A/N: YES, it is 1:25 am and I am posting. Yes, I have 3 essays to do. Yes, I am here instead because it's technically a new day so I can post.
Yes, this next chapter has a wicked cliffhanger
You're welcome-
Before:
"Yes, I'm sure." Keefe tried to keep the bite from his tone, but from the glare Biana was burning into his forehead, he wasn't sure that he'd succeeded. "I guess I have to tell you, don't I."
It wasn't a question. He had danced around the subject enough. He would have to tell them soon enough anyway.
"Fine." Keefe hesitated for a long second... two... and then let it out in one big breath. Maybe if he said it quietly and quickly enough, they wouldn't hear. "My parents are applying for a match-fail."
"W-what?" Sophie breathed. Her face was so confused, as though she'd never expected this to happen.
"They're splitting up," Keefe muttered, not daring to raise his head. "They had a big fight, and my mom said that maybe it would be better if he left forever and then he tried to leave, and she grabbed his arm-"
Sophie's emotions were growing dangerously close to pity, and that was not what he wanted. She could call him a freak for all he cared (his heart cracked a little more), but pity? No thank you.
"Keefe, I am so, so, sor-"
"Whatever," Keefe interrupted. If he made her angry, she wouldn't have room for pity. Right? "I know."
Everyone felt sorry for him.
"But I am, Keefe!" Sophie continued, almost annoyingly. "I am really, really sorry!"
"I don't need your pity," Keefe raised his head to glare at her, but he couldn't muster the anger. Whatever she saw on his face, it changed her emotions from pity to worry.
"This isn't pity," Sophie said firmly.
She wasn't lying. But... it had to be pity that she was feeling. Everyone would feel sorry for him, and pinch his cheeks, and apologize for something that they didn't cause, and hum along on their day, another item checked off the list.
They didn't really care.
This didn't really affect them.
"Am I not allowed to say I'm sorry?" The was the annoyance he'd been going for, although the worry was definitely still there. "Just because I say sorry doesn't mean I pity you. It means that this sucks. It really does. This sucks, and we are going to get you through this, but first, you have to clean up and answer some of my questions."
Keefe squeezed his eyes shut. He wrinkled his nose, trying to slow the feelings that were rushing through him. The first thing his Empath mentor had taught him was how to identify his own emotions, instead of using others as a replacement.
He would need that skill now.
Keefe sorted through his emotions, trying to separate them. He was annoyed, yes, but he was also grateful and hopeful and the tiniest bit nervous. There was a hint of something fluttery-
Wait, that wasn't his.
The flutters immediately turned to annoyance, as Sophie's arms stayed on her hips in a pose that had him averting his eyes for fear of voicing them. "Okay?"
"Fine," Keefe muttered, scowling.
"Good. Now, Biana and I are going to leave for Havenfield, and you are coming with us. Get all of your stuff." Sophie tapped her foot in impatience... and to be honest, it was pretty cute.
Keefe blinked away the thought. He grasped for straws, anything that would get him out of going to her house, and probably her room. What if Fitz was there? Or worse- Grady. "But- your parents-"
"They aren't there. They had to go do something or... something, I'm not really sure," Sophie's emotions were nervous enough that Keefe could tell she was lying. That was a good sign. "So you're safe. Come on, get your stuff."
Keefe sighed, allowing his shoulders to droop as he trudged around the clearing, picking up his stuff. He was consciously aware that Sophie's eyes were on him, and he tried to subtly muss his hair a bit, a hint of color rising to his cheeks.
"Biana?" Keefe heard Sophie ask, just as he was turning around. "Bee?"
"Sorry, what's happening?" Biana's voice lacked the normal warm tone she usually had. Her voice caught on the last word, and Keefe winced. Sophie had enough to worry about already.
"Bee, what's wrong?" The concern wafting off of Sophie was almost enough to make him gag, and he swallowed hard. He had to convince her that he was fine.
