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The first words your soulmate says to you are imprinted somewhere on your body.
For as long as Avery could remember, the riddle had been imprinted on her wrist. Select people of the population had merely a hello, excuse me, or something small such as. Many tried to be creative with their first words to people though, wanting to be as unique as possible. And it seemed to Avery that her soulmate was just one of those people. The words on her wrist were long, elaborate, written in this neat but messy handwriting.
She was 5 when she first asked her mom about them. Though she was a curious child, she never too much questioned the words on her wrist. She remembers her mom smiling softly at her when she asked the question, bringing her into her lap as she read the words to her.
If yes is no and once is never, then how many sides does a triangle have?
“ These are the first words your soulmate will say directly to you,” her mom had told her.
“ My soulmate is weird,” she said.
“ Your soulmate isn’t weird, they're complex.” The smile on her mother’s face was truly something.
“ Was daddy your soulmate?”
A sad smile crossed her face before she shook her head, looking fondly at the words in a neat font across her thigh, “No… No he wasn’t.”
“ … Do you love your soulmate?”
“ With all my heart.”
She never asked about it again after that. Though she did talk about it a lot with Max when she was still around. Max’s was on her back shoulder blade, the handwriting gave off uncontrollable. Someone perfect for Max. More than perfect even.
Max laughed, “ Quite the lengthy sentence isn’t it”
Avery smirked at her friend, “Perhaps he said more afterwards.”
“ Maxine,” Max tasted her name on her lips smiling as she reached back to run her fingers against her soulmark, “ I have a feeling I’ll like when he says it.”
Avery pinches Max, pouting, “ You don’t like when I say it, Maxine~.”
Max shakes her head falling against her bed, whispering, “ Maxine, there’s nothing I admire more than a woman who makes liberal use of air quotes.” A blush paints her face. “Admire…”
Avery smirks, falling next to her holding out her wrist, “ The answer is two.”
Max looks over at her friend, “Google that?”
She shakes her head, popping the p in her, “nope.”
Max nods, “Our men are weird.”
“ Mom said the correct term is complex”
“ The real correct term is wordy…” there’s a smile on Max's face as she says it though. Avery turns her head to face the white ceiling of Max’s bedroom, grinning. Weird. Complex. Wordy.
_______________________________________________________________________
Nash has always told Jameson his words appeared about a year after he was born. The same year Xander was born. 2 years after Gray was born.
You’re going to fall.
The brothers used to all sit in the treehouse when they were younger, deliberating the meaning behind their words. The context. Grayson’s was frankly enough, the funniest.
“She doesn’t know who you are,” Jameson would wheeze out, cackling. Is this Grayson Hawthorne?
“ Yours is telling you you're gonna fall!” A blush coated the young blonde’s face, pointing at Jameson. There were few times they ever saw Grayson lose his composure, one of those times though, tended to be when Jameson teased him over the words circling his shin.
“ I don’t think she doesn’t know him, I think it’s more so she doesn’t recognize him.” Nash said, trying to keep some semblance of peace, but they all knew that when it came to them, that was impossible.
“ Shhh, I like where this is going,” Xander was the youngest, the most prone to trouble, and he absolutely loved chaos.
Nash shook his head, grinning as he swung his arm around Xander’s shoulder.
“ Fall for her, probably,” Jameson smirked triumphantly.
“ Or perhaps you're gonna embarrass yourself in front of her during your very first meeting by falling flat on your face,” Grayson mumbled.
.
.
.
When Xander reached high school, he took to pushing Jameson in front of every new girl they came across.
.
.
.
The thing about being the grandson of a billionaire? It’s that you always have to hide your words. Always.
____________________________________________________________________________
“I don’t understand why you put up with Drake. He’s not even your soulmate.” Avery had told Libby after Drake made a particularly hard punch to a wall.
“ My soulmate calls me darlin’ during our first meeting,” Libby tells her sister. You take care, darlin’.
“ …Maybe he’s southern?”
“ Where would I even get the funds to go down there? Why would I want to go down there?”
“ To meet your soulmate, duh. And I’ll provide the funds if it means you break up with Mr. “Will definitely be trigger happy if given the right tools”.”
Libby frowns at her, “Avery.”
“ Fine. I’ll drop it.”
.
.
.
Avery, in fact does not drop it.
____________________________________________________________________________
Emily hummed, tracing her fingers across the words on Jameson’s stomach absentmindedly. They laid together in the grass behind the estate, looking up at the stars.
“Have you met her,” Emily asked.
“ You’d know if I had,” Jameson said, smiling at the girl.
Emily grins, though the smile is somewhat tight, “ I wish we were soulmates.”
