𝙳𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚛𝚞𝚌𝚝 | 𝙱𝚘𝚘𝚔 𝟷

𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚃𝚠𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚢 𝙾𝚗𝚎

𝚂𝚝𝚎𝚟𝚎
𝚃𝚠𝚘 𝚈𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚜 𝙰𝚐𝚘
☆═━┈┈━═☆

As soon as I got Sofia dressed, we were heading back to my house.

The drive was silent, her head resting against the window as sleep overcame her features. Green eyes fluttered shut as we passed the lake, the sun sinking under the horizon and glittering against the ripples created by wind. Sofia looked so peaceful, she looked like she felt safe. And I realized that she never looked this way around my brother. Sofia always was on alert with Logan, she always seemed like she was making sure she was checking all the boxes so Logan couldn't get mad at her. Where Logan was trying to change her wild heart, I was embracing it, and trying to get her to embrace her heart as well.

My hand moved across the console, knuckles pressing against her thigh through my sweatpants swallowing her body, palm up, a silent invitation I wanted to see if she understood.

Sofia's green eyes fluttered open at the touch, her eyes trailing to my hand before over to me, her smile reaching her eyes as she placed her palm against mine, locking our fingers together. Her hand fit perfectly in mine, and it shot a pain straight into my heart, she couldn't ever be mine, but in this moment, with the lake as her backdrop, the golden sun illuminating her body, she was mine. A moment of her was worth a lifetime of pain I came to the conclusion as she curled back into the seat, but instead of her head leaning against the window, she pressed it against my bicep, eyes falling shut.

If we were different people, if her life wasn't already planned down to the moment she had children, this could be real. If we were just a boy and a girl in a world where marriage and relationships weren't politics, she could be mine. Sofia could be my girlfriend and one day my wife. But we weren't different people, we were children of rich and powerful families, and while my life was up to me to choose what to do with, Sofia's wasn't. She was a pawn to both our families, and it killed me to see her dampen her wildness to fit into their mold.

My thumb was rubbing her knuckles while she drifted to sleep on my arm, one of my hands on the wheel and my temple against the top of her head.

The brownstone house came into view, I started pressing on the break and reaching up to the clicker on my visor to open the gate, the iron sliding away and allowing me down the driveway. Pulling up to the garage, I sighed in relief when I saw Logan's car still gone allowing me to get Sofia in without questions. Sofia was soundly asleep on my arm and I really didn't want to disrupt her. Carefully I lifted her head off my arm, settling her gently against the headrest of my passenger seat, climbing out and softly shutting the door behind myself. As I rounded the car, my mother peeked her head out of the front door, a small smile on her lips as she watched me pick Sofia up out of the car, cradling her to my chest as I made my way into the house.

"Is she okay?" My mom asked as I crossed the threshold, a nod being my answer as I walked towards the stairs.

"Yeah," Sofia shifted in my arms, eyes fluttering open for a minute before closing again and curling into my chest, "she's just tired, I was at the school when I ran into her, she couldn't find Logan so I brought her home."

I didn't wait to listen to my mothers response, jogging up the stairs while holding Sofia close to my beating heart. I wasn't ready to separate from her, and from the way she was gripping my shirt she wasn't ready to let me go either. Instead of carrying her to her room in the house, I brought Sofia into mine, laying her down on the silk sheets covering my mattress, smiling when she curled into my pillows. "Lay with me," a sleepy voice filled my senses, my feet moving faster than my brain could comprehend, shoes being toed off before I was sliding into bed behind her, wrapping my arm around her waist, slipping my hand up the sweatshirt she was wearing, my palm splaying across her warm skin.