling the string if you stop trying to run away.”
I sat back down. There was silence again and I was not going to be the one to break it.
“Better.” He said.
“What?” I asked thinking he was referring to my listening,
“You asked how I’ve been doing. I’ve been doing better.”
“Good… Do you ever wish.” He gave me a warning look “do you ever miss it? do you even think about it?”
“How could I not?” I shrugged, he sighed “I think about it every day, I think about it every time I see a group of friends, or hear someone arguing, every single I hear a loud bang, It doesn’t even have to be a gun. just a someone placing a jar on the counter. A car door slamming. Things you can’t avoid.”
I nodded, I knew exactly what he was talking about. I had the exact same thing, the smallest resemblance to James, someone with his curly black hair, or his thin structure or his red rimed glasses.
Lost in thought I hadent realized Rune had tuned away from me. I tugged on the tether connecting us. He looked over his shoulder, he was crying. I moved towards him not knowing why, my arms out stretched, he buried his head in the crook of my neck, his cries, turning to sobs, his entire body shaking in my arms. I held him until he didn’t have anything left to cry. Tears prickling my own eyes. I haven’t really given myself time to feel the pain since that night.
Rune looked at me “I’m sorry.”
“don’t Rune. I can’t, open that wound again.”
“I’m sorry.” I gave him a look, a look he knew well. The one that said. Shut up. He listened. We were quiet again, but it wasn’t an angry silence.
“What if it’s not romantic?” he asked.
“What?”
“What if it means soulmates as in friends? at least for us.”
“I don’t want to be your friend Rune. I don’t want you in my life.”
“Why?” I gave him a look. “ no it’s not because of what I did. It’s not, it’s something else.”
“what makes you so sure?” I asked
“I know you.” I scoffed at him, “I know you and you know me. So what is it?”
“Rune”
“What, what is it? Why don’t you want me in your life? Why are you so determined to-“
“Your too much like him!” He wasn’t expecting that. “every time I look at you it reminds me of him. Everything you do reminds me of him, even the way your sitting!” I gestured to his crisscross just slightly different from the normal way. He smirked. “And your upsidedown smile.” My breath was growing shallower “and the, the way your hair curls” my voice cracked “it falls just like his. And you have have his eyes. Even your personality like him. You two were always so alike it’s just more apparent when one of you is is gone.”
He nodded moving his mouth in a tight line, “ok” he whispered. “Well, then I‘m going to go.”
“Rune.”
“You said it your self, you don’t want me in your life.” Not Knowing what to say I stayed silent. Knowing that he couldn’t go far. That we would always be connected. By the little red string.
(Ps, this was a bit longer but a bunch of it deleted and I couldn’t remember it all. Sorry)
My cat sat on my mat, He was chewing on my crayons, like he was… like he was…
“Sara! What rhymes with crayons?”
“What?” Sara called down the stairs
“What, rhymes, with, craynon’s?” Mike yelled, pausing at the end of every word.
“Umm. Spray on’s? I don’t know.”
“No, that doesn’t fit! Something else!”
Mike heard the pounding on the stairs as Sara trundled down.
“What do you want Mikel?” She asked, uncurling one of the over tight curlers from her brown hair. Staring down at him, he stood up so as not to feel so ‘beneath’ her, but even with is back straitened to its fullest he was still feet from her height.
“I need a word that rhymes with Crayons.”
“Why?” She winced as she caught a knot in her hair.
“Just cause, ok?”
“If you don’t tell me, I’m not giving you a ryming word. And hurry up, I have to leave soon.” She said, glancing at the clock hang above the couch.
“Oh please, prince carming can wait”
“What’s it for?” She repeated.
“I’m writing a poem.”
“A poem?”
“Is something wrong with your ears? Yes, a poem,” he said, dragging out the last word.
“Is it for a girl?”
“No! I just, I have to, its for school ok? Can you think of a word or not?”
“Oh I can thing of plenty, patrons, eons, seconds.”
“Stop, stop stop.” Mike said, stumbling over his words as he bent down to write his fresh idea.
My cat sat on my mat, _He was chewing on my crayons, _
_the time between now and seeing you feels like eons, _ but hours spent with you only feel like seconds _I wish I knew how to say this…say this…say _
“Could you stop breathing down my neck?”
“So-rry.” Sara said dramatically, raising her hands in serender, the last curler in her hand.
I wish I knew how to say this without ryming,
But I guess it never feels like the right timeing. Sorry this is long. But I had to speak. We can still just be friend though, i just wanted you to know
P.S. please don’t tell anyone, I sent this to you.
From Mike, To Jamie
The two old friends sat down at a small table in the corner. Cole crossed her arms and had one leg propped up on the others knee. Vier sat down leaning against the back of that chair, legs spread wide and arms hanging loosely at his side. There was silence for a long while, Vier expected Cole to speak first, but she wasn’t budging.
