Tall Sophie Ch. 06

S: Lauren says you stink

S: lol ;-)

S: l8r

Tom lay in bed and closed his eyes. He felt the same spinning sensation he had experienced the night before. He fell deeper into the mattress. Before he drifted off to asleep he remembered to message the office that he would be taking a sick day. Then he dropped onto his pillow. Sleep was his only weapon against the dread that beleaguered him.

***

Tom awoke mid-afternoon with a splitting headache. His anxiety had not abated, rather it had increased as he recalled nightmares of court trials and prison bars. And Sophie taunting him.

His head began buzzing with thoughts of what he would say to her when they met. She would have to come clean. It was self-defense, or at least defense of him and Lauren. They would go easy on her, maybe even acquit with evidence of Brad pulling the knife.

But she had saved him and Lauren, even if she had set him up. Was she not the 'good guy' in this equation? Brad was still a monster, even if her brutality was over the top. Was it fair to ask her to confess? Could it ruin her volleyball scholarship?

Tom arose and walked down to the basement to change the laundry, the debate still raging in his head. Then he returned to his bedroom, popped some painkillers and reluctantly took a shower. As the hot water streamed over him, he felt a semblance of relaxation for the first time that day.

Finished, he threw on jeans and a button-down then went downstairs to collect the sweatshirt. He remembered his oatmeal and went to the kitchen to reheat it. As he sat down, Lauren entered through the kitchen door.

"Oh? Hey Dad, didn't you go to work today?" Lauren said, surprised to see him.

"Ah, no I decided to work from home," he answered, unsure why he lied.

"Um, so the girls asked if you would come to the homecoming game tonight and hang out," she said, sensing it was an odd ask. "They want to thank you for standing up for us last night, even if we did lose."

"I'd be happy to, hun," Tom answered, allaying her concerns but not revealing his ulterior motive. "Just let me know when you're ready to leave."

"Okay, I'm going to try to finish my homework for the weekend now since I don't want to worry about it with the dance tomorrow and all," she said, ever the responsible student. "Let's plan on leaving at 6:00 or so, the game is at 7:00. That should leave us time to hang and get something from the snack bar."

"Sounds good," Tom said, trying to hide his impatience.

"Oh, and Dad, Sophie said exactly what you said about last night," Lauren said contritely. "I'm sorry I got upset. It was all just so messed up. I couldn't help it."

"It's okay, I understand," Tom said, relieved to at least have Lauren back on his side. "Let's just go and have a good time tonight."

"Deal," Lauren smiled, then headed up to her room with her book bag over her shoulder.

She's such a good kid, Tom thought. A wave of relief hit him as he thought of Lauren escaping the situation last night. He wanted to feel gratitude toward Sophie for saving her, but instead he was overwhelmed with resentment. Sophie had knowingly brought about the circumstances and endangered Lauren's welfare. He resolved that he had to convince her to confess.

***

Tom and Lauren stepped out of the car in the school parking lot and began walking toward the football field. They could see the glow of the lights above the back of the large bleachers in the distance. The size of the athletic complex signaled the strong emphasis on sports and the considerable money in the school district.

"Why are you wearing that ridiculous sweatshirt?" Lauren asked with an impish poke at his ribs. "It's like 3 sizes too big for you!"

"I don't know, it was the first thing I grabbed," Tom equivocated, relieved she didn't recognize it as Sophie's.

After paying for tickets, they strolled along the sidewalk in front of the bleachers gazing up in search of the senior volleyball crew. The sun was just setting and they had to shield their eyes from the bright stadium lights shining down from above the stands. A hand waved, then another. Lauren ran up to the familiar group of girls sitting a few rows from the top. Tom took the steps more carefully, not wanting to trip or get winded climbing up 15 rows. He registered that the night was cool but not biting, the perfect temperature where an extra layer was still comfortable, but not necessary.

"Hey, Thumper!" Elle cried.

"Hi, Mr. Douglas," Gina said, somehow remembering that Sophie had made her address him respectfully.

"Hey girls! Good to see you all again so soon," Tom declared, doing his best to flow with the situation. Sophie wasn't among them. "Sorry to hear the game didn't end well last night."

"Oh no!" Zoe exclaimed. "We're more sorry about what happened to your head. That guy was such an a-hole."

"You're, like, our hero," Jenn added with a smile. "That jerk has done that every year we've played at Mudville since Sophie and I made varsity freshman year. He drives her crazy!"

