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Jack was bored. But that wasn’t anything new.
His boredom led to him asking Crutchie for ideas.
This led to Crutchie telling him to take a deep dive into the art side of the internet. (“You’re the ‘art guy’,” the blonde said over the phone. “I don’t know how to help; you know I’m shit at advice.”)
Jack rolled his eyes, but followed Crutchie's instruction nevertheless. He didn’t have anything better to do. So, he pulled out the laptop and went searching. He tried character design challenges before deciding that drawing characters wasn’t what he was good at. Then he tried out different watercolor techniques, but all of them pretty much failed and the only watercolors he had were cheap ones from the Dollar Store.
Trick after trick after trick.
All in all, he got even more bored.
Medda knocked on his door a few times to check up on him, not surprised by the mess of art supplies scattered on her foster son’s floor. She would then scold him to clean his room, but Jack would ignore her.
Jack found one about testing different ways to make a temporary tattoo. It seemed simple enough, and Jack never got to experience the “wonders of temporary tattoos” when he was younger, so why not fulfill it now? Better late than never, right?
He clicked on the YouTube video, skipping past the extensive intro.
Did people actually think that their small spiel would get you into subscribing? He thought. Oh, sponsored by Honey. I mean, good for you.
The lady moved on into the first way. It was to print a photo of the desired tattoo onto some fancy paper with some fancy expensive printer. Jack impulsively scanned his room. He didn’t have a printer, nevertheless the laser-jet-whatnot she was talking about.
Second way: stencils. Jack didn’t have those and wasn’t in the mood to make some. Next.
Third way: freehand with eyeliner. Jack watched as the lady gave herself a crescent moon on her forearm. Then she sprinkled baby powder on it, so it wouldn’t rub off. The outcome looked pretty good. (Then again, it was a simple outline of a crescent moon.) He shrugged, deciding to give it a try. It seemed simple enough.
He turned around in his swivel chair, taking a deep breath before yelling, “Mama!”
A soft pattering of footsteps were heard in the hallway. Medda opened the door with a creak. “Yes, dear—
I told you to clean up this mess like 4 times.”
“I know, I know, I’ll clean it up later,” Jack waved her off. “Anyways, do you have any eyeliner I could use?” He was sure he used baby powder for a craft at one point.
“Why do you need— you know what, I don’t know why I ask you anymore,” Medda sighed with a small laugh. “I’ll get you one, be right back.”
She disappeared into the hallway again and returned no more than a minute later with an eyeliner pencil in her hand. She handed it to her foster son.
“Thanks,” he said.
Medda nodded. Before she closed the door and exited the room, she reminded him, “Clean. Your. Room.”
Jack didn’t respond, only rolling his eyes. He loved his foster mom and knew she knew that he was old enough to be responsible for himself. Just sometimes disorganization bugged her.
He uncapped the eyeliner, eyeing it (no pun intended). He wondered why people allowed for that stick of death to get near their eyes. Jack shrugged it off, for that wasn’t his main focus.
Then it occurred to him that he had no clue on what to do for his fake tattoo. It was fake, anyways, so it didn’t really matter what he put. Right?
The first thing that came to him was a smiley face. Simple enough. He flipped his wrist and made contact with the underside of his wrist. The eyeliner was smooth and opaque as he drew a simple “:)” on his left arm.
Cute, he thought with a small smile.
Jack capped the eyeliner pencil and stood up to try to find his baby powder. He found it tucked away into the back of one of his cabinets. After much struggling, he grabbed the container and sat back down at his desk.
