Words Have Two Meanings

V

Lydia was eighteen when she fell in love with Naomi.

She was a regular at the bookstore, always reading the sad romance novels without a happy ending and speaking of her hate for older music. Everything about her was a red flag, a sign that Lydia shouldn't approach her, that nothing good rested ahead on the road paved by Naomi, but Lydia drove down it without her headlights on.

She never showed Lydia her soulmark, she said it didn't define who she was or where she was going, and Lydia respected that, but Naomi made it very very clear that she wasn't Lydia's soulmate.

Naomi wanted to write the songs that other people had tattooed on them, she wanted to be the soundtrack for all of the cheesy rom-coms, but she never wanted to be the star. Lydia loved that about her, she thought. She loved that she wouldn't let something as silly as a tattoo stop her from falling in love.

Only that's not what was happening at all.

Over the course of their relationship and the angry breakup that followed, it became clear that Naomi was only looking for some inspiration for her music. She wasn't with Lydia because she liked her, they were together because she was easy for love, and Naomi needed Lydia to help her music along. She wanted the soulmarks to come between them, and she wanted it to hurt them both.

That's not the last time somebody hurt Lydia.