"We need to talk"

I nodded, walking into our room, turning around as Tyler closed the door behind us.

I went to kiss him, to give him a hug and apologize, but he just harshly pushed me away.

"Don't."

I held back the urge to do it again, staying quiet as Tyler clearly had something to say.

"How could you-" Tyler stopped just as he started, covering his face with his hand for a few seconds, tears trickling down his beautiful cheeks. "How could you keep something like that from me?"

"Tyler, I can explain-"

"No!" Tyler's sad expression turned angry in seconds. "You do not have the right to interrupt me right now! You do not understand what you've done to me! Do you know how hard it is to wake up every day next to the person you want to spend the rest of your life with and worrying that one day they'll tell you that you can't be with them? Do you know what that feels like?"

I shook my head no, wanting so badly to give Tyler a hug and apologize over and over until it was all okay.

"This-Your soulmark isn't something that you keep away from me, Ethan!" Tyler wiped his tears away with his hand before he continued speaking, maybe to make himself seem more strong. Even though I knew he was probably at the lowest he's ever been in his life. "Please help me understand why you did it. Otherwise, I'm going to have a hard time forgiving you."

I took a deep breath, sitting on my bed, patting the spot next to me. Tyler decided to sit on his bed instead.

"When I got my soulmark, my dad was so pissed. My brother was born with a girl's name, I was born with a boy's name. My dad told me that I was a mistake, that I was never allowed to look for or meet my soulmate as long as I lived under his roof. My mom was the one who bought the concealer for me when I was 14 in hopes that my dad would be pleased." I rubbed along my wrist as it basked in the fresh air, no longer having to be covered up. "Andrew was the only one who cared about me. He would ask me every day if I met him, what I thought he was going to be like. He was the only one who accepted me."

I managed to control the quivering in my voice.

"When I was 15, I was finishing up driver's ed and Andrew offered to take me driving before school started." I paused, choking up as I thought about this horrible story. "Our favorite song came on, it was 'Just the way you are' by Bruno Mars. We were so into singing it that I wasn't watching my surroundings 100% as I should have...There was a driver, he was texting, he accidentally went through a red light."

I closed my eyes, holding back the tears that always came.

"Andrew was on the side of impact. He broke his right arm, his right leg, almost all of the ribs on his right side, and was internally decapitated instantly. I had a cracked skull, a couple of broken ribs, a collapsed lung, and fractured my collar bone. They took us to the hospital and tried to save Andrew...He was brain dead before they started the surgery." I unconsciously let my hand drift to rest over my chest. "The ribs that I broke were what caused my lung to collapse. As they were opening me for surgery to repair it, three of my ribs punctured my heart. I was going to die in minutes if they didn't find a heart to replace it with. Fortunately, Andrew still had all functioning organs. My parents had to consent to the doctors taking Andrew's heart and giving it to me."

"Obviously the surgery was a success. My mom had to break the news to me that Andrew died in the crash when I woke up. My parents were never the same after that." Tyler got up to sit next to me, which made me feel a lot better. "I killed the one person that cared about me-"

"Ethan-"

"I did. It was my fault."

"Ethan, Andrew's death was not your fault." Tyler made me look at him, wiping tears off of my face. "I don't ever want to hear you take the blame for it."

"Andrew was the only person who cared about me. He was my only friend. My relationship with my dad only got worse after the crash. I would never live up to Andrew. He was going to be a lawyer, I wanted to be a video game developer. I was a disappointment. So, I decided to move as far away as possible once I got the chance. I guess I never got the mentality out of my head." I looked at Tyler, wondering if I should tell him more. "I wanted to tell you, there were so many times where I was going to, but, every time I tried, the horrible things that my dad had said to me would all come rolling back and I couldn't do it...I'm so sorry-"

Tyler pulled me into a hug, rubbing my back while I let it all out, kissing my head every once in a while. I calmed down eventually, I didn't realize how much time had passed.

Part of my crying was because of Andrew.

Another part was because of my dad.

The last part was that Tyler hugged me, showed me any kind of affection. I thought he would never want to see me again, screw the fact that we're soulmates. What I did to him was unforgivable.

"Could I see it?"

"See what?"

Tyler pulled away to look me in the eye.

"Your scar."

I bit my lip, thinking about all the other scars that he would see with the one he's asking to see. I hesitated for a second before pulling my shirt off.

This was the first time that I was this vulnerable with Tyler, I was so awkward about it.

When Tyler touched my surgery scar, though, it felt like he was admiring it. His touch was so gentle like I was made out of glass.

"I forgive you."

My head shot up so fast I could have gotten whiplash.

"You do?!"

Tyler smiled at me, nodding and giving me a big hug. I smiled and pulled him as close as I could.

I missed him. Even though we had just seen each other. I couldn't describe it. I guess my brain was trying to make up for the obscene amount of lost time.

"I think your scars are beautiful, Ethan."

I gasped at the compliment. No one had ever thought they were beautiful. Granted, no one ever saw them, I hid them constantly. They were probably right up with my soulmark of never being seen by the public. Add them to the list of all the things that I'm insecure about - wait, that I was insecure about.

Tyler has made me feel a lot less insecure about everything.

My acne.

My looks.

My weight.

My intelligence.

My career.

My interests.

My smile.

My laugh.

My body.

My scars.

My soulmark.

All of it.

That's the moment that I had no doubt in my mind that everything, all the crap about that magical being that knows all about our soulmates, turned out right.

I quickly pulled away, my mouth thinking before my brain.

"I'm in love with you, Tyler."