Sophie walked down the long hallways at Foxfire, on her way to the Healing Center yet again after falling on her face in P.E.. Even though she had insisted on being perfectly ok, her P.E. mentor had demanded that she go to the Healing Center to have Elwin check up on her, making a joke about how this was quickly becoming a regular occurence. She sighed, cursing herself for falling and giving Keefe and the rest of her friends yet another reason to tease her relentlessly for another trip to the healing center. She just hoped she wouldn't see the boy in question, for she knew he would know immediately where she was going, and would no doubt tell the rest of her friends, making her the subject of relentless name calling for a couple of weeks. She turned the corner and pushed open the door, stopping in her tracks when she saw the one person she didn't want to see right that second.
Keefe.
He sat on one of the cots in the healing center, his usual smirk on his face. His eyes brightened a bit when he saw her, his grin widening in obvious humor.
"Hey Foster! Good to see ya looking all nice and annoyed at me already! And blushing quite a bit I might add..."
Sophie didn't even realize that she was blushing in the first place, her cheeks reddening even more because Keefe had noticed before she had.
"What are you even doing here Keefe.."
"Aw, is Foster mad because her secret hangout spot has been infiltrated by the Keefester?"
"I'm not angry." Yet. "I'm just wondering why you're here, are you hurt?", Sophie said, walking toward the cot and sitting on the edge of the bed, near where Keefe sat.
Keefe held up his right hand, which was wrapped in a torn piece of his shirt, looking like a messy bandaging job altogether. "Nah, it's just a little scratch I got in Elementalism. Elwin is in the other room right now, making a salve to put on it that will patch me up so I'm good as new." Keefe gestured toward the lab with his bandaged hand, and Sophie saw him wince in pain when he pointed in that direction. "SAY HI ELWIN!" Sophie glanced toward the lab to see Elwin stick his hand out if the doorway with a wave, the hand disappearing as quickly as it came. Sophie turned back to Keefe who had his usual smirk on his face, but she knew something wasn't right.
"Keefe let me see your hand." Sophie tried to grab for it but Keefe moved faster, his hand dancing out of her reach before she could grasp it.
"Why?" Keefe's question came out sounding a bit more accusing than his previously lighthearted tone had sounded, and the way he hid his hand from Sophie only worried her more.
"I just want to see it," Sophie said, gently pulling at his arm, Keefe protesting until he finally relented, sighing and laying back into the pillows that were stacked at the head of the bed, watching Sophie unravel the torn strip of blood soaked cloth from around his hand. He hissed in pain as it finally came off, and Sophie's eyes widened as she stared at the deep gash on his hand that was slowly dripping blood, not even close to being the small cut that Keefe had described.
"Keefe, this is horrible! Your bandage is all covered in blood and this cut is pretty deep. As a matter of fact, this is too bad of an injury to be considered a cut, look at how much blood you are losing already..." Sophie continued to babble on for a couple of moments, humming and clicking her tongue as she tried to help ease the pain that was evident on Keefe's face. She finally looked up, making eye contact with Keefe. It was silent for a few moments until Sophie finally asked,
"Why did you lie to me Keefe? It's clear from this cut that you're hurting quite a bit, and you could've just told me. Why did you lie?"
Keefe sighed, looking away from Sophie's searching eyes.
"I didn't want you to get worried about me. You already have to deal with so much other stuff, and you're so stressed out all the time. There are always bags under your eyes now because you never get enough sleep. Sometimes, you are so worried that you don't even eat your food during lunch. You think no one notices but I do, and I care. A lot. Because of that, I didn't want to put even more on your plate by adding this to the mix." Keefe said, with a meaningful glance toward Sophie. "You don't need to be wasting your time on my problems."
Sophie suddenly reached out and grabbed Keefe's shoulders, forcing him to look her in the eye. "Listen here Keefe, and listen well. You. Will. Never. Be. A. Waste. Of. My. Time." She punctuated each word with a sharp jab of her pointer finger into Keefe's stomach, the spot where he was most ticklish. "You need to tell me whenever you think something's wrong with you, even when you think it's not important. If you keep things to yourself, no one can help you find solutions to your problems, and most importantly, I won't be able to help you find solutions to your problems. So promise me you will come to me anytime you have any problems, okay?
"Fine," Keefe grumbled, rolling his eyes. "But you have to promise to come to me with your problems too, and make an effort to try and get some sleep at night. And you have to eat food at lunch too. I'll even stop going to detention if I hear that your not eating again, and I'll sit there and stare into your eyeballs until I see you shoving food down your throat, otherwise I'll do it for you!"
Sophie rolled her eyes, giggling when Keefe started poking her in the stomach like she had done to him. " Fine," she said smiling. She held out her pinky finger, only to see Keefe staring at her blankly, a confused expression on his face.
"Oh, sorry. This is a human thing called a pinky promise that's meant to signify an agreement between two people. Because we hold our pinkies together, it is supposed to make it more official. It's fine if you don't want to do it anyway, it was really stupid and weird, it was a dumb suggestion anyway......". Sophie kept babbling on.
"Sophie, stop talking, of course I'll do the pinky promise with you, just hurry up with it already!" Keefe said huffing noisily, sending Sophie into another fit of giggles.
"Okay, okay, calm down.". Sophie held out her pinky, which was soon followed by Keefe's and they entwined their fingers together. Sophie started in wonder at how much larger Keefe's finger was than her own, and despite only having one finger out instead of a full handhold, how warm and comforting it was. Before Sophie knew it, she had been staring at their fingers for a little too long.
"How long is this going to take?" Keefe whined, "Cause this is starting to get weird."
"Oh! I'm sorry." Sophie quickly snatched her hand away, blushing when she heard Keefe snicker over how fast she pulled away her hand. It was then Sophie realized that in the process of trying to initiate a pinky promise with Keefe, she had basically plopped herself into his lap. She laughed nervously and started to leave, untangling herself from Keefe's long legs, but then Keefe asked, "Didn't you have to come here for something too?". Sophie remembered the P.E. incident and quickly sat down on an opposing cot, refusing to answer Keefe's questions about what she had done to merit a visit to the Healing Center again. Before long, Elwin came out with Keefe's balm and Keefe was good to go. Keefe sauntered out the door, his walk every bit as confident as before, calling out a quick Goodbye Foster as he went. Elwin turned to Sophie and asked "And what are you here for?" "Oh yeah," Sophie said, "I had another accident in P.E........"
Sophie walked out the door to the Healing Center, and stopped in her tracks when she saw Keefe sitting on one of the benches that was located outside of the Healing Center, staring off into space. Sophie walked over until she was standing directly in front of him, and he finally looked up.
"Keefe, why aren't you back in class yet?"
"I was waiting for you, duh. Knowing you, you'd probably get lost in these hallways if you didn't have me to guide your way," Keefe stood up, and that was when Sophie realized that from where she was standing, she was very, very far into his personal space bubble. He smirked as her cheeks started flushing rapidly, and she turned on her heel and started walking away.
"Well, aren't you going to escort me? Or should I get an elf with better hair to lead the way?"
Keefe gasped in mock disbelief. "Sophie, you know that nothing compares to The Hair! Frankly, I am a bit insulted. Besides, you and I both know that you have loved my hair since you first met me." Keefe said, walking ahead.
Sophie snorted out loud, but in her head she thought, If he only knew how much I really loved him....