phil's pov

I'm forced to listen to Dillon's excited chattering for the rest of the period once he comes back to the lunch table. I'm happy for him, of course, but really - how much is one person expected to endure? After nearly 20 more minutes of Dillon's yammering on about Isabel, dates he's planning, Isabel, dates he's planning, and Isabel, and even more dates he's planning, I'm two seconds away from exploding at him to just shut up (in the nicest way possible, of course), when Matt beats me to it:

"For the love of God, Dillon, just shut up already!" He exclaims.

Dillon looks at him with wide eyes for a moment, then relaxes with a sheepish grin. "Sorry, I guess I got a little carried away there, huh?"

A chorus of muttered agreements resound around the table. We turn to different topics, and it seems as if the topic of soulmates is forgotten.

But I don't forget.

The rest of the school doesn't, either. Every single class I go to has at least one group of students talking about the news Isabel and Dillon are soulmates. Word travels fast in a high school, I guess. But the talk quickly turns from being happy for Isabel and Dillon to everyone wondering about their own soulmates, and everyone else's, for that matter, and I think about Matt's words during lunch and wonder about my soulmate.

When I first started high school, I began to notice all the guys so much more than I did before, and girls never interested me the way they interested my friends. It's not like I hide my sexuality; if someone asked, I'd tell them I was gay, but it's not like I proclaim it to the world. Hell, you heard Matt earlier; he thinks my soulmate would be a woman. My body runs cold during class as the thought occurs to me - would the universe even match me with a guy? I hear people talk so much shit about 'traditional families'. Would the universe pair me with a woman, someone I would've even be attracted to? I make a mental note to look up queer soulmate couples later.

When I finally go home after school, I get caught up in homework and studying with friends, so it isn't until late, a few hours before midnight, that I sit down at my desk to go on my laptop. I pull up Google and mull over what to enter for a few seconds, before I finally settle on 'gay soulmates'. I exhale a sigh of relief as thousands of matches load up, posts on tumblr and the like of cute connection stories for queer people.

Now that I know it's actually possible for me to be with a guy, I almost feel my soul relax as I sit back in my chair, as if every atom in my body finally meshes the way they should. And that's when I notice it - the bruise on my knee, just visible underneath my desk. The bruise I have no recollection of getting.

My breath catches, but before I get my hopes up, I sift through the past few days, searching for any memory of me falling or running into something that could bruise my knee. Nothing.

This could be my soulmate's.

I could be connected.

Was that what it felt like? Being connected? I do feel ready to meet him, especially after Googling my concerns to satisfy that worried part of myself. Cautiously, I lightly press a fingertip down on the mottled purple skin of my knee. Upon feeling no pain, I press even harder. Nothing.

A smile splits onto my face. I'm connected. This bruise is my soulmate's, appearing on my own flesh to alert me to the fact I'm finally ready to meet him. Unable to help myself, I rise from my chair and do a ridiculous little dance around my room, my mind running wild with thoughts of who he could be and what color his hair is and what color his eyes are and what he's like. I finally understand what Dillon must've been feeling at lunch.

I sit back down at my desk, performing a gleeful spin of the wheeled chair before steadying myself at the desk. Now I have to figure out my next step. I just know I can't just sit here until fate takes it's toll and we randomly bump into each other on the street. I've heard things like that happening before, but I've also heard stories about people taking matters into their own hands - following notes their soulmate's left on their hands about meeting places, writing down phone numbers, things like that. But, come on, it's 11 o'clock at night; I can't exactly run outside and meet my soulmate at the local McDonald's. So instead, I grab a Sharpie and scrawl across the back of my hand: 'hey'.

dan's pov

I'm sitting at my desk, trying to crank out a last-minute homework assignment that's due tomorrow, when I notice the ink starting to appear on the back of my hand. First an 'h', then an 'e', and then the 'y'. My next breath gets stuck in my throat as I literally choke on nothing after seeing the simple, messy handwriting form the word on my hand. I stay there, just stunned for a few seconds, before I come to my senses and scramble around for a marker to write my soulmate back.

I hurriedly think of what greeting to write ('hello' is too formal, but is 'hi' too casual?!) before deciding to just mimic his: 'hey'. I feel the excitement bubbling up inside of me as I watch the simple phrase appear across my forearm: "how are you?"

