"Sophie?" I called, as I stepped through the front door of my apartment, kicking my shoes off and adding them to the pile in the entranceway. "I'm back."

Stretched across my couch like a sunbathing cat, Sophie lowered her magazine to look at me. I don't know exactly when or how it happened, but over the course of the summer, Sophie's things had seemingly multiplied around my apartment. She'd always left a decent number of clothes at my place but it felt like my closet had recently undergone a hostile takeover. Frilly dresses now hung in a perfect row alongside my collared shirts, and although Sophie had bought me enough outfits to last a lifetime, I couldn't help but notice that a substantial number of my ratty t-shirts and jeans had mysteriously gone missing. I assumed it was Sophie's doing rather than the work of a thief, though I rarely bothered to ask and she never admitted a thing. Either way, my mom would've been over the moon to learn that Sophie had thrown away all of my beer-stained frat tanks and ripped shorts. Frankly, I wouldn't have been surprised if they were in on it together.

Along with the influx of women's clothing came a fluffy beige rug that covered the living room floor and a dozen photo frames that featured our smiling faces. Nearly every inch of surface space inside my apartment was stacked with stylish decorations and although Sophie was clearly pleased with her work, Scott had been quick to point out that it looked like my place belonged in a Martha Stewart catalogue. I laughed when he said it, feigning embarrassment, but truth be told, I didn't really mind. It was certainly homier now than it'd been when I'd been left to my own devices. In fact, I was actually pretty happy that I finally had a set of matching dishes, even if they were canary yellow and polka-dot.

"How was your day?" Sophie asked after I crossed the room and kissed her hello.

"Alright. Yours?"

"Fine. I got the schedule for the new TV show I'm filming," Sophie replied. "We're going to start shooting the pilot next week."

"That's great," I said, and Sophie gave a small shrug. "I thought you wanted to keep doing films, though."

"I do," Sophie said slowly. "But I also want to stick around L.A. for a while without worrying about which location I'm going to be sent to next. It's nice to have at least some amount of control over my life -- and to be home, to be in one place."

I nodded, trying to suppress a grin. "You just want to hang out with me, don't you?"

Sophie didn't answer, though the smile that spread across her face told me that I wasn't entirely wrong. "So, how did your meeting go?" she asked. I watched her fold her long legs so that they were tucked beneath her before sitting down beside her on the couch.

"Alright," I said, reaching for her hand but deciding to rest my fingers on her bare knee instead. She surprised me by shivering slightly and shoving me away. "Are my hands cold?"

"Freezing."

"Sorry." I rubbed my hands together to warm them up but she shook her head when I moved to touch her again. "He didn't say it, obviously, but my academic advisor seemed to think I'd made the right decision."

Sophie furrowed her eyebrows. "What'd you guys talk about?"

Leaning back, I felt something dig into the side of my hip and I withdrew the television remote from the crevice between the couch's cushions. Tossing the flicker from hand to hand, I said, "I told him that I wanted to keep working on my engineering degree and drop my film major down to a minor."

"And?"

"He asked me why."

"What'd you say?"

"I asked him if he'd turned on his TV in the last five months."

Sophie's laugh filled the room. "I guess not everyone can handle the spotlight." 

"Hanging out in the shadows isn't so bad." I paused, tapping the remote against my thigh. "I don't know, I told him that I wanted to have options -- that I didn't want to end up being stuck in a job without a way out. Do you think that was a mistake?"

"No," Sophie replied simply. "It's smart. Really smart. Most people don't think that far ahead."

"Yeah, well..."

"Listen, I respect you for realizing that filmmaking may not be what you want to do forever. A lot of people would rather fall on their face than hedge their bets."

"I still don't know if I want to be an engineer, either."

"Well," Sophie said, ruffling my hair, "you can be whatever you want when you grow up. I don't mind."

"Thanks." I kissed her again, happy when she relented and let me wrap an arm around her shoulders. When our lips parted, I said, "So, tell me more about the show you're working on."

"Oh, I mean, it's a pretty standard high school drama. Nothing too exciting. Boy meets girl, girl hates boy, boy and girl somehow end up together. To be honest, the main reason why I signed on for it is because the director's ridiculously talented." Sophie opened her mouth and pointed at her canines. "Plus, I get to play a vampire, which is kind of cool, I guess."

"A vampire, huh? Not a witch?"

Sophie gave my stomach a light punch and shook her head, pretending to be offended. "I can't stand you."

"I know."

A good-natured twinkle danced in her eyes. "You've gotten so cocky recently."

"I was just kidding."

"I know." Sophie gathered her hair to one side and examined the carefully trimmed ends. "It isn't the type of storyline that's going to make people take me any more seriously as an actress but it's okay. Like you said, after the last few months, maybe keeping a relatively low profile for a while is what I need."

When she tilted her head to study me, a flash of pink caught my eye. "You're still wearing the earrings my mom sent for your birthday?"

Sophie nodded, her index finger and thumb reaching up to touch the cluster of rose-colored pearls that rested against her earlobe. As it turned out, Sophie's birthday was ten days before mine, and my parents had included our respective gifts in the same care package. At first, neither of us understood why my mom had sent me earrings and Sophie a cocktail making set etched with physics formulas but we'd eventually figured out the mix-up. The simple studs suited Sophie, though I'd been surprised when she started to cry after taking them out of their box. She'd fastened the earrings with tears rolling down her face as she said, "I'm never taking these off."