As he looked back at his temporary tattoo, he noticed a small “Hello??” next to his drawn smile. Jack furrowed his eyebrows, wondering how that got there. He didn’t write that-
His eyes widened and lit up in excitement. He tried to calm himself down as he reached for his phone.
palette of pain(t) to chocolate crutchie
palette of pain(t)
OK WAIT CRUTCHIE
chocolate crutchie
CRUTCHIE
WAIT
palette of pain(t)
BABENWJEND
chocolate crutchie
JACK
WHATS UP W THE CAPS
palette of pain(t)
OK SO SOULMATES
chocolate crutchie
OMG DID U FIND URSS
palette of pain(t)
JUST TO CONFIRM
WRITING SHIT ON THE ARM AND UR SOULMATE SEEING IT IS ONE OF THE MARKS RIGHT
chocolate crutchie
YES IT IS
palette of pain(t)
THEN I DO AHVE A SOULMATE
chocolate crutchie
IM SO HAPPY FOR U
NOW SHOO
GO TSLK TO EM 😡😡
palette of pain(t)
yes dad 🤠
Jack smiled at his best friend’s support before glancing down back at his arm. His mind exploded with questions to ask his soulmate, but decided to start simple.
He grabbed the eyeliner pencil and wrote down: hey.
It only took seconds to get his response.
Soulmate: Hello, hello.
Jack: lol whats ur name
Soulmate: Jacob!
There was a small ink blob in front of the “J” and between the “b” and “!” but Jack shrugged it off. He didn’t even know why he was paying so much attention to the details, but the blobs seemed a little too big to be a accidental tap with the pen.
Jack: jack
Jacob: Cool! BTW you’re ok w/ a male SM right?
Jack’s heart ached at the thought of what his soulmate could’ve gone through for him to ask that question.
Jack: yea i came out as bi 2 yrs ago
Jacob: Oh ok! If you’re wondering, I’m gay.
Jack: okok
Jack thought about another question he could ask when he noticed the ink on his arm disappear. I guess that happens after a few minutes? It made sense; he didn’t want to run out of room to talk to his soulmate.
Jacob: Did that work?
Jack: did what work
Jacob: I washed my arm… Did that make yours disappear?
Jack’s mouth formed an “o” shape.
Jack: yea it did
Jacob: Ok good because I didn’t want it to be on my arm forever (sorry).
Jack: no its understandable i promise im not mad
Jacob: Anyways, I have to go.
Jack: oh ok well ttyl?
It took Jacob a few minutes to respond.
Jacob: TTYL!
With that, the ink magically disappeared.
— — —
Jack woke up the next day, feeling giddy with the fact that he knew his soulmate mark. He took a shower and got ready for school.
He looked down at his bare arm before deciding to send another message. Well, not really a message, but writing something down. The brunette drew a small sunflower on his left forearm. It was small and looked decent. Jack didn’t expect any response anytime soon because he didn’t know what time zone Jacob was in.
Jack put on a random dark blue jacket before he sprinted to the kitchen, where Medda was cooking breakfast. She hummed an unfamiliar tune as she scrambled eggs.
“Hey, Mama,” Jack said, sitting down at the countertop.
Medda didn’t flinch. She was used to this. “Hello, dear,” Medda greeted with her back to him. She transferred the cooked eggs from the pan to a plate with sizzling bacon on it. She grabbed a fork and handed the plate to Jack with a small smile.
“Thank you,” he hummed. He shot her a grateful smile. He didn’t know what he’d do without her. Jack took a bite of one of the bacon strips. Medda contently sighed as she put the pan into the sink. He furrowed his eyebrows. “You’re not gonna make any for yourself?”
“I already ate,” Medda replied. Jack nodded as he quickly finished up his breakfast. The bus was about to arrive any minute now.
He chugged a glass of water he got for himself before putting a now empty plate and glass into the sink.
“I have to go now,” Jack told her. Medda nodded, kissing his forehead.
“Behave, okay?” she gave him a pointed look. “I don’t want any phone calls from the principal. You don’t want to break your streak.”
“Okay, okay,” Jack jokingly rolled his eyes. Medda watched him from the kitchen as he quickly tied his shoes. He could see the bus pulling up in front of the house. He stood up straight, almost tripping (he simply couldn’t be straight). “Bye!”
