I sighed loudly, spread-eagled on the dilapidated couch. I stared up at the ceiling, my muscles aching. Moving felt like an insurmountable task. It was nearly Friday, which meant I was coming up on two weeks of working (yes actually working) at KVE. It was insane how quickly time was passing. I'd thought it would have dragged on, torturously slow, my stay in this wretched place feeling like eternity, but it turned out to be the exact opposite. As much as I'd been opposed the idea of the job, I had to admit that I'd been having some fun this week. I absolutely adored Kai. He was quiet at first, but he had this sort of hidden wit that popped out so unexpectedly. He was just such a calming presence, and I'd enjoyed working with him. Stacey...well Stacey was okay, I guess.

I don't know. Maybe it was just me, but I found her a little annoying. Maybe it was the whole Utah bleached blonde straight end curl thing, which made me feel bad because that was such a stereotype and I was probably being a bad feminist. To be honest, I really didn't know that much about her. Other than the fact that the only time she talked to me was to ask about Jake. Now that was really annoying. She was always hanging around him, batting her eyelashes and only saying hi to him even when I was there too. She flirted with him constantly, and he acted totally oblivious which I thought was stupid because you'd have to be to not notice her twirling her Utah curls around her finger— okay, maybe I was being unfair. I don't why she got on my nerves so much, she just— bugged me.

Maia and Jake were getting along swimmingly as well. Though, such a chaotic duo, as expected. If both of them weren't covered in a heap of mud and/or soaked to the bone something was wrong, and they were by far the loudest, most energetic tour guides of the whole bunch.

I was completely exhausted. So when Kai and Maia asked us to come with them into town, I told Jake to go on without me. Secretly, I was also hoping Abby would be at the house, and maybe we could finally have some sister time. I felt like I hadn't seen her at all since we'd arrived, which was crazy because it was her house. Alas, when Jake dropped me off, I found the door unlocked and the house empty. Apart from Stevie, of course, who was curled up in the empty fruit bowl on the counter.

I sighed again, scrolling absentmindedly through my phone. I paused on a picture that Maia had tagged me in on Instagram the other day. The caption read: sherlock's stupid sophia smile. It was a candid of me and Jake at the beach. I was mid laugh and my hair looked positively insane, but— I found I really didn't mind. Jake's eyes were on me, a soft sort of smile on his face that made my stomach twist. I liked and commented something short, exiting the app before I could think too hard about that look on Jake's face.

As if I'd summoned him, my phone started blasting "Womanizer", which Jake had adamantly insisted I make his ringtone. His profile picture flashed across the screen, the one he'd taken when we'd gotten delayed. I couldn't believe how much had happened since then. It felt like a lifetime ago.

"What do you want?" I tapped accept.

"No hello, Randall?" said Jake, in mock offense. "What happened to common courtesies?"

I rolled my eyes. He was such a dork. "Hello, Jake," I replied, "what do you want?"

"To be allowed entrance into the house," he told me. And before I could ask what he meant, I heard a distinct rapping on the front door. "Let me in."

"No please?" I clucked my tongue in disappointment, already walking down the hall. Ow. My legs. "What happened to common courtesies?"

"Let me in, please."

"Well since you asked so nicely."

"Sophia!"

I opened the door with a flourish, one hand on my hip, the other still holding the phone to my ear. "What?" I lifted an innocent shoulder.

"You—"

Jake opened his mouth to retort, but I held up a finger, "One sec. I'm still on the phone." I smiled, shaking my head as I talked into the device, "You're so right Jake, common courtesy really is disappearing."

"You little smartass," Jake snatched the phone out my hand faster than I could blink, holding it several inches beyond my grasp. He had a totally unfair advantage.

"Jake!" I shrieked, jumping for it. It was no use. He was at least three quarters of a foot taller than me. "Give it back!"

He waved it teasingly over my head, eyes bright with mischief. "Say please," sang Jake, grinning. I glared at him with as much ferocity as I could muster, cheeks pink from the effort of trying to reach my phone. He grinned even harder, if that was possible, and relented. "I concede," he said, ceremoniously handing the phone back to me. Then Jake winked, "You know I'm useless against your scary eyes."

