{{Dedicated to @nightdrives because her book His Heroine is simply amazing and because she is reading this and it makes me fangirl hopelessly}}

There were no words in the world to describe how glad Rhea was that the first day of her senior year was finally over. Throughout the entire day she was on edge, wound up like a too-tight spring, stressing over a huge, ginormous milestone in her life. Now that it had happened –or had it?– she was feeling drained.

Her mind was a jumbled mess of questions. How could she be certain that she'd already met her soulmate? Maybe Floyd was just some random dude she happened to meet the same day she was to meet her soulmate. Maybe she was supposed to meet her soulmate at the ice cream shop downtown she and Willa frequented. But she didn't feel like ice cream, neither did she have the energy to go for ice cream. So what exactly would happen if she turned down Willa's offer and went straight home? God, this soulmate thing was a tricky business and it fervently called for a manual or a guide book of some sort.

At the last minute, she decided to take Willa up on her offer.

But what if her soulmate was the new mail boy that was delivering their mail just as she went up to the counter to order a Rocky Road ice cream? Maybe they'd get to chatting and hit it off, and later she'd discover that he had been her soulmate all along. She realized she was well on her way to going batshit crazy; making up mail boys who delivered mail at three in the fricking afternoon.

At least she knew there was one thing in the world she could always and forever rely on, even when all else failed her. And that thing was ice cream.

She wasn't, and never had been, monogamous when it came to ice cream. She was all for getting a taste of every single flavor out there, though there were several ones she'd sworn off of after her very first taste. Seriously, who in the world had thought of crab ice cream and what had possessed her to try it?

Willa gave Rhea time and space to think by not saying a word through the entire ride, which was a pretty unbelievable and monumental thing in their friendship –Willa never stopped talking for so long.

They arrived at the ice cream parlor that was a five minute drive –or a fifteen minute walk– away from Rhea's house and Willa parked the car, still keeping silent, though Rhea could see it was taking a lot of effort on her part. She was probably dying to ask her million and one more questions about Floyd. And about her insufferable lab partner from AP Chemistry. Well, she'd avoid the latter topic if she could.

Once properly parked, they both got out of the car and Rhea was about to say something to Willa from above her shoulder when she collided into a hard from. Funny, she didn't remember seeing a wall or a lamp post. But then again, the mass she'd collided into didn't feel like a wall, it was more like... flesh. With that, the realization that she'd collided right into a guy's chest sunk in. Well, it was either a guy, or a girl that was part of a wrestling team, because that was some solid muscle this person had there.

A heartbeat after she realized she'd collided into a human being, a pair of hands shot up to her elbows and steadied her. Once she gained her balance, she took a step back from the poor, unsuspecting soul she'd slammed right into.

When she finally lifted her head and tucked her hair that was obscuring her view behind her ears, she found herself staring at a familiar face.

It turned out that the poor, unsuspecting soul she'd tried to walk through, but couldn't due to the concept of atoms and solid state, was none other than Floyd.

He was wearing a headphone from which she could hear the quiet but still recognizable tune of an Arctic Monkeys song and he was looking at her with a bemused expression on his face.

Quickly snapping out of it he removed his headphones, upon which the song became a bit louder and she finally placed it as Teddy Picker.

"Rhea," he said a bit breathlessly, "Hey." Apparently it wasn't only her that had gotten the wind knocked out of her upon the impact of their collision.

"Hey," she murmured back.

It was then that Willa caught up to her and came to stand by her side, looking expectantly –and a bit too excitedly– at her for an introduction.

"Willa," she said with a flat tone, gesturing towards Floyd, "This is Floyd. He just transferred to our school from... somewhere. Floyd this is Willa, my best friend."

"Nice to meet you," Floyd said, holding out a hand for Willa to shake, "Boston."

"Pardon me?" Rhea said, looking at him with confusion.

"I came here from Boston," he clarified.

"Oh," Rhea managed to respond with.

"That must have been quite an adjustment," Willa interjected, "Leaving Boston to come settle in this dull town." Having an excessively communicative best friend did have its perks.

"Not at all," Floyd responded with an easy smile, "I'm loving it here."

Just like that, they fell into an effortless conversation, Floyd sharing an anecdote from his moving here and Willa throwing in comments whenever appropriate. Of course, it was only Rhea that felt the gravity of the situation. Floyd didn't even know about the entire soulmate ordeal; for all he knew, Rhea was some girl from school he'd just met today and Willa, well, she probably found the entire situation hilarious. It was Rhea who got the short end of the stick, witnessing the guy whose possibility of being her soulmate was rising by the minute and her best friend meet for the first time.

