Chapter Text
PART ONE
He saw her standing there and the world stopped spinning. The ground beneath him shook as he lost the ability the breathe. She was breathtaking, it was as simple as that. Their eyes met and everything else faded into the background. He wanted to say something, anything, to get her attention but he was too late and too slow. She turned back around and continued to laugh with her friends. The sound traveled and it was like a song that’s been stuck in his head forever, except now he never wanted it out.
Truth was, he didn’t know what he was doing at that party. He wasn’t friends with any of the people there and it wasn’t exactly his “scene.” Most nights consisted on him stressing over homework and eventually falling asleep from stressing too much. It wasn’t ideal but somehow it seemed better than this, being surrounded by alcohol and a girl he could never have. Maybe he looked like a creep standing there staring as her cropped blonde hair swayed along with her dancing, but he couldn’t help it. She was captivating.
“Who is she?” He didn’t have to look to know who was standing near him. Evita. His classmate from school. He knew she liked him and knew how disappointed she was when she realized they weren’t soulmates. He wasn’t sure how he felt.
“I don’t know.” He breathed out. “I’ve never seen her before but,” He shook his head, knowing how ridiculous what he said next would sound. “She looks like someone I should know. I know that doesn’t make sense.”
“Go talk to her, what harm could it do?” He finally looks at her, she was wearing tight jeans and a top tucked into her pants. She looked nice. “And Ty, thank you for coming, it means a lot. I know you don’t really like all this.” She waved her hands around them gesturing to the party. He shrugged in response. What was he gonna do? Say no?
Ty stands there alone, as he does most thing, trying to find the courage to talk to her.
Luckily for him he doesn’t have to because she walks up right to him, coming an what seems like an inch of his face. He sucks in a heavy breath. Up close, she’s overwhelming.
“You got a name?” She asks, a smirk playing on her lips and a red cup in her hand.
“Uh.” He knows he does but can’t remember. Can’t think of anything but her eyes boring into his. “Tyrone.” He finally spits out. She looks at him, amusement taking over her expression.
“Are you sure about that?” She laughs. It’s light and almost knocks him off his feet. Why does he feel like he knows her. She’s looking at him expectantly but he’s not sure what she wants him to say or what he could say. She tucks a stray hair behind her ear as she bobs her head to the deafening music around them. He almost can’t hear it. He can only hear the sound of his nervous breaths and her humming along to whatever song is playing. She has a beanie on a flannel wrapped around her waist and he wonders again where he’s seen her before. Everything about her seems so familiar but it seems unlikely he’d forget her.
“Pretty sure.” He runs his fingers through his hair nervously, or tries to but ends up looking ridiculous because his hair is impossible to thread through. He wants to scream.
“I’m Tandy Bowen.” She reaches out her arm and Ty’s a little surprised by the formality, but reached out for it anyway.
Their hands meet and the world explodes.
She can’t tell if the stars have somehow moved closer or she’s going insane. She can see them so clearly, can almost feel their warmth. They’re so bright above her, it’s blinding. She can’t move but she knows she’s flying. She can feel the cold air on her skin like a whisper. Tandy blinks and it’s over. She opens them and sees him. Tyrone. He’s standing in front of her, a shocked expression evident in his features. His eyes are so wide she’d be worried they’re gonna pop if her’s weren’t just as wide. He looks at her with a sort of awe she’s never seen before. No one’s ever looked at her like that, like she held their entire world in her hands and they were afraid she’d drop it.
“What was that?” He whispers and his voice is so soft she feels instantly safe. She’s sure they both know exactly what that meant but are too afraid to admit it to each other.
Tandy doesn’t know what to say, knows he doesn’t either. He’s still looking at her like he’s seeing all of her and it’s so overwhelming she has to turn away. His stare burns her skin and her head is telling her to run but for the first time in her life, she wants nothing more than to stay, right here with him looking at her like that and her feeling like this.
She knows he’s talking but it’s muffled, she blinks, once, twice, nothing. She shakes her head.
“Tandy? Are you listening to me?” His voice comes out clear and she breathes a sigh of relief. “You alright?”
“Yes and no, not really.” She laughs nervously. She’s surprised by how shaky her voice comes out, a high contrast to how confident she was earlier. His expression softens as he looks at her and her chest tightens. Why does it feel like this?
Tandy can feel her heart racing and she think she might be sick. It’s too much too fast. She grew up never believing in the idea of soulmates. She thought her parents were exaggerating when they spoke about how they felt about each other and when her friend Mina told her about her soulmate, she figured that she too was exaggerating because how ridiculous is that. There can’t be one person in the world for everyone, it doesn’t make sense. Her mind is going a million miles per second, she’s going to pass out.
“Woah, Tandy?” His voice is so far away, like the sound of a train in the distance, loud enough for her to hear but she knows it’s too far to reach. Everything around her slows down and before she knows it, the world is turning upside down and she’s falling and she never stops, doesn’t think she ever has. She’s been falling her whole life.
