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The concept of soulmates was something that everyone knew about, most people accepted, but very few truly believed in. The majority felt the soul marks one received when their soulmate touched them for the first time – the shape of the imprint their touch would leave on their soulmate’s skin – were merely a guide, and not something set in stone. Others felt that you could have more than one soulmate, and you shouldn’t let your first mark define you.
Not Gina Porter though. She truly, wholeheartedly felt that whoever touched her and gave her a soul mark for the first time would be her person for the rest of her life. It was why she was so sparing with who she touched skin to skin. Gina often wore gloves, and long-sleeved clothes, if only so she could orchestrate the perfect moment to discover her soulmate.
She was a hopeless romantic at heart, and she wanted her soulmate reveal to be perfect.
Which was why it was so unusual for her to not be in her usual get up that afternoon. She was in gym, hence the lack of gloves. It had also been the hottest week of the year so far, and even though Gina had sucked it up and worn long sleeved clothing for the days prior, she really didn’t feel she could handle another sweat fest that day, and so she took a chance and came in shorts and a t-shirt.
She felt a little self-conscious, but she didn’t really think anyone noticed except her.
Shocked out of her thoughts by the slamming open of the double doors leading into the gym, Gina whipped her head around to see Ricky Bowen stumble in late – as he usually was.
The gym teacher, looking unimpressed and unsurprised, commented, “Ricky, you are late.”
“I have to keep up tradition,” Ricky grinned lazily, entirely unbothered.
The teacher merely sighed, and glanced around the room, “We’re practicing our soccer passes. You can pair with Gina. She doesn’t have a partner.”
Gina inwardly groaned. Safe to say, Ricky Bowen was probably Gina’s least favorite person in the school, bar that one prick who mocked her for her wholehearted belief in the soulmate system. He was unserious about everything he put his mind to, he stumbled into her theatre program sometime last year and wouldn’t leave, and worst of all is that he was really good at it, and he didn’t even seem to realize. He was exactly the opposite of herself, and he irritated her to no end.
“Gina Porter,” the lazy grin widened when he saw her and made his way over, “My favorite person in the world.”
“Flattery will get you nowhere,” Gina rolled her eyes, rearing her foot back and kicking the ball as hard as she could muster.
Not being particularly athletic, Ricky stumbled a little trying to catch the ball with his own Converse clad foot, before kicking it back more cordially, “Whoa, someone would think you had a grudge against me, Gina.”
“Have you memorized your lines for The Greatest Showman yet, Ricky?” Gina shot back, not in the mood for his jokes.
“I’m getting there,” Ricky’s voice became pitched, a tell-tale sign of him lying, Gina had come to realize. His stupid doe brown eyes glimmered as he grinned sheepishly in her direction, and she narrowed her own eyes in response.
“Meaning you don’t even know the characters’ names yet.”
“I know my character’s name is Phillip.”
“Congratulations, you know which role you’re playing.”
“I know you play Anne.”
“Congratulations, you know the role you have the most interactions with.”
“Wow, I can really see the spark between us Miss Jenn must have noticed during our chemistry read.”
“I will never understand that woman’s casting choices,” Gina rolled her eyes, their back-and-forth quipping imitating the passing of the ball between them.
Ricky laughed at the comment, his eyes crinkling slightly as he looked at her, and Gina willed her stomach to stop that lurching it sometimes partook in whenever Ricky would smile her way. This was the most annoying boy she knew – she would not let her body betray her into thinking otherwise.
Then suddenly, in a slowed down reality where Gina couldn’t move quick but saw everything in painful clarity, a stray football flew into the air and came barreling straight toward Ricky. Gina really tried to warn him, but everything happened so fast that the ball had already smacked straight into his face before she could get a sound out.
Knocked backwards by the impact, Ricky fell to the floor with a muffled, “Oof!”
“Oh, my God,” Gina whispered, before her body caught up with her thoughts and she gasped, sprinting forward, “Oh, my God! Ricky, are you okay?”
