Mirrored Conflicts (a Sokeefe story)

Chapter 20: The Sleepover

When Edaline and Sophie returned home late at night, bruised and hurt and absolutely exhausted, Grady didn't even question the third member of their party. "He's sleeping here tonight," Edaline had stated before yawning, and Grady had immediately agreed, though he told Sophie she couldn't share her room with him. Keefe also refused to sleep in Jolie's room because he thought it was weird, so they ended up deciding he could just sleep on one of the enormous couches on the ground floor.

"I'll ask questions in the morning," Grady assured them as he set Keefe up with pillows and blankets.

"And we'll answer then," Edaline promised, shooting Sophie a look that told her she had not forgotten about the spontaneous kiss and would absolutely be expecting a full rundown of that story in the morning.

Sophie flushed. She was not looking forward to telling that story to Grady and Edaline. In her defense, she hadn't known that she was going to kiss him, or that she and him were going to end up deciding to try anything more than friendship. But the prospect was still really, really exciting—and not just because of what it was, but because of him.

When Sophie settled under her own sheets and Sandor closed the door, promising as always that ke was keeping watch outside, sleep refused to come, despite her exhaustion. So she reached out tentatively with her mind, finding the mental presence of the boy downstairs easily. She'd gotten so used to him being far away that his closeness was both surprising and comforting.

Hi, Keefe.

Hey, Foster, he replied, and the drawl that showed up in his voice when he was teasing her aloud definitely translated through their mental connection. She found herself blushing even though he hadn't said anything but her last name. This boy... was he seriously going to be like... her boyfriend, or something? He just seemed so...

...she didn't know where she was going with that sentence.

Can't sleep.

Yeah, me neither, Keefe agreed. There was a comfortable pause. Then Keefe added, your parents are really nice.

Yeah, they're awesome, Sophie confirmed, smiling. Then her smile fell when she realized the place Keefe was speaking from. I'm... really sorry you didn't have that.

Nah, it's fine. My mom's not so bad, he assured her. My dad was a jerk, but I haven't lived with him for YEARS.

Sophie grimaced. She'd forgotten how, uh... misguided Keefe was about Neverseen stuff, and while he'd definitely gotten loads better since she'd first met him and he'd relentlessly defended the cause, his mother being their leader definitely complicated things. Still, she was sure he could tell there was something wrong with his relationship with his mother. He'd already decided he was against the methods of the Neverseen, and she was in charge of the Neverseen, so...

It's okay for it to be bad, Sophie reassured him—was it reassuring? She hoped it was. Keefe was in an awful situation. There weren't a lot of ways to make it better. There might not even be any.

It's not, Keefe said firmly. Look, she's not the only one leading the Neverseen, okay? The cause is fine, it's the methods that are the problem. That's probably what she argues with Fintan about, or something.

Sophie knew there was no way Keefe believed that. Whatever conversation he'd had the night he went back to the Neverseen, right before Lumenaria almost collapsed with her inside, he'd come away from the moment ready to leave behind everything he'd ever known. Sophie could press him on it, but she wasn't going to. She didn't want to fight.