-Sophie was very excited. No, she usually wasn't one for fancy dresses, or dresses in general, but today she was going out with her girlfriends to go pick out dresses for the the upcoming Winnowing Galas: Biana's and her own. After they went out, Biana had promised to come over and they would spend the evening planning her Gala with their mothers. Biana's was already planned out, and all she needed to do was get a dress. Sophie envied her for that, she always got things done so quickly, so efficiently, so EASILY.

Currently, she was home alone, deep in a telepathic conversation with her cognate about how nervous she was, what kind of dress she had in mind, and what color it was going to be, so Fitz could get a matching tie, just like in the human world. He claimed that the elves had created that tradition, but Sophie wasn't so sure.

"But teal's your best color, you should wear a teal tie." argued Sophie.

"Yeah, but you'll be wearing red, and it's your Gala. Wear the color you want, it's all about you." Fitz assured her gently.

"I know, but-" the leap master whirred to life. "Someone's here, I think it's Biana. I'll talk to you later."

"Man she must have picked up Marella quick- I think. I think she meant to grab her first... I didn't even know that she left yet. Oh, by the way, I convinced mom to let me tag along tonight to help plan." Sophie could almost feel him smile, which made her smile.

"Really? I thought you hated planning." She raised her eyebrow teasingly, even though he wasn't even there. She would have found it weird if she didn't know that Fitz probably saw that somehow. They just knew one another too well.

"I sort of-kind of lied about the planning part."

She giggled, "Oh yeah? So what do you plan to do instead?"

"Probably just sit, offer a few ideas, and telepathically distract you."

"Sounds fun. I better go see who it is. See you later."

"Later."

Sophie frowned, thinking it was odd that she didn't hear her friends chatting up a storm, and by that, she meant Biana talking, and Marella keeping a distance, but acting civil. She didn't understand why Marella treated Biana that way. She was walking down the steps when she saw that it wasn't them. It was Keefe.
He was standing next to the leapmaster, examining his hands, which were shaking. His breathing was uneven, and there was a certain fear in his eyes that made her heart pinch.

"Keefe? What's the matter?" Frowning, she rushed to his side, placing her hand on his upper arm gently, "Is everything okay?"

"Fine, just fine-I'm good, really, I just-I-" He didn't look at her as he stumbled on his words. "I just need to tell you something.

"Did he know about the spy?" Sophie thought, suddenly more scared than she had been before. Aloud, she asked, "Okay, what is it?"

"Sophie- I- I love you." The words rang in the air for a moment after they left his mouth, she took a step back so he would feel her emotions less, being a strong empath and all. "I've loved you for the longest time, probably since we got closer a few years ago, and I- I can't stop thinking about you. I try not to, because I'm afraid you don't feel the same way, but yet..." His voice started to crack with emotion. "I can't help it. You're just so... so..." He looked up at her, tears swirling in his eyes next to hope, and she took another step back, "Incredible. So please, say you love me too. Tell me that you don't love him."

Sophie was shocked. She didn't want to hurt him, but Fitz's face flashed through her mind every time she even thought about lying to Keefe. Next came Biana's face, poor, sweet Biana, who loved Keefe, but wasn't loved by him in return. He needed to move on, and even though she hated the idea of hurting her friend, she had to do it. She decided she had to break his heart, for all of them. It would all work out eventually. "Who?" Her voice trembled softly as she took another step back, "who do you think I love?"

"Fitz," Keefe replied breathlessly, his eyes wide, and the tears that were once in his eyes were streaming down his cheeks. He took a step closer. "You love him, don't you?" His face changed from hopeful, to devestated. "It's not me is it? It's him, it's him."

"Keefe, I'm so sorry-" she started, "please, I don't want this to effect our friendship."

"Friendship?" He spat, "I just confessed my love for you before I ran out of time, and you're talking about our friendship?"

"I'm so sorry, I never wanted to hurt you," she said again. "What do you mean when you said you're running out of time?"

