bram pokes at his timer. he's fourteen and it hasn't even started counting down yet, it seems to be permanently stuck at 00:52:28. he supposes that since it's so short he can wait a little longer, but he'd much rather have a five year timer than one that wasn't even a whole hour.
his mom told him it'd be a fun story, he guesses it can be. he doesn't even know if it will lead him to a best friend or a boyfriend yet. his mom is cheering for arch nemesis turn brother in law or future baby sibling, he wouldn't mind a baby sibling for a soulmate to be honest, but he can't see his mom having a kid anytime soon since the divorce is so new.
maybe it'll start ticking as soon as the bell rang on his first day of high school in a new town and he'd find someone to make high school fun, or really anything better than the horror movie his older cousins made it seem like.
.
simon's soulmates are his sisters. all three of them have a red string that lead to each other, when simon stops to think about it it's always a little weird because alice must've watched nora's string appear. he much prefers having sisters for soulmates than some random person he's supposed to marry.
his parents have always loved that the three of them are soulmates, his mom liked to say that they must be perfect parents if their kids are destined for each other. she doesn't say it around alice anymore though, she'd go off about why the entire concept of soulmates is bullshit.
simon used to be made fun of for having sisters for soulmates when he was in, like, the fourth grade. But the fourth grade was a mess so he's mostly team forgive and forget. then there's simon's friend leah who still has the names of his old bullies. leah and him didn't even talk in the fourth grade.
he doesn't expect anything to terrible if anyone at school finds out, he's only been a freshman for two weeks but nobody besides alice and nora can see his string. red strings are kinda nice with how private they are.
.
bram meets garrett and garrett might not be his soulmate but he is the best thing about creekwood high. the two of them are going to try out for the soccer team together and whenever garrett catches him staring off in the direction of simon spier he doesn't even tease bram about leah burke, one of simon's best friends who's always with him, who garrett thinks bram likes.
he's doing okay in class too and his timer hasn't started yet but he doesn't mind too much, bram's decided he's going to try being in the presence of a cute boy without passing out first. it'll take a while, but he's got time.
.
simon meets bram greenfeld a few months into the school year after nick's made the soccer team with garrett laughlin. garrett and bram start sitting with them to try and avoid the rest of the soccer team, a team made up of ignorant assholes.
simon doesn't mind, who would mind eating at the same lunch table as cute bram greenfeld? well, his sorta girlfriend also eats at the table though he forgets to talk to her most of the time. their relationship is still an improvement from his eighth grade girlfriend, at least.
leah sits down at the table. nick's right next to her and simon sighs in relief, it was just him, anna and morgan but if nick and leah are here then bram and garrett won't be far behind and garrett can fill any awkward silence that dares to try and pop up.
simon peaks into leah's lunch bag and she swats at him with a laugh. nick waggles his eyebrows across from them. anna and morgan share a look and simon feels awkward again. he needs to do something to take up all the time he ends up alone with the two girls.
nick seems to notice he's feeling weird and starts rambling about how cool his new guitar is, "it just fits so right in my arms, you feel me?"
leah stares at him blankly, "nick, i know you care deeply about this guitar but human guitar relationships aren't legal right now, so don't get too close."
"what?!" comes from behind simon and he turns around to see garrett sporting a disgusted look on his face. "nick, buddy, i didn't know you were a woody."
simon winces at the comment as he slides over to make room for garrett and bram. bram mouths sorry to everyone as he rolls his eyes at his best friend. bram sits next to simon and simon almost starts choking, because. well, he's a teenage boy who may or may not like other boys and bram's sort of the perfect boy.
simon's about to start a conversation with cute bram but then he overhears a defense on the behalf of...scalies? and then he has to turn around to see what his friends have done now.
.
soccer's really fun when bram's playing but if he has to spend one more practice hearing the new freshmen talk about how gross gay people are he's going to quit. garrett's promised to follow him off the field but nick's still trying to convince them to go to the coach about it.
nick's idea is smart but also bram's a mess who's bad at talking to adults about serious issues.
bram runs to the side to grab a drink and hears one of the grade nines, it's not good. bram shoves his water bottle into his bag and is about to take off his cleats when nick appears by his side. garrett seems to be approaching the freshmen.
"hey bram, buddy, i know running off sounds good and all but we kind of need you on the team," nick says. "how about we talk to coach about the freshies? they're shit so we can probably try and get them off the team."
bram sighs and drops his bag, "sure. can you do the talking?"
nick nods and bram trudges his feet as they go. this is a much better idea so brams going along with it. usually he's the one coming up with the smart ideas and dragging nick and garrett along and trying to decide if he's hoping nick brings simon along so he can look good in front of him or hoping nick doesn't bring simon so that he doesn't embarrass himself in front of simon.
he stands behind nick as he talks and garrett brings the freshmen over. three returning grade tens who are better than decent at the sport have a stronger voice than the grade nines and bram tries to hold back a smile as things end in his favour and the twist in his stomach unravels.
.
simon decides he can't go through the boredom of grade nine again so he auditions for the musical. they're doing fucking annie and he gets to be one of the kids that chases around annie and her dog.
he only got the part because he volunteered bieber to be sandy and ms. albright felt too guilty to not cast him. he doesn't mind much, he never has to sing and he gets a scene with his dog.
simon gets the idea that he should support the musical and all but he still doesn't know how to feel about a musical with a girl who shares a birthmark soulmark with her dog sandy. leah and nick are enjoying themselves with their regular nonsense as they shoot up people in call of duty. at least they don't call annie furry propaganda at lunch where cute bram greenfeld can hear.
on opening night alice and nora come see him with his parents. nora says she's just there for bieber's big debut and bieber doesn't disappoint what with almost jumping off stage during the bows. alice says he did almost as good as bieber and by the end of the night simon stops trying to deny that bieber was the true star of the show.
