Chapter 4: Soulmate who wasn't meant to be

 Birthday

Ever since Jules showed up in the theatre, I have been having nightmares every day. My mind seems to make every possible situation she is going to do to me. I have been coughing on my saliva. I have been hallucinating dangerous things. I screamed looking at a bare wall, and everybody thought I was crazy. But I try to hide it from everyone, and I mostly try to hide it from myself because the play is in one week and I don’t want it to be ruined, it is the most important thing for me right now and I cannot let some person who screws up my mind ruin it, she is not important, her opinions are not important, her being is not important- but I loved her and just not….platonically. 

“ANNE!!!” Mark screamed from across the room and then came to me running “Your BIRTHDAY IS IN 2 DAYS!!!” I smiled casually while looking up at him, I was sitting on the floor, and he was standing with his costume on. I replied “yea?” he shot an angry, pissed look and asked, “Seriously Anne show some enthusiasm, it’s your BIRTHDAY!!!!” “so what? What am I supposed to do? It’s not like I have so many friends whom I can go out with and have a party” he looked at me curiously “Well you have me, right? Also how is that possible you don’t have ANY other friends you talk to EVERYONE” it was true, I did talk to everyone, and it wasn’t like they didn’t like me actually, I might be the only person in our school who hadn’t made any enemies, wait- no. But like I said before a lot of people I can call my friends but none of them are true ones, I replied with this explanation, so Mark exclaimed and sat on the floor with me and took assignments from my hand and held them, like he was giving me some sort of support, it felt warm, it felt like listening to August by Taylor swift for the first time. I looked into his eyes while he asked softly “Everything is okay with…” “yea yea, it’s alright” he smiled softly and asked for reassurance “Will you go with me to the vinyl store?” His voice seemed like he was asking me to trust him and I trusted him.

A little description of the vinyl store and why I love it- it was a 4-story vinyl store, 30 minutes from our town if you take the bus. It wasn’t crowded at all, had each and every vinyl of all genres and every language. It had the most underrated vinyl to the most highly demanding ones. It has a cute and comforting bakery on the top floor, with the best cinnamon bun and coffee I have ever eaten (Starbucks sucks, in front of it). It has an attached bookstore that majorly sells the classics and gives the required stationary for annotation, I mean who does that?? I love it, and if money wasn’t a factor, I would sell my soul to work there. And when I described it to Mark, he screamed like crazy, and as far as I can remember he even shed a tear and told me that he was going there today with his uncle. He is so cute. Wait what-

“You look cool for a change,” I said in a playful way to Mark as soon as he showed up at the bus station wearing- green cargo, a Spiderman tee, a brown hood jacket, fungi tote bag, and obviously the headphones I customized for him with stickers. He faintly smiled, looked at me, and said “Happy birthday Anne-“hugged me with his hands tightly holding me, as if he is sad and needed support and I felt his air on the right side of my neck, brushing and tickling me. I held him tighter after a second, brushed my hand on his back, telling him everything was fine, and he said “Thank you” I don’t know why he said that but as soon as our hug broke the bus came and I couldn’t ask him. We sat on 3rd seat from the back and I was sitting at the window seat looking outside while sharing earphones with Mark and listening to our playlist “De-virgin before I Die (Spotify’s version)” Mark silently leaned and called out my name and said silently “you know, I haven’t been there before, I’ll be coming here for the first time…with you” and just as soon I looked back at him and we were so close that I could feel his air on lips, I looked in his eyes with the innocence he moved back and I said “you didn’t go with your uncle?” he gulped his saliva and looked at me with a serious face which was so unusual, I never saw Mark like this, I got worried about him holding his arm tightly- telling him that everything is fine. On our way to the vinyl store Mark once didn’t say anything except a long ‘sorry’ speech and how he is ruining my birthday, which I told him clearly, he wasn’t. As we stood at the gate of my dream place, and his, I turned to Mark to see him, and he was already looking at me “We fell in love in October” started playing in my head and I felt as if sparks were flying around us, he smiled ear to ear, his cheeks flushed with redness asked me “what?” I was so confused, I wanted to hold Mark tightly and never leave him, I wanted his fingers locked in mine and just be with him all the time. Just then I thought what if I am seeing things? And this is not real, am I dreaming? But those thoughts left as soon as they came because I felt safe with Mark. 

When by the end of the day, we were sitting overwhelmed on the bus, Mark handed me a brown bag and said “I’ve been struggling to keep this with me for the whole day” I opened it and it had a bookmark wrapped inside a letter, a cassette, candle smelling like all my favorite smells and finally our picture in a photo frame. It was the best day of my entire life with a person whom I met just two months ago. Happy sixteen to me.