She slid onto her knees beside Ricky, who was groaning in pain on the floor, his eyebrow split and bleeding down into his eye. Without thinking much and noticing that Ricky was struggling enough trying to balance his weight on his elbows as he lifted himself up, Gina reached forward to brush the blood from his eye, his lashes tickling against the pad of her thumb.
“Are you okay?” Gina repeated, her hand brushing past his cheekbone to cup his jaw, lifting his gaze to see if it was unfocussed and if the cut along his brow bone needed to be checked out by the nurse.
“Gina?” Ricky mumbled, slightly dazed, but eyes ultimately clear.
He would be okay.
“Ouch,” Ricky let out another pained groan, now sitting up properly.
Gina had yet to shift away, still slightly concerned for him, and only realized she was still holding his face when his own hand gently wrapped around her wrist for balance. She jolted at his touch, remembering suddenly that her skin was exposed, and they were making direct skin to skin contact, and this wasn’t meticulously planned out the way Gina wanted her first touches with people to be, and Ricky of all people was the last person she would even initiate touch with in the first place.
She ripped her hand away from his face, feeling burned, but their touch stayed locked with Ricky’s subconscious grip on her wrist.
“Can you let go?” Gina asked, tone urgent, but knowing there was nothing really to be done now. They had touched. That was all. That didn’t make them soulmates. All they had done was touch each other.
Ricky, finally coming to, glanced down at his grip on her wrist, as if confused about how it even happened, before slowly letting go, mumbling, “I think I need the nurse.”
Finally, after what seemed like far too long, their gym teacher made their way over and gave Ricky a hall pass to make his way over to the nurse. Gina was barely paying attention at that point, gingerly holding her wrist, and cursing the weather that had caused her to dress so carelessly.
But she had to keep reminding herself; Ricky was not her soulmate. It didn’t matter if he touched her.
It didn’t matter.
*
Gina woke the next morning to her alarm blaring at her to get up, and she groggily reached over to her nightstand to turn it off. She lay still for a few moments, feeling a weird fizzling sensation in her body that she’d never experienced before. She chalked it up to spending too many hours the night before thinking about all her soulmate possibilities, as she often did.
Eventually, when the sensation settled down, she rose from her bed to make her way to the bathroom. Feeling bleary-eyed and exhausted, she made her way to the sink to splash some water onto her face, hoping the shock of the chilly water would waken her up a little. Once her eyes felt a little less heavy, she reached over to the towel beside the sink and patted her face dry, finally properly opening her eyes and looking down at the towel to see if she had remembered to wash her makeup off the night before.
What she instead saw gave her the shock of her life.
Around her wrist, slightly deeper than her skin tone and seemingly glowing in that lit from within way, was a mark that looked much like a birth mark.
Oh?
The only issue was – she’d never had a birthmark there before. Certainly not one that imitated a hand wrapped her wrist, certainly not a mark in the exact same spot Ricky Bowen had touched her bare skin just yesterday.
No, this wasn’t a birthmark. This was a soul mark.
Gina’s thoughts swirled chaotically in her mind, a million different possibilities coming to her and all leading to the same simple conclusion: Ricky Bowen was her soulmate.
Gina rushed to her toilet and threw up what little contents were living in her empty stomach.
*
Marching down the halls of the school, Gina searched frantically from locker to locker to try and locate Ricky Bowen, who up until this moment she had never bothered keeping tabs on before. She tried not to look too manic doing so, already aware of the strange looks being shot her way at her full sweater and track pant ensemble, despite that day being hotter than the last. God, was she sweating.
Eventually, she spotted a curly head of hair with his face stuck in his locker, looking almost more out of place that she did. He was sporting a chunky scarf that covered half of his face, even though he also wore cargo shorts and a t-shirt. Not questioning his odd fashion choices – who was she to judge after all? – Gina pounced onto him, gripping his sleeve, and pulling him into the nearest empty classroom.
