Rystelle

shadows.

Hearing Tim talk snapped Sophia out of her trance. It took a moment but finally her brain translated Tim's words. She laughed, recalling that odd song that went, "do you like waffles?". "Oh, geeze," she said once she had finally calmed down. "I forgot all about that waffle song. 2007? I was sixteen back then. I'm not sure I even want to remember everything that was popular back then. It'd probably be really embarrassing now." She was back to eating normally now and was actually able to enjoy the waffles she had made--they were really tasty. For a little while she had been avoiding this subject due to yesterday's scare, but now it was time to address it. "So I guess you should probably go back to your place today, huh?" She asked, setting her empty plate to the side. "I'm sure I've been keeping you from your work and everything, and I know I've been putting off my school work."

shadows.

Sophia turned around when she heard Tim sigh and saw that he was awake, sitting up and checking his phone. "Good morning," she greeted with a smile. She acted like nothing had happened and did it well. For the most part she was over her worrying as she had convinced herself that Tim had been asleep through the whole incident. "I made some waffles," she said as she pulled the last one from the waffle maker. "Do you want butter and syrup on yours? Or strawberries and bananas with a strawberry syrup." When Sophia began to speak Tim looked up and put away his phone. He thought for a moment then replied, "Um... Waffles with the fruit and strawberry syrup. Yeah, that sounds good." "Fruit and strawberry syrup it is then. Milk to drink?" Sophia asked. Tim agreed and she made their plates. She set the plates down on the coffee table and then went and got their glasses of milk. Sophia sat down on one end of the couch and picked up her plate and started to eat. This is nice, she thought to herself. Someone to have breakfast here at home with. Of course she knew it wouldn't happen all that often, especially once school and work started back up for her--Tim had work too--but until then having Tim around to spend time with was nice. Sure, Sophia had a few other friends and her family, but most of her friends had moved away and the others were often busy. She got lonely sitting alone in her apartment. The primary reason she had approached Tim was that she often felt alone and wanted a friend. As she had hoped Tim had proved to be a nice guy and lots of fun, even if he was at times awkward. But that just made him cute. And even knowing what Tim had been through only made Sophia want to be his friend even more, but for his sake as well as hers. They both needed someone, she knew, to hang out with and encourage each other. It was a poor life to live without any feeling of self-worth, even less of one without a friend to ensure you that you were important even if you didn't feel like it. All these thoughts swirled around Sophia's head as she ate almost mechanically without even tasting her food, her gaze focused on somewhere far away in a thousand-yard stare.

shadows.

After a couple more hours of sleep Sophia was finally ready to get up. She pushed off her blankets and sat up, yawned and stretched. In a rush she remembered what she had accidentally done last night. She cast a nervous glance to Tim, wondering if he might know. Even if he did he still appeared to be asleep. She hoped he didn't know. But if he did then that begs the question--why didn't he freak out or react in some way? I won't say anything about it, Sophia thought to herself. I won't say anything unless he happens to say something. But she really hoped he wouldn't. She was too embarrassed. They had only started hanging out a few days ago and already they had accidentally cuddled. Not only did that make it weird, but so did the fact that that was the type of things couples did. Suddenly David's face and words flashed through Sophia's mind and all the color seemed to drain from her face. "Shut up, shut up," she whispered quietly but angrily to the voice in her head as she ran her hands over her face and through her hair. "Fuck you, David. Asshole." Sophia hated him. Hated him a burning passion. Him and all three of the others. But she hated David most. Her asshole ex-boyfriend. She was stupid for ever dating him. Sophia tried to push those thoughts out of her mind as she headed into the kitchen. She looked around the fridge and pantry and mused to herself, "What should I make for breakfast today?" She decided what she wanted to do and plugged in her waffle maker to start heating up. Next she prepared batter and fruit for toppings. Breakfast was well underway now and Sophia had all but forgotten about David. As she worked she hummed as usual, but occasionally she would stop mid-tune as her thoughts drifted back to how comfortable she had been last night curled up next to Tim. Then she would vigorously shake her head to try to clear those thoughts and would start humming again as she returned to her work.

shadows.

Tim stirred a bit and Sophia held her breath and hoped that she wouldn't wake him up. She knew he was still iffy on physical contact with her. She was worried that if we woke up now he might take everything as a misunderstanding or else freak out all together. However, it seemed that Tim continued to sleep on peacefully. Having extracted herself from Tim's side of the couch, Sophia sat up on her side. She grabbed her phone from the table and checked the time. Only 5 o'clock. Still really early. Realizing why she had woken up so early, Sophia disappeared to a side room for a moment. She came back a few minutes later and lay back down on her side of the couch--good thing it was a big one. Sophia curled up underneath her blanket and tried to go back to sleep. It would be a few minutes before sleep would come again. Her side of the couch was cold and she shivered quietly until the cushions started to warm up from her body heat. She started drifting back off to sleep.

shadows.

Morning came and Sophia slowly started to awaken. She yawned and stretched before curling back up again, rubbing her face in what she thought was her pillow. It was really warm but felt kind of weird--little did she know it was Tim's side. After a moment she changed to rubbing her eyes with one hand to clear them of sleep. Then she opened them, expecting to see her bedroom dimly lit by the morning sun streaming through her window. But instead she found something blocking half of her vision and she had to lift her head up to get a clear view of the room. The living room. Sophia had fallen asleep in the living room on the couch. She remembered it now, having dozed off in the middle of the movie. She wondered if Tim had left and looked around to see if he might be sleeping somewhere on the floor. But then her sleepy brain began to awake and she wondered just what she was sleeping next to that was so warm and comfortable. Certainly not a pillow. Sophia looked. And she froze. Her entire face flushed as red as a tomato as she realized she had just been cuddling up beside Tim. Okay. Slowly, slowly, Sophia thought to herself as she tried to carefully extract herself from where she had burrowed into the back of the couch besides Tim. She hoped that she could get to her side of the couch before he woke up.

shadows.