I doubted that she'd stick to that promise forever but, so far, it looked like she had.

"Of course," Sophie replied. "Your parents are amazing."

"Your dad's pretty cool, too."

Ever since she'd gotten out of treatment, Sophie had made a point of having dinner with her dad at least once a week. Sometimes I went with them, but I usually let her spend that time with him alone. Although Sophie always made a point of extending an invitation for me to join them, I was smart enough to understand that they had a lot to catch up on without me constantly tagging along. Even the paparazzi seemed to respect their weekly dinners together to a certain extent; Sophie said that on more than one occasion, they'd arrived at a restaurant without a single camera waiting for them, though maybe that had something to do with the fact that Michael was always willing to call in a fake sighting of them at a place halfway across town.

"Did I tell you that my dad's going to help me run the foundation that I'm starting?" I shook my head while Sophie beamed over her announcement. "He said he was proud of me."

"Of course he's proud of you," I said. "On top of everything else you've done, now you're saving the world."

"I guess that's one way of looking at it." Sophie's cheeks turned the same shade of pink as the earrings she wore and I knew that she was even happier than she'd openly let on.

With zoning approval from the city and additional financial support from a few high-rolling philanthropists, Sophie had poured three million dollars from her savings into starting the Winter to Spring Foundation. Targeted at offering mental health treatment to low-income and homeless Angelenos, Sophie had thrown herself into getting the project off the ground. Perhaps appropriately, she'd bought the warehouse where her bipolar disorder had come to light and hired a construction team to flatten it and build a live-in facility in its place. She'd taken me to see the site, eagerly pointing out where the kitchen and dining areas would be. Seeing how much she cared about the people that she wanted to help just made me love her ten times more than I already did, so I'd pulled her into a tight hug and told her the same.

"No wonder you don't want to travel for work. It sounds like you're going to be too busy for me as it is," I joked, though part of me suspected that might be true.

"Yeah, things are going to be pretty hectic. I'm, uh, actually going to be taking an accounting and business management course, too," Sophie said, biting her lip as I turned to stare at her. She glanced at me and then quickly looked back down at her lap. "You know, even though I'm hiring people to look after things for me, I thought it'd be good to understand the figures that I'm signing off on."

"And where are you taking these classes?" I asked, though the coy expression on her face told me that I already knew the answer.

"Did you know that, as of two days ago, Los Angeles University now officially offers the Sophie Winters scholarship?"

"No way," I said, shaking my head. "For what?"

"Incoming students with an interest in the fine arts."

"When did you set that up?"

"I called the vice president of university relations last month and asked how much it'd take to enroll as a student without having an S.A.T. score. He was pretty adamant that there was no way to make it happen until I mentioned that I was considering making a donation."

"For how much?"

Sophie smiled. "Doesn't matter. But I will say that it was enough to get a bench named after me, too, so now your peers can sit on my wooden namesake."

Even without her telling me how much that bench had cost, I knew that most named scholarships at L.A.U. ran their donors somewhere between five hundred thousand and two million dollars. Although I had no idea what Sophie's bank account balance looked like, it was still mind boggling to realize how much money she could drop without batting an eye. It was in those moments that I wondered why I wasn't chasing my dream of becoming a big time filmmaker, but, then again, money wasn't everything. Thanks to Sophie, I knew that lesson better than anyone.

"So, we'll be going to the same school?" I asked, and Sophie nodded, studying me expectantly, waiting for a reaction. I could only give her one. "That's so weird."

"I know," Sophie admitted. "But it's not like I'll be a full-time student or anything. I'm only registered to take two classes a semester, maybe less if my work schedule ends up getting in the way."

"You really decided to go back to school because of your foundation?"

"Sort of. Mostly." Sophie let a shoulder rise and fall. "Honestly, though, you made it sound like fun. I've never done the whole go-to-class-and-make-friends thing so I thought, why not? I'll be sticking around the city while I film Teen Vamp, so I might as well do something besides shopping in whatever free time I have." She paused to tap her chin. "Besides, half of the industry went to your university. I figured it'd make me seem more legitimate than taking a course at L.A.C.U. or whatever."

"Los Angeles Coastal is a clown college," I said, unable to resist mocking L.A.U.'s cross-town rival. "You know, Scott's in the business school. You might end up having a class with him."

Sophie's head bobbed up and down. "That's another reason why I wanted to go there; I figured you and your friends would look out for me."

I listened to Sophie babble happily about her plans for the upcoming year, still trying to process the realization that we'd soon be walking along the same sidewalks to class and sitting in the same libraries during finals. If I'd said it once, I'd said it a million times, but that didn't make it any less true: life was strange... Maybe that's what made it so great.

"Hey, Sophie," I said, interrupting her monologue as a thought occurred to me.

"What?"

"Have you ever been to a frat party?"

T H E E N D.

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Hooray! I finally finished the epilogue. Sorry for the delay but law school is more time-consuming than anything I've ever experienced in my life. I'm so excited that I was able to share this story with you and that Sleaze was featured this month - thanks to the fine people at Wattpad who decided to give it a spot on the Featured List! Lots of love to all those who've read along. Keep an eye out for Check, Please when I finally publish the first chapter!

<3 Lia