Garret Memorial Chapel in Keuka Lake, NY. The stained glass windows for the chapel were the final works of Frederick Wilson, a British artist who designed for Louis Comfort Tiffany’s New York studio.
Mary Magdalene found solace when Jesus called her name at the sepulchre. Explore St. Thérèse's Easter poems celebrating the enduring love of the Lord!
At the holy sepulchre, Mary Magdalene,Searching for her Jesus, stooped down in tears.The angels wanted to console her sorrow,But nothing could calm her grief.Bright angels, it was not youWhom this fervent soul came searching for.She wanted to see the Lord of the Angels,To take him in her arms, to carry him far away.
Close by the tomb, the last one to stay,She had come well before dawn.Her God…
Soulmarks appear once you hit 18, something many are waiting for for many years. Stanley was also like that, a little more traditional on the idea, he wanted to find who his soulmate was. At the end of the day, his hopes die pretty quickly when he saw his mark.
[Okay, I know how bad Frederick might looks in his actions in the apartment scene, and how it might gives the impression consent isn’t something he would follow when it doesn’t goes his way, by I swear he’s a good boy who would never break that.]
Stanley was waking up from this after-party, happy that he wasn't feeling too sick, though he could have been feeling better too. Frederick had dragged him around for a tour of bars, as a celebration for his 18 birthday. The young man was also excited to see what his best friend soulmark would look like, but throughout the night they never check if it finally had gotten out. After all, they had discovered Frederick one a couple months ago and they were now waiting to see his.
Stanley got a little excited as he remembered he now had his own mark. He got up, going for the mirror in the room to help him look for it, knowing it could be in hard to notice as they could be small or even just placed somewhere hard to see. So he took off his shirt first, finding it quick easily and quickly, as it was placed on his torso.
At first, he had been struck in place when he saw it, surprised and a little shocked too. Just a little to the right of his heart, a small blue marine flower was marking his pale skin. His finger went and touched it as if to make sure it was really there, a weird mixture of happiness and sadness coming to him after the discovery.
He had always heard that it could be really hard to find their soulmate sometime, but Stanley already knew who was his soulmate. It was none other than his own best friend. The idea was sounding a little depressing to him. It wouldn't have been if it hadn't been Frederick. He wasn't a bad guy, that wasn't the problem, but he was a total playboy and didn't really care about soulmates.
He tried to do his morning routine, thinking about the whole situation. Should he show it to Frederick? After all, in his mind, he knew there were no chances for him to give up his frivolous life to settle down for something he had never believed in. He really had no idea what to do with this new discovery and time wasn't something he had to think about it, since he had to prepare to go and join his best friend for diner in only a couple hours.
Time had flown by quickly and in the end, he still didn't know what to do. Now, he was sitting in a small family restaurant they both enjoyed, still not knowing if he should tell him or not. Stanley had finished giving out his order to the waiter when he turned back to Frederick, the young man look expectantly at him. It was written all over his face what he was waiting for.
“How was it this morning? Not too sick I hope” asked Frederick with a chuckle, clearly restraining from jumping on the subject directly.
“Could have been better” admitted Stanley with a sigh, “But not the worst either, I've had worst in the past years”.
“At least I didn't drove you sick then” laughed the young man, still relieve that his best friend hadn't been sick because of all their drinking. He would have felt a little guilty otherwise, Stanley wasn't as experience with alcohol as he was. "Now, let get to what I want to know~" he smirked.
His first response was Stanley playing dumb as if he didn't know what he was talking about. Frederick then insisted a little, mentioning he knew very well what he was talking about. The young man couldn't contain the small sigh that came to him, of course he knew what his best friend wanted to talk about. Anyway, he couldn't really show it right here and there, so he could still just hide it for now. Of course, he knew he wouldn't be able to hide it forever, but for now, it was his plan.
"Sadly I got an ugly one" he lied, "Yours is way prettier than mine" he said. It was stupid to say, yet he was half admitting his was also pretty, even if Frederick didn't know.
"Well, I can't agree with you if I haven't seen it, can I?" pointed out the young man with an arched brow. Really, what was it with his friend suddenly?
"I can't show you right now" simply responded Stanley. Frederick understood after some time, "Oh, it's in a risky place to show in public" he suggested, gaining a nod from his friend, "Well too bad, we can do that later, I'll surely end up seeing it".
There was an awkward pause from Stanley side, not really affirming it would happen. Frederick didn't really notice it, only going forward with the conversation. "Anyway, are you going to look for your soulmate now?" he asks out of curiosity.
"I don't know" admitted his friend "Now that I've thought about it, it could be really hard to find them, maybe they aren't even in this country, or I already missed them" he tried to explain.
Frederick was stunned by his answer. Was he really speaking with his best friend right now or did some alien took his place? “Hey, where has gone my Stan who is more traditional and absolutely wanted to find his soulmate to leave a classic happy ending?”.
"He thought about it and understood it's not always possible" he responds with a small smile, some sadness seeping in it.
The playboy was really surprised by the sudden pessimism of his friend, he was normally so optimistic on nearly everything, especially this kind of stuff. What kind of existential thinking did he go through once he left him the night before for him to change his mind so drastically?
He didn't really have the time to ask more about it as their food finally arrived and Stanley took this opportunity to change the subject completely. In his mind, Frederick would give up at some point, while on the other side, said young man was thinking that he would get back to it later.
After that, a couple of weeks went by and because of work schedule, they didn't meet that often. In that time, it was a battle between Stanley always finding a way to change subject or reason not to show him and Frederick trying to find out and being confused in face of this obstinate demeanour.