Jameson hummed, “ I wish we were too.” The skin where the words sat thrummed with heat, it was sharp, crying in protest to the words that escaped his mouth.
This time, Emily’s smile is much more cheshire, “ …I don’t have a soulmate.”
Jameson turns to Emily, “ I’ll choose you.”
“ I have no doubt.” Emily took his hand in hers, gently lifting it to her lips to kiss his knuckles, that piece of skin burned in protest as well.
Jameson never felt right about the words he said that night… He’d never say that out loud to Emily though. He wanted her to choose him. He wanted her to say those words, that she would choose him. A hunger for something that wasn’t guaranteed, something that wasn’t destined or guided by the divine, for the game they kept playing. He never had much of a chance to dwell on it, as later on Rebecca would tell him of all of Emily’s schemes and doings. Of the wedge she wanted to push between him and Grayson… Him and the brother he’s closest to… Him and his greatest competition.
And it wouldn’t be long after that… that he’d watch her die.
____________________________________________________________________________
“ And here I thought you were just itching to wait for Mr. Right.” Avery said to Max over the phone.
“ Hey, he’s not bad!”
“ Your boyfriend is shit.”
“ Don’t make me cut you off, you fish.”
Avery snorts, that’s a new one, “ Alright, alright, still though… What happened to waiting for Maxine- umm…something…something… air quotes… something…admire.”
Max laughed, “Your memory is amazing, don’t even start. Plus you switched air quotes and admire.”
She grins, “still~”
“ No boyfriend?”
“ You mean “no maidens”?”
“ Now who’s quoting Shakespeare?”
“ Shakespeare didn’t say that, that’s just a meme.” She smiles, curling into the seat of her car wrapping her coat around her tight.
“Tomato Tomato!" It was quiet for a moment. Avery could hear the faintness of her yelling something to her mom, before Max finally said, "Oh! I have to go! But, guess what, I’m trying to convince my mom to come back for the summer to visit you!”
“ Is that so?”
“ You know she loves you, just a couple more pushes, and I’m a flight away.”
“ We have all the time in the world.”
“ Perhaps, bye Ave. Take care alright”
“ I will, bye Max”
And with the end of that call Avery was alone, with only the postcards in her lap and the words of her soulmate to keep her company, she found she’d be alright.
“ 2…The answer is 2,” she’d whisper, testing the reply on her lips, waiting for the day she’d finally say those words.
____________________________________________________________________________
The death of their grandfather had hit hard, but why he felt this strange pull to this Mystery Girl his grandfather demanded be at the will reading, he couldn’t quite tell you. Of course his mind strayed to the thought of his soulmate every now and then, that she could be, but he brushed the thought away just as fast. He couldn’t face her, not… Not after the Emily situation. So, he’d pray that the girl he found vested interest in, wasn’t the girl he was connected to via. The soul. Of course, the world played its fair share of cruel tricks, and so, to keep his mind from straying to Emily, the old man, this mystery girl, his brother, or his soulmate, he found an unlikely friend, as of not so recent, at the bottom of a bottle… Or well, multiple bottles.
“ Grayson went to get her, Alissa’s frustrated.” Xander told Jameson as he tinkered with something in his hand.
“ Of course he did,” Jameson sighed, shaking his head.
Xander nodded, “ Of course he did.” He popped a scone in his mouth, “ Are you feeling any strange connection to this Avery girl?”
Jameson paused for a moment before slowly nodding.
“ Nash has been feeling it too, Grayson hasn’t felt anything, so we thought it was only us, but I guess he’s the odd one out in this case,” Xander grinned, looking at Jameson who took that moment to observe the half singed off eyebrow on his face.
Jameson smiled at that, well it seemed he’s in the clear, there’s no way all of them are sharing a soulmate, so he could guess this Mystery Girl will be important to all of them…Minus Grayson. Jameson snickered to himself at the thought, “Well Grayson has never been a feelings type person.”
“ And you’ve always been the drinking kind,” Nash came up behind him, plucking the bottle from on the table, giving Jameson a side eye.
“ Look who’s home,” Jameson grinned.
He shook his head, sitting down next to him watching Xander too.
Yeah…Jameson would say he's in the clear.
____________________________________________________________________________
Avery couldn’t quite place the strange pull she had to Grayson, and for that reason, she wanted to get this interaction over with as quickly as possible. This whole thing was making her unreasonably uncomfortable… A sense of foreboding filtered into the air, a warning, a message… She couldn’t tell you if she tried. But something made her want to get off this plane before it even took flight, as well as pray to God it got to Texas as fast as possible… And for that… She truly didn’t like the feeling. Libby was living for this free first class though, and she’s away from Drake, so she guesses this is good. Yeah… this is good. She absentmindedly scratches at her soulmark.
