Skin Contact (Stenbrough)

1. An Unexpected Response

Bill Denbrough thought he'd find his soulmate by now. He was 18 and all his other friends had their soulmates. Unfortunately, they never responded to the consistent doodles he'd left all over his body since he was 5.

When he was 12, he had thought his soulmate was Beverly Marsh, since she had a heart on the back of her hand just like he did. He quickly found out that that was not the case when he spotted that Ben Hanscom had a much more similar mark to hers at the same time.

When he was 15 he thought that it was Mike Hanlon but debunked that theory once Mike found his soulmate a year later when his grandpa took him on a trip to Florida. The story was something out of a romance novel, Mike had written '7:30 @ IHOP' on the back of his hand out of habit, he always wrote where and when he was having breakfast since he was young. Jamie had responded the same thing. Out of pure coincidence, they had spotted each other from across the restaurant and just instantly knew.

Bill was starting to lose hope that he even had a soulmate but he continued to write. He graduated high school but he continued to write. A month into summer and he was about to write his usual 'good morning' but stopped when he saw something had already taken up the space. There, right on his arm, was a weirdly detailed drawing of a penis.

~~~~~~~

Stanley Uris was afraid of having a soulmate. It was a strange fear to have but there it was, it was almost worse that everyday without fail, he found something drawn or written somewhere on his body. His soulmate seemed nice enough but Stan never really knew what to write back. What if he wrote back but his soulmate realized they had gotten the worst soulmate possible? What if he said something wrong and his soulmate just stopped contacting him? What if they meet and they think he's ugly? There were too many what ifs so Stan never marked his body with pen all throughout his 18 years of living.

His best friend, Richie, always nagged him about never writing back to his soulmate. They'd known each other since kindergarten, so they knew each other longer than his soulmate started drawing on himself.

"It's been 13 years of this guy pining over you! You've never written him back, ever. This can't go on forever Stan!" His friend whined, an arm around his own soulmate, a hyperactive hypochondriac named Eddie Kaspbrak.

Richie had the most experience of having to wait for his soulmate to write him back. Eddie's mom had not been happy about all the jokes that had been found scattered over the small boy's body. Eddie had constantly been forced to scrub the words off in the shower for years, up until he turned 14 and finally stood up for himself. His dad finally got custody over Eddie, a much less obsessive parent who let Stan and Richie hang out at their home all the time. It was a wonder how the man had never gotten custody at first.

They were at Eddie's house now, Stan letting the couple read the daily message from his soulmate. 'I'd wait for you for a lifetime if I had to' in fancy cursive, no doubt put there with a calligraphy pen.

"That's the cutest shit I've ever seen in my motherfucking life." Eddie had spewed out when he had first read it, a pointed stare on the heart at the end of the sentence.

"How do you know it's a guy?" Stan snapped back to the present, jerking his arm away from his two friends.

"Dude, if your soulmate's a girl I'd eat my fucking shoe. You're the gayest motherfucker I know." Richie laughed

"Takes one to know one, asshole." Stan scoffed.

It was true, Richie was inexplicably and undeniably super fucking gay. Stan was surprised the boy had stayed in the closet so long, especially since Stan had been the only one to know for 5 years. After Eddie had got custody with his dad, he stopped wearing the long sleeved shirts that his mom made him wear. Richie was quick to figure out that his longtime crush was in fact his soulmate and matched up the singular doodle on both of their arms that simply just read 'R&E', it was cute and super gay and Stan would never let Richie live it down.

"Don't change the subject! When are you writing him back. He told you he turned 18 in January and you're turning 18 in three hours!"

"I don't even care man, I don't need a soulmate right now."

"Fucking liar!" And before Stan could react, Richie grabbed Stan's arm and drew a dick

"WHAT THE FUCK RICHARD!" Stan screamed, he would've lunged at Richie if it wasn't for Eddie quickly grabbing him to hold him back.

"If you weren't gonna do anything, I might as well." The other boy smirked smugly

"Dude, the first thing your soulmate's gonna see from you is a dick." Eddie pointed out, staring at the drawing, "Did you draw your own fucking penis on Stan?"

And that time, Eddie did not stop Stan from attacking the trashmouth.