He evaded her question, "You never wanted to hurt me? All you've done is hurt me! Why do you think I'm like this, falling apart at your feet, while Biana picks up the pieces-"
"Wait- Biana's been helping you?" Sophie felt his words hit her like a brick. He had been talking about how he felt about her to Biana, who liked him. He knew that. He had to know that. He hurt her, and to her knowledge, Biana hadn't gone to anyone for help... That meant she was harboring all that heart break, while helping Keefe.

"Yeah, why is that so wrong?" Keefe's voice started to raise angrily.

"She... she..."

"Likes me? I know," he rain his hands through his prized hair.

"How could you," she whispered with horror. "How could you do that to her? Do you know how much you must have hurt her?"

"She promised that she wasn't-"

"She lied! I know she did. Keefe, she's so sensitive, how could you break her heart like that?"

"Well how was I suppose to know?" He moved forward as they continued to argue, and she moved back.

"Common knowledge Keefe! For an empath, you really don't think about other people's feelings." Sophie's fists clenched the hem of her skirt.

"Me? I don't think about other people's feelings? What about you, you literally just broke my heart!"

"Yes, I did, I had to, but you broke Biana's heart to try and fix your own. You didn't care about how she felt the entire time, you just talked about your feelings for her best friend!" Sophie felt so betrayed. He had done exactly what she had just said, broken Biana's heart repeatedly to try and make his whole again, only to try and give it to Sophie.

"Well, it's her fault for helping me, she didn't have to!" He argued, yelling at the top of his lungs now.

"She's too good of a person for that, she loves you too much for that!"

"Are you saying I'm not a good person?" challenged Keefe quietly. Sophie knew that he was purposefully putting her in a tight spot.

"No, you're just-" she huffed in exhasperation, her face red from arguing. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "No one is as good hearted as Biana."

Keefe took a few steps closer, close enough so she could feel his breath on her cheeks. She took a step back, only to hit the wall.  She looked around, nervous. He gently grabbed her chin, and moved her face up to look at him. Her heart started racing, and she just wanted to get out from his hold. She hated the fact that she was scared of his friend.

"What am I just, Sophie?"

"NO!" She screamed, pushing him off by shoving her fear at him. It send him sliding back against the leap master, which was halfway across the room. Panting, she stared at him in horror at what she had done, at what he had almost done. He scrambled up onto the platform, only to run into Biana, who was flabbergasted.

"What's going on?" When she saw Sophie, she moved around Keefe, totally ignoring him, and pulled her into her arms. They watched as Keefe light leaped away. When he was gone, Sophie was sobbing, holding Biana tightly, explaining what had happened and how sorry she was. Biana only stroked her hair with a sad smile on her face. "It's okay Sophie, I'm fine, really. I'm sorry he did that to you, I never thought he could be like that. I was silly for liking him anyways." That didn't comfort Sophie, but she only nodded, not knowing what else to say. "How about we post pone the shopping trip for next weekend? I'll message Linh and Marella."

She shook her head no, "No, I'll clean myself up, and then we can go."

"Are you sure?" Biana asked, frowning, "It's no big deal."

"I know, but afterwords, I just need to see..." she trailed off, feeling guilty for saying that she needed to see Fitz. Biana was a great help and a wonderful person, but Sophie really just needed her cognate.

"Fitz? That's cool!" Biana smiled brightly, no hint of sadness in her disposition.

"I'm sorry, I don't mean to make you feel bad, because you're really helping me a lot, and I'm really greatful-"

"But you need to see Fitz after this is all over." Biana smiled, "It's okay, I get it. No hard feelings. You get help from the people who help you best, the people you're closest to, and who could be closer than a cognate? Besides, sometimes, even if you're friends with someone, that doesn't always mean that you click on that philisophical and/or deep rooted emotional problem based area of the world, which is also okay. It's not your fault at all, don't worry."

Sophie hugged her tighter, "thank you, I needed that." She pulled away, wiping her eyes. "I better go clean up my face, you should probably go change your shirt, it's all wet now. You can wear one of Jolie's shirts or dresses if you want, I know those are more your style."

Biana gasped, "are you serious? Thank you! Let's go!" Sophie laughed as she was dragged upstairs, feeling a lot better now that Biana was here. She would need to see Fitz later for sure, but with Biana here, she knew that she could still go out with her girl friends and have a good time without the weight of what had just happened holding her down.