Sophitz Forever

Chapter Seventeen

Sophie didn't notice Fitz coming out of the house. She was too enthralled in Keefe's kiss. He fought for her furiously, embracing her with a passion. She had never thought that it could be like...

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Fitz shouted at Sophie. Or maybe he was shouting at Keefe.

Sophie gasped quietly and broke away from Keefe. She hadn't heard him come over. Her cheeks flamed red and she turned away from Fitz. Fitz clenched his fists and stormed over. He grabbed her and pulled her away from his supposed best friend roughly. She fell to the ground, more from surprise and shock than anything. Sophie expected him to hit her and she gasped loudly and rolled away. Fitz veered away from her; she was never his real target. No matter what she did, he wouldn't hit her. Keefe was a different story.

Fitz punched Keefe in the eye, hard, and you could hear the impact from where Sophie was on the ground. It sounded just like it did in the movies. Keefe's cheek started to bleed and he clenched his eye. He checked to see if Sophie was okay and then he turned to Fitz,

"What are you doing? I did absolutely nothing wrong! Bastard!" Keefe screamed. Then he ran to Fitz and punched him in the eye, but Fitz didn't even wince.

Fitz growled. Sophie was tempted to laugh, had not the scene been so horrible. "Sencen, you might want to know that I work out, unlike you, and your weak little sissy fight punches do not affect me in the least." Keefe bared his teeth at him. Sophie started to sob, but she did nothing to protect them. She felt ashamed, but what could she do? She wasn't going to get in the middle of the two boys.

Keefe glared at Fitz. "What do you think you're doing? Why the hell are you coming out looking like a madman, and you just come over and punch me? What did I ever do to you?"

Fitz looked at Keefe. "Oh, you totally did nothing to me. Nothing except kissing my girlfriend!" Sophie blushed at the term, but still said nothing. It was like they had forgotten she was there as they battled it out.

"Um, Vacker, you might want to check your facts before you start accusing anyone of anything. Sophie came out crying because of you, I assume, because of the dickhead that you are, and then she crashed into me. Of course, I asked her what was wrong because I have the decency to, but she said nothing and just fell into my lap. AND THEN SHE KISSED ME. I didn't start it." Keefe said this all so violently, Sophie felt as if he was just asking for another punch.

Fitz yelled, "Why did you kiss her back? You know she belongs to me!" Sophie was offended at being referred to as property but still she kept quiet.

Keefe said, "I am a man, you know. And men like us like to be kissed by damsels in distress, especially if it's Foster. So... you really can't blame me for anything." He shouldn't have said that, nope, he shouldn't have said that. Fitz turned to Sophie, clumped, yes, clumped over to her, and dragged her up by the arm, ripping her cape in the process. Sophie's breath started to speed up and she screamed. Keefe ran over but could do nothing against Fitz's muscle and adrenaline. Sophie cried out,

"You don't need to do this, I can explain, please, don't do it—" Sophie's shrieks were silenced by a powerful blow to her face. It wasn't a punch, but a slap, but it hurt. She screamed and kicked Fitz. She made contact with his privates and he groaned in pain. He let go, dropping Sophie in the process, who was crying and holding her face, where blood had started to run down. Keefe walked over to Sophie, stepping on Fitz hard on the way, and knelt down.

"Sophie, are you okay? Please, please be okay." Sophie started to scream again: it felt as if needles of pain were going through her, but she couldn't tell what it was from. She screamed and screamed, but nothing happened. It felt like she was being stabbed all over, again and again. She had no idea what was going on, but there was pain all over, red hot and fiery, and it was travelling throughout her whole entire body, and all she could was scream and flail. She felt something cold on her wrists and legs, and she realized Keefe was carrying her, or maybe it was Fitz, she didn't even know, the pain, it hurt, she screamed, the pain was consuming her, she didn't know what to do. This was not because of the slap, no it wasn't. This was much worse.

She felt something soft, and she realized it was her bed. She lay on it and curled up, but it just hurt worse. She distantly heard someone, perhaps Keefe, say, "Call Elwin now." She was relieved to get help, but she still heard her own screams, as if it was a siren wailing throughout the night. All of sudden, the pain faded and she felt something cold going through her body. No, it was a sedative, no, no, no... But she faded away from the present and lay there, cold and sick.

She woke up with a jolt. She opened her eyes, which were slightly blurred, and saw shadows. No, they were figures of other elves. She saw Keefe's blonde hair, Elwin's face, and Fitz's eyes. She also saw Biana's worried glance, Dex's hair mussled and his face angry, and Tam and Linh's sad looks. She wondered why everyone looked so gloomy.

Elwin came over. "Sophie, can you hear me?" Sophie quietly nodded yes, though it hurt her to do so. "Okay, something happened to you that I think you should know about. You started to spasm and it seemed as if you were in pain, and I think I know why. Your body seems to have been inhabited by some sort of drug or possibly an elixir that you may have been forced to ingest from the Neverseen years ago. I think that everything that happened today, Keefe told me everything, might have activated it in some sort of defense. The Neverseen were trying to make so that you wouldn't be able to withstand any sort of torture or something of the sort. I have never seen anything like it. I have prescribed some medicines, but I would advise you to refrain from any fighting, training, or even arguing until I see fit. Your body goes into shock mode and then the pain kicks in. I've never seen anything like it. Then again, I've never seen an elf like you before." He smiled. "I'll leave you with your friends, but only one at a time." Everyone yelled, "I'll go first!" Elwin shushed them and smiled at Sophie. "You can choose."

Who? Fitz, Keefe? Biana? She didn't know. Finally she said, "I'd like to see Fitz." She didn't know why, but she had to. He was the one. Everyone else left the room, though Biana left worried glances, Dex was glowering, Tam and Linh looked confused, and Keefe just looked sad.

Fitz knelt by her bed. She started. "Please don't apologize for anything."

Fitz started to cry, which was an unusual sight. She decided that she would have to let him find his own peace. "Sophie, I—I'm so sorry for everything I did. I didn't mean to hit you, I was just so angry at you and Keefe and everything that happened. I would never ever willingly try to hurt you. The anger just took over and I became a whole different person. And I also didn't mean to kiss you like that if you didn't want it. Ok? Please, don't be mad at me. I love you. Today was one of the scariest days of my life." She tiried to speak but he held up a hand to silence her. "And if you choose to be with Keefe, that's okay. I understand. I just want you to know that I do love you."

Sophie looked at Fitz. Her voice came out scratchy. "Fitz, I love you. I just don't want things in our relationship to feel forced. With Keefe, he's just a lot easier to be around, you know? You can say some stuff that won't really make you embarrassed around him. But with you, I can't always say what I want to say. You're you."

Fitz looked sad and he took her hand. "You know you can always tell me anything? I won't laugh at you like Keefe would, or disregard it. It would be important to me. I would always listen to you."

Sophie nodded and said, "Can you—"

He looked at her. "—kiss you?"

He pulled her into a kiss, and it was slight, a lot less forced than the first one. It was gentle, sweet, and beautiful. It didn't cause her any pain to feel his lips on hers. It was weird though, because Sophie was barely sitting up against a soft pillow and Fitz was standing. She pulled away.

"Fitz, I do love you." He nodded and walked out of the room, seeming to know that she wanted to see other people.

Before she called the next person in, Sophie thought about the kisses. Twice with Fitz and once with Keefe. She couldn't decide how she felt about any of them. They were all so different. Fitz's was exploding with sweetness and color and warmth, while Keefe's was more like fireworks everywhere. They were so different, but really, what did a kiss really mean?

Keefe walked in next.