Sophitz Forever

Chapter Twenty-Four

Sophie and her friends stood in shock and disbelief, the same expression mirrored back and forth between their faces. The Council had left soon after Sophie's outburst and Emery's confession, and now Sophie and her friends were in her room, sitting in a circle and saying a minimal amount about what had happened. It was mainly composed of them staring at the petals of Sophie's carpet.

Sophie traced circles on her carpet with her index finger, making them into spirals and swirls that she would have been proud of, had her mind not been on something else. She gazed off absentmindedly into space, thinking back to everything that had just happened, when she came back to earth and looked at her friends. She started to observe them discreetly, hoping that her friends would help to take her mind off of things.

Dex was sitting crosslegged, fiddling with some sort of machinery that had been in his pocket and was most likely used for awkward moments such as these, looking as absentminded as Sophie had been. His smooth fingers worked quickly and evenly over the gadget that was starting to take shape, and his blue eyes stared down diligently as he worked. He didn't seem to notice Sophie's stares as he kept on shaping the hunk of metal.

Biana was fiddling on the dresser with Sophie's scant amount of makeup, trying on this and that, and creating a whole pile of used makeup remover on Sophie's vanity table. She was painting her nails, and they were becoming a bright red with white stripes and light pink dots. She had also put in purple highlights in her hair, but they seemed to be rubbing off, as they weren't permanent and Biana had barely used the dye.

Sophie turned to look at Keefe, who was running a hand through his blond hair over and over again, mussing up the do, and staring straight at Sophie. Sophie looked away quickly, trying her best not to notice the glint of his eye or the gleam of his teeth or the glow of his hair in the sun that was streaming through Sophie's bedroom window. Keefe looked sad and abysmal, as he turned his attention from her and stared off into space, not really thinking about anything important, or so it seemed. Sophie couldn't really tell; Keefe was quite hard to read at times, which was kind of aggravating when Sophie really thought about it. She wanted to be able to always know what he was thinking, and it was nettling and aggravating that she couldn't always, despite being a telepath.

Tam was softly braiding Linh's hair; Sophie would have laughed, had the moment not been so serious, at Tam's knowledge of braiding. He was so concentrated and focused and the end result was really pretty. Who knew Tam could braid so well? He was also mumbling something under his breath. Sophie strained to hear, but she couldn't hear anything but murmurs of speech. He was most likely quoting something or saying something to Linh.

Linh was humming softly, lost in her thoughts, it seemed, and working on creating a water sculpture in the air. It was really pretty, with swirling tendrils of water droplets encircling a heart with wild spirals throughout. She didn't seem to notice how Sophie was paying attention to her sculpture and went right on with her artwork.

Fitz. He was... drooling.

Sophie did a double-take and looked again. Yup, he was drooling. He wasn't even asleep; no, he was wide-awake, his teal eyes looking with such deep love and longing that it was hard to believe, his teal eyes focused on...

Sophie. Not Linh. Not Linh's water sculpture. Sophie Elizabeth Foster. He was drooling over Sophie.

Sophie refused to believe it. He had to have been thinking about some food or Linh or some other girl or something. He just happened to have focused his eyes on her while daydreaming, right? Sophie wanted to ask, but she kept watching as Fitz sat there, still staring at her widened eyes.

He ran a hand through his hair, and unlike Keefe, whose running-the-hand-through-the-hair-act was normal, Fitz managed to make it look so romantic and adorable and Sophie couldn't help but watch the chocolate-brown waves of hair fall back perfectly into place as if they were never touched. Sophie wondered if he used some sort of elixir or product in his hair or if it was naturally perfect. She knew Keefe used a ton of stuff to make his hair the way it was but Fitz's hair looked natural. Sophie wanted to touch that hair herself now, feel the softness of it, the smoothness, the fineness, and then she wanted to do more... more... more...

WHAT WAS SHE THINKING? Sophie slapped herself.

She hated Fitz! What... the... random curse word! How could she be thinking about this? He wasn't looking at her anymore. He had never been looking at her, Sophie thought. She sighed audibly.

Fitz sat there on the carpet, ever oblivious, still combing his hair with his fingers romantically until...

Biana threw Sophie's brush at him, breaking the silence. "Here. Fitz, your fingers aren't a very good comb." Biana might want to rethink that one, in Sophie's opinion. His fingers were a perfectly fine comb. Fitz came back to life, or maybe he always had been and grabbed the brush. Sophie sighed in disappointment.

Fitz spoke in a lilted voice. "I don't need it." He threw it back at Biana who caught it with a grace Sophie could only dream of having and hurled it back. It hit Fitz in the forehead.

"Ow!" Fitz grabbed the brush and his forehead.

"Serves you right for throwing something at a girl. And your own sister, at that." Biana said. Sophie stifled her laughter as she watched this friendly sibling exchange that had finally broken the silence of the room.

Fitz rolled his eyes. "Well, you started it. I was just... thinking... about... someone." Fitz said uncertainly, realizing his sentence mistake all too late.

Biana rolled her eyes right back at her brother. "Yeah, we all know who it was."

Fitz blushed, his face tinting a deep red, and Sophie's heart couldn't help but flip. She didn't know who it was! Who? Biana was so confusing.

Fitz finally sighed and said, "Biana, just shut up and leave me alone." His voice was firm and serious, with a hard edge to it. Biana shut her mouth, though she looked like she wanted to say more.

A snap filled the silence and Dex jumped out of his machinery reverie. Sophie turned to Tam, who had broken a hairband, it seemed.

"Great," he muttered, throwing the ruined thing on the floor. Sophie stood up and crossed the room, grabbing a hairtie from the dresser, and gave it to Tam, who took it gratefully.

"Here. It looks beautiful, by the way," Sophie said. Tam blushed.

"Thanks." He went back to work as Sophie nodded and smiled back.

Grady knocked on the door and said without opening it, "You guys doing okay in there?"

"Yes," everyone said back. Sophie sighed. She waited for Grady to leave before saying,

"Guys, what are we going to do about the Council? Shouldn't we tell someone?"

"Who would we tell?" Biana asked. "The Councillors already know and we can't tell them. And they're the highest on the social rank. There wouldn't be anyone to tell." She went back to rifling through Sophie's closet, a new job she had started.

"True. Then what should we do? Nothing?" Sophie asked, flinching as one of her capes hit her in the head. Biana was throwing everything out, it seemed.

"I think we should just leave it for now. If something more comes up, we'll think more about it, but for now, it doesn't really matter," Biana said. "To be honest, it really doesn't concern us. Emery is just crazy." Keefe and Dex nodded in agreement. Fitz, Tam, and Linh did nothing.

Sophie nodded. "Okay. Sure. I can live with that."