Sleepovers, Surprises and Secrets

Chapter Three

Time passed by and so did many lunch breaks together, months which drizzled into just over a year and the end of the school year and high school itself was feeling closer than ever.

Clover and Sophia had become close friends, best friends to be exact and each seemed to have a good effect on the other, Clover had encouraged Sophia to have more fun and relax more from her constant pattern of overworking and of course this helped Sophia have less time feeling burnt out or exhausted from often working too hard and her grades of course were still thriving like she worked for, but she genuinely felt so much happier, complete in a way almost and she no longer was left out of group projects, having to pretend to like her own company or alone at lunch break, Clover was always by her side and she had helped Clover a lot too, Clover actually did try a little bit with school and when she struggled with things, Sophia would help explain it to her and take the time with her until she got the hang of it, they really did bring out the best in eachother.

However though, there was still some lingering issues, Clover struggled with her home life outside of school and she refused to open up about it and sometimes still would disappear for times, not say anything or make up some feeble excuse and this also made Sophia worry that maybe Clover didn't really trust her the way she trusted her, she also worried about Clover and what she was potentially going through even with all the times Clover had reassured Sophia she was fine. 

Sometimes Sophia still felt she didn't know everything about Clover sometimes, it was odd, she also was confused by many of the feelings she was having though, as was Clover, who smiled softly at Sophia as she watched her, still an expert at not letting her true thoughts show on her face even though a lot had become very hard to hide from Sophia, especially as she gazed at her, thinking how beautiful she looked under the overcast sunshine that was still making her look angelic even as she did a simple task as get her lunchbox out of her bag, Clover couldn't help think how adorable and gorgeous she looked as she unpacked her lunch, glad to see she seemed to be eating a little better, it made her feel proud and less stressed when she knew Sophia was making time for herself, since after knowing her so long, she knew she often abandoned normal human tasks because she took her school work so seriously, even though Clover constantly told her to relax more as she was one of the top in her class already, Clover had started to nickname her a smartie and when she was feeling soft, she called her a smartie pie.

She blushed though at the thought of all the times she had called her cute nicknames as it went against her usual front to be soft and show emotion, even though Sophia brought that side out of her, whether she liked it or not and she actually did like it, she felt warm, safe and special in Sophia's company, which was things she never felt otherwise and she often felt entranced by her, but she herself had many of her own issues that had seemed to get much worse and harder to hide over the years, which also was taking a toll on her but she kept up her front anyway, she could be a different person with Sophia, the one she kept hidden from everyone else, she could be herself.

Even though at times too she felt like she was not worthy of being friends with someone as smart, beautiful and sweet as Sophia, she also struggled to even open up properly still to her gorgeous best friend, but she didn't want to dwell on that, she didn't even want to acknowledge that somehow since meeting Sophia and then developing a bond with her, that she experienced feelings on new levels that she hadn't before and when she had feelings, she didn't really like many of them, she felt they made her too soft and vulnerable so she pushed them away and tried to distract herself by talking, thinking too how even Sophia had encouraged her to try and look after herself better because otherwise Sophia would insist on her sharing her lunch with her so that made Clover try harder to bring her own "You better have brought water with you!" She lectured teasingly to Sophia and then watched as Sophia pulled out a water bottle, playfully poking her tongue at her friend and Clover shook her head and chuckled "Good then, I can't have you fainting, someone would think I gave you drugs or something, you know my bad reputation!" She then said, trying to downplay her protectiveness over Sophia, she was worried about seeming weird or too caring and she didn't want to ruin the one and only proper friendship she had ever had, over the years, Sophia seemed to be like the only thing that mattered to her, she was like the only star left in a very dark sky, like the only subtle direction for Clover to follow as all the others which was many of her hopes and dreams had flickered away into the deep dark nothingness but Sophia was like the sun to Clover, a beautiful bright light in a whole realm of darkness and she never wanted her to stop shining, she was like her northern star or the moon that even managed to shine through the darkest of nights.