“Bye, Jack!” Medda called. She blew him a kiss. He did the same to her before locking the door behind him.
— — —
Jack navigated the noisy cafeteria, trying to find his table. He found his chaotic group of friends, and two of them seemed to be arm wrestling. Amused, he slid into an empty seat between to Romeo and Katherine.
“Oh hey, Jackie Boy,” Romeo said.
“I told you to not call me that,” Jack rolled his eyes.
“Yeah, yeah,” the shorter teased.
“What’s up with them?” he nodded towards Spot and Blink arm wrestling and the loud yells of bets on who would win.
“Not sure, honestly,” Romeo replied.
He assumed Ike, who sat across the table, overheard him when he said, “Spot just challenged Blink into an arm wrestling match out of nowhere.”
“He didn’t piss Spot off, or anything?” Jack suggested, poking at his sad lump of white mush (he assumed they were supposed to be mashed potatoes).
“Not that I’m aware of,” Ike shrugged.
Jack leaned into Katherine, nudging her. She looked up from her book, mildly annoyed.
“What?” she asked, seemingly not hearing the chanting of names. The words “Spot” and “Blink” overlapped with each other.
“You’re not gonna do anything?” Jack questioned, pointing at the commotion farther down the table.
Katherine sighed, like she actually did want to stop them. “I’d use my whistle, but you know what happened last time.”
Jack nodded in understanding. She almost got into detention for using her whistle to stop the boys from doing stupid shit. The only reason that she never got any major punishment was the fact that her father, Pulitzer, was a teacher there. Jack didn’t understand why she got in trouble for a lousy whistle when he was sure people were sneaking alcohol in with metal canisters.
Eventually, Spot won (big surprise there), but Blink apparently was super close.
Because it was getting hot, Jack slipped his jacket off and stuffed it in his backpack. He was sure it crushed a few loose papers, but he didn’t care. His eyes absentmindedly drifted towards his wrist.
“Hi. Wait, you drew that FR?” he read. Jack blinked a few times to make sure he wasn’t imagining it. It didn’t disappear. Even more conformation that last night wasn’t some fever dream.
“Do any of you guys have a marker or pen?” Jack asked the group. Crutchie smirked at him, knowing exactly what he needed it for. Jack gave his best friend a pointed look, dismissing him with his hand.
Race pointed to a Sharpie between his lips that he chewed on instead of actual food. “Does a Sharpie work?” Race jokingly said. Jack rolled his eyes.
“Either way, I need something not as permanent,” Jack said. Katherine shuffled through her pencil case and handed him a ballpoint pen. He grabbed it out of her hands. “Thanks!”
Jack threw his backpack over his shoulder. He made a dash to the bathroom, leaving the only female at the table pissed at him, and locked himself in a stall. He didn’t want the endless teasing from his friends and possibly other nosy students.
He scribbled down: yeahh also sry for the late reply im at school lol.
It didn’t take long to get a reply.
Jacob: OMG pay attention.
Jack: says u btw its lunch
Jacob: I just got to school (I’m in PST).
Jack: ohh est for me
Jacob: It’s 8:20. School’s starting in 10 minutes.
Jack: 11:20 here
Jacob: *Heere
Jack: omg bmc
Jacob: Hey, you got the reference!
Jack: im a man of culture
Jacob: I can tell we’re going to be very compatible.
Jack: definitelyyy n e ways, find ur classes shoo we talk later
Jacob: Ok, Mom. Sheesh. Goodbye!
Jack: byee
Jack felt like an obsessive teenage girl with a crush, but who could blame him? He found out he even had a soulmate and wanted to know everything about him. He exited the bathroom stall and looked down at his arms filled with black text, wincing. The brunette tried putting his arms under one of the sinks, but it was awkward and the ballpoint pen didn’t want to give. All it did was smudge the text. He simply shrugged his jacket on, deciding to deal with washing the text on later. He hoped it didn’t bother Jacob much.