.
garrett's vision has started to get worse and the eye doctor told him that it looks like his soulmarks coming in so bram's summer has been full of soulmate craze. nick isn't making things any better as he falls in love with garrett falling in love with the idea of falling in love.
and yeah, maybe he wants to know how to tell someone that he might be thinking up meet cutes for him and boy. so he makes a post.
and then someone, some . bram's heart decides to stop for a second when he reads it and then he types back a reply as quick as he can. for a moment he thinks about whether it's simon spier his longtime crush.
bram gets rid of the thoughts right after, jacques could be anyone and if he ever finds out who it is and it isn't simon he'll be disappointed and that wouldn't be fair to jacques .
.
simon meets abby and she's got an arm and a leg full of words.
"i've got a bunch of soulmates," she says while they get ready for the oliver auditions. "there are my cousins and my brother and more. the words are from key moments i share with people."
simon nodded as he shaked his hands and feet, "that's cool. me and my sisters have red string. how about we try some tongue twisters next."
abby grins and drops her upper body down like a rag doll. "sounds good," she says, her voice slightly muffled.
nick's in a soulmate craze and simon's curious of what's going to happen when he meets abby, but abby's cool so nothing bad will go down. that is if leah decides she enjoys being soulmates with taylor metternich and isn't still almost in love with nick. simon's trying not to think about that.
and. well abby isn't simon's only new friend this year. he started emailing this guy name blue who goes to creekwood and is in the closet like him. in the closet. calling it "being in the closet" is at least a step up from dating girls like he did in grade nine.
.
bram's falling in love with jacques because he's stupid. he's almost convinced that simon is jacques because he's a gay idiot. he's pretty sure garrett knows somethings up because bram's managed to get even quieter around simon.
at least he finally has some possible proof rather than pining generated hope that simon might be gay. on gender bender day nick and garrett convinced him to wear the cheerleader uniform and garrett confirmed that simon was staring at his legs during most of english.
it's been a while and bram still hasn't quite wrapped his head around the idea of simon maybe kinda liking him back a bit.
jacques seems to like blue at least, bram doesn't know if he hates or love his email alter ego because blue is the reason he had a conversation about non hetero sex and his thoughts that had to do with it with his crush.
blue is still him so bram can't really blame him for all of his problems but he's gonna do it anyway. and bram's pretty sure he's not going to have blue around for much longer anyways. he's got a plan to come out to garrett before he leaves for christmas in the woods.
It's exciting and the worst thing ever, but he knows garrett will be his friend even after he comes out, he's also not too sure that garrett's one hundred percent heterosexual himself.
.
simon gets outed by martin during christmas. martin and abby actually are soulmates, according to waffle house fun times at least, but abby has too many soulmates to base her love life off of it.
that doesn't mean she and nick and leah don't all drop him when he comes back from break alone and scared. he doesn't know what's going to happen at school. he lives in georgia. he knew his friends were going to be mad when they found out, but simon doesn't know how to explain to them how scared he is.
simon's walking through the halls and he gets dirty looks but he also gets the numbers of two gay girls who run the gsa. he's getting lunch when everything goes to shit.
two guys dressed up like him and ethan, the only other out gay guy at creekwood, jump up on a table and start doing gross disgusting shit that makes simon want to cry. he doesn't know if he's allowed, if martin took away his right to do that too.
he gets up. "hey," he starts.
"principal's office," ms. albright ends. she turns to him for a moment and gives him a smile and simon's never respected her more.
he goes back to his lunch and brings it all to the garbage. he's gonna head to the theatre and help whoever is rehearsing instead. maybe there'll be enough orphans to do one of his numbers.
.
when bram gets back from break he finds out about everything that went down. he sees jac-simon's email. he emails him back.
simon,
break a leg at oliver!
love,
blue.
.
blue emails him back and it's something. he didn't know if he'd ever hear anything from him ever again and he almost cries. simon's pretty sure he would cry if he had any tears left.
.
bram drags garrett to see the show three times and garrett, who now knows about how bram's in love with simon, doesn't even complain as much as he wants to.
simon's really, really funny and he and garrett go up and congratulate him after the show. he smiles and he looks happy, bram pauses for a moment before he says bye.
"are you heading to the carnival after?" he asks.
simon nods, "yeah. will you be there?"
bram's so fucking scared of this but he nods, "i love cotton candy. especially blue cotton candy."
simon grins and then they say goodbye.
as they leave for the carnival garrett says, "you know spier is almost as oblivious as you."
bram elbows him. "what? it's true. you didn't even realize your timer's started."
.
simon rides to the carnival with his friends. the play was pretty great and he has friends again and he emailed blue to meet him at the ferris wheel and his friends have told him they're going to cheer him on because he has friends again!
it's a relief to have his friends back. leah links their arms as they walk to the ferris wheel and nick and abby flirt behind them.
the four stop in front of the ferris wheel and abby escorts him to his seat and they wait for a moment. as simon sits something clicks in his brain.
blue cotton candy. he almost gets up but then simon sees him running towards him, blue cotton candy in hand.
bram sits down next to him and abby does a little gasp jump as she joins leah and nick.
simon stares at him, "it's you."
a beep goes off and bram's eyes go wide, "it's you."
the ferris wheel starts and simon looks down at bram's rolled up sleeve to see a finished timer, "oh." he says. "it's me."
"and it's me," says bram.
simon smiles, "you're jewish."
"yeah," bram says. neither of them seem capable of long sentences but when the ferris wheel stops at the top simon manages to ask if he can kiss him.
bram nods with a smile as wide as simon's and simon cups his face in his palm and presses their lips together.
they fit.