That comment was enough to make me blush right down to the tips of my toes. Thankfully, a text popped up that wiped the cheesy shy schoolgirl smile right off of my face.

Abs <3: working late again :(

Abs <3: dw about getting dinner for me ill get some after work

"What's wrong?" Immediately Jake's tone shifted. I felt a hand on my shoulder. When I looked up, I saw his eyes filled with concern.

I shut my phone off, forcing a smile, "Nothing." My fingers went to my necklace, fiddling with the chain.

"Liar," Jake raised his eyebrows. Sometimes I really hated how well he could read body language. I'd gotten a lot more conscious of my tells, but somehow he still managed to know with uncanny accuracy what I was thinking. "What did Abby say?"

"She won't be here for dinner," I let out in a breath, gnawing on my lip. There was no point in pretending it didn't bother me. He'd know anyways. "Again."

"Working?" I nodded glumly in response, sinking down onto the couch. Jacob took the spot beside me, "Sorry, Randall."

"It's okay." It wasn't though. Jake knew that. I missed my sister. I'd missed her since she'd left me when I was a freshman. I'd missed her for four years, and now we were finally in the same place and I was still missing her. And, well— it sort of felt like she was purposefully avoiding me. "I just don't understand how a yoga instructor ever needs to 'work late'," I blurted out, a little more angrily than I'd wanted. "I know that's not fair but—" I sighed, "I don't know. It's whatever."

"Sophia," Jake murmured, his hand on my knee for a moment so brief I'd wondered if I'd imagined the goosebumps. "It's totally fair. And it's definitely not whatever." I think I was silent for a minute too long, because Jake felt compelled to add, in a babbling, awkward, adorable sort of way, "I— I know you don't like— need my validation or anything. I wasn't—That's not— I wasn't trying to—"

"Jake," I laughed, cutting him off by pressing my palm over his mouth before he could wind himself into a nervous tizzy. "It was sweet." His eyes softened, and I felt his lips turn up into a smile under my fingertips. This was the moment where I wholly regretted the measure I took to shut him up, and flushed a deep pink. Well, there was no backtracking now. My hand was there, and the words had been said, and his skin was criminally soft.

It reminded me of the other day when he'd been sunburned. It was bad. He looked a bit like that character from Inside out, Anger. Reagan burned like that too, so I'd known what to do. It wasn't as if it was a complete hardship for me either. The feeling of his broad, muscled back, and the points of his shoulder blades under my hands spurred the same flutter in my stomach and pink cheeks as feeling his lips beneath them.

He was sweet, and he was here. Without him, I realized with slight bitterness, I'd have been spending the entire summer alone in this house, waiting for Abby to come home. To think, by some miraculous, random form of chance I was seated beside Jake on the plane, and if not for the storm, and the delay, and the hotel— the hotel. I'd completely forgotten. He was only supposed to stay here a few nights, just until a room freed up.

"Hey— Jake?" I said, frowning slightly. "Whatever happened with that hotel you were supposed to stay at?

I think that was the absolute last question he'd expected me to ask. His eyes widened slightly, and his gaze darted around the room. He looked guilty. "Oh," he scratched his head sheepishly, "well— they did contact me...offered me a refund or—"

"Or?"

"They finally had a room available. If I wanted it."

"When was this?" I prompted, Jake shifting in his seat.

He bit his lip, shrugging, "Five-ish days ago...?"

"Five days?!" I exclaimed, swatting him across the chest. "And you didn't think to tell me?"

Jake buried his face in his hands, groaning, "I know. I know I should've, but I just couldn't find the right time to bring it up— and we were having fun— and I just—" He was the one turning bright red for once, as he told me, "I was enjoying staying here. With you." Jake batted his eyelashes shamelessly at me, golden retriever energy at full force, "Forgive me? I swear I'll go if you want me to. I can call them right now and—"

"No," I blurted, a little too quickly. "I mean— no, you don't have to— don't do that." Jake's eyebrows shot up, and I tried my very hardest to ignore the panic that had shot through me when he'd suggested that he not stay here any longer. I couldn't picture my days without him here. He drove me everywhere. When he woke up before me he got us coffee. Just seeing Jake at work? No. Impossible. I needed him. "I don't— I don't want you to leave."

"Oh really?" smirked Jake, no longer embarrassed, but instead extremely smug.

