ᴍᴜꜱᴛ ʜᴀᴠᴇ ʙᴇᴇɴ ᴛʜᴇ ᴡɪɴᴅ 「 ˢᵒʳᵘʸ 」

VII || the promise

Sophie pointed to the big blue house in the middle of a gated off area. It looked like one of those secluded frat boy dorms--well because it was--that she showed them in movies.

"How long have you known? Or at least suspected?" Fitz demanded her.

She rolled her eyes and ignored him, ringing the bell at the electronic gate. She started pushing other buttons when she didn't get an immediate response. Each one let out a different prank. She luckily ducked out of the way before they hit her, but her friends weren't so lucky.

"I had a lot of extra time," She said with a laugh, "And don't get me wrong, I love these pranks, but I'm gonna fry it soon."

Sophie was about to press another button, but the gate popped open. She smiled, "Let's go slow pokes, time waits for no person! Last one to the house is rotten mallowmelt!"

They all stared at her. She must have sounded so much like Keefe. That was another thing they had in common, using jokes to hide their pain.

Her friends indulged her though, running to the house behind her. She got there first of course, knocking on the door. After several minutes of waiting, no one answered. So she improvised, taking a bobby pin out of her hair, attempting to pick the lock.

"What are you doing?" Biana asked.

"Picking locks," She said, "I mean this is Keefe, I had to prepare for anything."

When she heard that satisfying click she opened the door and ducked. Shaving cream was whipped in someone's face, they let out a grunt of disdain. She didn't care though, she strided through the house, not caring which pranks she set off or who they hit.

"Will someone please stop her before she wrecks the whole house with us in it!" Wylie said as she set off another and didn't get hit. She was clean when all her friends had spoiled pranks on themselves.

Ruy was the only other clean person. He stayed behind her the whole time, the only smart person here.

"We have to hurry!" She yelled, "The minute he knows we're here he's gonna make a run for it."

Sophie started jogging faster, and her friends had to keep up with her or risk getting lost in this big house. She made one sharp final turn and launched herself onto the shadowy figure in the doorway.

Keefe raised his hands to surrender, but she was already on him. Straddling him and holding him to the ground, "Y'know," She panted, out of breath, "You're a real asshole."

She shoved him down another time and got up, throwing him one of her pre-packed packs, "Hurry up, we need to go, now."

//

Keefe knew he wouldn't be able to run forever, dreading the day that his past finally caught up with him. Over the past year he buried his past as an elf deep down where no one would find it, but the past has its own way. No matter how buried it comes out sooner or later. But he didn't think that day was today.

He wanted to live out the rest of his lifetime as a human, and only when his friends started to wonder why he didn't age would he leave. He even enrolled in college, started playing basketball, and made new friends. He even had a girlfriend. Everything was planned out.

But he didn't think he'd wake up hungover, needing to answer the electric gate in the front. He didn't think that he'd see a pretty blonde girl's face scrunched up in front of the camera. He didn't think that he'd press the button that let her in. He didn't think he'd get knocked to the ground in front of his friends.

This was a pretty shitty week too. His basketball team lost the championship game yesterday, then he got drunk off his ass with his best friends. Then he made out with one of their sisters--and even if she was his girlfriend, he was forced into that relationship.