He slipped the invisible mask that he wore to school every day over his face, cooling his expression until it didn't show any of the worry or depression that had blanketed his face for the last few weeks.
"I guess my fantastical brilliance just made her go into shock." Keefe tried to muster up his usual arrogance, but Sophie wasn't too convinced, by the feel of it.
Shock hit him in a wave, and he almost fell over with surprise, both his and not.
But what was Sophie that surprised about?
Then it hit him; those were Biana's emotions. They were so strong that he was feeling them without contact. She must have been really surprised to be feeling this much.
"Biana? Come on, what's wrong?" Sophie pleaded. Keefe had a guess, which was confirmed with Biana's next words.
"I don't know. I just... I've known Lord Cassius and Lady Gisela since I was born, and for them to split up... I don't know. It's just so weird. Why now?"
"That's what we're gonna find out," Sophie insisted firmly. "Now come on, we're going back to Havenfield."
She grabbed both of their arms, using an abnormal amount of non-clumsiness to leap them home without using either of her hands.
...
"Keefe! How much longer?" Sophie's voice rang through the bathroom door.
Keefe smiled, a little evilly. He would be lying if he said that he wasn't purposefully taking as much time as he could. He'd also taken a few minutes to rig that tripwire over the sink, hopefully to be triggered while he was still there. Although it was both to annoy the cute blonde impatiently waiting beyond the bathroom door, probably with an adorably annoyed expression on her face, tapping her foot in the way that-
What was he thinking about again?
Oh, yeah.
He had also stalled to get his face back together, to put on the persona of himself feeling better, the mask he had worn ever since he was seven. He rattled off comments like he used to, about everything in the bathroom, slipping into his old self like a robe. Only, it wasn't one of those comfy, fluffy robes, or those silky, floaty ones. It was more itchy and rough, a sign of how much he hated having to pretend.
Sometimes.... Sometimes he didn't have to pretend around Sophie. It was one of the things he liked most about her.
But today, pretending like always was the best thing for him to do.
If only he could convince himself of that.
"Beauty can't be rushed!" Keefe called back, mimicking Della's rich-but-somehow-floaty tones.
He could hear the girls' snorts through the door. He grinned.
"Hmm... he's kinda right, though," Biana's muffled voice came through the door. "You think this just happens overnight?"
"I mean, I wake up looking fabulous every day, but to look extra fabulous like I always do... well, that can't be rushed. Or faked." Keefe exited the bathroom, posing intentionally to avoid showing the bruises on his knuckles that Sophie had missed. Punching trees had exactly helped... but it eased a bit of the tension.
"Here," Sophie shoved a bowl of orange goop into his face, almost spilling it on him. "Eat. Then we'll talk."
Keefe suddenly realized how long it had been since he'd eaten. The last time he'd gone home to get food had been... a couple of days ago, and that had run out yesterday. He hadn't felt like facing his parents to get more, even if it was unlikely either of them would be at Candleshade.
Anyway, he was starving. He wolfed down the food, only pausing when he felt a huge wave of worry coming from the blond standing right next to him, creepily watching him eat.
"Hey, stop with all that worry," Keefe pointed the spoon at her. "I'm a growing boy, I need my strength. Although I don't know how I can grow MORE handsome than I already am... but eh, there's always room for improvement!"
Sophie chuckled as she wrinkled her face at him. "Stop it! You'll get it on my carpet!"
Keefe shrugged, resuming his eating. "Iggy or Bangs Boy can come to lick it up later."
Ugh. Tam. Although that reminded him how long it had been since he'd checked up on any of his friends...
It wasn't like any of them had come calling until now, anyway.
Keefe heard a slight, shrill squeal, and he tried to hide his smirk as Biana burst out of the bathroom, chest heaving with anger, hair dripping with slime that, oddly, looked like the food in his bowl.
"Biana! You- what? What happened?" Sophie gasped.
"Keefe!" Biana screeched, pointing a finger at him. "I know it was you! Don't ask me how, or why, but it. Was. YOU!"
