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"I want to feel it Mom! When am I going to feel it?"
I always asked my mom this question growing up and her answer was always the same.
"Calum, dear, remember what I've told you. You will feel it when you both are ready."
I would always groan and she would just sigh and pat my back. This was a regular conversation for me and my mom to have. It would happen almost everyday from when I was about age 10 to when it happened. What it was, was your soulmate's touch.
According to the soulmate system, everyone has a soulmate. Someone who is perfect for you in every way and meant for you to spend your life with. You can feel your soulmate's touch before you meet them. You can feel when the touch themselves. I'm not meaning that in a dirty way, but you would feel that too; I mean, it does happen. You can also feel to a certain extent what makes contact with your soulmate. Like when they sit down in school you wouldn't feel it. But if they tripped and fell on the sidewalk, you would momentarily feel the impact of their body hitting the ground.
Nobody knows when you are going to get your Soulmate's touch. All that is known is that you get it between the age 10 and age 21.
----
I remember when my best friend Michael got his. We were 15. We were hanging out at his house, sitting on his bed and playing FIFA, of course.
"Stop." Michael mumbled randomly.
"Stop what?"
"Poking me."
"Dude, I'm not poking you. Both of my hands are on the controller."
"Holy shit!!" Michael exclaimed suddenly dropping his controller.
"What?" I asked.
"Pause the fucking game. I think I got the touch. I think someone is poking my soulmate." He said excitedly. I immediately paused the game.
"What are you waiting for??? TEST IT!" I asked him, turning so that we were sitting facing each other.
"Okay!!" Michael says and holds his left arm out. He then takes his right arm and strokes the inside of his left arm gently with two fingers. He has a nervous look on his face for a few seconds before gasping, his nervous expression turning into a soft smile.
"You got it?" I asked and he nodded happily, still stroking his arm. I was happy for him.
-----
I remember when I first felt the touch.
I got mine a year later when I was 16. I was sitting in my desk not paying attention to whatever the teacher was saying, nothing out of the ordinary. Over the years, I had grown a habit of tracing patterns on my arm with my finger. So that was what I was doing.
I was just softly tracing a swiggle along the inside of my arm when I felt something else being traced. The touch felt all tingly and warm. It made me happy.
'hi'.
I felt a huge smile grow on my face. And of course, I traced a:
'hi'
I finally got my soulmate touch. I then felt more words being traced on my arm.
'Boy or girl?'
'Boy. U?'
'Boy :) Perfect.'
' :) '
The bell rung and I got up and hurried to my next class. I had to tell Michael.
-----
Ugh! I hate life. It was a month later and I had a huge test first period. I had been studying for it all night and I barely got any sleep.
I paced my room, running my hands through my hair furiously as I tried to remember all of the information. I knew I should've payed attention in class.
"Ugh" I groaned out, massaging my temples.
Then I felt tingles at my hip bones. It felt like thumbs rubbing small circles in my hips soothingly. It calmed me down. I kissed my hand in return. Knowing he would feel it. This soulmate thing is pretty cool.
-----
The thing about the soulmate touch was that it always made school more interesting. Not only because you can feel your Soulmate, but because it was fun to watch other people interact with their soulmate through the touch.
I felt kinda bad for Michael's soulmate. You see, Michael's not very innocent. And ever since he found out his soulmate was a boy, it was a common occurrence for him to give the other boy some pleasure. I guess that's a good thing, however, not when you do it in the middle of a school day. Michael will literally do it anywhere. It's funny. But I do have to give his soulmate some props since he definitely has returned the favor when Michael was in public.
It's often entertaining hearing some of the things people accuse each other of and the questions they ask.
One time when we were taking a test; this guy let out a 'manly' squawk and fell out of his seat. We all looked at him.
"Do you have a question John?" The teacher asked. John looked like he was debating wether to ask something or not.
"Uh..err.. Yeah. Um.. W-why do girls feel the need to slap each other's butts?" He asked honestly, standing up from where he fell on the floor and sitting back in his seat. The class cracked up laughing while the teacher just sighed and shook his head.
----
"I'm not even joking, my soulmate has literally fallen down the stairs 5 times this week. I'm seriously worried for him." I was talking to Michael about our soulmate's again.
"Haha. Well, mine trips over his own feet all the time."
"Is he okay?"
"Oh yeah, he's fine. Gave me a boner in History this morning, actually."
"Thank you Michael. I really needed to know that."
"Anytime. Always here for you man."
-----
He has big hands. Or at least I think he does. I sigh happily as I feel the tingles trail up and down my thigh. I can't wait to meet him.
I then groan remembering where I am. It's the first day of the new school year. We have music first and Michael and I have already walked in and chose our seats.
"I'm so tired..." Michael groaned. I nodded in agreement as the bell rang, signaling the start of class.
"Well hello class, my name's Mr. Feldman and this is music class. So I'm just going to go through roll and then we can get start-"
"SORRY!!" A tall blonde guy with blue eyes yells, busting in through the door and cutting the teacher off, "I'm sorry, I'm new and I got lost and er... Yeah..." He trailed off awkwardly.
"It's alright just take a seat. Anyways, I'm going to call roll now and then I'll just let you guys jam around and do whatever. If you know how to play an instrument pick one and play it; if you don't know how to play one then you'll learn...eventually. " Mr. Feldman said and proceeded to call roll as the blonde kid sat in the open seat next to me.
"John Adams"
"Here"
"Michael Clifford."
"Here."
"Uma ... Etc."
"Luke Hemmings."
"Here." The blonde dude raised his hand and I heard Michael gasp quietly.
"Calum Hood."
"Here" I said.
"Ashton Irwin."
"Yeah, I'm here." I heard the voice of an angel say from the back of the room. I like that voice. I turned around and saw a pretty pair of big hazel eyes. The owner of the eyes had a light tan and dark blonde curly hair, slightly tamed by a bandana. Beautiful.
The role call eventually ended and he told us to get whatever instrument we wanted and to play it.
I went straight for my bae. The bass is ace bruh. Michael went for one of the electric guitars. So did Luke. I heard someone start jamming on the drums. I turned around and saw it was Ashton.
"Holy Shit!" I heard Michael say. My thoughts exactly. I turned back around to see what Michael was 'holy shitting' about. I turn around and see he's holding Luke's hand and staring into his eyes. The two don't seem to register anything else around them cute.
"Do you know how many 'issues' I've received in class because of you?" Luke whispered. Tightening his grasp on Michael's hand.
"We both know you enjoyed it." Michael whispered back.
"WE'VE GOT SOULMATES OVER HERE!!!" I shouted, being the good friend I am, and pointed to Luke and Michael. The music stopped playing and everyone clapped.
Michael glared and walked over to me, pulling Luke with him, and slapping me in the shoulder playfully.
"Ow" I heard Ashton mumble, and I turned to see him rubbing his shoulder. I barely noticed people start playing instruments again as I feel the tingles start on my shoulder. I gasped and put my hand on my heart. Then Ashton rose his head to look straight into my eyes and he placed his hand on his heart. It was in that moment, that I knew that Ashton Irwin was my, Calum Hood's soulmate.