HEY GUYS! I'm back with another chapter for you all! I AM SO SO SORRY for not updating when I said I would! I was super busy and I felt bad, but there was honestly no time! Anyways, I uploaded an author's note, which I will continue to post and delete when I can't do a chapter when I should, so there is no need to review on that :D
RR:
ProjectMoonlark101: Yes, I am so sorry I didn't, but I will definitely try to stay on schedule in the future! Thanks for reviewing!
TinyAlicorn: Oh hey, I remember you XD Not in a creepy way, but I remember your review :D Yes, when Grady freaks out it is so funny! Thank you so much for reviewing and helping and being an awesome person! I can't wait to do the FITZ POV TOO!
Haven-Field06: Thanks so much! It will go on for quite a while, though perhaps not forever. :D Thanks for reviewing!
TEAM SOPHIE: Evil golden hair demon sounded so bad to me so I meant to fix it but I kind of forgot. Glad you liked it! Yes, most likely Sophie will pick Fitz, I think :D Glad you actually noticed the title, unlike some other people :)
Guest: Thanks for reviewing! I hope my next chapters are just as good.
SkyBlue22: Yes, I feel as if Tam has been neglected, so I decided to give him a more complicated character when dealing with Sophie's love life. He's basically the only guy not in love with her, so I used that to my advantage. Yes, Edaline does need to help Grady to calm down, doesn't she? I'm glad to know that you check in daily. That makes me feel so good!
hello: I'm glad you loved the nickname. I just made it up out of nowhere and meant to change it but I forgot. :D I'm not sure about my ending ships yet at the moment… Thanks for reviewing!
OMG: Thanks as well for liking the nickname. Like I've said already, I made up that nickname out of the top of my head and meant to change it, but I forgot. Thanks for reviewing!
Keeperofthelostcities22: Thanks so much! I love hearing things like what you said, vain as I am XD YES TEAM FITZ FOREVER! Thanks for reviewing!
Smiles: Sophitz relates to Aladdin sometimes, you know? Yes! Thanks for reviewing!
AngelFox997: Yes, someday everyone will be happy… maybe. Thanks for reviewing!
Guest: I know, I am so sorry for not updating like I said I would, and I will try to do better! Thanks so much for reviewing!
Dust Bunny: This is to all of your reviews… Really? I LOVE READING MUSHY STUFF AND WRITING IT AS WELL :D… it's ok, just read through it slowly… or you can skip it… ok, please don't cry! I hate it when people cry because of my writing… yes, I have found that people make my writing relate to some Disney show :D… Linh and Sophie do need to talk more, don't they?... that's awesome that my writing gives you a reaction XD… No! Is my writing that confusing?... Did you really skip the Chapter 17… Yay, you got caught up! Thanks for reviewing! And don't judge the author notes :D
Guest: Thanks so much! I love to hear those types of things! Yes, SOPHITZ FOREVER!
ProjectMoonlark101: I'm glad you understand. Thanks for reviewing again!
BlackSwanGirl: Thanks for reviewing!
OMG: Thanks for understanding!
Ellie: Thanks so much for taking my advice and liking this story! Yeah, stories always need drama! Remember the title! Thanks for reviewing!
KOTLC 1 Fan: Thanks so much for understanding and reviewing! Yes, I tried my best to be unbiased, which was pretty hard… Thanks so much for constantly reviewing! I think you were actually my first reviewing and I LOVE YOU FOR THAT! Not in a creepy way, btw. Yes, I try to update more frequently nowadays.. Hope you like this chapter!
Cress070: THANK YOU SO MUCH! Your review just about made my day! Shipping Fitz with yourself is definitely normal; I've done it so many times! Thank you for reviewing!
OK, so that took me about 30 minutes! WOW! Three whole pages of reviews! I love you all so much and I will literally try my best to never let it get so late again!
SHOUTOUTS:
#1 Keeperofthelostcities22! Thank you for reviewing for the first time! I love your review! It was so sweet and I hope you plan to continue reading!
#2 Dust Bunny! Thank you for constantly reviewing and leaving such nice compliments!
#3 Cress070! Thank you for being a first-time reviewing and making your review so incredibly nice and amazing!
9 more reviews for the next shoutout!
Here we go!
Sophie braced for the inevitable cries and shouts as Alden and Della came rushing in, hurriedly, with stricken and worried looks on their faces and rather impatient postures.
"Oh my God, Sophie!" Della shrieked. Both of them sat down at the edge of Sophie's bed. "Sophie, my darling. Do you know how long you made us wait?"
Alden sighed. "Not that it truly offends us, seeing as we're just random people and you wanted to see your friends and parents first, but we really wanted to see you!" Alden added, his face scanning Sophie's for any signs of something wrong.
