Elysian (After Stellarlune)

26. Sophie's POV

We don't have time for this.

That was Sophie's only thought as she locked hands with Keefe and Marella to head to Everglen.

But it didn't matter. She could tell that Keefe wouldn't be taking no for an answer, and honestly? Sophie was too tired to argue. Which, at the very least, meant that she may actually fall asleep instead of having to reveal embarrassing truths about herself all night.

When they reached Everglen, Biana and Fitz ran into the house to set everything up. Apparently, they'd be staying in a room that Sophie had never seen before; called the 'Party Room.' Although, Biana remarked, it was more of a party wing, because it consisted of 5 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and one very large sitting room. There weren't enough rooms for everyone, so they'd be staying in the sitting room.

"Plus," Biana had said. "We'll get to hang out and socialize even more if we're all sleeping in the same room!"

Sophie could see some obvious flaws in her logic, but decided against bursting Biana's bubble. She seemed so happy, and Sophie didn't want to ruin that. Even though she knew that part of it was that Biana and Tam had gotten together. Sophie could tell; it was pretty obvious.

Woah, was that how people thought about Keefe's crush on me? Sophie had the sudden, eye-opening thought, and it made her feel even more stupid. How could she be so blind?

"Um, hello? Earth to Sophie." Marella was waving her hand in front of Sophie's face, trying to catch her attention.

"Sorry, I got lost in my thoughts." Sophie replied.

"It's ok, Sophie." Biana continued. "As I was saying, we have enough sleeping bags for everyone, in a bunch of different colors, so when we get to the Party Room, everyone claim a bag and a spot."

"Here it is." Fitz announced as they walked up to a large set of doors. He pushed open the double doors in front of him, and everyone's mouths dropped open.

"It's incredible." Linh and Marella said it at the same time, then laughed.

And they were right. The Party Room was magnificent.

It was huge and circular, with polished maple-wood floors and hallways branching out on all sides. Speaking of branches, there was a huge tree jutting out in the center of the area, leading up and out of the huge glass dome of a roof, which distinctly reminded Sophie of a less bright version of the stained glass in Elysian. Sophie wrinkled her nose at the comparison, but tried to block it out. This was not the same place. The glass was colorless, and translucent, with beautiful, yet vaguely familiar,  designs covering the entire thing. So unlike the mysterious dome of Elysian, yet so similar.

Again trying to get past her haunting flashbacks of just a few nights back, Sophie started to walk to the center of the room with the rest of the group. Just as Biana had said, there were sleeping bags in every color of the rainbow stacked in front of the tree. Everyone grappled for their favorite.

Teal no longer being Sophie's favorite color, for reasons she pretended to be unbeknownst to her, she instinctively grabbed for the light, almost ice blue color, just to have it snatched away at the last moment from Keefe.

"Oh no you don't, Foster. You'll have to chase me down to get to this."

"Please, give it back, Keefe. I'm too tired for this."

Keefe looked down at the sleeping bag he was holding, noticing for the first time its color. He smiled a bit, although Sophie had no idea why, then handed it back to her. He opened his mouth to say something, but seeing Sophie's confused expression, closed it again.

"What?" Sophie asked him, now curious.

"It's nothing. Just a dumb joke."

"Keefe Sencen, refraining himself from cracking a joke? Someone call the police, it's an imposter!" Everyone looked at Sophie a little funny, which made her remember that elves didn't have police. Sometimes, her 12 years of living with humans still affected her, which was annoying to say the least.

"Foster," Keefe said, snapping Sophie out of her trance yet again and waving her over. "I saved you a spot."

"What a surprise." Fitz muttered to himself, probably thinking no one could hear him. Sophie decided not to comment, though she really wanted to. So far, the night wasn't that bad, and she didn't want to ruin it with Fitz drama.

After everyone had chosen their spots, Keefe gathered them all in the center of their sleeping bag circle, where Sophie noticed that Biana and Tam's sleeping bags were suspiciously close to each other, like Linh and Marella's, and surprisingly, so were Dex and Maruca's. Sophie didn't think much of the latter pair.

"I have a few games that I'd like to play, but let's start out with 2 truths and a lie. Who wants to go first?" Keefe looked at everyone in their group, waiting for their first volunteer.

"I'll go." Sophie raised her hand in the air as if in class. She had something good in mind.

"I'm not part alicorn; my eyes are brown; and a lamppost once almost crushed me underneath it."

"Sophie, it's got to be a little more complicated than that." Wylie said, reminding everyone that he was there. He had kept to the shadows, making it easy for Sophie to forget him.

"But Wylie, Sophie is part alicorn. That's why she's a teleporter." Keefe announced.

Wylie was silent a beat, then exclaimed, "A lamppost almost fell on top of you?!"

"Yeah. It was when Fitz was trying to take me to the Lost Cities for the first time. I didn't know him, so I ran away, and I ran straight into traffic. A car swerved so they didn't hit me, and they instead hit a lamppost. It got knocked over, and almost fell onto me, but my telekinesis was super strong, and even though I'd never used it before, my mind instinctively used it to save me from being crushed."

Wylie gaped, while Maruca said, mostly to herself, "You have to go on and brag. I can barely lift a desk up, and you stopped a lamppost from falling on you on your first try?!"

"Hey, I've got messed up genes, so it's not your fault. That's all on the Black Swan." Sophie remarked, hating herself for bragging, even on accident.

"Anyways, Biana, Fitz, do you guys have food? I'm starving." Keefe said, changing the subject on Sophie's behalf.

"Yeah, I think so. I'll go get some." Replied Biana.

"Wait!" Sophie exclaimed. "Is there Mallowmelt?'

"I think so." Biana answered.

"I'll come." Sophie said, making her way over to Biana.

She could never resist some Mallowmelt.

I've got a headache, and u guys probably do too with all of this fluff (and if you like fluff, im right there with you. I like it too, but im betting a lot of other people dont) so im gonna go straight to the question: what had been ur fav part so far? I now theyre all spread out and stuff, so its hard to remember, but just guess if ur not sure. Like, mine are 5, 13, 14, 15, 20, 21, 22, and 23; and the parts that make them good are, in order, Elysian explanation; Grady Dad Talk; SoKeefe kiss; SoKeefe group confession; Tiana confirmation, Tiana kiss, and semi-Linhella confirmation; Linhella confirmation and kiss; Elysian scheme background info figured out; funny Keefe Forbidden Cities story. Sorry, i dont just have one fav, i have 8.

Bye (anticlimactic ending but just ignore that i guess 🤷)