SOKEEFE VS FITZPHIE, kotlc

heartbreak

"Keefe!  Wait up!"  Sophie slammed her locker shut, chasing after the tuft of curly blonde hair she saw turn the corner.

"What's up?"  Keefe asked cooly, as Sophie stumbled into his stride.  "Missing me already?"

"You wish,"  Sophie snorted, even though it was half true.  "Look, I have something to tell you."

Keefe looked at her in surprise.  "Really?  I... kinda wanted to tell you something too."

Why was he blushing so hard?  Sophie wanted to slap herself as she realized that she was probably blushing just as profoundly as he was.

"Okay.. um..."

"Over here,"  Keefe whispered, regaining some of his usual easy, mischievous swagger as he inconspicuously darted through a door, leading outside to a field that Sophie had never seen before in her life.

"I... Keefe, I don't know how to tell you this,"  Sophie mumbled, her fingernails digging painfully into her palm as her cheeks heated rapidly.

"I know I'm handsome, but you can drop the humiliation,"  Keefe told her, smirking.

For once she didn't laugh.  She just...

"Keefe.  Please.  Listen to me."  Sophie's gaze burned into his.  His smirk fell but he nodded, ever so slightly- but it was there.

"I...."

"I like you,"  Keefe said so abruptly that Sophie jumped backwards, nearly crashing into a tree.  "And... like, like like.  I mean.. not... like, like.  Like-"

"I... do too?"  Although the words stumbled into a question as her eyes filled with those teal eyes that ripped her heart open with all those awful mixed emotions...

And Keefe.  Keefe looked so hurt, so heartbroken.  His ice blue eyes filled with tears, tears that Sophie has never seen before in her life.  And Sophie...

Sophie watched with fury- at herself, at the world, at everything -as Keefe leaped away, his eyes heartbroken and heartbreaking as she realized....

She loved him.

But she knew there was always going to be a part of her that could never accept that.

____________

"Why did I do that?" Keefe demanded angrily, kicking the edge of his bed and wheeling on Ro.  "Why did you have to make that stupid bet?!"

"It wasn't stupid," Ro argued, brushing her bright red pigtails with her claws.  "It was... truthful.  And look, now she knows the truth and you can dare Pretty Boy!"

"Yeah, and the chances of him and Sophie talking to me again are so slim," Keefe said, feeling deflated, all the fury drained out of him.  

"But isn't it better this way?" Ro asked innocently.  "No more lies- no more hopeless flirting. I think everyone but your girl can tell how much you try to get her to like you-"

"Yeah, and then how much she rejects me," Keefe mumbled.  "It's like the final Dexphie moment- but every single time I joke around with her. And......" he glared at Ro pointedly. "You aren't allowed to call her 'my girl' anymore, got it?"

"Hmm," Ro noted, grinning slightly.  "So you liked it before when I called her your girl?"

Keefe turned the same shade of red as her pigtails.  "Shut up."

________

Sophie lay in her bed, probably for the whole day, sprawled on top of her covers.  She refused to eat anything that Edaline conjured up to her bedroom.  She didn't talk, barely blinked. Just stared. And stared. And stared.

The words flew through her mind like the paper airplanes, sailing through her head and crashing into her brain, demanding answers that she couldn't give it.

Because there was only one. One question. One boy. One choice.

If she didn't like Keefe..... did she like Fitz?