Sophie looked down guiltily. "Sorry guys. My friends all wanted to see me first, and then my parents had to come before they went berserk… well! You're seeing me now!" She smiled brightly but winced in pain at the action.
"Sophie! Oh, Sophie!" Della sobbed. She leaned over and hugged her tightly. Sophie looked over at her, surprise registering as she saw the tears that were running down the woman's face.
"Please. Don't cry, Della! I'm fine!" Sophie said. "I promise I'm okay."
"No, you don't understand. I'm so sorry! I was just so worried about you! I heard what happened from Fitz. My son is in big trouble." Della murmured. Alden nodded along with her almost angrily, the angriest Sophie had seen him in a long time, and added for emphasis,
"BIG trouble." He shook his head and looked as if he were gearing up for battle.
Sophie did her best to argue against them. "No, guys! It wasn't Fitz's fault!" She stopped. She was going to tell the truth. "I mean, maybe it kind of was, but this," she gestured to herself, "this only happened because I've been under a lot of stress and I just couldn't handle everything happening all at once, you know?"
Alden shook his head. "No matter what you say, Sophie, I know the truth. The real cause of all this. That stress was caused by my son and his stupidity in today's actions."
Sophie honestly couldn't argue with that, both because it was true and because she didn't have the physical strength. Ever since Fitz had come out and told her he liked her, she had been so worried and stressed out. She really hadn't expected it to come down to this, though.
Della said, with a lot fewer tears, much to Sophie's relief, "Okay, I've calmed down now. I made Fitz tell us what happened and I just can't believe how strong you are! Wow. Are you sure you're okay?" She seemed unbelieving as if Sophie couldn't possibly be all right after everything that had occurred.
Sophie nodded, "Yes! Della, I'm perfectly fine. Just a little… tired is all." Sophie said in reassurance. Sophie said, "I just want to go to sleep. I promise I'll be okay if I just get a little rest."
Della and Alden nodded in agreement. "Yeah, you do that. A little rest will do you good. And we'll leave you to it. We'd like to go punish our son." They stood up and walked towards the door.
Sophie tried to shake her head at them, telling them that it was unneeded, but she was already slipping away into sleep, slowly…
The last thing she heard was the door shut softly and the soft murmur of voices retreating down the stairs outside.
Sophie woke up groggily with a start. "Ughh," she mumbled. Wow. She was so awake. She stretched her arms and felt no pain. That was strange. That medication must have done its job well. Or maybe it was just the sleep.
Wait, was she still dreaming? Sophie pinched her arm but nothing happened. This meant she was most definitely awake. Besides, you couldn't feel this alive, this alert, in a dream. And this was the most active Sophie had ever felt. Maybe it was the drugs.
She moved out of bed, found her slippers with her cold feet, and crossed the room and opened her door. She peeked her head out. The house was cold and empty. She didn't hear anything, but Grady and Edaline had to be somewhere in the house. They wouldn't just leave her alone. Not after all of this…
She yawned. She walked down the stairs, not looking where she was going…
And tripped over something.
Or someone. She gasped in surprise and looked down at her feet. Sophie sighed in relief when she saw it was just Keefe. He was awake now and stretching as he yawned.
"Hey, Keefe. What are you still doing here?" Sophie asked, taking a seat on the step above him as he stared up at her with his blue eyes.
Keefe grinned. "What did you think? That I would just leave you? I'm offended, Foster." At least he seemed to be back to his old self. He went on, "Everyone's here. We wouldn't just go without knowing that you were actually okay! We're your friends!" He shook his head at her as if surprised that she didn't know already.
Sophie shook her head at him. "Thanks! I think. But you didn't need to stay. I told you earlier, I'm fine!"
Keefe said, smirking, "Foster, we know you. You always say that, especially when you're the exact opposite of fine. You know, we know a lot more about you than you would think. Besides, we had nothing else to do, so why shouldn't we stay here? If there was something to do… then maybe that would be a different story."
Sophie gasped and mock-smacked Keefe. "How dare you? You would leave dear old me behind like that? The least you could do is invite me along." She grinned.
He snickered. "Just kidding, Foster." He stared at her until it got awkward.
Sophie cleared her throat, ruining the moment, and said, "So where's everyone else at? You said everyone's here."
Keefe shrugged. "Who knows? I mean, if you were wondering about a certain someone, Fitz is in the guest room." He said it without an ounce of emotion, good or bad. Sophie didn't know how to analyze the situation. Keefe was amazing at hiding things from everyone, including his friends, much to Sophie's annoyance.
Sophie stood up. "Well, then, I'm going to go find him, if that's okay." Keefe nodded and waved her along. Sophie walked back upstairs and knocked on the guest room door. She heard no response and decided Fitz must be sleeping or he wasn't in there and Keefe had lied. She debated between opening the door or walking away and leaving it alone. After a minute, she decided to go ahead and she opened the door...
