the prom queen

chapter seven

k e e f e   s e n c e n

"i'll take the kiss." keefe smirked. sophie rolled her eyes and gestured to edaline to show who she was speaking to. they were leaning over the kitchen counter watching edaline mix the mallowmelt, even the batter looked good. keefe had never heard of mallowmelt, apparently it was a family recipe passed down from generation to generation. whatever it was, he wasn't about to complain about eating it. his family called him a vacuum since he pretty much inhaled everything in sight. thankfully he burned all the food he ate off by running track and playing sports.
edaline kissed sophie's forehead and shooed them into the living room where there was a couch and a coffee table. keefe had thrown his backpack in here earlier and sophie laid hers down beside his on the floor, then collapsed onto the couch. "what time is it even?" she asked. keefe checked his phone seeing multiple texts from fitz and biana, who he usually drove to school, but ignored them and told her the time.
"about 7:30. so we have half an hour to make up for the time we lost yesterday."
"we lost? more like you lost. it's your fault for eating tacos during a study session."
"okay to be fair, i hadn't eaten lunch. it was either you listen to me crunch on my tacos or judge me for stealing a bite outta that kids chair."
sophie cringed in disgust from the memory. it really was quite disturbing. he had a long tongue too which just didn't help the situation. "that was the grossest thing i've ever seen. no wonder nobody studies in there."
"well yeah. and because of the librarian." keefe started with a laugh.
"the librarian? what's wrong with him?" she asked.
there were so many things wrong with the librarian. and most of them were his fault. keefe's freshman year at foxfire he played his first, and definitely not his last, prank on the school librarian, mr.sweeny. let's just say he didn't earn his reputation as the class prankster for nothing. it wasn't your average teepee story. keefe had played the ultimate prank on mr. sweeny. it's what got him to the top of the social ladder in the first place. "that's a story for another time." he grinned.
sophie frowned "alright if you won't tell me let's just get my paper out of the way."
keefe nodded in agreement then walked over to his backpack and pulled out his computer. he felt a little bad annoying her with his munching but it was honestly pretty funny seeing her all riled up. he plopped down next to sophie and opened his computer. his screen saver was a picture of him and biana at homecoming in october when they won homecoming king and queen. it stung a little, especially when he noticed sophie peering behind him as he changed it to a default picture of the sunset. keefe pulled up the version of sophie's essay he edited with red marks scrawled all over the paper. sophie groaned and stuffed a pillow over her face. "this is worse than if you deleted the whole thing."
keefe chuckled and yanked the pillow from her grasp, only to fling it back into her face. sophie's eyes widened and she cocked her head to the side in a threatening manner. "oh you're gonna regret that." she smirked, which was a rare appearance. he was actually pretty nervous about what she was about to do so he quickly shut his computer on the coffee table and ran to the other side of the couch. unfortunately sophie had all the pillows on her side which gave her a big advantage.
scouring for pillows or any sort of cushion, he picked up a furry rug on the floor in front of the passageway to the kitchen behind him. sophie furrowed her eyebrows, equally as confused as he was as to how he was going to use it. with a rectangular pillow, the size of his backpack, in sophie's hand she launched it at keefe's face. he was able to dodge the attack but it brushed the top of his head ruffling up his hair. keefe rushed his hands to his hair and panicked. "not the hair!"
sophie smiled and rolled her eyes getting ready with another pillow. although this time when she threw it keefe used the rug in his hands as a shield, deflecting the pillow. he pumped his arm in victory when a cushion slammed him right on the nose. he might've been a little quick to celebrate. luckily the three pillows she chucked at him were now on his side for him to use against her. keefe crouched down behind the couch when sophie sent another pillow his way and then started collecting them. "you're not getting away with messing up the hair!" keefe exclaimed as he catapulted a pillow over his head.
judging from her scream he probably hit her. keefe grinned as he launched another one over the couch. he heard stomping coming his way so he decided to make a run for it. to his right was the staircase to the upstairs, no exit to his left, and straight on was the pathway that led to the kitchen. upstairs was his best bet so he scurried to the right and tripped over the steps to get to the second floor. there weren't very many options when he got up there either. hearing sophie chasing after him, he darted into the closest room.
keefe didn't want to make it obvious which room he went into so he left the door open and dove under a queen sized bed with a teal comforter and white decorative pillows. his heart was pounding in his ears when he laid down underneath the nearly empty dark space. it was more comfortable than it looked but he was still pretty cramped. looking around the only object in sight was a pink shoe box. sophie really only wore one pair of shoes to school so he was surprised she would even have another pair. intrigued, keefe reached out and grabbed the box. it was lighter than expected.
when he lifted the top of the box he was able to make out the shapes of what filled it. he assumed they were photos from the sizing and there were a bunch of other random items too. deciding not to snoop more than he had, keefe put the top back on and shoved it to the head of the bed. after a few minutes of silence, keefe wondered if sophie had already given up on trying to find him. he wriggled himself out from under the bed and sat up. she wasn't in the room and when he peered out the door way sophie was no where in sight.
on the nightstand beside the bed was a photo of sophie standing in front of fenway park with three other figures. a dark haired girl, who looked to be about 10 or 11, was tugging on sophie's sleeve. the older woman, almost an exact replica of the younger girl, standing next to the girls had her arm wrapped around a tall and buff dirty blonde guy with a red sox cap on. keefe didn't recognize any of them and wondered if they were friends or family of sophie.
he shrugged it off and stood up brushing off the dust that collected on his clothes from under, what he assumed was, sophie's bed. when keefe walked out of her room sophie was eagerly waiting with a pillow by the doorway. she wacked him over the head and he started running to the other side of the second floor. in the middle of the floor was a spiral staircase so you could run around it if needed. and in this case it was needed. sophie had another pillow ready so she hurled it his way but keefe managed to catch it, thankful for his football skills. he really needed to thank his mom for signing him up for so many sports when he went home.
sophie chased keefe around the staircase a couple hundred times before he put enough distance between them so had time to start down the steps. sophie was right on his tail and when he made it to the first floor she jumped onto his back. keefe stumbled a bit before steadying himself with sophie on his back. she was super light which made it easy for him to run back into the living room and chuck her onto the couch.
she erupted into a fit of giggles while keefe caught his breath. this was probably enough exercise for him for the day. sophie extended her hand so he could help her up but she pulled him onto the couch with her instead. it was pretty big but since keefe wasn't expecting to be yanked down, on his way being pulled down to the couch he stumbled and sent them both tumbling to the floor.
they both shrieked and landed on the carpeted floor with a thud. although sophie's fall looked to be broken by keefe, her limbs were flying all over the place. she caught herself with her hands that were placed on either side of keefe's head, their faces separated by inches. sophie's face turned bright red, he didn't know you could even blush that deep of a color. staring into her eyes, he noticed the golden flecks that you could see if you were just close enough.
neither one of them moved and he didn't know if she was feeling what he was feeling, it was nothing he'd ever experienced before. keefe tilted his head forward until their foreheads were touching and he could feel her breath on his. the closer he got the more her breath slowed and eventually came to a stop. keefe was relieved he wasn't the only one who's breath was caught from the small space between their lips. he was about to close the gap between them when a deep voice interrupted "WHAT'S GOING ON IN HERE?!"