I gulp down my jitters as I write a reply on my other arm: "good, you?" and it only takes seconds before my soulmate scribbles out: "amazing, thanks." The events unfolding feel so surreal I have no idea what to write next, when I see him writing more words to appear on the top of my arm: "so it looks like we're soulmates." I grin and write out: "looks that way", then add a smiley face for a little extra pizzazz.

No new writing appears on my arm for several seconds, and I feel a horrible sinking sensation as I realize our short-lived conversation is over. And then I notice the writing appearing on my thigh. God, is he lucky I'm only wearing boxers. I read the writing as it appears, taking a minute for him to scrawl everything down. My soulmate's new message states: "i've already run out of room to write on my arms, and i'd rather not have to get more creative with writing spots. text me?" and then he wrote down a string of numbers.

My heart jumps to my throat as I fly out of my chair to my nightstand, and I almost break my charger cord yanking it out of my phone. I force myself to slow down and take a deep breath, then open my phone, carefully enter in the digits written on my thigh, and type out a simple, yet effective message: "hey. it's your soulmate." A reply comes almost instantly: "how do i know for sure?" Grinning and shaking my head at his silliness, I snatch up my marker from my desk and write out my own number underneath his on my thigh. My phone buzzes in my hand, and I see another message from my soulmate: "alright that confirms it" with an emoji sticking out his tongue next to it. I shake my head again, then flop onto my bed.

I debate what to type out next, but another message from him comes in first. "so, shall we start with introductions? i don't want to just leave you saved as 'soulmate' in my phone." My blood runs cold as I realize what being connected means for me, and I'm barely able to type out a reply to my soulmate due to shaking hands. I feel like I'm ruining everything, typing my message, but I send it anyway: "i'm sorry, i'm not exactly 'out-of-the-closet' yet, so i'd prefer for us to stay anonymous until i'm ready. i'm sorry."

I practically hold my breath until his reply comes in. "that's totally cool. my friends don't know i'm gay, either". But before i even begin another response, another message appears from him. "wait, you are a guy right?" I roll my eyes, but smile a bit. "yes, you spork," I respond.

After discussing my choice of pet name, the rest of our conversation is spent figuring out where we live, because "what if you live in like germany or something and i'm all the way over here in america?" I'm surprised to find out we actually live in the same area, and even more surprised we go to the same high school (subsequently deducing we are both 17). This furthers my decision to not share our names, because I can't afford for my secret to accidentally get out. Even though I trust my soulmate, he might share my identity with his friends and the whole school would know about me by the end of the day. Like I told him, I'm just not ready to be so open about myself to everyone.

When I notice the clock turn midnight, I reluctantly cut our conversation short. We say our goodbyes, promising to chat again tomorrow, and I begin to climb into bed when I remember my decorated arms and legs. So, I hop into my shower, cringing at the loud water destined to wake my parents, and begin to scrub my ink marks off my body. Of course, the markings my soulmate wrote wouldn't come off my body until he scrubbed them off his.

And then I notice they are starting to fade. I try not to think about my soulmate in the shower, too, his naked body dripping with hot, hot water, creating steam, shrouding his body as he washes away his writing with his long, thin fingers, running across his wet skin, maybe trailing a bit too far north from his thighs-

After a little more time in the shower, ahem, I turn off the water and towel myself dry. I carefully step outside my shower, and then I let the towel fall from my hips as I study my body in the mirror. Not in vain, but not in self-loathing, either. Truth is I don't really care much about my body one way or another. But tonight, I study it carefully; I search for anything I know wasn't there before, anything I know that belongs to my soulmate. I find a few birthmarks, a few stretchmarks, but nothing more than that. I wonder if my soulmate is doing the same thing, finding my scars and birthmarks.

Smiling, I return back to my adjoining bedroom and slip on a new pair of boxer shorts before climbing into bed. Just as I do, I notice more writing on my leg - on my thigh, just above my knee, a sentence with an arrow pointing to the bruise I had gotten from running into a table: "oh, yeah, you can thank this little guy for everything."

A/N: hey guys! so sorry it took over a month to get this chapter up, i was away from home for a while last week so that contributed to the long wait as well as just writing and editing. i hope you enjoyed this update; i decided to take a bit of inspiration from simon vs the homo sapiens agenda (AMAZING book if you haven't read it yet, def recommend), so that's where the anon correspondance idea comes in. as always, fav, follow, and review if you feel so inclined, it always means so much to me to see people enjoy my writing. ~l