Race was jealous of people with freckles. The way they splatter across peoples face like little sets of stars. Freckles, like constellations. Sometimes they're bunched together so close you can barely see the space between. Other times they are so far apart you wouldn't even think they're related, but they are. They always are.
The first time your soulmate kisses you, you get a freckle the next day in the exact spot their lips met your skin. It's permanent, the freckle never fades, or disappears. Every kiss after that also gives you a freckle, but it's temporary, fading after a week or so. Some people had clusters of freckles on their cheeks from where their significant other kissed them as they left for work. Other people had individual freckles littering their whole body. Some people never got their freckles. That's what Race was afraid of.
Race only decided to take art so that he would have at least one class with Jack. He didn't expect to fall head over heels in love with the boy that sat across from him. He wore red almost every other day, and he had a sleeveless striped shirt that he wore so often that you could barely even tell the difference between the two hues anymore. His face would often mimic the expression of the character he was drawing, as if he was using his own face as a reference. He didn't have any freckles, not that Race was paying attention to that.
As Race was packing up for the day, he noticed Jack walking over to his table. Race smiled and gave him a small wave. Jack didn't seem to notice, as his eyes were fixed on the boy across him in red.
"Hey Spot, you still on for tonight? Davey wants to know if he needs to make extra pasta," Jack asked, pulling his phone out of his back pocket.
"Oh yeah, but I'm not gonna be able to get there until five, I have to drive my sister to practice," the boy, who Jack called Spot, replied.
"Cool! I'll see you then," Jack smiled, walking out of class.
Race quickly stuffed the rest of his things into his bag, running after Jack.
"Hey, what's going on tonight?" Race asked, putting his hand on Jacks shoulder. He had a lot of freckles. Ever since he and Davey got together, Race hadn't seen either of them with a bare face.
"With Spot? He's coming over and we're gonna work on our projects together."
"You know him?" Race asked.
"Yeah, we've been friends since elementary school, have I never introduced you two?"
"No," Race took a pause, noticing that he and Jacks feet were stepping in time, "can I come over tonight?" he asked, looking Jack in the eyes.
"As long as you don't get in our way," Jack sighed.
Not that he would admit it, but Race made sure to dress a little nicer than normal, even though he knew it might be stained with acrylic paint. It was a sacrifice he was willing to make. Race watched from the couch as Jack and Spot working on their projects, chatting occasionally. He had only ever heard spot talk a few times. His laugh was beautiful. His nose scrunched up when he smiled.
Race was broken from his thoughts when he heard Davey call for him from the kitchen.
He helped Davey fix the bowls of pasta, tomato sauce and parmesan for Jack and Davey, and Alfredo for Spot and himself. For some reason, the fact that they liked their pasta the same way made him inexplicably happy.
As Race was grabbing the forks out of the drawer, Davey started to speak.
"So what's up with you and Spot?"
"He sits across from me in class," Race responded, not wanting to meet Davey's line of sight.
"Yeah but, do you have, like, a thing for him?" he asked, raising his eyebrows in amusement.
"I mean, he's pretty, but it would never work out, he probably already met his soulmate," Race replied, idly twirling some of the pasta on a fork. Davey just chuckled in response.
Race's visits to Jack and Davey's apartment became more frequent over the next month, and he and Spot got closer and closer. They would chat during class. Their conversations felt so natural and it felt like they could go on for hours without interruption. At one point, Race couldn't remember the exact date, they exchanged numbers. At first they only texted each other to ask about homework, or other school related things, with a meme or two thrown in on a rare occasion. But soon they started to continue conversations that they started in class, letting them go on and on until one of them inevitably fell asleep.
Their project, the one they have been working on for the past month, was due tomorrow. The prompt was 'appreciation'. That's it. The teacher gave them one word and a month to make it. Needless to say, Race struggled with it. Even though it wasn't his usual style, he decided to go with an abstract painting, opting for oil paints so there would be a little texture. It was a 16" x 20" canvas covered in a slightly grayish crimson with messy stripes that were a mere shade darker than the rest. There were some purples and blues mixed into it to add some depth and interest, but the stripes were the main focal points.
Despite working on his project with Spot and Jack almost twice a week for a month, they had never actually seen each others paintings, and that wasn't a problem, to Race at least. This was their last night painting together, and Race had a goal. Every time they would paint at Jack's apartment, when Spot would leave, he gave both Jack and Davey a kiss on the cheek. Why was Race excluded from this? His goal was to find out.
As he was packing up his supplies, carefully grabbing his painting, making sure not to touch any of the paint that he knew wasn't going to be dry before class tomorrow. He watched as Spot kissed the cheek of both Jack and Davey. Spot shuffled out of the apartment, door slamming behind him. Race quickly threw his backpack on, muttered a quick goodbye to the couple, and hurried to catch up with Spot before he got to his car.
Right before Spot was about to unlock his car, Race made his presence known.
"Hey," Race announced.
Spot jumped in surprise before turning to look at Race, "holy shit you scared me," he laughed, "what's up?"
Race didn't really think this through. He decided to be straight forward, he took a deep breath and asked, "why do you always give Jack and Davey a kiss on the cheek before you leave, but never me?"
Spot's face seemed to turn half a shade darker, "I never knew you wanted me to," he said looking at his feet as if they were the most interesting thing in the world.
"Well I do," Race chuckled, taking a small step closer to the shorter boy.
"Okay," Spot said through a small smile. He stood up straighter, grabbed Race's hands in his own and kissed the pale boys cheek. As Spot pulled away, he made sure to look Race in his eyes before letting go of his hands. Race watched as he got in his car and drove away.
Spot had very soft lips, Race noted.
Race squeezed bubblegum toothpaste onto his toothbrush, the mint toothpaste was always too spicy for him. As he watched himself in the mirror, a small brown spot stuck out on his cheek. Thinking it was just dirt or something, he tried to flick it off. It didn't budge. He spit out his toothpaste and quickly rinsed his mouth.
Shit.
This tiny dot made him both more happy than he's ever been and filled him with so much dread that he just wanted to go back to his room and sleep through the day. His heart was racing so fast it could probably win the Indy 500. His face felt ten degrees hotter than normal. He ran to the kitchen and grabbed a water bottle that he downed in less than a minute.
After about ten minutes of panic, he grabbed his backpack and canvas and begrudgingly made his way to class. The first thing he noticed when he got to class was Spots pale crimson shirt lined with faded stripes. Of course he had to wear that shirt. This wasn't gonna make presenting his painting any easier. When he sat down, he was gonna at least say hi to Spot, but the teacher immediately started class.
The presentations seemed to go by in a flash, before he knew it, it was Races turn. He slowly crept to the front of the room, placing his canvas on the easel set up there. Before he started talking, he met Spots gaze, he had an expression on his face that Race couldn't seem to read.
Race Started talking.
"I had a hard time deciding what to do for this. Appreciation is such a vague prompt," Race was the only one to laugh, "but there was- is-" he corrected himself, "someone that I appreciate a lot. When I'm with them, I feel alive. That's worth a lot," Race saw Spot smile, "I just hope they appreciate me as much as I appreciate them."
Race walked back to his seat. As he sat, he noticed spot looking at him, a smile dusting his face.
"Is that new?" Spot asked, pointing to Races cheek.
Race brought his hand to his face and responded, "yeah. Yeah it is." he smiled.
