Tethered Hearts | ✓ | Books 1 & 2

Episode 32| Hard to Love

I remained silent.

"Unbelievable." She crossed her arms "What else did you lie about?"

"I take most of the blame," Kelsey rushed to her feet, cutting in between Sophia and I. She spoke to Sophia with her hands on her shoulders. "I told him not to scare you because we didn't know if it was Lora or not. All we knew was that there were cops near your dorm. That's not enough evidence to say she was dead. Along with that, we didn't want you to get hurt if you drove back to the campus."

The plan to keep Sophia away from the campus was Conner's. I didn't think Kelsey would've taken credit for concealing the truth from Sophia, but I had to commend her for her bravery to take on a pissed-off Sophia.

"Be mad at me." Kelsey further stated.

I swiftly maneuvered around Kelsey, directly standing in Sophia's view without Kelsey blocking me. I faced the two spectators to the argument. "Can we have the living room for a moment so we can speak privately?"

I didn't want our disagreement to be intervened by them. I could handle this alone.

"They don't have to leave. I'll go." Sophia declared, zipping past me and up to the second floor. Stomping up the steps, she sprinted to the room we slept in last night.

I called out her name, hot on her trail and into the room. "Where are you going?"

She threw open the doors to the closet and picked up her clothes. "Where I go is none of your business."

"It kind of is." I said. "It's my responsibility to keep you out of harm's way."

"Ah, since when? Since you're the one who put me in harm's way to begin with?"

My shoulders sagged, affected by the impact of her response. "You know I didn't involve you in this with the intent to put you in danger."

I was still not over how unquestionably selfish I was for dragging her into this mess; this conundrum mess of a life. Frankly, she had every right to be angry for tossing her into this part of the underworld.

Death was unavoidable. Every single one of us would walk down that road, drifting from separate intersecting paths that led to one destination. It was an aspect in all things, but in my line of work, death was my neighbor as much as it was my nemesis. It assisted me and frightened me simultaneously, making me disconnect from my own humanity and leaving me astray with monsters to keep as friends.

"Can we please talk before you decide to run off when there's stuff like this going on? It's not safe."

Sophia plucked her shoes from off the floor and sat at the edge of the bed, rolling her socks on to her feet. "I'm not going to discuss this with you. It's not up for debate. My roommate was murdered."

"More reasons to stay."

"No. It's a reason to stay away," she shook her head at the carpet, jerking the sock up to her ankle, "I should stay away until –until I think about everything."

My passive tone dissolved, stiffening while the realization that she was really leaving submerged into my guilty conscience. This wasn't some act she was pulling to stand against my request for her to stay.

I cracked. Her briskly nature and brash boldness broke me, exuding an attitude of mine I wasn't necessarily proud of. "You're being melodramatic, Sophia."

"I'm being...melodramatic? My friend's body was found at the end of the L.A. river and you think I'm being melodramatic?" Sophia released her shoe, stabbing a glance at me. "You're so damn insensitive."