Steve never told his parents that he could see color. He knew his dad wouldn't care much, his mom would freak out, make a big deal, call her parents, the neighbors, and probably the whole United States.
"My baby found his soulmate!" He could practically hear her screaming into the phone, while māma cried elated tears on the other end. Roger would tease him endlessly.
Yeah, he found his soulmate. He Just didn't know who it was.
You see, It's supposed to happen like this: you go through your life never seeing an ounce of color until one day you look into the eyes of your soulmate, and then boom! Color. It's this magical, fantastical moment where you find everything you've been hoping, dreaming, praying for.
Except that never happened for Steve. He didn't remember much from when the world was black and white; he's been able to see color since pre-k. He didn't even realize this was strange until he was seven years old, and his parents decided to give him the 'soulmate talk'.
"Honey," Francine began, reaching across the table to grab an uninterested Stan's hand, "one day you are going to meet someone very special-"
"As special as you, mama?" Steve had stopped scribbling on his paper and stared quizzically at his mother.
Francine gave him a soft smile, "even more special!" She gave a light tap to Steve's nose and he giggled. "You are going to meet them and they are going to change the world. Doesn't that sound nice?"
Steve's eyes grew wide, "really?"
Francine nodded. "Isn't that right Stan?" Stan took the cue and nodded along, "yep, sure is."
"Wow!" Steve had completely disregarded his crayons, this was big, no. Huge.
"They are going to make you see color!" Steve's smile faltered and he gave his mom a confused look. He already knew all the colors his teacher taught him: white, gray, and black. He guessed the other ones didn't have names. Francine continued, "color is magical, it makes the world so much prettier! Right now you see this" she picked up a dark red crayon, "in gray, but one day, when you meet your special someone, it will be red."
Steve was still confused because it wasn't grey, it was... well he didn't know what to call it. But it wasn't grey. She said it was red, maybe that was the name.
"And the best part? You are going to love them soooo much, and they are going to love you just as much! Just like mommy and daddy love each other." Steven gave her a perplexed look and grabbed the 'red' crayon. Francine gave him a sympathetic smile, "don't worry, sugar, one day you'll understand."
Steve frowned, he wanted to know now, "when?"
His mother turned to her husband and gave a loving sigh, "When you meet your soulmate."
So now eight years later at 15 years old Steve was stuck with a world bursting at the seams with color, and no soulmate. What a rip-off. He had looked tirelessly through his old elementary yearbooks, looking at every girl dreaming about them being his one true match. But inevitably it always fell through. He would hear them complain about not meeting their soulmate, or being jealous of their friend who did and now they won't stop bragging about how great he is and how wonderful color is.
It was even worse when they actually did find their soulmate. They would come to class all love struck, and everyone knew why. 'Did you hear that her and that kid on the soccer team are soulmates?" Yes, thanks to social media, everyone did.
How are you supposed to find your soulmate for a second time?
Of course, people did date, and sometimes even marry, outside of their soulmate. Hell, Haley and Francine dated tons of guys before finding Jeff and Stan. But deep down, Steve knew he couldn't bring himself to do it. He desperately want to be able to look at the girl he was with and just know that they were the right match. He wanted to know that god, or the universe, or fate, just something out there had meant for them to be together.
But how in hell is going to find them now?
*****
Snot thought he must have be the only person in the world who had been face to face with his soulmate, but still had no idea who it was. He had meet his soulmate before he even knew what a soulmate was.
He remembers the day he started to see color. He was just four years old, randomly selecting crayons from a bucket to color his paper. He had a particular habit of only using one crayon to color the entire sheet of paper with it. He would spend all his morning playtime coloring a single sheet of paper with one single color. All the other kids would run around and yell and tear down their block towers carelessly, but he sat quietly alone coloring.
One day, just as Snot was about to finish coloring his paper a light gray color, three little girls and a little boy who were previously playing with the dolls came trotting up to his table.
"Why do you color everyday? You never play with anyone." This was Sarah, a little girl with fair hair, dark eyes, and a spray of freckles across her cheeks. Snot was vaguely familiar with her because her family went to synagogue with his. She would sit next to him on the carpet as the teacher would tell them about stories and the importance of different holidays.
"I just like coloring," Snot sheepishly looked down at his paper, a little embarrassed.
Sarah smiled, "okay, then we'll color with you!" The group gathered around the table and each took a seat.
"What's your name?" A girl with dark hair, black, just like Mrs. Leslie had taught them, asked.
"It's Snot," he said shyly as his cheeks began to turn rosy. He didn't really like all this attention.
"I'm Marina!" She girl have a big grin and Snot saw that she had already lost a tooth.
"I'm Erin!" Another little girl with short choppy hair and light eyes waved at him from across the table. He gave a small wave and tried to go back to coloring.
"I'm Steve," the boy next to him talked soft and quiet. He thrusted out a hand towards Snot to shake just like his father had taught him. Snot stared at him a long moment.
"Your supposed to shake hands," still Snot kept to himself, too shy to grab the other boy's hand. Steve thought he must not have known how to shake hands. "Like this," he reached over the table and grabbed the timid boy's hand and gently shake it up and down. He smiled and let go, taking a crayon from the bucket and began to draw a dark gray dog.
