✧ ° ｡× — s a v a g e s

finally moving from the spot he had frozen into, he slowly approached the girl, arms pulling her into him. “soph….” he whispered to her, a hand gently coming up to the back of her neck, holding her closely. “the decision is ultimately yours.. your body, your rules, your decision..” he said in a cautious voice, nervousness still detectable. he was terrified, absolutely scared. constantly, the words dylan spat at him continued to replay, over and over. “i’m not leaving you..”

 a sigh of relief escaped her the moment ivan didn’t bolt out of her house. she needed him more than anything at this moment. her fears were eating her up each day and she knew she probably shouldn’t have been this reliant on him, but she couldn’t help it. “i wanna hear what you think. you matter just as much.” she affirmed, burying her face in his chest as she struggled to keep a calm composure. “i love you, ivan. more than anything.” she looked up, tip toeing to press a kiss to his cheek, tears continuing to flow down her cheeks as she spoke. “he’s wrong about you. i promise.” it was like she could read his mind. she knew how badly Dylan had affected him. his words were like daggers. even she couldn’t forget the chilling tone in his voice. “for what it’s worth if this is going to happen i think you’d be the best dad in the world. you and i can do anything so long as we’re together.”

listening to all the information that was given, she nodded as soph continued to speak. “yeah-just get a couple more done, be sure of it..” evangeline suggested to her best friend. who would have thought the two would be in these kinds of situations. they were young, supposed to be living life, not worrying about such things.. or maybe they were grown and eva just had to let go of such childhood thoughts, and learn to grow up. “soph, if you are or aren’t, you know you have my full support and i will help out in anyway that i can, okay? your best friend is here for you always..”

“i could go today but i think ivan might be getting here at any given moment.” she sighed, forcing a sad smile upon her lips. soph felt like she had lost so much. her mom was gone, and eva was living away in new york. all she had was ivan. he was family at this point and she couldn’t imagine him leaving too. “thanks, eva. you have no idea how much i miss you.” as selfish as it was to think, soph wished she would’ve had more time with eva. they spent their entire lives together and now it felt like a huge part of her was missing out across the country. it didn’t feel right and she wanted her best friend back. “i wish we could zap back in time and do it all again. you and me, before we were all forced to grow up.”

his body froze, posture suddenly becoming straighter and eyes wider. hearing his keys fall from his hand, followed by complete silence, ivan stared back at soph unknowing of what to say. controlling his breathing, he closed his eyes for a second only to open them once more and look at his hands. “you think you are or you are?” he asked, his voice quieter than before. hearing her plea, his heart felt tightened. he knew he wasn’t going anywhere but still the idea of having a kid was frightening him immensely. “soph…” he whispered, looking up at her with concern. 

soph stood in silence, swallowing down the lump that had formed in her throat. “the test was positive but it was only one. maybe it’s wrong…maybe it’ll all be okay.” she mumbled, staring nowhere else but towards the tile floors beneath them. her hands once again found themselves covering her face, this time in complete sadness rather than embarrassment. she let out a heavy sigh, tears rolling down her cheeks freely as she did her best to avoid breaking down in front of ivan. the last thing he needed to know was that she was just as terrified—that she had no idea what would become of them. “don’t…it’s okay, ivan.” she murmured, finally wiping at her tears and glancing over at him for the first time in minutes. “we’ll do whatever you want. i don’t have to keep it…we can make it work and you won’t have to leave.”

“yep, all that matters.” she sighed to her best friend before plastering on another smile. keeping quiet and letting her vent, the girl could feel nerves settling out through her body at soph’s confession. playing with her hair, she attentively turned towards the camera. “and it was positive? you’re having symptoms?” she tried questioning, wanting to understand every full detail of the situation. “you’re going to have to tell him though.. i mean-it’s not something you’ll be able to keep hidden soph..” eva tried for her to consider, knowing it wouldn’t be such a good idea. “i know.. but-you’ll figure this out..” the brunette tried. 

“well i missed my period and i’ve been feeling dizzy. i don’t know if that’s because i don’t sleep or because i’m pregnant.” she shrugged, tapping at her computer lightly to ease her nerves. ivan wouldn’t like this one bit. they had just recently settled things down and decided to be a couple again. it was likely that this could cause some trouble between them, that he might want to leave if he got too frightened. “but yeah…positive.” she pursed her lips together in thought. “i’ll get more tests tomorrow just to make sure. maybe get a blood test done too? just to be sure. then I’ll tell him if i am.”

