The Soulmate System

4. The Initial Shock of Finding Your Soulmate Can Be Too Much for Some People

Dylan spent the night away from the hotel, imagining different scenarios that could secure his future for comfortable seclusion without a Soulmate. There were no situations he preferred.

He returned to his room at around six that morning to gather his things and head downstairs for breakfast. Dylan anticipated Bryce to be asleep, praying that the man's yellow Glow, or his own green one, wouldn't wake him.

Two metres away from the room's door, Dylan's Glow appeared, drowning him in longing and forcing him to note the absence of anxiety he'd grown accustomed to. He hissed at it.

Slipping off his shoes outside, he carefully pressed the door open and held his breath. It creaked open.

Bryce appeared asleep, his Glow echoing his heartbeat, the double cadence lighting the room in flashing yellow light. He slept on top of the duvet, clothes still on, shoes cast to the floor. The only significant differences about his appearance were his disheveled brown hair and the line of drool starting at the edge of his mouth. The room hadn't changed, either – the pub food sat on the floor between the double beds, Dylan's Revels wrapper on the desk, and his clothes strewn all over the place.

Dylan sighed in relief that two layers of Glow-Inhibiting cloth obstructed his own Glow. He contemplated, as he folded up his clothes and packed his things, changing out of them for something fresher.

Bryce stirred to roll over, but never woke up.

At the door, Dylan eyed the darkened bathroom longingly, his hands twisting against the handle of his suitcase. His mind laid out the consequences if he decided to wash up – Bryce could wake up. He could come in while Dylan was showering. He could try to talk about what happened.

But no sound made – the zipper closing the suitcase, the sounds of the neighbours waking up, even a maid shouting in the hall outside – had woken Bryce yet.

There was a lock on the bathroom door, too. And Dylan knew he could be in and out in under five minutes.

He was quick and strategic in his planning. He kept the pressure low, where the water moving through the pipes couldn't create a low rumble in the wall. A towel and his toothbrush, along with toothpaste, sat around the sink. A spare change of clothes sat on the closed toilet's lid cover. Shoes and socks placed on top of the toilet's tank.

He kept the remainder of his things outside. Dylan locked the door and began his day right.

One wall away, about a minute after the bathroom door locked, Bryce snorted and opened his crust-ridden brown eyes, groaning from the uncomfortable position he was sleeping in. He rolled onto his back and gathered the energy to rub away the crap from his vision, his muscles straining to do so.

He first noticed that he hadn't closed the curtains the night before, light flooding the room and blinding him. Bryce turned his head and saw the still-empty bed; he sighed, having hoped Dylan would've come back so they could at least talk about what had happened.

That light, fluttery feeling in his chest was what finally woke him up when his brain processed his Glow Feeling. It smacked into him like a runaway train. Bryce's Glow was reflected into the television screen directly across from him, forcing him to look away. Scratching his chest like he had hoped to peel it away, the gravity of the situation suddenly dawned on him.

In a sense, Bryce was right about his confrontation with Dylan last night. He knew he would suffer. He just didn't expect it to be like this.

"D-Dylan?" he whispered, voice cracking. Bryce slid his legs off the bed and moved towards the door to the room. He opened enough to see a maid at the far end of the hall pushing the hotel's cleaning cart. Sighing, Bryce closed the door and noticed Dylan's belongings stacked against the wall. 'Weren't they...by the bed...over there?' he thought, pointing to the vacant space by the wall.