Seventeen | Soulmate AU | ✔

06 | Fades

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06 | Fades

K e e f e   S e n c e n

I stop by the nurse's office after practice to see if she's still there. The mystery girl, possibly named Sophie.

Physic Olivia tells me that she went home with her parents, and that she will see the doctor later to see if she's got a concussion. She seems busy, so I nod and thank her, disappointed that I wasn't able to meet her, but glad she was safe nonetheless.

I pull out my car and go home, but make sure that my hair looks impeccable before I step outside and into my sweet ride. It's a black Audi, with red and black lined insides that look totally rad.

I keep imagining what it would be like to talk to her. What her voice would sound like. Something pulls me to her in a way that I'd never felt before. I could only hope that maybe I would be able to see her at school tomorrow.

Here's the thing about me that makes me at least ten times more attractive [in girl's eyes]. How rich I am. I'm the heir to a technology company most kids could only dream about working for. It's the best of the best, the top of the line, and a monopoly. It's my father's.

And? You guessed it; he's dead set on me carrying on the family businessman tradition. He's cold to me always, unless we're talking about my business aspirations. That can bring down a man's ego, y'know?

When I get inside, my feet echo around the cold, reflective tile. Black lines everywhere, with soft touches of light grey everywhere [probably my mom's doing] just to keep things a bit lighter. If there's one thing I can admire about my father, it's probably his sense of style – on fleek, as the tabloids say.

Still, his sense of style doesn't make up for the huge gaping hole they both have left in my life. He's not here, just like every other evening.

I yodel to an empty house, just to make sure and piss off anyone that might be home. Typical that no sounds make their way back to me.

Running my fingers through my tousled curls teased to perfection, I make my way upstairs, nodding at the servant, Ronnie. Her real name is Reagan, but I call her Ronnie because of an inside joke we have about her being Ronald Reagan, the president. Needless to say, she doesn't like the nickname. She's undercover as a servant, but I know that she's actually got training to be a bodyguard and will trail me anywhere I go that's not school – besides Fitz's. People are willing to go quite the ways to get to my father, even though I highly doubt how much my father cares about me and whether the ploy to take me hostage would work at all. Probably not.

I spend the next few hours getting my homework done and getting ready for bed, playing some Fortnite and beating Fitz's butt before bed. It would be nice to have a challenge, sometimes, really.

I drift off soon after.

Generally, I'm one of the types that doesn't tend to dream unless it's a nightmare. Naturally, when I wake up in an imaginary universe, I tense, my heartbeat already starting to pound.

I hear voices down the hall, and I recognize the school hallway I was in earlier. A voice echoes down the hall to my ears, calling my name, but I can't move.

I'm a hundred ten percent sure it's Sophie's voice as she cries out, harsh noises being heard as she hits the pavement hard.

I run to her, just in time to catch her soft brown eyes falling shut, her body weak with sweat as her legs buckle underneath her. She looks beat up worse than when I found her in the hallway today, and the number of cuts lining her makes me want to gag. I'm unable to reach her before she hits the ground, and I feel tears rolling down my cheeks.

I didn't save her. I couldn't.

The dream changes, and I'm suddenly in a bed next to her, her breathing steady as she sleeps peacefully.

I don't hold back my fingers as they reach out to caress her cheek, making sure she's real. Her eyelashes are perfectly set in place as she lets out a soft, adorable snore. She smiles in her sleep, her blonde hair looking so soft and inviting.

Even so, I can't shake the feeling that this isn't reality.

Especially sleeping, Sophie is beautiful – angelic, even. Somehow, staring at her right then, I understand that no other person will ever live up to the beauty I'm seeing now, both in her heart and her mind. She's also gorgeous, which is a good side benefit.

I lean down to kiss her forehead when it all fades away again.