Soul Mates (Tori Kelly)

Chapter 1

"Excuse me, hi. I'm sorry to bother you, but you're Tori Kelly right?"

I look up from my phone to see a young woman, maybe a couple years older than me, standing in front of me with a little girl standing shyly behind her leg. I smile brightly at the both of them and nod my head.

"Hi, yeah I am," I say as I lock my phone.

"Again, sorry to bother you, but my daughter here loves you," She says, stepping aside and placing her hand on her daughter's back. 

"You aren't bothering me, really." I look down at the little girl and this time she is staring back at me with these beautiful light, brown eyes and they remind me of my best friend's, "Hi, sweetie. What's your name?"

Her mother gives her an encouraging nudge and she looks up at her mother before returning her gaze to me. "Billie," she whispers.

"Billie, that's a beautiful name," I say as I slide out of my chair and squat down so I can be eye level with her.

"Thank you. I'm named after my dad," she says with a little more confidence.

"What? That's pretty awesome. I wish I could've been named after my dad, but he has a funny name."

"What's his name," she asks and tilts her head to side.

"Allwyn," I chuckle at Billie when she scrunches up her face.

"Yeah, that is a funny name," she says with a little giggle and I pout in adoration at how cute this little girl is.

I continue to talk with Billie and her mother, taking a bunch of selfies with them before they leave to go catch their flight. Moments like these makes all the hard work and sacrifices I have had to make worth it. I'm not going to lie, sometimes it's a little daunting knowing that there are young girls, and boys, out in the world that look up to me. It can sometimes make me feel like I'm living my life under a microscope, but I like to keep it real with my fans. In everything I put out, whether it's a new song, an interview, a snap, a tweet or a video, I want to show them the real me and thankfully that resonates with people.

I look at the time on my phone and see that I have another twenty minutes until Lynnon's plane lands. I honestly have been not so patiently waiting for this day since Lynnon told me that she was moving back to California two months ago. Finally, after five long years I'll be able to spend more than two weeks at time with her and words cannot express how ecstatic that makes me.

Lynnon and I go all the way back to sippy cups and pull-up pampers. She's my person. She's the Cristina Yang to my Meredith Grey and I honestly don't know how I would have managed life if she wasn't in mine.

Our parents are best friends and when we were two Lynnon's family moved to the same city in California that we lived in, and the rest is basically history. After we graduated high school, she told me about her plans to join the military and it crushed me. I had no idea how I was going to deal with going from being able to just walk five minutes to see her to living thousands of miles away from each other. To say that I had separation anxiety when it came to Lynnon would be an understatement, but I had to support her the way that she always supported me.

So, by the end of that summer, myself, my parents and younger brother Noah, her parents, her older brother Hendrix and her cousin Kamari saw her off to boot camp. I was a hot mess, so I threw myself into my music to keep myself occupied and it helped rekindle my passion for the art form. While I was focusing on that, Lynnon was off doing her Navy thing, traveling, and going to school. We talked as much as possible, both of us agreed to make keeping in touch a priority, no matter how crazy life got. I also got to see her when she would come home for Holidays or any other time she had leave, but I would always become a crying mess again when she had to go back.

After her four years in the Navy were over and she finished school, she decided to stay in Italy because she was offered a photojournalist job at a magazine company. After a year there, she was offered a better job back here in Cali, to no surprise since her work is amazing, so that's how I ended up waiting here in LAX.

I jump a little when my phone unexpectedly buzzes in my hand and I look to see that Lynnon text me to tell me that they landed safely and that she was on her way to baggage claim. I can't deny the giddiness that swells up inside of me and I do a little happy dance in my seat. Soon, there's a crowd of people coming from the part of the airport that Lynnon's gate was located and I stand up so I can scan the crowd for her better. Finally, towards the end of the crowd, I see Lynnon trudging along with a duffle bag thrown across her body and two large suitcase trailing behind her.

She looks up and the second I lock eyes with her she smiles so widely at me that I can see every single one of her teeth, and it makes my heart flutter which is definitely new. I shake off the feeling and return the smile. Once we're about ten feet away from each other, we both pause for an instant before we start to dramatically run towards each other in slow motion. From the corners of my eyes I can see some of the people around us glancing at us and it takes a lot of concentration on my part to not break out into a fit of giggles. 

When Lynnon is close enough, I immediately wrap my arms around her neck tightly and I feel her wrap her strong arms around me. I bury my face in the crook of her neck while we sway from side to side and I lean up on the ball of my feet slightly so I can hug her tighter. 

"I've missed you so much, you don't even understand," I whisper into her neck.

Lynnon steps away from the hug, much to my dismay, and comes face to face with me, "Trust me, Tori, I definitely understand."

The both of us just stand there staring at each other with stupid grins on our faces until a sweet, old lady, who couldn't be more than five feet tall walks up to us. "You two are a gorgeous couple. The two of you remind me of my granddaughter and her wife," she compliments with a slight shake in her voice.

"Oh, we aren't a couple. Just best friends, but that's really nice of you to say. Thank you," Lynnon steps back to put some space between us, but leaves her arm loosely hanging around my waist.

I look over at her and furrow my eyebrows before returning my gaze on the old lady and smiling at her compliment. We get this kind of thing a lot whenever we are out together and every time Lynnon responds the same way. I don't know why it bothers me, but it does. Like, why can't she just say "thank you" and leave it at that? She never seems uncomfortable with the notion of us being a couple so I could never figure out why she feels the need to explain the extent of our relationship to complete strangers that we will probably never see again.

"I'm sorry for being presumptuous then, but you know what they say? That's how it always starts. Well, I hope you lovely ladies have a great evening," she says, giving us a small wave before walking away.

"You too," we both yell after her.

"Well, you already are my soul mate, so I guess you being the love of my life too would make sense huh," Lynnon chuckles and shakes her head as she reaches behind her to grab one of her suitcases.

I reach and grab the other one and start to walk towards the exit of the airport. "Whatever. You know your mom and Kamari are going to start blowing up our phones if we don't get back soon, so move it sailor," I say slightly annoyed.

So, now the thought of us being more than friends is laughable? I roll my eyes and internally shake my head at myself because I am definitely tripping. I have no idea what is going on with me today, but I do know that I really need to get a hold of myself.

A/N: After she slayed me with her performances on Jimmy Kimmel last night, I was craving some Tori Kelly fanfiction, so I figured I'd try and write one. Feel to tell me what you think, makes suggestions and all that and thanks for reading!