5. Sophie #2
Instead, the silence creeps back. I try to think of a way to defuse the bomb sitting in the middle of the table, but the words keep looping in my head. My own secret, buzzing, begging to get out. Every time I swallow it, it feels heavier. I’m either going to explode or suffocate under its weight.
Then June, of all people, throws me the lifeline—or so she thinks. “So, Soph, you said you had some news to share with everyone?”
It’s too sudden, too soon. My mouth dries out instantly, and for a second, I wish I could teleport to a time when this had already happened. But unfortunately, there’s no point in hesitating. Not anymore.
I glance at Noah beside me and clear my throat. The scrape of chair legs draws all eyes, but I look only at Danny and Trent as I say, “Actually, yeah, there’s something I wanted to tell you both.”
Trent leans back, arms crossed. “This should be good.”
I want to smack the smugness off his face. Instead, I try to laugh, but it’s brittle. “I mean, at the very least, it’s overdue.”
I flick a glance at Meredith and June—they’re both angled toward me, like twin lighthouses bracing for a storm.
Deep breath. “I wanted to do this right. With all of us here. So, the thing is…I’m dating someone.”
Nobody says anything, though Noah touches my leg, encouraging me but also letting me do this my way.
We’d talked about it, and I wanted to be the one to tell them.
Now I was rethinking that choice. I should’ve just done what he suggested—send them a message on Snapchat.
It would’ve been a lot easier than this, that’s for sure.
I push forward, knowing there’s no rescue coming next. “I’m dating Noah. I have been for a few months.”
And the bomb in the middle of the table detonates.
Trent’s lips curl. “Wow, sharing secrets with the family? That’s new.”
I wince. “That’s not?—”
“Don’t start.” His words are as sharp as shrapnel. “Seriously. You spent the last year telling me not to lie, not to sneak around, making it sound like honesty was a thing you actually cared about.”
“That’s not fair,” I say, my voice too thin. “I wasn’t trying to hide from you. I just?—”
But he talks right through me. “You just what? Didn’t want to deal with me getting mad? Didn’t want to risk it being awkward with Danny?”
Danny jumps in before I can answer. “Or maybe you were just waiting to see how much you could pull without us finding out. Like, what? We’re idiots?”
“That’s not—” I start, but my voice is useless now. “I swear, I didn’t want it to be a thing.”
Trent’s laugh is cold. “You didn’t want to make it weird, so you just didn’t tell us. Wow. What a role model.”
Danny, now properly invested, angles himself into the fray, siding with Trent in a weird sort of sudden camaraderie after the icy tension that had radiated off them the moment they arrived.
“Kinda hilarious, isn’t it? All those speeches about honesty and trust, and you’re the one sneaking around with my dad? ”
I grip the edge of the table hard enough to make my fingers ache. “Danny, that’s not what happened. We just—we weren’t sure at first. I didn’t want to make a big deal of it if it fizzled, and I didn’t want you guys caught in the middle.”
Trent’s chair creaks as he rocks back, arms hugging his chest. “Classic. You don’t want to be the bad guy, so you just make us the problem for asking questions.”
“That’s not what I’m saying?—”
“You never say what you actually mean.” His voice is just loud enough to punch a hole through my chest. “You want us to be honest and open and all that, but you won’t give it back.”
Danny uses Trent’s anger as momentum for his own. “It’s actually kind of embarrassing. All those talks about ‘real conversations’ and whatnot—maybe you should, I dunno, practice what you preach.”
Noah stands next to me, dropping his napkin onto his seat.
“I’m not sure either of you really knows your place.
And you’re both being incredibly disrespectful.
We are parents first. Adults who are allowed private lives.
That’s not keeping secrets. It’s not hiding.
It’s doing our jobs. Keeping you both safe until we believe it’s in your best interest to be involved.
We don’t have to justify that to you or ask your permission.