Ricky yelped in protest, spinning around to see who had grabbed him, before stopping short at the sight of her. His eyes blew wide when he realized who had grabbed him, and his mouth gaped for a second before he seemed to find his voice, “Gina…”
“What did you do?” Gina spat out, lunging straight into the accusations.
There was no way that Ricky Bowen was her soulmate. Gina had convinced herself all morning that this must be some sort of practical joke. Maybe he had put semi-permanent ink on his hand, and it only showed up when she wet it. Or perhaps it was some sort of trick of the light. Either way, she was going to get an explanation and she was going to get it now.
“What are you talking about?” Ricky shook his head, his chin lost beneath his huge scarf.
Gina had to give him credit – maybe he was a better actor than she accounted for, because he genuinely looked confused by her question. But she was too infuriated to care, as she aggressively pulled up her sleeve and showed Ricky his work, “I’m talking about this! How did you do this?”
If it was at all possible, Ricky’s eyes widened further, the whites of them practically bulging from their sockets. A short gasp emitted from his lips, his fingers shooting up to trace along the line of her mark. Goosebumps erupted along her skin at his touch, and that same fizzling feeling she felt that morning built inside of her, her heart thumping in her chest. She wrenched her arm away from him, trying her best to keep up her energy.
“Answer the question!”
“I-I didn’t do anything.”
“Yeah, right! Then, how do I have this mark? Are you suggesting we’re soulmates?”
Ricky’s head shook once more, that startled look on his face starting to grow on her nerves, especially with that ridiculous scarf wrapped around his neck. In a fit of madness, Gina leaned forward to yank it away from his face, “Oh, would you take that off–”
What she saw shocked her, struck her frozen, unable to move or breathe or speak. Ricky Bowen stared back at her, the same glittery brown eyes she was used to, only there was something very different about him. The difference was, and Gina blinked hard three or four times to ensure she wasn’t hallucinating it, there was a mark on his face. Along his jaw, where Gina had cupped his face, was a handprint, and she was just now noticing the discolored print below his brow as well – the same place she had wiped his blood away.
Her hand moved before she could really think about what she was doing, reaching upwards and sliding over his jaw, cupping over where her hand had marked him, seeing how it was the perfect fit. Ricky’s lashes fluttered at her touch, his breath leaving him in stuttered puffs of air, licking his lips and staying perfectly still, as if any movement would send her running – and maybe it would’ve.
Finally snapping out of her daze, Gina pulled her hand away and took a step back, shaking her head at her discovery.
“This is all wrong. This isn’t how it was supposed to go.”
“What do you mean?” Ricky whispered.
“I-I was supposed to meet my soulmate somewhere romantic!” she felt her voice rising, as if yelling would help the situation, “We were supposed to bump into each other at a flower shop, or meet in at dance tournament, or something. It wasn’t supposed to be you!”
“Well, sorry to disappoint,” Ricky finally seemed to gain his senses, and he reared back, a defensive tone coloring his words, “You weren’t exactly who I was expecting either.”
“This is a nightmare.”
Ricky had the audacity to look stricken by her words, and if she wasn’t feeling so frantic, she might’ve merited some weight to the feeling of guilt creeping its way through her at her harsh words.
Ricky scoffed, breaking eye contact with her, “It’s not that bad. You don’t even know me.”
“I know you well enough.”
“And I thought the soul marks meant something to you,” Ricky shot back, clenching the backpack strap over his shoulder, “Find me when you’re ready to have a mature conversation about this.”
Ricky stalked out of the classroom, but not before securely wrapping the scarf around his neck again. Gina felt a twinge of hurt pierce through her at the sight of the soul mark covered up again and decided not to think too hard about it.
She had every right to be upset.
*
In the end, she knew something was severely wrong when she had been guilt baking the entire weekend, her pantry now stuffed to the brim with sweet treats. She could admit to herself with hindsight that maybe she was a little harsh on Ricky, that he genuinely seemed just as shocked as she had been, and that maybe he was right about needing to have a mature conversation about this.
She still wasn’t totally convinced that Ricky was her soulmate, but the least she could do was apologize to him for her behavior.
