Marked

Eight

Parker was pretty sure that he had just messed up everything that could be messed up. He should've realized that there was no way that Seb would be ready to kiss him. And what had Parker done? Tried to do exactly that.

He sat in his bedroom, face down against his pillows. He was not doing very well at that moment. Because what if he had just messed everything up for good? That would just make things even worse, because then if Seb never got over this, boom Parker's love life was over. Forever.

He really felt horrible for Seb, that his mom was like this. He could understand how upsetting it was-or at least partly. He had worried about his parents having the exact same reaction as Seb's mom would. But Seb knew that she would react that way. He had tried his best to comfort him, but what was he able to do? Lie to him and say that maybe his mom would change his mind? That wasn't the right thing to do, and he knew it.

Because that was how society worked. Even though nobody controlled their marks, people were still like Seb's mom.

He sat up and stared at the wall, messing with his bracelet without even noticing what he was doing.

He grabbed his phone and started to type a message to Seb so many times, but he ended up backspacing and deleting all of it every time before he actually sent it.

Why were soulmates so complicated?

***

Parker sat in the bleachers at North Green for a basketball game. Both the schools were playing their first game of the season, and the bleachers were pretty full from all of the students that came from both schools.

He glanced at the players the North team, and he raised an eyebrow when he saw a familiar face. He didn't know that Seb was on the varsity team.

Well, this game was going to be a little more interesting.

"Parker!" Oakley said as she moved to sit next to him,

Oakley, the girl who had a massive crush on Parker and even tried to say that her mark went off when he touched her once. That was hard to believe, and no matter how many times Parker tried to turn her down, she never left him alone.

"Hey Oakley," Parker said quietly, his focus on the gym as the game started.

Was he rooting for the other team a little more than he was rooting for his own school's? Just a little bit. Or maybe a lot a bit.

As they played, he found that his eyes landed on Sebastion almost the entire time. He was good, really good actually, and Parker wondered why he had never told him about playing basketball.

They had conversations almost every night, and Parker knew that he probably stayed up way too late so that he could talk to him. He regretted it every morning when he woke up and the entire day that he was at school, but it was worth it, getting to talk to him.

Parker definitely had a crush on Sebastion, and anyone that read their conversations would obviously be able to tell. From him throwing in some flirting every now and then, to how interested he seemed to be in every single thing that Seb said.

He had never really liked someone this much. He had always told himself that he wasn't going to fall for anyone unless they were soulmates, and it had worked out pretty well, he had only ever had a few crushes in his life.

Oakley had finally left a few moments ago, and Parker was joined by his friends, Tobias and Daxton.

"You look really invested in the game," Tobias pointed out.

With his friends, Parker didn't necessarily try to hide his sexuality, but he also hadn't ever just outright told him. He shrugged in reply. "It's a good game,"

"No it's not, and you know it. We're down by thirty points," Daxton said, handing him some popcorn. "Who've you got your eye on?"

"What are you talking about? Nobody," Parker said.

"Dude. You wear a rainbow bracelet every day. You made us go and see Love, Simon four times. So I hope you weren't trying to hide it because you're not very good at it. And I saw you talking to that guy at the party," Tobias said.

Parker felt his cheeks heat up. A lot. "Fine," He mumbled. "Other team. Number 34. And before you ask, no, we're not dating. But yes, he's my soulmate,"

Tobias looked at Seb. "Ooh, he's a good one. But one question. If you're soulmates, why in the hell are you not dating? Please tell me you've at least talked to him about it,"

"I have. He uh..." Parker didn't know how much he would say. "He's figuring things out,"

"Well, we need to meet this... what's his name even? Anyways, we need to meet him so we can tell him that if he ever hurts you, we'll murder him," Daxton said.

Parker laughed a little bit, even those his cheeks were still red. "His name's Sebastion,"