Sequel: Released into the Air
Status: Finished

Submerged in Water

Hippie

I sat down beside Jonathan on the sand. I was close enough that our shoulders were touching. He glanced at me briefly and then went back to staring in his lap. I heard him let out a short laugh and then he took another sip of his drink.

"I'm guess you want to talk." He sighed.

"You would guess correctly." My voice was gentle.

"That's all girls want to do. Talk. Talk. Talk. They always want to find my demons, stomp on them and then change me. Why can't they just accept something for what it is?"

I laughed. "I don't know. Maybe because girls don't see what something is but instead what it could be. They don't want to change things. They just want to make improvements on something so that it can go on through life without pain and hardships." I licked my lips. "And you're generalizing, all girls don't do that."

"Most of them do." He complained. "You were about to. I know you were. You had the same look on your face that the rest of them do. Maybe I don't want to change."

"I wasn't going to make you change, Jonathan." I didn't know if he would believe me or not. "I just want to know why you drink alcohol and go through women like I do water." A smile came on my face.

He turned to look at the grin on my face and he grinned back. "Do you know what my sense is?" He asked me.

"Yes. Scott was telling us while you were on the phone. You know people's soul mates?"

"Yes..." He was expecting me to comment, but when I didn't, he asked, "what do you think about that?"

I shrugged. "I don't know, the way Scott explained it, he made it seem complicated but also... heartbreaking at the same time."

"Heartbreaking?"

"To always know how people are feeling. I figure that's why you have so many women around you all the time, your searching for the one girl who will show your face when you touch her."

I felt his body stiff up against my shoulder.

"It must be lonely, to see the connection between people but know that it hasn't come to you yet. It kind of reminds me of a wanderer. Someone who goes around searching for their soulmate. Helping others along the way to find theirs. The feeling would leave me feeling... empty. It must hurt to know that you can't get close to someone as you want to because they will eventually find their real soul mate and leave you." I shrugged. "You probably know more than me though. I'm not the one that believes in destiny, fate and how people should live their lives."

"No." He whispered and then raised his voice so he could be heard. "You pretty much captured the emotion completely."

We were silent for a few minutes and by this point everyone had left except Rune. I turned and watched him and wondered what he was thinking about. I wondered if he was thinking the same thing I was thinking. If we would be soul mates.

Rune was probably listening to our conversation and that's why he had stuck around. Jonathan noticed too and turned to look at him.

"Hey Gem!" He yelled.

I heard him laugh as he flew closer to us and landed on the sand a few feet away. "It's Rune."

"Yeah whatever." He held out his hand to him. "Do you want to know who your soul mate is?"

Rune hesistated for only a few seconds before finally touching his hand.

I held my breath. I wanted to know. So bad that I became still enough to resemble a statue. I watched Jonathan's face. He let go after a couple of seconds and then said, "huh."

"What?" He asked.

Jonathan smiled and then laughed. "Wow. Just wow."

"What is it?" He asked.

"Do you really want to know? It isn't always great to know..." Jonathan warned. "Sometimes it's for the best to let things play out like they should. Knowing the truth makes things all the more harder."

"You saw someone you recognized then?" I asked.

He nodded. "I saw my sister."

Silence fell like a brick. I was in the middle of a gasp and a dull blank stare. Rune looked just as shocked. Finally he spoke. "Your sister, Diara?"

"Yeah." He stopped and quickly added. "But that shouldn't change your decisions now. Do as you want because even if you aren't with your soul mate now, you can still grow and learn from other people. You can still be formed by the experiences you go through."

It felt like he had rehearsed that speech in front of the mirror a million times. I turned to Rune who was still in shock but was back to breathing again. He kept staring at his hand, probably thinking that this was just a huge hoax or that Jonathan had been drinking and was probably just fucking with him.

"I haven't seen Diara's soul mate because she told me long ago that she wanted to leave it a surprise. Don't tell her. Chances are, if I were to touch her, your face would show." He went on. "I have relationships and build friendships knowing that none of them are my soul mates."

"You don't keep any of them though!" Rune shouted at him, breaking out of the stone form he had been in. "Your relationships are empty! They have no meaning knowing that there is someone else out there that is better!"

Jonathan frowned at his words. "Yes... that's why I warned you. You wanted to know."

Rune, not knowing what to say, being so caught up in the fury that consumed him at that moment turned around and shot into the forest almost as quick as an arrow. I hadn't seen him fly that fast. Even when I was flying with Robyn or Rune, they seemed to take it easy. Maybe they were just doing that around me to keep themselves from scaring me.

I turned to Jonathan. "Were you telling the truth?"

"I may be a douche, but I'm not a lying douche." He explained.

He turned to look at me, saw the hopeless look on my face and then sighed. "I know you two had a thing, okay? That's why I didn't want to tell you both. Things would've ended the same way, whether or not I tell you, but at least you wouldn't have to worry about it."

I was about to say something but I stopped as a thought struck me. Rune and Robyn had warned me about this and yet it was hard for me to comprehend. Jonathan was still a child and yet he talked with a wisdom that seemed to transcend the numbers that labeled us. No wonder he drank alcohol and had an attitude to match. It didn't matter because in the end, things would wind up the same whether he was a jesus-worshipping hippie in the peace core or a booze-binging stoner with an attitude. Fate had hit him. And it had hit him hard.

"I can't believe you're fifteen." I whispered, barely audible enough for him to hear.

"I'm actually twenty." He chuckled, turning on his heart-stopping smile.

He raised his eyes and I was struck by the deep forest green I saw. They were a light with passion again and not the same way they seemed to come alive at school when he was surrounded by girls, but a different way. It was genuine and pure. Not the fake and phony look he paraded around school.

"You're kidding." I breathed. "Twenty!?" I was still only sixteen. "Isn't it illegal to have sex with minors?"

His face fell and he frowned. "I haven't had sex with anyone underage." He protested, it sounded almost like he was pouting. "And even if I did. Who the hell cares? Haven't you heard of the saying 'if there's grass on the thicket, you can play cricket'? 'Old enough to bleed, old enough to breed'?"

I shook my head at him, my mouth agape. "Wow. Just when I think you're normal, you turn back into the demon I thought you were."
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From this moment on, my boyfriend is gonna be posting my chapters cause I'm too lazy to do it. Give him a warm welcome with lots of applause! And be nice to him! He's my mankitten :3