(Y/N) - Your name
(Y/LN) - Your last name
(Y/FD) - Your favourite drink
(Y/FS) - Your favourite song
•Reader: Gender not specified?
•Warnings: A couple of swear words (also quite a long imagine,, sorry - I can't write short things!!)
•Word Count: 6847
A/N
The reader writes a song in this for their music course, but because I'm not the best at writing music I'm just going to use someone else's song. The song I'm using is called 'Whispers' by Passenger (the guys who wrote 'Let Her Go' and it's one of my favourite songs of his that I think would fit well with the story. I've put it above next to Josh's photo of you what to hear how it actually sounds apart from the few lyrics that I've mentioned.
Anyway, the story's fanfiction after all, nothing here is real (except Josh) - but I just thought I'd mention that. x
Y/N's POV
I woke up early on Monday and I was not happy. "Early on a Monday" just wasn't a phrase I was fond of.
I begrudgingly got out of my warm bed and made my way towards the bathroom so that I could have a shower. It didn't take me long to get ready and I didn't bother with makeup either. I just had the feeling that today was not going to be my day.
I got dressed in what I could find on my floor; an old AC/DC shirt, black ripped jeans and an old studded belt of mine that I hadn't seen since high school. I chucked my hair up in a messy bun and threw myself back on my bed. I reached for my phone to call my best friend so that he could give me a ride to our University.
"Hey Jon," I greeted him through the phone, "I'm ready for you to take me."
"Christ Y/N, there's no need to get so excited."
"I'm sorry, but this last semester is going to kill me, I can feel it."
"Well, cheer your ass up before you get in my car because I want to keep up our tradition of shouting along to songs on The way, not watch you mope."
I smiled to myself; I wanted that too, in all honesty.
"I'll try my best Jon, I'll see you soon?"
"On my way, Grumpy."
The call ended and I sat up, making my way downstairs to grab a glass of water and a breakfast bar, not bothering to eat much because I knew that Jon and I would go to Starbucks before our first class.
One thing I loved about the music course that Jon and I did was that the teacher never really minded when we showed up as long as we did the work set, so we often showed up late and worked on songs or other coursework. Of course, Jon and I got very good grades, we were both very laid back about the subject but were still passionate about it.
I was brought out of my thoughts by the sound of a car beeping outside. I smiled at Jon's pathetic horn sound and picked my keys off of the countertop that I had previously been leaning against. I walked out of my apartment and locked the door before walking down the small flight of stairs to get outside.
As soon as I had left the building, my eyes met Jon's beat up Honda Civic and ran to get into the passenger seat.
"Starbucks?" Jon asked with a smirk.
"Starbucks." I confirmed with a nod and a smirk to match his.
___
Jon pulled up to the coffee shop's drive through window and ordered me Y/FD and a birthday cake pop. He then ordered himself something too. I smiled at the subtle birthday gift.
Yesterday had been my 21st birthday and I had ignored it as usual, but Jon insisted he would get me something for the occasion, even though he knew I didn't celebrate. He turned to look at me smugly, as if to say 'Ha, you can't technically consider it birthday related, because it's just a flavour' and he was right. I poked my tongue out at him jokingly and patiently awaited the arrival of my strange morning snack.
Once Jon had received our things and given me my small ball of birthday cake, we were back on the road. I sipped my drink before turning the radio up and humming along to whatever was playing. Not quite in the mood to bellow song lyrics out of the car window.
"How's Cassie doing?" I asked my friend, laughing at the sudden blush that had covered his entire face at the mention of his soulmate. I didn't need an answer to know that he was more in love than he could have possibly imagined. I immediately found myself drawn to the intricately drawn lily on the inside of his forearm. I then found myself absentmindedly tracing my fingers over the large feather that was on my lower shoulder. I didn't know why I always covered it with the sleeve of my shirt, it wasn't a very clever way of finding my soulmate, but I was afraid of finding them. After all, Jon had known Cassie for about a month before she told him they were soulmates because she was mad at him for accidentally throwing a paper airplane at her head during a lecture we all had last semester. Who was to say that soulmates were even real things? The situation confused and scared me.