So, with a Tupperware container filled with chocolate chip cookies in hand, Gina made her way to their early morning rehearsal with the intention of talking to Ricky. She spotted him in the corner on his phone, nodding along to something his friend Jet was talking about, still sporting that chunky scarf that covered his face. She wondered if he had told anyone. She didn’t know why the thought of him keeping it a secret it hurt her so much when she was doing the exact same thing.
Taking a deep breath to give her the courage she needed, she slowly made her way over to the pair of boys.
“Ricky,” she called out, and immediately felt self-conscious when his eyes shot up to meet hers, a reserved look behind them like he was cautious of her presence, “I made cookies. For you.”
She noticed Jet’s brows furrow in confusion, and she didn’t blame him. Gina’s animosity towards Ricky during rehearsal was notorious, and their back-and-forth bickering was something Miss Jenn added to her list of activities that impaired the thespians’ ability to properly absorb creative direction. Whatever that meant.
Ricky eventually spoke, reaching forward to gingerly grab the container from her hands, looking down at it with a confused look, “Thanks?”
“I wanted to talk to you,” Gina shifted on her feet, feeling immensely uncomfortable, but knowing if she didn’t do this now, she never would, “Before rehearsal starts. Could we go out to the hallway?”
Ricky looked over to Jet, wide eyed and unsure, and Jet only shrugged back at him, clearly not understanding what was happening. They seemed to have some nonverbal conversation that Gina couldn’t make sense of, if the twitching brows and expressive eyes were any indication, before Ricky eventually said, “Okay. But only if you promise not to yell at me again.”
Jet’s eyebrows flew up his forehead, a questioning look being thrown at Ricky, but Gina answered before she had to explain herself to the guy, “I promise I won’t. Please, it’s important.”
“Okay,” Ricky nodded, fidgeting with the container in his hands.
When neither of them moved for a while, Ricky decided to take the lead and started a brisk walk toward the hallway, Gina following close behind. They stopped when they reached an area of lockers that was relatively isolated from any early morning clubs, and Ricky looked at her with an expectant expression. Gina took a breath – this was her cue.
“I wanted to apologize for the other day,” Gina said, the words coming out quick and nervous, “You were right, I was being extremely immature. Clearly, we both don’t understand what is happening, and it’s not your fault that this happened. I think we just need to talk this through, and I’m sure we’ll come up with a reasonable explanation.”
Ricky breathed out a chuckle, raising one of his hands to rub his eye, running over the smudge of a soul mark under his brow.
“Wow. Okay, well thanks for apologizing. I never thought I’d see the day when Gina Porter apologized to me for anything,” Ricky spoke, and Gina had to fight the urge to protest his comment, “But, Gina, I really don’t think there’s much to discuss. I gave you my soul mark, and you gave me yours. What other explanation is there except that we’re soulmates?”
Hearing it spoken so matter-of-factly took the wind from Gina’s lungs, and she hated how easily Ricky had come to accept it. But, wanting to keep the small peace between them that they’d found, Gina breathed in deeply, closed her eyes and said, “You don’t know that. There could’ve been a mistake.”
“There’s no mistake,” Ricky shook his head, stepping toward her and gently grabbing her arm. He pushed her sleeve up and wrapped his hand around his soul mark, proving its perfect match, causing her heart to stutter at his touch, sparks tingling where his fingers brushed against her veins. He whispered, “It fits perfectly.”
Gina swallowed thickly, never having ever experienced Ricky acting so tenderly towards her and finding it immensely strange. She fought hard to ignore the haziness her mind was exhibiting at his proximity as she responded, “So, what do you suggest we do then?”
“What do you mean?”
“What’s our plan?” Gina leaned forward to catch his gaze, using her free hand to grip his own, hoping her squeezing wasn’t too painful, “What do we do with this information?”
Ricky let out a breathy laugh, his eyes dropping to look at the point of contact between them, “Who says we have to do anything?”
“Well, if we’re…” Gina breathed with the effort of saying the next statement, “If we’re soulmates, what does that mean for us?”
