The Summer He Saved Me

Chapter 4 - Too Much Too Soon

"Olivia." He whispered, as if my name held the key to the world.

I looked up at him, wondering what was going through his mind. What is he thinking? Does he like my name? Does he hate it? It's nothing special, it's just an ordinary name. Does it bring back some sort of memory for him? I gave him a questioning look as he looked out into the water, still holding my arm. Finally, he came out of his trance and looked at me. 

"Is something wrong?" I asked, hoping he wouldn't say anything unusual about my name.

"Everything's fine, why do you ask?"

I gave him a questioning look, "You just fell into like a trance, after I told you my name..." I trailed off.

He looked down at me, as if trying to remember it, "Oh, that? That......that was nothing." He said, not sounding quite sure of it himself.

I just looked at him, trying to figure him out. What was he thinking about? What kinds of things could possibly be linked to my name. As I looked at him, he probably realized that he needed to tell me more. 

"It's just that, when I was a baby I remember hearing my mother say your name. All the time. As if...as if you were there too."

I blinked at him, wondering what he was thinking. He must be mistaken. I couldn't be in anyway linked to him, even though we did have the same dark eyes, and thick black hair, but that was nothing...right? 

"I must be crazy." He mumbled to himself. 

He looked down at me. Into my eyes, as if he could see right through me. It was getting late, I shivered a little. He put his arm around me, and we walked away from the water and into a near by pizza shop. We sat down in a booth, and he ordered a medium cheese pizza and two diet cokes. As we sat there waiting for our food he asked, "Why didn't you tell me your name the day we met?"

I choked on my soda, and looked up at him. He stared back at me, his intense eyes locked on mine. We sat in silence for a while, then finally I said, "I don't trust people."

He looked at me, as if I was crazy, or joking. When he realized I wasn't he asked, "Why, if you don't mind me asking..."

I looked at him for a minute then replied, "My mom put me up for adoption when I was a baby, but she gave me to my father. When he decided he wanted to get back together with her, she told him he had to give me up, or give her up. It was one or the other. He chose her, and gave me to another family."

"That's terrible." Whispered Tyler.

"He didn't even care where I ended up." I said, sourly. 

"If you could meet them, what would you say?" Asked Tyler softly.

I thought a minute, then I said, "I would ask my mother why she didn't love me, and I would ask my dad how he could love a woman who only had a heart big enough to love one of her kids."

Tyler looked at me questioninly, "What?"

"I had a twin, she kept him, but gave me away. Nobody knows why."

We both sat there in silence, then the pizza came. I wondered if I had said to much, Tyler had said I could trust him, didn't he? Tyler and I ate in silence for a while, then I said, "I better be getting home. Dean and Karen are probably getting worried."

"Who are Dean and Karen?" Tyler asked.

"My adoptive parents."

"You call them by their first names even though they were like parents to you?"

"They weren't really like parents to me. I was in foster homes until I was nine."

"Oh..." His voice trailed off.

"Bye, Tyler." I said as I left the pizza shop.