Hey luvs!

I'm so, so, so sorry for updating so late! I've been having a motivation block for months and wasn't able to write anything at all :((

But, here I am again! And thank you, thank you, thank you everyone for the 15k reads and wonderful comments! I appreciate every single one of you. 

If I'm being honest, I don't know when I'm going to update again. It's a bit of touch and go right now. But Reasons to Love You has always been my first love, and I'm determined to see it out to to end, no matter how long it takes.

Anyways, thank you, thank you, and thank you so much for sticking with me through the ooc moments and long gaps between updates! I love y'all!

And now....I present to you...chapter 18 of Reasons to Love You!

o-O-o

After what happened with Linh and Marella, Sophie blindly made her way through the dormitory's halls in a daze. In the back of her mind, she vaguely noted the carpets bleeding from bubblegum pink to dark wood to a rich, deep emerald. The ornate chandeliers shifted to natural light from tall windows and then to minimalistic scones. The gray walls changed to soft amber to eggshell white.

Sophie tugged out eyelashes at a rapid pace. What had Marella been talking about? She didn't mean to make anyone upset, it was just...hard, being away from her parents and pets for so long. It made her heart ache in an unsettlingly familiar way.

Sophie bit her lip. Her parents, Linh's reaction, Marella's words- it was all blurring together in her mind. What did she do wrong? Did they not want her to talk about it? Why? Did they not care about Grady and Edaline and Silveny?

"She doesn't care about your family!"

But Linh and Marella loved her family...

Didn't they?

Sophie grasped at the nearest memory of them together. Last summer. Linh and Marella staying over at her house for two weeks. Had it all been an act? Did they secretly hate her family? Did they hate her?

Was it something Sophie said? Was it something she did? Did they want to tell her something? Marella had sounded so angry...

"You have the perfect life, Sophie. Others- they don't."

Was Marella right? Was Sophie overreacting? She shouldn't have cared-

No. Stop. She had the right to care. She was homesick. Plenty of other people got homesick, too. It was normal. And the perfect life comment- how dare Marella? She already knew, already knew everything Sophie had gone through. How hard she'd worked to fight through it. And Marella had been there every step of the way.

So why now? Why was she turning her back on Sophie now? How dare she? And Linh-

Sophie didn't know what her problem was. But she knew how to find out.

She knocked firmly on Dex and Tam's door. "Tam!" She called out impatiently. "Dex!"

A muffled voice responded. "Coming!"

The door cracked open. A shock of strawberry-blond hair peeked out. "Sophie?" Dex mumbled blearily. "What are you doing here?"

Sophie pushed the door open and stormed inside. "You will not believe what Marella and Linh just did!" She moved several papers on the couch under the coffee table and sat down. Dex closed the door behind her and rubbed his eyes. "What did they do?"

"So, I was just on the phone with my parents, you know. It was great to finally hear their voices again and everything. Then they hung up and I got really homesick all of a sudden and-"

A loud yawn interrupted her monologue. Sophie turned around to see Dex slumped against the wall. She noticed, for the first time, that his hair was mussed and his Harry Potter pajamas were all crumpled. Tam didn't seem to be in the dorm, which was a shame since she'd been meaning to talk to him about Linh. "Sorry, did I wake you up?"

Dex yawned again. "I mean...yeah...I guess. Mom called me and forced me to take a nap. First time I'd slept in...three days." He pressed the heel of his palms into his eyes. "School sucks."

Sophie gnawed at her lip. "Well, uh, I can maybe come back later? After you finish your nap?"

Dex waved her concerns away. "No...no, it's fine, I want to hear. What's, um, what's wrong?"

Sophie continued without hesitation. "It was awful, Dex. One second I'm talking about how much I miss my parents and Silveny, the next Linh is crying and Marella is calling me idiotic and self-centered! I don't know what's gotten into them, but-"

Dex stepped forward off the wall. "Wait, wait, wait, wait. Can you explain the conversation to me, please? I'm just really confused right now. Maybe it's my exhausted brain but- whatever, please just explain."

