Adorable

Chapter 14 | Showdown

Sophie gaped, mouth open wide, unable to form words. What was going on?

She stared, on the edge of horror, as Fitz and Linh kissed. Tam looked extremely unhappy, but resigned. So... this wasn't a new thing. Biana and Dex looked shocked and disgusted but slightly intrigued. And Keefe... Keefe was staring right at her, trying to gauge her reaction.

Sophie looked back at Keefe, silent questions in her eyes. Keefe shrugged. Apparently he had no idea either.

Sophie turned back to Fitz and Linh, who were still kissing. They didn't look like they were planning on stopping anytime soon, either. Sophie, still stunned but unable to look away, remained standing like an idiot.

This was nothing like her brief kiss with Fitz... it wasn't even like her kisses with Keefe. It looked like they had been building up to this for a while... but Sophie had seen no evidence of that. Except... that weird look they had exchanged when they were talking about the sleepover. Had they met when he left? Sophie didn't want to know. She looked at Keefe again, with no idea of what to do. He stood up and slipped his hand into hers, leading her away and out into the hall. Sophie couldn't resist one look back- they still hadn't looked up. Sophie could tell FItz had seen her, though, and was watching her reaction.

Just as she was about to turn away, she saw Dex and Biana exchange a look, then hurry after Keefe and Sophie. Tam stayed where he was, but looked anywhere except his sister.

Sophie turned towards Keefe once they were out in the hallway. She stared at him mutely. Biana and Dex found them and walked over.

"Sophie..." Biana started.

Sophie slipped her hand out of Keefe's and held it up to stop her. "Yeah. What... what happened?"

"We don't know." Dex said. "They'd been exchanging weird glances all day, but..." he trailed off.

"When they saw you coming over... it looked like they planned it." Keefe said gently.

"But... but why? Are they... together?"

"I guess so." Keefe said awkwardly. "But..."

"My jerk of a brother got together with Linh just to hurt you." Biana said bluntly. "I should've figured it out. The way he offered to call her and invite her to the sleepover, but left early and was exchanging weird glances with her the next day... he wasn't super subtle."

Sophie leaned against the wall, stunned. "So we break up, and he gets together with Linh to rub it in?"

"Well... seems like it." Keefe admitted. "But it's okay. Just show him that you don't care."

"But I-"

"I know." He interrupted her. "But if you don't let him get to you, he might stop."

Sophie snorted. "Did that look like he would up and stop to you? I've never seen anyone kiss like that- except in movies. That was disgusting." She glanced at Biana. "No offence."

"No, it totally was." Biana agreed. "I can't believe that's my brother."

Sophie realized how hard this must be for Biana. "Look, you guys didn't have to come out here."

"You think we wanted to watch that?" Dex asked incredulously. "Yeah... hard pass."

Sophie realized she was still holding her lunch tray with one hand. She set it down on a nearby table, her appetite gone forever.

"Lunch is almost over." Keefe said gently. "Do you want to go ahead to PE? Or we could ditch. Whatever you want."

"It... it's okay. It's silly for this to make me upset. Let's go ahead to PE."