"Shut up, Sherlock," I mumbled, flushed.

"I suppose I'll stay then," Jake proclaimed, as if it was a great charitable act he had just made. "Just for you, Sophia," he murmured teasingly, the whisper in his voice enough to make me weak in my knees. Just for you Sophia. Unwittingly, my eyes drifted to his lips, and I had a terrifying urge to put my hand back where it had been minutes before.

I leaned back against the couch, crossing my legs under me. I let my head loll back against the cushions, and closed my eyes, allowing my thoughts to run wild. I missed Abby. I missed home. But not as much as I thought I would. I missed Reagan and Tommy. I should text Tommy back. Meeting Jake might have changed my life. Jake's smile made me smile. Jake blushed when I brushed up against him. Jake stuttered when I got tired and rested my head on his broad broad shoulder. Jake— Jake had been silent for a suspiciously long amount of time.

I sat up, turning my head to the left so I could see what he was up to. "What are you—" my heart stopped, palms starting to sweat, "is that my journal?" I choked out, eyes wide. My most prized possession, apart from my mother's necklace, was that notebook. She'd given it to me for the last birthday before she— it was cracked beyond belief and you couldn't really tell that it had once been purple because there was charcoal smeared all over it. And it was mine. I didn't show my drawings to anyone. Not Tommy, not even Reagan. Everything in there was my deepest, personal self. That sketchbook was— me. Seeing it in another person's hands that my own made me feel naked, exposed.

I swallowed as Jake flipped through it, pausing on one of the most recent pieces, where I'd drawn the clearing of trees where Kai and I had taken our group yesterday, the stray cat peeking out from behind the greenery. "You're really good," he murmured, continuing to leaf through its pages. A flash of a dark, shaded black and white sketch of a balcony caught my eye and I practically tore it out of his hands. I snapped the notebook shut, chewing on the inner corner of my cheek.

"Sorry. It was open and I just—" Jake cocked his head, "Sophia?"

"It's fine," I mumbled, tucking my hair behind my ear. Damn it.

"No, it's not," Jake softened. It was one of those times when I just knew he knew exactly what was going on in my head. That he could sense everything about me in this moment. "You don't show these to anyone, do you?" It wasn't a question. Not really. Not when he already knew the answer.

I shook my head, "No. At least— not in a long time." I fingered the clasp of the journal, "Abby's seen a few. I— I used to show her." Another pang of loss hit me then. I remember when I used to run into Abby's room the second I'd finished a drawing. I'd bound over to her bed and display it proudly, and even when I got more self conscious about it, around when I turned twelve, I still wanted, needed, to hear what she thought. She was my number one fan. My inspiration. My mother may have given me the journal, but Abby gave me the set of pencils. She was my biggest supporter. Or at least— she used to be.

"You need to talk to her," said Jake decisively. "I'm serious, Randall. Call her right now." He gestured at the phone on my lap. "Figure out what's going on."

I started to protest. "I can't just—"

Jake didn't even let me get more than a couple words out. "Don't give me that, Randall," he fixed me with that look. The challenging one. The one that said, dare you.

"Fine," I conceded, "but," I held up a finger, "only if you text your parents back." He made a face. "Okay, fine, at least your mom."

I saw a small smile forming at the corners of his mouth, and I knew I had him. His eyes sparked to life, "You drive a hard bargain, Sophia Randall."

"So?" I arched an eyebrow, waiting.

Jake grinned, "You jump, I jump, Jack."

I couldn't help it, I beamed. Just a little bit. A tiny beam. Like a ray of sunshine peeking through a cloud. How could I not when he grinned like that at me? Using the phrase that I liked to think had become a distinct part of something that was just us. I liked it. More than I probably wanted to think about just then.

With a newfound determination, fueled by the healthy competition Jake seemed to foster in me, I called Abby. As the phone began to ring and I walked into my room for some privacy, I was suddenly struck with the fear that Abby wouldn't even pick up. Abby always picked up. If I called her, she answered. It had been that way ever since—

"What's up, Soph?"

I breathed a sigh of relief, "Abs."

"Yup," said Abby. "Are you okay? You need something?"

"Do you--?" I started, trying to think of the best way to say it. "I mean, can you— how late are you going to be tonight?"

