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“I think I’m learning more from listening to you mutter your textbook under your breath than I ever have from a mentor,” Keefe quipped as he lounged on the bench on the other side of their library table. He was, of course, making fun of her tendency to repeat the words she was reading aloud as she committed them to her photographic memory.
She rolled her eyes. "Maybe you wouldn't notice my muttering if you actually studied for once."
“Don’t need to,” he reminded her. Sophie shook her head in fond exasperation as he once again reiterated, “Once I’ve seen the pages once, that’s all I need. Photographic memory.”
“You can’t keep using that explanation on another person with photographic memory,” Sophie commented wryly.
"You could use it too. You just lack the confidence!"
She’d heard that one before, too.
“What you call confidence, I call extreme recklessness,” Sophie told him dryly. “Though I do suppose I may worry too much. That’s how we balance each other out.” For some reason, the words came out kinda mushy, and she blushed when she realized she’d put them on a metaphorical scale where they were the only two people in the world.
If she’d looked up in that moment, she would have noticed Keefe blushing as well, though he recovered quickly. "This is one of those rare moments where you learn from me." He winked at her, that stupid wink he always gave her when he was wearing that stupid smirk and talking in that stupid low voice he knew made her emotions flip. It was so unfair.
"I learn from you all the time. You’re a great bad example," she teased, using her long hair to cover her blushing cheeks, which may have been a pointless move in the presence of an empath. “Sometimes if I’m in a bind, I think, ‘What would Keefe Sencen do?’ And then I don’t do that.”
"What I'm hearing is, you think of me when you're in tough situations," he said with that stupid smirk again.
"Did you miss the entire latter half of that?"
"You're not denying it," he sang teasingly.
“You’re impossible,” Sophie groaned, though her frustration was affectionate and he knew it, and she knew he knew it because he could always feel her emotions, and it drove her a little crazy.
Keefe’s teasing attitude dropped slightly, which would have been a relief if his suddenly worried, caring tone hadn’t made her stomach flip-flop almost as much. "Seriously, Foster, you look a bit stressed. I think you might be over-studying. Trust me when I say you will be fine. If I can make it on nothing but my photographic memory and blazing confidence, then your photographic memory paired with hours of studying are practically a guarantee for perfect scores.”
Despite knowing that he was probably right, not that she would ever pair the words 'Keefe' and 'right' in a sentence out loud without a 'never' shoved in there, she couldn’t quite stop herself from worrying. Naturally, he picked up on her continued anxiety. “Seriously. You need to relax, or you’re going to make yourself sick and break your almost three week streak of not having to visit Elwin.”
Sophie smiled at that. "It is a rather impressive streak." There was Keefe Sencen again and his uncanny ability to always say the right thing.
“How about we go on a walk?” he offered, standing and offering her his hand like a gentleman in an old movie. She blushed as she let him pull her to her feet. “Get you away from those textbooks and out into the fresh air.”
After he’d helped her to his feet—which she definitely noticed he did not have to do—he continued holding onto her hand. Sophie reminded herself he could feel all of her emotions, and tried to keep them as steady as possible. It wasn’t like it was the first time Keefe had ever touched her hand.
But this felt different, somehow. A very nice type of different.
She mentally berated herself for acknowledging the thought. Thoughts led to feelings which led to Keefe knowing what she wasn’t saying out loud, and the last thing she needed Keefe Sencen to know was that his frequent flirty remarks and gentlemanly behavior had recently been making her insides twist into knots and then melt.
As soon as they got outside, Sophie felt the wind hit her face. She watched as some of the colorful fallen leaves swirled off the ground, indicating the time of year. It was chilly, but there was something about holding his hand that kept her from really getting cold.
Which was another unhelpful thought that she shouldn’t be having!
"Do you have your enhancing on?" Keefe asked suddenly, right as they were leaving the silver tower.
Sophie frowned, confused as to why he asked. "No, I don't activate it unless someone needs it." She did a quick check to make sure the ability was, in fact, off, and that she hadn’t accidentally turned it on in her frustrating haze of new and unhelpful emotions. It was, though, so why would he think it wasn’t? “Why, am I feeling something really strongly?” Oh gosh, she was, wasn’t she? She focused her gaze on anywhere but him, watching a few leaves falling from a nearby tree. Her attention was brought back to him once more, though, when one of them landed in his hair, and she reached up to brush it away, blushing when he met her eyes.
"It feels… normal. But enhancing normal." He shook his head, frustrated. "I just… don't get it."
“Don't get what?" But she had another question, too. “What’s… ‘enhancing normal’?”
Keefe chuckled. "I don't know if I want to answer that."
"These are my emotions we're talking about.” She’d heard him say things like this before, especially when he was enhancing her, but he’d always told her he couldn’t tell her what she was feeling. It annoyed her to no end. If she was feeling it, then what was so bad about telling her? Shouldn’t she already know? “Is it… the thing with my heart emotions?”
"It feels like it is, but you told me your enhancing was off. That's what feels wrong."
“Well, they’re my emotions,” Sophie reminded him, “so maybe I’ve just become more aware of some of my feelings.” As soon as the words left her mouth, her heart rate doubled in speed.
She had recently become more aware of some of her feelings.
But…
“Have an epiphany, Foster?” Keefe asked with a smirk. Sophie realized he’d probably felt the moment she’d had her realization—though was it a realization if her conjecture was wrong? Surely it wasn’t. Surely it didn’t count. And she had to be wrong.
Because if she wasn’t… had he known about these silly, fluttery feelings in her stomach before she had?
And she’d spent all this time trying to strangle them to keep Keefe from noticing…
She dropped his hand, despite knowing it didn't make much of a difference when it came to him reading her emotions. “I just had an idea,” she mumbled. “For why you might have thought my enhancing was on, that is. But… it’s a stupid idea.”
Keefe reached over to lift her chin, making her look him in the eyes. Her heart started again at both kinds of contact—his eyes locking onto hers and his finger under her chin. “What makes you so sure it’s stupid?” he breathed.
“Because if I’m right,” she whispered, not needing much volume with him so close, “it means I’ve been feeling… this thing for way longer than I realized.”
“That doesn’t sound stupid at all,” he replied, and it felt like it should have been teasing, but for some reason, it wasn’t. Almost like he was as breathless in this moment as she was.
She hated the hope that sparked in her heart at the thought. This was making it harder to strangle back her emotions.
Then again… maybe she didn’t need to strangle them.
Maybe that was what she’d been doing all along.
And maybe this was her cue to finally let them free.