“Yes.” I breathe, not even having to think about it.
Before, I would have doubted and questioned. I would have fought until our defenses were up and then we were screaming mad at each other. But Dr. Miranda taught me radical acceptance, and I’m choosing it here. We can’t change our past, or how we found our way back to each other. We can just move forward, and I choose to do it with him.
He takes my hand until I’m standing face-to-face with him, my clothing-clad breasts brushing against the front of his coat.
And then he kisses me, just like he wasn’t allowed to, but I wished he would when we were teenagers first getting to know each other on this porch.
It may be a slow start, a fresh chapter we’re going to cautiously dip our toes in, but he is my forever. I know that for certain.
Maybe what they say is true, you never forget your first love. In our case, you never move on from them either. Damned or blessed, he’s mine, and I’m his.
25
BEVAN
The week we get back to school from Thanksgiving break, an email drops into my inbox and informs me that I’ve passed the LSATs.
That I’m free and clear to be accepted into any of the law schools I’ve applied to. That my dreams are on their way to coming true, with a lot more hard work, all-nighters, and probably some blood, sweat, and tears.
And I get to share that with my friends, but most importantly, Callum. Since the night on my front porch in Webton, we’ve been growing closer and closer. Of course, we’re not back to the stage we were at once upon a time, when we were teens in love, but this bond is stronger. It’s being built on a forever-hood, something we can cherish until we’re old and gray.
“My car is leaving for the psychic in ten minutes!” Taya shouts throughout the entire house, as if anyone could have missed it.
“I really don’t want to go to this shit,” I complain.
“Because you think she’ll read something bad in your aura?” Taya fires back.
I stick my tongue out at her. “No, because psychics are bullshit and they charge you money to tell you things you want to hear. That, or you’ll die on the toilet at forty or something. It’s all a bunch of bogus.”
“Come on, think of it as date night, baby.” Callum slings an arm around my shoulder as he walks into the kitchen.
The minute I look up at him, he catches my lips in a fiery kiss that turns into a full-on make out session. I’m obsessed with his mouth, have been for years, but this passion feels new. We’re venturing back into the honeymoon stage and I’m all for it.
“Uh-hum.” Amelie clears her throat, and when we break apart, all of our roommates are standing there staring at us.
Callum has the smuggest grin I’ve ever seen. “Let’s go get our palms read, motherfuckers.”
Oh, so I guess the cocky, cool guy is back. I kind of missed him, to be honest.
We all drive over in two cars, Callum and I sitting in the back of Taya’s car and trying to keep our hands above the waist. We haven’t had sex yet, but it feels like it’s close. I’ve been trying to hold out, to slow down, but I know what this man is like in bed. I’m horny and it’s all for him.
“I would eat you alive right now, the way you’re looking at me.” He groans into my ear as a streetlamp illuminates the car.
“No sex while I’m in here.” Scott reaches back and punches Callum in the shoulder.
“We’re here anyway. Jesus, I love that you two are back together, but the sex marathons are a no-no.” Taya snorts.
“No one has a say in how much sex I can have,” Callum boasts, and just the words out of his mouth have my clit pulsing.
The psychic’s house is something out of a cheesy Halloween store. Purple drapery, black everywhere, haunting music sounds, and even fake spiders in the bushes.
“This is classy as fuck,” Callum jokes as we walk up the porch steps.
“I swear, I’m going to kill you guys,” I murmur under my breath. “I may be going to therapy, but this is some bullshit I cannot deal with.”
“I mean, maybe the psychic will tell us if you’re going to kill us all eventually.” Amelie shrugs and Gannon laughs at his girlfriend.
He’s here on a rare weekend, most of his time is spent in LA these days. His TV show is about to be aired and the buzz around it is huge. Not that he wasn’t a famous person on campus before, but now he can barely go anywhere without being swarmed.
“Welcome,” a voice says, and all of us jump.
“Oh, shit!” Scott hisses under his breath. “Witch shit.”
“I’m not a witch, I’m a psychic. Or a reader, if you please. Come in.” I can barely make out the woman escorting us into the dark house, and I kind of feel like we might all be murdered.
The space is small, maybe four rooms total, and we’re seated in what’s meant to be a dining room. The table is so tiny that our shoulders are crammed together, my roommates all around me with Callum directly on my left.
“I don’t like this …” Amelie grabs Gannon’s elbow, and he pulls her in tight.
“Relax, Ams, it’s all a joke. You know our future. Forever in love, rich and famous, dying by each other’s sides Notebook-style.” He winks at her.
“Gag me.” Scott chuckles.
The moment the psychic, who still has not told us her name, sits down, ready to address Taya first, her eyes flick to Callum and me. Her body pivots, directing all her attention to us, and I feel some kind of thin, intangible rope connecting us.
“The kinetic energy between you two is off the charts. I feel a twin flame type of connection.” She points back-and-forth between Callum and me.
“Uh …” he stutters, because the wording is direct, but neither of us has any idea what it means.
“A twin flame is an intense soul connection, we in the spiritual world call it a ‘mirror soul.’”
Now I can make out her cat-like green eyes, and the sharp slash of black hair that only falls to her chin. She’s thin, ballerina-thin, and swathed in purple capes with long black fingernails. My first instinct is to completely write her off, but there is something lurking beneath the surface that tells me otherwise.
“Can you smell the sex on them? Is that it?” Scott jokes and Taya elbows him in the stomach, causing him to splutter.
“No. I can tell, you are each other’s other halves. You make a whole, one soul was split into your two bodies.”
My heartbeat ignites, off for the races, and I blink at Callum next to me, our eyes locking. His hand reaches for mine, and our fingers lace.
“You are twin flames. Which means your relationship will be both healing and extremely challenging. Everything you doubt, fear, and are insecure about? It is mirrored in your partner. But together, you can also overcome them. You are each other’s best hope at living a fulfilled life, at completing your soul’s mission. When you are affected, so too is your twin flame. Use that. But be careful, because it can ultimately burn both of you.”
In my whole life, I don’t think anyone has clocked me so directly right off the bat. I knew, from the first moment I met Callum, that we were meant to be in each other’s lives. I don’t know how I knew it, but apparently there was a word for it. Twin flame. I’d found mine at fifteen and had never known it.