This was a big deal. They had to get along, or else she'd probably be utterly miserable. So she decided to do what any sensible girl would.

"Listen, uh," she said when she felt a halt to their conversation, "We were gonna get ice cream... Do you want to, uh, come with?"

Floyd's face contorted in regret upon her words.

"I would have loved to," he said, "But I have to get home before my sister comes back from kindergarten. It's her first day and someone needs to get her from the school bus."

Sister. He had a sister. He had a sister who went to kindergarten. Probably aged somewhere between four and six. She'd seen a girl around that age in one of the snippets.

"Okay," she managed to get out with a pretty steady voice, "We'll see you around then."

After that, they exchanged goodbyes and just as she was about enter the ice cream parlor after Willa, she heard her name being called.

"Rhea," came Floyd's voice from behind her.

She turned around with one hand still on the door handle and looked at him expectantly.

"I, uh– I was wondering if I could get your number?" he blurted out hesitantly, "You know, in case I need guidance with navigating through small town customs and all?" He rubbed the beck of his neck as Rhea considered –well, pretended to consider– his request for a second.

"Yeah, sure," she said finally, "Give me your phone."

He retrieved his phone from his pocket with fumbling fingers and passed it to Rhea. As she entered her number into her phone, she thought about how she couldn't help but find his nervousness endearing.

"Here," she handed the phone back to him. Turned out he wasn't the only nervous one, because the instant her fingers brushed his, she lost her grip on the phone. Since he didn't have a strong grip on it either, the phone slipped through both their fingers and fell to the ground with the distinctive heartbreaking sound of expensive technology colliding into a hard surface.

"Shit," she hissed, "I am so sorry."

Wordlessly he bent down to pick it up while Rhea covered her eyes with one hand.

"Is it broken? I am too scared to look," she said, the words coming out of her mouth in a jumbled mess of sounds etched with worry.

"It's fine," Floyd said, chuckling at her antics. When she didn't remove her hand from in front of her eyes, he reached and pried them away himself, holding the phone up for her to inspect. "Look, it's not broken. God knows how many times I dropped it. It's still in perfect health."

"Good," she breathed out a sigh of relief, "Breaking your phone in half wouldn't have been the best first impression."

"Don't worry," he said sincerely, "You've made an excellent first impression."

His words made her lips curl up in a shy smile.

"I have to go now," Floyd said, sounding like leaving was the last thing he wanted to do. "Have an extra scoop for me, will you?"

"Sure," she smiled at him. A bigger, fuller smile this time. "I'll see you around, then."

"You betcha," he said, echoing her –embarrassing– words from lunch and then he turned around and left.

When she finally made her way inside, she felt two things at once. First, the cool air from the AC nipping at her skin and second, Willa's stare. And sure enough, her best friend's eyes were trained on her from where she was sitting in their usual corner booth, amusement dancing in them.

Ignoring her, she went straight to the counter and ordered two scoops of Rocky Road. Once she got her cone from Bill, the twenty one year old Ice Cream Consultant Extraordinaire –as he liked to call himself– and paid for it, she made her way towards the booth where her best friend was sat.

"So... He's cute," Willa said as soon as Rhea sat down.

"Who, Bill?" Rhea said, feigning ignorance just to spoil the fun Willa was so apparently having, "I think he's totally down to taking you out if you're game. Though I don't know how Wade would feel about that..."

"No," she said, rolling her eyes, "Your soulmate."

As she was about to counter with a witty comeback, her phone vibrated in her pocket, loud enough to pique Willa's interest as well.

When she got out her phone, she saw a message from an unknown number that could only belong to Floyd.

[Unknown Number]: I hope you ordered Rocky Road.

She smiled down at her phone, and typed out her quick response.

[RheaM]: As a matter of fact, I did.

"Invite him to the party on Friday," Willa urged, peering at her phone.

"We haven't gone to one of those parties since freshman year," she said, not understanding her friend's train of thought.

"Well, you haven't met your soulmate since... never," Willa countered, putting emphasis on the last word. "Let's face it, the guy's a hottie. If you don't want him snagged from right under your nose, you better get a move on. Stat."

When she thought about it, Willa had a point. And a solid one at that, too. Just because he was her soulmate, it didn't mean he was branded as hers. Any girl could try and get him, and she didn't want some random whatsherface to go near her frickingsoulmate.

With these thoughts in mind, she tapped on Floyd's contact info and sent him a text.

[RheaM]: There is a back to school party on Friday. You should come.

***