Sophia was a really sweet girl, and Rosie understood why Arbel liked her so much.
Unlike the meeting with Ben, which had been tense and made Rosie feel like they were squeezing information out of a particularly annoying lemon, Sophia was the opposite.
She was sweet and kind, polite and nice. Everyone knew exactly what Arbel and Rosie were doing here, but Sophia didn't press, didn't ask questions.
But Rosie was starting to lose patience.
She glanced at Arbel, to see if she planned to start bringing up the subject soon. The small, marginal subject of Leo's disappearance.
When even Arbel seemed to have no words, which was happening more and more these days, she sighed.
It all depended on her, she guess.
"Sophia-" Rosie looked up at the younger girl. She was two years younger than them, but it was hard to tell with Sophia's tall frame.
"-Do you mind if we ask you questions about Leo?"
Sophia nodded in such force that Rosie was afraid she would make herself dizzy
"Sure, whatever you want-" she hesitated for a moment
"But I can't think of anything that would help. Otherwise, of course, I would have said it already."
Sophia forced a laugh and Rosie felt a little bad. Sophia had the face and frame of a delicate porcelain doll, and it felt a little like bullying to ask her such uncomfortable questions. Like if she gets the words wrong, the porcelain doll will break.
Arbel must have decided that Rosie had done enough because she cleared her throat:
"You don't know anything about where or who Leo is with right now, right?"
Sophia nodded forcefully again
"I didn't know he disappeared until yesterday"
Well Arbel and Rosie didn't know he disappeared until two days ago so the difference wasn't that big. Not that she would say it out loud, Arbel would cry or hit her, maybe both.
"And is there something you think I don't know? A reason about where Leo is? Rumors about where he went?"
Sophia's porcelain face twitched when she heard the word rumors
"There are a lot of rumors now, but none of them are serious, and no one really believes the rumors either. Everyone knew Leo"
Rosie thought she knew Leo too, and she was wrong.
Arbel lowered her gaze, and Rosie wondered if she thought the same thing. Thinking about how her brother, the closest person to her, ended up not being so close as she thought.
Then Arbel looked up again and the conversation continued. The moment of vulnerability and doubt disappeared.
"Have you noticed anything about his behavior that has changed? Something, no matter how small, that was different from usual?"
Sophia shook her head, again with such force that Rosie didn't understand how her neck was still working with all the sharp hard movements
"Not anything that I've noticed, but of course I haven't seen him that much in the summer"
Rosie hummed to herself, leaning back a little and folding her arms
"You saw him at football, didn't you? That's more than most of his friends"
Sophia's eyes tore from Arbel and turned to Rosie, and Rosie was surprised to see there... confusion
"What?-" Rosie replied "-At football? I didn't see Leo at football"
Arbel furrowed her brow, her voice rising a little
"What do you mean you didn't see him at football? Did he retire? How long ago?"
"Wait a minute-" Sophia placed her hands on the glass table
"-I think you're confused. There were no soccer lessons during the summer"
Arbel's eyes flashed upwards. And a moment later she managed to muster the necessary amount of brainpower to respond
"What?" she muttered
Unfortunately, it wasn't a good response
Poor Sophia looks as if she doesn't feel like saying it, as if correcting Arbel makes her feel bad
"Summer lessons, we don't have any-" she repeated
"-The soccer team took a two-month break"
Rosie looked at Arbel in confusion "Are you sure Leo said he had soccer lessons?"
"A million percent-" Arbel replied sharply
"-I remember because we fought about it, a few times"
Rosie put a hand on the bridge of her nose in frustration "So he lied, or at least hid information"
"And at the beginning of the summer-" Arbel was angry
"-Why? Where was he at the place?"
Sophia looked between Arbel and Rosie in guilt "I'm sure he had a reason-"
But Sophia couldn't finish the sentence because Arbel interrupted her aggressively
"What's the story with Corey?" she demanded.
Rosie wanted to be angry at Arbel's directness. She knew she was angry, that she was hurt that her brother was hiding things, and definitely lying, but they were in a delicate situation. and Arbel? Arbel was definitely not delicate.
But before she could say anything she saw Sophia make a face, and for a second she thought she saw an emotion pass across the girl's face.
It took her another second to understand what that emotion was.
And she was surprised, because she would never have believed that Sophia was even capable of feeling such an emotion.
To feel such hatred.