*kicks down door* I'M BAAAAACK!!!
I like haven't updated in forever . . . sorry . . . um . . .
Enjoy?
Keefe's pov.
Keefe woke up to clicking.
At first, he couldn't tell what it was he was hearing. But laying there, his mind groggy from sleep, his head swarmed with tiredness, he finally realized what it was.
A human camera.
Which led to the next question: why was he hearing a camera?
He opened his eyes, then winced, shutting them again. A headache flared to life at the brightness of the room, and he waited for his eyes to adjust to being awake. Then he forced them open again and squinted, blinking a couple times in order to get them working properly.
When he was finally able to see, he looked to his side for no particular reason and saw . . .
Sophie.
Sophie, right next to him, curled into a little ball. Her back was to him and she was pressed up against his chest, her arms folded at her stomach. His left arm was draped over her, hugging her close. She was still asleep.
Well.
That's new.
He was dumbfounded; when had this happened?
And then it hit him.
His nightmare.
He cringed and had the desire to hit himself. It was just like him, having a stupid nightmare over his stupid parents. What kind of a person does that? How dumb did he have to be to be scared of his own parents?
Squeezing his eyes shut in embarrassment, Keefe tried to remember exactly what had happened the night before.
He had been having a nightmare . . .
Sophie woke him up . . .
She comforted him . . .
And they fell asleep. It had been an accident.
So why did he feel so . . . strange? Like his heart was pounding a million mikes an hour, and his hands were tingling like he had manifested as an Enhancer, all of a sudden.
But at the same time, it felt . . . right. Like this was supposed to happen. Like putting the let piece of a puzzle in place.
His face felt hot, and he tried to force it to cool as he finally searched the room for the reason he woke up: a camera
Except, when he spotted it, it wasn't just a camera.
It was Biana. And Marella. And Lihn. All standing there, smiling like idiots, while Biana held her mother's expensive photography camera and stared at him and Sophie with a knowing grin and a mischievous look in her eyes.
Flushing, he tried to hide it with a yawn. He moved his arm away from Sophie, trying not to wake her, but of course she stirred anyway.
Just his luck.
The girls were giggling, now, and Biana fumbled to take more pictures of this moment. Keefe felt embarrassment burn in his bones.
Sophie, unbeknownst to anything, yawned and carefully sat up, rubbing her eyes tiredly.
"Morning," she greeted, flopping back onto her pillow.
Well, Keefe's pillow.
"Morning," Marella responded, struggling to contain her laughter. "Sleep well?"
"Surprisingly, yeah," Sophie said slowly, like she was worried she was just tricking herself into actually having a good night's sleep. "I woke up once, but . . ."
She suddenly sat up. Turned to look at Keefe, who had been trying to disappear.
Obviously she had remembered why she had woken up. She had remembered his stupid nightmare.
He cringed, even as her eyes welled with concern, and she opened her mouth to ask something. But she glanced at the other girls, thought better of it, and gave him a small, sad smile.
He carefully returned it, wondering why his head felt so light and heavy all at once, and why his stomach felt like it was buzzing with electricity.
"So," Lihn started, and Keefe suppressed a groan as he was pulled from his thoughts. "You two sure were out of it."
Sophie frowned, her eyebrows drawing in, calculating, instantly suspicious. "Yeah . . ."
"And with your sleeping bags so close . . . " Biana prompted, hiding her smile behind her hand.
Sophie raised an eyebrow, confused, and looked down. She finally seemed to notice that she was most definitely not in her designated sleeping spot.
Keefe tried to appear cool about it, but Sophie's shocked and embarrassed expression made him feel suddenly self conscious. Which was ridiculous, he knew, but he couldn't shake it.
"Keefe," Sophie muttered, looking up at said boy. "Holy crud, I'm on Keefe's sleeping bag."
Marella nodded proudly. "Sure are."
"Yup, that's what it looks like to me," Biana noted.
"Yup," Lihn agreed, popping the 'p.'
Sophie's face took on an adorable shade of red, and she turned to look at Keefe, horrified.
"I," she started, then stopped, mouth hanging open.
Keefe was sure his own face was just as red. He tried to think of something to say to defuse the topic, anything, but he couldn't seem to form actual words.
"Anyway," Biana started, waving the camera. Keefe felt the blood drain from his face; he had forgotten about the pictures. "We have a couple photos to show you, Soph."
Said girl nodded slowly, suspiovus again. Heavy waves of embarrassment rained off of her, and Keefe picked up on the feeling easily. She scrambled up, away from Keefe's spot, and walked over to the girls.
Keefe knew what they were showing her. He sighed and turned away, waiting for the waves of emotion he was sure was coming.
And come they did.
Shock, alarm, confusion, humiliation, shame, embarrassment, anger, and about a million others, included a strange one that looked a lot like affection, though he was sure he was misreading it, swam through the air and knocked into Keefe's chest. The overload of emotions was so powerful that he actually winced, pressing a hand to his heart and taking deep, cooling breaths the way he had learned how.
"What?" Sophie whisper-hissed, and Keefe turned to see her trying and failing to snatch the camera away. "Delete those, now!"
"No way!" Marella giggled, trying to keep her voice down. She shielded Biana from Sophie's anger.
"Don't you guys look so cute?" Lihn teased in her quiet, soft way. She smiled innocently, like she was honestly just asking the question.
"Oh, I am going to hurt you," Sophie threatened, trying yet again to get the camera.
And failing. Again.
"Sophie, Sophie, Sophie," Marella said, smirking and shaking her head. "Do these photos make you realize something? Anything?"
Sophie's face went red and she shook her head, hard. "No!"
Biana grinned. "Really? So that blush on your face is because you haven't noticed something about the way you feel?"
Keefe felt his own face flush. This conversation, as much as he had looked forward to having it, was way to in-depth for this early in the morning. The others weren't even awake yet!
"I noticed nothing," Sophie insisted, like she was trying to convince herself as much as the girls.
"What about you, Keefe?" Lihn asked, and inside, Keefe groaned, yet again.
He didn't even bother to look at the screen Biana was holding out. He knew what was on it. "You know what I noticed?" He asked casually, standing up. Blood rushed to his head and made him slightly dizzy, but he didn't really acknowledge it. "I noticed that I'm starving."
"Yes!" Sophie immediately agreed, jumping on the excuse. "Man, we should get some breakfast!"
Keefe nodded. "Yup. Let's go."
"No way!" Lihn whined, reaching out and grabbing Sophie's arm to keep her from walking away. "C'mon, you guys can't get out of this!"
"Yeah!" Biana agreed, hands on her hips.
Sighing, Keefe turned to look at them. Met each of their eyes so they would know he was serious, which was a rare thing for him.
"I had a nightmare. Sophie woke up and helped me. We fell asleep. On accident. That's it."
They all stared at him for a moment. He stared back. Finally, Marella nudged Biana and Lihn, and the three girls shared a look.
"Fine," Lihn relented, exasperated. "Let's eat, then."
Keefe's face broke into a semi-forced smile. He was sure his face was still red.
"Yeah. Let's go get breakfast."