“What was that about?” Tharen asks.

His father, now confirmed to be Mr. Baxter, just shakes his head and backs away from the doorway. “Something that we’ll talk about later.”

“But—“ “Later. There’s someone important here for you,” Mr. Baxter cuts him off, gesturing to Liam and Jeremiah.

Tharen glances at them and then his dark eyes brighten, which Liam didn’t think actually happened to eyes until this very moment. “Keys!”

“My first name is Liam,” Liam types out on his phone, reminding his soulmate in case he forgot.

“I remember, Keys.” Liam feels like he just proved his point but it seems to be something Tharen does. Back when they first met, someone called Tharen by his last name. Maybe it is something he does?

Jeremiah puts his hand out, and Tharen shakes it. “Hola. Mucho gusto. Liam, do you mind if I go see if Bell’s ok?” He says in one go like he is rushing through his words.

_Go ahead_, he signs.

They both watch as Jeremiah strolls back to his car where Bell is currently sitting in the passenger seat. She had her phone to her ear. Even from his position, Liam could see her shaking.

“So do you know what happened with your friend and my dad?” Tharen questions, his gaze following Liam’s sight line.

“No.”

That answer appears to be enough for him because he just goes onto another topic. “Cool. Anyway, I’m so glad you’re here! I was going to try to find you by swinging by your school soon, but you bet me to it.”

Tharen was going to try to find _him_? That never crossed Liam’s mind. That he would be curious enough to seek him out.

Without Liam even saying anything, Tharen answers an unspoken thought, “I wanted to find you.”

That makes Liam feel warm inside. Which could be a stomach issue, but Jeremiah says that happens with soulmates. Liam wouldn’t know if that is true. His family doesn’t talk about soulmates with him.

“I found you.” Liam hopes his phone voice isn’t weird. People at school (excluding his friends) give him a weird look when he uses it, so he just ends up not talking much. It isn’t that it necessarily bothers him. It’s just easier and more time efficient to not speak.

“Well you found me. Just like soulmates do,” Tharen says with a grin is very wide.

“They do?” He asks. It feels like a whole new world is open to him now. Like a new pocket dimension.

Tharen leaves the door way and closes the door. He gestures to two chairs on the porch. Liam dutifully sits on one. When Tharen talks, he speaks so animatedly, even more so than Jeremiah. “Yeah. Did you know that researchers have found that 52% of soulmates accidentally find their other half? Crazy.”

“Accidentally?” Liam is confused. He’s never looked up soulmate stats. There never appeared to be a reason to learn. He never thought he would meet his soulmate.

Tharen shrugs. “Well that’s the wording they use, I like fate better.”

Looking over at him, Liam sees this thing in his eyes. When Bell or Jeremiah would talk about romance books or romantic comedies, they would always bring up this thing of a sparkle in someone’s eye. How the main character could look at someone and just know that they liked the love interest.

Liam never understood how someone’s eyes could sparkle. That’s not actually possible unless you see a light reflecting in their pupils.

How could you know someone else’s emotions with just their eyes.

But glimpsing at Tharen now, maybe Liam is starting to get it.

“Liam, are you good?”

Turning to look straight ahead where Jeremiah’s car is parked, there is Jeremiah, leaning over the passenger seat to yell out.

Liam isn’t sure how to answer. So he doesn’t.

“Can I drop Bell back home and come back for you?” Jeremiah asks when he realizes Liam’s not answering.

Bell sinks more into her seat. Her reaction still baffles Liam, but he can find out why later.

Ducking his head, he uses the shadow it creates to type on his phone. “I am good. What does that have to do with leaving?” He asks.

If he is good, why would that indicate leaving? That almost feels like the opposite. Jeremiah and Bell don’t seem to understand his question.

Next to him, Tharen repeats what he just said but much much louder. It actually has him wincing with the volume right near his ear.

“Are you comfortable if I leave for a bit?” Jeremiah explains further.

Glancing at Tharen, he sees nothing but kindness. Feels something a lot more.

_Yes_, he signs.

“I can drive him home,” Tharen offers, lifting his hand to his right to a driveway leading up to a garage. In front stood a black Subaru Forrester. Maybe a 2010.

It has a lot of dirt and dents. Liam can count four clear damage points.

“Zac will kill me if I let a stranger drive Liam casa,” Jeremiah says. Zac wouldn’t kill Jeremiah. Just be very, very angry and probably say a couple of curse words.

Liam is about to correct Jeremiah, but the corners Tharen’s lips turn downwards. “I’m his soulmate.”

He’s not quite sure what him being his soulmate has to do with Zac killing Jeremiah. Tharen acts like his statement explains everything.

