Chapter 24: Hopeless

                                    

                                          
"You good there Foster?" Keefe asked, waving a hand in front of Sophie's face.
                          
Sophie shook her head to clear her daze. "Um yeah! Me, totally! Why wouldn't I be?" Sophie said, looking down.
                          
Sophie scraped her pasta with her fork, like she had been during the whole lunch period. Everyone was talking and no one seemed to notice that Sophie wasn't herself. After everything that had happened two days ago, Sophie couldn't seem to be happy. All she was thinking about was worrying for Edaline and trying to solve the case. The only thing that slightly distracted Sophie today was during Chemistry class. Lady Galvin had been demonstrating a lab to the class, but when she was pouring a hot liquid in a test tube, she accidentally dropped the test tube and it shattered everywhere. It was pretty hysterical and everyone already knew about it. Lady Galvin was so embarrassed, that she left school for the day. As funny as it was, it didn't seem like Lady Galvin to make that kind of accident. She was always precise and neat. 
                          
"Um you realize that you can't lie to Keefe Sencen," Keefe said with a raised eyebrow.
                          
"I'm not lying!" Sophie said a bit too quickly. "I'm just...tired," which was the partial truth.
                          
"Yeah, tell that to your poor eye lashes that are being ripped off from your eyelids," Keefe said, amused. Sophie looked down to see several eyelashes scattered on the table. 
                          
Embarrassed, Sophie quickly brushed them off. 
                          
Keefe snickered. "Stop it! It's just a habit," Sophie snapped.
                          
"You mean a nervous one?" Keefe asked. When Sophie didn't reply he said, "c'mon Foster! Tell me what's up, please?" He begged with puppy eyes.
                          
When she looked into those ice blue eyes, she knew she just couldn't resist. "Ugh, fine! Come to my house after school," Sophie said.
                          
"It's a date Foster!" Keefe said out loud.
                          
"No it's not!" Sophie hissed as the rest of their friends looked over. Sophie knew that her face was as red as an apple.
                          
Sophie looked down to hide her cheeks, but when she did that, she noticed that under the table there were two hands that were linked. Sophie looked up to see that Fitz and Linh were holding hands under the table.
                          
What? Did they seriously move that fast?
                          
Fitz caught her looking and Sophie quickly looked away to hide her embarrassment. 
                          
It's not like Sophie cared. It was their business.
                          
But Sophie couldn't help but wonder if they were already planning a date.
                          
Before Sophie knew it, the bell rang signally the end of lunch. Sophie quickly ran out of the lunchroom as fast as she could. 
                          
Sophie went to her locker and someone tapped her on her shoulder. It was Keefe.
                          
"Um one last thing Foster. I um...can't make it right away after school. I'll probably come around after you have dinner."
                          
"Oh, that should be fine. Is there something you have to do?" Sophie asked.
                          
"No! Nothing much...just um...stuff," Keefe said, rubbing the back of his neck.
                          
Sophie noticed lately that that was a nervous habit Keefe had. "Okay..." Sophie said, wondering why Keefe looked a bit suspicious.
                          
"Well, see you later then!" Keefe called, flashing her a wink as he skipped off.
                          
Sophie instantly blushed and felt her heart beat fast. 
                          
Sophie! It was just a wink, relax!
                          
Sophie snapped out of it. She had no idea what any of that meant whenever her heart skipped or her stomach flipped, but she didn't like it. Sophie tried not to think about it as she skipped off to her next class.