Tom had to disguise his reaction as more of the backstory was revealed.

"Aw, shucks," he hammed it up. "It was just too painful to hear him saying those awful things. And I guess it turned out to be painful to do something about it. But I would do it again," Tom feigned bravado, knowing inside that he would almost certainly cower if he had to do it over. "Speaking of Sophie, where is she?"

"Down on the field, wishing Dirk good luck or something," Elle said with a hint of jealousy, pointing down at the field.

Tom spotted Sophie with her arms around the neck of a football player a few inches taller than her. She rose to her tip toes and planted a deep kiss on his lips. One of her legs bent up in the classic foot pop, as if romantically seeing her man off to battle. She looked like a normal girlfriend, even a touch submissive. He noticed she was wearing the same varsity jacket as the night before, along with tight jeans. It must be his, Tom thought. He had resolved to be angry with Sophie, but the stirring cock in his pants betrayed him. The only emotion he felt was jealousy.

Sophie broke the kiss and walked away, over the track lanes that surrounded the field and to the bleachers. She bounded quickly up the metal steps, skipping multiple at a time. She looked like a giant to Tom, the stairs having been designed for little people.

"Hey Soph!" one of the girls cried.

"Yo captain!" another called.

Everyone stood to greet Sophie as she dished out a barrage of high fives and fist bumps. He noticed she skipped Gina, leaving her hanging. When she got to Tom, she playfully punched at his arm. It looked like nothing, but Tom winced quietly in pain. He knew it would leave a bruise.

"Hey killer," Sophie said with a smile and a hint of sarcasm. Then she lifted her head and scanned the bleachers. "No one's gonna mess with us today," she added, ending her sweep with Tom locked in her gaze.

She stood one bench up, towering above him. The varsity jacket had the name Dirk embroidered on the chest. It was buttoned to the top and the cut accentuated her broad shoulders.

"Ha!" Tom laughed unconvincingly, trying to play along but feeling intimidated.

"Not because of you," she muttered quietly, looking away from him toward the football field. Her hand gently touched his upper arm, then suddenly squeezed the spot she had just jabbed. Tom had to suppress a yelp and he remembered his anger.

"I need to talk to you," Tom whispered. He meant to sound serious and composed, but it came out haltingly from the discomfort and frustration that resurfaced with her subtle bullying. She continued staring into the distance, ignoring his entreaty.

"This should be a good game," Gina addressed Sophie, seemingly to get her attention. "I can't wait! Aren't you excited, Sophie?"

"I would be if I weren't still bitter about the way you fucked up our game last night," Sophie said caustically, her eyes flashing daggers at Gina.

"Hey, we lost because that nasty chick from the other team cheated," Lauren interjected, ever the peacemaker.

"I'm talking about three plays before when we had match point and Gina sent her bump into the referee stand," Sophie explained with annoyance.

Gina visibly shrunk in her seat. Tom felt for her. He understood what it was like to be an object of Sophie's ridicule, especially when craving her approval. He noticed that despite her current slouched posture, Gina was probably the second prettiest of Lauren's friends. She had full, pouty lips and dark, alluring eyes. Her olive complexion complemented her dark curly long hair. She glanced up and noticed Tom looking at her. Before he could look away, she pursed her lips and gave a half smile, seemingly of gratitude. He realized that she sensed his sympathy.

"How's our fearless quarterback, Sophie?" Elle asked, almost too curiously as she changed the topic.

"Oh, he's great, ready to kick some ass out there," Sophie stated with a cocky nod of her head. "I promised him a huge blowjob if we win. I figure we'll win."

Tom sucked in a breath as his dick hardened again. He observed the reactions around him. Jenn and Zoe snorted. Gina seemed to shift nervously in her seat. Elle rolled her eyes. Lauren covered her mouth to stifle a nervous laugh.

"He's got the most amazing cock you'll ever see," Sophie continued to nervous giggles. "It's so long and wide, even I struggle to deepthroat him. Luckily for him I've managed to work out a technique. He'll never leave me."

Everyone seemed to blush at once.

"You better keep him away from Rover over there," Jenn joked as Gina drooped further, pulling her chin inside of her white mohair turtleneck sweater.

"What do you mean, Jenn?" Lauren asked innocently.