He was about to leave the bathroom when a figure blocked his exit. Jack dared to roll his eyes.
“What do you want, Morris?” he asked the taller boy. Morris Delancey acted like he ran World High School, but literally no one cared about him, other than maybe his brother. Then again, Oscar probably didn’t care, either.
“Just wanted to use the bathroom,” Morris answered coldly. It was a blatant lie. “So, get out of my way.”
Jack stepped to the side, sweeping his arms in front of him. “Go.”
Morris exhaled through his teeth, fisting the collar of his shirt, lifting Jack above the floor. His feet dangled only centimeters above the dirty tile.
Jack wasn’t scared as he should be; Morris did this millions of times before, unfortunately. Jack was immune to the ravenette’s actions.
“You wanna be a smartass about it? Huh?” Morris clenched his jaw.
“You said you wanted to use the bathroom,” Jack shrugged. He was being stupid, he knew, but it was too fun teasing Morris.
“That’s it, Kelly,” Morris paused, “or shall I say… Sullivan?”
Jack clenched his jaw at the comment. Morris raised his fist. The captive braced for impact when he heard the bell ring.
“Uh-oh, you want to be on time, right?” Jack tutted.
Morris reluctantly dropped Jack with a groan.
“We’re not done yet, Kelly.” With that, Morris stalked away to his next class. Jack simply laughed at Morris’s taunts.
He passed by students as he tugged down on his jacket sleeves down and rushed to his next class.
Mental note: return Katherine’s pen.
— — —
Jack flopped down on his bed, mentally crossing off return Katherine’s pen. During his last period, biology, he returned it to her, since they sat down next to each other.
While they exited the school, Katherine asked him what he did with the pen. Jack explained his soulmate signature, and Katherine freaked out. Jack didn’t understand why she was so happy since it wasn’t happening to her, but he appreciated her enthusiasm. (Who knows if that was sarcasm.)
He suddenly felt hot in his room. He took his jacket off and threw it somewhere across the room. It probably disappeared in the vortex in the corner of his room, along with the rest of his clothes. Jack remembered the writing on his arms. Sighing, he got up to wash the text off. It seemed that Jacob didn’t have the time to wash the sleeves of ink off, which was understandable.
He his arm underneath cold water, wincing at the temperature. He eventually got used to the feeling. However, the pen would not rub off. Jack looked at the liquid hand soap sitting on his sink, shrugging, and decided to lather it all over his arms. What’s the worse it could do? Turns out it did the trick. Thank. God.
Jack wiped all the excess water off with a hand towel. He exited the bathroom and heard a knock at his bedroom.
“Jack?” Medda called.
“Come in!” Jack yelled. Medda walked in, dressed in the same turquoise nightgown she was wearing in the morning.
“Cructhie’s here,” she told him. He furrowed his eyebrows.
“He didn’t say he was coming.” Medda only shrugged at his response, going back to fetch Jack’s friend. Seconds later, a certain blonde with a metal crutch burst through his bedroom door.
“Hey, Jack-o,” Crutchie smiled.
“What’s up with people and calling me shitty nicknames today,” Jack humorlessly laughed. “Hey, Charles.” Crutchie scowled. He always claimed his real name made him sound 50 years older. “Why are you even here?”
“I wanna pester you on your soulmate because I’ll never find me,” Crutchie shot an exaggerated, sarcastic smile.
“Don’t say that,” Jack frowned, “you’ll find someone one day.”
Crutchie rolled his eyes playfully. “Yeah, yeah. Well, enough of me. How’s your soulmate? What’s her name? His name? Their name?”
“Slow down, Crutch,” Jack laughed as he sat down in his desk. He rested his arm on the back rest. Crutchie made himself comfortable on Jack’s bed, laying down on his back with his arms behind his head. “For starters, it’s a he and his name is Jacob.”
