Living in a Blur: a Sokeefe University/Road Trip AU

Chapter 12

"You know, we're not making very much progress on the road right now," Sophie pointed out as she and Keefe shuffled through the crowd.

"Yeah, but aren't you dying to stretch your legs?" Keefe pointed out. "We've been driving and sleeping and driving and sleeping this whole trip. Besides, I haven't been to a small town arts festival in years."

Sophie had to agree that her legs were tight and it was nice to walk around. It was nice to eat the kettle corn, too, which Keefe graciously bought for her because "that's what boyfriends do." Sophie's heart had lept when he used the term so casually. Maybe they were dating now, then. They should still talk about that at some point, but for now, Sophie wanted to just enjoy the moment.

"Ooh, I could use one of those," Sophie admitted, staring at one of the booths. Someone was showing off the hair clips they made, styling one girl's hair quickly into lots of beautiful updos. "My hair is long and sometimes hard to manage. Everything at arts festivals is so expensive though."

"Yeah, but that's part of why I like to occasionally buy things like this," Keefe said. "I like supporting artists who need to make back money from the cool things they make." And there it was: the real reason Keefe had taken her here when they needed to be making progress on the road.

"Because you're an artist, too?"

"You remembered that, huh?"

"Yeah, I did. And I still want to..." Sophie trailed off when she saw cameras flashing. Big, professional cameras. "Are you sure this is a small arts festival?"

"It seems like it, yeah," Keefe said. "I've never heard of this town before, so..." He trailed off when he noticed the same thing Sophie noticed. "Okay, that definitely looks like local news. Maybe they don't do events like this often."

"It's not that small of a town," Sophie pointed out, not sure why the idea of cameras around made her so uneasy. Maybe it was because what she and Keefe were doing felt like a break from reality. She was on a giant road trip with him to New York City, which she blackmailed him into when she caught him trying to cheat, and when she got there she was somehow going to get to West Deptford, New Jersey, and what, knock on her genetic mother's door? Say "hi, I'm Sophie, why did you give me up"? The fact that she and Keefe were now... whatever they were was yet another unexpected plot twist that made everything feel even more surreal.

Being caught on camera on the other side of the country with a boy people didn't know she knew felt like it burst that bubble and made everything feel as ridiculous as it probably was.

"Relax," Keefe drawled, putting his arm around her. "If you're worried your parents are going to see the news and find out you're not on campus like you're supposed to be, don't. This is not a big enough arts festival for national news. Even if it airs locally, nobody who knows us is going to see you with me, though honestly, being seen with me is something you should be proud of."

"Your ego is way out of control." Sophie rolled her eyes, but Keefe just laughed, only proving further that his ego was way out of control.

"Come on. Let's go look at those hair clips you were eyeing." Keefe gestured for her to follow him, and Sophie did, because he was right. She didn't have to worry about ending up on the news. The cameras probably weren't filming random people in the crowd, anyway.

—

"I cannot believe they sold me on three of these," Sophie said, holding two of the hair clips in her hands. The third was in her hair. "I mean, yeah, these are incredibly helpful, but..."

"Gold for fancy occasions, brown for everyday use, and blue for when you're wearing blue. Fantastic choices, if I do say so myself," Keefe put in. "And they looked stunning on you. Though that might have just been the fact that you're stunning." He winked, and Sophie rolled her eyes as butterflies exploded in her stomach. She looked away to hide her blush. She could not let him keep seeing how much he affected her. It was not good for his already oversized ego!

"We should probably start driving now, right?" Sophie checked the time on her phone. "We're losing time, and if we want to get to New York..."

"Yeah, we should. Aren't you glad we stopped and had a little fun, though?" Keefe hit the lock button on his keys, listening for the beep of his car. "You even got three gorgeous hair clips. And popcorn. And I got this cute Christmas ornament that sings!" Keefe twisted the bottom of the witch hat, letting the song start to play.

"You bought a Christmas ornament? It's March," Sophie said, bewildered.

"So? It sings! I have no clue what song this is, but it's fun."

"That's Defying Gravity, thank you very much."

"Oh, I see. It's a theater kid ornament." Keefe "locked" his car again, and this time, they could discern the direction the beep was coming from. "Okay, my car's that way." Keefe wound up the ornament again, and Defying Gravity started playing again. "This song is good. Can we play it in the car?"

"Closeted theater kid, huh?" Sophie teased.

"I have never heard this song in my life."

"Future theater kid, then," Sophie amended. "Aspiring theater kid as of thirty seconds ago."

"I reject that label," Keefe said.

"Just because you don't do labels doesn't make you not a theater kid," Sophie said matter-of-factly. "You don't identify as an artist, either, remember? And yet you are one. Speaking of which, you still need to show me some of your art."

Keefe rolled his eyes, which looked funny on him since he was usually assuming an easygoing air, whether or not he meant it. "It's nothing special. I mean it. All of my practice comes from doodling in the margins of my notebooks."

"I'll decide whether or not it's special," Sophie insisted. "And even if it's not the most stunning art in the world, it'll still be special because you're special."

Sophie delighted in the way his cheeks colored. Finally, the tables have turned! "Since when did you give such mushy compliments?"

"Hey, don't give me too much credit. I basically repeated what you said about me and the hairclips," Sophie pointed out.

"That's very true. You're turning my mushy comments back against me. That's not fair play!"

"All's fair in love and war," Sophie said, adopting her overly sweet smile. She hadn't used that on him since... what, forcing him to listen to Olivia Rodrigo in the car? It felt like her version of his smirk, as though they each had one main weapon in their never-ending banter, and both were smiles.

It was kind of sweet that both were smiles.

"And which is this?" Keefe asked as he opened Sophie's door for her with an exaggerated bow. "Love or war?"

Sophie opened her mouth to say both, and then remembered that the word love was in that phrase and froze. Luckily, Keefe bought her a little more time by closing the door and walking around the car to get in the driver's side.

"Well?" he prompted as he put the keys in the ignition.

"Both."