A/N: Wow, why on earth would she jump to THAT conclusion? I guess she just doesn't trust him. Shame, shame. Anyway.... okay, sorry about this..... But y'all have seen all this before, there's not much I can change about this bit. You can read it again from Sophie's POV if ya want, but I don't feel like typing it all out again. Sooo...
~*time skip*~
Sophie sighed again. "Can we please talk about what we came here to talk about?"
Keefe deflated a bit, but he put on a smile that came out a little forced. "I guess I have to some time, right?" The girls nodded, and it was his turn to sigh. "Alright. Fine, what do you want to know?"
"First, I need to know that you'll be okay," Sophie told him, gentleness and worry written all over her tone. And her emotions.
Keefe rolled his eyes, even as his heart somehow swelled and cracked at the same time. He mustered up a fake smile.
"Come on, Ruewen. When have I not been okay? I'm fine. In more ways than one," he added, just to get that smile back on her face.
But it didn't appear. Maybe his fake smiles and jokes hadn't hidden the broken boy he always kept hidden underneath.
Dang, he was losing his touch!
Sophie shook her head, sighing. "Fine. so.. It's okay if I... ask some questions?"
"You just did," Keefe pointed out, checking to make sure his smirk was fixed in its normal place. "But sure. Ask away."
Biana took a deep breath before Sophie could speak, asking, "Why was this specific time different? What changed?"
Keefe inhaled. He just had to keep breathing. His smirk vanished. "I... don't know. They do things like that all the time, but this time... I got the feeling like my mom-" a stab of pain went through him- "had been thinking about this for a long time. Like, she had started this fight just to bring it up. And then... my dad didn't fight it that much."
Sophie bit her lip. "When will it be... official?"
Keefe shrugged. Deep breaths were key. "There's a lot of paperwork, so I guess... maybe sometime next month. Especially when they figure out where I'll be staying."
An icicle pierced him this time, freezing cold and sharp enough to cut through bone.
Hey, that sounded like his mother!
Keefe almost smiled at the thought, but that smile disappeared as soon as Sophie asked her next question. "Who knows?"
"I think Alden does. The nobility handling all of it. Some of my dad's friends. My mom's friends. Maybe some of our relatives."
Sophie and Biana nodded, though the latter looked like she was going to be doing some serious questioning for her parents when she got home.
"Are you going to tell anyone?" Biana inquired.
Keefe shrugged again. "Maybe. I'll have to tell them eventually. Fitz-" wow, another name that stabbed him clean through- "Will probably find out soon enough. Maybe Maruca too, her parents are pretty important Emissaries and she and her mom are really close."
Sophie seemed to wince. They all just... sat in awkward silence until an imparter went off. They jumped.
Biana answered her imparter, and Fitz's crisp voice filled the air. Keefe prayed that Fitz wouldn't realize that he was here. Sophie shot him a concerned glance, and he realized that he'd been shrinking into himself, almost hiding.
"Mom says that dinner's ready and you should get here so we can all eat as a family," Fitz told his sister. "Dad said you could stay with your friends, but Mom got him to agree that since we so rarely have a full family dinner with Alvar, you should come home and-"
"Is Alvar there?" Sophie asked, scooting into Fitz's view. "I thought he wouldn't be home from Ravagog until next week?"
"Nah, he came home early. Something about ogre hygiene...? I'm not sure," Biana grinned as Sophie's whole face softened and her emotions turned a little too fluttery for Keefe's liking. Fitz was probably smiling or something. Just one of his tricks to make girls swoon. Keefe's moves were MUCH better than that.
"I'll be back soon, bye!" Biana clicked off her imparter, cutting off Fitz's protests. Keefe couldn't manage to suppress the twinge of satisfaction that gave him, but he focused on Biana as she swiveled over to Sophie, giving her a quick hug. She pulled Keefe into an embrace too, despite his squirming and complaining. But he sank into the hug after a few minor protests, wrapping his arms around Biana and returning the completely friendly hug she was giving him.