To Fitz and Linh passionately kissing on the guest room bed.
Sophie slammed the door closed. That was a dream. It had to be. She blinked and rubbed her eyes and opened the door again. It wasn't a dream. Linh indeed was there, looking flustered, her cheeks stained red and her lips swollen, and Fitz was looking embarrassed and angry, his hair mussed and his eyes bright. She could tell that he was a little bit scared to see her too.
"Sophie. Hey," he said stonily.
"Hi," she said, stiffly. She stared for a moment longer and she couldn't handle it anymore.
She walked out of the room.
"Sophie!" She heard Fitz's clear sharp voice calling after her. She didn't turn around, but he ran after her and grabbed her shoulder with his hand. She shook him off coldly and spun around to see Fitz's hurt and scared face. He looked bewildered.
"Sophie. What did you see?" Fitz asked cautiously.
Sophie scoffed. "How can you not know? Were you and Linh really that lost in making out that you didn't notice me opening the damn door?" Sophie asked angrily, her eyes flashing.
"Sophie…" For once, Fitz was at a loss for words. He sighed. "I'm sorry."
Sophie shook her head. "You know what? Sorry isn't going to work for me anymore. Not this time. Is this your revenge for me kissing Keefe? Because it didn't really mean that much to me, okay? It was an experiment and I was angry at you. But now… I don't know. God, I can't trust you anymore. I thought that I would always be able to trust you, you of all people, the boy who introduced me to this world! But no. It seems I was mistaken. Can I ever even trust you again? I don't know why I even put up with you sometimes. You've failed me so many times, in so many different ways, and on top of all that, I wasn't even angry at you. You didn't do this in retaliation. You just don't care about my feelings. You think it's okay to just play with a girl like that, to treat us like your toys that you can play with until you get tired of us and just dump us off somewhere. And how could you when I'm sick? Huh? Okay, Fitz. Fine. If you want to do it your way, then I'm good with that. My final Match is going to be Keefe, by the way. I thought it could have been you, I really did. I was all prepared to go apologize just now and tell you how I really felt. But after this, just no. Go ahead and pick Linh. It doesn't hurt me, okay? Nothing you can do or say will ever hurt me again. You are dead to me." Sophie didn't even know what she was saying anymore. She could hardly breathe. Fitz just took it all, standing there in the hallway with his eyes closed. When he realizes she was done, he opened his eyes.
Fitz said softly, "Sophie. How do you feel about me? What were you going to tell me?"
Sophie shook her head, dumbfounded at his lack of feelings. "Just drop it, okay? Go back to Linh and play with her some more. I'm done with you." But still, she stood there.
Fitz tried again. "Sophie. I promise you. We were just… kissing. Linh was so sad, okay? I was just trying to cheer her up!"
"Yeah, but you could have just hugged her and bought her some flowers or something instead of kissing her when you know you were with me! Like, I can't even believe this. Did you forget all about me? Call me selfish but the least you could've done was break up with me first!"
"Sophie. Were we ever together?" Fitz asked coldly, the emotion and determination dying out of his eyes. "I can't even believe you, Sophie. You are so unfair. You go ahead and kiss Keefe all you want, but I can't help Linh out? I didn't know where we stand and I still don't. So you shouldn't be mad at me for trying to do the right thing to a girl for once. You go ahead and do your slimy tricks with Keefe but suddenly it's not okay for me? How is that fair? Huh? How is that at all what you can call fair?"
"HOW IS LIFE FAIR?" Sophie screamed. "I hate you! You're such a dick! I can't believe I ever thought I felt something for you. You're nothing but a low, dirty, scumbag who shouldn't have even been born! Why don't you just go back to Linh and just leave me alone! Forever! I never want to see your rotten face again!" Now she sounded stupid but she kept at it.
Fitz looked scared at the finality of her words, but he just said, "Fine. We're over then."
"Oh, I thought we weren't ever together," Sophie said snarkily, knowing she shouldn't, knowing she was just egging him on. Fitz's face hardened.
"Fine. We're done. Don't speak to me anymore. Don't come running back to me when Keefe breaks your heart. Remember: we never existed in the first place. That was all fake. Just a dream. Okay! Are you happy now?"
Fitz stormed off angrily, back to the guest room where Sophie could hear Linh's sobs, clenching his fists at his sides. Sophie turned back to her room and plunged down on her bed. "I hate you!" she yelled into her pillow, crying and yelling out every horrific word that she could think of.
Yeah, so that was that. That literally came out of nowhere! PLEASE DO NOT WORRY. REMEMBER THE TITLE. ALSO, PLEASE DO NOT SEND HATE AND DO NOT SAY "I HATE YOU, YOU KILLED ME, HOW COULD YOU" or things like that. Because it's my story and I can write what I want to write. Please leave a nice review! Thanks!