Chapter Six

Amplitude

It was past five in the morning when Sophie finally returned to her bedroom. The strain of entering her house and walking around in the dark without making any noise exhausted her – especially because she was a little tipsy, which added to her natural clumsiness, made it very difficult. Nevertheless, she managed to fall into her bed and bury her face into one of her turtles with only two bumps into the sofa, one near-fall in the hallway, two dropped objects and three face-bumps against the wall – which she considered a success.

She was very much on the verge of falling asleep when her cellphone rang. Knowing exactly who it was, she cursed against her turtle’s soft belly.

The jerk.

“Hey,” she said without much enthusiasm.

“Murphy!” he almost screamed. He seemed very excited, unlike her and her lopsided view of her room that wouldn’t stop spinning, “Where are you?”

“Home,” she answered again, this time angrier, “Did you expect me to wait for you until tomorrow?”

“Oh, yeah, about that-”

“Whatever.”

“I’m sorry!” he basically screamed again, “I wanted to be there, I swear!”

“What stopped you, then?”

He was silent and she groaned, annoyed. “Just forget it, Adrian.”

“You’re mad at me, aren’t you?”

“Why should I be?” She was somewhat sarcastic. “It’s not like you should feel forced to go. If you didn’t want to go, I’m glad you didn’t. Better this way. I just don’t understand why you would basically bully me into meeting you if you didn’t actually want to do it. You know, men are all the same. Mark didn’t rest until I was dating him and then when I finally said yes he made his best to conquer me. After that, it was a pleasant fall back to reality where he made his best to screw me – not literally!” she quickly said before he could make the joke she knew was coming.

“Sophie-“

“And you, surprise and gasp, are just the same! You make your best to conquer me, couldn’t rest until I agreed to meet you, just so that you can quickly screw with me – again, not literally!”

“Sophie, don’t compare me with that asshole.”

“It’s what you deserve!”

“Wow. You really are mad…” he answered, and though she knew he was trying to sound worried, he couldn’t, “I’m sorry, I really am.”

“Not a message, not a call, nothing! You could’ve at least said something.”

“You’re right. I’m sorry!”

She took a deep breath and fell silent. Adrian didn’t.

“Don’t you want to know why I didn’t show up?”

“No, not really.”

“Liar.” He grinned.

She suddenly understood what was wrong with his tone. “Are you drunk?”

“Just a little,” he answered honestly, “I’m just a little touched.”

“Touched?”

“By the booze.”

“Great. We’ll talk tomorrow then. Bye.”

“No! No, no, no, no, no,” he almost yelled again, “I can’t go to sleep if you’re still mad at me.”

“Then I guess you’ll have a lot of pretty long and sleepless nights.”

“Oh, come on Murphy,” he pleaded, “I’ll explain.”

Sophie took another deep breath and stayed in line, waiting for him to continue.

“I really, really, really wanted to meet you. I swear! I’m not lying, I never lie!”

“Yes. And…?”

“And we got kind of drunk during our date and she made the move and I was weak. After that, we fell asleep and when I woke up you weren’t there already.”

Sophie was confused. “What are you talking about? She made what?”

“The move.”

“What move?”

“She took her top off.”

“She took… Oh.” It suddenly hit her. “So you and her…”

“It’s a cheap move. A low blow.”

“You were together as in… together?”

“We had sex, yes,” he said, and she thought to herself that he could at least make an effort not to sound so excited about it when talking to her.

Sophie felt her cheeks warming up dangerously. Probably because she was tipsy. Probably because she always felt embarrassed when talking about sex, especially considering she was talking about it with Adrian. Mainly because he stood her up. Certainly because he had sex with another girl and seemed so happy about it and didn’t think it was a problem to share with her that that was the grand reason why he left her waiting.

“Sophie?”

For a few seconds she let the phone fall from her hand as she buried her face into her turtles.

“Sophie?” she heard him call.

“Yes?” she finally answered, angry.

“I’m sorry.”

“Forget it,” she mumbled.

“You’re still angry?”

“I’m actually angrier right now, you douchebag.”

“Are you jealous?”

“No! I’m mad that you stood me up! I hope you enjoyed it, you… you man-whore!”

“Actually-“

“You know what? I don’t care. Good for you! It’s your right to go to bed with whoever you want, whenever you want. It’s none of my business, whatsoever. I honestly hope you had a great time with her.”

“It could’ve been better,” he admitted.

“Don’t care,” she answered, “well, I suppose we won’t be talking much, from now on. I don’t think your girlfriend would be too happy-“

“Girlfriend?” he asked, “What girlfriend?”

“Your girlfriend. You know, the one you slept with tonight.”

“She’s not my girlfriend, Murphy.”

“She’s not,” she repeated, without belief.

“No. We just spent a good time together. That’s it.”

“So, you’re just going to dump her, now that you had your fun?” she asked in shock.

“I’m not dumping her because we were never together to begin with. She’s not expecting a relationship,” he answered, “believe me, we both knew that it meant nothing. I was totally honest with her. She knew it. It was just meaningless sex. A one night stand.”

Sophie was silent while she tried to take this in.

“I’m not a complete asshole, Sophie.”

“You could’ve fooled me,” she mumbled.

“You’re still angry?”

“Stop asking that. Yes, I am and I will be.”

“I wanted to meet you. Please believe me. I’m pretty angry at myself for not making it there on time. Especially knowing how hard it will be to convince you to do the same again now.”

