The Soulmate System

18. If You and Your Soulmate Interact on a Daily Basis, Your Glow Sometimes...

Won't Immediately Go Off

"...but then he told me that he wasn't going to fight for me, or anything, and then I told him that I like you – well, he kinda picked up on that because of physical cues – and that we were Soulmates, and he left the Break Room crying. And then Amber came in and was trying to be helpful, and she wasn't, but today just really sucked," Dylan explained quickly.

Evening fell before Dylan had even noticed, and the two Soulmates, exhausted and slightly despondent, left the office that day for Bryce's flat.

Bryce slipped off his nightshirt and crawled into bed beside Dylan. "I'm so sorry. I didn't think that would happen."

The conversation naturally paused, Dylan waiting for Bryce to get comfortable before continuing on. "So what happened to you?" he asked curiously, if only to shift the spotlight away from him. "Because you don't seem so relieved about all this."

Bryce unintentionally began fiddling with his fingers. "Well, Amber and Travis were pretty clear that you needed time to, let the fact that we're Soulmates sink in." Bryce turned his head and found Dylan staring intently at him. "Then they thought that you might still be mad about me talking badly about your Glow. And Amber shared your mum's thoughts about it being funny, and..." Bryce broke eye contact, staring down at his thumbs. "...then I felt terrible because it reminds me how angry I was at myself. Then a couple people around the office congratulated me on finding my Soulmate, and I told them that it was you, and then they wished me luck."

Dylan sighed and slid into the bed, staring up at the cream-coloured ceiling. "This was a terrible idea. We should've just been straightforward and blunt."

"Why did you listen to me?" Bryce asked, glancing down at his Soulmate. "I didn't want you to go through – "

Dylan reached up to place his hand on Bryce's mouth, but wasn't watching and missed Bryce's entire being; instead, Dylan just waved his hand in the air and shushed him. "It was a bad idea. I get it. But we did it. Now..." Dylan exhaled. "...let's move slowly, okay?"

"Why can't we just walk in tomorrow and say that we were lying?" Bryce asked quickly.

Seriously contemplating the idea for a moment, Dylan quickly ran his hands over his face and mumbled, "I don't know." Propping himself up on his elbows, he looked at Bryce and asked, "What do you think we should do?"

His Soulmate threw up his hands in defeat. "No, stop listening to me. I've had bad ideas for two days straight." "Actually though. Don't listen to me. Ever again. I'm a moron," Bryce wanted to add.

Dylan frowned and sighed, flopping unceremoniously back into bed. "You don't always have bad ideas, Bryce. We just...weren't thinking, I guess."

Bryce nodded, and snuggled down next to him. "I'm still sorry."

The covers balled up in his fists, Dylan's arms suddenly shot out from the covers, as an attempt to change the topic, when he demanded loudly, "I'm cold, hug me."

"What? Dylan, we should be t – "

Dylan sat up and dropped his hands in his lap. "Please, hug me," he repeated, his tone now quiet, his eyes slightly glossed over.

Bryce obliged, mostly because it physically pained him to see Dylan's eyes beginning to water. Hand on the backside of his head, fingers buried in his hair, and breath billowing out his nose and onto Dylan's shoulder, he asked, "Status update?"

Dylan ignored the question and sank into the hug, expecting it to cure the unsettling thoughts in his head; it merely magnified them. Leaning back, he whispered, "Trust me, I didn't think Chris would do that, either. I thought he'd just sit on his hands like always."