Erszébet gathered her hair over her left shoulder, craning her neck and straining her eyes in order to see it. The loopy letter R was just behind her right ear, tormenting her like it did every day. She scowled at it. That stupid tattoo was the reason she'd allowed her hair to grow out from its short, choppy childhood length. All this thick, wavy hair would hide the little fucker from the world…
Including her neighbor, Roderich.
Roderich Edelstein was an aristocratic young man descended from Austrian nobility. He spoke with the same regality as his kind mother Theresa did, but didn't slur his th's into z's and his w's into v's. He had long slender fingers that Erszi knew she could snap like twigs; always covering them were pristine white gloves that he probably fuckin' bathed and slept in. He had tea in his back garden every day at two, and practiced the violin for six hours of the day.
Erszi hated him.
She always had, upon discovering how fucking perfect he was. He had the straightest posture imaginable, like he'd replaced his spine with a steel rod. He walked like he was waltzing and talked like he was a singing; he frowned like everyone he passed was beneath him. He bowed to teachers and parents, and even offered to pull out her chair for her not once, not twice, but thrice, when they were seated beside each other back in the eighth grade.
He acted like it wasn't her, under the alias of Eli, hadn't pushed him into mud puddles and whacked him with wooden swords and dangled loogies in his face as children.
And that's what was so fascinating about him.
He was really interesting, and Erszi found herself wanting to study him. He had an astounding talent for music. One day when she was younger, and the Edelstein duo had just moved in next door, she'd heard him playing something that seemed like it would be too complicated for his clumsy seven year old fingers to manage. But when she'd peeked over the shrubbery terrace separating their yards, she'd found him with his back turned to the music stand, playing with his eyes closed.
How the fuck did a seven year old memorize Vivaldi's Winter… but wind up all the way across town when school ended?
As amazing as he was, she'd overestimated him. Yes, Roderich might have had a brilliant memory for music, but he appeared to have dedicated all those electrons in his brain to those dusty old pieces instead of the directions to his own fucking house. It was pathetic, and it still was, even ten years later, and she even pitied him a little.
Which was part of the reason why she always accepted Ms. Edelstein's plea to walk home with her foolish son every day.
Erszébet tilted her head and looked at the tattoo again. The R remained, printed in deep indigo just behind the shell of her ear, peeking out from behind the curve of a loose curl of hair. She sighed, shoulders sagging as the breath whooshed out of her.
It made her heart ache a little, to wonder who his soulmate was. But, wallowing in self pity wasn't something she did, no matter what happened. She'd heard of the tattoos changing. Maybe someday hers would shift, change, be rewritten from a deep indigo R. But Fate would have to see that it was mistaken, before it changed its mind; you know how stubborn and sadistic the universe could be.
A distant knock jerked her out of her thoughts. She looked at the analog clock ticking from its place on the wall. Who would knock at six in the evening?
She slipped off the bed and made her way downstairs, lightly descending the steps in case her visitor was unwanted and unfamiliar. Erszi peeked into the stained glass window panes on either side of the door, finding no car in the driveway. A quick look into the peephole revealed her visitor to be no one else but the very boy she'd just been thinking about.
"Speak of the devil," she muttered, going to unlock the door as Roderich knocked a third time.
Erszi slid the locks out of place and opened the door, stepping in front of the open space. "What do you want?" she asked, wincing at how accusatory she'd sounded.
Roderich didn't look fazed. "My mother sent me over," he said, raising a hand and waving over to his house. "Since your grandfather is out of town, she thinks you're pitiful and lonely without any company."
Erszi scoffed. "And she claims to know me at all?"
"Yes," Rod said, declining his head and agreeing to her scorn. He raised a hand up to his collar and adjusted the silk tie her wore. Erszi's eyes followed the movement of his hand. He wasn't wearing the gloves, and a glimpse of something printed on his ring finger, dark and bold against his fair skin, caught her eye, but he dropped his hand too quickly to make out what letter it was.
So that was why he wore gloves all the time. He didn't want anyone to know about his soulmate.
She leaned against the door frame, absently tucking hair behind her ear. Her fingertips brushed the indigo R printed there, and she swallowed. "Since it'd be rude to refuse," she began, straightening up again. She gave her head a subtle tilt, causing the hair she'd brushed away to fall over her ear again. "I'll come. But make sure to tell your mom that I am NOT pitiful."
Roderich smiled, reaching up to adjust his collar once again. Her eyes darted to them, and this time, she caught the letter. "I'll definitely do that," he said.
Erszébet nodded, swallowing her heart in her throat. "Let me run upstairs and put on something nicer," she said, gesturing down to the jean shorts she wore, almost hidden beneath the hem of her forest green sweatshirt. "And then I'll be right over."
Roderich bowed his head. "I'll be waiting here to escort you."
With a nod, she closed the door and turned, bolting back upstairs and into her room. Spotting the dark red skirt and the white blouse from school yesterday, she stripped off her house wear and threw the nicer clothes on. Slipping on a pair of black flats, she ran a brush through her hair and rushed back downstairs.
Just before she approached the door, Erszébet paused in front of the mirror hanging in the foyer. She tilted her head and gathered her hair over her left shoulder, craning her neck and straining her eyes.
The familiar R made a warm smile flicker onto her face, and the blockish green E that Roderich bore on his left hand ring finger made her heart soar.
Because her name began with an E, and her eyes were that same green.
She was his soulmate like he was hers.