the story of us [dean portman 2]

𝗧𝗪𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗬. 𝗬𝗢𝗨'𝗥𝗘 𝗔 𝗖𝗢𝗪𝗔𝗥𝗗

CHAPTER TWENTY: YOU'RE A COWARD

     SCOOTER had been ignoring Sophie the entire day. Whenever she tried to approach him throughout the day, he would walk away in the opposite direction or duck into a classroom or bathroom. He skipped their shared class. Even at lunch, he didn't sit at the varsity table. In fact, the boy was nowhere to be found. She knew he was hiding something to be ducking out on her the way he was. She just wasn't sure what.

To top it all off, wherever she went she saw Kenny or Mindy or Luis. It sucked majorly.

Once school was out for both the day and the weekend, Sophie made her way to her locker with Adam to grab her things before hockey practice. However, when she got there, she saw that someone had written on it in permanent ink. The words "slut", "whore", and "annoying bitch" covered the red of her locker and she felt her heart in her throat as her eyes prickled with tears. Ellie gasped in horror at the sight while Sophie stared at the locker door.

She knew who the culprit was when she saw him across the hallway, leaning against the opposite row of lockers as he laughed with Luis.

The embarrassment was eating at the girl in the pit of her stomach. She wanted to curl up in her bed and cry. Not her bed in her dorm, not in her bed in her childhood room. She wanted to be in her bed in San Fransisco where her mom was. Sophie never wanted to be seen again.

"Sophie, let's just go," Ellie said as she looked at her friend, her own eyes watering at the thought of someone doing this to Sophie.

"I feel sick," Sophie said quietly, not taking her eyes away from the hurtful words.

She couldn't tell if the whispering was actually happening around her or if it was her mind tricking her. She was thankful her hands were in the pocket of her letterman jacket because she could feel them shaking.

"Soph."

The girl didn't pay attention to Ellie's words as she heard Kenny speaking several feet away.

"None of it's a lie. At least someone had the courage to finally call her out."

"He's not worth it, Soph," Ellie tried to talk her out of confronting the boy. "You have practice in half an hour."

Of course, Sophie didn't listen. When did she ever?

"You're a coward," she said as she turned to look at the Wu boy. "You're a fucking coward, Ken."

"Excuse me?" He scoffed at her.

"I know you go low but at least you used to say these things to my face," she shook her head with a humorless laugh. "I just can't believe you stooped to writing shit on my locker."

Kenny shook his head at the girl, taking a few steps toward her.

"Its what you deserve," he said in a low voice that just the two of them and Ellie could hear. "One day you have to learn that you can't just sleep your way into getting whatever you want. You're just an annoying bitch who thinks she's the greatest thing to happen to everyone. Well news flash Reed, the words on your locker, that's what everyone else thinks of you. Especially Dean."

"I would have never done this to you," Sophie said, shaking her head as her eyes burned with tears that threatened to spill over. "I would have never done this to you."

Kenny couldn't respond as Ellie tugged Sophie away from him, the redhead flipping the boy off, calling out to him over her shoulder.

"Go to hell douche bag."

The pair of girls turned the corner of the hallway, Ellie guiding Sophie into the girl's bathroom just in time for the brunette to burst into tears. The redhead pulled the other girl into her arms, holding her in her arms as the girl cried. Ellie took a deep breath as she felt Sophie's shoulder rack with her sobs.

"I'm so sorry he did that babes," Ellie spoke softly with a frown. "You didn't deserve any of that. You're too good for him."

Sophie began crying harder as she pulled away from Ellie and leaned against the bathroom wall, sliding down to sit on the ground. The redhead sat down next to her friend, pulling her into her side.

The door to the bathroom slammed open, Adam and Averman rushing in with James Riley, Rick's little brother, following after the pair of boys. The three immediately landed eyes on Sophie's tear stained face, mascara trailing down her cheeks.

"Oh, Soph," Adam sighed before kneeling down in front of the girl. "I'm so sorry he did that."

"If it makes you feel any better, Rick Riley drop kicked him," Averman said as he sat down next to the Banks boy. "Like quite literally drop kicked him."

"I got it on tape," James gave an attempt at a reassuring smile. "We all wanted to memorialize it. And by all of us I mean me, my brother, Adam and Carter."

"Why does he hate me?" Sophie sighed as she wiped under her eyes. "What did I do to him? When is it going to end?"

By the time Rick had found the group, Sophie's crying had reduced to sniffling as she laid her head in Ellie's lap, Adam rubbing her back. The older boy sighed as he entered the bathroom, squatting down next to the two girls.

"Come on princess," Rick said as he held out his hand for the girl to grab. "Let's get out of here. I talked to coach and the three of us are good for the day. We're gonna go to your dorm so you can change and then we're going to go on a drive. Sound good?"

Sophie took a hold of Rick's hand, allowing him to pull her up into a sitting up position before pulling her up completely to stand. The boy pulled her into his arms, hugging her tightly before moving one of his arms to rest around the girl's shoulders. The rest of the group stood from their spots on the ground and followed Rick and Sophie out of the girl's bathroom.

Averman and James split off from the rest of the group while Ellie joined the three varsity hockey players on their walk to Sophie's dorm room. While Sophie walked under Rick's arm, she was also arm in arm with Ellie. Adam walked on the other side of the redhead girl, the four teens attracting eyes from other students.

Ellie split as they walked past her dorm room, the other three continuing a few doors down to Sophie and Julie's. While the girl went into the bathroom to wash her face and change into a more comfortable outfit, she debated whether or not she should tell Rick about what she had confirmed the night before. She knew she needed to tell him but she didn't know if right now when he was already angry as it was, was the best time.

By the time she was opening the bathroom door, Sophie had decided on what she was going to do. The two boys were standing from their places on Sophie's bed while she moved to her closet. They stood confused for a few moments while the girl dug around at the bottom of her closet. She pulled out a camcorder and several polaroid pictures, gaining the attention of the boys.

"What's that?" Rick asked as the girl stared at the items in her hands while she took a deep breath.

"I have something to tell you," Sophie said to Rick with a grimace on her face. "Mindy's cheating on you."

"What?" His voice was scarily calm as Sophie stared up at him.

"With Luis from JV." 

ELYSIUM SPEAKS!!
heyyy...sorry for
disappearing for so
long everyone. i hope
this chapter is alright.
sorry it's so short btw