Chloe's drive home was full of anxiety and silence. She rolled the windows down so she couldn't think over the roar of wind and imagine what her dad was going to say—no, what Lauren was going to say.
As she drove, she couldn't help herself and flipped down her visor mirror. Her reflection had red-rimmed eyes, a runny nose, and tear-stained cheeks. Sighing heavily, she closed her eyes for a split second, knowing full-well how Lauren was going to bitch and moan and make Chloe feel so much more worse than she already felt.
Lauren's sporty Fiat was parked in the driveway which was odd because she normally worked a double-shift on Thursdays, and Chloe's gnawing dread only deepened when she opened the door and heard the sound of her aunt and dad arguing heatedly.
She closed the door behind her quietly, pulled off her shoes and wrapped her hand around her keys to make she wouldn't alert them to her presence. Now barefoot, she walked to the kitchen and hovered just out of sight, able to see in but for them not to see her.
"She's eighteen, Steve. Eighteen! She's too young to be Bound!" Lauren hissed, pacing the length of the table, running her hands almost violently through her hair.
"Most people find them well before this age, Lauren. It's biology. I met Jennifer when I was thirteen and we married straight out of high school. My daughter deserves to be happy," Steve said calmly, his expression stern, eyebrows slanted over his down-turned brown eyes.
"She's a child! Do you really think it's the right idea to Bind her to someone? She's a little girl!"
"It's Derek, Lauren. Kit's boy. He's a good man and raised his kids right. Now whether you agree with me or not, that's your own damn opinion, but she's my daughter."
Chloe stared, unable to comprehend her father's words. For as long as she was alive, she'd never heard him swear at anyone, let alone her aunt.
Lauren's face went white as she reared back like she'd been struck. "I've certainly rained her like she was my child—doesn't that count for anything?" she snapped, voice thin and high, trembling, with emotion as high color spotted her face.
Steve softened. "Of course it does. To both of us, but in the eyes of the law, it doesn't matter. I'm her father, her legal guardian. You have helped me raise her and I'll forever be grateful for that, but the law states it's up to both her and I."
She opened her mouth as though to respond but thought better of it, shook her head, and stormed out onto the back porch to go smoke.
Steve sighed heavily, staring down a piece of paper, and rubbed his thumb over the wedding band he'd never removed after the death of Chloe's mom five years ago.
Chloe couldn't stand there silently anymore.
"Dad, are you okay?" she asked, stepping into the kitchen, and he jumped like he'd been electrocuted, his wide eyes finding her in the doorway. He'd never looked more bone-weary, more tired, and it broke her heart so she hurried to his side and wrapped her arms around him tight.
He swallowed audibly, wound his arms around her lower back, and hugged her back just as tightly.
She saw the words 'soul-mate bond congratulations' in bright-red, capital letters across a sheet of paper on the table and had to squeeze her eyes shut against the wave of nausea.
Her stomach hurt.
Steve broke the hug after a few minutes, staring up at her with a melancholy gaze. "I just want you to be happy. That's all I care about—you: happy, healthy, and safe. When I met your mother, your aunt didn't like me because we were too young but their parents were over-the-moon. Jennifer was happy, healthy, and safe, and that was all that mattered to them, all that was important." He took a deep breath and swallowed audibly. "I want to talk with him."
"Dad—" she began but stopped herself. Her insistence Derek wouldn't want her wouldn't be listened to, would be brushed aside as 'oh, you need to be more confident in yourself/you're a beautiful girl and any guy/girl would be lucky to have you' and she didn't want that. Couldn't deal with it right now.
"Sure."
Her smile felt like it was cutting into her lips as her father beamed, and she knew there was no changing in his mind now, not when she watched him pull out the house phone to call Kit and arrange the meeting—signing away her future.
She sighed and fled out of the room. Inside her room, she lay cocooned in her blankets, pretending everything was fine.
Derek's family arrived a little bit after six, after Chloe sat through a tense dinner full of side-long glares and passive-aggressive comments, and the sound of the doorbell going off sent Chloe's hammering heart into her mouth.
Despite the fact that she'd seen everyone before and they'd come over before.
That was before she found out Derek was her soul-mate.
Lauren all but jumped to her feet and raced to get the door, and the strawberry-blonde strained to hear what conversation was unfolding but couldn't really hear much passed the drum of blood rushing in her ears.
The slight thump of footsteps came closer, became louder, and sweat broke out in a hot flush across the back of her neck, under her armpits, under her breasts, and she tugged at her shirt, trying to get comfortable as the fabric picked her skin.
The first figure into the living room, which you had to walk through to get to the kitchen, was Kit. She could see his reflection in the TV's black screen, see he was dressed in his normal attire of some faded rock T-shirt and pressed jeans, his long, silver-threaded black hair pulled back into a ponytail.
Tori broke away and made her way into the living room, flopping down in the armchair the way she always sat in it, with her legs dangling over the arm and her back against the other one.
At least she didn't seem to care about Chloe and Derek's new status as soulmates, dressed in usual Tori garb. Without looking up from her phone, she adjusted her bra strap beneath her racerback tank top and tugged on the legs of her plaid pants, adjusting herself.
Someone sat down beside Chloe so heavily that the strawberry-blonde bounced. Startled, she turned to find Simon grinning back at her, his V-neck slightly dark with sweat and his basketball shorts rubbing against her thigh, the noise grating on her already frayed nerves.
"How's it going?" he whispered.
She couldn't find her voice so she settled for shaking her head.
"That bad, huh?"
As he said that, she spotted Derek, her heart hammering so loud and hard she was certain everyone could hear it. Her soul-mate looked like he'd rather be anywhere else, his too-full mouth pinched like he'd swallowed lemon juice straight.