I’m sorry your feelings are hurt, but it doesn’t give you the right to talk to Sophie the way you are. ”
I look at Meredith, desperate for a life raft. Her face is gentle, her eyes calm, but she doesn’t intervene. Not yet. She’s hoping Noah and I can bring the boat to shore before it sinks and we all drown.
June’s jaw is working, but she’s holding back, waiting for an opening to do damage control.
I try again. “I get it. You’re mad. And you have every right to be. I should’ve told you a lot sooner. But I was scared. I just didn’t want to mess things up.” My shoulders fall on a sigh.
“Spoiler, you did,” Trent says, his voice flat.
Noah meets his eyes. “Trent?—”
I have no idea what he’d planned to say, but I can tell by the twitch in his jaw that he was losing his patience. Thankfully—or maybe not, I don’t know at this point—Danny pushes his plate forward, done eating.
“You could’ve just said something, like, weeks ago. Literally nobody cares that much. It’s the secret part that sucks.”
I sit back down, feeling defeated and hopeless, like nothing I ever do is the right thing. No choice I make ever suits other people. Tears well in my eyes, but I fight like crazy to keep them from falling.
It’s like Noah can sense them without even looking down. He takes his seat next to me, then presses his leg to mine in a show of solidarity without further angering the boys, silently letting me know he’s there with me.
Trent’s face flushes. “Yeah, well, some of us already know how it feels to get left out of the loop. But don’t worry, Soph, you’re still the queen of that move.”
Eddie quietly says, “All right, let’s not?—”
“You’re mad at us for not being perfect?” Danny scoffs, ignoring Eddie’s interrupted plea. “Maybe start with figuring it out for yourself.”
I can feel the words sharpening, turning mean.
Nothing I said landed the way I wanted it to.
But they’re both going for the jugular, intentionally trying to be cruel.
I had asked Noah to let them express what they were feeling, but I hadn’t expected an all-out assault.
I expected disappointment, maybe even discomfort—but I hadn’t expected either of them to be downright mean.
Meredith finally moves, settling beside me. “It’s tough, learning stuff like this. Maybe we could?—”
But Trent cuts her off. “What, talk about our feelings? Like that ever helps.”
Somewhere in this, I feel June’s hand on my wrist, grounding me. She tries to mediate, her voice gentle. “Look, nobody’s perfect. Soph just wanted to be sure before?—”
It seems that’s enough for Trent. “But she didn’t trust us with it. That’s the point.” He pushes back his chair so hard the legs scrape a scar into the wood, the sound screeching throughout the now-quiet room.
I open my mouth, but nothing comes out. Not anything worth saying.
Then Danny viciously mutters, “Running away again instead of dealing with things?”
“At least I don’t pretend everything’s fine when it’s not.” He’s already moving around the table, leaving his plate exactly where it is—half-finished. “I’m done.” He doesn’t look at any of us as he heads for the hallway.
I try to plead with him. “Trent, please?—”
But he’s not listening. He’s already moving. And somehow, I’ve totally lost control of him, of us. I’m supposed to be his guardian, the person to guide him, but I can’t even get him to hear me out or talk to me like I’m not his enemy.
June goes to follow, but he shakes her off.
He’s at the front door in three strides, yanking it open so fast the frame rattles.
And then he just—stops.
He’s braced in the doorway, gripping the jamb, every muscle in his body gone from furious to frozen. He’s staring at something none of us can see.
Behind me, everyone else has gone silent.
He’d warned me. Noah had tried to tell me that we should take a different approach. He’d said over and over that we didn’t need their permission. But he’d still let me handle things my way. And I’d made a mess of that.
I get to my feet, and Noah grabs my hand. I don’t know if it’s to stop me from going after Trent, to join me, or to just let me know he hasn’t left my side, even though this has not gone well.
But Trent doesn’t move.
He just stands there, blocking the night, staring at the last person I ever expected to see on June’s doorstep—Ashton.