Sophia's Brother

Sophia ran up to the big oak door and rang the bell. She twirled her hair and bounced from foot to foot nervously while she waited for an answer. She wasn't nervous because of the massive size of the house or the incredibly important vibe it emanated. She was used to that. She had been coming here for years. No, it wasn't being in such a prestigious place that made her nervous. She was always nervous. But lately her nerves had been really bad. She had way too much on her mind. The door opened slowly and a young man with wavy brown hair and gorgeous blue eyes stepped into the doorway.
"Hey beautiful, what's shakin?" Oliver Pratt, Sophia's best guy friend, leaned up against the doorframe and flipped his hair out of his eyes.
"Are we going to watch these movies or not?" Sophia asked holding up 2 DVD's. Oliver laughed and led her inside to the extravagant living room. Sophia handed the disks to Oliver and sat down on the black leather couch while he put them in the DVD player. Oliver pressed a couple buttons on a tiny remote and the room was filled with the sound of previews coming from the surround sound speakers and the gigantic flat screen TV flashed to life.
"Do you want any snacks?" Oliver asked.
"Of course! Who watches movies without a snack?" Sophia jumped up off the couch and walked towards the kitchen. Oliver paused the movie and followed after her. When he walked in the room she was already standing in front of the fridge with the doors wide open.
"How do you have 12 different kinds of cheese but you don't have any pudding? Don't you have any normal snacks?" Sophia asked looking disgusted, "I mean who the hell eats caviar?"
"It's actually not that bad." Oliver smiled at Sophia's face of disgust, "Look in the bottom drawers. That's where all of my food is." Sophia opened one of the drawers and took out 2 soda cans and some string cheese.
"Do you have any candy?" She asked as she closed the refrigerator.
Oliver opened a cabinet and got out a bag of chocolate. A few minutes later their hands were full of snacks and they were sitting on the couch. Oliver pressed play on the movie, pressed a button on the remote to turn the lights out, and covered the both of them with a blanket.
When the second movie ended Oliver turned the TV off and started to tell Sophia about a movie he had seen a few weeks before with the same main actress as the movie they had just watched. Sophia closed her eyes and listened to his deep voice.
As he went on and on about the movie he had watched where the girl got hooked on drugs and lost control of her life Sophia's mind wandered back to 2nd grade.
"What do you want for dinner, Soph?" Conner asked, opening up the cabinets and looking for something to cook. He was only 10 years old but he was determined that they would not go to bed hungry.
"Do we have any sprite?" She asked him not bothering to open up the fridge and look for herself.
"Sophia, you cannot have sprite for dinner. How do green beans sound?" Conner pulled a can of green beans out of the cabinet and set them on the stove. Sophia didn't say a word as he searched for a pot in the cabinet under the microwave. She wasn't particularly fond of the idea of having green beans for dinner but there was no use in complaining. Conner would cook whatever he could find and that's what they would eat.
When the green beans were done cooking Conner put some in a bowl for each of them and grabbed 2 sodas from the fridge. Sophia watched him as he set the table and wondered if their mother would wake up for dinner. She hadn't eaten any meals with them all week and Sophia was starting to wonder if she was ever going to come out of her room.
"I'm going to go ask mommy if she wants to eat with us." Sophia said running down the hallway towards their mother's room. She slid in her socks and stopped right in front of the bedroom door.
"Do you smell something burning?" She yelled to Conner in the kitchen.  She opened the door to their mother's bedroom and saw her mom passed out with a lit cigarette in her hand. Before she could react, Conner pushed past her and snatched the cigarette from their mother's hand, which had been burning a fairly good sized hole in the comforter, and put it out in the ash tray. Not once during this interaction did their mother wake up or even budge from the position she was in.
Conner pulled the comforter up to cover his mom and ushered Sophia out of the room, "Mommy isn't feeling well, Soph. Just let her rest."
"But in the end it all worked out. She went to this really nice rehab place and got her life together."  Oliver finished his story bringing Sophia back to the present. If only life were that easy, she thought.
