I've Changed

30. pillow fight

~~~~

"Hello?" I say through the phone.

"Ellie," Theo whines on the other line. "I need your help."

Sofie enters the kitchen with swollen eyes and flushed cheeks, throwing herself on one of the stools in front of me.

"With what?" I point to my bowl of oatmeal, offering to make her some. Except, she takes my leftovers and eats the rest of it.

I let her and don't judge.

"Jae is scaring me. We have practice and he won't get out of bed."

"Theo," When I say, Sofie slowly turns her head and shows interest to the conversation.

I narrow my eyes.

She shrugs sheepishly.

"I don't know what you want from me Theo. Why don't you come over—" the call ends. "Hello?"

I remove my phone from my ear and look at it weirdly.

"What the fuck happened last night?" Sofie dissociates on a random part of the counter. "I never liked that bitch. The second she stole your man—"

I cough.

"I fucking hate them."

There's not much for me to say.

We spent the night debriefing, and were still in disbelief with the entire situation.

"Alex and Eric are on their way," I invited them in hopes of lightening her mood.

She smiles only briefly. "Is Jae okay? If this is how I feel about Aaron, I can't imagine what he's going through."

"He seemed...stable when I left last night."

"I might be lucky."

"How so?"

She smiles to herself before looking at me, "I wasn't completely oblivious. I had you guys to snap me back into reality when he acts out, and I had my suspicion months ago. Jae, on the other hand, was clueless throughout it."

I sigh, "it's messed up."

"She's a psycho!" She screams.

Valid reaction. In the middle of it, the doorbell goes off.

Her screaming dials down as we share glances across the kitchen.

"I'll open it," she rises from her seat. "If it's a murderer, I'll gratefully sacrifice my life."

I laugh with a mixture of pity.

It's not often we see Sofie vulnerable, which makes it difficult to expect the ways she copes.

"You're kidding," I hear her say.

A second later, Theo runs into our kitchen and desperately looks for water.

"It's only been a few minutes," Sofie says, "how are you here?"

"Really? That's cool," He smiles at both of us. "New record pace. Gotta let Coach know."

"You ran all the way here?" Sofie sounds exasperated, similar to the way Theo is breathless after said run.

"I drove here, got bored in traffic, and ran the rest of the way," he jumps onto the counter and sits there.

"Please don't tell me you parked in the middle of traffic?" Sofie asks fearfully.

"No," he scoffs. "I parked on the side of traffic."