Revenge Is Sweet

50 - Paroxysm

✶𝙶𝚛𝚎𝚢✶

Sophia disappears completely the moment we get home.

She finds Clementine in the living room, and the moment I turn my back on her, she's gone. Probably in that one place in the house that I still haven't found yet.

I let it go for now.

I scared her, I think. I could see it in her eyes, even when she looked away from me. I could see it. She tensed up like she was preparing herself for something.

I've tried not to think about what she was preparing herself for. Maybe I should think about it, but I can't. I just can't.

She hardly touched her hamburger earlier, so I get in the kitchen to make her some more dinner. Hopefully she'll eat it. She didn't want breakfast this morning. Said she wasn't hungry.

I don't even know why I snapped at her like that when she asked me a completely harmless question.

She had no way of knowing the answer, there was no reason for me to answer like that.

I may have panicked for a second there, but I didn't have to be mean. I could've joked about it.

I could've said some lame, dismissive comment that probably would've earned me that sweet, sweet smile from her.

There's this smile that she'll give me for the lame jokes I'll throw out. It's like she actually finds them funny. That smile is my favorite smile of them all.

Instead of making sure I got that beautiful fucking smile, I snapped at her and got a frown I never want to see again. I hate her frowns. I hate how even when she frowns, I want to kiss her lips until they bruise.

Then again, I always want to do that. Especially right now. I know wherever she is, she's frowning. She's upset and it's my fault.

I need to fix it.

Sophia usually loves this one dinner I make for her. My dad taught me the recipe, actually.

He said it was the one food he'd make for a woman he once loved when she was upset. This woman who was not my mother but 'should've been'.

Sophia likes it too though. The only thing that's different is I don't make it just because she's upset.

I'll make it sometimes because she'll get so happy that nothing—I mean nothing—will bring her down. That's when I'll make things that much happier for her.

I make this for every emotion she's got. Only now, the emotion on the stand is sadness. Or anger. Maybe a little bit of both.

"Sophia!" I call out to her as I wander upstairs. "Come out, honey." I request, deciding to try her room first.

And so my useless search begins.

It doesn't matter how many places I check, I never find her. My theory is she switches places while I'm looking and is just fucking with me.

I comb through the house twice before I sigh and head back for the kitchen. I freeze when I walk inside.

I set a plate out before I left to begin my search. Sophia managed to slip past me from wherever she was hiding. She now sits on the counter with Clementine right beside her and the plate in her lap.

I don't ask her where she's been. Instead, I sigh and continue into the kitchen. "You didn't finish your hamburger." I reason, shrugging softly.

Sophia nods. "I was hungry. Thank you."

I almost flinch at her tone. It's not mean, it's not sharp, it's just...simple.

Very rarely will I hear a simple tone from her, and even then there's always some sort of feeling in there.