Bitter, Sweet, Repeat

11 - They Break-up, But Do They Ever Make up?

Sophia laid beside Nathan in his bed. He stared blankly at the ceiling trying to ignore the warm body beside him. "What are we?" Sophia blurted out.

"What do you mean?" He asked back cooly.

There was hesitation in her voice, "You take me out, you kiss me, you're constantly with me." Nathan nodded slowly as he listened.

"Well," he began after clearing his throat. Suddenly his hands were clammy.

"Well," she interrupted. "I think it needs to stop."

The last word caught him by surprise. He sat back up and looked at her, "Wait, what?"

"I feel like I've lead you on. I need to stop. This needs to stop. We are just friends."

"Are you convincing me or yourself?"

Sophia thought for a moment. In her mind, it shouted myself! However, she decided on a cooler, "No one. I just think this should end."

"And why is that?" Nate raised and eyebrow and chuckled, trying to maintain his cool facade.

"I'm not stupid. There is no way a swav guy like you is in to a oblivious kid like me."

"You think I'm swav?" he winked.

"I'm serious," she huffed.

"I thought you said you would give me time to make you see how much I like you." Nathan said without much of a fight and laid back down beside her.

She laid in silence as her mind wandered back to the day Connor had to the hospital. Was it that day? Yes. Connor's misfortunate day became a more fortunate one for Nathan. "Nathan," Sophia whispered. "Was it real?"

"Was what real?" he asked.

"When you said you liked me..." her body tensed waiting for the response. Two seconds of eternity went by. She didn't want to wait for the response.

"Sophia," He began. "Do you ever let anyone into your heart? I'm knocking but you won't open."

The question stung, but she ignored it and simply stated, ",I'm going to go now. Bye"

Nathan watched has she turned her back to him and he mentally beat himself up. "No. In the beginning it wasn't real... right? But it has... right?" He took a long sigh and asked himself, "What am I doing?"

Propping her head up with the one arm, Sophia muffled a yawn with the back of her hand, and then proceeded to use her free hand to tap the back end of her ballpoint pen against her warn out desk. With heavy lids she watched the middle aged man in the room rattle off upcoming student events. Homeroom was dull, and she would have much rather been spending and extra hour nestled in bed than sitting in class on the old wooden chair. Sophia completely tuned him out and focused on the monotonous tapping of her pen. At some point the older man cleared his throat, repeatedly. Still, she ignored him.

"Sophia," a faint voice hissed. With glaring eyes, Sophia snapped her head to Connor. He returned a blank expression. It was like it was looking through her not at her.

The older man cleared his throat again, "Do we agree, Ms. Levinson?"

Sitting up, she scrunched her eyebrows, looked back at the man, and then glanced around at her peers. About to nod her head yes, in an attempt to make it seem like she was paying attention, her eyes rested on Connor, yet again. He kept a dull look on his face but ever so slightly did he shake his head, "no", as if to warn her not to do it.

"No?" The word slipped from her mouth.

"Let's take a vote," someone on the other side of the room shouted.