At some point in the night Sophia's blanket started to slip off. A chill set in and she started to toss a bit. Finally she woke up enough to grab and fix her blanket. But she was still chilly and uncomfortable from having been in one position for so long. Barely conscious and thinking she was on her bed, Sophia turned around and sought a warmer spot. She found one and curled up again. In seconds she had drifted back off to sleep. Come morning she'd wake up to find she was not in her bed but on her couch curled up against Tim.

shadows.

When Sophia saw Tim smile she couldn't help but give a real smile--not just a forced one. It made her happy to see Tim happy. "Alright," she agreed. "We'll order pizza and watch another movie or play some games or something. I have board games too if you don't want to play video games." "Sounds good," Tim agreed. Sophia pulled out her phone and pulled up the number for the local pizza place. Before calling the number she looked to Tim and asked, "Supreme pizza and bread sticks sound good?" Tim agreed and she called up the pizza place and put in their order. About twenty minutes later the pizza arrived. Their food having arrived, Sophia and Tim grabbed some drinks and plates and filled up their plates with pizza and bread sticks. They picked out an animated movie called Nausicaa and the Valley of the Wind by Hayoa Miyazaki, switched off the lights, and settled down on the couch. Halfway through the movie, having finished her food, Sophia was curled up asleep on her end of the couch.

shadows.

Sophia took a deep breath and then let it out. She stood up, placed her hands on the table, and grinned. "Alright!" She declared, making herself sound happier than she felt. "For the rest of today no more being scared, no more crying, no more shit. If anyone else tries to bring us down, I swear I'm going to grab my bow--" she had a recurve bow in her room "--and I will shoot them in the knee." Sophia was sick of being scared and being upset. She wanted to be happy. She wanted to enjoy herself and have a good day with Tim. She would forget all about Evelyn and David, Paul and Greg. They were all assholes and she hoped that every single one of their gaming systems crashed at once. That would serve them right. Plus the thought of them crying bitter tears as their entire collection went down the drain made her feel better. "So!" Sophia continued. "I think it's about time for dinner. Shall I cook or do you want to order take out?"

shadows.

After a while Sophia finally ceased her crying. Lifting her head up a bit she wiped her eyes with her jacket sleeve. Her lips appeared to move for a moment and then stopped. Tim thought he heard her distinctly mutter 'assholes'. Sophia wiped her eyes one more time and then looked around to see if she might have possibly scared Tim off. When she saw him in the kitchen she let out a quiet breath of relief. She probably would have started crying again if he had left. Sophia stood up and slowly plod into the kitchen where Tim sat waiting. "This for me?" She asked, pointing at the glass of water. Tim nodded. "Thanks." She took the glass and downed it in one quick go. Once the water was gone she set the glass down on the table before sitting down herself across from Tim. Putting on a lopsided smile she said, "Sorry you had to see that."

shadows.

The miniature amusement park was called JoJo's Amusement Park. It had indoor and outdoor mini-golf, an arcade, rides, laser tag, and food. Sophia and Tim played a few rounds of indoor minigolf. Both did poorly but enjoyed themselves anyway. For a time they seemed able to push aside the rain clouds that had seemed to cover their morning. After playing some minigolf they stopped for some snacks, then went outside to ride some of the rides--huge slides that you went down with mats, a miniature roller coaster, a ferris wheel, and whatever else there was to be offered. When they grew too cold they went back inside to play in the arcade. You could win tickets from the games and use them to get prizes. Most of the prizes were kid stuff, but the games were still fun to play. Sophia was currently playing an old fashioned arcade shooter game with the plastic gun used as a controller. Tim stood to the side, just watching for this round. "Well, well, well, if it isn't Sophia," a girl's voice came from behind the pair. Upon hearing the familiar voice Sophia froze up. She forgot to shoot at the monster lunging at her and the thing killed her character. A few people behind her laughed. Sophia turned and saw a group of four. One girl who was extremely pretty, and three guys of varying build. The girl was named Evelyn, the well built guy with his arm around her waist was David, and the other two were Greg and Paul. All four of them wore some sort of shirt or accessory from a video game or popular movie like Star Wars. All of them were nerds, in their own right, but Sophia certainly did not get along with them. "Hello, Evelyn, David, Greg, Paul," Sophia said, her voice completely flat. Her face was expressionless but her stance was defensive. Instead of a greeting Evelyn said, "Lame as always, aren't you, Sophia? And you call yourself a gamer." "You don't have to be good to be a gamer," Sophia retorted, her tone still flat. "You just have to enjoy it." "Whatever," Evelyn scoffed. "Not like you're good at anything anyway." David, Evelyn's boyfriend, added, "Perhaps not, but it was still fun using her." He gave a nasty grin and Sophia's face paled. Then David turned his attention to Tim and asked, "You her boyfriend? Sophia's not much to look at, so you better get what you can out of her." That was the last straw. Sophia couldn't handle any more and felt like her heart had just been torn in two all over again. Tears spilled down her face she grabbed Tim's hand and drug him from the building as hyena-like laughter followed them. "We're going home," she said gruffly as they made it to her car and climbed in. On the trip back Sophia kept sniffling, tried not to keep crying, wiped her face with the sleeve of her jacket. Finally they were back in her apartment and she miserably collapsed onto the floor in front of the couch with her legs drawn up to her chest, her arms wrapped around her legs, and her face buried in them. "Sorry, Tim," she mumbled numbly. "Just give me a minute..."