"In the last few weeks, Gina's become quite the BJ queen," Jenn laughed, outing her teammate. "It seems like she's got another guy in the back of her dad's Range Rover every night."

Tom sensed that Jenn was trying to please Sophie by doubling down on tormenting Gina. He remembered Sophie once calling Gina repressed.

"Sometimes even at lunch," Jenn continued mercilessly. "I've also heard some crazy rumors..."

"Dude, my dad is right there," Lauren interrupted with exasperation.

"Why don't we get some food?" Sophie interjected. "I can take your dad to carry stuff, and to protect his virgin ears."

He felt her hands press into the sides of his head from behind, covering his ears lightly as a couple girls giggled. One finger pressed into the bruise on his temple. The sharp pain caused him to twist quickly away from her.

"Good idea, my treat!" Tom jumped in, eager to be alone with Sophie so he could finally tell her what he had rehearsed the past couple hours. His anger was building.

"Great, write all this down on your phone," Sophie commanded him as she began pointing at each girl and taking their orders.

When Sophie got to Gina, she momentarily sat up straight and brightened at the attention.

"You're getting a milkshake, Gina," Sophie directed, before Gina could speak.

Gina scowled and slunk back down into her seat as several girls chuckled at the subtle dig.

"Okay, let's go," Sophie addressed Tom.

At the bottom of the bleachers, they turned to walk toward the snack bar, located past the bleachers near the end zone.

"That sweatshirt looks terrible on you," Sophie badgered without turning to look at him.

He began to feel a sense of rage as her taunts grew more direct. They passed by the end of the bleachers and Tom looked up at her, speaking in a firm, stern voice.

"We really need to talk. Now."

Without warning, Sophie grabbed his hand and tugged hard, whipping him off the sidewalk into the gravel next to the bleachers. She dragged him about 20 feet into the shadows, then bent over and shoved a shoulder into his gut. She stood up straight with him hanging over her right shoulder like a sack of potatoes. He felt a stab in his stomach as his weight sunk into the sharp point at the end of her square shoulder. She began to walk, then trot, each bounce causing him to exhale a sharp breath as his diaphragm compressed. Under normal circumstances, Tom knew he would be turned on from being lifted by her. Instead, he felt threatened. Fear and anger combined into fury as she continued to jog with him.

Finally, he felt her bend over and set his feet on the ground, then she stepped back into a shadow. Tom looked around and noticed they were under the middle of the long row of bleachers. In every direction, he could see the silhouettes of ankles and feet through the stainless-steel slats.

"So, what did you want to speak with me about?" Sophie asked with a menacing tone.

Tom knew something was off. She was even more domineering than usual. His instincts said he should soften his stance. But she had struck a chord in him and he began to unload on her.

"You set me up! The cops came to my house this morning and they want to pin the whole thing on me! They're fucking friends with him and they totally want blood."

"Did you tell them anything?" Sophie asked in a flat tone, her face cloaked in darkness.

"I didn't. I wanted to talk to you. This is so fucked up. I could lose my job just by being charged with a felony, regardless of conviction. I re-read my contract today just to be sure. And you fucking put my daughter in danger, that asshole would have raped her if you hadn't come exactly on time. Then you send me that video last night...am I the fall guy in a big elaborate plot, just so you could pummel that guy? You are a sick and twisted woman."

"Is that all?" Sophie's monotone continued. She stood still with her arms at her sides.

"No! You need to go to the police and come clean. You can say you were defending us. He even pulled a knife. The cops said the guy can't remember anything yet, but it's only a matter of time. You need to fix this! It's the only..."

Tom's voice trailed off as Sophie raised her arms and began to crack her knuckles, just as she had done in the shadows last night. Her hands raised to the top button of the varsity jacket and unbuttoned it, then moved down to the next button. She stepped forward and her face was revealed in the glow of a faraway streetlight. He recognized the look of animal rage he had seen right after she dislocated Brad's shoulder.

As the unbuttoning continued, Tom felt an adrenaline rush as his flight instincts kicked in. He wanted to run from Sophie, just as he had wanted to run from Brad. Lauren wasn't there to stop him this time.

"If you run, you'll regret it," Sophie warned coldly, easily predicting his response.

His feet felt like lead weights as he was overwhelmed by terror. It suddenly struck him that he was the only witness to the assault.

