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WARNINGS: language
A/N: I’M SOOOOOOO SORRY THAT IT’S TAKEN THIS LONG TO GET THIS UP! I’VE BEEN WORKING ON IT SINCE I UPLOADED THE LAST ONE. I JUST STARTED SENIOR YEAR, AND WE GET OFF EARLY, SO I SHOULD BE ABLE TO WORK ON WRITING MORE.
“Oliver! Come on, we’re going to be late for class!” my best friend and roommate, Michael, shouts at me from the other side of the dorm.
I look over at the clock and it’s 10:00 AM. Class is at 10:30, so I actually need to get up. I grumble a bit before getting up.
“Oh my gosh, Oliver. Go get showered and dressed. Now,” Michael says impatiently. His arms are crossed with his blue eyes narrowed, his black fringe is flopped into his eyes, and his black knuckles are showcased.
“Yes, Mom,” I tease lightly before yelping as he smacks me with a towel he wound up. I take it from him with a half-hearted glare.
“You’re a meanie,” I say, sticking my tongue out at him.
“Go get your shower, and I won’t be,” he retorts, sticking his tongue out as well.
He flops onto my bed and gets out his phone- content to play games until I’m done.
I walk into the bathroom and stare at my boxer-clad reflection. My brown hair is sticking up everywhere, two emerald orbs stare back at me with a hazy cloud of sleep over them. There are two small-ish black handprints in the center of my chest. That’s the first place my soulmate will touch me, apparently. It’s supposed to turn into colors after I touch them. I used to spend days at a time wondering what would happen to make them place both hands on my chest first, but at this point, I’m 22, I don’t really care anymore.
After my shower, I get dressed in a pair of dark blue skinny jeans and a dark red long-sleeved t-shirt with my black converse and black beanie. I grab my backpack before Michael and I make our way downstairs so we can grab some breakfast on the way to class. There’s an on-campus Starbucks, so we stop and grab a black coffee and a muffin for each of us. On the way to class we talk about the ending of the latest Marvel movie, eat our muffins, and drink our coffees. The cool October wind whips in my face, but it feels good.
We pass a few people from our class on the way there, and I see this girl, Olivia, from a couple of my classes. She’s beautiful, kind, and super smart. She’s got long, shiny, strawberry blonde hair that she curls into waves, and big green eyes that are highlighted by a spatter of freckles along her cheeks and across the bridge of her nose that are visible from quite a distance away. She’s shorter than me by a few inches- just enough that I can barely see over the top of her head.
Sadly, every time I see Olivia, there’s been something in her hands. I’ve never been able to tell if her palms are black or normal. I watch her eyes scan over the people as I walk to my seat in the lecture hall. They land on me, and I gasp. They’re so pretty. I could stare at them all day. She gives me a small smile, that I return, and waves a hoodie sleeve-covered hand at me.
Michael shoves me forward, and he gains my attention once more.
“Dude, you gotta stop staring at Olivia so we can maybe not get yelled at today,” he says impatiently.
“I wasn’t staring. I was just saying hi,” I tell him defensively.
“Ollie, you’ve been standing there for almost a minute after you finished saying hello,” he tells me, and I blush as dark as my t-shirt.
We take our usual seats, and I try to disappear as I see Olivia looking at me with an unreadable expression on her face.
“Okay, I hope everyone brought their copy of A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” our professor says to everyone cheerily.
I groan and take my copy of the play out of my bag. It’s not that I don’t love the play, but I’d just rather not let anyone see my face right now.
“Mr. Scott, do you have something against the play?” the professor asks expectantly.
“No, Professor. I’m just really tired. I’m sorry,”
“Maybe go to bed earlier then, hmm, Oliver?”
“Yes, Sir. I’ll be fine tomorrow,” I say.
“Good. Now, does everyone have their copy?” he addresses the class once more.
I sigh in relief, expelling a breath I didn’t even know I was holding as he moves on from me. I see Michael give me a sympathetic look out of the corner of my eye. I ignore it in favor of focusing on the class, so I don’t draw any more attention to myself.
The class drags on for what seems like forever, when it was actually the same hour long class as usual. I try to pack up as soon as humanly possible, but I hear the professor tell me to stay after class a minute.
“I’ll wait for you outside, okay?” Michael says.
“Okay,” I say before grabbing my bag and walking to Professor Clemens’ desk.
“Yes, Sir?” I ask him.
“Are you okay? Actually okay? You seemed a little off today,”
“I’m okay. I’m just really tired. I went to bed really late last night, and I’m definitely paying for it today,”
“Well, get a good night’s rest. I hope you feel better for the next class,” he smiles.
“Thank you, Sir. I’ll see you Wednesday,” I say, turning to leave.
“Goodbye, Oliver,” he returns.
I walk out into the hallway and see Michael talking to Olivia and another small-statured girl with raven-colored hair that I recognize from class, but I don’t know the other girl’s name.