Typing on his phone in process of asking Tharen what he means, a Jeremiah laugh interrupts him. “More of a reason for me to bring him back,” Jeremiah yells.

Their conversation feels like it’s going in circles. Nothing is getting accomplished like this. Pressing the backspace, he deletes his previous inquiry and types something new. “Jeremiah is trying to get on my brother’s good side. I like riding in his car.”

After reading listening and reading the words, Tharen nods and then waves goodbye to Jeremiah and Bell.

As the car peels away, a storm cloud following them, Liam is alone with his soulmate.

“So tell me about yourself, Keys.” Tharen leans back in his chair, very casual. Not a care in the world.

It takes Liam a moment to process what he’s said. Liam has a lot of cares in the world, so it takes him an extra minute to type out a response. His soulmate doesn’t appear to mind. “What about me?” He settles on eventually.

“Anything. I want to learn everything.”

Everything is a lot. Where do you even begin when describing everything. Liam isn’t even sure if he knows everything about him. Sometimes he thinks Zac knows him better than he does with himself.

Maybe he should be asking Zac that question….you know, if Zac knew that Tharen was his soulmate.

“That might take a while.”

Tharen shrugs, “I’m cool with that.”

“And if you don’t like it?” Liam asks. Tharen stares a long time at the words on his phone. Liam knows he heard what the phone translator said, but he doesn’t seem to like what he said.

When a smile splits his face, Liam thinks he may have interpreted him wrong. “You? I can’t imagine not liking anything about you.”

He isn’t sure what to say to that. It’s…nice. Very nice. Super nice.

Maybe the nicest thing anyone outside of his family and newfound friends has ever said to him.

He starts simple. “My power is pocket dimensions.”

The response is instant which almost startles Liam. “That’s dope! Must come in handy.” Not many people know what that entails when they first hear it. Something inside Liam lights up with the recognition.

It isn’t often that someone knows. He doesn’t have to explain it. Tharen just knows.

Without having to repeat the same question back, Tharen offers it. “My power is that I see everyone’s soulmates.”

There’s a lot of questions and specifications that pop up in his head. Before he can decide which one to ask first, it’s like Tharen reads his mind. Maybe that’s part of being a soulmate?

“Like I see the connection between people. Your two friends with you, I can tell they met their soulmates. If their soulmates were here, I would pick up on the connection,” he clarifies.

“See the connection?” Liam questions quickly.

Tharen’s face scrunches up which is kinda cute. “It’s hard to explain. It’s like a string connecting them. But only I can see it. The only soulmate I couldn’t see was my own.”

“So when you crashed into me?”

Tharen begins nodding before Liam can even finish. “Yep, couldn’t tell you were my soulmate. But when I knocked into you, it’s like I went totally color blind. All of those strings just disappeared. Poof. Gone. But if I were to tell you the truth, the moment I saw you, there was something that drew me to you.”

“Drew you to bump into me, you mean?” Liam asks, still a little bit confused.

It must be funny because he laughs. “Exactly!”

He was being serious. He almost corrects Tharen, but seeing his smile, something makes him delete the words he began typing.

“So what else comes with the Keys’ everything package?”

“Autism and a lot of awkward silences,” he answers truthfully, since above all else, Liam is honest.

Tharen isn’t taken aback. He doesn’t even flinch. He acts like autism is normal.

Which isn’t a typical reaction that Liam is accustomed to. He gets a lot of uneasy glances and averting eyes.

He’s used to his family tip toeing around him. With his friends, he’s used to them accommodating him.

Not this.

“Cool. I tend to be a talker so I doubt there would be many of those,” Tharen responds.

Liam never let himself dream of a soulmate. He always had a hard imagining people and their behavior he hasn’t encountered before. Sure, he could draw other things or strategize soccer plays, but people? They were a mystery.

He could have never predicted someone like Tharen. One who only saw gaps that he could fill. Silences that Tharen could use to talk.

“What else? You’re a lot more than just that. I can tell,” Tharen says.

“This could take hours. Days. Even weeks. Everything is a lot,” Liam points out, almost like a warning. Because it is.

This is his out. If he wants it.

And much to Liam’s delight, he doesn’t take it.

He stays.

“Good. This is our start.”

“Start of what?”

“Of us. Of forever.”

———

(I’ll eventually get back to the government wanting to get rid of soulmates. I just took this detour and then continued driving for a long time. Also, Tharen’s soulmate power really went through the wringer. I literally changed it three times. One of the options was him being able to transform kinetic energy into potential energy. Basically stop things in motion.)