Tyrone catches her. Her skin burns at the touch but he doesn’t mind. He picks her up in his arms and puts his jacket around her before gently laying her down on what seems to be the only dry patch of grass. Her breathing is even and her eyelids are fluttering. She looks at peace and he smiles.
“Tandy Bowen?” He whispers, lightly shaking her shoulders. Her eyes begin to open slowly and she’s sitting up, looking at him like he put the stars in the sky. It renders him breathless.
“What happened?” Her voice is soft and laced with confusion.
“You passed out for a minute there.” He smiles, resting his arms around his legs as he sits near here. He feels like this is where he was always meant to be, next to this girl named Tandy under the stars. “Are you alright?” He wonders if anybody’s asked her that before him because each time he does, she looks shocked and her eyes shine with years of hurt and loneliness. He wants her to tell him that she isn’t and why. He wants to hear about everything that led up to this moment in her life. He just wants to hear her.
“I should go.” Is what she says instead and his heart breaks. He nods before helping her stand up. She hands him his jacket before turning around and walking back to her friends. With each retreating footstep he feels a small part of him breaking inside. He knows he should go after her but he can’t. He doesn’t know her and she doesn’t know him. They’re merely strangers who also happened to be linked to one another in a way none of them could imagine.
“It was nice meeting you Tandy Bowen.” He whispers into the dark before taking one last glance at her. He leaves and it’s like leaving a huge part of himself behind.
He went home that night and tried to forget her but she was all he thought about. Flashes of her face ran through his mind. He had never believed in the stories, the ones about soulmates. Thought it was all talk between adults who wanted their kids to have hope. Ty believed in many things but that wasn’t one of them. As Tandy’s laugh ran through his head, he knew he believed it now.
She consumed his thoughts for days, her smile lingering in the back of his mind. For some reason it hurt to be away from her. He needed to see her and soon.
“Mom, can I talk to you?” He doesn’t know how to start this conversation but he knows if he doesn’t, it’ll drive him insane. She looks up from folding his laundry and smiles. He liked seeing her like this, calm. “How did you know Dad was the one, like, how did you know he was your soulmate?” He wants to laugh at how ridiculous the concept of soulmates is but if it’s real, he needs to know for sure.
His mother sighs and looks up with a soft smile. “I just knew.” She says, her voice sounding far away. “All it took was one touch and it’s like they’re your person now. You spend the rest of your life thinking about them, wanting them and you don’t mind because you’re already in love with them.” She gestures to the empty seat on the couch next to her and he goes to sit. “I remember meeting your father like it was yesterday. It’s not the events of that day or anything like that. It’s a feeling. I remember feeling so complete as a person when we touched that I knew with all my heart it was him. There was an energy when he touched me. I just knew.” She made it sound so easy, so simple. For Ty, it was anything but. He didn’t know this Tandy girl and he wasn’t sure if he’d ever see her again. He hoped he would.
“I think I found her.” Is all he says and his mom’s eyes widened before a smile forms on her lips.
“Tell me about her.”
“Her name’s Tandy Bowen. That’s all I really know.” Before he knows it, he’s smiling thinking about her, blushing even. His mom looks at him with an admiration he’s never seen before. “She’s strong, I can tell, but scared if that makes sense. She didn’t have to say much for me to know that.” He shrugs like it’s not a big deal. Like she wasn’t his every thought, every hour, every minute, every day. “She’s funny too, we barely spoke but I can tell. She has something about her, I don’t know.” He laughs and it sounds foreign to his own ears. Here he is, with his mother, talking about this girl he barely knows like he’s in love with her. Some part of him believes he might be.
Tandy’s head was pounding and everything around her was spinning. She wrapped her hoodie around her body and shivered. It was colder than most nights inside the church and she was definitely feeling it. Her mom kept calling her cell and each time hurt worse than the last when she hit end call. She didn’t want to talk to her. She couldn’t. Everything in her life had gone to shit and her mother picked up pill bottles instead of her child. Runs in the family, I guess. She thought as she looked at the half empty pill bottle by her side. She knew she shouldn’t but sometimes the quiet was too much. She drowned in the loneliness and if those little white pills helped, then so be it.
Tandy knew what being alone felt like and this was different. She didn’t just feel alone, she felt like something was missing. Her mind went to the boy in the woods and she sighed. She had been dreading the reminder of him. She wasn’t stupid, she knew what it was. Tandy grew up not believing in a lot of things and not hoping but a small part of her had always hoped for this. She had hoped for someone she could talk to and be completely herself around. She knew Tyrone was that person. When they touched, a shiver ran through her body and mind and it was like for the first time in forever, she felt alive again.
She remembers that night so clearly, like a movie playing on a loop in her head, even though it was over a week ago. It was insane, really, the strong connection she felt to a stranger. It was burning her insides. She needed to him.