"Oliver," she whispered, "Shut up." She rolled on top of him and kissed his lips hard. She didn't want to listen to him talk anymore and she definitely didn't want to think anymore.  This would be a much needed distraction. Oliver didn't resist, but then, why would he? He'd had the biggest crush on Sophia for as long as she could remember and, though the feeling was not mutual, he was great in bed and he was great for getting her mind off things so she occasionally indulged him in his fantasies
A little over an hour later they were laying on the couch cuddling, "So, are you going to tell me what's wrong?" Oliver asked Sophia, "Or am I going to have to bribe it out of you with ice cream and coffee?" He knew her all too well. In fact he would be the perfect man for her if only she could think of him as more than just a friend.
"Ice cream and coffee does sound nice," She said, batting her eyelashes flirtatiously. She didn't plan on telling him what she had been worrying about but he could try and bribe her with sugary treats if he wanted. She wasn't going to object.
"Let's go to the store then," Oliver said as he began to put his clothes back on. They got in his car and Sophia immediately turned the radio up to full blast. Some horrible pop song was on the radio but it didn't matter. As long as the music was up Oliver couldn't badger her about what was bothering her. So she nodded along and pretended like she was enjoying the song so he wouldn't turn it down.  When the song ended Oliver turned the radio down.
"So what's on your mind, babe?" He asked.
"Nothing."  Sophia responded looking out the window.
"Cut the crap, Phi. You aren't fooling me. I know something is wrong with you." Oliver put his arm around her shoulder.
Sophia shook his arm off, "Ew. You know I hate it when you call me that!" she shrieked.
"Well I wouldn't be calling you anything if you would do the talking." He smirked.
"Fine. You want to know? My mom called me last week." Sophia closed her eyes.
"WHAT? Are you serious, Soph? Why didn't you tell me? Did you talk to her? What did she want?" Oliver had pulled into the store parking lot and was staring at Sophia wide eyed.
"No I'm totally kidding," Sophia remarked sarcastically, "Yes, she called me, and I answered. She wants to see me. She says she's been clean for 6 months now. And before you ask, no, I don't know what I'm going to do. I have no idea what I'm going to do. And the only person who I really want to talk to about this shuts down when I try.  Conner won't even let me bring up her name."
"Sophia I-"
"Don't. Just don't, Oliver. I appreciate you trying to talk to me about this but there's nothing you can do. I don't want to talk about it anymore. I just want to get my mind off of it." Sophia got out of the car and started walking towards the store entrance.  Oliver jumped out of the car and ran after her.
"There's a party tonight. You want to go?" He asked as he caught up to her.
"Where at?" Sophia asked still stalking towards the entrance.
"A house in the valley. It should be fun. I can pick you up. You could invite Avery. I'm sure she would love to go. She loves parties. I can pick her up too..." Oliver rambled on and on like he usually did, trying to make Sophia feel better.
A few hours later Sophia had picked out a slinky black dress, done her hair and makeup, and was sitting on her front porch waiting for Oliver to pick her up for the party. When he got there Avery was already in the car. They blasted music the whole way to the party to get pumped up.
Not 5 minutes after they got to the party Sophia had already downed 2 beers and showed no sign of stopping.  Oliver had volunteered to be the sober driver so he would keep an eye on Sophia and Avery the whole night to make sure they didn't get too wasted. A couple hours into the party Oliver walked into the kitchen where Sophia and Avery were flirting with some guys. They were taking shots of whiskey and vodka like pros, showing off like they always did.
Oliver hated watching Sophia do this. She went through guys faster than a fat man goes through cake. She never stayed with one guy for longer than a couple days, a week at most. She just played with them until she got bored and then moved on. She never grew feelings or got attached. They existed to her purely for her entertainment and to make her feel better about herself. Although Oliver never understood why she needed confirmation of her beauty from random men she didn't care about. Anyone with eyes could see how she radiated beauty. Her long blonde hair and bright green eyes were picture perfect, and she had the body to match it.
"Soph, Avery, are you guys ready to head out?" Oliver asked wrapping an arm around each of their shoulders. Sophia looked at Avery and shrugged.
"I guess so, Ollie. Can we stay at your house tonight? My dad will kill me if I roll in at 3 in the morning again this week." Sophia asked hanging on Oliver's arm to keep her balance. She waved at the boys she had been talking to and winked. Then she grabbed Avery's arm and dragged her with them.
"Yeah. And you know we can't go to my house. My mom would go ballistic," Avery added stumbling along beside Sophia.
"Yeah you guys can crash at my place I guess," Oliver said shaking his head. "I can't wait until you two get your apartment next month."
"Me too" Sophia and Avery said in sync.