Chapter Twenty-Two

a/n: Happy Thanksgiving, Americans! Thanks for reading this and I promise I'll get to readying all the books you commented as soon as I can c:

My mom bought ingredients for mallowmelt and mallowmelt cupcakes but because of my sister refusing to help me they were never made so I weaseled my mom into agreeing to make them tomorrow. 

Also, who hear watches or has watched Friends? I'm in the middle of binge watching it for the first time and I'm at season 3 episode 18 and I'm in love. 

Funny Story: I looked at the stuff about this book only author's can see and did you know 66% of you guys are female? The rest are private. I have no male readers, lol. WHERE ARE THE GUY KEEPERS?

AND OMG I LOVED WRITING THIS CHAPTER SO MUCH LIKE THE ENDING ASDFGHJKL LIKE ERG I LOVED IT SO MUCH I FINISHED IT IN AN HOUR AND I EVEN STOPPED WATCHING THE FRIENDS EPISODE IN THE MIDDLE TO FULLY FOCUS ON IT BECAUSE ERGGGGGGG THE KEEFE-FITZ BROMANCE IS JUST NOT MENTIONED ENOUGH IN THE BOOKS AND I THINK THEY DESERVE SOMETHING

"I don't get it."

"It's not you, It's me. I just can't live this lie anymore."

"But things were going so well. . ." Keefe stared at her in shock.

"Yeah, but. . . I just can't make you anymore mallowmelt," she said, sighing. "You're going to die of diabetes or something from how much you eat it!"

"It's organic!"

"It's going to be the demise of us all," she stated sadly. "I can't live this lie of pretending it's not, anymore." She looked down at her feet sadly. "I just can't, Keefe."

"We can make it work," he argued. "Maybe just make it a once every two weeks thing?"

"I can't, Keefe--"

"Are you guys breaking up?" Grady asked, walking into the room with surprise.

The two looked at him as if he was crazy. "Why would we be breaking up?" Sophie asked, confused. "I'm just cutting off his mallowmelt supply."

"Della tried doing that once to Alden but it didn't work," Grady said, laughing. 

"See! Alden eats it all the time and he's perfectly fine," Keefe said, looking back at her while gesturing widely to the open air. 

"I refuse," she said, sitting down on the couch. 

"Sophie. . . " He trailed off, sitting next to her and turning to face her. "Please?"

"No."

He poked her cheek. "Plllllllllease?"

"Nope."

He poked her cheek once more. "Pretty pretty please with a custard burst on top?"

A small smile forced it's way onto her lips and you could tell she was trying to make it go away. "No."

"I'm just going to go talk to Edaline and pretend I never saw you guys act cute together and was fine with it," Grady said, rolling his eyes before walking away.

They both turned to where he walked away from before turning back to face each other. "Fine," Keefe huffed, letting out a small deep sigh.

She turned to him and grinned. She leaned in to peck his cheek but he turned his head so instead she kissed his lips. "Idiot," she said, slapping his arm slightly.

"Your favorite idiot," he said with a teasing smirk. 

"My favorite idiot is. . ." She started to think.  "Uh, just not you," she finally retorted.

"Well you're my favorite idiot," he whispered in her ear, wrapping an arm around her waist. "And I love you no matter how stupid you are sometimes."

"I'm the stupid one?" She snorted, although not pulling away from him. Instead, she rested her chin on his shoulder and wrapped her arms around his neck so that they were hugging.

"Of course. I'm obviously the smart one," he stated sarcastically. "Cliches, my dear."

"Are you saying I'm the dumb blonde?" She gasped in mock horror, knowing that he was just joking.

"No, because then that would make me the dumb jock. Considering the dumb jock is always blonde." He frowned. "And that would make Biana the nerd with no fashion sense, which is impossible. Dex would be the smart, rational guy who end up with the nerd, and Fitz and Ashla would just be extras in the movie. That's why it's not true."

Sophie nodded, which was hard since her head rested on his shoulder. "Whatever you say, dummy." She pulled back and when she did he leaned in and kissed the tip of her nose, and she scrunched it up in discomfort just as Grady and Edaline walked into the room.