He was still wearing his clothes from school, that black army jacket over a sail of a T-shirt that displayed the logo for Five Finger Death Punch and baggy jeans that looked a few sizes from sagging past his butt.
Chloe couldn't tear her eyes away from him, feeling a flush of embarrassment roll through her when he looked at her as he walked past the living room and their eyes met.
"How are you?" Lauren was asking as she walked up behind Derek and his dad, smoothing a hand over her white T-shirt as though she was harried despite the fabric being unwrinkled and clean.
Maybe she was nervous.
She still wore a sour expression that she hid quickly from Kit and Derek with an overly-saccharine smile that didn't fool Derek, from the raised eyebrow he gave her when she wasn't looking.
But Chloe caught his expression and smiled slightly.
"I'm okay," Kit said, "how's the hospital?" As they spoke, they walked past the living room and headed into the kitchen, snippets of conversation fading away the further they got.
"You should relax," Simon suggested.
"Kind of hard to do that when my aunt hates the idea of me being an adult," Chloe said, fighting to keep her voice steady and not full of panic. She picked at her polish, twisted her hands together, fiddled with her clothes, and ran her hands multiple times through her hair.
Try as she might, she couldn't calm herself as the sound of Derek's rumbling voice and her father's floated out to her, too far away to make out any words, and she climbed to her feet and walked over to the kitchen.
Everyone was seated at the table, Derek's back to her, her dad in front of him, Kit settling into one of the chairs beside Derek, and Lauren looming in the corner of the kitchen counter, scowling.
As soon as Chloe stepped into the doorway, Steve noticed her, smiled, and gestured for her to come closer.
Her knees wobbly and weak, she made her way closer and went to pick the seat beside her dad but he raised his eyes brows at her choice and she knew he expected her to sit next to Derek. Which she did without a word.
Her soul-mate tucked in his elbows when she unintentionally wrinkled her nose at the whiff of his body odor. His scowl darkened when he caught sight of her. Her cheeks burning, she looked away from him, into her dad's tense face, watching them with curious, dark eyes.
"So how did you two find out?" he asked finally, his voice gunshot loud in the stretch of silence only broken by the ticking of the wall clock.
Chloe licked her lips, glancing at Derek for help but he didn't volunteer the information. Why did she expect any more from him? He didn't like her in the least bit so why would he willingly help her?
"In the hallway between classes," she muttered quietly, examining her chipping nail polish and a hangnail she'd pulled which had a small bead of blood welled up in the space, avoiding her dad's stare.
He must've been wondering why Derek hadn't said anything.
"How exactly?" Lauren pressed, an undercurrent to her words. Her expression was pinched, arms crossed tightly over her chest, her eyes narrow.
Again Chloe answered. "I bumped into him and he caught me before I fell." She knew she sounded petulant, whiny almost, but couldn't find it in herself to care. If her soul-mate didn't care, why should she?
Her stomach twisted as she clenched her hands into fists. Did he despise her that much?
Lauren's eyes narrowed more, her jaw clenched. "Derek," she said sweetly, turning her attention to him, "would you like to say anything?"
She was heckling him, Chloe realized in an instant, trying to get a rise out of him, and it made the strawberry-blonde clench her hands tighter despite her own brewing anger at him.
"No." His voice was a deep, low rumble, the words coming out not unlike gravel. "Not really." He looked so damn moody, his arms crossed over his chest, slouched in his chair, that it set Chloe's teeth on edge.
Lauren addressed Kit with a humorless snort. "He's certainly a rude one, isn't he? I'd forgotten." She looked as though she was expecting a rebuttal, a denial, but Kit simply sighed and gave Derek a glare.
Steve stepped in quickly, his smile strained. "What are your plans are you graduate?"
"Assuming he graduates," Lauren muttered, low enough that Kit and Steve didn't catch it, but Derek did and it made him clench his jaw and tense up.
Chloe heard it too and couldn't help but snap, "Really?"
Lauren pretended Chloe hadn't said anything and directed her focus to Derek's answer.
"Become an accountant or something with numbers," he said.
Chloe realized his leg had bumped hers and he hadn't moved it yet and she could feel the heat of his skin through the denim of his jeans. Her stomach flipped over.
Him being an accountant or something similar made sense. He always had straight-A's and one of the highest GPAs of the school. He'd been handed tons of scholarships due to it all.
"Do you think it'll support my niece?" Lauren asked.
Derek froze. "What?" he bit out, color flooding his face—rage or embarrassment, it was hard to tell, maybe a mix of both.
"Your little dream job, could it support Chloe?"
"Lauren," Steven warned her sharply but Lauren ignored him.
"We'd both work," Chloe blurted, unable to keep the anger out of her voice, "because I won't be a stay-at-home mom or wife because that's not what I want. It'd be a joint household."
Lauren looked at her then, her eyes wide, her face spotted with high color. It was like she was really seeing Chloe for the first time. Like she was seeing Chloe as an adult, with a soul-mate, and that she couldn't do anything in the eyes of the law to impede whatever Chloe chose to do.
She'd never looked at her like that.
"Of course," Kit interjected pleasantly, his eyes on Lauren, "that's a wonderful idea. Both my late wife and I did the same and it worked out well for us."
Lauren sat back, decidedly less hostile. Derek exhaled slowly, relaxing slightly, his face still set in a scowl. Even Chloe felt some of her anger fade.
The conversation continued, asking Derek about things like his hobbies, classes, if he had a job.
Eventually Steve broke the news. "I hate to say this but the Bond must be completed per orders of the St. Cloud Court."
Chloe expected it—had come to terms with it—but it still shocked her, still stung, and she blinked hard against her disappointment. "I know," she said, keeping her eyes down.
When she finally looked over at her soul-mate, he was looking right back at her.