01:

SOPHIE GETS NEWS

Sophie Carmella did not know whether to kiss her boyfriend or slap him.

From a pink cardboard box that she held with both her hands, four deliciously glazed doughnuts stared up at her and the fact that they looked extremely scrumptious was not helping her situation. She was not supposed to eat doughnuts. What was her boyfriend thinking when he got these doughnuts for her?

She looked up from the box and the cheesy, happy grin that took over Andrew Smith's face fell in an instant when he saw the expression that his girlfriend wore. "Uh," he started, adjusting the strap on his backpack before taking a step back and grinning at Sophie sheepishly. "I don't know if I should run or not with that expression on your face."

"Are you crazy?" Sophie yelled, her brown eyes wide. "These are doughnuts, Andrew!"

"B-but you like doughnuts," Andrew stammered, feigning an innocent look. "This is the part when you throw your arms around me and smother me in kisses, girlfriend."

"Well, boyfriend," Sophie shot back thrusting the box back into Andrew's arms, "I'm part of the cheerleading squad and coach wants us to watch our diet if we want to look fabulous at Nationals."

"Nationals is like two months away!" Andrew pointed out defensively, taking out a doughnut and biting it.

"Exactly!" she burst, trying to ignore the fact that her boyfriend now had icing smeared on the edge of his lips. "Two months away, Andrew, two months."

"Exactly, Soph. Two months. Not a week. Stuff yourself with as much food as you can."

Sophie glared at him. How could he do this to her? "Stop torturing me!" she exclaimed, hot in the face and she wasn't too sure if her frustration was because Andrew was stubborn or because she was trying her best to resist those doughnuts, those doughnuts that looked fluffy and filling, those doughnuts that looked sweet and delicious, those doughnuts-

"You want to kiss me now, don't you?" Andrew teased, a smirk on his icing stained lips when he noticed her staring at the box lustfully.

"I hate you," she grumbled.

"Baby, you love me. You've loved me ever since freshman year."

"I was a stupid freshman then."

"You're a senior now. We've been dating for almost four years. I don't think you hate me and if you were a stupid freshman, then are you a stupid senior?" Andrew gasped then, his eyes widening. "Wait, are you telling me you were stupid these past four years?"

"Shut up," Sophie said pushing Andrew on the shoulder which earned a laugh from him. They were always like this. And neither Sophie nor Andrew grew tired of it. They weren't always all over each other, they weren't always lovey dovey but that's what made their love a little different.

"You have a little, uh, icing there," she said, her cheeks colouring in. Andrew was right. She wanted to kiss him. But Sophie Carmella was a stubborn brat. She wasn't going to let her boyfriend win.

"Do you want to kiss it off me?" he teased as he leaned in closer, a smile on his lips but his bright blue eyes grew a little darker and Sophie did want to kiss it off him, damn it.

"I hate you," she said once more before she grabbed a fistful of his collar in both her hands and closed the distance between them, the box of doughnuts was the only thing that separated their bodies from touching. She licked the icing off the edge of his lips and felt her stomach do an immediate flip as the sensation of her tongue at the edge of his lips sent pleasurable shivers down her body. She never got tired of the intimacy, of the quick kisses, of the small and sweet smiles, of the passionate hours of making out.

Andrew didn't let her retreat. He pushed the box onto his hip and wrapped his other arm around Sophie's waist, pulling her body flush against his, before giving her a long and sweet kiss, his tongue prying her lips open and demanding for entrance. Her toes curled and her fists loosened before they slid off his collar and into his hair that was smooth to the touch.

"Making out in an empty hallway is so hot," he breathed across her lips and she laughed, a rich wonderful chuckle filling the hallway.

"You're an arse," she said, smiling wide.

"I'm your arse."

"The cheesy lines don't stop, do they?"

"Baby, you're going to have to deal with this cheese for the rest of your life," he replied smoothly to which Sophie laughed again.

"I love you," she whispered, brushing her lips against his and she felt her whole being light up when Andrew's arm around her waist tightened, pulling them even closer if possible.

His face lost all its playfulness and he looked utterly serious when he said, "I love you, too, Soph." He kissed her just as passionately as her kissed her mere minutes ago. He could never get tired of kissing her.

A mischievous look brightened up Sophie's face and she found herself trailing a finger down his chest and whispering, in the best seductive voice she could muster, "you know, we already missed the first ten minutes of Chemistry class. I say we ditch and see how well our chemistry is."

The playful expression was back on Andrew's face. "Want to go to my car and make out?"

[•••]

"Soph!"

Sophie jolted awake when her friend who was seated in the desk opposite to her on her right nudged her on the shoulder with her elbow. She blinked rapidly trying to ease away the sleepiness that clouded her mind.

She never quite liked Biology and her spacing out in class, her mind drifting off into her wonderful dreamland, was the proof of this fact.

Sophie whipped her head to her friend's direction and glared at her. "Why did you wake me up?" she hissed, annoyance lacing her voice.

"What if Mr Ranford caught you sleeping in class? You know how he is," Sam, her friend, replied defensively with a pointed look in her eye.

"He caught me once, Sam. Once," Sophie replied after rolling her eyes dramatically. "And how many other times have I slept in his class? He's never caught me all those times. Plus, that's why I sit at the back now."

"I don't like sitting at the back," Samantha Dobbs mummered as she slumped into her seat.
"Nobody asked you to join me at the back-"

"Shut up."

Sophie chuckled under her breath as her friend's annoyance. Sam got so easily riled up. Sophie knew for a fact that her best friend never liked sitting in the front even if she said otherwise. She never liked the attention. Sophie on the other hand was a different story. Sophie loved attention.

Her eyes were beginning to droop when Mrs Castor entered the classroom, her expression washed with devastation and shock. Sophie's eyes quickly shot up. Clearly something was wrong. As Mrs Castor talked to Mr Ranford in hushed whispers, Sophie watched, intrigued as much as all the other students who, too, had noticed the saddened face of the the school counselor, Mrs Castor, who was talking to Mr Ranford.

Mr Ranford face's transformed and a look of sympathy flashed across his face before he nodded at Mrs Castor who had come to the classroom to deliver whatever news that had made both the teachers to look devastated. Then Mr Ranford turned and looked towards the back of the class, visibly swallowing before he said, "Sophie, do you mind stepping out of the class for a minute? Mrs Castor would like to tell you something." A tensed beat of silence passed and he added, "I'm sorry, Sophie. You have my sincere condolences."

This statement gained curiosity and the sounds of several chairs scraping against the tiled floor was heard. Sophie loved attention but with people looking at her like that - with worry, pity and confusion - she hated it. This was not the type of attention she liked to have on herself. She loved attention that would glorify her. This attention was different - heavy and tense and so confused.

She stood up from her seat, a curious and confused look in her eyes, and felt a little disorientated with whatever the hell was going on. She followed Mrs Castor out of the classroom and once they were in the hallway, well out of earshot, Mrs Castor delivered the horrible news.

And just like that Sophie Carmella's life began to fall apart as she broke down into tears, falling to her knees as the will to support her body had vanished and her painful sobs echoed hauntingly throughout the hallway.