you know i'm such a fool for you (Olivia x Viola)

Chapter 9

Duke squinted down at the tiny text of the American history book. The letters were swimming around and skittered away like scared fish whenever Duke tried to pinpoint a few. He was either suffering from the affects of lack of sleep or his doctor was right and he actually might need glasses after all.

He tried to picture himself wearing some, but images of his own father with his reading glasses appeared, and it scared the crap out of him enough. That's just what he needed to lose even more of his street cred around here.

He sucked in a big breath in hopes of releasing it in a satisfying deep sigh, but unfortunately it got choked on instead when his eyes raised to see a sheepish Viola in his doorway. Her frame was covered by an oversized hoodie that swallowed her limbs and reached further down than the small shorts she was wearing. Her hair was still tucked under it like she'd thrown it on and hadn't tried to not be swallowed by it.

She chuckled softly and knocked apologetically.

Duke knew he was already defeated before she even started speaking.

"Can I come in?"

He tapped his pen on the textbook and ultimately couldn't come up with any reason she couldn't except for his own cowardice.

"Yeah, you can come in."

They sat in an awkward silence as Duke rolled the pen around his fingers, and Viola fidgeted with her sleeves.

"So... how's your..mom?"

That got a chuckle as she stuffed her face in her sleeve-covered hands, "My mother, Duke?"

Well excuse him for being polite.

"How's it been at the house?"

Viola let out a sigh like the one he'd tried to make earlier.

"Her marriage is going on round three right now, but I can always tell when it's about to fail- again- because she gets even more unhealthily invested in my life and love life. So that's where we're at right now. But at least she cares, I guess."

He knew how aggressive Daphne Hastings could be and how much pressure it actually put on Viola despite the girl wanting to seem untouched by it. Duke noticed it usually came out in sneaky ways.

"It's just very, very unfortunate since I'm at the peak of my angst with what's going on."

He side-eyed her, wondering what was going on. He'd had that unusual talk with Olivia at the park weeks ago, which had kind of tilted his world on its axis a bit. But since then, he'd been trying to stay out of whatever was happening. He didn't pretend to know what was best in this situation or pretend to be an expert on these kinds of dynamics.

"Viola.. what is going on?" at her worried expression, he remembered Olivia's petrified eyes and smoothed out his facial features into a calming demeanor, "I'm not going to start yelling; I'm sorry about how angry I got before. I still don't feel great, but there's more going on, isn't there?"

She looked at him in wonder. The fear wasn't gone, but her surprise overruled it.

"How can you say that?" she kinda shrieked, making him jump a little.

"What do you mean?" Duke increased his volume in response until they were both standing with their hackles raised.

"You're supposed to be angry! Why aren't you angry," she whisper-yelled, and Duke threw up his hands.

"I don't know! Cause I'm not evil? Cause if you're anywhere near as torn up as Olivia is about the whole thing then I'm not gonna kick you when you're down."