Never Let Me Go » Liam Dunbar

the one with the bad plan

Sophie guessed correctly that her 16th birthday was not the true deciding factor on her driving limitations. Considering her mother had already bought a sleek black Xterra and given her a set of keys and a new air freshener, Sophie was confidant that it would not rustle her mother's Jimmies if she sped off in the middle of the day with her phone navigating the way to the family boathouse.

This was why Sophie was currently dressed in her outfit from the night before, which was spent watching 500 Days of Summer and throwing heavily buttered popcorn at Mason, and sitting beside her window. The curtains were drawn back as Sophie watched Lydia climb into the car and back out of the drive in her eternally clean royal blue VW. A sigh escaped her lips before she pushed off of the rug and dug around in her closet, producing a short and fitted ruched black skirt, a baggy peach tee with short leather sleeves, some brown ankle boots, and a light-weight white cardigan that she hung over her arm.

After re-applying some bronzer and mascara and flipping her hair around aggressively to the tune of This Is Gospel, Sophie skipped down the stairs and into the kitchen, where her phone was plugged into the counter. She fumbled a bit as her eyes wandered through her inbox, deciding it was best to go by Scott's. Sophie wasn't exactly well informed on the plan that the werewolf/fox clan (plus Stiles) was formulating, but she knew that it was best to figure it out before getting involved.

"You're going out, too?" Natalie Martin appeared in the doorway, a lilac silk robe wrapped elegantly around her and a single hand curled around the door frame. Sophie retracted her hand from the pantry, dropping a single granola bar on the counter before facing her mother. She shook her head curtly in confirmation.

"Scott and I were just going to, um- we were watching this lacrosse video, and I was thinking-" Sophie pursed her lips and nodded once at the look on her mother's face.

"You've never had your sister's knack for lying." She mused, eyeing the frail girl as she bit into her breakfast. "Lydia... She's been going to the boathouse a lot lately. I'm pretty sure there's not a boy involved, but there's something she's keeping from me. Is there something you're not telling me, Sophie?" She asked, barefoot regulating her tone so it wasn't an accusation.

Sophie's response came from her lips before it had even begun to pass through her head. "There's a lot I'm not telling you," The big brown eyes set tiredly into her mother's face widened in shocked amusement, and Sophie quickly recovered. "but nothing you need to worry about right now."

A small hand rested comfortably on her mother's arm and big brown eyes met wide, innocent, ones. "I promise that if I need to, I'll always tell you the truth. But right now you don't have to worry about us, okay? What you really need to worry about," Sophie began, pulling her arm back and grabbing an apple out of the bowl on the counter, "is what we're getting Lydia for her eighteenth."

"I was going to give her grandma's ashes." Her nose wrinkled as she chewed her bite of apple, wiping some juice off of her lip with the pad of her thumb.

"That's a little morbid. I was thinking something along the lines of a weekend in Los Angeles and an envelope of cash, but I guess we can go the safe route and put a bow on an urn full of the burned remnants of her dead relative." Sophie's mother let out a breath and shook her head, grabbing the abandoned wrapper and dropping it in the trash.

"Mom wanted Lydia to be the one to spread her ashes. It's sentimental." She argued.

"More like something mental. Are you sure she said 'spread my ashes' and not 'spend my cash?'" This time her eyes rolled in exasperation as the tiny girl perched on the counter, munching away on the over-ripe fruit. But upon the small smile she saw on Sophie's face, her irritation dissipated and she planned a kiss on her rosy cheek.