she's a filler but she's worth it xx

Chapter Twenty-Three

"So... That's it?" Grady questioned, standing by the door. 

Sophie nodded, a frown on her face as she looked behind her to see Keefe saying goodbye to Edaline. "Yep, we moved everything in. So, I guess I'm living there now." She wrapped her father into a hug and all but cried. "I'm going to miss it here."

"Don't cry about moving in with me just yet, Foster," Keefe joked walking over. 

She shoved him jokingly and said, "Well this is your fault." He rolled his eyes in response as she turned to Edaline and pulled her into a hug. "I'll miss you guys."

"Sophie, you know you're always welcome here to visit or whatever," Edaline replied, grinning. 

"And you know, if things don't work out, we'll leave the room ready for you to move back in," Grady joked before turning to Keefe. "You take care of her."

"I always have," he replied, grinning. 

"Yeah, we'll talk later about that," Grady replied, frowning. 

"You ready to go?" Keefe asked, turning to Sophie who nodded slightly. 

"Bye guys," she echoed to her parents once more as Keefe led her out of the room and in soon enough they entered Keefe's apartment. 

Their apartment. 

That was weird for her to think about. It wasn't just Keefe's place anymore. It was their place. 

Sophie thought it would be awkward when she first moved in but in seconds Keefe said, "I'm going to go take a shower, can you make dinner for tonight? I'll make breakfast in the morning and make it up for you." 

She nodded in response and after a moment she replied, "Yeah, is there anything in particular you want?"

"Just make whatever, I'll like it. Thanks Soph, you know I love you!" With that he quickly ran towards the bathroom to take a shower. She stood in the kitchen, pretty much confused about the situation, before shrugging and making dinner. Obviously Keefe didn't think it was so weird they were living together now, or maybe he was just hiding the awkwardness. 

Once dinner was ready and the two sat at the table, Sophie realized they had been strangely quiet. Finally after ten minutes of the only sounds being their chewing, Keefe finally let out a sigh. "Is this weird to you too?" 

Sophie let out a breath of relief. "Okay, so it's not only me?" She was relieved he was bringing it up. 

"No, it feels weird. Like before it always felt like it was serious, but now it's suddenly actually serious. Even after we got engaged it didn't feel this real." Keefe smiled at her. "I took the shower to avoid the awkward part of trying to introduce you to everything as if you have never been here before."

She nodded and stated, "Well, step one can maybe be showing me how the shower works? And I can appreciate a good tour even though I know the place. A refresher never hurt anyone." 

Keefe grinned back at her and after they finished their food he started from the front door and walked her around the apartment as if she hadn't seen it before, and Sophie made all the "oohs" and "ahhs" to go along with it. 

"Okay, so this is the guest bedroom, something you actually haven't seen," Keefe stated, a smile on his face. "But screw having guests, now it's your office. Decorate to your hearts content." He opened the door and Sophie looked around. 

"I've never had an office before, this is nice," she stated, looking around. It was a fairly average sized room, and there were empty shelves lining the walls and a desk in the middle of the room. She knew within a week, with the way her job was, the room would probably be filled. "Wow, I don't think I realized how much I needed one until this."

He grinned. "Now," they turned to the room right next to it, "I'll show you where the magic happens." He opened the door to what was his room, and it took Sophie a second to acknowledge it was now their room and she couldn't believe how weird it was to think that and could never imagine saying it out loud. 

"Wow, I can't believe I'm in Keefe Sencen's room." She pretended to fan herself. "All the girls at school are going to be so jealous." The room was large, but filled with things to make it seem smaller. She noticed in the corner was all his sketch books and other random things he probably used for his art on top of a desk, and on the wall above it was a picture of the two of them from their one year anniversary. "I didn't know you had that picture." 

"Yeah," he looked at the picture with a grin on his face. "That's from one of my favorite days."

"Mine too," she agreed. "I would tell you to make a copy for me, but I live here now." Her eyes widened at her own words. "Wow. I live here now." 

"Say that five times fast," Keefe joked before walking over to the closet. "There's only one in here, but it's pretty big so I cleared out a good half. We can work on putting all your clothes in tomorrow when you get off work." 

Sophie's mind flashed back to the boxes sitting around the house waiting to be unpacked and she was already making unpacking plans in her head. "We have a lot to get done this week," she told him, grinning. "I really regret telling my mom I was fine packing and unpacking without her."

"She could've been really useful," Keefe hummed in agreement. "But, unpacking just the two of us will be like a little couples thing. We could have dates everyday."

Sophie all but grinned. "It's weird because now that we're living together it's like everyday is a date."

"I guess you could say that," he replied. "Well, is there anything you want to work on now before we hit the hay?"

Sophie's mind flashed to all the toiletries waiting in a certain box. "Well, I guess it would make sense to unpack everything to go into the bathroom first."

Keefe nodded. "Do you want to put your stuff in my bathroom or the guest one?"

Sophie bit her lip, going over the two different options. "Well... to go with the flow maybe the same bathroom?" she phrased as a question. 

He shrugged. "Sounds good, I'll give you the full bathroom tour since we haven't really gotten there yet. Show me the box and I'll take it in." She pointed out the specific box of her toiletries and Keefe lifted it into the bathroom. 

"I could've just used telekinesis instead of you having to lift that," Sophie told him as he dropped it onto the floor. 

He rolled his eyes. "What's the fun in that?" He grabbed something off the sink and started to cut open the box, and once it was open Sophie pointed out all the different products they were going to use.

"Hey, what are you going to do with that talking mirror?" Keefe questioned once they finished up. 

"I usually keep her in my closet, but I can move her to my office if it makes you feel more comfortable since we're sharing one now," Sophie replied. 

"It's no problem, I was just going to move it now which is why I was asking." It felt weird referring to the mirror as an it considering in Sophie's head she didn't view Vertina as a it but rather a she. But technically Keefe wasn't wrong, even though it felt wrong saying it. 

"Actually, I think I really do want to keep Vertina in my office. It'll help if I get bored." Suddenly Sophie's eyes widened. "I almost forgot, I was going to pick up Iggy after all the boxes got here. I have to go get the little rascal so he doesn't think I just left him there." She reached over and gave Keefe a kiss on the cheek. "I'll be back home in a little bit." 

Home, she hummed in the back in her head as she took out her pathfinder. Weird. 

---

i'm rereading the whole series for the 23423 time (but for the first time all the way through since nightfall came out) and y'all are gonna get a treat in a future chapter just saying

also school ended and i'm sad but now i'm gonna be a bunny leader for a theatre camp so i'm excited + my 17th birthday is coming up soon + wow? me? i'm a senior in highschool? what? 

chapter questions:

1. how many times have you read the series? which book have you read the most?

2. which book is your fave? 

3. which book is your least fave?

(i've read the first the most but my faves are exile and neverseen, my least fave is everblaze tbh but i'm about to reread everblaze so we'll see if my opinion changed.)