“Did he take the news of a male soulmate well?” Crutchie genuinely asked. “Because…y'know…”
Jack knew where he was going and shook his head. He swore he heard the younger boy let out a breath of relief. “No. Y'know, he was the one who asked me if I was okay with a male soulmate.”
“Interests?”
“Haven’t gone too far into actual discussions, but he likes musicals.”
“Already a keeper,” Crutchie clicked his tongue. Jack laughed.
“The only flaw is that he uses correct grammar.”
Crutchie sat up.
“Damn, even while writing on his arm constantly? Hand crampage level a million.” he joked.
“Literally,” the older shook his head in amusement.
“Where does he live — if you know.”
“I know his time zone is PST, but that’s all I know,” Jack shrugged.
“We will try to milk the info out of him.” Crutchie maniacally smiled and rubbed his hands together, as if he was plotting someone’s murder. Although, he probably was; Jack’s dignity.
“'We’?” Jack reiterated.
“Yes,” Crutchie confirmed.
“You know what,” Jack threw his arms up, “whatever.”
— — —
The two did indeed milk information out of Jacob when they were finished with homework and Jacob was out of school.
Then, on his own accord, Jack had more conversations with Jacob the following two weeks. He liked Jacob — he seemed very easy to talk to and always had something to talk about. He was very diverse in his interests, for everything seemed to fascinate him.
Jacob’s favorite musical was Falsettos, and he was ecstatic when he found a “slime tutorial” of it on the internet. (But he made it known that he didn’t promote illegal activities!) He apparently liked being emotionally hurt, to which Jack replied “lmao same tho”.
His favorite color was teal, and his favorite season was fall. He then went into an in-depth essay on why fall was the best season. Jack’s summarization of it was: “Brown leaves are cool and make cool sounds when you step on them. Cronch. Oh, and the weather’s a plus, I suppose.” Jack even wrote down that exact summary. Jacob replied with a drawing of a middle finger…and a bath bomb.
Jacob was one of those people who enjoyed curling by the fire and reading a book — or at least imagining on doing so. He complained that it never was cold enough in Southern California (where he lived) to actually curl up next to the fireplace. On top of that he didn’t even have a fireplace.
Multiple times he complained how he wasn’t good at baking, but loved binge-watching baking shows. He was a Food Network fanatic and told Jack some of the random knowledge he remembered from watching TV.
One day, Jack brought up the topic of horror movies. Jacob said he’d be caught dead (heh) watching one. Funnily enough, he followed this with, “But catch me watching BuzzFeed Unsolved at 2 A.M. Those are sleepless nights.”
Back to the “basic questions”, Jacob’s favorite animal was a owl. For the reason, “just because”. It was a plausible reason in Jack’s book.
Jack joked about how he wanted to get Jacob’s number, so he didn’t have to keep writing on his arms. Jacob wrote, “Isn’t that against the rules of soulmatism?” Jack laughed at his soulmate’s made-up word and jokingly agreed.
Jacob suddenly brought up the fact that he was in the middle of moving and that he probably wouldn’t be able to talk much. He didn’t say where he was moving, or how long the move would take. Jack understood, but was surprised by the abruptness of the news.
After that, Jacob didn’t speak with Jack, other than a “Hi” when he woke up in the morning.
Jack didn’t think much of it, until he realized that he got used to his conversations with Jacob. He didn’t find that a bad thing, but he found himself lucky that conversations flowed easily between them and he missed his talks with him.
The hazel-eyed boy genuinely liked Jacob and wished he could talk to him in person.
— — —
Jack was still upset about the lack of communication with his soulmate and ranted about it to Crutchie. Crutchie assured him that they would be having their daily conversations again soon. Obviously, the word of Jack’s soulmate spread to the rest of the group, who decided to not push.
JoJo ran into the cafeteria, excited. Jack was confused at JoJo’s attitude, for he wasn’t sure about any exciting news that was shared today.