“Whatever you want it to mean,” Ricky shrugged, and Gina was growing annoyed by how lightly he was taking the whole situation, “Gina, this can go one of two ways. Either we can ignore this entirely, and pretend we never found out about this. Knowing you though, soulmates are too important for you to just let go of.”
“They are important,” Gina muttered, always quick to get defensive about her belief in them.
“I agree,” Ricky softly responded, his hand holding her soul mark sliding up to rest over her elbow, leaving a trail of goosebumps in its wake, “So the second option is that we get to know each other. Clearly the universe knows something about us that we don’t. Shouldn’t we trust it?”
Gina furrowed her brows, surprised by how logical and thoughtful Ricky was being about the whole situation. Gina viewed herself as someone who was rational, but this situation was bringing out her emotional side, and she felt slightly grateful to have a partner in this who could talk her down and help her see her path. So, Gina nodded slowly, “I-I think you’re right. So, what? We just hang out with each other? What do you even like to do? Because I am not going to a skatepark.”
Ricky barked out a laugh, finally dropping her elbow, and Gina admitted that she felt a sense of loss at it, “I would never take East High's theatre princess to the skatepark. I have a rep to uphold. What about we just get coffee after school?”
“I don’t drink coffee.”
“Well, look at that. We’re already learning things about each other.”
Gina rolled her eyes, but couldn’t help the small smile that make its way to her face, “We could get bubble tea instead?”
“Sounds good.”
*
Tapping her fingers rapidly on the tabletop, Gina waited for Ricky to come back with the napkins she requested. She honestly only asked for them to give her time to gather her thoughts, because she could barely comprehend the situation she had found herself in.
One week ago, if someone would have told her she would be sitting in a boba shop on what was practically a date with Ricky Bowen, Gina would’ve laughed in their face and probably sent them to the closest psych ward she could find. But here she was.
All too soon, Ricky came back with a fistful of napkins, looking just as awkward as she felt. He dropped them onto the table, and sat back in his seat across from her, clearing his throat and tugging on the collar of his t-shirt – the godawful scarf still wrapped firmly around his neck.
“I wasn’t sure how many you wanted.”
“This is enough,” Gina responded, poking at the huge pile. Then, trying to remember to be civil, she added, “Thanks.”
Ricky nodded in response, tugging, and pulling at the scarf, and Gina felt uncomfortable just looking at him, so she blurted, “You can take it off. We don’t know anyone here, so you don’t have to hide the mark. If you don’t want.”
“Oh,” Ricky’s eyes widened, his fidgeting hands stilling, “Right. Yeah, okay.”
They both looked at each other for a beat, before Ricky seemed to register what she suggested, and he unraveled the scarf from his neck, stuffing it into the backpack he had by his feet. Gina was unprepared to see the mark again, despite it being her suggestion, and she felt a small gasp emit from between her lips.
She had to admit – it was pretty. There was something so magical about seeing her handprint etched onto Ricky’s skin – the mark of her thumb just millimeters away from the curve of his bottom lip, enticing her to reach out and trace it like she had the first time she saw it. Instead, she cleared her throat and said, “Does that feel better?”
Ricky nodded, smiling gratefully, “Much better. I can breathe in this oppressive heat now. I don’t know how you’re wearing a sweater right now.”
Gina shrugged, “I’m used to it.”
“Right, this is your usual get up, isn’t it?” Ricky asked, and Gina nodded in acknowledgement, “Why do you wear this all the time? Aren’t you stifling?”
“Well, before it was a protection against accidental touching,” Gina swirled her straw around in her drink, watching the boba balls shift around, feeling a little silly at her explanation, “I wanted the discovery of my soulmate to be perfect. I guess that doesn’t really matter anymore. But it’s just what I’m used to now.”
Ricky sat in silence for a little bit, considering what she had said. Then, “Maybe the discovery isn’t the important part. Maybe it’s the falling part. You get to fall while being sure that this is the person you’re meant to fall for. A guarantee.”
