Loving Him

Chapter 25

"I'll kill him," Ama declared in a deathly calm voice, standing up and pacing back and forth aggressively.

Sophie knew that wasn't going to happen but she had no doubt her friend would inflict some bodily harm if she did set her eyes on Alex in her current mood. For some reason, Ama's fierce protectiveness brought a surge of happiness and with it sadly, an innate need to defend Alex, however stupid it was.

Shaking her head to clear it of the absurd feeling, she forced a smile at Ama. "I love that you're feeling this way right now but we both know you can't kill anyone. You can't even fight sef, they'll just beat you and beat me join."

Ama didn't even blink at Sophie's attempt at a joke. "I'm supposed to be the one trying to make you feel better, not the other way around."

Sophie shrugged. "Well, you definitely look the worse out of the both of us right now."

"It surprises me that you're trying to be funny, even now. Just so you know, you're not funny," Ama huffed while sitting back down, her anger having lessened a bit.

"I just don't get why he'd say all those things to me," Sophie whispered, voicing out her thoughts. "At first, I thought it was because of the whole cake issue but he looked like he'd forgiven me for that. We were cool until he came back from the hospital... Something must have happened at the hospital."

Sophie turned her face to Ama to see her eyes wide open in blatant disbelief. Her high pitched voice expressed said disbelief when she spoke, "I can't believe you're making excuses for him right now."

Sophie clammed her eyes shut, groaning inwardly. Her friend was right, but now that the initial hurt was gone and the idea had formed in her head, she couldn't stop it from expanding, until that was all that filled her head. She jerked upright, her formerly bleak eyes lighted with renewed hope.

"That's it, Ama! Something must have happened at the hospital, why didn't I think of this before?"

"I can't believe you!" Ama exclaimed again, as if trying to hammer it home since Sophie obviously didn't get it the first time.

Sophie flinched at Ama's forceful undertone. Her friend was furious, and this time it wasn't directed at Alex. Trying to salvage the situation and make her see what she meant, Sophie opted for explaining in the most cajoling voice she should muster, "I know it doesn't make sense since I was the one crying minutes ago about how cruel and unfair Alex was but I know him, Ama. At least well enough to know something must have happened for him to have acted like that. He never lashed out at me even when I did the most insensitive things, so it doesn't make sense that he'd just throw me out like this. Even if he truly doesn't have feelings for me, he'd never just end it like this."

Her heart blossomed with hope the longer she spoke those words that she hadn't even thought about beforehand and they became thicker with certainty. In the course of convincing Ama, she'd succeeded in convincing herself instead. But with the hope came worry, if indeed something had happened with Alex that was serious enough for him to kick her out, did she really want to know what it was?

Ama obviously wasn't buying anything she was saying, she was staring at her with a cynical and very judgemental look. "Why didn't he just talk to you about it? What could have been so serious that the only solution would be to hurt you like that and kick you out? I'm sorry, Sophie but it just doesn't make sense."

Hearing those words from Ama admittedly made Sophie falter a bit, doubt wiggling it's way into her heart but she decided to squash it. She wanted badly to hold on to that shred of hope so she did. "It might not make sense to you, Ama. Maybe deep down, it doesn't to me either. But it's still a probability, isn't it? And what if I'm right?"

"It still wouldn't excuse what he did to you," Ama insisted. "Even if by some crazy stroke of luck, you're right, that wouldn't make hurting you okay. The key to a good relationship is communication, you know? Not to bail or send you packing at the first sign of trouble."

She was right. Sophie knew what she was saying made sense but she also knew opening up was hard for Alex, especially after all he'd been through and she'd come to accept that and she had been willing to wait until he was ready to open up to her completely. Then shocker, he'd sent her packing.

To her friend, she said, "You're right. And believe me, I'm not trying to make excuses for him--"

"Doesn't look like that to me."

"It's just... If there's a slight chance something's wrong with him, I want to know. Is that so bad?"

"What if knowing about that something is going to hurt you? Or what if there's no something and this is just you making things harder for yourself?" Ama quipped.

"I'd still want to know. It's still better than not knowing," Sophie insisted.

Exasperated, Ama sighed. "Why are you so stubborn? Why can't you just let it go?"

The answer popped to her head and without thinking, she blurted out, "I love him."

Saying it out loud made her cringe. Ever since that first time, she'd managed to safely tuck those three words in the back of her mind, never to be brought up again. Until now.

Ama groaned, her hands forming fists and she covered her face with them. Sophie could see the veins in her neck popping. "God, I hate you! I hate you so much!"

Sophie held her tongue, knowing it wasn't the smartest time to be clever tongued. Not that she could, she was currently reeling in a second time revelation.

Her anger fairly in check, Ama raised her head and with visible strain on her voice and emotions, she finally said, "Fine. But... You're not going to go back there, alright? Enough of you chasing him. I'll try my possible best not to kill him when he comes looking for you, if he ever does but under no circumstances are you allowed to go look for him, not even for so called answers. Am I clear?"

"Yes ma'am," Sophie replied solemnly. She wasn't winning an argument with Ama about it either ways.

"I'm serious, Soph. Hundred percent serious." Ama insisted.

Chucking, Sophie raised her right hand in sign of concession and repeated, "Yes ma'am."

Ama rolled her eyes, "To think I was feeling sorry for you some minutes ago. If I'd known you'd do this, I'd have just killed you immediately I saw you for disrupting my beauty sleep.

Sophie tsked, her mood considerably brightened. "You're just in a murderous mood today, aren't you?"

"You're not the only one with problems," Ama mumbled, the anger returning as if she just remembered something offensive.

"Now what happened to you?" Sophie queried, interest piqued.

"Daniel got a new girlfriend," Ama mumbled, her face scrunched up like she'd just swallowed something bad.

Sophie tried to contain it but the laughter rolled out anyway, the look on Ama's face was a comedy show in itself. Fuming, Ama turned the full force of her glare on her. "You think this is funny? You want to laugh abi." She then got into a session of 'tickle Sophie to death' like a man on a mission.

"So-o-rr-y no-w," Sophie wheezed, gasping hard for breath and trying to contain her laughter.

The sound of both their laughters filled the room and Sophie was, for the millionth time, grateful for Ama as a friend.

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Who else thinks Sophie's giving herself false hope?🙋🏽

I'm sorry for the late update, guys.