Board Thread:Short Stories and Fanfictions/@comment-24.214.117.2-20190923171355/@comment-24.214.117.2-20190925004010

and here's the next part:

three

Sophie's heart ached at the loss of something that had barely started. Her eyes burned from the tears and she longed to go back in time to that perfect moment under the panakes tree, before all this mess with the matchmakers had happened.

In the matchmaking office, something had snapped. She had felt it in her chest, heard it with her ears, and she knew--she knew--something had changed. But what? She had no idea.

"Sophie? Can I come in?" said a voice from her doorway. She propped herself up on her elbows and glanced at the doorway. It was Keefe. "Or is now a bad time?" he asked.

"Yeah. You can come in." She hoped she didn't sound to depressed, then decided that she didn't actually care.

He sat on the end of her bed, giving her space, but still close enough to grab her hand and send a warm breeze through her head if her emotions got too out of control. "You missed school today. I thought I should come check on you and make sure you weren't running off to do something without me." He flashed his trademark smirk, but she could still see the worry in his eyes.

She looked at her hands. She was clutching the teal heart pendant that Fitz had given her, unsure if she wanted to reverently keep it forever or snap the chain and fling it in Fitz's reputation loving face. Her hands curled into fists.

"Are you okay there, Foster? You're flinging some strong emotions my way." He fanned the air.

"No," she mumbled.

"Did something happen between you and Fitz?" he asked.

"Yeah."

It took about thirty seconds for him to get the rest of the story out of her. Unmatchable, Fitz's rejection, all of it.

"You're unmatchable," Keefe said when she had finished.

"Yep," she mumbled. "And Fitz decided that was the end of it." She spat his name like it was a bad word. She looked one more time at the necklace in her hands, and flung it across the room, where it smacked into the wall and slid to the floor.

"So Fitzphie's really over?"

Her heart hurt, but not as much as it had before he got here. Keefe made it easier somehow. "Yeah."

He twined his fingers with hers. "I have wanted to tell you something for a long time, Sophie. I--"

Someone cleared their throat.

Sophie looked up. It was Wylie, Linh, Marella, Dex, Biana, and, worst of all, Fitz. She wasn't sure who had done the throat clearing, but she assumed it was Fitz, especially when he said, "Are we inturrupting something?"

"Yes," Keefe said at the same time as Sophie said, "No."

--TrickyZbear