SOPHIA

Damon would be here any minute now. We decided that he'd come over at six o'clock, giving him time to have dinner first.

As I waited for him my mind went back to Environmental Awareness class today. Damon was in class early, and once I got there he decided to strike up a conversation with me. I couldn't even begin to imagine what possessed him to do that.

But the really confusing part was that I actually enjoyed talking to him. Way more than I should've.

And then, to make the whole thing even stranger, I invited Damon over. For our tree project of course, but also because I'd be home alone for the night. The fear of being all by myself and him showing up overpowered my hatred for Damon. That was the only reason I'd ever willingly ask Damon to come over.

Earlier this morning I asked Garrett to sleep over but his family was visiting for the week so he couldn't. So I had no choice but to invite Damon over, even if he was only staying for a little while. At least I wouldn't be alone the whole evening.

Three loud knocks at the front door brought me out of my thoughts and back to reality.

I rushed to the door and opened it to reveal a smiling Damon.

"I think I left my camera here last time." Was his greeting words.

"Well hello to you too." I said sarcastically, moving aside to let him in.

He took a quick look around before facing me. "Are you alone?" He asked.

"Yeah, until tomorrow." I answered uneasily. I tried to hide the fear in my voice but failed miserably.

"You don't like staying home alone?" He asked, clearly catching on.

"Uh, no. Not really." I told him truthfully, shaking my head and internally face palming for telling him one of my greatest weaknesses.

"Me too." He said, giving me a reassuring smile.

I looked up into his eyes to see that he was being serious, not teasing me like I though he would. I was almost positive he'd make fun of me for being such a baby.

"Anyway, we should start recording." I suggested, turning on my heels and making my way upstairs, effectively changing the subject.

Once we were in my room I took out his camera and gave it to him to set up. I was too lazy to do it myself.

He set it up silently as I filled up a watering can and placed Antonio in the sun by my window.

"Okay, I'll nod when I want you to start." Damon told me.

I watched him for the signal, and when he nodded I did my daily routine for Antonio.

Once I was done I flopped down onto my bed.

"What, no talking to the tree today?" He teased.

"Not this time." I mumbled.

He shut off his camera and placed it on the table beside my bed before taking a seat next to me.

"Wanna play a game?" He suddenly asked, a glimmer of childish excitement sparking in his eyes.

"What do you have in mind?" I asked, getting a little excited myself.

"Never have I ever." He practically sang.

I scrunched my nose in confusion, "Isn't that a drinking game?"

"Yeah, but it doesn't have to be. We can use food or juice." He suggested.

"Okay." I agreed.

We made our way downstairs and into the kitchen where I pulled out Hershey Kisses for us to use in the game.

"I'm guessing you know the rules, say something that you've never done and if the other person has done it then they, in our case, eat a chocolate." Damon clarified to make sure we were on the same page with the game.

I nodded in understanding and the game started.

"Never have I ever been kicked out of a store." Damon started.

I took a chocolate and ate it.

He gave me a quizzical look so I explained, "Garrett and I were at the mall, in the dollar store, and we found these cool air horns, so we started blowing them to scare the crap out of people. After a while security was called and we were kicked out."

He chuckled "Good one."

I smiled at the memory.

"Never have I ever pole danced." I took my turn.

Shockingly, Damon snatched a Kiss and popped it in his mouth.

"You have explain this one." I practically begged.

"Okay so me and some of the jocks were in one of their older sister's basement and we were really bored. So we started playing truth or dare.

"When it was my turn I picked dare and they dared me to pole dance on their sisters pole, so I did it." He explained, his cheeks turning the slightest shade of pink.

I laughed and laughed just picturing Damon spinning out of control on a pole.

"Anyway, never have I ever went skinny dipping." Damon said, changing the topic.

I smirked at him and took a Kiss from the middle, tossing it into my mouth.

"Okay this, I gotta hear." Damon muttered, more to himself than to me.

"Last summer I was hanging out with Garrett and some of his friends, we were all drinking, and at midnight we were all just drunk enough to come up with the idea to skinny dip. I don't really remember much from that night but I know we did that." I told him.

"Okay, your turn." Damon said, amusement dripping from his voice.

"Never have I ever had phone sex." I said.

He stared at me wide eyed, like a deer caught in the headlights, and slowly reached forward for a chocolate.

"Okay ew, I don't even want to hear about that one." I said, my face scrunching up in disgust.

"Good choice. Anyway, never have I ever had sex with a guy."

Now it was my turn to stare at him, wide eyed.

And suddenly everything around me faded away.

"You filthy whore! You'll let other guys have their way with you but not me, the man you love?" He screamed as he took a fistful of my hair and threw me to the cement floor in his basement.

I'd been trapped down here for about a month now, so the floors were no longer a faded grey, but instead a dark red from all the blood I'd lost.

I cowered away from him as he loomed above me, ready to beat me some more.

"Am I not good enough for you? Is that it?" He asked, deathly quiet and calm, but I could see the rage in his black eyes.

I'd tried to tell him time and time again that I didn't cheat on him but he wouldn't listen.

"Well you know what? I'm not gonna wait any longer to have you, I've waited long enough and you've been ungrateful so I'll punish you for it." He told me.

I didn't dare say a word as he forced himself on me, ripping off his clothes and groping me.

I just laid there stiffly, silent tears streaming down my face.

Then he tore off my clothes and robbed me of the one thing I had left.

"Sophia?" Someone called.

"Sophia, earth to Sophia." They called again, sounding closer this time.

I heard a snapping sound that took me out of my flashback and back to reality.

"Hey, are you okay, you spaced out and looked pretty scared." Damon asked, concern lacing his voice.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I mumbled. I felt so on edge and jumpy after that flashback. Now more than ever, I didn't want to be home alone for the night.

