Disclaimer: I own nothing of Wolf Lake and I'm making nothing from this story.
A/N: This is my second exercise in character study. This one kind of bounces from character to character but it's primarily Sophia's POV. This is a three parter from 1x09. Let me know if I have an interested audience.
Half-Assed Excuses
Part I
Sophia still had 10 more minutes of break before she went back to work. She had two options: continue sitting here trying unsuccessfully to catch up on some much needed rest or save Kit from having to face the lunch rush on her own. No one could accuse Sophia of being selfish.
As she walked through the kitchen she was overcome with a ravenous hunger set off by the scent of cooking meat. Her metabolism had been off the charts lately and it was especially difficult considering her constant exposure to food. She paused for a moment watching Rusty pull a large slab of ribs from the refrigerator.
"Here take these to booth one."
Sophia grimaced as he started loading her arms with baskets of assorted meats and fries. She could hear Kit placing an absurd order as she backed through the swinging doors. She looked up and he was there, as if he had been waiting. Sophia stopped mid-step, unable to move and for a moment Sophia didn't know what to do. Everything froze as he held her stare, if asked she probably couldn't remember her own name.
She had been avoiding him, no secret there and no explanation needed. Lately she had been experiencing a plethora of emotions towards this particular male but thus far anger was dominating. It wasn't so much that she couldn't stand the sight of him as she was afraid of what she might do or say if she did come face to face with him.
Their stare was broken. Sophia had to shake her head as if to clear the bats and remember what she was doing.
"Kit, you need to take this over to booth one. I can't go over there."
Kit looked over to the offending table and immediately knew the cause of the trouble, "Oh…no, you shouldn't, Luke Cates needs to know he can't play you the way that he did. I mean that was low, even for a hill kid."
"Just don't say anything," Sophia pleaded, she knew Kit had a way of talking well past the time to stop.
"Don't worry, I promise."
Sophia did not like the little glimmer seen in Kit's eyes but she was already headed towards the booth. Sophia quickly ducked for cover back in the kitchen.
"Where do you want this, middle of the table?" as she set it down. Luke was looking intently over her shoulder. Kit didn't have to guess at what.
"Yeah, ah…isn't this Sophia's section?" He made a brief attempt at eye contact before returning his gaze towards the kitchen.
"Yeah, you see that sign," she turned to gesture in its direction, "that says we reserve the right to refuse service to anyone. She's just reserving that right."
"Oh, sounds like someone is pouting," Presley's condescending tone was especially nauseating.
"Shut up Presley," Luke shot her down. Rarely did he care to hear what she had to say.
"Presley with her mouth shut, well there's breaking news." Kit was hardly scared as Presley rose to retaliate but before she got within reach, Luke intervened pushing Presley back into her seat while rising from his own.
"Hey, easy," Presley sat back down like the good puppy she was but he had little interest in the animosity between these two females, "Hey, can you tell me why Sophia's so pissed off at me?"
"Well outside of the fact that you're a total perve and a two face and you don't really care about anyone…I don't know."
Kit turned and moved on, message sent. Luke shook his head in irritation and headed for the kitchen. He now knew that Sophia must have seen him with Presley.
Sophia was making small talk with Rusty when Luke came up behind her.
"Is this about me and Presley? Cause its no big deal, she doesn't mean anything to me." Luke wanted to set things straight with her as quickly as possible because the way things were didn't set well with him.
Sophia couldn't help a small snort, this was too perfect. She didn't even bother turning around to respond, "Does anybody?" Her tone was deeply laced with cynicism and Luke heard it loud and clear. But he wasn't about to beg for forgiveness.
"You know what Sophia, if I knew that you were going to get all bent out of shape about this, I would have never invited you to the lake."
The level of Sophia's annoyance was palpable. You could hear her teeth grind as she turned to face him, "When you said show up at the rave, I didn't think you meant come watch me do my girlfriend."
"Presley is not my girlfriend," Luke knew he was fighting a losing battle but he refused to back down, "and I never meant for you see that."
Luke wanted Sophia to see reason despite its complete lack of validity. He was momentarily disheartened when Sophia laughed in his face, "oh, well that makes it all better, huh. You didn't mean it and I'm just a hysterical person who just freaks out over nothing."
Luke didn't have a response to that. He didn't want to hurt her. He let out a pent up breath, "God…Sophia."
Sophia stopped him before he could make more half-assed excuses. She was done with this for now, "Just forget what I said. It was stupid and not me at all."
She was still angry at him. 'Cause you normally roll over and take it.' Sophia was annoyed that she was just letting him get away with it again. She was just tired of this game.
"Its obvious that you're going through a tough time right now," Luke wanted to say something but didn't know what, "and so am I…I just want to be your friend Luke. But that's all."
Luke didn't want that. He had been working for a long time towards them helping each other through these hard times in a more than friendly manner.
Luke couldn't deal with this now, he turned and headed back into the diner. He gave her a final look that promised that this wasn't over.