“Hey Micha. Hi Olivia. Hi, and I’m sorry, but I don’t know your name.” I say turning to each of them in turn.
“I’m guessing you’re Oliver from what Michael’s told me. I’m Aubrey,” she smiles, looking up at me.
“Yeah, I’m Oliver. Nice to actually meet you instead of just seeing you in class,”
“You too,” she returns, tucking a piece of long black hair behind her ears.
“Well, you’ll be seeing a lot of her in the very near future,” Michael pipes up.
“Why’s that?” I ask him, cocking my head to one side a little.
“She’s my soulmate,” he grins widely, taking her hand. I look at his knuckles and notice that they’re now a multitude of colors.
“Oh my gosh! Congrats, Bro!” I exclaim wrapping him up in a hug.
“Thanks, Man. Hope you find yours too, soon,” he replies, hugging me back.
“Yeah, me too. Although I haven’t seen anyone with black palms recently,” I say when we pull away.
Olivia gasps, and I turn around looking at her curiously. She pulls the sleeves from her hoodie up. Her palms are stained completely black. Now it’s my turn to gasp.
I wrap her up in a fast and tight hug. Her hands are placed on my chest and mine on her lower back- just below her waist.
“I always wondered why I had two marks. I guess now I know,” she smiles widely.
“What do you mean?” I ask her, pulling back enough to see her face.
“Well my palms were black. But I also had 2 black handprints criss-crossed right below my waist on my back,” she says, a slight blush on her freckled cheeks.
“I bet they look amazing now. Same for mine. I haven’t looked at them yet, but I know they’re beautiful now,” I smile widely.
“Well, I’d love to find out,” she flirts, but her blushing cheeks show her sincerity.
I lean in close to her, tuck her hair behind her ear, and whisper, “I’ll gladly let you find out,” in a attemptedly flirty tone. Apparently it works, because she’s now a bright red.
“Can I see your phone? I’ll put my number in,” she says in a quiet voice.
“Of course. Can I do the same?” I ask her.
“Of course,” she smiles, and we trade phones. I make my contact ‘Oliver ❤️’ and put my number in.
“We should probably do that, too,” Michael says.
“Probably a good idea,” Aubrey laughs.
“You know what? We should all go on a double date later. The carnival’s in town, and it’s just down the street from campus,” Aubrey suggests with excitement in her eyes.
I look at Olivia, who looks just as excited as Aubrey, and then I look at Michael who also looks excited.
“Yeah, that sounds like fun,” I smile at them all.
“Yayyyy, okay. Liv, we need to go do some stuff first. See you boys later,” Aubrey says before kissing Michael on the cheek. I’m pleasantly surprised when Olivia does the same to me. Michael and I both blush and look at the ground as they walk away. We look at each other before laughing a bit in excitement.
“How in the hell did we land them?” Michael asks after we stop laughing.
“I honestly have no idea, Micha,” I tell him.
“Well, we might wanna figure out what we’re gonna wear and all that nonsense,” Michael says as we walk back to our dorm.
“Yeah, probably a good idea,” I reply, excited to take my shirt off and see the handprints have color.
We get back into the dorm, and the first thing I do is throw my stuff on the floor by my bed and yank my shirt off before walking into the bathroom. I gasp quietly at how beautiful the handprints actually are. They are a brilliant splattering of a billion colors all confined within 2 small handprints.
“Whoa. They’re beautiful, Ollie,” Michael breathes from behind me.
“Thanks. I think so, too,” I reply with a small smirk.
-Le tiny timeskip-
Michael and I are dressed in button-up shirts, black and green respectively, and both in nice blue jeans with some black converse. We agreed to meet Olivia and Aubrey at the coffee shop since none of us can go into the other’s dorm. Michael and I talk about random things as we walk, and Michael keeps playing with his lip rings.
He decided to get double lip rings on the right side of his bottom lip when he graduated high school. They don’t look bad, but they make him seem a lot more intimidating than he actually is to some people.
When we finally get to the coffee shop, my jaw hits the floor. Olivia has her hair curled in big ringlets that flow down her back and shoulders, her makeup looks amazing, and she’s got a cute red skater-type dress on with a gold necklace of a cursive ‘O’ hanging just below her collarbones.
My heart leaps into my throat when she gives me a wide smile as a hello as we get closer to them.
“Holy shit, Oliver. How’d we land them?” Michael breathes.
“I honestly have no idea,” I whisper back to him as we continue to get closer to them.
“I’m just damn glad we did,” he adds after a second.
“I am, too. We’re definitely some lucky guys,” I say as we finally reach them.
“Hey, guys. You both look very handsome,” Olivia says. My cheeks flush a bright red.
“Yeah, they do,” Aubrey says as she grabs Michael’s hand.
“Thank you,” Michael and I both say. His cheeks are flushed, too.
My heart flutters in my chest as Olivia grabs my hand as we walk towards the carnival.
