Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Sophie Carmella was cuddled up with Andrew Smith in bed late at night. Her mother didn't know that Andrew was here and if she did know that her daughter's boyfriend was in her house, in her daughter's room, Sophie was certain that neither her or Andrew would live to see the daylight ever again.
"Soph," Andrew mumbled, grazing his nose along his girlfriend's neck.
"Mhm?" She responded with a sigh, leaning back into him.
"How are you feeling?"
"Okay."
There was a beat of silence. "Why bother lying, Sophie, when you know that I can see right through it."
She pushed him away and turned around so that they were facing each other. "I am okay, Andrew. I admitted my feelings and now it's all out and I am okay."
"No," he said, "don't do this, Soph."
"Don't do what?"
"Don't shut me out."
"I'm not shutting you out."
"Yes. Yes, you are."
"What do you want me to tell you?" she burst.
"How you really feel-"
"I'm fine, Andrew." Her tone was final saying that this was the end of their discussion.
Andrew sucked in a breath of air before he puffed his chest out. "You're not fine," he stated.
"How would you know how I'm feeling?" Sophie shot back.
"I'm your soulmate, remember?"
Sophie would have laughed at this statement but given the circumstance she just felt like smacking her boyfriend. "Well, soulmate," she snapped, "I don't want to talk about it."
"Soph," Andrew called but Sophie got off the bed and headed to her table so she could unplug her phone from the charger and maybe look at posts that would make her feel something - something else that wasn't what she was feeling now.
When she didn't turn around at Andrew's call, he climbed off the bed and walked to her, grabbing her by her waist and turning her around. This is the part where Sophie usually got excited along with Andrew and indulged in the pleasure that only they could give each other but Sophie was angry now, she was pissed, and so was Andrew.
"Baby, look at me," Andrew said.
"Don't want to."
"Soph, look at me." His words were so punctuated that Sophie's gaze lifted up to him on their own accord.
"Do you remember your promise?"
Sophie gulped and pushed at his chest, willing him to pull back. Andrew stumbled at the abrupt push and blinked, hurt flashing across his face. "Andrew, Dad died. I just talked to him and told him - well, his grave - what I felt. And I don't want to talk about it again."
"You have to talk about it, Soph-"
"Why, Mr I Know It All?"
Andrew flinched. "You can't keep all those thoughts pent up in there. You have to get them out-"
"I did," she said sharply. "You were there at the grave with me. Or did you already forget how I practically laid my heart open for my dead Dad and told him how I felt?"
"But you didn't tell him everything, Soph."
Andrew's voice was so soft, so low, that Sophie wouldn't have caught it unless the house was this quiet. This made her wonder why the house was so silent. Her mother was home so there must have been some commotion occurring downstairs but it was oddly quiet.
Her mother was listening.
"What are you talking about?" she asked, her voice an octave lower and she told herself that it wasn't because Andrew was right but because she didn't want her mother to hear their argument.
"You're feeling something else, Soph. You're sad and you're feeling broken but you won't tell anyone why. I don't understand why you won't tell me why-"
"How would you know how I'm feeling?"
"I'm your soulmate, remember?" His lips lifted up into a smile but Andrew knew his smile didn't reach his eyes and he knew that she saw just how much she was hurting him.
Sophie tilted her head to the side. "Are you me, Andrew?" she spat. "You're not so stop pretending you know how I feel-"
"Then tell me how you feel!" Andrew burst, raising his voice above hers as anger flashed across his eyes. Why was she shutting him out? Why was she doing this to him?
"I don't want to!" she shouted back, baring her teeth as she glared at her boyfriend, more angry than he was. "How dare you talk about how I'm feeling when you have no clue about it."
Andrew just stared at his girlfriend, his anger washing away fast. He swallowed not because she was right but because she was wrong. "Have you forgotten that I don't even have parents?"
Sophie stared at Andrew and the silence was so deafeningly loud that she feared that her mother could hear her heartbeat all the way from downstairs. "You didn't know them. I knew Dad. And then he died."
Andrew laughed as he threw back his head. When she saw his face again she saw tears in his eyes. "Wow," he breathed out. "That was very bitchy."
"Get out, Andrew."
He blinked, the hurt now intensified by double. "Get out?" he echoed.
"What? You don't understand English anymore?"
He swallowed before he took a step forward. He didn't want to believe this. She took two steps back and his face fell.
"You promised," he whispered, his voice breaking and his heart shattering. "You promised you won't push me away."
Sophie stared at him one last time as she delivered the last blow. "I said. Get. Out."
He blew out a breath of air and retracted his hand. He nodded. He understood. "I love you, Soph," he whispered and when she didn't reply he looked away, brushing the side of his eye.