On the plus side, it looked like her old crush on him was completely gone, judging by her emotions.
On the minus side, that was worry mixed with sympathy mixed with pity with undertones of amusement, which he did NOT want. Well, not the pity or sympathy or worry. The amusement was completely fine with him.
Biana pulled away, and she got to her feet, pulling out her home crystal as she rose. "Well... Bye," she smiled sadly. "And, for what it's worth, Keefe... I'm sorry. I really am."
She held her crystal up to the light and glittered away.
Leaving Sophie and Keefe alone. For the first time in weeks.
Cue awkward silence.
Sophie scooted closer to him, so close that Keefe could almost but not quite feel the brush of her legs on his. He may or may not have twitched his leg just a smidge, until his leg rested next to hers, not pressing together but touching softly.
His entire world narrowed to that point of contact as Sophie began to speak.
"I know you're used to dealing with your problems alone. I know that you prefer not involving anyone else in your personal life. I know that it was hard for you to talk to us, to me, like this today." She seemed sincere. But there was no way that was the end of the sentence.
"But..." Keefe prompted. He was surprised when Sophie looked... almost puzzled.
"What do you mean? There is no but. That was it."
"Oh, come on," Keefe said. "You're going to tell me how all of my friends are always gonna be here, and we're all in this together, and I should always come to one of you when I need to, and blah blah blah. I know that you're gonna give me a pep talk. But it won't work. My life is crap. Other families have problems, yes, but then it all gets fixed, and you go back to being a happy perfect family. So where's my perfect fix? Why does it keep spiraling and spiraling and spiraling?"
Sophie shook her head, placing her hand on his knee for a split second before whisking it away. "Keefe. Your life may not be perfect, but no ones is. You think my life is perfect? Or Dex's, or Tam's, or Linh's, or Marella's, or even Fitz's?"
Keefe snorted. "I was with you up until that last one."
Sophie rolled her eyes. "I'm going to choose to ignore that right now. But my point is, we might not have perfect lives. Our lives might throw us loopholes and bumps and pranks and tricks. But whenever something like this happens, just remember that it will end, and good things will follow. Bad doesn't last forever. It is always replaced by good."
Keefe scoffed. "And you're telling me that works for you? Even if it does, it doesn't help me now, at this moment. What would you do for the now, instead of the soon?"
Sophie smiled, a soft smile that lit up her face. "I try to think of all the things that are good about my life now. Even when things seem bad, there are always spots of good that light up the darkness. Like... when Jolie and Brant were first engaged, and we knew that they were a bad match, and Stina was making my life miserable at school... I focused on how happy they are, and will be. I think about all of my friends who continued to support me, even when they were teased for it. I think about my parents, and all the fun, and the exciting new things that happen every day. And that always helps me get out of my funk."
"Always?" Keefe couldn't help asking. "There weren't any times where it was all too much, and even thinking about all of your friends, who weren't helping anyway, didn't help?"
Sophie's smile faded. She focused on Keefe's eyes, and her turquoise gaze burned into his very soul. "Keefe. You have so many friends, and they all love you, and they would all help you if you just told them what was happening. They literally can't help if you don't tell them what's wrong."
"Bangs Boy wouldn't care," Keefe mumbled, not tearing his gaze from Sophie's.
Sophie laughed softly, staring back. "I think he might."
Keefe tried to look away, but found that he couldn't. Those beautiful eyes had latched onto his brain and were holding tight.
He started leaning in before his brain realized what was happening. To his utter shock, Sophie was leaning in too, her eyes and, he realized with a mixture of horror and excitement, her mouth growing closer. Her breath warmed his mouth, and he could hardly breathe because it was finally happening...
Gotta admit, it was mildly satisfying ending the chapter there
I feel like SUCH an evil author
So proud of myself
Anyways, next chapter will be out tomorrow!
Sometime!
Better go do my essays now-