We drove in a peaceful silence for a while until Y/FS came on the radio. My eyes lit up at the sound and Jon and I looked at each other before breaking out into song. Jon and I were usually quite good singers and our voices harmonised well with each other's in class projects, but our morning sing-a-long sessions did not follow that constant. For the rest of the journey to the university, we sang at the top of our lungs all the way up until we arrived on campus.
We jumped out of the car, laughing and talking loudly the whole the way into the building and into our usual room, excited to make our final project before we got our degrees and were able to pursue something exciting.
However as soon as we opened the door to the classroom we were not met by the sight of our old professor, but instead by a young looking man that could only have been a few years older than most of the class. Jon and I stopped in our tracks out of embarrassment - we had no idea that a new teacher would be here. Was he even a teacher? Maybe he was a substitute or was here for work experience? One of his arms was drenched in tattoos, which wasn't something any of our previous teachers had donned, as well as having a head full of fluffy pink hair.
"Sorry we're late... there was um... traffic?" Jon tried to excuse the pair of us before I pulled him into the seats at the back and sat down.
"Nothing to worry about at all, it's a new semester!" The man said cheerfully, clearly not worrying too much about our previous absence. I took a deep breath and smiled abashedly at Jon.
"I'm Mr Dun by the way!" He said still smiling, "Your previous teacher had an accident over the holidays so I'm here to fill in for him until you graduate." Mr Dun explained. "I only just finished my teaching course myself so I gladly accepted the short term position, but I hope that you can bear with me and still work properly on whatever you were doing last time."
The room was filled with pleasant nods and murmurs of agreement, clearly liking the consistency of carefree music teachers and choosing not to complain about the man's clear lack of experience. He was right after all, nobody really had that much more to do so it didn't matter if he wasn't the best of the best.
"He sounds great so far," Jon leant over and whispered to me as Mr Dun sat down on the desk. I nodded in agreement as I suddenly noticed something he'd forgotten.
I cleared my throat and raised my hand.
"The register, Sir." I pointed out kindly, not wanting him to receive an angry email from the people in charge of the university on his first day. I watched as a sudden realisation hit him. (A/N- I'm English and don't know the term for 'register' in American, I know 'roll call' is used but it doesn't sound like it fits to me so sorry about that x)
"Oh yeah right! I forgot that we had to do those, thank you miss." He said, somewhat amused, "And please, everyone here can call me Josh. It feels weird being called "Sir" doesn't it? Or is that unprofessional?" He laughed nervously as he loaded a document on the desk's computer and proceeded to read out the names of the people in the class.
As he was doing so I noticed his straight posture sat on his chair, then how strong his arms looked compared to the fact that he was teaching.
"Drummer?" I asked Jon as he looked at me, back at Mr D- no, Josh, and then back at me. He nodded in agreement and answered his name as it was called. I played quite a lot of instruments myself but never even attempted to play the drums, I had always thought that they required too much stamina and precision for someone as clumsy and not-strong as me.
Once the register was finished and had been successfully sent off to wherever registers go, he pretty much let us do whatever we wanted. Jon and I were working on a song to perform for our final practical assessment, we hadn't really picked a genre or anything yet so we were both just fiddling around with chords on guitars and trying to pick a vague tune for what we wanted. My notebook sat next to me, covered in pencil scribbles of both music notes and possible lyrics that I had abandoned or left unfinished for inspiration purposes. My feet were propped up on the chair infant of me as I lazily tried to remember different guitar solos for various songs. Every time I switched song Jon would hum a harmonising tune. This was a tactic we often used for inspiration but nothing was working.
"Can you even think of a topic you want the song to be about? Why can't we just write a good old fashioned love song huh?" Jon whined tiredly.
"Generic." I replied shortly. Not wanting to force myself to write and sing about a topic that I had no experience in.
Jon huffed in exasperation as he drummed lazily on his acoustic guitar, creating a nice sounding pat with a slight echo. I tried to match his drumming with a small strumming pattern and some fairly basic chords, looking at my friend with my eyebrow raised, wondering if this counted as progress. We continued the pattern long enough to have it memorised so that Jon could write it down.
"That's something. We did something." He smiled to himself.
Finally. I thought. I wasn't used to a lack of inspiration, it was frustrating me and I was glad that we had at least started experimenting with tunes.
Out of the corner of my eye I could see Josh approaching us curiously. I wondered if he'd be any help towards the song at all, not knowing of his musical ability. Jon apparently had the same thought process as me as soon he was tiredly waving over our new teacher.
