True Love: Sophitz Edition

Chapter 5

Sophie's P.O.V.

"So? What happened? How was it?" Linh bombarded me with questions as soon as school was over. We were supposed to talk after she had sent me away to chat with Biana, but then class started. Then we rescheduled the conversation for lunchtime, but then this emergency assembly occurred, and they took away lunch to make time for it. Which was ridiculous. I mean, you can't just take away lunch! That's the best part of the day. Food and plenty of time to read in peace. Well, as peaceful as it could get in a high school cafeteria. 

"How was what?" I asked, purposefully trying to delay the conversation. I really didn't want to talk about it. 

"You know!" Linh replied. "When I sent you to talk to Biana? Did you guys talk? Did you guys become friends? What happened???" 

"Jeez, Linh, calm down. It was just one conversation," Tam said. 

"But a very important one conversation!" Linh protested. "So tell me everything that happened." I spotted a crosswalk and decided it was the perfect excuse.

"Wait, there's a crosswalk. We can't talk here, it's dangerous." I looked to both sides extra carefully, perhaps a little more than necessary-but you can never be too careful, right?-, before slowly making my way over to the other sidewalk. Linh crossed her arms in frustration.

"Sophie, I've seen you read books while crossing the street. And that's not even when the street is completely silent like this one!" 

"Fine," I responded, realizing I was out of excuses since we'd already made it across the street. "I talked to her, she said we were friends, and... And that's it! Simple as that." I didn't bother to mention that Fitz was also there. It wasn't a completely crucial part of the story. Well, he was cute. And charming. And he did have great taste in English Literature... But he had a girlfriend. And he was really popular, captain of the football team. Yeah, I told myself. You don't stand a chance with him.

"Anything... Else happen?" Linh prodded, making me wonder if she'd somehow read my mind. 

"Uh, nope! Not at all," I responded casually. 

"Aha! You're lying! Something did happen." 

"How'd you- I mean, I don't know what you're talking about." Linh rolled her eyes. 

"Sophie, you can't trick me that easily! You took point 5 seconds longer than it should've taken you to give me a genuine, honest answer. So I knew you were lying, simple as that." 

"Not really... Besides, nothing happened." Linh looked at me with an accusing eye. "Well, something might've happened. But it's not important. All that happened was Biana's brother, Fitz, happened to be there." Linh gasped.

"WHAT? That is such an important detail, Sophie! How could you neglect to mention that to me?" Linh exclaimed. 

"He was just there, it's not like we talked. Well, we might've said something to each other, but it was no big deal." Linh raised her eyebrows.

"I'll decide that. What did you say?" she asked. I thought about the moment, wondering if I should pretend I couldn't remember. But my friends probably wouldn't buy that, considering that they knew I had a photographic memory. Better to just tell them and show Linh for herself that nothing happened.

"I just said a quote, and he said the person who quoted it, Lord Byron. Then we just introduced names, and that was that! See? Nothing happened." Although the truth was, I was trying to convince myself as well as Linh that nothing had happened. Maybe something had happened. Just a small thing. 

"There's something else," Linh said in a singsongy voice. I rolled my eyes.

"Fine, we also sort of, maybe, possibly looked into each other's eyes for... Some time." 

"SOPHIE! WHAT AN IMPORTANT DETAIL YOU FORGOT, YET AGAIN, TO MENTION!!!!" Linh shouted. 

"LINH! What did we say about shouting into my ear?" Tam asked, covering his ears in pain.

"Um, to not do it?" Linh asked with a smile.

"Precisely. And what did you just do?"

"Shouted out loud?" 

"In my..." 

"In your face?" 

"I give up," Tam said with a sigh. 

"Good, back to Sophie. Now, how is staring into each other's eyes, not an important detail?" 

 "Well," I responded, "uh, nothing happens if you just stare into each other's eyes. It's just called having proper manners while in a conversation." 

"First of all, when have you ever been worried about manners in social situations? And second of all, staring deep into someone's eyes is not "nothing". It's very much a something!" 

"No, it's not," I replied with a huff. "Here, I'll prove it to you. Dex, stare into Linh's eyes for 2 minutes." Dex looked up from where he was tinkering with some machine, taking it apart and inspecting its content.

"What?" he asked confused. "I try not to listen to your arguments." 

"Here's the bottom line. Linh thinks staring into someone's eyes starts some sort of chain reaction, but I say it doesn't. So... You're part of our experiment now," I explained. "Just, stare into Linh's eyes for a few minutes, nothing will happen, my theory will be proved, and everything will be back to normal. Everyone got it?" 

"No! I don't "got" it! This is not happening. I am not allowing this to happen," Tam refused stubbornly. 

"Don't worry, Tam. In theory, nothing should happen," I reassured. 

"Right. In theory. But theories can be wrong, can't they? What if something happens? I don't want to be responsible for that." 

"Come on! If you don't let this happen, Linh will torment me for another week about this!" I complained. 

"That's not really my problem," Tam replied. 

"Tam, don't worry. Dex and I have been best friends for years. I'm sure, if something happens, it'll just lead to an even stronger friendship," Linh assured. Dex shrugged.

"I mean, I guess I'm okay with it. After all, what's the worst that can happen?" 

"Something terrible," Tam mumbled. "I'm going to regret this for the rest of my life." 

"Don't be so dramatic," Linh told him. "Okay, someone set a timer!" I glanced at my watch. 

"Alright, start in 3... 2... 1..." And the staring commenced.