Sophitz Forever

Chapter Thirty-Three

"It's tomorrow! It's tomorrow! I can't breathe, I can't breathe, oh my God. I'm so scared! What am I going to do when tomorrow finally comes?" Sophie was hyperventilating and Biana and Linh were trying desperately to calm her down. She had been panicking for the past twenty minutes after the thought of the next day finally hit her. Tears were running down her face and she was obviously struggling for breath as her friends tried to comfort her.

"Sophie, please. Breathe," Biana begged. "Take a deep breath. Calm down."

"I can't. I can't. I'm getting married. Do you understand what that feels like? Of course you don't. It's scary. Oh my God. In less than 24 hours, I won't be Sophie Foster anymore. I'll be Sophie Foster-Vacker." Sophie was sitting in the wedding dress that had managed to come that day, to her relief. She had been excited to see that it had actually come when she had had so many doubts about it. It was as perfect as it was before.

"Sophie, you need to calm down." Biana was getting really worried as Sophie struggled to calm herself down.

"I can't." Sophie started to breathe even harder, her face turning red.

Biana turned to Linh. "What should we do?"

Linh sighed. "There's only one thing I can think of." She leaned over to whisper in Biana's ear, who sighed and turned back to Sophie.

"Sophie, I need you to change back to normal clothes. Please?" Biana looked so scared that Sophie hurriedly got into normal clothes, though she was confused as to what was going on and mentioned that fact many times.

"What is this for, Biana?" Sophie was still going insane.

"Just be quiet and come with me," Biana said.

Biana led Sophie into a path of light and soon, they were in Everglen. "What are we doing at your house, Biana?"

"You need to calm down. And there's only one person who can do that right now." Biana led her inside and up the stairs into Fitz's room. Sophie heard voices inside and pulled back but Biana sighed and kicked open the door.

"Keefe, Fitz," Biana nodded at each boy, dragging Sophie behind her. Keefe looked up and grinned widely.

"Foster! Aren't you supposed to be getting your beauty sleep? I mean, not gonna lie, tomorrow's a very important day and..." Keefe trailed off as he saw her face. "Foster? Are you okay?"

Fitz looked up at that and stood up quickly. "Sophie? What's wrong?" Sophie was silent and Biana groaned, filling in what was wrong. "Sophie's hyperventilating. About tomorrow. She has cold feet."

"Sophie, come here," Fitz said gently. He pulled her into his arms and she started to cry into his shoulder. Keefe cleared his throat and Sophie looked at him.

"Should I leave?" Biana kicked him and he raised his hands in surrender. "Okay, okay, I was just asking." Keefe and Biana left the room.

Sophie turned back to Fitz, more tears brimming in her eyes. "I'm sorry, Fitz. It has nothing to do with you. It's just..."

"Shh, shh, shh. What is there to be sorry about? You're scared. So am I."

Sophie looked up. "You are?"

"Of course I am. Tomorrow is going to be the best day of my life. But it's something I've only ever dreamed about, and now that it's happening, I'm scared to let that dream become reality so soon. I mean, just. It's scary and it's all happening so fast and it never seemed real till now."

"So you want to wait?" Sophie asked tentatively. She wasn't sure how she felt about that.

"No, of course not! But I'm scared just like you. Okay? There's nothing to be sorry about." Fitz rubbed Sophie's back. Then he took a deep breath and pushed her away from him. "Sophie? Let's take things slow after we get married."

Sophie started to blush as she processed the words. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, we have tons of time after we get married. I mean, because elves live longer. And I know humans like to rush things after marriage... but we elves like to wait... a little longer..."

"To what?" Sophie was pretty sure she knew the answer but she had to ask to make sure.

Fitz blushed. "To... you know... I mean... start a family."

Sophie sat up straight, blushing furiously. "Fitz! I'm seventeen! It's not that common to have a baby at seventeen. I mean, it happens, but not as much as when you're older. People technically get married later as well."

"Yeah, so do elves. After a hundred years or so."

"No, not that long for humans..." She trailed off.

"Sophie?" Fitz asked suddenly.

"Yeah?" she responded.

"Do you think we're taking things too quickly?" He actually looked nervous and Sophie couldn't help but protest.

"No! Why wait for next time when we can be together now?"

"I don't know. I'm just afraid about what the people are saying about us..." 

"What do you mean?" Sophie asked. She hadn't heard anything about this before.

"I mean, we're taking things a lot faster than basically all other elves ever. We're going to be the youngest married couple in elven history after tomorrow." Sophie stiffened. She had no idea. She thought that there must have been a few stray couples who had decided to get married earlier. Fitz continued and Sophie forced herself to listen. "And you know... about things like starting a family... well, the people are saying that we're only getting married because... like... you know... we already have... um... started." Fitz was blushing probably as much as Sophie was now.

"What? Where did you hear these things?" Sophie asked, her cheeks crimsoning still more because of anger and more embarrassment at this new information. People thought she was pregnant? Did she look pregnant or was it just gossip? Sophie didn't think she was big or anything but she wasn't a slender model either.

"People are just talking. And being a Vacker makes me able to know things that happen around our world. And Dad kind of brought it up to me." Fitz blushed and looked away. "We had to have that... talk. About... you know." Sophie didn't know why she had to talk about this right now.

"You and Alden had that talk?" Sophie couldn't really imagine that happening. It was too disgusting and weird.

"Yeah. I also had it with Grady," Fitz admitted. Sophie was astounded.

"What? How much did he embarrass you?" Sophie could imagine that happening but it was still enough to make her angry at her father. Did her dad really not trust her with things like this?

"Um... it went along the lines of 'You keep her safe! Do not start a family until you're one hundred percent sure you're ready! That means in about a hundred years! And if I find out my daughter is pregnant before then, then you will be dead!'" Sophie groaned and covered her face with her hands while Fitz half-laughed behind her. She could feel his body shaking as he laughed.

"Fitz, I'm sorry. Grady was just being... Grady," she said.

"Oh, I know." Fitz leaned down to kiss Sophie. Changing the subject, he said, "This is awkward. Can we like talk about something else?"

"Yes! Please!" Sophie was relieved to move on. Before she could though, she had to say something. "Fitz, thank you."

"You're welcome. And thank you," he said. 

After a few more minutes of cuddling, Sophie finally left, ready for that beauty sleep, her nerves calmed down to functional and she was actually excited about the upcoming day.