“I befriended another mortal today,” JoJo announced.
“You could’ve just said you talked to the new kid,” Katherine laughed.
“There’s a new kid?” Jack asked, leaning his head on his hands.
“Yeah, in creative writing classes we saw him,” Katherine explained. “He’s a junior.”
“I asked him if he wanted to sit with us, and he said yes,” JoJo grinned. He took a seat next to Henry.
“Oh no, the poor kid’s head will be spinning when he has to put up with all of your guys’ dumbassery,” Spot joked. Albert mimed choking him. Spot retaliated by standing up and smacking his hands on the table. Race tried to play peacemaker, calming both of his boyfriends down. Different voices boomed and chaos ensued across the table.
“Uh, hi?” an unfamiliar voice said. The group quieted and snapped their heads towards the direction of a voice. A pale, brown-eyed brunette boy who seemed to be taller than Jack. His face flushed at the attention he was getting.
“David!” JoJo greeted.
“Hi,” the boy — David — said. “Call me Davey.”
“That’s Albert,” JoJo pointed at the redhead.
“Hey,” Albert nodded.
“Spot,” JoJo continued.
“Hello,” Spot waved. “Sorry for them in advance.”
“Rude. That’s Race.”
“Hi,” Race smiled.
“Romeo.”
Romeo simply waved.
“Mike and Ike…”
But Jack tuned out. Davey fidgeted with his hands as his eyes nervously scanned the large friend group. He noticed that there was a glint of green in Davey’s eyes under the light, making him realize that his eyes were actually hazel. A small strand of his dark brown hair fell in front of his forehead, and he pushed it out of his sight. A small smudge of graphite was on the end of the long sleeve, presumably after he rested his arm on a paper. A small embroidered-
Wait, wait, wait, wait.
He had a soulmate. He’d practically be betraying him if he liked the new kid.
“And that’s Jack,” JoJo said, snapping him out of his thoughts.
“H-Hey,” Jack shot him a small smile. Davey’s eyes widened and his cheeks flushed a hue of a darker pink.
“Hi,” Davey said above a whisper. Jack could barely hear him.
“Where did you move from?” Romeo asked.
“California,” Davey smiled as he slid in the only empty spot — across from Jack. “Specifically, Norwalk. It’s like a city near L.A.”
Jack paused, thinking about his soulmate’s location. Odd coincidence, he supposed.
“Have you ever been to L.A.?” Finch inquired.
“Sometimes, but not often.”
Even though it felt wrong, Jack found himself sneaking glances at Davey. The way his eyes crinkled whenever he laughed at one of Race’s dumb jokes or the way he waved his hands to emphasize his points.
“What’s your next period?” Katherine asked.
“Oh…umm…” Davey dug through his backpack and pulled out a slightly crumpled piece of paper. He flattened it with his hands and examined it. “English. With Miss Hannah.”
“I can walk you,” Jack blurted. It took him a moment to figure out what he did. “I-I mean, my next class is close by my next one and, umm, I had her last year so…”
Davey seemed to be oblivious to Jack’s stuttering, but the rest of the table didn’t seem to be.
“Sounds good,” Davey responded with a small smile.
After the bell, Jack walked Davey to his class. Davey gave Jack his phone number nonchalantly, which honestly surprised Jack. With a paper slip in his hand, Jack walked to his class which was as close as he said it was, just 4 doors down.
— — —
Jacob: Hey! Sorry for not talking for the past few weeks. But I’m finally settled in my new home and today was my first day at my new school!
Jack: oh nice! where did even move btw?
Jacob: Across the country to New York.
“Okay, this cannot be a mere coincidence.”
Jack: omg! well welcome to the empire state!!
Jacob: Maybe we can meet up? LOL.
“I have a feeling we already have.”
Jack: maybee but sadly hw is being a pain in the ass rn so i gotta go
Jacob: Oh, no. Well, study hard!
