Careful What You Wish For

Chapter Fifteen

"What??!" Brianne looks utterly confounded. "All this happened to you last night?"

Sophie nods.

"How is that possible? All I did last night was eat marshmallows, drink beer and watch Kayla's short film one hundred times..." Brianne crosses her eyes at the last part of her night.

Sophie shrugs. "It was a long night." Sitting on the balcony of the Emmanuel House dining room, Sophie glances absently out across the river. The view is so familiar and reassuring in its consistency it makes her desperately miss living here. Brianne is finishing her breakfast while Sophie drinks her coffee and pushes her food around on her plate as she details her hell night.

"I can't believe someone actually chased you. I'm never going anywhere alone at night again."

"It was just bad timing and bad luck."

"You think they were trying to rob you?"

"I guess so, it's impossible to know. They stopped chasing me when I got to my car, which is kind of strange, but it's a busy street so they may have just been spooked."

Brianne narrows her eyes. "You're being very cavalier about the whole thing."

"I'm just tired or confused or something. I don't know."

Evan had already messaged her this morning to check how she was. The amount of sudden attention from Evan was overwhelming.

"Are you okay with the Evan thing?" Brianne asks, feigning and failing nonchalance.

Sophie sighs, loudly. "I have no idea. It was weird, like no time had passed, and yet it felt kind of wrong too, like he wasn't supported to be there at all. You know?"

"Nope."

"I guess I forgot how intense he was."

"That's Evan though," Brianne says. "That's what he's like. When you're actively present in his life, he's committed and focused on you. But when he doesn't see you all the time, he doesn't think about you. He saw you at Beer and Bourbon, remembered you existed, and remembered he needed to apologise. Then because he was present when you had a crisis, he wanted to fix it."

Sophie nods slowly. That sounded about right. She waits for the stone of disappointment to drop in her belly, but it doesn't. Maybe she's still in shock. All she could think about last night while trying to sleep was the person in the hoodie. Was she ever going to be brave enough to go back to the pool? Or anywhere alone at night? What did they want?

"Do you believe him about the flowers?" Brianne asks.

Sophie pauses, considering. She hasn't yet allowed herself to think about that too closely, partly because of everything else that happened last night and partly because there were uncomfortable ramifications if what Evan said was true. Did she believe him?

She remembers the gravity in his face as he leaned toward her in the car. Also, was there any point in him lying? She shakes her head, there's little to think about, she could tell as soon as he said it that Evan was telling the truth. Evan would never send anyone flowers. It was true that he was flirty with other girls when they dated, and sometimes right in front of her, and that she had never wholly trusted him when he was out without her, that's what had made it so easy for her to think he was seeing other people. But sending flowers to someone... that seemed out of his comfort zone. "Yes, I did believe him."

Brianne nods slowly, thinking about Sophie's words. "You know, I always thought was a stupid move by Evan, and he's not a stupid guy."

"But I don't remember him ever denying it?" Sophie wonders aloud.

"What did he say when you asked him about it?"

Sophie tries to remember how it happened. "He never said anything," she remembers now. "He didn't answer his phone and I left that insane voice message on his phone where I yelled and cried..." Sophie places a mortified hand over her face. "Ohhh, god."

"Yeah... you really lost your marbles at one point there," Brianne says with an amused smile.

"Then the next day he broke up with me."

They each fall into silence as they consider these new details. Sophie is having trouble gathering her thoughts, it's like trying to catch fish with your hands, everything is slipping away and vexingly circling in front of her.

"Okay, let's say Evan is telling the truth..." Brianne says, trying not to follow that statement with a laugh. "Who sent the flowers?"

"That's the part I'm trying not to think about."

"Maybe it is Jonas after all," Brianne says, considering. "I always thought he had a crush on you when you were dating Evan, strengthened by the fact that he could see Evan treating you badly. So maybe he sent the flowers so you would break up with Evan?"

"But then Jonas broke up with me for Evan," Sophie says. "Hardly the best way to start a relationship with someone."

"Well, I didn't say it was a good idea."

"Ohhhhh," Sophie places her head in her hands and groans loudly. Fortunately, they are the only ones left on the balcony this morning and Sophie can make as much noise as she wants.

"Have you told Jenna about the guy at the pool yet?"

Sophie shakes her head.

"She's going to flip her lid."

"Probably." Sophie sighs quietly. She imagined that Jenna probably was going to overreact. She lays her head down on the metal tabletop. She is already exhausted by the day.

Sophie's phone vibrates on the table next to her. Sophie glances at the screen and holds it up for Brianne to see. Jenna.

"Uncanny." Brianne shakes her head.

"Hey Jenna," Sophie answers her phone. She rubs her other hand over her eyes, trying to erase the memory of the man in the hoodie.

Jenna's voice is higher and more erratic than usual. The discrepancy to her usual soft and measured tone confuses Sophie and it takes her a while to focus on what Jenna is saying. Sophie's first thought is that she must already know what happened to her last night, but then she can almost swear that Jenna is talking about a broken plate and her Nanna...

"...my Nanna gave me that plate, and they broke that too, not the mention my..."

Sophie shakes her head to clear the fog. What was happening now?

"Wait, Jenna, stop." She holds up her hand in a stop signal, although the only person who can see her is Brianne. "Talk slower. What's going on?"

She can actually hear Jenna take a big gulping breath and can quite clearly imagine her closing her eyes and trying to calm herself as she did regularly. "Someone trashed our house." She says, clear as day.

Sophie is completely still.

"Sophie? Did you hear me? Someone broke into our house last night and trashed it!" Jenna's voice is starting to rise again.

"Yes, yes, Jenna I can hear you, I'm trying to understand what you're saying."

"You need to come home, Sophie, now." Jenna sounds close to tears.

"Okay, I'm coming." Sophie hangs up and glances across at Brianne, her eyes wide. "Apparently something else has happened now."

~

With no car between them, Sophie and Brianne walk the six blocks to Sophie's house in the quickly warming morning sun. Given the heightened level of emergency in Jenna's voice they should have been hurrying, but Sophie was actively dragging her feet and in no mood to get to her house any faster.

Brianne matches her step to Sophie's and has uncharacteristically said very little since they left the residence. Glancing at her now, Sophie sees her friend's lips in a grim line and her forehead creased.

They round the last corner before Jenna and Sophie's small house comes into view and both come to an abrupt stop on the footpath.

There is a police car in the driveway.