"I'm not sure," replied my sister. I could hear a pen clicking. "Maybe a couple hours?"

"Hours?" I excelled incredulously. "Who is taking yoga later than five?"

"Soph—"

"I just don't understand," I burst out, cutting her off. I was on a roll now. "I thought this summer was about us spending time together. I haven't really seen you in like four years, Abby. You're a yoga instructor, not a freakin neurosurgeon!" I winced. I hadn't meant it to sound like that, but I couldn't take the words back now. There was silnce on the other end of the line. I shut my eyes, massaging my temples, "Sorry. I didn't mean—"

"It's alright," Abby told me. "I know I've been busy."

"Can we do something tomorrow after I get back from work?" I asked in a small voice. I felt like I was ten years old again, begging Abby to stay home and bake cookies with me instead of going out to some party. "You said you get Fridays off."

"I can't."

"Abs," my heart sunk, "seriously?"

"I wish I could, Soph. Really." She sounded sincere, but Abby had always been good about putting on a show. "But I've been swapping shifts lately, and it's fucking up my schedule."

"Why?"

"Morgan," explained Abby. "She's been having a hard time managing with Ellery and everything. I've been covering for her, all of us have. Swapping shifts with each other if she needs it." Of course. Morgan and Otis had just had a baby. Less than eight months, if I remembered correctly. She was cute. I'd seen her a couple times around the KVE office. "Her and Otis both work, and they don't have family here. It's hard."

"Oh." I suddenly felt very selfish. It wasn't about me at all. It never had been. "Okay. Well— what if someone could watch Ellery?" An idea struck me then, a lightbulb switching on. "Then Megan could work her shift, right?:

"I guess so..." Abby hummed. I knew she was wondering where I was going with this. "But there's no one. That's the problem."

"Jake can do it," I announced, perhaps more confidently than I should have. I hadn't asked him. But he had to say yes. Didn't he? "He's great with kids." At least I wasn't lying about that. "Otis knows him, trusts him."

"What?"

"Jake will watch Ellery," I repeated, determined to make this happen. "It's only for a couple hours, right?"

"Yeah, but Soph—"

"Jake can watch her," I insisted, needing Abby to be on board with this plan. "And then we can hang out. Yeah?"

"I don't know..."

Silently, I willed her to say yes. "Please, Abby."

"I'll ask Megan."

"Yes!" I squealed, practically jumping up and down. "Thank you, Abs!"

"Bye, Soph," she laughed into the speaker. "Love you."

"Love you." I sighed contentedly, sitting down on the foot of my bed feeling better than I had in a hot minute. Almost immediately, Jake poked his head in the room, squinting at me suspiciously. It was clear he had been eavesdropping.

He folded his arms over his chest, "Jake will do what, now?"

I smiled sheepishly, "So I have a really big favor to ask you."

"Oh yeah?" rumbled Jake, leaning against the door frame.

"Please watch Otis and Megan's baby tomorrow." I pooched out my bottom lip, clasping my hands together in an attempt to seem as pitiful as possible. "Please, Jake."

"Sophia—"

"Jake," I pleaded. "I need you. I'll do anything."

His eyes flashed with mischief, "Anything?" The corner of his mouth lifted into a smirk, and he murmured, "That's a bold promise, Sophia Randall."

"Shut up," I blushed, ducking my head. "Will you?"

"Of course I will, you dork," grinned Jake. I shrieked in gratitude and flew at him, hugging him so fiercely I think I might've cracked one of his ribs. I felt his arms tighten around me, and heat rushed to my face, which was currently buried in his chest. Awkwardly, I extricated myself from him, unbelievably flustered and a little proud that I'd managed to suppress the urge to inhale the scent of his t-shirt, of his skin, and slide my hands up into his hair and— no! Absolutely not! I was not doing this. Nope. Nope. Not a chance.

I was momentarily distracted by my phone buzzing on the bedspread, giving me the perfect excuse to turn away from Jake and his burning eyes. I was so grateful for whatever notification it was that it took me a second to actually read it. It was an Instagram comment, left on Maia's most recent post. My stomach dropped.

thomas.lar mentioned you in a comment: cute! miss you @sophiakr_

Shit.