𝙳𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚛𝚞𝚌𝚝 | 𝙱𝚘𝚘𝚔 𝟷

𝙱𝚘𝚗𝚞𝚜 𝚂𝚌𝚎𝚗𝚎 𝟹

𝚂𝚝𝚎𝚟𝚎
𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚛𝚝𝚎𝚎𝚗 𝚈𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚜 𝙰𝚐𝚘

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"Steve baby," my mom called from the backyard as I ran down the hallway with my friends, we were playing assassins, each one of us with a laser gun and a vest.

"Yeah, mom?" I stopped by the kitchen, my friends stopping behind me. In the backyard I could see Logan outside with his friends, kicking around a soccer ball, Sofia Moor was chasing him down and giggling when Logan fell over and she was able to take the ball from him, running to the opposite side of the yard. She always was the better athlete between the two of them.

"Can you come and sit out here for a minute," I set my laser gun and vest down, walking to the back door, "I don't trust Logan to not fall into the pool while I make them lunch," I stepped down onto the patio, my mother smiling as she leaned over to kiss my head, "you boys want something to eat as well?"

"Yes please!" Bucky smiled from the doorway, my mother getting up and running her palm down the back of his head, Mom always wanted more kids, and Dad was satisfied with the two of us, so she treated our friends like her own children. I mean, Sofia practically lived at our house.

I don't really understand what happens to me around Sofia, my tummy gets fluttery and words get fuzzy leaving my mouth. Everyone calls it a crush but I don't think crushes are supposed to make you feel like you're floating away from your own body. But my eyes land on her always, she was the girl that lit up a room when she walked in. I didn't see her much in public, they were in third grade and I was months away from being in sixth, but when I saw her at those stupid dinners our parents liked to drag us to, she lit up the entire room.

I sat down on the stairs, watching Sofia and Logan push each other around, laughing as they fought for the ball.

She always had to wear these skirts, little plaid things that I knew she didn't like because she'd run up to Logan's room and steal a pair of his shorts. But her mother was determined to dress her up like a doll. Today she was wearing a black shirt, a gray and black plaid skirt, and ruffled socks that fell over her Converse. She looked like she had skinned her knew just a few hours ago from the red on it, and her pigtails were bouncing in the wind as she ran around.

And then she noticed me sitting by myself.

Sofia didn't say much to me, I think the last time I had been anywhere close to her was when she was a baby, there's a picture somewhere, of me holding my baby brother and his best friend, they had no other option than to be best friends, born two days apart and our parents were practically glued at the hip. But she was always shy to me, saying hi and then running off to hide behind her mom's legs. I always thought it was funny, her being scared of me. I still do, I think it's a fun game we play. She says hi, then spends the night running away from me like I'm fire and I'm here to melt the ice she is.

I would've never imagined she would walk over to me and sit down just two steps away from me, folding her legs under her body and looking up at me with those green eyes.

"Where are your friends?" She asked, playing with the end of her pleated skirt, Sofia liked to busy her hands when she was getting nervous.

I could tell her the truth, that my friends were just inside, but I liked having Sofia's attention on me, I didn't want it to end when she realized we weren't the only two able to hear this conversation. "It's Logan's turn to have friends over," the lie came easy, and so did the shrug that followed it, "I'm surprised you noticed I was by myself, little devil," I let out a little chuckle, her cheeks blushing instantly.

I gave her that nickname the day of her seventh birthday, she and Logan were having a pool party and decided to push the trampoline closer to the edge of the pool. Our parents watched but never said no to them. If the pair was going to learn anything, they'd do it the same way I did, by accidentally injuring myself and never doing the thing again. I was swimming on the other side of the pool with my friends, looking over right as Sofia jumped in, her mother screaming when she realized her daughter missed the concrete by centimeters. "You're a little devil," I laughed, seeing Sofia look over at me with a confused brow lifted, "a little daredevil," I told her, and the name just kinda stuck.

"I always notice you," Sofia wasn't looking up at me, suddenly the grass was the most interesting thing in the world, "you're always the first person I notice in a room."

That made my heart jumpy, my tummy flutter, and words were fuzzy in my brain. I don't know why Sofia had that effect on me, if she told me something that would catch me off guard, I would have to work triple time to try and reel myself back in and be able to converse with her. Logan was yelling for Sofia, telling her that they were ready for a second game, and she looked up at me, a genuine smile on her lips as she pushed up off the grass, running towards her group of friends, pausing halfway to look over her shoulder at me, before she was finishing her jog to her friends.

I'm not sure when I started to really have these fuzzy feelings towards Sofia, and part of me thinks it's because we're kids and when we get nervous we feel this way. I don't think I like Sofia as everyone tells me I do. I mean she was younger than me, she was my brother's best friend, I had been around her since she was literally just a baby. I'm ten, I know relationships exist, but they exist for our parents, not for us, we're little still.

But I do like watching Sofia, I like to watch her determination and her stubbornness. I like to watch her put my brother in his place, and I loved watching him huff away and smile because she knew she won the fight they were happening. So no, I don't like Sofia like that, I like her personality and her stubbornness, it encourages me to be stubborn too.

"There's a sandwich on the counter for you baby," my mom's voice brought me out of my thoughts, turning around to see her placing some food for Logan and his friends on the patio table, "the lost boys went upstairs to your room," mom liked to call us the lost boys, because when we were younger, we watched Peter Pan all the time, "thank you for watching them for me."

"You're welcome," I got up off the step, walked into the house, and grabbed my sandwich from the counter, heading over to the stairs, I paused when I saw Sofia run onto the patio, my mom instantly lifting her to sit in her lap, I think mom always wanted a daughter, but was stuck with two boys, and Sofia chattered away while my mom made a plate for her.

When I felt like I was staring too long, I ran up the stairs to my room, where Bucky, Curtis, and Mickey were on my floor, playing my Xbox. I settled onto my bed, watching my friends play while I ate, and my mind never drifted too far from Sofia.

Maybe I did like Sofia like everyone says I do, but I guess only time will tell.

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