Jack: :)
And the ink disappeared after “Jacob” washed his arm.
Jack was probably being dumb and had read too many romance stories, but there still had to be a chance.
— — —
It was a week later.
Jack was still suspicious of Davey being Jacob, but hasn’t asked him about it yet. He continuously texted Davey while still writing down on his arm to talk to Jacob. It all seemed too much of a coincidence to simply be one.
palette of pain(t) to diabolical david
palette of pain(t)
im like inviting katherine and crutchie over to study and wondered if u wanted to come idk
katherine said to be nice to u so this is me being nice to u
diabolical david
lmaooo
i can ask my parents if its ok
gimme a sez
*sec
palette ofpain(t)
s e z
diabolical david
SHUSH
and they said it was ok
whats ur address?
palette of pain(t)
81610 shady street
diabolical david
okok !
see u
palette of pain(t)
see ouu
the caretakers
palette of pain(t)
istg if davey asks yall abt a study group dont answer im trying to be nancy drew
plumbob
bye he literally just texted me abt a study group-
chocolate crutchie
JACK NO WHATEVER UR DOING NO
plumbob
poor davey what did he do to u 😭😭
palette of pain(t)
SHUSHHH
I HAVE MY REASONS
JUST DO AS I SAY
chocolate crutchie
okokok i wont answer
plumbob
i wont but istg jack-
u rlly r a palette of pain
palette of pain(t)
-(t)
plumbob
yeah yeah whatever
Jack clicked his phone off and stared down at his arm. He felt the need to draw something on it; it’d only make it easier.
He shrugged before uncapping Medda’s pencil eyeliner (which now was half of the size it was when she gave it to him) and started sketching whatever. I guess he was inspired by the large tree in his front yard, because he ended up drawing a rather large oak tree on his forearm. Well, at least it would be hard to cover up. He didn’t notice any part of it disappearing, so that was good (at least in his favor).
He pretended to be busy on his phone on his bed, while all he could worry about was if he was actually doing the right thing. This really just could’ve been a coincidence, and Davey couldn’t have been his soulmate after all.
But, despite his fears, it was too late now.
He heard a knocking on his door and voices talk. One of them seemed to be a confused Medda and the other was an equally confused Davey. He heard the door shut, but couldn’t see Davey outside anymore. Footsteps got closer to his bedroom door and someone knocked. Jack was about to open it when he realized his still-exposed temporary tattoo. He grabbed a random jacket off of the floor and shrugged it on. He opened the door to a perplexed Davey.
“Uh, hey,” Davey waved.
“Hi…” Jack opened the door further, welcoming the taller in his room.
Davey stepped in, examining the room. He brought his backpack, of course he did. He wore a short sleeve, and, low and behold, there was a drawing of a tree identical to the one Jack had drawn on his own arm moments earlier. Jack felt his breathing quicken at the confirmation. Davey didn’t seem bothered with covering up. After all, he had no clothing to cover it and holding his arm directly next to his side would be stiff and look odd.
He closed the door shut.
“Umm…when are Katherine and Crutchie coming?” Davey asked, setting his backpack down.
“Yeah, umm, about that…” Jack realized how shitty of an actor he was. “I-I need to…talk to you.”
“Oh?” Davey cocked his head to the side. He seemed genuinely surprised.
“Umm…can you sit on the bed?” Jack requested. Both of their faces went red. “Wait — no, sorry that sounded — that sounded wrong.”
“I-It’s fine,” the other nervously said. He sat down on Jack’s bed with his legs hanging off the edge. Jack set down next to him. Davey was avoiding eye contact, which was understandable.
How was he supposed to approach this?
“You’re arm…t-tattoo?” Jack pointed to the tree on Davey’s arm. Davey glanced down at the ink.
“Oh, yeah, about that-”
Davey never got to finish because Jack rolled up his sleeve, displaying an identical drawing.
