Chapter 30: An unexpected journey (2/2)
There were many details about Melanie's appearance that leapt out to Sophie once she sat down. Long marron curls of hair, sparkling in the sun as if the star had taken a personal liking to its owner, a bright blue-grey summer dress with hat, that reflected her eyes, which inturn tightly interlocked with those of her seating partner.
For Sophie, this all incited a strange poetic streak of thought, and a co-aligned urge to vomit that only increased once she saw the two weave their fingers together to hold hands.
If not for a brief distortion on Melanie's face as she turned towards her, Sophie might have taken a lunge for the restroom. It seemed she had to thank Jeremy for that one…
"I've… ugh… heard a lot about you already. It's a pleasure to meet you, Sophie."
Her hand stretched out, ready for a shake, as did her lips, revealing pearly teeth.
"Well, I'd like to say the same, but fact is, Felix hasn't told me anything about you. To be honest, I didn't even think you were real."
The offered handshake remained unrecognized while the smile broadened across Melanie's soft face, which didn't let her come around to the thought, either. But when she aimed the things at Felix, receiving reinforcements from his own fangs, Sophie considered capitulation.
Melanie's crusade, though, had only begun.
"Is that so?"
The way their faces closed in on each other, Sophie felt the content of her stomach follow suit.
"Why do you look at me like that? You didn't even tell your parents!"
No horror movie laughter had brought her blood to freeze like the chuckle that the two joined in on as they sent each other even more passionate glances.
"Fair enough."
Sophie looked up from their table, searching with empty eyes for a waiter, while she rested her heavy growing head on her palms, in the vague hope the personal might throw them out for indecent behaviour. Or maybe at least release her from that pain with a coup de grâce.
At last, the hope stayed unfulfilled, leaving Sophie merely with the option to yield to her fate.
"Well, if I had anything to say, I wouldn't have introduced him to my father, either, or anyone, for that matter. And we're just friends…"
In regards to the imminent danger she felt her sanity confronted with, Sophie dropped her hands back on the table to send an emergency prayer to the heavens. To plead whoever might listen for an opportunity to escape her early grave.
'I don't think you really need an excuse to dip out on this…'
That answer was as abrupt as it was her own, yet nonetheless true. She gathered her last strength to escape, only for her plan to be foiled by an insidious ambush of Melanie's making.
"Excuse me. At first, I didn't want to ask, but are you feeling alright? That swelling looks quite… intense, and you do seem a little pale."
Grabbed by her wrist and suddenly center of attention, Sophie did what any reasonable person would do in such a desperate situation. Naturally, her eyes averted from her victim as she rammed the dagger into his back.
"What, you mean this little accessory? That's just a neat little gift from one of Felix's friends. He has an excellent judge of character, you know."
To twist the words inside his wound brought her no joy… okay, maybe a little. Either way, the aghast expression on his face as he jumped from his chair, almost throwing it and the ones on the neighbor's table over, filled her with hope for a chance of escape.
"I… wha… what are you talking about?"
Smoke rose from his thick skull while his eyes twitched in their sockets in a frantic search for an excuse for the shameful past he undoubtedly hadn't disclosed.
"You know what? I should really get you some ice for that… that… allergic reaction of yours! Spring, am I right? Mel, why don't you tell her the story of how we met? You love sharing that one, don't you? I'm… off!"
Sophie felt herself relax at the predictable reaction, watching after him as he skedaddled past the other tables and confused waiters into the café, only to tense back up as she noticed Melanie's unfazed expression.
"Jokes aside, how are you really feeling? You look… awful."
This time felt Sophie queasy in a whole different way. Things didn't add up. Had she misread this travesty of a situation? No… it didn't matter. All she could do now was to flee forward.
"Oh thanks, that's… always nice to hear. Anyway, it's just my stomach that's acting up because of whatever you two are pulling off there."
"What do you mean?"
Melanie's confusion appeared to be real. An observation that left even more doubt to creep up on Sophie. Had she stepped on a mine, carefully placed within her path, or instead treaded to the edge of a cliff, with Melanie's hand being her only insurance? Either means to escape meant her impending doom in the other case.
Once more, the answer seemed simple.
"Seriously? Don't tell me you didn't get the hint right there? Felix is obviously making a fool out of himself, pretending to be someone he isn't. How can you be falling for such a ploy? And not only that, the way you were smooching around earlier?"
Goosebumps ran down her back as the scene repeated before Sophie's eyes, the revulsion dispelling any remaining doubt. Her legs, stretching to jump and dodge the explosives, lifted Sophie onto her feet.
"I was half prepared for you two to start getting frisky with each other."
Even now, Melanie's hand didn't budge. As if the fuze stuck to her heel, the young woman followed, standing up herself to keep up.
With her involuntary meat shield eliminated, and no other tools at her disposal, Sophie turned to free herself forcefully, hoping her goodbye to be blunt enough of a hint.
"I think it's better if I leave. You two seem to have enough going on without me already."
Sophie felt her step slipping away, her shoulder stretched into an unpleasant angle. The sensation subsided immediately when she stopped her efforts, but when she faced Melanie, arose a different unsettling feeling. Two stern eyes pierced Sophie with the stoic expression of a soldier in battle. The grip around her wrist growing only more tight, and Melanie's shoes stemming against her own meager weight.
That girl was older, and at a clear advantage in size and weight.
"You are going nowhere, Sophie. What gives you the idea Felix wouldn't be honest with me? I know all about his friends, including you."
Before Sophie could compute her words, slipped the thought from her mind.
"But why did he then…"
"Why did you try to embarrass him in front of me? That's what would interest me! I thought you might be protective of him, suspecting me of being the one to take advantage of your friend. How can your first reaction be the complete opposite?"