Gina rose her eyes to make contact with his and saw the genuineness behind his gaze. She felt her mouth grow dry at his intense expression, and to break the silence she joked, “What makes you so sure I’ll fall for you?”
“Besides my effortless charm?” Ricky threw a napkin at Gina when she scoffed at that comment, “I think we have more in common that you give us credit for.”
“Name one thing we have in common.”
“We’re both theatre kids for one.”
“You mean you stumbled into the theatre program.”
“I’m still there, though.”
“Okay, what’s one other thing?”
Ricky paused for a moment, and Gina was about to bask in her victory, when he said thoughtfully, “We both fight for what we want.”
Gina was stumped at that one, “What do you mean?”
“Well, like you for example, are so determined and work so hard for what you want. You got a lead role this year because of it, and I don’t think many people realize that it’s not effortless for you, even though you make it seem like it is,” Ricky leaned forward in his explanation, growing intense, and Gina was honestly shocked that he had read her so well into her when they had barely ever interacted, “And, me for instance, people always see me as some no good skater rat who doesn’t put in any effort into anything, and sometimes that’s true, but I think people miss how much I really care about things. I just screw up a lot, but I always try to get back up.”
“I don’t think you’re a screw up,” Gina shook her head, moved by his insightfulness, and it was Ricky’s turn to look shocked, “I see how much you care about the play. Even though it takes you forever to memorize a script, and you’re horrendously late to everything, you bring emotion and nuance to your characters that you don’t see in many actors. You take the time to think about how their experiences would impact their actions. It shows.”
Ricky sat back in his seat, an impressed look set upon his features, “Wow, Gi, I didn’t think you spent so much time thinking about me.”
“The same could be said about you,” Gina shot back, and she felt her heart flutter at his comfortably around her, how quickly it seemed to grow between them, how easily the nickname Gi slipped from his mouth without him ever having used it before.
A goofy smile lit up his features, and he leaned forward again, “See, this getting to know each other thing isn’t so hard.”
“If you say so,” Gina replied, but she felt her own smile teasing at the corners of her mouth, her gaze flicking to his soul mark on his face, warming her stomach every time she looked at it.
“We just need to do some rapid-fire questions to break the ice for good.”
“Oh, God.”
“What’s your favorite color?”
Gina laughed, then tapped her headphones around her neck, “Pink. Yours?”
“Blue! See, this just further proves that we’re soulmates.”
Gina shook her head at his ridiculousness, but in truth she was starting to understand the Ricky Bowen appeal. Sure, he was still a little annoying, but he was annoying in that endearing way a puppy was. And he was more thoughtful and eloquent than Gina had ever realized before, more observant than she gave him credit for. He could hold a decent conversation.
As she listened to him babble on, and answered all his mundane but amusing questions, Gina thought to herself that maybe she should give the universe a chance. Maybe it was telling her something, and maybe she just had to listen.
*
Something was off about Ricky during rehearsal that afternoon, and Gina didn’t know how she could tell, but she just could. Maybe it was the lack of eye contact when in the last few weeks since they had their connection he would usually lean forward to meet her gaze, or maybe it was the fact that he was forgetting lines he was delivering perfectly just a few days earlier, but Gina could sense something was wrong and for some reason she had this niggling urge to do something about it.
So, when Miss Jenn called for a long five, she immediately rounded Ricky into a corner and asked, “What’s the matter?”
She didn’t know why she expected Ricky to put up a fight, especially when he’d been so open and honest with her up until this point, but she was still surprised when he grabbed her wrist – the one with his soul mark, her skin buzzing at the pressure of his fingers pressing into it – and pulled her out into the hallway, “How could you tell something was wrong?”
“You just seem off,” Gina tilted her head, and she felt this strange urge to cup his face, to brush the stray curls off his forehead. She didn’t follow her urges.
“See, you already know me so well,” Ricky grinned, but it felt dull in comparison to his usual playfulness.
“Ricky, you can tell me.”
Ricky sighed and let his gaze wonder over her head to stare at some undetermined spot behind her, “My dad found out about my soul mark.”