“Is this okay?” she asks softly.
“Of course,” I smile at her.
We walk around the carnival for a while and play a bunch of the games in the booths. I win her a really big stuffed bunny at the game where you knock over milk bottles with a ball. She actually wins me a little stuffed Kangaroo in one of the shooting games.
We’re walking hand and hand as we roam around the carnival, and Michael and Aubrey are a little bit ahead of us doing the same thing. The height difference between them is adorable. She comes up to maybe the middle of his chest -maybe. My height difference with Olivia is just right. The crown of her head can tuck right under my chin when I hug her.
Suddenly Olivia starts jumping up and down and getting all excited. I look at her quizzically.
“What is it, Liv?” I ask her with a slight laugh.
“There’s a Ferris wheel!” she exclaims with a huge smile, dragging me towards said ferris wheel.
“Oh my goodness. Here we go,” I laugh.
“Michael, we have to go!” I hear Aubrey screech to Michael from behind us.
We all walk towards the Ferris wheel swinging our linked hands between us. I love the way Olivia’s hand feels in mine. Our fingers fit like they were made for each other. Now that I think about it, they probably were. I stroke the back of her hand with my thumb as I think about it.
We all finally make it to the line for the Ferris wheel, and I’m loving how excited Olivia and Aubrey are. Michael looks about like I do. We both have ridiculous heart eyes, but it’s okay. We’ve finally met our soulmates after 22 years.
Olivia’s eyes grow to about the size of the moon when the green Ferris wheel car comes around. Sadly, we have to let go of each other’s hands to get in. We get in, her first and then me, to the car and put our stuffed animals on the floor between our feet. She intertwines her fingers with mine as we settle into the seat and the door is closed.
I pick up our entwined hands and kiss the back of hers. She blushes a bright red, and it’s then that I decide to try and make her blush as often as humanly possible. I chuckle softly as she looks down, embarrassed.
“What?” she asks in a whine.
“Nothing. You’re just beautiful. How did I get so lucky?” I ask as the Ferris wheel moves slightly to let more people in- probably Michael and Aubrey, since they were behind us in line.
“I believe I am the lucky one here, Oliver,” she states, letting go of my hand to caress the side of my face. I lean into the touch before kissing the center of her palm, making her giggle slightly.
“I don’t know. I mean, you’re beautiful, Olivia. I think I’m the one who got lucky here,” I tell her, grabbing her hand and putting it over my heart- both of my hands covering hers.
It’s at that moment that we move enough to get to the top of the Ferris wheel. We look out at the sunset. The wind blows Olivia’s hair slightly, and I reach out to tuck a bit of it behind her ear. She looks at me then back out at the sunset as the Ferris wheel starts to move slowly but continuously.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” she asks.
“It sure is,” I reply, never looking away from her.
“You’re not even looking at the sunset,” she points out with a slight laugh.
“I don’t need to. The sunset is pretty, but you’re beautiful,” I say. She blushes again and covers her face with her hands.
“Hey, don’t do that! I can’t see that beautiful face of yours when you do that,” I say in a pouty voice, grabbing her wrists lightly to pull her hands away from her face.
“Good!” she exclaims, fighting me playfully when I attempt to pull her hands away.
“Please let me see your face? I wanna do a thing, but I can’t if your face is covered up,” I say.
She reluctantly pulls her hands away from her face. She’s both curious and skeptical about what I want to do. I lightly set my hand on the side of her face and give her a questioning look. My stomach is full of butterflies, and my hands are slightly shaky in anticipation of what I’m about to ask.
“Can I kiss you, Olivia?” I ask almost in a whisper, my face close enough to hers now that I can feel her breath against my face.
“Of course, Oliver. You never have to ask for that. We’re soulmates,” she replies in the same volume, her nose brushing my cheek before she finally closes the -small as it may be- distance between our lips.
I couldn’t have ever prepared myself for the feeling of finally kissing my soulmate. Her lips are soft, and I can feel her dark red lipstick coming off and spreading onto my lips. The butterflies in my stomach have exploded violently, but in a good way. Fireworks go off in my mind, and it feels like coming home after being away after having never been home. It’s like I’ve never known what home is until now.
Her hand comes up to cup my face as well as we continue to explore one another’s mouths. I lightly bite her lip, making her gasp, and she opens her lips. I slip my tongue in her mouth, and she does the same. We explore every inch of the inside of each other’s mouths before realizing that air is a thing.
We break apart with a gasp and gulp in air. Then we both start giggling. Olivia’s lipstick is smeared all around her mouth, and I know my mouth must look similar to hers. I swipe at my mouth to fix it, and she giggles even more.
“You made it worse. Now it’s all over your hand, too,” she attempts to say between giggles.
“I don’t care,” I tell her before kissing her again, completely and utterly amazed that this beautiful, funny, amazing girl is mine. I’m lucky enough to call myself hers. I finally found my soulmate.