“I-I think…umm…” Jack trailed off. Davey hesitantly nodded, raising his own arm to compare with Jack’s. “Unless you happened to draw a very similar tree on yourself…”
“No…no, I didn’t,” Davey admitted. Jack dared to look at Davey’s face. It was redder than before, and he looked genuinely surprised.
“You lied,” Jack said above a whisper.
“Y-you also lied,” Davey retorted, sweeping his hand across the bedroom.
“About your name,” he explained.
“I-I mean, heh, I don’t mean to be a smartass, but I didn’t really lie?” Davey let out a nervous chuckle. Jack gave him a pointed look. “'Jacobs’ is my last name. And, when I wrote down my 'name’, I put a small ’D’ in front of it and ’S’ in the back of it. Because the marker was like…chunky, the letters weren’t too visible. It was sorta my way of saying my name, while still keeping it hidden, because I wasn’t entirely okay with giving out my name to a someone I…haven’t met yet, y'know?”
Jack nodded, but it still hurt.
“That’s fair,” Jack said before a tide of realization hit him.
It must’ve been evident on his face, because Davey asked, “What?”
“I noticed the small letters and thought they were like blobs, but also thought they were too big too be like accidental,” Jack ranted.
“Well, they were definitely not accidental,” Davey chuckled.
A heavy silence hung between them. The two now were looking in opposite directions of each other, but Jack snuck glances in. Apparently Davey was doing the same, because Jack caught him mid-turn. Jack’s eyes flickered to Davey’s lips, which were slightly parted. Jack absentmindedly leaned it.
“C-can I?” Jack whispered.
Davey timidly nodded before leaning in as well, meeting Jack in the middle. Jack’s hand automatically moved to gently hold the back of Davey’s neck as their lips moved in perfect sync. Davey was a bit hesitant as first, but gave in. Jack’s heart went haywire, not able to believe this. It pounded rapidly, out of his chest. His stomach knotted in all the right ways, butterflies fluttering like crazy. His stomach was squeezed in all the way when they had to release for air. Davey even coughed, making Jack laugh.
“S-shut up,” Davey said in humiliation. His face was still a tomato red, and Jack was sure his was, too.
Jack gave him a chaste kiss on the lips to try to make him feel better, but Davey went back in to have a similar kiss to before. He even knocked Jack over, Jack’s back hitting the mattress below them. Davey’s arms were on either side of his head. He pulled back, giggling at the boy underneath him, and rolled over so they laid next to each other. They both took deep breaths as they looked up at the popcorn ceiling.
“Be honest with me,” Davey said, rolling onto his side to look at Jack.
“Yeah?” Jack hummed. He placed one of his hands underneath his head and the other on his stomach.
“How annoyed were you that I used correct grammar?”
Jack laughed, “Oh, a million outta ten.”
“Thought so,” Davey let out a small chuckle.
“It’s on brand for you, though.”
“Wow, you’ve known me for a week, and you’re already saying this crap?” Davey joked.
“Technically, I’ve known you for two months,” Jack shrugged. Davey didn’t answer. That was right, after all.
Davey inched himself closer to Jack. He found himself wrapping his arm around Jack’s back, pulling Jack flush against him. Their foreheads touched as they looked into each other’s eyes, breathing in sync.
It was silent. It was perfect.
But Jack had to need to break it. He placed another chaste kiss on Davey’s lips, then another one on his forehead, then on his nose. Eventually he just placed kisses on random areas on Davey’s face, causing the paler boy to giggle endlessly.
“Hey, I still got that phone number, right?” Jack joked.
Davey mockingly gasped, “You broke the rules of soulmatism.”
“And I would again for you,” Jack said honestly.
He first found out that this boy existed 2 months ago, knew what he looked like for a week, but knew he was the one for forever.
They were soulmates, after all.
And he had a small scribble that was his “temporary tattoo” to thank for helping him find his soulmate.