Okay, so the idea behind this story is that at one point in someone's life, a light will shine from behind their ribcage when that person finds their soul mate, not necessarily when they first meet. Bear with me.

Rated M for language.

Chapter 1 – Not Sharing is Caring

Lorenzo was 16 when he found his soul mate.

His parents divorced last year, and his dad was now dating another woman. She was really nice; Lorenzo didn't have a problem with her.

He had a problem with her son, Chet.

He was unbelievably annoying, his voice, the way he ate, his rhythmic gymnastics classes, all of it drove Lorenzo mad.

When they first met, the boys tried to get along for their parents' sake, but eventually it all went to hell in a hand basket.

For some reason, their parents left them alone at Lorenzo's house for an entire day. It took five minutes before they were fighting again, because Chet was trying to get to Lorenzo's snack stash.

"I'm hungry! Just let me have one!" Chet complained, trying to push Lorenzo out of the way.

"Get your own, shit-bag!" Lorenzo retorted, trying to shove Chet off of him while blocking the pantry door at the same time.

"You get your own!"

"These are my own!"

Chet tried to reach past Lorenzo's head to get to the snacks, and Lorenzo turned his head and bit Chet's arm. Chet cried out in pain and pulled his hand back.

"No fair!" he exclaimed.

"Only if you're you!" Lorenzo mocked. "Now get off me!" He kicked Chet in the stomach, sending him to the floor.

Chet's face was livid. His features were lit from below, making him look a little extra menacing.

Wait a minute, that didn't make sense… his face couldn't be lit from below.

Lorenzo looked down at Chet's chest, and saw a light shining from behind Chet's ribcage. It was red, and flickered on and off in time with his heartbeat (assuming he had a heart). Lorenzo's eyes widened with shock, and he looked back up at Chet's face, which had the same expression. Chet's eyes were focused on Lorenzo's chest, and sure enough, when Lorenzo looked down, he saw the same light shining through his own shirt.

That meant they were…

No. It couldn't be. The very idea made Lorenzo throw up a little in his mouth.

Lorenzo looked back at Chet's face, where shock had been replaced by pure terror as he looked between his own chest and Lorenzo's. When he finally looked at Lorenzo's face, all he could say was:

"N-no."

Lorenzo didn't want it to be true either. He didn't want to face it. So he did the logical thing, grabbing his entire snack stash, running into his room, locking the door, and pigging out under the bed sheets.

When their parents came back after what seemed an eternity, and Chet had left with his mom, Lorenzo tried to convince his father to end his relationship with Chet's mom.

Of course, he said no, and Lorenzo knew that once his dad had put his mind to something, he would never give up on it. Given his dad's stubbornness, Lorenzo didn't press any further. Which meant that a proposal was inevitable. Lorenzo even helped pick out a ring (although very reluctantly). He saw the ring out the corner of his eye, a simple little gold band with a diamond in the middle, the one you always see in movies. An image came into his head of the ring on Chet's finger. He rubbed his eyes, an attempt to remove the image from his memory. He was honestly scared that his brain came up with an idea like that. It made him retch. When his dad asked him what was wrong, he said nothing. If his dad married Chet's mom, he and Chet would be stepbrothers. Which meant the image in his head would never become a reality.

Good.

Lorenzo was in his room at the moment of the proposal, when suddenly he heard:

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

That was definitely Chet. A few minutes later, he heard angry footsteps coming down the hallway, and his door was kicked open to reveal Chet, who had never been so furious before in his life.

"YOU MOTHERFUCKER! YOU KNEW ABOUT THIS!" Chet screamed.

"Well, I ain't exactly jumping for joy either." Lorenzo replied calmly.

Chet looked like he was going to either explode or break something, namely Lorenzo.

"You would have done the same." Lorenzo stated.

"DONE WHAT? WHAT WOULD I HAVE DONE?" Chet yelled.

Lorenzo walked past Chet and stuck his head out the door, looking down the hallway before closing the door and looking back at Chet.

"Chet, listen to me before you burst an artery. If they get married, what does that make us?" Lorenzo asked.

Chet thought for a minute before answering. "Stepbrothers?"

"Exactly. Which means that we can't be soul mates, right? According to other people."

"R-right."

"So, we do nothing, we say nothing, and no-one suspects a thing. Maybe if we wait long enough, we'll find other people who are also our soul mates, and if not, we only have to wait until we go to college, and then we only have to see each other on Christmas. Okay?"

Chet calmed down a bit. "I hate you." He stated.

"I hate you, too. Now get out of my room." Lorenzo replied.

End Chapter 1