the kink club • luke hemmings ✔️

15. the one where sophie has a sister.

chapter fifteen:
the one where sophie has a sister.

"Soph?" someone calls, and I'm forced to tear my eyes away from the laptop screen in front of me. Looking up, I see a shadow pass my bedroom door.

"In here," I call back, and before long, a tall figure looms in the hallway and I see that it's Ashton. "What's up?"

"What's this about?" he asks me, coming towards my desk with a neatly folded piece of paper in his hand. I furrow my eyebrows.

"What?"

"This," he hands it to me, curious, and just from the gold lettering on the front, I immediately know what it is. I'd hidden it under the plant pot as soon as it was slipped through the letterbox, in hopes of noone noticing, but evidently I forgot to throw it away before Ashton started his weekly round of clearing the apartment.

"Nothing."

"Nothing? Soph!" he says, picking it back up. "It's an invitation,"

"Looks like it," I murmur carelessly, scrolling through a pointless website on the laptop once more.

"It's addressed to you," he frowns.

"Apparently so."

"And it's to your sister's wedding," he emphasizes, throwing his hands in the air to signal panic. "Your sister's wedding!"

"Ash, I heard you the first time." I sigh, before standing up, pushing past him, and making my way to the kitchen.

Ashton follows behind me, his arms crossed with a look of disbelief on his face. "How are you so calm about this?"

"I'm not," I say truthfully.

"I thought you never even spoke to your sister?"

"We don't," I push through yet another door, making sure to leave it open for him behind me. "I haven't spoken to the girl since I left home."

"I can't believe you were going to go without us,"

Pausing, I spin around to look at him, narrowing my eyes slightly. "Go without you?"

"You hid it under Sebastian!" he exclaims, pointing in the direction of the fake potted cactus sitting on the windowsill. "When people hide stuff under plants, it's usually because they don't want other people to know. Like when you keep a key under a doormat."

Rolling my eyes slightly, I enter the kitchen. "It's not like that."

"Then why did you hide the invite?" he asks, a frown painting his face once more as he takes a seat on the kitchen island. "And why do you seem so defensive about it?"

"Listen," I finally sigh, pausing in front of the open fridge door. I figure it's better to stop this conversation now than to anticipate where it's headed; actually showing up to an event I wanted nothing to do with the second it was announced. "I wasn't going to go without you guys. I wasn't even going to go in the first place,"

"But you are now?"

"No," I shake my head. "I'm not. But I have a feeling you'll make me,"