Cracks showed at the cliff side she had made acrobatics on, bringing her out of balance.
"I believe you don't have to wonder why he didn't tell you more then. But I guess he isn't exactly without fault in this either…"
"I don't understand, I thought…"
"What's there not to understand? I'm talking about the toxic relationship between you two. Felix asked me to accompany him because he wanted to tell you something important, because you mean a lot to him as a friend, and because you're currently struggling a lot. And now I can see why he didn't want to face you alone. You two bring out the worst in each other."
Now the once stable rock crumbled, letting Sophie drop into a pit. Melanie's hand was suddenly the only thing to hold her above the bottomless chasm. But as quickly as the vision had come to her, as brief remained it. The chair catching her fall, and Melanie's hand releasing her wrist. Her attention now caught by Felix, who slipped through the tables on his way back from the café. A delicious looking ice cream in one, and two cups of coffee in the other hand.
Somehow, she felt no appetite by the sight. Her thoughts drawn to a time and place she didn't want to visit again anytime soon. Albeit it that the words were different, and where they came from as well, the message remained the same, and so did her desire to hide in a hole.
"You sound like my father…"
"That should give you something to think about, shouldn't it?"
A questioning look darted from Felix to her. The dramatic scene he had laid on earlier, forgotten. Melanie's words had struck a cord. She couldn't pretend otherwise. Unsure how to respond to the echo of it, Sophie rubbed her wrist. Having just escaped her grasp, it still didn't feel like she was free.
Maybe it never would…
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Three stracciatella balls, adorned with cracknel and sparely dressed in chocolate sauce, smiled seductively at Sophie from within the glass cup Felix had put in front of her. His attention caught when she grabbed the ice and turned away from him, sparked the first question.
"Did I miss something?"
Sophie blatantly ignored the advances of her food, instead taking the cold spoon to put it on her black eye. A reaction that only irritated him more. Leaving Melanie to answer in her place.
"Give her a moment."
"I guess that means you didn't talk about our meeting. What did you say to her?"
"Nothing she didn't hear before. Let her be for now."
Thankfully, Melanie's ambiguous words were enough to divert his attention. Allowing Sophie to hide the broken pieces of her pride while he returned to his place.
The cold metal was a welcome relief for any part of her face right now. If painfully pulsating, or burning with embarrassment. Either way, there was hardly a reason she'd have to explain herself.
A strange sense of gratitude for her chance to recuperate sparked within her, and that despite this being Melanie's fault to begin with, but before she could attempt to extinguish it, disturbed Felix her moment of introspection.
"Oh, Officer Spring-Load, what a pleasant surprise."
"It's Springer, again. Not spring load…"
Sophie froze as she recognized the voice, her one eye widening quickly. The guy was intimidating enough the last time they met, and there she had been only a witness. Speaking of how to ruin an afternoon, she could now add visiting a café besides the bank.
"This delinquent isn't troubling you, ladies?"
"No, definitively not, sir. We came here together."
Not discouraged in the slightest by that answer, the middle-aged man turned to Sophie, causing her to flinch and hide her face even more in an effort to avoid recognition.
'Not at all suspicious.'
That argument had its merit. Which, in turn, forced Sophie to play her reflex down by gobbling up a spoon of ice cream. A short circuit reaction she regretted as soon as the cold sweets pained her teeth.
"What about you, Miss, you want to be here?"
'Right now, I'd rather be anywhere else…'
"Yes. No problem here."
"Are you sure? That eye doesn't look like an accident."
All hope her mumbled answer might be enough to satisfy his curiosity dissipated into thin air, and with it any coherent thoughts. His piercing stare inspecting her from beneath the police cap grew only bigger, more intimidating with every second of silence that followed. The attempt to clear her throat, more out of desperation than because she had something to say for herself, only left the ice cream getting stuck in it.
Her source of oxygen threatening to expire, Sophie felt her life repeat before her inner eyes. If not for Melanie speaking up, she might have dropped from the chair next.
"Sir, my friend is already embarrassed enough about her mishap. Could you not press further on the matter?"
With his gaze left the pressure as he turned his attention away from her to the request, which followed only a brief look back to her, as if to confirm that claim.
"I understand. My apologies. I did not want to interrupt your friendly gathering."
Barely with his back turned, Felix used the moment for the dry delivery of a snide remark that probably nobody expected.
"No problem, Officer Spring-Load. Misfiring is a common problem for many men at your age. Don't take it to heart."
In the following dead silence noticed Sophie just how much attention to their table had garnered. Herself too baffled by the tune deaf joke and occupied with the horror vision of what it might ensue, remained quiet, even as Melanie cracked under the pressure, spearheading the cascade of laughter that set in.
A wave that died down shortly with the ignited bright red face the officer wore. The only smile that remained was obviously on Felix's lips, even as the man grabbed him by his collar.
"Watch your words, Ibrahim! My misjudgements gives you no free pass. I will keep an eye on you."
Few muffled chuckles accompanied his leave, most notably that of his marginally younger partner, who earned himself a slap on the back of his head with it.
Felix kept his smug grin all throughout the performance, only interrupting it to once they disappeared.
"Elegant solution, Mel. Ouch!"
Although her punch against his side suggested otherwise, her voice betrayed the still lingering laughter within her.
"What gives your attitude? You can't just provoke an officer like that!"
"Why not? You laughed, his buddy laughed, everyone laughed."
"That's not the point. You know what I mean."
Sophie, who felt the sweetness of their conversation overwhelm her once more, choose to ignore the banter and drown the rest of her panic with sugar.
Beat fire with fire, they say…
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Verhygo
Verhygo 25. March
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