{{Dedicated to @LunaValdez24 for leaving the kindest comments}}

Rhea lay on her back in the middle of her bed, with her legs dangling over the edge. One of her arms was placed behind her head as a replacement for a pillow and her other hand rested against her stomach as she looked up at the ceiling of her room.

Her ceiling was painted white. She'd always thought of it as a blank canvas for her to fill over and over again with her scattering thoughts. In that moment, her thoughts were fixated on one topic, as they had been for the past couple of weeks.

Ever since she'd met Floyd, she found herself rushing into things headfirst. She'd always thought of herself as someone more reserved, cautious. But kissing someone for the first time in the middle of a street before even the first date was over, making out with the aforementioned someone in the middle of a dancefloor? Those were not the actions of a cautious person, and neither were they those of a reserved one.

The soulmate stuff was tricky business. It required a whole new set of rules and that messed with Rhea's mind, big time. She didn't know what was what anymore.

All those years she'd listened to her parents talk about their story, she'd heard about how even before they got together, and even before her mother was sure it was Stephen she'd seen in all those snippets, they still knew they were it for each other.

That was what she'd fantasized about all through her childhood and into her adolescence. Even when she was going through a phase where she pretended to hate the idea of it, she'd always secretly waited for her turn to get a happy ending.

She enjoyed the idea of it being clean cut. Some people her age kept going on and on about how they "liked the chase". Well, that certainly wasn't Rhea. She didn't care for the back and forth or the games to keep the other one on their toes. She wanted someone to unconditionally love her as her father and mother loved each other. She wanted the level of connection she'd grown up witnessing.

Finally, it was her turn.

However, she couldn't shake the feeling that she needed to thread a bit more carefully.

***

From downstairs, she heard the doorbell ring. However, she couldn't find the will in herself to get up from the bed and answer the door. Her parents were home anyways, one of them would eventually answer the door, right? As if on cue, she heard the distinctive sound of the heavy door being opened. Her father had been meaning to oil it for some time but somehow never gotten around to it, so it let out this low creaking sound every time it was opened.

A moment later, she heard footsteps moving up the stairs. When the door to her room opened with a loud thud, Rhea didn't even turn her head to see who it was. There was only one person in her life who would be such a disrespectful pain in the butt and that was her best friend. Her parents respected her privacy way too much to barge in on her room unannounced when the door was closed.

"Get up loser," Willa said, kicking at Rhea's feet that were dangling over the edge of her bed, just an inch short of touching the floor.

Rhea made a grumbling sound at the back of her throat and gathered up her feet, pulling her knees close to her chest as she turned to lie on her side.

Willa heaved a sigh as she came to sit on the edge of the bed next to Rhea. Rhea's back was to her, but she could tell from the way her shoulders were rising and falling ever so slowly that she was breathing deeply, trying to reign whatever she was feeling in.

"Let's go get ice cream," Willa offered with a soft voice as she played with her friend's hair. She knew that when in need of comfort, Rhea loved having her hair played with. She'd always snuggle up to her and ask her to play with her hair in the oddest of times.

"It's 60 degrees outside," Rhea said petulantly.

"So? You're the one who goes on and on about how any time is a good time for ice cream."

"I'm just- I don't think I'm in the mood."

"Come on." Willa poked her ribs with her index finger. "There is nothing ice cream can't fix."

She knew how Willa could be when she'd put her mind to something, so groaning and mumbling under her breath about why she'd ever befriended Willa, she heaved herself up from the bed. She was clad in sweatpants and a T-shirt bearing the logo of a band she'd stopped listening to a long time ago and she'd be damned if she cared.

Before she excited her room, she took a peek at her reflection in the mirror and she was in no way surprised to find out she looked exactly how she felt.

Before they left, she made a little pit stop and poked her head into the living room to ask her parents' permission to go out. Of course, she knew what their answer would be, but she always felt like it was respectful to ask.

***

The ice cream shop was relatively empty when they made their way inside. Relatively empty, as in the only people in the shop were a bratty five year old boy who looked like he'd all but dragged her mother inside and Bill the Ice Cream Consultant Extraordinaire who was apparently struggling to keep a straight face as the poor mother's distressed state. As Rhea looked around the shop, she hoped that the mother and son would get their ice cream to go and that no one she'd even made eye contact in the past would enter the shop during the time they would spend there. As much as she hadn't cared about how she looked as she'd left the house, she was now starting to get that prickly sense of regret she'd get whenever she left the house looking anything but put-together.