‘ 2’ she thinks, ‘ the answer is 2’ and suddenly, she’s calm.
____________________________________________________________________________
Somehow, despite this is her first time meeting Xander, she feels he’s Max’s. She smiles at the boy who appeared out of the coat rack, and actively claimed to be the favorite of Nan’s. Yes. There’s no doubt about it. He’s Max’s. Avery shakes her head, heading out, deciding to let nature run its course. For them to one day meet each other through their own will, on their own terms rather than terms she sets for them by telling them, or rather her. She’d only tell Max of course, not to make it awkward by telling Xander too.
She sighs softly, letting the wind blow around her. Holy hell, this isn’t even a yard… It was miles upon miles of land. Stretching out into the horizon.
“If yes is no…” the voice from above her starts, and Avery pauses, hearing the familiar start turning to the shirtless, and presumably drunk boy around her age standing on the edge of the balcony in a strange balancing act, “ and once is never” ‘2’ she thinks…’ the answer is 2’ “ then how many sides does a triangle have?” the boy finishes, looking at her. And only her. Her soulmate. The 4th brother, the only brother left.
‘ 2… The answer is 2’ — “ You’re going to fall.” She says instead, gazing up at her soulmate.
The boy paused, looking at her with wide eyes for a second. And in that second they just stared at each other.
The boy smirked, “An interesting proposition.”
She smirked in amusement, ” That wasn’t a proposition.”
And the rest… Well the rest is history.
____________________________________________________________________________
Jameson shakes his head, watching as Xander and Max talked to each other happily, getting to know one another. He wondered how it took them so long to finally talk directly to one another. Then again, the two had been pinning quietly for each other ever since they first saw each other when Max first arrived. He looked over to Avery, a small smile coming to his face as he thought, ‘my Avery, my Mystery Girl, my Heiress—’.
“Charming, Charismatic, Playboy, Wordy, Complex —,” she was listing off on her fingers as she talked with Rebecca and Thea.
“ I’m not gonna propose to you if you say “weird”,” Jameson tells her.
“ I’ll propose to you then,” she tilts her chin up at me, sticking her nose up.
“ Heiress~,” he says in a teasing warning tone.
She grins, “ weird.”
He attacked her with a pillow.
Getting to that point with her was complicated… But they got there, through every hardship. What he’d said to Emily was a lie. Because he couldn’t choose her. No… He couldn’t choose her. Not when Avery existed. He’d always choose Avery.
____________________________________________________________________________
Grayson had met his soulmate through a phone call. To say the least, he was not amused, although Jameson sure was. Because he spent forever laughing over it, before grinning over at Avery one night as they sat together in the library.
“No one’s ever beating our meeting.” he told her, smirking.
“ Eh~ I don’t know, Nash and my sister’s was so cool that he told her his words then immediately rode off on a motorcycle, and they had to wait a day or so to finally get her part of it.” Avery said.
“ I can’t imagine having that with you. I couldn’t live a day without you” Jameson huffed.
Avery smiled gently, “ 2… The answer is 2”
Jameson grinned, “If I do what I should no more often than I say what I shouldn’t, then what does that make me?”
She grinned back, leaning in, “ Drunk, Jamie. It makes you drunk.” And she kissed him.
Kissed him with the very same passion she held when she screamed at him over Emily,
You dropped me Jameson! You left me stranded on a mystery you started! That you wanted to solve with me or well mainly for yourself, but still!!! Because I just so happen to share a birthday with your ex girlfriend?! Do I mean nothing to you?! Am I not your soulmate?! Am I just some game to you that your grandfather left as some last hurrah?!
The same passion she kissed him with when he let go of a mystery for her.
You go, Heiress. This is yours. You deserve this more than anyone. This is your mystery, the part of the story your mom wanted you to find. This is for you and no one but you. Because you're not only my soulmate, but you're my love. I’m choosing you right now, over this mystery. It’s all yours. Just…Please tell me when you get back.
The same passion she kissed him with when she first woke up from the explosion.
I felt like I died. My soul… It felt like it had been ripped to shreds when it happened Avery. God, I was so scared I’d arrive and you’d be gone.
I’m right here Jamie… I’m right here. From now until forever.
The same passion she kissed him with on that rooftop when he flipped that coin.
Heads I kiss you, tails you kiss me. Either way it means something.
Heads, you kiss me.
You’re a cheater, that clearly says tails.
I’m a Hawthorne, playing to the rules isn’t my thing.
I’m not gonna kiss you.
Mhm~
“You fell,” she whispered against his lips.
He smiled, “ Extremely hard. Kinda hurt.”
“ I bet it did…”
“ I love you.”
She pressed her forehead to his, “ I love you too.”
End