Mine // Carl Gallagher

Chapter 18

       It was the next morning and the sound of pouring rain woke up Sophia. She rolled over, expecting Carl to be laying beside her, but he wasn't. She walked downstairs and saw him eating cereal at the dining table. He chuckled to himself when he saw her, "You look like shit in the mornings. No offense." She gave him a drop dead glare and spoke as she sat down across from him, "Wow, thanks for the confidence boost." "You're welcome."
         She rubbed her tired eyes as she spoke, "What's today?" He responded as he got up to put his bowl away, "Monday, which means we have school. You better get ready or else we'll be late." Sophia observed him, he was already ready to go. He was completely dressed, had his sneakers on, had his cornrows done, and his gold chain hanging around his neck. She started to walk back upstairs to get ready, but changed her mind as she turned back around to talk to him. Sophia leaned against the wall and said nervously, "So... are we going to talk about what happened last night?" He gave her a confused yet amused look, "Talk about what?"
         Her eyes filled with sadness but then quickly grew with anger, "What is that suppose to mean? Carl, you can't keep doing this to me! You're emotionally fucking me up. One minute you're calling me baby and kissing me, but then next minute you're making out with other girls and hitting up prostitues! You act like it's just fun and games to you. What am I suppose to think?" Carl's eyes were wide for just a moment as he looked taken aback, not expecting that reaction from someone so soft and kind like Sophia. He tried to save himself from her wrath but failed, "I was just joking, take a chill pill. If you want to talk about it, then we can talk."
       It made Sophia even more angry that he was telling her to relax when she was clearly upset and that he was joking about something that meant a lot to her. She scoffed, "Whatever. I'm over it." She stormed upstairs and slammed the bedroom door shut, then got ready for school. Sophia was so upset that she didn't even bother to put on even an ounce of makeup, which didn't matter because she barely put any one anyway. She just quickly brushed through her long black hair, brushed her teeth, and put on some casual cold-weather clothes. He was right, she did look like shit.
        Sophia grabbed her backpack and hesitantly walked downstairs to leave, not wanting to have to talk to Carl because she knew it would be weird after she lost it on him. He was sitting on the couch, scrolling through his phone, as she walked straight past him and went out the front door to head to school. As she was walking down the cold street with her arms crossed, she realized how unsafe she felt without him with her. She hated how she almost completely relied on him to make her feel protected, like a typical damsel in distress who needed her knight in shining armor.
         Luckily, yet unfortunately, Carl was running behind her to catch up to her. He was walking along side of her as she looked the other way, trying to not make eye contact. Carl smirked, yet he still had a subtle hint of sadness in his blue eyes, "Come on, Sophia. You can't stay mad at me forever, we can work this out." She kept on looking the other way and said nothing. They approached the high school and he whispered, "Bye," as they went their separate ways to their classes.
         They didn't talk to each other at all during the few classes they had together during the day, which slightly hurt the both of them. Sophia and Carl both felt guilty, but neither were willing to say anything more to one another. Throughout the day they avoided eye contact at all times, acting as if the other didn't even exist. Sophia didn't know how to feel about this situation since she had never been in an actual fight with Carl. She knew that she needed him and that she couldn't afford to lose him, but she had too much pride to apologize and talk things over at the moment. 
         It was the end of the school day and they walked home together in the rain, still not exactly on speaking terms. Carl would mumble something once in a while or casually beg her to just say something to him, but she refused. At one point he even offered her his jacket because she was noticeably cold, but she wouldn't take it. She did admire that even though they were in an argument, he didn't abandon her and didn't leave her to walk alone. This act made her fall deeper in love, and she hated it. She hated being head over heels for someone who wasn't even hers.
         The evening went on as the Gallagher family had dinner together at the table. Lip noticed that Sophia was poking at her food again, a nervous habit of hers, and that she and Carl hadn't spoken to anyone once. He spoke up awkwardly, "Are you guys okay? You haven't said anything the whole night.." Carl cleared his throat as he stood up from the table to put his plate in the sink, "Yeah I'm fine." He then went upstairs and slammed his bedroom door shut. It was obvious that he was definitely not fine. Carl had given up on trying to make an effort to fix things with Sophia and was now just frustrated and pissed at her sensitivity.
         Lip awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck as he felt a little guilty for causing that awkward moment. The house was now completely quiet as everyone continued to eat, trying to figure out what just happened. Fiona spoke up to break the silence, "Sophia, do you know what's going on with him?" She didn't want to answer because she was embarrassed and felt bad about the whole thing, she knew it was partially her fault they were fighting, "Uh, no. I don't know what's wrong." Fiona nodded and continued to quietly eat her green beans. Debbie then spoke up sarcastically, "He's probably on his man period." Ian slightly snorted as he tried not to laugh, then said, "That's not very nice, Debbie. Just because he is a boy doesn't mean that he can't have feelings, too." She just rolled her eyes in return as she got up to put her dishes away.
        Everyone had finished eating dinner and so Sophia decided to go upstairs to check on Carl. She was ready to talk. Though, when she went inside the bedroom they shared, he wasn't in there. She assumed that he was either thinking on the roof or left the house to do something, but either way she knew that he didn't want to be bothered.
        Sophia took off her clothes to change into one of his tshirts for pajamas, then laid underneath the covers in the large empty bed. She was about to drift to sleep when she heard Carl come in through the window and laid behind her, his chest close to touching her back. She was about to sit up as she sleepily spoke, "Carl, I-", but he shushed her as he gently pushed her to lay back down in bed and whispered, "Go to sleep baby. I promise that we will talk about us tomorrow. I'm sorry."
       She gave him a small smile as she closed her eyes to go to sleep.

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