Soulmates That Aren’t Meant To Be—And Me
Shawn hates fishing. But here he is, sitting beside his biological father, Damian, on a bench facing a large, pristine lake. The lake is owned by Damian, and the expansive land surrounding it, and the house that Shawn slept in the other night. Damian, without a doubt, is rich, and trying to be the best father he can be for his son.
Shawn still hates fishing, though. He wants to go back home to his mom and her boyfriend, Patrick.
“Oh, my boy, I think you got a tug on your rod,” Damian gives Shawn a smile, but it slips off when Shawn doesn’t smile back, “Come one then, reel it in. Slowly.”
“I don’t want to do this,” Shawn says as he reels it in, “I want to go back inside the house.”
Damian smiles sadly and pats Shawn on the back, which he flinches from. “Alrighty then, how about after that fish gets off your line, huh bud?”
Shawn thinks for a moment, staring out into the lake and scratching his metal rod’s base. He nods and continues to reel the fish in. He hears Damian sigh, but his father doesn’t say anything, leaving Shawn to wonder why.
“I told you, Damian, not to do things that Shawn doesn’t like! You better be glad he didn’t have a tantrum because of you! Did he repeatedly say he didn’t want to do it?”
“Look, I’m sorry, Felicia, I’m sorry. You know I’m not the best at this. I’m trying to treat him like a normal kid.”
“Well he’s not normal, Damian. He’s not. But he’s still my baby and I will not have him mistreated!”
“I’m not mistreating him! I just don’t understand as much as you do! If you would just let me—“
“No!” Felicia screeches. “I don’t want you anywhere near me or in my life! Why can’t you just give your custody to Patrick!”
“Because Shawn is still me son!” Damian yells this loudly, so loudly that Shawn moves from where he was listening from the door. The boy strokes his llama onesie, relishing in the way the cotton feels against palms.
He is happy that his mother showed up but not sure whether or not he should stop the affair.
Nonetheless, he’s pleased that his llama onesie is warm and snug against his tall frame.
It’s a while before his mom calms down, and when she does, she guides Shawn to the car and tells him to wait while she gets his suitcases.
“Soulmates,” she mutters to herself, “Stupid soulmates, fuck it all. Can’t they see that we’re not meant for each other? That we have never been meant for each other?” Shawn blinks up at her and she smiles. “Oh, my baby boy,” his mom strokes his head softly, leaning over the car’s frame, “You want Landon? I’ll be right back.”
She closes the door, leaving Shawn to his own devices. He isn’t really worried about his stuffed animal—though now that she mentioned him he does want him—he is wondering if all soulmates are like this. He knows a little bit on why his mom doesn’t like Damian. Damian forced Felicia to have him, but his mom still treats him nicely. And then Damian kept stalking Felicia, even when she left him. And Shawn’s grandparents still love Damian, even though his mom hates him.
Maybe, he thinks, it’s just too complicated for me, right now. He flaps his hands and hums to himself until his mom comes back, heaving his luggage into the trunk of her van. After she’s done, she opens the door to the drivers side and hops inside. Shawn hears her breathing loudly and slowly, her hands are tight on the wheel. Shawn continues to flap and hum as she does this.
“Sweetheart,” she says after a few moments, “I love you, and I know you won’t understand this, but one day, you will have a choice….” She stops for a moment and shakes her head. “No, it’s not really a choice, but, you can choose the outcome. You don’t have your powers yet, so you don’t have to worry about it know, but it’s only a matter of time until they come. And when they do, and your soulmate comes knocking on your door, I want you to know that you have a chance to choose for yourself—no matter what this world says otherwise. Because sometimes, people aren’t meant for each other. Maybe not at the first glance like me and Damian, but maybe over time they just…fall out of love. And that’s okay.
“I just want you to know that I love you for you, and if anyone disrespects you for who you are, just know that that person isn’t good or right for you, okay.”
Shawn doesn’t know what to say, in his defense, he is only six, but he nods anyway and strokes the arms of his onesie. “Okay.”
Felicia takes a deep breath and starts her van. “Alright, let’s go. I bet Patrick’s missing us.”
9 Years Later…
Shawn’s school isn’t exactly the best. It is regarded as the “school on the other side of the train tracks” but Shawn likes Palmer Highschool because it’s biking distance from his neighborhood.
He riding now, the wind blowing against his dark face and his glasses perched on the bridge of his nose. To anyone else, this would be peaceful, but to him, the area is loud with voices.
Humans and animals.
Yea, he can read thoughts, but that’s not all. He can do a lot of other things too. Not that it matters to him, or other people, because he ignores the rest and tells people that he only has X-ray vision.
And that’s that.
It doesn’t matter that he has telekinesis, heat vision, can shapeshift, has pyrokinesis, hypnosis, clairvoyance, teleportation, etc, etc.
None of that matters. And he hasn’t lost it yet, so that means he hasn’t met his soulmate.
Not that it matters either.
He makes it to school in one piece, chaining his bike to the bike rack for safety before heading inside. He heard that another school, one of the richer ones nearby the larger towns, has mandated everyone of their students to wear some sort of cuffs while their at school, restricting their power. That sounds painful; he wishes he had it, it would make containing all of his powers more easier. He slips up rather a lot.
The hallway is full of Black kids, and the occasional Asian or White, all chatting loudly and playing with their powers while they wait for the bell to ring. On a normal day, the hall monitor, Raina, would be out and maintaining order, but she’s not here today which confuses Shawn. It also makes his heart race, though not by a lot. It’s not a major change, only a small one, so he’ll be fine.
The bell rings just on time and Shawn hurries through the crowd to make it to his first period. He doesn’t have a class with the other kids in a the majority. Shawn leaves the building through one of the side doors and steps onto a path leading to a separate building. Shawn’s glad he doesn’t have to deal with the big building and all the loudness. Sure, most people would consider the Special Ed class to be weird and off putting, but Shawn loves the quiet atmosphere it puts off. And he also feels as though they learn more there than the normal kids do.
He makes it to the building and opens the door, a wave a plain Cleanex floating off the walls and slamming into his face. Shawn breaths it in as he walks towards his desk, waving hello to everyone who’s already there.
Shawn is here, he hears his teacher, Mrs. Jones think, alright, good, now time to start class on schedule.
Shawn only has four other classmates: Hadley, a short girl with Down Syndrome, Jerome, a boy whose even more autistic than Shawn is, King, who sees and hears things that no one else can, and Evan, who Shawn isn’t sure what’s wrong with yet. Evan’s new to the system.
But Shawn shuts down his telepathy, as best he can, and focuses on Mrs. Jones. The bells rings and all continues to go as he knows it will. He’ll deal with his parents later, and Damian; of course now’s the time he’s thinking of Patrick and Damian’s fight.
As he said before, he’ll think about it later.
(This was inspired by and set in the same world (mostly) as Jewelie Rain’s Soulmate Series. Now look, I know it wasn’t good because I am terrible at writing in 3rd person. But thanks for reading and have a great day!)
