destiny - malum

Prologue

Solum.

It's a Latin word, (who even uses Latin anymore?) and one which I'd become all too familiar with in recent years. I wasn't like most other kids, and that basically made me a criminal, so whenever I passed someone in the school corridors or out on the street, it was the only word I ever heard.

To them, it was the most offensive and worst insult they could ever throw at me. Ever.

Because solum means alone.

You see, when the new generation are born, something odd happens to less than five percent of them - me included. We're born with a small mark on the side of our necks an inch or so above the collarbone, so faded it could almost pass as a spec of dirt, but recognisable to anyone who saw it.

I can't really explain what it looks like with words, the letter y perhaps? It wasn't exactly top of my priority list to find out whether or not it meant something, because chances were that it was probably just a freakish mutation that likes to show its face every now and again.

My mum always tried to convince me that it wasn't a game changer, I could still be me. But I didn't exactly believe her, so me and my mum don't exactly get along. The mark was more than what she realised - it restricted me from doing so much like getting certain jobs or falling in love.

Okay, correction, I can fall in love. But I can't be loved back. By anyone. Ever. That's basically what this whole 'solum' thing means - it's my destiny to end up alone.

At first I didn't think it was too bad. As a kid, I used to cringe when people kissed or held hands, and thought it was stupid that people had to spend the rest of their lives with one person because of a four letter word that apparently meant so much.

No kid wants to be in love, right?

But as a teen, it got a hell of a lot harder.

My best friend, Luke (he isn't like me, in case you were wondering), started his first relationship. Bryony was one of those girls you see on the cover of magazines - long, slender legs and wavy blonde hair that came down just past her shoulders.

The female version of him, I suppose. Minus the sass.

It didn't bother me, though. Why should I care about my best friend in the whole world ditching me for some self-centred chick who clearly had the hots for another guy? 

Right, so yeah, it bothered me. She obviously wasn't the one for him, but I knew that he'd find that special someone eventually. My problem was, Bryony wasn't like me either. Luke really loved her, and the guy she ended up leaving him for loved her too.

Why did she deserve that? How was it fair that I couldn't be loved, but she could? I was a good person, or at least that's how I like to consider myself, yet I had the most rotten luck.

Congrats, Michael, you just referred to love as being luck.

Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that I didn't really expect much from my life. Not only could I never be in a two-way relationship, I'd be forever looked down on and seen as inferior just because I was different.

But you know what this story needs? A plot twist.

I wouldn't end up alone.

Not if he could do anything about it.

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A/n: I'm completely changing my usual style of writing for this book, because I want to see how it goes and whether or not I prefer it, so your feedback would be highly appreciated :)

Thanks for checking this out, I hope you like it xxx