"That's adorable!" Edaline shouted with a squeal. She turned to Grady. "Why do we not have a camera?"

"Because we have Sophie's photographic memory and transmitting skills?" He guessed, shrugging.

Edaline frowned at him before turning to the two lovebirds. "I'm making mallowmelt, would you like to stay for that, Keefe?"

Keefe jumped off the couch in triumph as Sophie scowled. "Of course!"

___

"Our two year anniversary is next week," Keefe told Fitz, smiling. It was their Saturday to hang out and talk. "I'm thinking of asking her on our date."

"You've been dating two years already? Man, I've been together with Ashla longer than that. . . " Fitz frowned. "I can't believe it's been so long since we got our matchmaking scrolls. It feels like just yesterday I was searching really hard for Sophie's name so I could win the bet that it would be higher on my list than yours."

"Yeah," Keefe agreed with a soft hum. "How did you ask Ashla to marry you?" He knew of facts but he didn't know the full story.

"We were eating dinner at my house watching the stars and I was telling her about how Sophie memorized them all so when I entered her mind and I ended up getting a crap load of star knowledge," he explained, "and she frowned because she's really insecure about Sophie because she knows about how much I used to like her."

"Used to, of course," Keefe said with emphasis. They both knew about each other liking her and instead of them both getting thrown apart over it, they could bond over talking about her. Each time a new girl entered the scene, they would talk about her too. That's what led to their 'Saturday discussions' as Fitz called them.

Fitz rolled his eyes at Keefe. "You put a ring on your woman and still can't convince your best friend you don't like his girl," Fitz stated sarcastically.

"Your story."

"Right. . . Uh, well I got annoyed that she frowned and I asked her why and she said 'Sophie's my best friend next to Biana, and I love her like a sister, but it just feels weird when you talk about her because of old feelings.' I told her she was stupid and it was obvious I only had feelings for her-"

"I thought you didn't even really like her," Keefe said in shock.

"You know that I fell in love with Ashla over the course of our relationship even if I didn't like her that much at first," Fitz said, glaring. "I wouldn't just marry a girl I don't love. I'm not that guy." He glared at his best friend. "Anyways, she bit her lip because that's her nervous thing, like how Sophie used to pull out her eyelashes when we were younger." 

"I remember that," Keefe said thoughtfully.

Fitz nodded. "Anyways, I kissed her and then we stood up and started to walk back to my house but I turned to her and said, 'do you believe I love you?'

"She told me yeah, she knows because I wouldn't have dated her that long, since usually I'd break things off after a week or two, and we had been together for almost once year and a half. So, I asked, 'you want to know how much I love you?' and she bit her lip again and looked down nervously because I don't usually like going to much into feelings and relationships. I tilted her head up to face me and asked her to marry me," Fitz said, grinning at the memory.

"That's. . . I didn't know you were capable of that," Keefe said, staring at his best friend in shock. "I don't know how I can do this to Sophie."

"Ask at your anniversary date, like you said. Make it seem like a spur of the moment, yet planned thing. Mine was spur of the moment, but the words I used made it sound planned and rehearsed. Apparently it makes it sound more romantic if it's just 'I really want to marry this person right here and right now' but it's also kind of a turn off because it makes them think about the stuff you could've done had you planned the proposal." 

"Sophie's not like that, though," Keefe said. "She's not Ashla. I can't just tell her by saying how much I love her with it. She knows how much I love her! Hell, I love her more than she loves me and she loves me  a whole crap lot, and I'm not being a douche bag about it I just know. . . She loves me so much and I love her more and she knows that so that means she knows how much I love her which means she knows how much I want to marry her so why does it have to be so complicated?"

"It doesn't," Fitz said. "Think Sophie. Don't think love, marriage, family, future, or happiness or anything but Sophie. Think of her and ask her to marry you and know that she loves you so much that no matter the situation, she's going to say yes. You're going to get married." Keefe nodded and went to go leave. "What are you doing? I still haven't gotten to rant about what Ashla did."

"What did she do?"

"She went on some feminine power strip and took over the house decor because it was too manly! Can you believe that?"

Keefe snorted, thinking of Fitz's wife and stories Fitz had told about her. "Yeah, I can believe it."