placing the bag down on the kitchen counter, ivan’s confusion didn’t leave his face as he listened to her explanation. the question made his stop for a second, raising an eyebrow at her. “how would i feel?” he questioned, more to himself at the moment. “well um-” he began, trying to find the words. it’s not that he wouldn’t be ecstatic, deep down he would. would he? was he capable of being a good father? with his experience… and now dylan’s words ringing through his mind.. would that ever be a possibility for him? would he want that? “i um-..” he tried again, his face heating up a bit at his nervousness. “the idea of starting a family is beautiful, don’t get me wrong but, honestly..but-i’d be terrified.” he whispered in complete honesty. with his eyes looking down towards their take out, he took a second to think before continuing. “i don’t think it would be a good idea, with me i mean.” he finished, looking up at her this time. 

 soph held the pen in her hand, completely spacing off as ivan spoke. she could hear him faintly in the background, but her mind had been focused elsewhere. this wasn’t something she could hide for very long and now would be the perfect time to know, to plan out their next steps. but there was a part of her that wished to refrain. he couldn’t handle this, wouldn’t be able to see her the same if she told him this kind of news. “oh,” she finally mumbled, setting her notebook and pen aside. the brunette couldn’t handle keeping this to herself much longer. he needed to know. he deserved to know. “i am.” she finally spoke up, eyes avoiding his gaze as she stood there, lifting her hand to run her fingers through her hair. “i think i’m pregnant, ivan.” her heart sank as the words left her lips, and as soon as they did she wished she could take them back. “please don’t leave.” she sighed, tears welling up in her eyes as she spoke.

“we’re great, soph. everything is great.” she lied, knowing her brand new marriage was far from it. being a happy wife and living a happily ever after was far from what eva was living at this point. just loneliness, to be quite honest. “i think i might to be quite honest, i’ll take you with me, well on facetime.” she chuckled, forgetting that they weren’t physically near one another. with the sudden news, her eyes went wide staring back into the camera, her expression completely shocked. “……..wait, what?” she asked trying to process everything. “have you taken a test, soph?” 

 “good. that’s all that matters.” even through a computer screen, soph could tell with her best friend was lying. the look on her face said it all, her eyes slightly gleaming with sadness. the thing was, however, that soph refused to call her out on it. they weren’t those types of friends. whenever eva felt comfortable telling her the truth then she’d be open to hearing her. until then, she had no intention of adding fuel to the fire. interfering sometimes is the worst someone could do. she learned that much from ivan and dylan. “i took one,” she huffed, cheeks burning with embarrassment as she revealed what had been tormenting her for the last few days. “i can’t tell ivan, can i? he’ll freak out.” the girl buried her face in her hands as she took a deep breath. really, she was more scared that he’ll decide to leave her at a time like this. “i’m so scared.” she mumbled, finally looking up toward her computer screen.

with a bag of takeout in his hand and his phone in the other, ivan tried his best to open the door without causing much trouble or sound. he wanted to surprise sophia with a relaxing afternoon, food always being a conversation starter for the both of them. he knew he needed to find some way to open up, especially after his behavior changing due to not speaking with his best friend, it had been a couple of weeks but even time wasn’t healing the wound. hearing the brunette speaking to herself, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion, closing the door behind him with his body. “…you okay there?” he asked softly. 

it was taking a great amount of effort for soph to keep this to herself. she had already revealed her secret to eva, but for some reason she couldn’t muster up enough courage to tell ivan. he was dealing with too much at the moment and she didn’t want to find herself being the source of his added stress. “not gonna tell him,” he mumbled, tugging a strand of dark brown hair behind her ear. the sound of ivan’s voice echoing through the tiny house completely threw her off guard, a low yelp emitting past her lips as she turned to face the boy. “i’m fine…it’s a writer’s block thing i’m going through.” she mumbled with a sigh, suddenly feeling guilty for withholding the truth. “maybe you could help out!” the girl stepped forward, grabbing a pen and her notebook as thought to pretend this was actually work related. “if i for instance told you i was pregnant, how would you feel?” she raised a brow, curious as to what his answer might be. “it’s uh for a creative writing thing..i wanna capture the character’s emotions.”

“i wouldn’t!” she chuckled but quickly grew quiet. eva could pick up on sophia’s tone when it came to speaking about kyle, forcefully placing a small smile on her lips. “uh-yeah, he’s out with the team.. workouts, ya know?” she huffed a bit, knowing her best friend wouldn’t understand at all, ivan always made an effort to be around soph, kyle around eva… not so much. “i’m just here-” avoiding the word home, because it felt far from it, the girl waved her hands around to gesture to the penthouse apartment. “how’s everything over there? how are you?” she asked, attempting to change the subject. 

