Can't Say I Don't Love You (A Sokeefe AU)

Chapter 16

Keefe

His phone rang, and it was an unknown number.

Normally, he would ignore unknown numbers unless he was in the mood to scam scammers.

But since the breakup, he spent practically every spare moment staring at his phone, praying that it would be Sophie.

Which was why he picked up immediately, with little to no hesitation.

He knew it couldn't be her. He had her contact saved and pinned. Besides, this wasn't the ringtone he used for her.

Still, one can only hope, right?

"Hello?"

Someone coughed on the other side of the phone.

"Hello?" He tried again.

The cough turned into a sob.

He ran a hand over his face. He didn't have enough energy for this.

Until the sob led to many more, and whoever had called started crying. From how hoarse they were, they likely had been crying for sometime already.

But...

There was only one person he knew who cried that way. Barely restrained gasps of air, always trying to keep everything together.

"Sophie?"

~

Sophie

She cried harder, hearing his voice.

She'd messed up. In so many more ways than one. It was her fault he sounded so tired when he picked up the phone.

She just wanted to hear his voice, but couldn't hold it in any longer, all her pain and hurt, a whole decade of pent up emotions pouring out.

"Sophie?"

She choked on her breathing.

She whispered his name.

There was the sound of rustling fabric, as if he'd bolted upright from lying in bed.

"Sophie," his voice softened. "Foster. Can you hear me? Are you okay? Where are you?"

"I- "

She couldn't stop crying long enough to form much more than that.

"Hey. It's okay," he soothed gently, voice trembling slightly. "Everything'll be okay. I'm coming, okay? Stay on the phone. Stay with me."

So she did.

~

Keefe

He bolted out of his house, ignoring his mother's protest at him leaving so late in the night.

His head was spinning, but he focused hard enough to notice that there was echoing coming from Sophie's end of the phone.

Echoing that could only come from being in a phone booth.

And there was only one phone booth left in Torrel.

It made sense why she'd be there. It was near the beach. She'd told him before how much she loved seeing the sea, how much it calmed her before.

He sprinted in that direction.

It was a two mile run, but he didn't exactly care.

It was cold, especially since it was dark, the wind piercing into his cheeks, totally messing up his hair. But he didn't care either.

He just kept running.

~

Sophie

She didn't know how long she sat there, clutching the phone, listening to his pounding footsteps.

He didn't even know where she was.

By the time she put herself together enough to tell him where she was, she heard the same pounding footsteps outside.

The door flew open.

His ice blue eyes were wide, his cheeks flushed from the cold, his hair sticking out at odd angles, but he'd somehow never looked better.

She let out another sob, dropping the phone and flinging herself into his arms.

Her happy place.

~

Keefe

She was covered in blood. He didn't know whose, but it was cold and dry enough that it couldn't possibly be hers. Or at least there couldn't be a significant enough injury if there wasn't any fresh blood.

"It'll be okay," he whispered, his phone slipping out of his grip and landing on the floor with a thud as he wrapped his arms around her.

She wasn't crying as badly as she had been on the phone, but she was shaking hard, and buried her face in his shoulder.

He ran a hand through her hair, combing through the dried blood.

He managed to get them into he phone booth and shut the door, praying that no one had seen them since it was the dead middle of the night. Praying that no one would see them-- specifically the blood covering Sophie-- with the frosted glass of the booth.

She smelled like ashes and blood. And salt, from her tears.

He didn't care. Just held on tight, determined to never let go again.

~

Sophie

Her happy place was his arms. She should never have left them to begin with.

Then again, she never should've fallen for him to begin with. But it was too late for either now, wasn't it?

"What happened?" He asked gently, still stroking her hair.

He released her, holding her away from him to brush the hair and dried blood from her face. He kissed her forehead.

So she sank to the floor and told him all of it.

Every single part.

~

Keefe

He held her hand throughout all of it.

She didn't shed a single tear, and he was so proud of her for it. Though it could have been because she had already cried herself out.

But she told him everything. Including why she'd ended things.

And he showed her exactly what he thought about that shit reason.

With his lips.

Except he wasn't talking.

"I'm sorry," she said softly, wiping away tears threatening to leak out. "I don't blame you if you don't want anything to do with me."

He couldn't believe her.

"I wouldn't. I couldn't."

She looked up, her eyes glistening, not just because of the gold flecks in them. Her grip on his hand tightened.

"Please don't leave me," she pleaded.

He made sure that she looked him in the eye and knew he was telling the truth when he swore, "I would never."

He curled his arms around her, planting a kiss on the top of her head.

"Can't say I don't love you anyway."