SOPHIA

That ironic moment when you're trying to avoid someone and you end up bumping into them, literally.

As soon as I got home from the party I made it my mission to avoid Damon. I even kept my bedroom window and curtains closed to make sure I didn't see him.

I was really shaken up over the fact that I didn't mind his company when he was being nice to me. The realization absolutely terrified me. So my plan was to avoid him as much as possible until I was sure his presence would only disgust me again.

Unfortunately my plan failed when I decided to take a walk and ended up being plowed over by a very shirtless Damon. Those abs definitely didn't help me feel disgusted by him. I couldn't even bring myself to be rude to him, but I came up with a good excuse for that to draw away his suspicion.

I shook my head to get Damon's shirtless chest out of my mind. I shouldn't be thinking about him, all my thoughts should've been about Dylan. I was currently sitting in a booth at an ice cream parlour, waiting for Dylan to show up so we could talk about what happened last night.

"Fia, you're here." I heard from directly beside me.

So he did decide to show up. A part of me thought he'd be too ashamed to show up.

"Of course I'm here, I'm the one who asked you to come." I pointed out. Apparently he wasn't the smartest guy in the world.

"Right, so anyway what did you want to talk about?" He asked as he slid into the seat across the table from me.

Seriously? He was playing dumb? He forced himself on me last night and he didn't know why I wanted to talk to him?

My blood boiled and anger pulsed in my veins, but I pushed it away.

I will not get mad, I will not get mad.

I took a deep breath before replying "I wanted to talk to you about what happened at the party."

It was like a lightbulb went on above his head as realization took over his features.

"Look, I'm really sorry about that, I wasn't thinking and I was drunk." He quickly blurted out, reaching out to grab my hand, but I put my hands under the table before he could reach.

"I know, and I accept your apology. I just want to make it clear to you that I'm not gonna rush into things, and this isn't going to work if you're not willing to wait." I explained.

I thought about this all night when I should've been sleeping. People do stupid things when they're intoxicated. As long as Dylan realizes what he did was wrong, and won't do it again, it was only fair to give him a second chance. It wasn't even completely his fault, I was the one that went into a bedroom with him while he was drunk. I couldn't punish him for something that I had a part in.

"I totally understand and I'll wait as long as you want me to." He told me, stretching his hand out towards me, and this time I put my hand in his.

"Good." Was my only response.

I was glad he was being so cooperative. If he had said he wasn't willing to wait I would've broken up with him right then and there. I didn't want to lose Dylan, he's always meant so much to me, but I couldn't be with someone that didn't respect my boundaries.

"Now that that's over with, do you want to go out with me tomorrow night?" He asked, changing the subject.

"Yeah, I'd like that." I agreed, a smile tugging at my lips. I felt so relieved that we moved past the unpleasantness of last night.

"Cool." He muttered, looking around awkwardly.

Only now did I notice that we never ordered anything. We probably looked pretty strange to everyone else.

"I should get going, I need to do some homework." I broke the uncomfortable silence that suddenly fell over us.

He nodded but didn't say a word as we both got up and left.

Once we were outside I immediately went to my car and drove away without so much as a goodbye. Things felt really weird between us and I had a sinking feeling that it wouldn't get between anytime soon. 

- - - - - -

I had just gotten to my bedroom after getting back from the ice cream parlour when there was a knock at the front door. I wasn't in the mood to deal with more people already but I was the only one home so I begrudgingly dragged myself downstairs.

"Sophia Mackenzie at your service." I mumbled sarcastically to whomever was at the door as I swung it open.

"At my service? That sounds fun." A voice I definitely didn't expect said just as sarcastically as I had.

My eyes instantly snapped up to him. Damon.

"What are you doing here?" I asked curiously. I was trying to stay away from him and here he was at my door.

"Nice to see you too." He said with an eye roll, before getting to the point. "I came to see if you wanted to do some video recording for our tree project."

That was a good reason, although we could've planed it out in advance instead of showing up unannounced.

"Um, sure I guess, Antonio is in my room so follow me." I replied, trying to ignore the fact that we were still acting civil towards each other and I didn't have the urge to insult him.

I turned on my heals and started on the short journey to my room with Damon in tow.

I paused for a moment at my bedroom door, a thought hitting me.

Damon was about to enter my room. He would be the first straight boy to ever step foot into my fortress, other than family members.

Who would have thought?

Taking a deep breath, I walked over to Antonio who was seated beside my window.

I was aware of Damon's presence beside me but I still didn't look at him. It felt weird to have him so close to me.

