Starstruck [KotLC]

Chapter 14

"Keefe?" He asked, returning with a cup of punch in either hand. "You... you what?" His voice instantly dropped into to a wistful and umbrageous tone that was unrecognizable coming from his normally confident and calm mouth.

Keefe saw the look on his face and ran for it, snapping out of our intense outface. Fitz turned his head towards me and gave me a look. I transmitted to him to try to keep the conversation going a bit less audibly.

It's not what you think, I insisted. Come and talk outside. Please.

...Okay. Let's go, He hesitantly responded. He set down the two glasses of punch.

Follow me, I added, swiftly stepping out of the ballroom and into the quieter corridor encircling it. He rushed behind me, grabbing my hand and flowering that mortifying blush on my cheeks as I continued to a vacant garden room filled with a few flowers and trees. I paused at a bed of pale yellow flowers and turned to face Fitz, really, truly, honestly locking eyes with him for the first time in a while. "Fitz. Look at me." He turned his head from the eery, luminescent light the flowers were giving off and stared into my eyes.

"I'm serious when I say that I do NOT like Keefe anymore. We had something going. But after what happened, there's no going back. You really have to trust me. Remember all those exercises we did a few years ago to build trust so that you could be my guide and my cognate?" He nodded. "Put those skills to the test, Fitz. Trust me. Because I really like you and I don't want Keefe to get in the way."

I meant what I said then. I really did. I wanted Keefe totally gone and done with because he had no excuse for the way he treated me. It was cruel and evil in every way possible. All because he "loved me"? What kind of an excuse is that for pure torture for multiple weeks on end? 

Whatever Keefe felt, it wasn't love. He's an empath. He should be able to figure it out. Love is a walk in the park on a sunny day with the perfect picnic and a happy ending. Being around Keefe was more like a full-day inflicting session with Bronte: cold, empty, and dangerous. Very dangerous. His mood swings were constantly affecting me in the worst of ways, at one point almost taking my life. In fact, he hadn't even apologized for that! I had almost died but he couldn't care less. All he had to say was that he "loved me". All he had to offer was misery and crushed hopes. Nothing remotely close to love.

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Fitz and I were actually pretty happy. It took Dex about a week to let the news sink in that "Wonderboy" was really dating his best friend, but after that he was pretty okay with it. Granted, if Fitz and I showed even the most covert signs of affection, Biana and Dex would make eye contact and mime gagging to each other. Not that we did much other than hold hands. But what are you going to do? We're only teenagers.

Our first date went about twenty times better than Keefe and I's first date. We both knew everything about each other already, so Fitz planned my perfect date: A simple hangout at the beach under the stars, where we just talked and laughed and had fun. It was one of the best nights of my life, if I'm honest. I got more and more excited each day. My before seemingly out-of-reach crush was now so much closer. My fantasies had finally come true. 

Not to mention the benefit to our cognate training. Our minds were way more focused now that our final, largest secrets had been revealed. Our brains were like one massive power, and our abilities seemed endless. We were able to read the minds of humans in the Forbidden Cities when we stretched our minds in that direction while working together. We tested this skill out on my old family; Connor, Kate, and Natalie Freeman.

"Start by tracking them down with your spyball, Sophie." Tiergan instructed. He had learned about it eventually but agreed to keep it secret from the council. I did as told and came up with an image of them playing in the backyard with their new beagle puppy, Bonnie. I smiled sadly and showed Fitz and Tiergan the screen.

"Here they are. In the Forbidden Cities. But how are we supposed to know where they are?"

"Open your minds as far as possible and see if you recognize any voices that sound familiar. If this is to work, then your enhanced cognitive abilities should allow you to sort through the voices faster and stretch your minds wider so that you can track their thoughts. Just try it." Tiergan explained.

"Okay, let's see how this works." Fitz sighed as we put their hands on each others' temples and stretched, stretched, stretched, before hundreds of human voices filled our minds. "I don't hear them." Fitz complained, right before my brain picked up a voice that brought tears to my eyes. 

"Mom," I whispered, a tear falling down my cheek as I remembered how much I missed my old, simpler life with my human family. Fitz wiped the tear away.

"You're okay, Sophie. We can do this." I smiled at him and nodded, and we continued our work. The two of us focused on the location the thoughts were coming from, and tracked them to a small town in New Mexico, a suburb with other normal human families like theirs.

"Whoa," Fitz and I said at the same time. We both laughed.

"You two really are a match made in heaven, aren't you?" Tiergan asked. I blushed wildly.

"Yes, sir." Fitz agreed with a smirk.

"Fitz." Tiergan groaned.

"Yes sir?"

"Don't call me 'sir'."

"Yes, sir Tiergan!"

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All is good in the land of Sofitz at the moment... and thanks for almost 9k reads! Whoa!

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