Healing Sophie

5

Sophie had never felt very normal.

When she was in high school, everyone began developing crushes and dating. Kissing. Other stuff.

All Sophie ever felt interested in was music. Music made sense to her. It was something malleable that she could create and keep all to herself. She could string together her own entire world. The same went for books. Any form of art, really.

When Sophie walked in to see Chase on top of Theo, kissing him possessively with his hand on his throat, it was more than her inexperienced heart could handle. More than her whole body could handle.

She let out a yelp and quickly covered her eyes, grabbing their attention.

"Oh god, Sophie. I didn't think you were going to be home, your car's been gone all day," Chase said with wide eyes. With the embarrassment of earlier still lingering in her mind, she could hardly make eye contact with Chase.

Theo sheepishly scratched his head and said, "We should probably explain."

The three of them made their way to the kitchen and sat at the table, cups of hot cocoa in front of them that Chase had made. Every time one of them would go to speak, Sophie's cheeks only burned brighter.

Chase was the first to finally break the silence.

"Sophie, we're really sorry you had to walk in on that. We got a little carried away," he said sheepishly, a faint pink glowing on his own cheeks.

The mug in front of her was very interesting. What a neat handle. Was that... Was that an off-white she saw? How very interesting.

"Sophie, please say something."

She finally glanced up at both of them and asked, "Are you two together?"

They shared a glance with each other before Theo cut in. "We're both bisexual." Sophie nodded slowly while processing and he continued. "We like both women and men, and aren't exclusively together. But we do sometimes, uhm, kiss." He finished the sentence with a smirk.

Sophie took in each word. "Is Victor bisexual?", she asked with scrunched brows.

Theo snickered, "Victor is the straightest person I know."

"He is one-hundred percent only into women," Chase said in agreement. Sophie's brain felt strange as she thought about Victor being with other women.

She carefully pieced together her next words. "Why were you choking him? Didn't that hurt?"

Theo busted out laughing which only confused her further.

Chase cleared his throat. "It's something people sometimes enjoy when they're, uh, kissing."

Sophie turned to Theo with concern and asked, "You like being choked?"

He smirked. "Only by men, I prefer to do the choking when it comes to women." He gave her a wink, making her blush brightly.

"Anyways," Chase said awkwardly, "Who wants to order food?"

After feasting on Chinese food, the three of them were sprawled out on the couch, Sophie sandwiched in between Chase and Theo. It all felt very natural and comfortable to her even though they had just met.

They were halfway through a movie when the front door slammed loudly, making her jump. Chase sighed. "Victor's home, I'm going to go make sure he gets to bed okay. Goodnight, guys." He stood up and left the room, leaving Sophie alone with Theo.

Theo turned to her with a grin. "You want to watch something more exciting?"

She blushed at their proximity and nodded. For the following few hours, he made her watch two scary movies that had her burrowing her head against his chest. "Theo, these are scary," she whined. He chuckled and pulled her in closer. He was so warm and cozy.

"You're okay, Bambi. I got you."

Sophie looked at him with raised eyebrows and a tilted head, "Bambi?"

He gave a sadistic grin that she learned to be his face's default state and pinched her cheek. "You got pretty doe eyes, like a cute little deer."

She flushed at the comment. "I'm not that innocent," she said with false confidence. He raised an eyebrow.

"Oh? Do tell," he prodded. "Have you ever kissed someone, Bambi?"

Her nerves pulsated and she stuttered, "I-I wouldn't even know how."

"I could show you." Sophie's heart stopped with those four words, the power of them making her all too aware of how close his face was to hers. She could smell his cologne that held the aroma of the ocean breeze. It reminded her of going to the beach as a kid before things turned bad.

Theo propped up on his arm so that his face hovered over hers. His sparkling eyes were caught somewhere between joking and dead serious.

He slowly inched towards her, pausing just an inch from her lips as if looking for an invitation. When she gave a small nod, he cupped a hand on her cheek and leaned in.

As their lips were about to meet, a knock on the door had them jumping away from each other. Sophie quickly scrambled to the door with flushed cheeks and opened it to see Finn with concern all over his face.

"You okay, Soph? You sounded worried and I wanted to come check on you," he said, his words trailing off as he took in her disheveled appearance and an arrogant-looking Theo behind her. He glared and asked, "Who's this?"

Theo leaned his elbow onto her shoulder with a smug smile and reached an arm out. "Theo, pleasure to meet you. And you are?"

Finn's eyes darkened at Theo touching her and she squirmed under the gaze. "Finn, Sophie's best friend."

Theo smirked and as if trying to poke the bear, he muttered, "Cute."

Before steam could emerge from Finn's ears, Sophie intervened.

"Finn, come inside, I've missed you." She smiled and grabbed his big heavy arm before closing the door behind them. His eyes softened as he looked away from his antagonist and down at her, making her relax a bit.

"You worried me, I thought you had another... moment," he worded cautiously, mindful of Theo still watching them.

"I'm fine, I just got a bit c-caught up in something," she stuttered, her blush reappearing as she remembered what she had almost done with someone she had just met the day before.

Finn's eyes narrowed at the blush and at Theo who was stifling a laugh. Sophie shot a glare at her new roommate, giving him the hint to go away.

He put his hands up in surrender and departed with a final "Goodnight, Bambi". Before disappearing, he gave Finn one last glance that had him glowering.

Sophie poked his arm drawing his attention back to her. "Can you stay with me tonight?"

"Aw, Soph. I want to, but I can't. I'm kind of going to a party tonight."

Finn had always been more social and outgoing than she was. At school and at home, he was the punk rock kid who played music and wore too much black and protected the small, bubbly girl in pink. At parties, he was a social butterfly, jumping from jocks to band geeks to stoners. He always had a way of making friends wherever he went. She wished she could be like that. She hoped she could be like that.

An idea suddenly flashed through her mind and she looked at Finn with puppy dog eyes.

"Can I go?"