"Let's get started." Damon spoke up, breaking the awkward silence. I seemed to be having a lot of awkward moments today.

I nodded in agreement.

"So how are we gonna do this?" He asked after setting up his amazing DSLR camera. I would die to have a camera that good.

"Um, I guess I'll just water him, make sure he's in the sun and talk to him a bit." I replied, shrugging. I had absolutely no idea what Mr. Willis wanted us to record. But he did say that it would be proof that we were actually taking care of our tree so I guess we just had to film ourselves doing exactly that.

Once I was ready Damon pressed the record button and I did my regular routine with Antonio. First put him in the sun, then water him and trim off his dead leaves, and finally talk to him.

"So Antonio, how are you liking the weather?" I asked awkwardly, it was uncomfortable talking to a tree in front of Damon.

I looked over to see him holding in his laughter, his eyes dancing with amusement.

I rolled my eyes and brought my attention back to the task at hand.

"So what's your favourite colour?" I asked, looking at the tree with fake interest.

I paused for a couple seconds, letting Antonio 'answer'.

"Green? Oh cool, mines gold." I 'replied', I was basically having a conversation with myself.

"What's your favourite pass time?" I questioned, it felt like I was playing 21 questions with a wall.

"Oh sunbathing? I should've known that, it's pretty obvious."

This time when I was done speaking Damon burst out laughing. Stomach clutching, roll on the floor laughing.

"Shut up!" I exclaimed.

"Sun bathing, really?" He asked once his laughter was reduced to only chuckles every now and then.

"Well what else does a tree do?" I asked, placing a hand on my hip.

"Photosynthesis." He stated, completely serious.

I let out an annoyed huff of air, for once he outsmarted me.

"Well if you think you can do so much better, why don't you talk to him." I snapped. If I had to make a fool out of myself so did he.

"Okay." He agreed with a simple shrug, making his way over to the tree.

Now it was my turn to watch him embarrass himself while I sat back and relaxed.

"Antonio, got a crush on any tree-etts nearby?" Was Damon's first question.

"Oh really? You're right, that cherry blossom outside the window is pretty sexy." Damon agreed with Antonio's silent reply.

Could this guy get any more ridiculous?

"Do I have a crush on anyone?" Damon suddenly asked, pointing to himself in fake surprise.

He waited a second before he spoke again "I think I'll save this conversation for when you're at my house."

"Okay, I think we're done for today." I interjected, turning off the camera. That was getting too weird.

Damon looked over at me in dramatic disappointment.

"We were having a nice conversation over here." He whined, pouting out his lip.

The expression was seriously adorable. He looked like a child stubborn child. For once in his life Damon actually looked innocent and cute instead of mean and ugly.

"Earth to Sophia." He called, breaking me out of my thoughts.

"What?" I asked, confused. I knew I was lost in thought but it couldn't have been for more than a few seconds.

"You've been staring at me like a creep for the past ten minutes." He exaggerated, a thoughtful expression on his face.

I scoffed "Yeah right, like I would ever look at you for that long."

"Whatever helps you sleep at night." He said dismissively.

I rolled my eyes in annoyance and crossed my arms over my chest.

"I wasn't looking at you." I stated stubbornly. I don't know why I couldn't just drop it, but I felt like I had to convince him that I wasn't staring.

Or maybe I had to convince myself.

"Whatever Sophia." He replied, waving his hand trying to dismiss the conversation again.

Not going to happen.

"You're so full of yourself. You think every girl wants you and that you can have any girl. Well news flash, that doesn't happen in the real world. You can't always have what you want and every girl doesn't like you, especially not me." I ranted.

He looked at me in shock for a second before a cocky smirk pulled up his lips and his eyes narrowed.

"It sounds like someone's in denial. You know the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem."

This was why I hated him.

"My problem is you! Now get out of my house!" I yelled. I couldn't stand to look at his stupid face anymore.

"Gladly." He shot back, then proceeded to stomp out my room and downstairs.

The front door slamming shut a few seconds later informed me that he was gone.

I flopped onto my bed angrily, stupid Damon just had to accuse me of staring at him. I was staring off into space, even if my eyes were in his direction, that didn't mean I was looking at him. He was so frustratingly conceded.

I suddenly thought about how girls in movies scream into their pillows to let out their frustration, so I thought I'd give that a try.

I took a deep breath in, preparing to let out the best scream I could muster up, and stuffed my face into the pillow.

Then I screamed.

I screamed, and screamed until I couldn't scream anymore. And it felt good.

Even with a soar throat and hoarse voice, I felt calm and at peace.

I would definitely do that again.