“Oh,” Gina responded, “Is that a bad thing?”
“It’s complicated,” Ricky played with the sleeve of her sweater, and Gina found that she didn’t hate the constant contact. He continued with his explanation, “My parents met when they were young. They weren’t soulmates, but they loved each other, and my mom had me before she could go to college. I think she always kind of resented my dad and probably me too for that.”
Gina opened her mouth to protest, but Ricky held up his free hand to stop her, “It’s true, I know it is. She met her soulmate last year and left us both. Dad kind of hates soulmates now.”
“Ricky, that’s terrible, I can’t believe your mom did that to you,” Gina shook her head, trying to process what it is she just learnt, “How did your dad react when he saw the soul mark then?”
“It was weird,” Ricky shook his head, his hand moving to scratch over his scarf where her soul mark would be, “He saw it when I was coming out of the shower. He saw it and he just stared at it for the longest time. I didn’t even breathe the whole time. Then, he just turned around and went into his room without saying a word.”
“And how does that make you feel?”
“I don’t know,” Ricky’s scratching grew more vigorous, so Gina moved her hand to still it, gently pulling it away from his face and interlocking their fingers to give him something to latch on to. She would be his anchor if it meant she could pull him back to shore. “I’ve always believed in soulmates – it’s why I’m not even mad at my mom. I hate her for leaving us, but I don’t even blame her. I don’t think that meeting your soulmate means you have no accountability, but meeting your soulmate is also super rare and I think I would’ve done the same thing as her. Does that make me a horrible person?”
“No,” Gina brushed her thumb along his hand, and she felt him shudder beneath it, his eyes finally locking with hers again, wide and wobbling as he drank her in. She held back a blush as she said, “I actually think I get it.”
“Really?” he whispered, and he tugged her a little closer, seemingly unconsciously, wanting to drink in every word she spoke.
She didn’t know why it suddenly felt so charged between them, but she swallowed and spoke, “My mom never found her soulmate, so she threw herself into her work and barely made time for anything else – not even me. I think it’s the reason I’m so invested in soulmates, because I don’t want it to be a burden on me the way it was for my mom, something that sucked all the life and joy out of her. I want it to lift me up, to bring me to life. So, if I’m being honest, I would probably run away with my soulmate too.”
Ricky smiled, and it was soft and warm and something she’d never seen from him before.
“Do you think this is a sign for us to run away together?”
Gina pursed her lips together, feigning thinking about it, before saying, “I think we should graduate high school first.”
“Almost had you,” Ricky joked.
“You already do have me,” Gina replied, the same joking tone, before she froze at her words.
Ricky had frozen too, maybe unsure what to make of her sudden attitude change toward their relationship, and Gina felt a burning sensation sizzle up to her cheeks. What was happening? Since when did Ricky Bowen make her flustered? Since when did she feel that Ricky had her? What did that even mean?
She was starting to feel this bond form between them, like a string that tugged at her heart and was trying to pull her closer and closer to him. Her soul mark was throbbing with the tip of a realization surfacing, one she didn’t fully understand yet, one that was only strengthening the more she learnt about Ricky.
Ricky took her frozen moment as an opportunity to lift his hand not interlocked with hers from her wrist and use his thumb to smooth the crease between her eyebrows. Gina hadn’t said anything, but Ricky still whispered, “I feel it too.”
*
Gina discovered what the realization that was itching to uncover itself was when the weather was chillier, and it was becoming more socially acceptable to wear sweaters. They were a week away from their opening night of The Greatest Showman, and somehow there hadn’t been any disaster to account for – not yet anyway.
Pink headphones on, listening to the outro of Come Alive to practice her runs during the song, Gina looked up just as Ricky walked in late to the rehearsal room. She always seemed to be able to sense when Ricky was coming into a room these days, like the universe was letting her know that she could breathe again, that she was complete again.
What she saw shocked her, not for the first time when it came to Ricky Bowen.
