Both Sides | ✓

Chapter 48

A/N:
This next chapter is going to be from Cleo's POV again! Enjoy 🤍

Cleo's POV;

It was past midnight when my doorbell rang.

I couldn't sleep after coming home. I was just pacing, then sketching, then pacing again. When I answered the door, I could tell she'd been crying. Her eyes were puffy and her nose red. She spoke, and her voice shook.

"Hi."

"Hi," I replied, then pulled her inside and hugged her tighter than I'd ever hugged anyone.

Via had a backpack over one shoulder, and I heard it drop to the floor when she hugged me back. I'd seen Olivia upset a few times by then, but never like that. This wasn't stress, or anger, or fear. This was exhaustion, and it hung heavy in the air.

"I'm so, so sorry," I said. I didn't let go until she did. There were tears in her eyes, and she brushed them off quick.

"Um, is it okay if I stay here for a little? I'm... I'm not positive how long. I just..." she said, like every word was a struggle.

"Of course. For as long as you need." Olivia nodded and looked down at her feet.

"Thank you."

I brewed tea and she sat in the living room. The TV was on, but she wasn't watching. I didn't take my time in the kitchen. I was worried she'd fade away before I got back.

"Thanks," she mumbled, taking the mug from my hands.

We sat in silence for a long beat, until I couldn't beat it anymore.

"Do you... wanna talk about it?"

"I don't know," she whispered.

And the quiet returned. I didn't know what to say, how to make her feel okay for just a minute. I was carrying my guilt like a weight. I shouldn't have snuck in, or distracted her, or made a mess of everything. Time and time again, I ruined Via's life. Maybe that's all I did for her; Make something she had to clean up.

"After you left," Via said, shakily, "she didn't say anything for a long time. And then... she said that I was disappointing everyone. That I was being ungrateful, and taking advantage of the freedoms she'd given me. She was so angry. I'd never seen her that mad." Via paused, breathing heavily. "She... she said my dad would be so upset."

I could feel real anger unraveling in my chest. Via was repeating the words like she was starting to believe them herself. It made me furious.

"Um, I told her that you were my girlfriend and she talked about how that made her look. How she had failed as a parent. And then she said that if I wanted to be with a girl... then I might as well get out of her house. So, I did."

I shook my head and looked to Via again. "Listen to me," I said. "You are not what anybody else thinks of you. Especially not your mother. If she can't see how fucking incredible, and smart, and kind you are, then she's making the worst mistake of her life. Nobody should look past who you are because you like girls. Nobody."

"I just wanted her to love me," Olivia mumbled, her eyes darting to the floor. "I've spent my entire life wanting her to love me, and..." Her breathing sped up, short, shaky breaths. "I let her down."

I held Via for a while. We just sat there while she cried and I pulled her tighter into me. When Will got home, I didn't care to let go. I didn't really care about anything else.

"Hey, Cleo," Will called out, sliding his boots off at the door. Via moved away from me and wiped her tears away.

"Hey," I said. Will looked up to smile at me.

"Hey, Via. You staying the night?"

"Yeah, she is," I answered for her. "Uh, actually, she's gonna stay for a couple days while her mom's out of town with her sister. Is that cool?"

Will shrugged, roaming to the kitchen in search of his usual 1 am beer. "Yeah, of course. You can stay as long as you want. Make yourself at home."

Via forced a smile as she turned to look at him. "Thank you," she said and his beer clicked open.

"Mom's paintings are supposed to come in the mail this week, Cleo," Will said after a long sip from the can in his hands. "Don't know how on earth we're gonna fit 20-something canvases in this tiny ass place."

"We don't have to keep all of them."

"I'd much rather hang up your artwork, bug."

"Mine are all still in progress."

"And they're still better than her's."

"I didn't know you were into art," Via said.

"Uh, yeah," I shrugged. "Nothing serious. I just, you know. Sketch. I don't know why I've never brought it up."

"'Nothing serious' my ass," Will leaned against the fridge. "You're good. At least admit it."

"I wanna see your art," Via said, very decisively.

I didn't want her to know that everything I'd drawn in the last 6 months were portraits of her. I felt deeply embarrassed.

"Maybe some other time, okay?"

*  *  *

It was still dark out when I woke up to Via sitting beside me on the bed, staring the the door like she was willing it to open. I wrapped an arm around her middle and pulled her closer.

"How long have you been up?" I asked groggily, still half asleep myself. Via let out a whispered laugh and shook her head.

"I don't know. Couldn't sleep."

"Still thinking about it?"

"Hard not to," Olivia said. I loosened my hold around her so she could be level with me. "I don't know. I just need a distraction."

I raised a brow and dipped my hand under her waistband and she giggled. "Not that kind of distraction."

"Boo," I grinned.

"It's, like, 3 am. How can you be this much of a dumbass this late?"

"It's a skill," I said.

She was running her hand against my arm and it was killing me. My eyes kept closing, and I could feel half of me shaking myself awake.

"Baby," she whispered, "if you're tired then sleep."

"Not while you're up. If you're staying awake, so am I."

"You're more stubborn than I am," Via said. I pressed a kiss to her shoulder in response.

"Keep me up. Talk to me," I said.

"About what?"

"I don't know. Anything. I just want to hear you talk."

"Give me a prompt or something."

"Hm," I thought. "The future."

"...The future?"

"I mean, I've never heard you talk about what you want to do when your older," I shrugged. "Something nerdy, I'm sure. You're into science, maybe a doctor? Professor? Or- oh I've got it," I smiled, running a hand down her back. "House wife."

Olivia let out something between a gag as I laughed. "Really, I'm not positive. Maybe something science related," she said after a minute of thinking. "Being a professor might be nice. I think I could teach biology."

"You already have," I smiled. "I'd be failing if it weren't for you."

I could see her hiding her grin. "What about you? What do you wanna do after high school?"

My mind spun five, ten, twenty years into the future. I could think of a billion different scenarios. A billion different houses and cities and careers. But, even in my head's infinite corridors of possibilities, there was one constant; Olivia was with me in each and every version of myself. The one thing in my life that was certain was her. She was this bright ball of everything I could ever want for my future,. This girl who had stuck with me through some of the messiest parts of my life and still stayed. I pulled her closer to me.

"I have no idea."