Snot finally looked back down at his paper and found something strange, it wasn't light gray anymore. It was color he had never seen before. He looked around the room and noticed the unknown color in several places, especially on the baby dolls and the girls backpacks. He glanced at the other kids at the table to see their reactions, but everyone continued their absent minded scribbling.
"Woah!" Steve stared at Snot's paper wide-eyed, "that's the prettiest color ever! Can I use it? Here, you can use this one!" Steve offered another crayon in exchange for the crayon Snot had in his hand. Snot didn't want to give it up; it was so unique and different to what he had ever seen before. But Steve was smiling, friendly and soft. So Snot accepted the offer, and finished coloring the rest of the page with the crayon Steve gave him. The first page he ever made with two colors. He really liked it.
"I really like your picture," Steve had stopped drawing in favor of just staring at Snot's.
"Thanks," the introverted boy gave him a small smile, "I like it, too."
"Do you want to play with me and my friends Barry and Toshi at recess?" Snot nodded. "We can play tag!" He didn't like tag, he couldn't run very fast and it made breathing hard. But he really wanted to be Steve's friend.
"Okay."
After school he jumped off the bus and ran straight into his house to tell his mom all about his day.
"Mama! Mama!" He shouted excitedly as he shut the front door and ran to the kitchen. He found her cutting up carrot sticks and humming a song he didn't know.
"Well hello there, boychick," Mrs. Lonstein was surprised at her son's enthusiasm; he was usually so reserved and calm.
"Mama I made friends today!" He scrambled to climb on a chair and sit at the dining room table so he could show his artwork better. "We played tag and one said he liked my drawing and he's really nice and his name is Steve and-"
"Slow down, sweetheart," she placed the carrot sticks in front of him, and took a seat across the table. "Now tell me about your new friends."
Snot beamed. "Steve is really nice he let me play with him a recess and I played with Barry and Toshi. Toshi doesn't talk a lot but he's not mean so I like him. Barry is funny." He took a carrot stick from the plate and took a bite.
"Well, isn't that lovely?" Mrs. Lonstein grinned, happy that her little boy was coming out of his shell. It was time like this that kept her going. "What did you do at school today?"
"Mrs. Leslie read a book about a mouse," he replied absentmindedly focusing on his carrots. "And I learned three new colors."
"What?" She was taken back by his response, it wasn't one you would expect from a young child.
"I learned three new colors. The color of my paper," he held the paper up and handed it to his mom, "the color of the grass, and the color of Steve's shirt. It's like the color of the bus."
"Oh my god! Honey!" Mrs. Lonstein frantically got up from her chair and began to pace in the kitchen. "You found your b'shert! Oh! Wow! I don't really know what to do here, I didn't even know you could find them this young, I know I sure didn't. Hell, I didn't at all!" She laughed slightly nervously to herself. She tired to her son who was eating his snack, unaware he let the biggest news of his life fall out of his mouth and into the air. She didn't know how to react.
"Was she pretty? Is she Jewish? Oh, how would you know you just met her. It doesn't matter anyway. God, I hope she's Jewish, you grandpa would've had a fit. It doesn't matter. It she pretty? Do you like-"
"Slow down, mama," he used the same calming, soft voice she did earlier.
"You met your soulmate today." She stated it as it were evident to him what this meant. He gave her a quizzical look, then continued to eat his snack.
"What's her name?" She was just hoping he could understand what she was talking about.
"Whose?" He didn't
"You're soulmate, you're b'shert , the one that made you see the new colors."
"I don't know, mama." He shrugged, confused at her question, he saw the colors on his own, nobody made him.
She sat back down, taking his small hands in hers, "Did you meet any nice girls today?"
He grinned again, "Oh, yeah! They were nice, too."
She sighed in relief. "Good. One of them has to be your soulmate."
Snot still didn't know who the hell it was. Marina moved away in the fourth grade, Sarah was nice but didn't usually want anything to do with him, and he's pretty sure Erin is a lesbian.
He never told anyone about his predicament, not a single person. What could he do about it? Text them "hey can you see color because sure can and you just might be the reason why"
He hadn't even told Steve yet. He loves his best friend, but he could be so dramatic. Snot was afraid Steve would hunt these girls down and interrogate them until he found out which one it was. Not only would that be embarrassing, but his soulmate would think he was a total desperate creep. Which he totally wasn't.
God, he hates thinking about this, but He could stop himself. Why couldn't he just stop thinking about every negative thing in his life?
He needed a distraction. Anything.
His phone buzzes from the nightstand beside his bed. "Sleep over tonight ??? :)))" Sometimes Steve has the best timing.
"Yea, I'll be there in 20"
Steve felt incredibly grateful for Snot coming over. He was so sick and tired of having to go to school and see all the gross couple who already found their soulmate and we're just so in love~. He liked to pretend he wasn't jealous whatsoever, but he was. All these people were out there enjoying their soulmate, hugging, kissing, probably having sex, and picking out stupid fucking baby names for when they had their perfect little family. It's so dumb.
He kinda wishes he was doing that with his soulmate right now. But he wasn't.
But that doesn't matter right now, right now all that mattered was his best friend was coming over.