soulmates

Butterflies & Hearts

Everyone's got something written on their skin. There's a whole lot of "hey's", and "hello's", and "nice to meet you's". Some people get the fun ones- "you wanna dance?" "can you hand me the extra fluffy one?" "have you ever gone night surfing?"

Everyone knows the first thing their soulmate will ever say to them. My mom's said "Do you know where the Howard Teffely Building is?" And Dad's said "Yeah, just past the library."

Mine says "I can't believe Tamara dies!"

And all my life, I've never known anyone named Tamara, and believe me I was afraid I'd meet an actual person with that name and live with this gut-wrenching fear that they're going to die, but now, that fear's gone.

I'm standing in front of the movie theatre, clutching my ticket in my hand, barely able to contain my excitement because the final chapter of my favorite series releases today. The King's Angels trilogy is my favorite thing in the whole world. There's so many twists and turns and I cried like a baby during the first two films.

Guess Who My Favorite Character Is?

(a) King Devon, the jerkface who demoted the general of his army because she wouldn't marry him,

(b) Aaron, the guy who took the general's place, who is an absolute snack, or

(c) TAMARA!!! THE DEMOTED GENERAL! AN ABSOLUTE QUEEN!! THE ONLY CHARACTER I'VE EVER LOVED WITH EVERY FIBER OF MY BEING!!!!!!

So, what? Is this some sick joke? Maybe someone's just teasing and is like "Ha, I can't believe Tamara dies", when actually that's not at all what's happening. Or maybe she really does die.

As much as it bothers me to think I may have the ending of my favorite movie series EVER spoiled, I'm bothered by something else.

AM I GOING TO MEET MY SOULMATE TODAY?!?! I DON'T WANT TO MEET MY SOULMATE TODAY!! I'm only fourteen for goodness's sakes.

And I mean, believe me, I've thought about this a lot. It's not like today's the only day someone can ever say "I can't believe Tamara dies". It's possible someone could be talking about it, you know, a couple weeks from now. But I'm still shaking.

I go inside the theatre and look around. No cute guys in sight. Oh, please tell me my soulmate isn't one of the people I'm seeing, because none of the scenarios in my head end with some ugly boy rolling up his sleeve to show me the sentence on his skin- "BUT YOU'RE UGLY!"

I've had nightmares about what my soulmate's sentence says. My friend Lily? Her mom had "shut up, idiot" tattooed on her side. So it's not like it's not possible. Just because your someone's soulmate doesn't mean your first meeting will be butterflies and hearts.

Lily already met her soulmate- Jesse. They met a couple months ago. Now their meeting- that's what I call butterflies and hearts.

"So, you're my dance partner this semester?"

Lily basically started crying. "I'll dance with you for the rest of my life!" she blurted.

Can you imagine? Some people get "I'll dance with you for the rest of my life" on their collarbone in swirls and flowers and some people get I CAN'T BELIEVE TAMARA DIED down their thigh.

I go inside the theatre and sit down and can hardly focus on the trailers because the theatre's almost full, and a part of me is convinced that HE is in here somewhere.

Tamara, alive and well, distracts me. I love these movies with a vengeance. I have posters all over my walls. I own all the figurines and soundtracks and t-shirts.

The end credits roll.

Tamara's still alive.

Tamara's STILL ALIVE! I want to jump out of my seat, but I don't because I always stay and watch all the credits. Most of the crowd leaves, and I scan the rest of the group. There's a couple guys. But that one is a dad. And that one is balding. I'm getting extremely nervous.

I decide that the best thing to do is just keep my mouth shut and run away so no guys can talk to me and I can't talk to them, therefore I won't accidentally meet my soulmate today.

I exit the theatre. I go home. I don't meet my soulmate.