"You're a drummer, right sir- Josh that is?"
Josh looked taken aback by Jon's knowledge but nodded anyways, his eyes darting back and forth between me and my partner. I smiled softly as I started strumming along to the same chords as before, occasionally switching up the strum pattern but more or less keeping it the same so that it was easy to follow. His eyes watched my hand movements for a few moments before turning back to Jon and realising what he was about to ask.
"Have you got any input on what we could add to this... well, this train wreck?" He asked lightheartedly. Josh listened to what I was playing for a few more seconds and then pulled up a chair to softly drum on. The rhythm was much more complex than what Jon had been doing a minute before but fit perfectly with what I was now playing. I looked over to Jon incredulously as he turned his guitar over and started to finger pick a slight melody that added to the overall vibe of the song. His face lit up in excitement as he grabbed his notebook and scribbled down everything furiously whilst Josh and I continued to play, watching him expectantly.
"Got it!" He yelled victoriously before beaming up at the substitute. I paused my playing so that I could thank him.
"Thank you so much Josh, we really needed that ." I smiled at him warmly and finally took a proper look at his face. His smile lit up his whole face, making his dark brown eyes squint and his straight teeth show. His pink hair was fluffy and short with hints of black roots coming through and his face was clean shaven; he really had only just finished his degree, he looked like he could only be around 25 years old.
"I'm glad I could help two such talented people, I wish you luck with the rest of it... Jon and Y/N right?" We nodded and he smiled at the pair of us, his eyes meeting mine for a brief second before darting away quickly and turning around to keep an eye on some other students. But as he turned away my eye caught sight of something that alarmed me greatly. My eyes widened in shock and disbelief as my mouth opened and closed, not knowing what to say. Jon obviously noticed my very sudden change in behaviour and looked at me full of concern, my focus still almost entirely on Josh.
"Y/N? Y/N what is it? You look like you've just seen a ghost!" Jon said worriedly.
"Jon... look at his arm... Josh's arm... with the tattoos... look at his shoulder!" I finally managed to get out.
Jon's eyes followed my line of vision before stopping at the hem of his t-shirt sleeve and he gaped at it too, confirming that I wasn't making up what I was seeing.
"Shit Y/N, he's got your tattoo!" I clamped my hand around his mouth as I begged him to be quiet. I was beyond embarrassed, not to mention confused. My soulmate was my teacher?
I released by grip and sank back into my chair, holding my head in my hands. I was fucked.
"That's insane. It's the stuff you read in books - it couldn't be more perfect, you're both only here for this last semester and you'll get to know each other really well!" I looked at my best friend and was shocked to see that he was genuinely excited by the fact that my soulmate... was. My. Teacher.
"Jon, you're such a hopeless romantic that it hurts. How on earth am I supposed to deal with this? I can't tell him!" I explained to him.
"You wouldn't have to tell him necessarily, just wear a tank top or something - let him see it for himself. Remember, he's your soulmate Y/N!"
"He's my teacher."
"Not for much longer, and it's not exactly illegal to have a relationship with your student, right?"
I sighed in defeat, not wanting to continue the conversation whilst he was in the room. I was shocked that something like that would happen. I would have been perfectly fine finding soulmate in a book store, or a music shop, or in my class as a student. Not having to be in love with my teacher. I groaned painfully before picking up my guitar again to try and finish the music for the song. Obviously I wanted him to know - he was my soulmate; he was supposed to. Although part of me secretly wished that he wasn't, that maybe his tattoo sleeve contained his actual soulmate tattoo and that the feather was something he got done himself.
To put myself at rest, I convinced myself that this was what was happening. I didn't want my soulmate to be my teacher. It was awkward, messy, and I didn't want to be the star of a stupid high school fantasy story.
___
By the end of the week Jon and I had made very little progress with our song. The music had developed slightly but we were both stumped on the lyrics. I had begged Jon to write about Cassie to get it over with but he refused as he would only be singing harmonies and not lead. I had guessed that me singing to Cassie would be a little weird but was frustrated that we couldn't take the easy way out of song writing.
It was now last period on a Friday and I sat hunched over my notebook as Jon played around with melody ideas. We had both quickly agreed to not mention my tattoo and to get the semester over with before I did anything about it. At this point I was almost sure that his feather was just a coincidence and had recovered from the initial shock.
