LGBT Oneshots ✅

The things we could've done

The words appeared on Alex's eighteenth birthday, like they did for everyone, and he remembered staying up all night to see them write themselves on his skin. There'd been a sharp kind of prickle, not too dissimilar to the feeling of a quill on his skin, and he'd known immediately what the pain on his collarbone was. He could hardly keep still in front of the bathroom mirror as he waited for the word to become legible but, when they did, he saw a sentence written in a deep crimson red on his right clavicle.

Hey, Alex, we're going to get you through this.

He traced the words carefully with his fingers, grinning like a loon, and finally left the bathroom to show them to his family. His parents weren't soulmates, though they'd always been positive about both soulmate and non-soulmate love, and were ecstatic he had words. His older sister, Bianca, already engaged to her soulmate, was equally excited.

"I knew you had a soulmate out there." She said, pulling him into a hug. "I knew it."

Alex hadn't been so sure, quietly terrified he'd be one of those without words. It wasn't a death sentence by any means but he was a romantic at heart and he'd always wanted someone to love and be loved by. It was the result of having an older sister and only female cousins, he'd swear, but maybe it was because of who he was, too.

Later, when he was in bed, he said the words aloud to himself before he fell asleep. The words weren't particularly comforting, and it made him wonder what kind of situation he'd be in when they first met, but it couldn't be too bad if it meant he got his soulmate at the end of it. Whatever happened wouldn't matter because his soulmate was going to get him through it.

Whenever something bad happened, he'd always rub the words on his collarbone for reassurance. When his dog ran away, when his mum had her health scare and even when he made the stupid mistake of falling asleep on a train and ending up in Portsmouth, it was his good luck charm. He relied on it to know that, no matter what, there was something great waiting for him.

It was funny, really, how he'd already come to love this anonymous person.

"Don't you ever worry, though?" Bianca asked. "You've put her up on a pedestal before you've even met her."

"She's my soulmate." Alex said.

"That doesn't mean everything is sunshine and rainbows."

Bianca wasn't having a good time. Alex didn't know the exact details of it, she hadn't shared it with him and he hadn't wanted to ask, but he knew there were problems between her and her fiance. Namely, why they were still engaged four years after the proposal.

So, carefully, he said, "I know it's not. I'll love them regardless."

Bianca sighed at him. "Just don't get hurt, Alex."

"I won't."

He knew Bianca was warning him for a reason, and he knew he shouldn't get too invested in a person he hadn't met, but knowing something didn't make it any easier. Soulmates were romanticised in the media and in Hollywood. There were the one person who was meant to fill in all those empty spaces, the one who made you realise why no one else had worked out, the happy ever after.

Alex had never wanted anything else. He'd been so certain that he'd never dated in high school or university because he'd never seen the point. It wasn't fair, either, to be with someone knowing he could never see a future with them.

So, when he'd gotten his invite to his sister's wedding, he'd gone stag.

It was a beautiful affair.

Bianca was wearing their mum's dress, walking down the aisle with their father's arm linked in hers. She'd always been beautiful in Alex's eyes but he didn't think he'd ever seen her look happier than she did now in this moment. Her groom, John, stood at the right side of the alter, was staring at her, struck and so ridiculously happy.