Sophitz Forever

Chapter Twenty-Three

Sophie's brain was a whirlwind of activity and thoughts. She looked up again to see the twelve pairs of piercing blue eyes staring back at her, waiting for her response. Emery tapped his fingers against his robes in a very un-Councillor-like move.

She knew she had to say something so she cleared her throat and opened her mouth, not quite sure what was going to come out of it. "I—"

She was cut off by Keefe, who jumped in. "With all due respect, Sirs and Madams, I would like to make my decision next, if I could." He waited for the nod of permission. Sophie breathed a sigh of relief and sent a telepathic thank you to Keefe who nodded imperceptibly. "I would like—"

Fitz came over, his voice loud and clear. "Keefe, you are not fit to choose for yourself before me. Therefore, I would like to make my decision and then you can go and make yours." The Council looked uncertain, a strange look on their regal faces, but nodded, giving their approval to Fitz who took a deep breath and cleared his throat. "I choose Sophie Elizabeth Foster." Sophie breathed in a sharp breath and Linh gave a cry of surprise and, a tear rolling down her face though she swept it away quickly. Sophie felt oddly bad for her, and also angry at Fitz for being such a player and toying with sp many girls' hearts.

Keefe cleared his throat. "Excuse me, Fitz, but my decision was Sophie Foster. And I'm going to get her, too. She hates you." He smirked. Not the time for that. Sophie sighed and closed her eyes, wishing everything around her would disappear.

Fitz said, rolling his eyes, "Um, she hates you too."

Keefe retorted, "And what about Linh? You're going to leave her all alone?"

"She doesn't love me. Remember how you said you blew her off when she asked you out?" Fitz asked, crossing his arms.

Linh gasped. "When did that ever happen?" Linh looked confused, and Fitz soon followed suit, realizing that what he had believed about his best friend was false. Keefe responded, shaking his head,

"You're so clueless sometimes, Fitz. It was kind of obvious that that was a lie," Keefe said mockingly, rolling his eyes. Linh cried harder and Sophie just stood there dumbly, following the Council's figures, who were confused and unsure what to do in the situation.

Councillor Emery spoke up finally. "Miss Foster, what would you like to do? Who do you choose?"

Sophie's world shattered in front of her eyes. How could she make a decision now? She looked into the faces of Keefe Sencen and Fitz Vacker. Both of them after the same girl, only one of them ending up with that girl.

"I-I- choose Ke- Fi- I don't know." Sophie sighed. "With all due respect, I don't want either of them. What can I say to them, when I know one of them will end up hurt and alone and hate me? Both of them are my closest friends, no matter what has happened in the last couple of days, and I can't choose between them. So please, don't put this burden on me." Sophie implored to the twelve Councillors, "Aren't you supposed to be the Council? Aren't you supposed to decide this kind of stuff?" Sophie asked indignantly and also nervously. She wasn't supposed to speak to the Council like this. "Also, aren't we all a little young? I mean, don't elves end up deciding after a few centuries or so? Right? So why should we decide now? Everyone else gets a lot more time, right?"

"Well, that is correct, but in your cases, we would like things to happen a little earlier," Councillor Emery said.

"Why? Why should we have different circumstances from everyone else out of the entire elvin population?" Sophie asked. "What did we ever do to make this happen?"

"I.. I can't answer that. It's... very hard to explain." The Councillors nodded along with their leader.

Sophie crossed her arms in an effort to look defiant. "If you can't give a reason, then why should I give an answer? Why should anyone give an answer to you when you can't come up with a legitimate reason to your doings? You're just doing this to punish us for something that we don't even know what we did, right? What? We're too powerful just because we defeated the Neverseen as kids and you want us to all pair off and be married so that we can't take your places as Councillors one day because of our power? Are you scared of us, some teenagers who deserve to have more time than this to make lifelong decisions?" Sophie yelled. Her voice escalated and she was getting more scared but she kept on. She had always been taught to stand up for what she believed in and now was the time to listen to those words.