Josh was busy most lessons helping other students with their song writing and music composure. I wasn't sure how much he could help with my friends who were composing classical music but it looked like he was trying his best.
I focused back on the blank page in front of me.
I was beginning to feel helpless, I had scribbled a few lines here and there but none of them were very good. I had never been the best lyricist, as much as Jon like to disagree, and I was completely stumped. I hadn't even settled on a theme for the song.
I pondered about writing about not being able to write. It wasn't the best idea, but it had also been done before. I couldn't think of anything original. A love song would be easy but I had no inspiration for that at all, especially since the song was sounding upbeat at the moment and I had no happy encounters with love.
I decided to groan loudly in frustration and carry on going next lesson when my brain would restart.
Apparently my annoyed sound drew the attention of a certain teacher who came walking our way. I mentally facepalmed myself for being so dramatic.
"Lyric issues?" He asked me with a smirk as he leant against the desk to look at my notepad.
I huffed and nodded. Why was I finding writing so difficult all of a sudden?
"I don't know how much I can help with that really, my friend was always the one who was good with lyrics." He frowned and shook his head, almost disappointed that he couldn't help, "Sorry Y/N."
I looked at him and smiled. We still had plenty of time to write and record the song, I decided not to let it trouble me too much.
"It's not a problem Josh, I'll get it in the end. Creative block can't last forever!"
He chuckled at my optimism before his eyes met mine, I broke the eye contact immediately. I didn't want to blush or smile or give anything away that we were more than what we were. If we were anything at all. Who knows what that tattoo was? But then, why was I always so flushed in his class?
I shook off the thought and stuffed my notepad in my bag as Josh returned to his desk. Once I looked up, Jon was looking at me like an excited puppy.
"I smell love in the air!" He whispered loudly, clapping his hands together in glee. I rolled my eyes and punched him lightly on the shoulder before picking up his scribbled notes to test out what he'd come up with.
___
Another couple of weeks went by and it was safe to say that Jon and I probably weren't going to fail the songwriting part of our course. We were still in the midst of studying for finals and whatnot but the song was actually going somewhere this time. I had almost written all of the lyrics and the basic soundtrack had been written. We just had to decide what extra instruments we wanted in it and other additional sounds. I was proud to say the least, not to mention the fact that I had managed to forget about Josh recently.
There was just no way he was my soulmate - that would be weird. Right?
Maybe I just didn't want it to be true. I was scared of love after all, what if soulmates weren't actually a thing? Who decided to mark two strangers and call it destiny? It didn't make sense.
So no. Josh wasn't my soulmate. Maybe no one was. It was more logical that way, to me at least. I didn't care what evidence was put in front of me.
"Jon Walker, Y/N Y/LN. My class's loudest students!" I heard the very man I had just been thinking about Greer is warmly.
We both looked at each other, smirking at our reputation. I knew no one minded how loud we usually were, and I was happy that Josh didn't mind our loud talking and laughing in his class either.
"Hey!" We said simultaneously.
Josh smiled brightly at us and dragged a chair towards us so he could sit down. Jon wiggled his eyebrows at me subtly but I rolled my eyes and dismissed it. I wasn't in the mood for his games today. I was enjoying the progress we were making.
"I feel like I haven't checked in on you guys too much recently - which is strange because you definitely draw the most attention to yourselves. How's it coming?" He rambled excitedly.
I laughed at his eagerness to see how we were getting along and pulled out the files on Jon's laptop with messy recordings of melodies, general tune and vocals.
The pink-haired man skimmed over the folder of recordings and looked at the two of us. His eyes lingering on mine for a while before I spoke up.
"I finally got those lyrics. I'm still tweaking them but time helps." I tapped my notebook absentmindedly, drawing Josh's attention to it. He looked at my unusually scrawled handwriting and read what I'd written so far. His lips parting slightly and his brow furrowing as he took in all of the words.
Jon nudged my foot with his and smirked at me devilishly. I kicked him back and cleared my throat to get Josh's attention.
He snapped out of his trance and beamed at me.
"I knew you'd get there eventually! And it looks amazing so far guys, I look forward to listening to it once it's finished!"
