Weird
Pastasalad
Summary:
The first words your soulmate says to you are somewhere on your skin, Sal looks at the words on his arm.
'is this a joke?'
Everyone had a soulmate, his mom and dad had been soulmates, they'd been in love. Until that horrible day came, they were a great family. The caring father, the loving mother, and their kind son. But it didn't take long for it to become the alcoholic father and the freak, maybe life just hated Sal.
He knows the basic stuff about soulmates, his mother told him all about soulmates before she passed, but his memory is always a little foggy when it comes to his mom now. He knows that the words near his elbow are the first words his soulmate is supposed to say to him, he always wears long sleeves nowadays. He feels bad for his soulmate, he really does, to have to be stuck with someone like him. Sal takes a break from unpacking to look at the words painted on his arm.
'is this a joke?'
Sal lets out a cold laugh, if it was, it wasn't a funny one. He pushes his sleeve back down and heads to his dad's room. His dad turned his head to look at him "Hey buddy, you taking a break?" Sal nodded "Smart, I think I'll do that too." His dad turned his head back away from him, Sal exhaled and said "I'm gonna check out the neighbors." He heard his dad hum in acknowledgement.
He steps out into the hallway, looking at all the other apartment doors. He sees someone standing in front of, he squints, 403? "Hello sir, what happened here?" The man scoffs "Can't you see the police tape, kid? Now scram, I'm not a babysitter." Sal shrugs and walks into the elevator, he looks at all the buttons, 3 sounds promising. He pushes the button and feels the elevator jostle for a few seconds before opening the doors to let him out.
"Hey there, kiddo." He turns to the voice, it's a woman. He looks at the mop in her hands, a janitor, maybe? "Hey, I'm Sal. Me and my dad just moved into 402" He sees the woman's eyes light up and she lets out a small cough "I'm Lisa, you lookin to meet your new neighbors?" Sal tugged at his sleeve "Kinda. you're the first person I've really talked to yet, besides that officer upstairs. Do you know what happened in 403?" Lisa dunked the mop into the bucket "You must have a real crummy first impression of the place now, huh? But, 403, it's best we not talk about such sad things."
Sal fiddled with his hands "Oh, not really, I think it's nice here. I'm still a bit curious about 403, but I won't push you to talk about it if you don't want to." Lisa gave him a wide smile "Such a sweet kid, I think you and my son would get along just great. His name's Larry, do you want to meet him?" Sal tugged at one of his pigtails "Are you sure he'd want to meet me? I don't want to bother anyone..." Lisa grabbed something from her pocket and placed it in his hands, a card? "Here, it's a key card to get into the basement. No need to knock, the door is always unlocked." Sal looked at the card in his hands and he felt Lisa pat his shoulder as she spoke "I'm sure he'd wanna meet you, Sal." Sal let out a quiet "Thanks, Lisa" as he stepped back into the elevator and put the card in the slot.
As Sal stood in front of 1B, he felt his stomach churn as he slowly opened the door. He felt like he was intruding, even if he did get permission to be here. He walked into the kitchen he saw... a shadow? That was very weird, he pushed the shadow to the back of his mind, it was probably nothing. Sal spotted a door with a 'keep out' sign, probably Larry's. He knocks and says "Hey, uhh, Larry? Your mom said I should come say hi. I just moved into 402."
Larry's always been a huge believer on soulmates, after all, his parents had been so happy before his dad disappeared. He lifted his shirt to reveal the words that sat near his bellybutton.
'Hey, uhh, Larry? Your mom said I should come say hi. I just moved into 402.'
Larry chuckled at the mark, his mom always had meddled a little more than necessary. He loved looking at his mark, it was one of the few things he felt really optimistic about. He just hoped his curse didn't mess this up too...
Larry has always wondered when he'd meet his soulmate. He's lived here for 10 years and every time he found out someone new moved into 402, he always scrambled to meet them. The only people who've moved into 402 yet have been, a 25-year-old wanting to move away from her parents, a young couple only moving there for a few months before they found a house, and an old man who had a big love for plants. Funnily enough, he enjoyed the company of all of them, even if none of them were his soulmate.
He hears a knock at the door... could it be?
"Lar, I'm heading off to work on floor 3. If you get hungry, there's leftovers in the fridge."
He plops on his bed and shouts an "Alright, mom." As he heard his mom leave, he let out a large sigh. Just how much longer was he going to have to wait? He's read somewhere that a big percentage of people meet their soulmate by high school, and he's already a freshman. He looks up at the ceiling, he thinks about his soulmate a lot more than he would like to admit.
He thought back to the curse, what if it had hurt his soulmate? Would he really be so selfish to be with someone even though they could get hurt, or worse, go missing? He runs a hand through his hair, he needs to stop thinking about stuff like that. Like his mom always says 'focus on the positives.' That's all he has to do, focus on the positives.
He's torn from his thoughts by a knock, probably his mom. He sits up on his bed, about to ask his mom what she wants before he hears someone speak.
"Hey, uhh, Larry? Your mom said I should come say hi. I just moved into 402."
His eyes widen and before he knows it, he's ran to the door. His hand stops on the doorknob. The kids at school had always made fun of him for being so excited to meet his soulmate. They had said the words on his stomach mockingly, could this be... a prank? Before he opens the door, he takes a deep breath and says.
"Is this a joke?"
Sal immediately takes a step back, no, it really couldn't be...
The door slams open to reveal a disheveled boy a good foot taller than he is. He doesn't know if Larry can tell how wide his eyes are, he takes a shaky breath. "I... I should go, I just-" Larry grabs his arm "Wait." Sal feels like he's folding in on himself as he says "I'm sorry." Larry lets his arm go in surprise "Sorry? Were you joking?" Sal stops in his tracks "Why would I be joking?"
Larry lets out a laugh and puts his head in his hands and he says "Augh, I'm so confused." Sal laughs "Me too." Larry looks out from his hands "Are we soulmates?" Sal looks at the floor as he moves his sleeve up to show his mark. Sal looks up to see Larry's stare, he immediately puts the sleeve back down, ready to run to the door. Larry's eyes widen "We're soulmates." He says as he clumsily lifts his shirt to show the smaller boy his mark. Sal lets out a shaky breath, Larry grabs his hand and leads him to his room.
Sal sits on the beanbag chair, clasping his hands together. Larry sits on his bed and chuckles before saying "Nice mask." Theirs a long silence before Sal gathers up the courage to say "It's a prosthetic." Sal sees a look flash on Larry's face, one of pity, no... guilt?
Sal was about to say something before he gets interrupted by a quiet "Does it... does it hurt?" Sal straightens his back a little, that was a question he didn't get asked much. Sal looks at one of the many posters on Larry's wall "Nah, it feels... sore sometimes? It stopped hurting too bad after the first year." Sal sighed and looked at Larry "Do you really want to be with someone like me?" Larry tilted his head "Someone like you? What do you mean by that?" Sal tugged at his pigtails "You know what I mean."
Larry got up and sat on the floor next to Sal and rested his head on one of Sal's legs "Yep." Sal felt his heart skip a beat and laid one of his hands on Larry's head. "You're so weird" Sal said as he felt Larry's hair, greasy, but he didn't mind. Larry leaned more on Sal "Good weird?" Sal laughed as he said
"Definitely good weird."
