Under Pressure

Sophie walked out of her Study Hall period twenty minutes early, annoyed by the clicking of pens and squeaking of wet sneakers against the tile floors. Her backpack tossed over one shoulder as she shoved the bangs of her brown hair out of her eyes, she walked down the hall quickly.

She had thirty minutes until her next class giving her enough time to look over her research paper in front of her locker, where it was probably much quieter than the room she'd previously been in.

Tossing her bag onto the white tile floor she plopped down and sighed deeply. She unzipped the little pocket in the front of her bag, pulled out her cell phone and looked at the tiny screen which read, 1 New Text Message. Sophie couldn't help but smile slightly, already knowing who the message was from.

He was the only one who would text her during school.

Clicking “View,” she read the short message from Chris that said, “Hey baby, what are you up to?”

Sophie replied with a quick, “Nothing, trying to write my paper. You?”

Dropping her phone into her lap, she opened up her bag and pulled out her research notes and green spiral bound notebook. She opened it and began to write from her notes when her phone vibrated in her lap. She opened the text, “Getting ready to dip out of Elsworth's class. It’s so fucking boring.... What are you doin after school baby?”

Looking down at her notebook, she bit her lip and replied, “Nothing. You have something in mind?” She knew that she should go home, finish her paper, and just be done with it, but she wanted to spend time with Chris knowing that once football season started hanging out would be nearly impossible.

She browsed her notes until her phone vibrated again and looked at the message, “Yeah, thought we'd go back to my house. My parents aren't gonna be home until later tonight. I thought you and me could go over, watch a movie or two...” She was about to hit the reply button when another text from Chris came in, “...Maybe screw around a little.”

Sophie frowned, her forehead creasing. She gave an aggravated sigh and replied, “I'm not sure about the last part but yeah for the first.”

She dropped her phone to the tile and resumed her paper, writing about three sentences before the phone buzzed and she picked it up again. “What do you mean? Come on, it’s not like I'm asking you for sex or anything. I thought we'd just mess around, see where it led us. We've been dating for over two months and I haven't gotten any.”

Becoming angry she texted while mumbling to herself, “Yeah, well, now you're not getting anything. I'm gonna just go home and work on my paper...” She sent the message and looked at the time, only a minute or two until the bell rang so she sent him another text, “Talk to you later. I've got to go to my next class.”

Sophie stuffed her things back into her bag except for her phone and was starting to stand when the bell rang and students began to flood out of the classrooms. Looking at it once more, she sighed and stuffed it into the left front pocket of her jeans

.xxx.

After school Sophie checked her phone to see no texts from Chris and sighed, knowing that he was probably mad at her. She went her locker to put the books she didn't need back before heading out to the parking lot.

Her car was parked in the senior lot only about three rows from Chris', she hoped that maybe she could catch him and apologize for what happened early.

She was about two cars away from her own car when she noticed the crowd around Chris' car. Several of the guys from the football team and girls from around the school were laughing as Chris leaned against the trunk of his car. Sophie bit her lip and walked slower to see if he would notice her.

Except he didn't.

He was too busy flirting with the girl closest to him to notice her. Sophie watched as his arm went around her waist and he leaned down to whisper something in her ear, the girl giggled and nodded before turning and kissing him.

Sophie decided that it was time to get over there and confront him.

“Chris!” she called as she got closer. His eyes drifted over to her and his smile fell as he got to the group, “I need to talk to you,” she said calmly.

“Alright then, talk babe.”

“In private, Chris.” Her tone becoming angrier.

He rolled his eyes and detached himself from the girl who she finally realized to be Amber, a girl she shared fifth hour with. “I'll be right back, gotta deal with this.”

Sophie backed up until she knew they couldn't over hear their conversation and put her hands on her hips and he came to face her, “What do you want?”

“What do I want?” she repeated, “Maybe for you to actually act like you have a girlfriend.”

“Why don't you start acting like one?”

“Is this about earlier today?” she asked, “God, you're so damn immature. I don't want to have sex with you, whoop-dee-fucking-doo. You knew getting into this I wouldn't just hop into bed with you.”

Chris clenched his fist before saying angrily, a little louder than she would have liked, “I don't want sex. God, I wanted to spend time with you, get in a little more than a peck on the lips for once.”

“Yeah, well, I'm not ready for more than a little peck. The least you could do is talk to me about it instead of going off and trying to hook up with some slutty hoe that you barely know.” Sophie snapped, becoming angrier by the word.

“Maybe I wouldn't have to if you weren't such a prude. God, you're Ice Queen half the time,” he spat, knowing exactly which words to use to make it hurt the most.

“Don't say that to me!” she yelled, shoving him except his didn't budge.

Chris unclenched his fist and shoved her back. Causing her to fall back against a car and hit it hard, “I knew you were a fucking mistake.”

Tears came to her eyes, “What’s wrong with you?! God, I don't even fucking know you anymore.” Then as loud as she could she spat venomously, “I hope you catch herpes from that bitch.” With that she quickly turned around and ran to her car.

.xxx.

Sophie lay curled up in her bed, with a box of Kleenex and her dog, Benny. “God, Ben, why are you the only guy in my life that's not a complete asshole?” she asked, as she petted his soft black fur. He just continued to look at her and she sighed, “I wish you could actually talk, it'd be a lot better that way. Like Brian off of Family Guy, that'd be cool.”

She laughed to herself a little bit before wiping her eyes with the tissue and tossing it into the almost full waste basket by her bed. “If you could talk, I'd have you scare the hell out of Chris.” She buried her face into his fur and closed her eyes, “I love you, Benny. You're such a good listener.”

Her face stayed buried in his fur until her cell phone buzzed on the nightstand of her bed, causing Benny's ears to perk up. He sat up quickly and jumped off the bed as Sophie reached for her phone. Looking at the ID she saw Chris' picture and name. “Jackass,” she muttered to herself as she tossed the phone to the side and laid back down. The phone stopped buzzing for a few seconds before starting up again. “Oh my fucking god,” she growled.

Sitting up quickly, she snatched the phone from where it lay on the bed and answered it, “What do you want?”

“I'm sorry, Soph. I was stupid and mean,” Chris apologized, his voice sounded sincere but Sophie didn't say anything back. “I love you. I know I was an ass, Soph, and I know I messed up really bad but I'm hoping you can give me a second chance.”

“Under one circumstance,” Sophie said after a few moments.

“Anything, Soph, just name your price.”

“Tell me why.” Those three words caused Chris to fall into silence. He didn't say anything for a few moments and Sophie continued. “It’s a simple request. Tell me why you act the way you do. Tell me why you shoved me and why you feel the need to put me down when I don't want to do what you want to do.”

“I uh... I really don't know, Soph,” Chris said softly, “I don't have a reason for it.”

Sophie closed her eyes and bit her lip, that wasn't the answer she wanted. Not even close. She had expected a real reason, like he was mad or he was frustrated and lost his cool for a little while.

Not that he didn't know.

“How often is this gonna happen?” she asked, determined to know.

Chris sighed, “I don't know, but Soph, I love you. That’s all that matters.”

“Wrong, Chris. I'm not indestructible or bulletproof. I'm not just gonna let you push me around and walk all over me because you don't like that I don't want to do what you want to do.” This time it was her turn to sigh, “When you can tell me why then I might give you another chance but for now I'm stepping back.”

“Sophie, wait!”

“I'll see you around school, I guess.” With those last words she hung up the phone and dropped it onto the bed. Grabbing a tissue she wiped under her eyes and whispered to herself, “All you had to do was tell me why.”