“yeah, well, hot shot or not he better be making my best friend happy,” soph warned. if there was one thing the girl cared about it was eva’s happiness. after all that’s happened, she couldn’t imagine her friend facing yet another great deal of heartbreak. she didn’t deserve any of it. “maybe you should get a puppy. those are great company.” she suggested, shrugging her shoulders nonchalantly. her smile faltered the moment the other girl had asked how she was doing. what could she possibly say? there had been so much going through her mind, and eva suddenly brought her back to it…to the scary reality. “i’m pregnant,” she blurted, staring straight into her computer screen, afraid of what the other girl might say. “i think i am. ivan doesn’t know and i’m scared to tell him.”

sitting on the california king sized bed, eva’s hands ran through her hair as she gave her best friend a smile, finally contacting her through the facetime application on her laptop. it was so uneventful, the marriage life, especially not having anyone to relate to, especially not having her best friend around. “hi! no-no, never soph, c’mon i would never!” she chuckled, shaking her head at the brunette’s ridiculous words. “it’s alright around here but, i miss you so much!” 

“good because i was starting to think you’d forgotten about your old pal.” she couldn’t help but giggle as well. she was happy they were still best friends despite the distance. after what hapened between ivan and dylan, she was sure she never wanted something like that to go down between them. “i miss you too! where’s your boy toy? i presume he’s off busy doing work related things.” she rolled her eyes. soph had never been a fan of kyle. something seemed so off about him, and she couldn’t help but suspect that those two weren’t good for each other.

Clenching his jaw, he kept his eyes on jack, seeing him smirk back in response and so badly wanting to wipe it off his face, but tonight he would be at his absolute best, especially for soph. Seeing her approach, his hands immediately fell to her waist, pulling her in for a quick kiss. “someone’s looking rather gorgeous tonight” he said softly in reply, stepping back to take a look at her once more. “absolutely gorgeous.” he smiled, before placing a kiss among her cheek.

his eyes looked up once more, now seeing dylan approach eva and kyle, his expression turning into complete worry. “we might have to be on the look out tonight…” he expressed to the shorter brunette before him. “something tells me we’re going to have a long night ahead of us… especially with that jackass over there.” he nodded towards the other male, who attempted not to stare in their direction. 

soph could feel the heat rising to her cheeks in response to ivan’s compliment. he never ceased to make her excited whenever he was around. she wasn’t sure what it was, but she never found herself growing bored with his affection. “says the one who looks like an absolute showstopper.” she rolled her eyes playfully as she tiptoed to peck his nose. 

the girl could already imagine who ivan was referring to as she turned to eye her best friend, dylan, and kyle just inches away from one another. they seemed to be doing alright for now, but with dylan you could never expect what could come next. “tell me about it. i can feel trouble ahead of us.” she sighed softly, running her hand up and down her arm nervously. “hey, don’t worry about him. it’s just one more day and then we’ll go back to normal...i hope.” 

Not knowing exactly how he was going to do it, Ivan’s hands nervously rubbed against one another as he entered his best friend’s business. Now being friends with all, he was unsure and completely lost on how this would work. Dylan owning the place and having to see Eva, whom he now couldn’t necessarily be so irrational towards and of course Soph, the love of his life in which he would do his absolute best to impress in such situation. 

Swinging the door open, he hummed to himself before spotting Dylan, making his way over and greeting him. His eyes traveled along the place, seeing everyone on task, almost in sync and entirely focused, one could tell that people of such titles would be walking in through the doors, it threw him off not really seeing Eva in such light, just a girl, who could surf and who his best friend couldn’t make a decision on, 

But finally, his girl was in sight, immediately catching his attention and a smile at his lips, which only seemed to last a matter of seconds, seeing Jack trailing behind her, and his eyes trailing on her behind. 

soph couldn’t help but walk in tonight with an uneasy feeling in her stomach. she’d support eva until the end of time, but even she knew this wasn’t the right thing for her best friend to do. it wasn’t so much her choice to marry kyle, but rather the fact that she had been planning to do it while still hopeleslly in love with someone else. there was no denying, no hiding that her best friend was in love with dylan. but in less than twenty-four hours this was happening. her friend would be handing herself off to someone she barely knows and moving away to california. it was bittersweet. on one end her friend was finally forgetting someone who wasn’t good for her. on the other? she hadn’t really forgotten about ivan’s best friend.

things weren’t so easy for her either. she wasn’t sure how much more ivan could take knowing she was seeing jack nearly everyday at wedding rehearsals. she tried to ignore his advances as much as possible, seeing as she wanted nothing to do with him anymore. ivan was right about him and soph truly couldn’t wait until this whole thing was over. what she wanted most in this world was to walk down that isle with ivan by her side, not the guy who nearly tarnished her entire career. 

but there he was again, trying to talk to her as she wordlessly made her way into dylan’s restaurant. this was quite the choice for a venue and it was almost obvious by the look on ivan’s face that drama was inevitable. even en, she tried to ease the tension by making her way straight over to her boyfriend. “someone’s looking dapper tonight.” she gleefully smiled at him, effortlessly lacing her fingers with his.