“Yeah, I won’t fall for this one again.”

“Don’t say that.” And now he sounded genuinely worried.

Sophie took another deep breath and, against her will, felt her anger going away. She wanted to stay mad. But now, the anger was slowly making place for her usual fear of rejection.

“Look, I understand that you would… prefer to be with-“

“I didn’t, I didn’t prefer to be with her,” he quickly said, “I didn’t choose her over you. Murphy, I was drunk and she was topless. It was unfair. I’m weak. I’m just a guy.”

“Argh! Whatever.”

After a few more seconds of silence, Adrian kind of changed the subject.

“What about you? Did you have fun? Why weren’t you at Shake when I finally got there?”

“Me and Charlotte, we met a few guys that used to go to our school over there. After I realized that you weren’t coming, we accepted their invitation to go to a party at one of their friend’s house. And yes, it was fun.” She shrugged.

Adrian was silent for a while, before commenting, “You went to a party?”

“Yeah.”

“With some guys?”

“They’re not some guys. We knew them, already.”

“What did you do on that party?”

“Nothing special. Drank, danced. The usual.”

“You didn’t have anything going on with any of them, did you?”

The nerve.

“No, actually I didn’t. Although Phil did imply that he wouldn’t mind if we got to know each other better,” she was lying. Phil did suggest he should know one of them better, except it was Charlotte, not Sophie. But it served him right.

“But you didn’t fall for that one, did you?” he asked, as if it was ridiculous.

“No, but I could’ve.” Charlotte didn’t, but she could’ve.

“Good.” She felt him grin. “I told you I would come back to you in the end.”

“Great. Thanks! I’m just slightly insulted by that.”

He laughed. “Did you dress up for me?”

“No,” she lied again.

“What are you wearing?”

Sophie blushed again. “None of your business.”

“Come on…”

“If you’d showed up, you would’ve seen it.”

“Murphy,” he moaned, “Is it something green?”

“No, unless you count the stuffed turtles that are on top of me now.”

“Hmm. Lucky turtles,” he said in a devilish tone.

“You idiot…”

“Are you wearing a dress? I don’t think of you as a dress-up kind of girl.”

“I’m in my pajamas, okay? Stop asking me what I’m wearing, you pervert. It’s a gigantic t-shirt that was once my brother’s. But you’re right, I’m not a dress-up kind of girl, which makes me feel even more of a dumbass.”

“Oh, so you did dress up for me.” He smirked.

“It was the last time, believe it.”

“Damn!” He laughed. “So, am I forgiven?”

“No.”

“Sophie…” he pleaded with his charming voice, making it very hard for her not to melt.

“I don’t forget that easily. It takes more than a drunken phone call.” She resisted.

“I’ll make it up to you.” He smiled. “Next time we arrange to meet.”

“Ah, you have a lot of time to think about it, then.”

“I have a game next weekend, it’ll be here at my school. You know where it is, right?”

“Yes.”

“Come and see me. I’ll play just for you,” he said this last sentence in his usual seductive-joking tone.

“I’ll think about it.”

“Really?” He sounded genuinely surprised by her answer.

“Yes.”

“So, I really did ‘conquer’ you, huh?”

“What?” Her eyes opened wide with embarrassment.

“Your lame choice of words, not mine.” He laughed.

“No, I didn’t mean it like that-“

“You’re totally smitten by me, aren’t you?” He smirked. “Wait until you see me then, you’ll go crazy.”

“You’re such an arrogant jock.”

“I can see I am forgiven.”

She smiled and cursed her lack of grudge-keeping power. Sophie yawned with exhaustion. “I’m very tired, I need to go to sleep.”

“Yeah, you do.”

“Talk to you tomorrow.”

“Sophie!” he called, before she could hang up.

“What?”

“Describe what you were wearing. With details.”

After another round of blushing and name calling, Sophie finally hung up. Once she was ready to get some much needed rest, Aaron unexpectedly opened the door to her bedroom.

“Who are you talking to at this hour?” He looked confused and out of balance, like he always did when he was sleepy. His eyes were barely open, his legs didn’t seem to possess the strength to keep him up anymore, his hair was all over the place and he yawned a dozen times before he was able to finish the simple question.

“No one,” she quickly answered. Looking at his confused but suspicious face, she answered again, “just a friend. Charlotte.”

Aaron kept his suspicious face while he scratched the back of his head and yawned again. Then, not looking completely convinced, he shrugged and turned away from the room while mumbling something that resembled, “Such a weirdo.”

Author's Note - Oh-no-she-didn't! *runs away from angry mob* I'm sorry, I know some of you were excited to see them meet each other, but it just wasn't meant to be (at least, not for me). It would be too easy and I like to torture people. Don't hate me, guys, hate the penguin. He's a bad influence.

Also, I want you to know that Adrian is right - he's not a complete asshole. He's an idiot and a jerk, yes, but I promise that you'll understand later why this happened. I think he's trying to hold on to something. I guess you'll get it later, eheh. Same for Sophie, I wouldn't have taken it as easy as her, but I think it suits her personality and her current state of mind. I don't know if I'm making any sense at all, so I'll just shut up and let people lynch me, if they want.

Another thing, since this chapter feels shorter, I'm thinking about posting the next one sooner than usual. What do you think?

Again, thank you guys so much for reading, voting, commenting, adding, everything :) Tell me what you think. You're allowed to hate me, if you want, but keep the penguin in mind. He's the real master of evil.