Although he was speaking to the both of us, his gaze remained fixed on me and my notebook. Then, he got up and left.
As soon as he did, Jon leapt up to sit by my side in the chair Josh had previously been occupying.
"You can't tell me that you don't feel a connection?" He whispered loudly to me.
"Jon. Enough of this. There's nothing to connect." I whispered back, furiously motioning between myself and Josh - who was now talking to another small group of people.
"Honestly Y/N! He was all over you! He wouldn't have noticed if I had started playing the trumpet!" He whispered to me, grinning in a mad disbelief.
"Jon. You're delusional." I muttered before picking up a nearby keyboard and setting it on my lap, ignoring whatever else my best friend was going to try to add.
He gut the message and returned to his seat, shaking his head and tutting.
The rest of the lesson soon melted back into our usual chatter, but I couldn't shake the feeling of someone's eyes on me for the rest of the session.
___
Another three weeks passed by and every day Jon was getting more and more adamant that Josh was indeed my soulmate. All it took was the simple glance towards each other or the brushing of hands as he walked past to set Jon off in to a frenzy of "See! See!"s.
Don't get me wrong, I loved Jon dearly; but he was getting on my last nerve. I told him that. Did it make him stop?
No.
Of course not.
Still, I tolerated it. Like the good person I am, and that he is not.
The lyrics were now finished and we were now agreeing on the instruments to use. So far we had an acoustic guitar, some violins, maybe some brass?, drums of course, layered vocals in the back and the ear was to be decided on if we needed anything else.
I didn't want to do a love song, and had stuck by that. I wasn't sure what you would call what I had written. But I was proud of it nonetheless.
I had written it in a fit of tears in the corner of a small bar when I wasn't feeling very well mentally.
I had walked to the bathroom as the familiar salty water trickled down my face and I hid in a bathroom stall. There was nothing on me except my notebook and my pen, not to mention every inch of stress that was weighing down on my shoulders. But I had written it. And it was sounding beautiful.
___
The following week, Jon had finally shut up. I think that he could see that his words were getting nowhere and was more focussed on the work.
This semester would be short due to the fact that we were leaving after getting our music degrees. Neither of us knew where to go from there, but we were going to do it together.
The song had been recorded and nearly completely ready to hand in, we just had to run over it a couple of more times.
Jon and I now spent our music lessons chatting and laughing, occasionally having conversations with our other classmates and Josh.
Aside from studying for our written exams, there wasn't much to do. So it was kind of nice when our favourite pink haired person came up to us and asked for us to perform our finished song live next week. We were excited to say the least.
I loved performing live, especially with Jon. Sometimes we would play small gigs in restaurants and coffee shops as background music. More than anything, I loved sharing what I had created. I liked the feeling of people watching me translate my emotions into words and hearing all that feeling. It was refreshing and soul cleansing.
___
After a couple of days of rehearsing, Jon and I were ready to perform. We had been told that this could get us extra credit for our grade which was helpful. If I failed this course, I had no backup plan.
With that said, we set up what little equipment we would need. I was set on the microphone whilst Jon sat next to me with a guitar. The rest of the music was just going to be a recording of what we had been created so that we wouldn't have to do much live. The song wasn't upbeat, it was just meaningful, so we connected to what we did best and let the rest of the music do its own thing.
Josh came in as we were plugging in the amps to wish us good luck. I quite liked having him around, not that I'd tell Jon that. Josh just wasn't a typical teacher. He was fun to be around and easy to talk to, his unprofessionalism kept him grounded but he was still there when we needed help.
The time came for when we had to perform. There wasn't any adrenaline rushing through my veins today. I felt at peace. I had complete confidence with this song, the lyrics pumped through my blood and echoed through my ears. It wanted to be shared and I couldn't wait for people to hear it.
Taking a deep breath, I began to sing.
Well, I've got open eyes
And an open door
But I don't know what I'm searching for.
I should know by now.
I melted into the stage and allowed my eyes to flutter closed. In this moment, it was just me and the song. It was the first time anyone had heard it, and the first time hearing a song is always something special. I wanted other people to feel what I felt.
Well, I've a big old heart.
This I know for sure,
But I don't know what my love is for
I should know by now.
