Soul Mates

“Alexei? Are you okay?” Isabella asked me, looking at me weirdly. She was eyeing my cotton candy. I knew she was worrying about how hyper I was going to be later.

“Yeah, you look like you’ve just seen a ghost or something.” Charlie added. I shook my head. I can’t believe I’m still speechless. That guy was sure something…and I don’t even know his name.

“Maybe it’s the cotton candy?” Charlie said to Isabella as if I wasn’t even there.

“Oh, yeah. That must be it. Maybe we should take it away from her.” Isabella said. My eyes widened. They are not taking away this sugar.

“No!” I said, stepping back a few steps from the two of them. I knew my eyes made me look crazy, but c’mon! They want to take away my favorite thing in the world. I had to do some damage control. “I just bumped into a really cute guy and it caught me off guard. No need to take away the candy…”

“Oh was that all?” Isabella asked. Charlie rolled her eyes again. Aren’t her eyes starting to hurt yet? Mine would if I rolled them so much.

“If you keep that up, your eyes will stick like that.” I said matter-of-factly, taking a big bite of cotton candy. She stuck her tongue out at me.

“Well, Alexei, I’m feeling going down to the beach since its only noon. Are you up for it, Charlie?” Isabella said, checking her phone for any texts. Charlie looked at her own phone and frowned.

“No, I can’t. I have to go back to my apartment to unpack the rest of my stuff. Maybe we can all hang out tomorrow though?” Isabella and I nodded, and I hugged her good-bye. I still can’t believe she’s in California.

“She’s nice.” Isabella said as Charlie walked away. Once she was out of sight she started grilling me about the guy.

“What did he look like? How cute was he on a scale of one to ten, one being butt-ugly and ten being absolutely fucking gorgeous?” She said, never taking a break to breathe. I laughed.

“He looked like he could’ve been an Italian underwear model. And he was a 482 on that scale.” Her jaw dropped and I nodded.

“No way. Boys like that don’t exist.” Isabella stated simply. She said it in the same tone that someone would say “Dinosaurs are extinct”. I laughed, eating more of my cotton candy. By now, we were almost to the beach from the pier. There were a bunch of people tanning, as usual. There were a few people trying to surf, but there really wasn’t any swell. And then there were some people playing Frisbee…oh my God.

“Oh my God, Isabella! There he is! Hide me!” I said frantically, trying to hide behind her and her Chanel bag.

“What! Where?” She said eagerly. I’m guessing she wanted to see this Italian underwear model. I peeked out from behind her and pointed in the direction of the guys playing Frisbee.

“He’s the one in the black.”

She was silent for a second while she looked at him.

“Wow.” I could tell she was as shocked as I was. She turned around and I saw that her eyes were as wide as they could be.

“You bumped into that God?” She said, in awe. I smiled and nodded. “Oh that’s just no fair! You get all the luck! Wait, I think that’s-”

I started to laugh at her reaction, and then screamed as the Frisbee came thisclose to hitting me in the head. And it had the nerve to make me lose my balance and fall over in the process. What the heck! I have serious fears of things hitting me in the head!

“Oh, I’m so sorr-” The Italian underwear model started to say as he ran over. He slowed down as he recognized me. Then he started to smirk. Hey, even though you’re gorgeous, I don’t appreciate being laughed at when things are flying at my head.

“I’m really sorry about that. My brother has horrible aim.” He said as he held out his hand to me to help me up from the sand. I grasped it and was surprised at how soft they were. I could see Isabella taking in this whole scene in awe from where she was standing.

“Oh, that’s okay. I just was caught off guard. But I guess we’re even now, huh?” I said, looking up into his eyes. Wow…so pretty…

“Huh?” He asked. He sounded as if the words didn’t even process. “Oh, yeah, I guess, ha ha.” He was starting to sound breathless again, and on some level I was concerned if he had asthma. And I also realized we were still holding hands. I looked down at them and pulled my hand out awkwardly.

“Joe! C’mon man!” One of the other guys shouted. The guy – Joe, I guess – looked over his shoulder at them. Then he grabbed the Frisbee and looked back at me. He looked like he wanted to tell me something.

“My brothers and I are having a bonfire down here tonight. Would you maybe want to come?” He said, fidgeting with the plastic disc in his hands.

“That’d be great.” I said, smiling. “Could I bring a couple friends?”

He nodded, looking relieved. The guys were calling to him again so he gave me a quick smile and dashed off to meet them. As soon as he was gone, I turned to Isabella. She looked as though she was about to pass out.

“What? What’s wrong!?” I said. Why did she look like this when we just got invited to hang out with such hot guys?

“Alexei. Did you not know who he was?” She asked, sounding incredulous.

“What? Is he really some famous model?” I asked, my eyes going wide. She shook her head. Aw, that would have been fun.

“That was Joe Jonas.”

My jaw dropped. No way.