Everything's Changing Now

Over the next month, there were more parties, movie dates, and other seemingly romantic goings-on between Sophie and Stephen, but both were oblivious to the fact. At work, Sophie eventually became used to Stephanie’s over eagerness for their job and life in general, but she couldn’t bring herself to hang out with her no matter how many times she’d been asked. John and Delaney were fully together by the middle of June, and much to the dismay of their friends, showed it quite often.

“See, Justin and I aren’t the only too much PDA couple,” Charis exclaimed, referencing John and Delaney who were situated half behind a tree, fully macking on each other.

“At least they try to hide it, though,” Stephen stated, causing a laugh from the rest of the group. Everyone was at Brian’s house, having the first sober bonfire of the summer; their alcohol connection was away for the week a family reunion.

“Whatever. I’m going to get some more pop, anyone want anything else?” Charis asked as she rose from her seat. A chorus of voices yelled drinks they wanted, and Sophie got up to help her carry them out. “So, have you and Stephen hooked up yet?” she asked as they entered the kitchen.

“What? No, why?” Sophie responded, confused. There hadn’t been speculation that the two were a couple, to her knowledge, since the party nearly a month ago.

“Oh, come on. You are both in love with each other, it’s obvious. You should make the first move, Stephen’s way too shy to do anything,” Charis said, bluntly.

“I wouldn’t go so far as to call it love-“ Sophie started.

“Aha! So you admit you at least like him! That’s definitely a start. Now invite him to dinner or something, make it a date,” Charis interrupted. The rest of the group had been planning on setting Stephen and Sophie up somehow, but no one could figure out how to do it. The two hung out almost constantly, but needed to be hit in the face with something that announced they both liked each other.

“We go out to eat all the time already. There’s not really much we could do that could be considered a date,” Sophie stated, racking her brain for other ideas of a good date. This was the first time she was admitting that she had feelings for Stephen, and it felt good to do so. She was glad she found another guy that she could see herself being with for a long time, someone who was completely different from Kyle. “I’ll try to think of something, I’ll be sure to run it by you before I do anything drastic.”

“That’s all I ask!” Charis laughed, following Sophie back outside.

Sophie took her seat next to Stephen after handing out the drinks in her hands. He had a look of contemplation on his face, and she wondered if the guys had talked to him about the same thing Charis talked to her about, or if he really did have feelings for her. She knew there was only one way to find out, but she wasn’t sure if she was ready to go down that road yet. Her mind was being incredibly indecisive, and if she didn’t make the first move she knew nothing would likely happen between Stephen and herself.

“Remember that camping trip we were talking about taking awhile ago?” Sophie, in a moment of bravery, turned to Stephen and asked.

“Yeah, why? If you wanna get a group together to go I’d be down,” Stephen replied, as if it were nothing. He was wondering if Sophie had realized that he liked her. He was accidentally dropping hints left and right, and half the time he was too embarrassed to look at her. The two had spent a lot of time together recently, and he had almost asked her out a few different times but never had the guts to do it. If they went on this camping trip, he’d have the perfect opportunity to talk to her alone and find out if she felt the same.

“Cool, when do you think would be a good time to go?” Sophie questioned, relieved that he wanted to go.

“Anytime, really. We could do it for two nights or something not too long. Would anyone else wanna go?” Stephen looked at the rest o the circle, and was answered by many nods. Their clued in friends wanted to see where this trip would land the two of them. Charis winked and gave a thumbs up to Sophie, who laughed and shook her head.