As the music grew stronger, I took a deep breath. I didn't take any notice of what I was writing when I wrote it. When I came back to look at the lyrics, I guessed that this was me admitting to my fear of opening up to being loved. And my fear of having to love the unknown.
Well, I'll wait 'till light
So I can wait some more
'Till I can't remember what I came here for
But I can't leave now
Memories of sitting in the empty bathroom for hours flooded my head, how I sat there pointlessly, as if my purpose would hit me suddenly.
All the hopelessness I'd ever felt, all the strength I'd ever built up, all the confusion and hurt and hope and pain came out in this song.
My voice remained steady.
'Cause I've a light that shines
And a love so pure
But I don't know what to use them for
I should know by now
That was the truth; I should know by now. I should have figured things out. My love life. My career. My thoughts. My emotions.
I continued singing and singing and singing and singing. My eyes were still closed tightly shut. I knew everyone's eyes were on me. I didn't mind that, but I didn't want to see them back. For some reason, I was overcome with a newfound emotion and I didn't want to let it go yet.
Oh everyone's filling me up with noise
I don't know what they're talking about!
You see all I need's a whisper,
In a world that only shouts.
As the final few notes played, I let my eyes flutter open gently. My classmates were looking at me astonished and proud. I beamed at them as they started clapping, turning to Jon who seemed just as happy as I was. As I turned back to the crowd, my eyes met Josh's. His eyes twinkled with awe and his mouth hung open slightly as he clapped furiously. I laughed and he chuckled back lightly at me, not breaking eye contact once. Before I let myself blush too much (from the heat of the performance, obviously) I took a small bow and then left to get a bottle of water.
Josh stood up on the stage that my find and I had previously been occupying.
"Wow! Thanks to Y/N and Jon! That was amazing guys, really well done. I can definitely say that you deserve all the extra credit." He paused to smile at me again, then quickly turned away to keep speaking.
"Now, if anyone else here is finished with their final project, they are welcome to perform the same as those two did for some more marks."
I left the room with Jon after hearing a few excited mutters. We both decided to leave campus and get some victory drinks. We could hand in the song, we'd already gotten some extra credit marks, and now all that was left was to complete our written tests.
___
The weeks leading up to the end of the semester were packed full of studying for the finals to get our degree and job hunting. We were thinking of joining a band of some sorts. Our degree wasn't really necessary for that but I couldn't imagine a future where I wasn't making music. Hopefully our qualifications would appeal to a record label though.
We didn't have many classes with Josh after that. Surprisingly, I found myself missing his lessons. Although he didn't really teach us much, I liked his company and the advice that he would give as I worked. I wasn't sure how to feel about this sudden attachment to the pink haired man but I brushed it off as quickly as it came.
___
Finally, after what felt like years, Jon and I graduated from the university. We both had passed our degrees with distinctions and I couldn't have been happier. Well, I suppose I could have been happier.
The little interactions I'd had with Josh were gone now, he'd left a week before graduation to do music lessons instead of teaching a university class. I guess you could say I was disappointed, but I really wasn't sure why - there was no way he was my soulmate? But then why did it pain me to not see him now?
I shook off the thought and focused my attention back to the two boys in front of me; Jon and Ryan. I had known Ryan for a little while and we'd all decided to start a band together. This band was called The Young Veins and I loved every second I spent performing with them. True, we hadn't been performing for very long, just the occasional gig here and there in small venues that would take us, but it was still great. I remember that in high school, the three of us always joked about starting a band together but nothing ever really came from it.
"Earth to Y/N!" Jon called, snapping his fingers inform of my face. I swatted them away, smiling at him as I returned fully back to the conversation at hand - what that was I couldn't tell you.
"Ryan and I were going to head to a bar, grab a couple of beers of something - did you want to come?" He asked me tiredly.
I shook my head and yawned.
"I was going to get some song-writing done. I'll head to a coffee shop or something." I replied tiredly.
"See you tomorrow then?" He asked me whilst standing up and grabbing his jacket. I nodded my head and waved goodbye to Jon and Ryan.
I knew that there was a coffee shop quite nearby to Jon's apartment, so I didn't bother calling a cab and walked down the dimly lit street. Golden hour had just passed so the temperature was still quite warm, because of this I decided to shrug my leather jacket off and roll up the leaves of my small band tee. It was short sleeved anyway but I was sweating from the amount of guitar playing I had been doing earlier. The sun's rays followed me down the pathway all the way up until I reached the door. I was filled with a warm, fuzzy feeling from the light and smiled to myself as I entered the coffee shop.
