Spectacular
Vida had a lot of expectations in life, both for herself and for her soulmates. In a world where everyone was born with the first words their soulmates written on their arm, she had been given two separate and distinct sets of words. Because she was one of the rare people with two soulmates, other people seemed to think she was some awesome creature with an amazing future ahead of her. Vida wasn’t so sure about that, but she trusted herself and her soulmates to be something. Even if she didn’t have real words for it.
So when Maddie was assigned to show around a new kid, Vida wasn’t looking at the boy with the buzz cut and a bath towel cape as anything more than just another victim of the systematic, soul destroying void known as high school, one who had lost his sanity in addition to his soul. In fact, she’d been planning several scathing remarks about promptness when he and Maddie showed up late afterschool.
For a moment, she was distracted by the freckle faced nerd, and all her carefully constructed comments abandoned her for, “You’re late.”
The kid raised his eyebrows, “A wizard is never late. Nor is he early. He always arrives precisely when he means to.”
“What?” Vida said, staring at him. She definitely hadn’t expected her words to come from a too-thin boy with next to no hair, sad blue-grey eyes and a towel fastened to his shirt like a cape. At the same time, Vida found herself truly hoping that this kid was who she’d been waiting for.
“Vida,” Madison said, looking suddenly nervous, “this is Chip Thorn. Chip, this is my sister Vida.”
“Hi,” Chip said. He tilted his head, “I’m sorry, did I use your words?”
“Did I use yours?” Vida countered, reaching to pull up her sleeve.
“I prefer to think of it as a promise,” Chip said, pulling up his sleeve, “now fulfilled.”
Vida raised her eyebrows, but was distracted by Chip’s arm. There was the phrase “You’re late”, and underneath it was “You’re bald”.
“Bald?” Vida said, touching the words.
Chip sighed, “Yeah, that’s- that’s not surprising.” He rubbed his head and grimaced. “I have cancer.”
“Fuck,” Vida said, taking Chip’s wrist.
“I’m not beaten yet,” Chip said firmly, “I just found you V, I’m not going anywhere.” He paused, turning slightly, “Except back home later. Hold on, that’s my uncle. He’ll understand.” Chip pulled away and headed over to an old blue truck.
“Maddie,” Vida said, turning to her sister.
Maddie was hugging her before Vida could say anything else. They clung to each other for a long moment, then Vida released her sister and stepped back. “What do I do?” Vida whispered.
Madison smiled and began rolling Vida’s sleeve back. “You get to know him, care for him, and be strong for him. You know you can do it, you’re stronger than anyone I know. Now, go meet your soulmate’s uncle and have a good time.”
It was nearly a month later that Chip came up to Vida at school with a tired but excited smile. “So,” Vida said, letting him take her hand, “how was your day?”
Chip ran his fingers over the words on Vida’s arm, “What if I told you I found him?”
“Him?” Vida said, glancing down at her wrist.
“Yeah, his name is Xander,” Chip said. “Apparently my ‘you’re bald’ complimented his ‘thank you Captain Obvious’. Now I want you to meet him.”
“He has two?” Vida asked.
“Yup,” Chip said, he tugged on Vida’s hand. “Come on, let’s go.”
Xander proved to be a tall, dark haired kid with a too smooth smirk and an Australian accent. “Xander, this is Vida,” Chip said as they approached. “Vida, this is Xander.” He looked between them expectantly.
Vida smiled at Xander, “I’d apologize for Chip, but I like him the way he is.”
Xander’s smirk bloomed into a full on grin, “The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease for ever to be able to do it.”
Vida tilted her head, “That’s a quote, isn’t it? I always thought it was too poetic to be off the cuff.”
“J.M. Barre’s Peter Pan,” Xander said, “I was in the play last semester in Australia. It’s nice to meet you.”
“Same here,” Vida said, offering her hand.
It was the start of a beautiful friendship.