Even if Damon wasn't sleeping over, I could always find things to do to make him stay longer.

"Uh, you said you'd play an instrument for me sometime, wanna do that now?" I asked hopefully.

"Sure, but do you have any?" He replied.

I nodded, "Yeah, follow me."

We walked upstairs to my special room that all my instruments were in.

"Woah." Damon whispered to himself.

I smiled and waved a hand around the room, "Pick what you want to play."

He sat down at my keyboard and cracked his knuckles. Then he placed his hands on the keys and started to play.

I immediately recognize what he was playing as flight of the bumblebee. I just mastered that one myself, it was a difficult piece, you needed to move your fingers at an inhuman speed to play it properly.

Once he was done that song he started playing mainstream songs I recognized from the radio.

Once he was done playing through some different songs he turned to face me.

"Do you play?" He asked.

I nodded my head and sat down on the bench beside him. I started playing Rivers Flows In You, forgetting for a moment that he was beside me. When I played everything else around me faded away and I was secured in a bubble of comfort and safety.

He clapped when I finished the song and looked at me with a strange expression that I couldn't place.

"You're really talented, why aren't you in any music clubs at school?" He asked.

"I could be asking you that same thing. But to answer your question; I like having something that's mine, that I don't have to share with the rest of the school." I told him.

He nodded in understanding, "The people at our school really are nosey, they always know everything about us, so having something they don't know about makes it all the more special."

"Exactly." I agreed.

"Do you sing too?" He asked after a short moment of silence.

"Not really." I told him. I do sing, just not for people.

"I bet you're really good." He bumped my shoulder with his.

I shook my head, "I don't sing for people."

There was a brief moment of silence, then suddenly Damon's whole face brightened like he had a brilliant idea.

"How about I play piano, and we both sing together." He suggests.

I hesitated, what if I messed up and he made fun of me? Or what if he was horrible and I had to keep myself from laughing at him? I didn't want him to feel embarrassed.

Before I had the chance to say no Damon started playing the starting chords to a familiar song.

A few seconds of just piano passed before it was time to jump into the lyrics. We both began singing and quickly figured out how to harmonize our voices to fit each other and the song.

It only took one verse before we had everything figured out, and the rest of the song sounded perfect.

I was completely surprised at how amazing Damon's voice was, and how it meshed with mine so well. The smooth, low rasp of his voice was a stunning compliment to my light melodic one.

As the song ended he looked over at me and smiled, lifting his hands off the piano after the last notes.

"You have a beautiful voice." He complimented, sincerity burning with the blue in his eyes.

"So do you." I complimented back.

We sat there, smiling at each other like fools, then Damon's face went serious.

My smile dropped in confusion at Damon's sudden mood shift.

I look into his eyes as they traveled down my face and landed on my lips.

My lips parted ever so slightly as I took a sharp, silent, intake of breath.

My eyes had a mind of their own and found their way to Damon's mouth too. I never noticed how nice and full his lips were, they just look so soft and kissable.

My eyes quickly met his again, still staring intently at my lips.

Then, slowly, his eyes closed and he started inching closer to me.

I froze, staring at him wide eyes as he came closer and closer.

Why wasn't I moving? I had a boyfriend! I had to stop this!

But I didn't want to. Some small, messed up part of me wanted Damon to kiss me.

Now his lips were only millimetres from mine, and I was just about to lean in the rest of they way so our lips would finally meet, when my phone started ringing.

We both jumped away from each other, our cheeks rosy red from embarrassment at what just almost happened.

Damon, my sworn enemy, and I, were about to kiss.

But I didn't have time to freak out about it because my phone was still obnoxiously going off from inside my back pocket.

I pulled it out and answered it without checking the caller ID.

"Hello?"

"Hey babe." Dylan greeted.

"What's up?" I asked causally, like I hadn't just almost cheated on him.

"Nothing, I just wanted to hear your voice." He told me.

I would've been flattered if I didn't feel so guilty. And I also had the sinking suspicion that his reasoning wasn't truthful.

"That's cool." I said awkwardly, not knowing how to reply to what he said.

"Yeah." He agreed.

"Well, I was just heading to bed so I'll see you tomorrow." I said, trying to end the phone call.

"Okay, see ya later babe." He said and hung up.

I let out a sigh and turned to face Damon.

He was looking at me curiously, but not meeting my eyes.

"Dylan." I said, so he wouldn't have to wonder who called anymore, I could see it in his eyes the he wanted to know.

"So what's your favourite movie?" I blurted, not being able to take the awkward silence that fell over us.

He gave me an amuse smile and answered "The blind side."

"I love that movie!" I exclaimed excitedly.

I wasn't surprised that his favourite movie was a sports one, but it was also a really touching story which I enjoyed about it.

"Wanna watch it?" I asked, practically bouncing in excitement.

He nodded, chuckling at my sudden mood change.

We walked back downstairs and Damon flopped down on the couch while I set up the movie.

Once it was playing I sat down beside him and we watched in silence.

Half way through the movie I checked them time and was shocked to see that it was almost eleven o'clock.

This was by far the longest Damon and I had ever been in each other's presence without arguing. And I was actually enjoying myself. Who would've thought that was possible?

I looked over at Damon to tell him how late it was, but he was sleeping. When did that happen?

Then an idea hit me. Since Damon was asleep and it was so late, I'd just let him sleep here tonight, that way he wouldn't have to wake up and I wouldn't have to be home alone.

I went to the closet and grabbed a pillow and blanket, then went back to the living room and placed Damon's head on the pillow and pulled the blanket over him.

Feeling accomplished that I don't wake him up, I happily walked upstairs and went to bed.

Today had been very strange, in the best way possible, and now I could go to sleep easily tonight. All because of Damon.