after unlocked: a sokeefe fanfic

Chapter 53-Sophie

"Can I talk to you?" Fitz asked quietly.

Sophie attempted a smile. She knew it looked fake, and she also knew everyone knew she and Keefe were fighting—maybe not why, but they knew they were. She wasn't really sure why she was trying anymore. "Sure," she said.

She dropped the smile.

Sophie prepared herself for the inevitable question—what it was, she didn't know, really. She dreaded it.

But what he did ask wasn't in any of the phrases circling in her mind.

"How are you?"

Sophie blew out a breath. "I don't know," she answered honestly.

Fitz nodded, expression resigned.

"Did he say anything to you?" She whispered.

He shook his head.

Sophie scoffed under her breath, staring down at her hands, hating how they were becoming blurry with tears.

"Are you sure he did it?"

"I don't know anymore, Fitz," Sophie's voice broke and she shrugged helplessly, "I don't know what he did. I don't know anything about him anymore." She bit her lip. "I don't know him anymore."

"You've known him for three years, Sophie."

"I know, but... it's not him," she whispered. "It's me."

"Ever since I was little, I've been suspicious of any who tried to get close to me—mostly because I knew that they weren't really wanting to. No one wants to get to know the know it all, the twelve year in the senior AP classes. The freak.

"It's just gotten worse. I can't look at someone without picturing them in a Neverseen cloak. I can't hear their voice and not try to remember the voices that attack us all the time. I can't look at a face without wondering if they're wearing an addler. I can't trust anyone anymore, and it's hurting everyone around me."

"You trust me?" He asked quietly.

Sophie shrugged, eyes falling back to her lap. "I don't know who I trust," she whispered.

"But you do know us. You know Keefe. And he would never do anything to hurt you—not on purpose."

"That's the problem, though, isn't it? Too many people have gotten in his head, in my head. We didn't try to hurt people. But people got hurt anyways. Keefe's mom used him to get to me, and it was just a chain reaction after that. All the pain and the tears and the death—it's because of us."

Fitz took her hands in his gently. "Sophie, I'm not going to say that everything's okay. It's not. It hasn't been. It probably won't be for a long time." She nodded as he continued, "but we're kids fighting a war. People are going to get hurt. There's going to be pain and tears and death. And I hate that. You hate that. We all hate that. But it was never your fault, or Keefe's."

"I know Keefe, Sophie." Fitz squeezed her hands, and Sophie looked up at him. "I've known him for seven years now, and I know that he wouldn't do something like this. Not to you. He... he really cares about you, and he wouldn't jeopardize that."

"But how do I know that?" Sophie whispered. "He got me out, but... this is the second time."

"Look, you aren't the only person who..." he sighed. "Didn't believe him. But I'm hasty in my judgements all the time, and that's stung me too many times. I haven't believed Keefe enough. He's my best friend, and maybe that's changing for him, but that's hard to let go of. And I... I know him. Maybe not as well anymore, but I do."