“Look Cole-“ he started when the bartender brought two pints over. Vier nodded at him in thanks while Cole continued to glair at him. “I get that you’re pissed and all. But like,” Coles body tensed and Vier realized that he would have to choose his next words very carefully. “I…shouldn’t have…lied, to you. It was being-” but at that moment Cole got up and swung her chair around so fast Vier only realized what had happened when it collided with the man behind her. She whipped her head around to face Vier again and whispered “was this you again?” “No I-“ “I swear to god Xavier if you set me up, again” she spat in his face so close he could see the detail in every one of the scars on her face. “Cole” he said in a steady voice “I promise you, this wasn’t me.” She stared into his eyes as if trying to tell if he was lying. Then seeming to decide at he was telling the truth and grabbed his arm, yanking him away from the table. They dartted between people, rushing past cloaks and fancy dresses. Vier grunted as he was dragged along by Cole his body ramming in to people as they past. Apos to Cole, swiftly running by people so fast they couldnt even tell what was happening before she was gone again. “Cole! Cole, slow down!” Vier called after her “You want me to let go?” Vier let out a sigh of anoyance. Finnaly they slowed down in a dark, lonly square. “Cole what th-“ “Shh.” She was looking around like a cat waiting for it’s preditor to reveal it’s self. “Who is it?” “Shut up.”
Then without warning she shoved him to the ground and threw a dagger at the second floor balcony of one of the apartments behind him. There was a grunt and then a loud thud as the body of a man fell to the ground. Vier turned to ask Cole who he was only to find that she had vanished. “Damn it Cole!” He shouted, but only the diying man heard him. “Help me.” The man maneged to grunt, Vier sighed, walked over to the man, pulled the dagger from his chest and slit his throut, sliding the dagger it to his bag and walking out of the square. Unaware of the cat like shadow following him from the roof tops.
“Fuck,” I whispered, sitting up trying to rub the pain in the back of my head away with the palm of my hand. My eyes squeezed shut against the pain. I heard a snap of a twig. It was then that I realized I was in the middle of the forest, the middle of a forest. How they fuck did I get here.
I thought back to my last memory feeling a light breeze cross my face. I tilted my head in confusion a strange constricting feeling in my stomach. What was my last memory? Now that I thought about it, I couldn’t grasp hold of any, not one memory came to me. I knew I had some, somewhere, in the back of my mind. Like when you forget someone’s name but you know you know it. Come to think of it, what is my name?
The constricting feeling was working its way into my chest when I heard it again, the wrestle of leaves and the snap of a branch. It was then that I remembered, I was in a forest, alone, without any memories. Suddenly I felt like there were a hundred invisible people, all with their eyes on me. My breathing picked up, my chest falling and rising quicker, and quicker. I wanted to call out to find out who was out there. But something was stopping me, and knot in the base of my throat.
I looked around frantically, not knowing where to go.
I blinked back into myself, the forest coming into view again. My hands were on my knees, breathing loudly. “What the fuck is going on?” I gasped, more to myself than anyone else. I looked down at my mostly light blue shirt now lightly splattered with blood, based on the splatters I would say they came from above. How do I know that? Of course, I know that I’m a doctor. “Oh?” I gasped, standing up straighter the realization hitting me. I’m a doctor, I got a short flashback to my medical training. Getting told off for being late. But if the blood came from above… I reached up to my nose, and sure enough, I was bleeding. But I wasn’t bleeding before, and how am I here now? This is a completely different part of the woods. And why on god green earth was I just gasping for breath, why do my lungs feel like I’ve just been running, I was just sanding a second ago. Where was that exactly, how long ago was that?
I was rapidly blinking again the world flickering back. My left hand was on my chest, while my right held onto a tree keeping me steady. I was panting. This time I felt the pain, not only in my nose, but In my rids too, I looked down and let out a gasp, I was covered in blood, and not mine by the looks of it. Then I felt it, the uncontrollable urge to run, to get away, as far away as possible! I gave in.
Tearing into a sprint, forcing myself to go faster, pushing through the pain I felt every time I moved my legs up. Probably a broken rip. I thought to myself, clenching my fist in discomfort. I felt it happening this time, my consciousness floating away as the whole world started to fade. “No,” I said, trying to shake it off, then it all went dark.
***
This time when I blinked back to life I was lying on my back, looking up a the ceiling of a house. I quickly sat up, seeing a thin man in the corner of the room. “Who are you?” For a split second, I saw the edge of his lips break into a smirk. Then it all went away.
“So I can breathe” the boys harmonized,
“Holy shit!” Will exclaimed, “we got it!” boys hugged and when they pulled apart they stared at each other for a little too long. Then with out warning, Aaron kissed Will. Will’s hand moved up to Aaron’s cheek before Aaron’ pulled away asking “is this ok? Are you ok with this?” Will chuckled before meeting Aaron’s lips again, briefly moving away to whisper “yes.”
The boys were never the same after that. Aaron came out as Bisexual, Will helped Aaron through his transition having already come out as gay. They became spectacles in there small town, people could ignore Will’s queerness when he wasn’t with anybody, the most stereotypical “gay” thing about him was his clothing, bright and hip. But now, with Aaron and Will together, well people found it much harder to ignore. They finally moved away together, recording their first album. It went insane! People loved it, the entire album was their love story about growing up in a small conservative town as two queer boys. They created a safe place for people. All of the seats at their concerts were beanbags and they were loved by so many. But not all. The boys also underwent much hate, protests outside their comforting shows. Homophobic signs outside their venues. Hate mail coming to their houses. It got to a place where they were in danger. So they stoped recording songs, they had no more shows and they laid low. But, sometimes, if you’re in the right place at the right time you will see two old men, one with bright green hair, one holding a blue guitar. Both singing in perfect harmony despite their age. And they sing a song of the quiet life, feeling comfort while being cradled in their lovers arms.