Gina couldn’t even remember the last time she saw Ricky without that awful lumpy scarf he’d been wearing to obscure her soul mark. But there he was, walking into the theatre late, all eyes on him, with the mark on full display for everyone to see.
His face immediately brightened when he spotted her and he dashed over to her, Gina just barely taking her headphones off in time to hear him say, “Gi, hey!”
Gina could hear the whispers, and she started to sink into her seat.
Is that a soul mark on Ricky’s face?
Is that why he’s been wearing that scarf around?
Now I get why Gina and Ricky are suddenly best friends – they must have found out they were soulmates!
“Gina, what’s wrong?” Ricky waved his hand in front of her face, trying to get her attention.
In an aggressive whisper, Gina said, “Ricky, what happened to your scarf?”
Ricky blinked a couple of times, unsure what she was referring to at first, before his eyes widened and his hand shot to his neck, “Oh no, I totally forgot! I was running so late this morning…”
“You’re always running late!”
“Gina, oh my, God, I’m so sorry.”
And to his credit, he did look genuinely sorry. Gina glanced around the room and saw people staring at them. She thought she’d feel bile rise up to her throat or a barrage of embarrassment at their stares, but instead, as if a wave of courage washed over her, she just decided that she didn’t care. Ricky was her soulmate. She had been waiting for her soulmate her entire life – why was she ashamed of that now?
So, in an obnoxiously loud voice, Gina spoke to the room, “What are you all looking at? You’re acting like you’ve never seen a pair of soulmates before.”
The room erupted at that, some people turning to whisper amongst their friend groups, some shouts of congratulations, other shouts of despair at either party not being their soulmate instead. Gina giggled behind her hand, unsure what had come over her, but feeling even more confident for it. She glanced over at Ricky and saw him gawking at her with a surprised expression.
“What was that all about?”
Grabbing the front of his t-shirt, Gina pulled him out into the hallway, which was chalking up to be a tradition of theirs, “Come with me.”
Ricky let himself be pulled, running a hand through his hair, and asking, “Are you okay with everyone knowing like that?”
“Yes,” Gina swiveled around to face him, “I am just now realizing that I’ve been acting so stupid. All my life I’ve been waiting for my soulmate, so why am I hiding you away when you’re right here?”
“Does this mean…” Ricky breathed out a shaky breath, his head shaking, trying to keep up with her, “Does this mean you think I’m your soulmate?”
“Of course, you’re my soulmate!” Gina exclaimed, feeling so silly that she was so resistant to the idea before, “We are so similar, yet so opposite, and yet you understand me in a way no one ever has before, and just look!”
To prove her point to both him and her, she reached her hand up to cover her soul mark on his face again, loving how it slot into place, how Ricky melted into her touch immediately, how he looked at her with such admiration, those big brown eyes sparkling and captivated by her.
“We fit so well together,” Gina finished her tirade, ready to accept her fate for what it was: Ricky Bowen.
“We do,” Ricky agreed, his own hand coming up to brush against his soul mark on her wrist, pulling his face away from her touch just long enough to press a lingering kiss onto her mark, over her veins, where her heart skipped at the featherlight touch.
It all hit her at once, the realization, the rush of emotion, like waters breaking free from a dam.
Oh.
Everything about Ricky Bowen, from the way he saw who she was truly about, to the way he understood her feelings about her mom, to way that he made her feel warm and safe and happy, was proof enough that they were meant to be. Intellectually, she always knew they were soulmates. But, deep down in her soul she now knew it was real, and she felt his soul mark on her wrist throb under his lips at the thought of it.
“Ricky,” she whispered, and when he lifted his gaze, and she took his face in both her hands and kissed him, and she felt her stomach explode in exhilaration. Lava rushed through her veins as he immediately pushed his own lips into hers, surging forward to wrap her into his arms and crush her as close as humanly possible into him.
Everything about it felt good and right and perfect, their bodies seeming to slot effortlessly into each other’s embrace, and the only thought swirling in Gina’s brain was:
Oh. This is what being in love feels like.
Oh.