I snapped back to reality and looked in front of me to find my entire class staring at me.

"Well?" Prompted Mrs Andrews.

"Uh... can you repeat the question?"

"I asked you, Atlas, whether you can tell me how the law of conservation of mass assists us in answering the question on the board.

Something stirred in my memory, something from grade 8 science, but I couldn't, for the life of me, remember what it actually was. "I don't know, sorry."

A satisfied expression appeared on my teacher's face. "I thought that would be the response. Next time you'll do better to try and listen, or it'll be detention."

"Yes Mrs Andrews," I said glumly. That was so embarrassing! My soulmate could've been in the room right then, listening to everything that just happened.

I know they go to this school, but we didn't say what grade each of us are in, or our names or anything. We felt as if when we met, it would be up to fate. Then again, even if they were in the room, they wouldn't know that was me. Unless they were looking into my thoughts and saw that I was thinking hard about what the law of conservation of mass is... I really hope not.

The only reason I didn't know the question in the first place was because I was listening to my soulmate ramble on about how much of a waste of time class was, and how they'd do better to be looking at random eBay dragon toys.
—-

"Atlas. Hey! Atlas!!"

"Wh-wha..?"

My friend Draco had been tapping on my shoulder and I hadn't realised.

"What- yeah?"

They sighed and looked towards Lacy. It gave her a Why do I always have to repeat myself around him kind of look before turning towards me again.

"Somethings up with you," it said. They looked slightly worried, and exchanged a glance with Lacy. "I just- you've never told us what your soulmate 'thing' is." She looked at Lacy again and took a big bite out of his sandwich.

"Oh yeah?" I said, firing up a little. "Well you've never told me yours either! I mean," I looked at Lacy, "I know yours is the black smudge thing, 'cos your entire left palm is black. But you Draco?" I said, turning back to them. "I've never seen a smudge, a timer, a tattoo, nothing. And you seem to see colours, so yours can't be the black-and-white-to-colours thing."

Lacy coughed there and I looked at her. They blushed and started spooning soup into her mouth from their thermos.

"I... I'm sorry Atlas. I- here."

Draco pulled its t-shirt away from their shoulder and I saw a small area in the shape of a hand. It was shimmering and shining, changing colour and glistening.

"So... so you have the smudge? And you've found out who it is? Who is it??" I started getting excited and I grinned at Draco.

Lacy sighed and said, "Here." She lifted up their left hand, and the place which was usually as dark as the night sky was now rainbow and shiny, just like Draco's shoulder.

I gaped at the two of them for a few seconds before yelling, "YES!!! How long have you known? How did it happen? Why didn't you tell me sooner? I need to know these things!"

"Dude calm down", Draco said, but it was smiling. "Yesterday after school, we were at my place doing homework and Lacy was looking at my laptop behind me and put her hand on my shoulder. Something warm spread through each of us from where we'd touched and Lacy gasped and showed me their hand. Then I looked at my shoulder and we realised. That's it."

"Wait so- that was the first time you two ever touched? That's crazy, haven't you known each other since-"

"Since year 4?" Lacy finished. "Yup!"

I paused. "So are you two like... together now?"

"Yeah, well..."

"You see..."

"What?" I prompted.

"We... we didn't want to. Not yet, anyway," answered Draco.

"What, why? You're soulmates aren't you?"

"Well... yeah it's just..."

"Just what?"

"You don't have your soulmate yet. And... we thought it might... might ruin the group or make you lonely or something if we started going out."

"Oh."

I sat there, thinking about nothing in particular.

Almost unintentionally, my eyes drifted up and to the right.

You here? I thought cautiously.

"Yeah... you good? I didn't hear all of that conversation, just your thoughts on whatever happened."

Yeah I'm... fine.

"Do you want to... talk about it?"

Nah I'll- I should be fine.

"Alright, but remember to text me if you want to talk. I might forget to respond so if I don't within like ten minutes of sending it just send a little reminder message."

Got it.

I drifted back to reality. Both Draco and Lacy were staring at me.

"You good?" Draco asked. "You kind of... disappeared for a while."

"I got a bit worried..." Lacy whispered.

"Yeah I'm fine, I'm all good. I was... I was talking to my soulmate."

Draco blinked. Lacy stared. "Uh," they said simultaneously.

"How... exactly?" Lacy asked.

"It's the thing that I have. A mind connection or something like that."

And I explained it. All of it. I told them everything, because they're my friends. I told them all about how funny my soulmate is, and how their thoughts jump around. I told them both about the first interaction we had and how we exchanged numbers. I told them that they go to our school, but I don't know who they are. I showed them some of our text message conversations.

I don't even know why I procrastinated telling them for so long. I think I liked the feeling of having this little secret with me, of having a person that seemed to live inside my brain.
—-

A/N Sorry about that kind of abrupt ending, I didn't know what to do.

I'm already working on the next part so expect that to be up soon!!

Love ya, have a gay day!!
-BJ