Why would his best friend not show him? Had he ever said something that would make him restrain from showing Frederick? The first thing the day after his own birthday it what they checked together, so why not this time? Was it really that ugly? Was he embarrassed about his mark as one would be of an ugly tattoo?
He got his keys and look for his best friend apartment one, having messaged him about coming to visit, since they were finally both on a day off. He really wanted to know and his patience was starting to run out, especially when he felt his best friend was hiding something big from him.
He was greeted by a small ball of fur who kept on rubbing against his leg until he patted it, going for its owner who greeted him from the leaving room. "Are you staying for diner?" asked Stanley as he was putting down a book he was reading, finally turning towards his friend. "Are you okay? Did something happen, why do you look so serious".
Frederick gave him a small smile, even if it didn't have the same warmth and charm it normally had. "Oh nothing, just that my best friend seems to be hiding something from me and that is starting to worry my and play on my patience" he responded as he was approaching the canape.
"Fred, I already told you, there nothing nice to-" tried to lie the young man before being suddenly cut by his friend. "I don't fucking care!" he exclaimed while stopping in front of Stanley, "In the past weeks I felt like you've been hiding something important from me and I fucking hate that. I feel like my best friend is suddenly pushing me away and I don't fucking gets why!".
Stanley stayed silent, a little shocked. Frederick sure didn't mind cursing and was often doing it, but he always refrains from cursing at him. His friend was waiting for an answer from him, yet he couldn't give one, only avoiding eye contact with him.
Then, Frederick mumbles something Stanley didn't quite catch at first and when he finally understood it was a little too late to correctly react in time. His friend went for it, trying to pin him on the canape, both fighting for either keeping his shirt down or up. At some point Frederick managed to pin both of his hands above his head, surprising Stanley with the force he was using, also straddling his hips so he wouldn't kick him.
Like this, Frederick had one hand free to do what he waited to do, finally lifting up the shirt. It was the only information he had managed to squeeze out from Stanley, that the mark was on his torso. He had a winning smile when he finally saw the first sign of the soulmark only to stop in shock once he saw it fully.
There was a small silence before Stanley asked yet again to be let go, this time feeling the hand freeing his wrists. He immediately went to hide the mark again, even if it was too late and obviously Frederick had seen all of it.
“Why?” suddenly asked his friend, sounding somewhere between confused and hurt. “Why did you try to hide that from me?”.
"Why!" repeated Stanley as if the answer was something overly obvious. "Did you saw how you always run around, having sex with anyone who's whiling to and being unable to keep a relationship for more than a handful of weeks" he explained while pointing out what kind of attitude Frederick had. "And you have the nerve to ask why I, who wished for a soulmate I could grow old with, didn't want to tell you who don't give a damn about soulmates stuff?"
Frederick didn't respond to that, didn't even felt insulted by the way he was putting it. He wasn't seeing it as a critic, he knew Stanley had always been fine with his way of living but he could totally understand where this sentiment was coming from. He wasn't really soulmate material with the way he was acting. He knew that up until now, he had never shown any sign of being able to keep a relationship honestly and without going and see somewhere else pretty quickly.
He had always known that this was something dear to Stanley, he had often teased his friend about it. To Frederick, it all sounded boring and vain to try and find his soulmate, he never understood why people wanted to do that. But, even with his teasing, he had always respected Stanley choice to do so and was even ready to support him fully in his research, help him if needed.
After the initial shock, he finally put back his full attention on Stanley when he believes he heard a quiet sob, seeing that his friend was hiding his face with his forearms. He tried to reach out for him, but only received a sharp "Don't" when the young man felt him move forwards. They were then stuck in an awkward silence, yet again, one trying to mutes his sobs while the other was at a lost on what to do now. For a start he got off the couch, going to sit awkwardly on the floor next to it instead.
“You know...” started Frederick before pausing little, “I know this is something really important to you” he pointed out, although it was something they both knew. “What I'm trying to say is... We can always try it? I mean, the problem is how I flirt and have sex with anyone right? You see... I can try and stop doing that” he tried to suggest while looking down at his hands. “Okay, it might be a little hard to stop my habits and it might take some times but I believe I could manage to do it if I really try to do it” he said, proving he had never actually put any effort in his past relationship. “What do you think about that?”.
He was sounding more sincere than ever, pretty serious about that suggestion. Stanley had always been someone he cared about and he wanted to try and make him happy. He knew it was possible for people to happily live without their soulmate, but he knew it wouldn't be what Stanley wanted and would never make him fully happy.
But now, he was also doubting he could be such a much better situation. Maybe it was exactly for this reason his friend never wanted to tell him. He wasn't believing Frederick could do such a thing and would rather give up on something he had dreamed about. He really wanted to try, but Stanley doubts were making him doubt himself a little too.
He finally stops staring at his hand when he heard his friend mumbling something. "You would?" asked Stanley again, sounding a little hopeful, "Even if you never invested yourself in the past, you would do it now?". Stanley had shifted his position a little, now looking at Frederick, his eyes still wet with tears, yet looking less hurt and more hopeful too.
"Of course" smile softly the playboy, "You are dear to me and I know this is something really important for you, you shouldn't give up so easily because a dumbass like me is your soulmate, I can do it if it means I can see you happy instead of sad and full of regret".
Stanley managed to laugh at that, looking happy that he was really ready to try something like this. He then went for a hug, even if they were not positioned well for one, he needed it now as reassurance he wasn't somehow dreaming about all this. Frederick obligate, moving back to the canape to make it easier to do.
Yeah, he could do it, there was a reason fate decided they were linked after all, they could walk the path together to find it out.