They both ordered mint chocolate chip ice cream -their go-to comfort flavor.

As they were making their way towards their usual booth, Rhea heard the chiming of the bell that hung above the shop's door, marking the entry of a customer. She lowered her head; not wanting to make eye contact with whomever it was that had entered. However, a moment later, she felt a figure approaching their booth. Lifting her head, she found herself looking at a grinning Wade.

She turned towards Willa to raise an eyebrow at her.

"I called for reinforcements," Willa said, giving her friend a sheepish look.

Willa slid to the side so that Wade could sit next to her.

"If this is a girls-only situation, I can totally leave," Wade said as greeting.

"No." Rhea shook her head. "Stay, I could use a guy's insight."

Wade rubbed his hands together excitedly. It was at times like this that Rhea could see why Wade and Willa were perfect for each other -they were so alike. Unlike every other guy out there, Wade enjoyed listening to people's problems, and he often came up with excellent solutions too.

"So, talk," Willa said.

For almost a minute, Rhea sat there silently, nipping at the same spoonful of ice cream. Willa propped one elbow on the table and rested her chin on one hand as she waited patiently. Wade was looking between the two girls, probably amused at the way Willa had slipped into interrogation mode so easily.

"It's really stupid," Rhea said finally, letting out a dejected sigh. "It's just that, ever since yesterday, there is this pit in my stomach. I feel like I am rushing into things. I mean, how fast is really too fast with this thing?"

Wade being there made it impossible for her the mention the entire soulmate situation, but maybe that was for the better. Maybe she needed someone with a clearer view of things to put everything into perspective for her.

Willa studied her friend intently for a moment before she spoke up, "No, that's not it. Something else is bothering you, isn't it?"

Rhea sighed once more as she buried her face in her hands for a moment. Then, she ran a hair through her mess of a hair before she spoke up once again.

"You guys know how last night we ran into Caleb, right?" They both gave her silent nods before she continued. "Floyd acted all sorts of weird. He was downright hostile to him and he was all grabby with me. He was like one of those dogs in Animal Planet that pee on things to mark their territory. We went on like what, three dates? You know I don't appreciate that Alpha male bullshit."

Willa, who had been silent throughout Rhea's frustrated ranting, was now looking at her with an understanding smile on her face.

"When I first started dating this one, he was this jealous type," Willa said, gesturing toward her boyfriend. "He'd butt in on every conversation I tried to have with a guy. He'd interrogate me constantly. He even tried to tell me not to see some of them."

"Guilty," Wade said, grinning sheepishly as he raised both hands in the universal sign of acceptance and surrender.

Rhea couldn't help but snort, she couldn't think of a single person in the world who'd succeed in telling Willa what to do.

"I didn't know this," she said. "Then what happened?"

"Basically, she sat me down and told me to stop being a jackass," Wade interjected, turning to look at her girlfriend affectionately.

"Damn right I did," Willa said, grinning. She pecked him on the cheek quickly before she turned her attention back to Rhea.

"You and Floyd are in this together, Rhea," she said. "If it is going to work out between you two, you have to guide him a little, tell him outright if something is bothering you instead of letting it brew and turn into this massive thing."

"I think he might be intimidated by Caleb," Wade added. "He's trying to overcompensate by being a jerk."

"Why would he be intimidated by Caleb?" Rhea asked, furrowing her brow.

"The dude's got the good looks," Wade said mischievously.

"I can totally get his number for you," Rhea said, waggling her eyebrows at Wade. They all laughed for a bit, then Rhea added with a more serious tone, "There is nothing for him to be worried about there."

"Maybe you should tell him that." Wade pointed towards her with the spoon in his hand.

The best part of having these two goons as friends was that despite being sarcastic little shits most of the time, they actually knew what was up. Whenever Rhea was struggling with something, be it boy-related problems, school drama or on the rarest of occasions even an argument with her parents, Willa would offer the wisest insights while Wade backed her up.

"I think you guys are right," she said, giving them a grateful smile.

"What else is new?" Willa asked, as a grin tugged at the corner of her lips, making Wade chuckle at his girlfriend's antics.

Shaking her head, Rhea retrieved her phone from the pocket of her sweatpants. Biggest perk of going out in sweatpants: you could actually fit your phone inside your pocket.

She tapped at the screen several times before she finally raised the phone to her ear.

"Hey Floyd, it's me. Can we meet up sometime? I thought we could talk."

***