The Red Strings Of Fate //✔️//

6 | The Favor

"W-What?"

"I mean, I'm not for sure, but I'm like 99.99% positive."

Reese wants to die. There's no way Carter knows that she is indeed the his soulmate. Thoughts bounce off every curve of Reese's mind, a panicked feeling gradually creeping up on her. Reese cannot be the one to come between Gemma and Carter's happiness. She just can't.

She refuses to.

"How do you know? Who is it?" Reese questions, voice a little quieter.

"I just know. An exchange student in my sax class. He just moved from Lithuania, and is really good at playing the sax. Of course, not as good as yours truly, but still good," Reese rolls her eyes here, "but anyways! I glanced at him one time, and he was totally staring at me, and I got a funny feeling when I looked at him. I think he might be the one!" Carter admits. Reese feels like she could crawl into a hole and die.

"Carter, that doesn't mean he's your soulmate. That just means he thinks you're hot, and he isn't the only one who thinks that. If you start thinking that everyone who thinks you're hot is your soulmate, you might have a problem on your hands." Reese huffs. Carter stares at her for a moment, looking completely bewildered.

"That's the most you've said to me without stuttering. I'm so proud, oh my god." Carter is smiling big, and Reese rolls her eyes once again, tries to push the blush down inside her.

"That's not the point, Carter!" Reese pouts, and Carter laughs.

"I know, I know. But anyways, he hasn't said anything, so I don't think he really cares that much?" It seems more like a question than a statement and this gets Reese sighing at Carter.

"What if he's waiting for you to speak up? What if he's scared, and alone, and doesn't know how to approach you so he's waiting for you to say something?" Reese entertains, quirking an eyebrow. Carter puffs out a bit breath and it gently brushes at Reese in the face.

"Well that's dumb. But it doesn't matter anyways." Carter rolls onto his back, still holding Reese's hand tightly within his own.

"Doesn't matter?"

"Nope! I'm in love with Gemma. Soulmates have always been a dumb concept to me. Being tied down to one single person for the rest of your life. Who says I have to live by that rule? I sure as hell didn't willingly sign up for that shit. I say that you should be able to choose who you love, choose who you're with. And that's exactly what I'm doing. I don't give a fuck who my soulmate is. They don't matter. Gemma is the one I love, now and forever." Carter smiles, the kind of smile someone in love gives and Reese feels her stomach drop.

They don't matter.

Reese rolls onto her back as well, doesn't say anything else.

The two of them lay in silence for the rest of that morning, comfortable for Carter but deafening for Reese.

.

Reese sometimes forgets that she plays volleyball for the school, even though she's on a partial scholarship for it. Sure, she goes to practices, but games are sparse. Now that it's almost summer, there have been more games than usual.

And Reese wants nothing more than to drop volleyball altogether.

During one of her games, she very clearly hears the shouts of the her friends, cheering her on and calling her name.

Why did she tell them she played, again?

Oh, that's right: she didn't.

Reese gets a text from her friends group chat, it's from Nathan: