a/n: hey all!
I got sudden urge to get revisit Point Rock this afternoon, so below is a quickie. While the first trip back to Point Rock was a twofer, my plan is just to sprinkle these shorter bits into the regular story-line moving forward. These separate chapters will be designated with letters to distinguish them from the current plot.
Also, as always, a huge thank you to everyone who has commented their thoughts on the story. Am I too proud to say it is the highlight of my day? No, no I am not.
Enjoy! - EQT.95
"Hey, Sophie! How was your break?"
"Fine," Sophie replied, looking past James down the hall.
"Yea? Go anywhere?"
"What? No, just home," she replied distractedly.
"Aww, that's too bad. My parents and I went out to Colorado for two weeks. Hit the slopes hard - nearly broke my collarbone! Have you ever been?" James continued, oblivious to Sophie's lack of interest.
"Huh?"
"To Colorado - have you ever been?"
"No."
"Oh..."
"Have you seen Kate?"
"Kate Kane?"
Sophie's eyes narrowed in annoyance. "What other Kate could I possibly be talking about?"
"I don't know - usually I'm the one asking you that question."
"So you haven't seen her?"
"She's not back yet," Melvin interjected from the doorway of his and James' room. "Won't be until late tonight. Sorry, couldn't help but overhear."
"Oh, right, right, that's… right," Sophie replied casually, trying to act like she'd erroneously forgotten this very obvious, very well-distributed information. Melvin's knowing look though made her want to ask a dozen more questions, but not wanting to seem in the dark about Kate, instead she excused herself and went back to her room.
It had been five weeks since she'd last heard from Kate, and while all of Kate's belongings were still sitting in their dorm room when she had arrived back to campus that morning, this was the first hard evidence she'd received that Kate was even returning for spring term. For all she knew, Kate had bailed on the Academy, or worse, got kicked out, and that night in December was the last time she'd ever see Kate Kane again. Worse still, after leaving without a word, Kate had also been a ghost to Sophie all break. She'd tried every form of communication she could think of: phone, text, carrier pigeon, smoke signals, but nothing. She weighed taking a trip into Gotham, but quickly realized, even if she was back from D.C., she didn't actually know where Kate's dad lived. By new year's, she was starting to wonder if she'd gone crazy and pulled back, not wanting to seem too clingy.
What's more, she still had no idea if the Mike Miller thing was resolved. She had the unfortunate timing of literally running into him in the dormitory's lobby that morning, and a jolt of fear shot through her. This was the kid who had discovered her and Kate weeks before making out in a drunken haze, and she half expected him to call her out in the middle of the lobby. She froze, weighing which path to best flee down when, instead of saying anything, he simply nodded at her with a half smile. She was rattled by the casualness of it: like the way acquaintances might greet each other.
Since then, she had been pacing her room, jumping to attention at the slightest sound of movement near her door. She didn't know if she was angry or excited to see Kate, and she figured she wouldn't really know until Kate walked through the door.
It was hours later. Sophie had begrudgingly left the room for dinner after a group from her floor bullied her into joining them. They were giving her a hard time for wanting to stay in and study before term had even started, and Sophie let them believe that was the case. For an entire hour, Sophie impatiently sat through the group's stories of holiday travel, distractedly mushing together the rest of her peas and gravy into a muddled color on her plate.
When Melvin announced his plans to return to the dorm, Sophie jumped at the opportunity to join him. A few 'ooohs' and a stray 'awww' went missed by Sophie who was quickly throwing on her jacket, hoping Kate would be there when she returned.
Melvin smirked at her unawareness, and instead made the groups suggestions more explicit: "My, my Sophie Moore, where is the chase?"
Sophie stared blankly back at him, "Excuse me?"
"First day back and not even making me jump through a few hoops? I'm almost disappointed," Melvin continued.
"Get a room!" James shouted from across the table before realizing a room would mean his room. "Her room! Use her room!"
Sophie's face burned at the suggestion and she quietly stepped away from the table as an amused Melvin followed quickly behind her.
"I was only joking, Sophie," Melvin said once they had exited into the crisp winter night. Flurries were flying through the air
"Fooled me," Sophie replied. "And them."
"Oh, that was sort of the point," Melvin said quietly. Sophie looked up at him in confusion as she watched him appear unphased, looking ahead into the darkness as they walked.
"Wh-how do you mean?"
"Uhm, just… just that Kate told me about… the thing that happened."
Sophie's confusion turned quickly to anger. "Well, I'm glad she's talking to someone about it. I'd hate to think she would waste her time on the one other person involved."
"Hey, woa, I have no fight in this," Melvin quickly surrendered. "I just figured… you know, might be good to throw people off a bit?"
"When did she tell you?"
"Oh, that night."
That night? Sophie thought, her frustration growing as she realized the reason Kate hadn't come back was because she was with Melvin. "Well, that's just great for you." She responded curtly.
"She didn't tell you," Melvin observed, trying to piece together Sophie's sudden annoyance with the conversation. Sophie's silence was all the confirmation he needed to go on. "Look, it's not what you think. I found her in the bathroom with Miller at like, three in the morning. I'd just gotten James' ass to sleep, and I was just doing my own thing. Then outta nowhere there's Kate talking to a bawling Miller on the bathroom floor."
"Bawling?"
"Yea, dude was drunk outta his mind. Kept talking about his ex. And there was Kate, comforting him… well… it was Kate, so there wasn't actually much of that going on," Melvin chuckled, causing Sophie to nearly smirk in acknowledgment.
"So what happened?" Sophie asked, half out of genuine curiosity and half out of annoyance.
"Right, so, I ask her what's up, and she says she found him and wanted to make sure he was good. He seemed fine to me - drunk, sure, but like, nothing he couldn't sleep off, right? But Kate kept insisting she stay, being all cryptic, so I decided to stay, too. It being the last day of term with nothing better to do, I figured why not, but after about ten minutes, Miller was passed out. And I started complaining that we shoulda put him to bed when we had the chance. Then Kate got annoyed, telling me she wasn't keeping me there and I could just go to bed and then… then she just started crying."
"What?" Sophie asked, not believing her own ears.
"Exactly what I thought. Have you ever seen Kate cry?"
Sophie shook her head. Kate wasn't easily rattled, and even when she was, her reaction was to internalize it. It was something that frustrated Sophie; she could always tell when something was wrong, but it would take a day or two before Kate would finally open up about it.
"Wh-what… I mean, is-was she ok?"
Melvin gave a half chuckle in response. "Kate Kane was crying on the floor of the men's bathroom in the middle of the night. What do you think?" he asked rhetorically. Sophie stared ahead at this. It was a redundant question, she knew. "Let's just say Kate was having an existential crisis of sorts, and if you think it's hard to get her to talk normally, it's nothing compared to when that's going on. Short story though? She told me about you and her, then Miller's untimely entrance. She'd found him wandering the hall having locked himself out of his room - his roommate had already left for break - so he had been trying to find somewhere to crash. Kate was getting him settled onto one of the lounge's couches when Miller pulled a Miller."
Sophie stared back confusedly, "A Miller?"
"Yea, dude can't hold his liquor. It's a real problem at house parties."
"Oh."
"So, fast forward to the bathroom, and Kate was staying to make sure he didn't die, but mostly because she was terrified he'd rat on you two. Fortunately he didn't remember shit the next morning."
Sophie returned to her room and collapsed on her bed. There was still no sign of Kate, but Sophie found herself appreciating the silence for the first time all day. If what Melvin had said was right, that meant her and Kate weren't at risk of expulsion, but it didn't explain Kate's subsequent ghosting. If there was nothing to worry about, why hadn't Kate responded to her messages or calls? Had Sophie overread the situation? Did Kate see it as a mistake, and her evading tactics were her way of letting Sophie down easy?
The sound of keys outside the door pulled her from her thoughts. She heard a key insert into the lock, and she shot up from her bed as the door swung open, revealing an all-too-familiar silhouette in the doorframe.
"Hi."
"Hey."