Inside, it was fairly small and the ceiling was low. Cute little chandeliers made from old glass bottles hung from the top, meaning that I had to carefully manoeuvre my way to the cash register.
"I'll have a peach lemonade ice tea thank you," I said, focusing on the heat outside, then remembering what Jon had done a while back for me, "and a cake pop thank you."
The barista smiled at me as I paid for it, I then took a seat close to the front so that I wouldn't miss my order when it came.
Pulling out a notebook from my jacket pocket, I scribbled down some lyric ideas or thoughts that popped into my head that could contribute to a song later on. I occasionally doodled around the corners of the lags as I thought, or chewed on the lid of my pen. It was only when my order was called out that I realised what I was doing and stopped eating my stationery.
I sipped on the drink through a paper straw and crossed my legs on the armchair that I was sat in, various pieces of paper were scattered haphazardly on the table in front of me. The silence in the small cafe was peaceful, the smell of coffee filling my nose.
"Y/N?"
I turned towards the doorway to see a familiar, pink haired, tattooed man at the doorway of the cafe. His smile was bright and wide, making his eyes squint and crinkle at the sides. I couldn't help but smile back and offered a small wave.
"Hey Josh, did you uh - want to sit?" I offered awkwardly, pleased by the interaction but unsure of what to actually do. This seemed to suffice though, as he walked past the barista, only mumbling 'the usual' and then sitting in the armchair in front of me. He sat up straight and kept his gaze focused on me, all the while his contagious smile never left his face once.
"Thanks, so uh, how've you been?" He asked me shyly. I giggled at his drop in personality and he smiled abashedly at me.
"Good yeah. I passed my course with a distinction, I'm now in a band with my friend - Jon that is. I got a part time job at a record store which is fun... that's about it really." I laughed as I reminisced at what little I had done in the past few weeks.
Josh's eyes watched me adoringly, though I didn't notice at the time, and he nodded along as if I'd won the lottery.
"You're doing what you love, and in my opinion, something that you're really really good at. I'm happy for you!" I smiled warmly at his response, regaining that fuzzy feeling in my stomach.
"Thanks - have you been up to much recently? You know, since you abandoned your class?" I joked with him lightly.
Laughing, he responded, "Yeah, actually. A lot of teenagers have contacted me about drum lessons and it's really nice to work with them. Sometimes I just-"
Before he could finish his answer, he gasped as his eyes darted to my shoulder. I looked down at it, confused, until I realised that my tattoo was more than visible to the small building. The feather was caught in the sunlight and looked beautiful in my opinion, but one look at Josh and I was deathly worried that something was wrong.
"Josh? What's wrong? Are you okay?" I leant forward in my seat, watching him as his eyes loved with his thoughts.
He finally met my gaze and smiled sheepishly, rolling up his shirt's sleeve.
"Yeah... I just - um... look." And I did. I made a shirt gasping noise as I saw what I had suspected all along. On his shoulder was the exact same tattoo that was inked onto my own skin. We both sat there, comprehending what was happening for a few minutes until I spoke up.
"I thought I saw that."
He looked at me with an expression of complete and utter shock plastered across his face.
"You knew was had matching tattoos?"
I shrugged and laughed in disbelief.
"I thought I imagined it, or that it was a coincidence. You were basically my teacher, Josh."
"I would have loved to know that you were my soulmate. I'm just glad I now now, Y/N" he said quietly. I blushed at his statement, still not quite believing what was happening.
"Where do we um... where do we go from here?" I asked tentatively. This was so not how I thought today would pan out.
"Well I don't know about you, but I'd live to take you out on a date sometime." He said boldly, staring into my eyes with his deep brown eyes. I nodded and watched as he rose to his feet, collecting all my notes into a pile and putting them gently in my jacket as he offered his hand to me.
"Now?" I asked him, stunned.
"If you'll accept." He bowed slightly and I grasped his hand as I stood you from the armchair. His hand stayed clasped skeins my own and nothing had felt more right than it did in that moment. We both smiled at each other as our cheeks flushed and headed towards the door.
Who knew, maybe soulmates did exist for me after all.