Sophie nodded and told Dex everything she remembered. Linh and Sophie sharing their sadness together, Sophie telling them she missed Silveny, Linh and Marella's reactions, Marella's final words to her. "And then Marella told me that I have the perfect life, and others don't. But that's ridiculous! She knows everything, so how could she say that? And Linh-"

Dex held up his hands and stopped her. Somewhere in the explanation, he'd sat down next to her. Now, he grabbed her hand and forced her to stop talking. "Sophie...I think you really hurt Linh."

Sophie stilled and looked at Dex with bewildered eyes. "Hurt Linh? How?"

Dex stared at her. "Really, Sophie? Come on. Really? You really don't know? How-"

Sophie snatched her hands away and stood up. "Look, I already got enough of this from Marella, okay?" She raised her voice. "I get it! I'm idiotic and self-centered and I can't tell what's going on around me! I get it! I know! So maybe you can help me out here and not give me the same old "oblivious Sophie" crap! Informing me as to what I'm missing instead of judging me could be a little more helpful, you know! Just a bit!"

Dex looked taken aback, and more than a little hurt. His hands were raised in defense, and his eyes were wide. But after a moment, his eyes softened. He lowered his hands. "You're right. I'm, uh, sorry." He scratched the back of his neck. "I'm not very good at this kind of thing, but I know enough to know that this isn't helping. Can I please try and help you?"

After a second, Sophie nodded and sat back down slowly. She tugged out an eyelash and flicked it away. Dex bit his lip. "Okay, so. Um. Anyways," he looked into Sophie's eyes. "I really do think you hurt Linh's feelings."

Sophie felt herself getting frustrated by the repetition. "But why, Dex? Just tell me, I can handle it."

Dex looked skeptical, but he plunged forward anyways. "Okay, so, if I got this right, you were like "oh my god, I miss my family so much" and Linh was like "same, I do too". And you thought she was talking about your family." Sophie blushed, aware of how painfully flimsy that reason was now that Dex was rerunning it. "Yes."

Dex nodded. "Yes. But, she was talking about her family. Not yours." Sophie's mouth dropped open. "Oh. OHHH. Oh my god." She buried her face in her hands. "It's so obvious! How could I- how on earth-" Sophie felt Dex rub her back soothingly. "It's okay, Sophie. Everyone makes mistakes. Don't beat yourself up about it. You understand what happened now, and that's a good thing."

Sophie didn't reply. She was so sick of this, so sick of never realizing the obvious, so sick of her own mind keeping her in the dark. She just wanted to know, and now that she did, she didn't know how to feel. "Continue."

She assumed Dex nodded. "So she probably felt really, really hurt when you essentially, in her eyes, ignored her pain in favor of missing Silveny. And then when you continued to be oblivious-"

"-She got fed up with it." Sophie finished. Her chest tightened. "And then Marella got upset on behalf of Linh-"

"-and she said those things to you." Dex concluded. Sophie looked up at Dex. "Maybe Marella's right. So many people have it worse than me- just look at Linh! Her parents kicked her and her brother out after they had embarrassed them at one of their stupid galas. Their parents only gave them their funds to keep them quiet to stop a scandal, and Linh and Tam have been fighting for years over what to do about it! Meanwhile, I'm here, with my loving parents, big house, a cat, a dog, loving frie-"

"And then you also have your past," Dex said quietly. "Sophie, you have been through so much. I'm not going to let you pretend it never happened, or that you didn't get through it all and come out so much stronger. You deserve this life. Never compare it to somebody else's. And that goes for everyone. I'm not going to defend Marella on that, as much as I want to. I know who she is. And I think- I think some apologies are in order. From both sides. Okay?"

Sophie smiled. She threw her arms around Dex and drew him in for a tight hug. "Okay. Thank you, Dex." And after a moment, she whispered, "Thank you, cuz."

Dex hugged her back. "I don't know where Marella and Linh are, but they have to come back to the dorm at sometime. Walk around. Plan your apology. I'm really glad I could help, Sophie."

Sophie let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. She dropped the embrace. "You're amazing, you know that, right?" Dex smirked. "Of course."

Sophie stood up, brimming with determination. "I'm going to fix this."

Dex pumped his fist. "Yeah!"

Sophie grinned and added, "And get some sleep, Dex. Please."

"Yeah, yeah. I promise I will."

Sophie beamed. "Good."