"I'm disappointed in you. I saved your life, and maybe Lauren's, and this is how you offer to repay me? I just accepted the Stanford scholarship offer. How would that look?" Her tone remained icy. She clicked her tongue. "Tsk, tsk, tsk."

She finished opening the buttons, but the stiff jacket remained closed.

"I'm going to give you two choices," Sophie continued, then added with slow and deliberate enunciation. "Listen carefully...as if your life depended on it."

Tom felt his stomach drop. Her words always held layers of meaning. With anyone else the phrase was a simple embellishment. But she meant no hyperbole.

"Choice 1. I go to the police and tell them everything, as it happened."

She paused. Tom inhaled a breath, preparing to affirm choice 1.

"Choice 2. You follow my lead. You trust me to take care of everything. No one will be charged with a crime. No one will be fired from a job or lose a scholarship."

Tom was suddenly hamstrung. Had she already planned her next moves, just as she had planned out his life the past few weeks?

"Cat got your tongue?" she smiled wickedly. "Let me expound a bit on your two choices. Choice 1, the police listen to my statement then confront Bradley. Does hearing the truth cure his amnesia, or dare I say, jog his selective memory? What would the guys at his auto shop say? Or down at that shitty little Irish pub he goes to every day after work? Would he admit he was beaten up by a girl?"

She waited for Tom to catch up with her logic. It also sunk in that she had been following Brad, casing her target.

"No, he would claim ignorance," Sophie declared confidently. "But maybe one of his righteous cop buddies will decide to pursue the case anyway. To press charges without the victim's cooperation, he would need a credible eyewitness to corroborate the girl's story. There is only one."

Sophie paused again, staring at Tom. He suddenly felt naked as a chill passed over him. Was he about to feel her wrath? He could feel his body shrinking, cowering. He could see her lips curl into a barely detectable smile. It was her first display of emotion since the conversation began.

"Hmmm, but Bradley couldn't accept that, could he?" she pressed on, to his relief. "No, his manhood would come first. He would have to deny that it was her. But how could he deny it if he didn't remember anything? It suddenly all comes flooding back to him - it was the man he punched in the bleachers. The man who had clear motive."

Tom's heart sunk. She was probably right. He felt like he was listening to Sherlock Holmes explaining a case to an ignorant Dr. Watson.

"He calls a two-bit shyster lawyer he saw on a billboard to help him. The lawyer Googles the alleged perpetrator and quickly finds the value of his posh Oak Heights home on Zillow. He digs a bit deeper and finds he's an officer of a publicly traded regional bank. Bingo! SEC filings list his generous salary and huge equity package. Pay dirt. Now the only question is whether to pursue criminal or civil cases. Or maybe both."

Tom felt like his body was shrinking. He was the obvious patsy. He felt thin and wispy.

"There's only one witness who could help exonerate the wealthy banker. But unfortunately, her sworn testimony to the police puts her in the awkward position of incriminating herself on the witness stand. Does she perjure herself or exercise her Fifth Amendment rights? I guess we could find out."

By now, Tom had unconsciously dropped to his knees. The wonderful life he had built was almost certainly over. Sophie's intellectual brilliance was on display. She was in complete control.

"Or Choice 2," Sophie suddenly shifted to an upbeat tone. "You believe in me. You accept that I have a plan to make the whole thing go away, with certainty."

Tom thought about how everything to this moment had been meticulously laid out and executed. Regardless of how it made him feel, he believed in her innate capacity for planning. But what did she mean by go away with certainty? Did she have a clever way to fix things for both of them? Or did she have something more sinister in mind involving Brad? Or him...?

"Let me restate," Sophie spoke clearly with an academic tone. "Choice 1, I go to the police after tonight's game and tell them what happened. The single eyewitness can run away right now as fast as he can - before I reconsider my generosity - knowing I will never speak to him again. I sacrifice my future for his."

Tom winced at the idea of not being near her. Then he thought about her last phrase. Did choice 2 involve him sacrificing his future for hers?

"Choice 2, you do everything I say. You trust me without question. And I promise I'll take care of the situation."

Tom knelt silently in the semi-darkness. Choice 2 was intentionally ambiguous, practically a test of faith. His natural inclination was to opt for the truth of choice 1. Yet she had made it clear the truth would almost certainly backfire.

But choice 2 was a complete sacrifice of free will, trusting his entire life to a teenager's whims. She said in last night's video that she owned him. Now she was intent on making him acknowledge it.