Because I Thought I Hated You

13

His secret place was behind tall trees. Nolan held her hand as he led her through them.

"Is this how I die?" He snorts.

"No, I promise." She nods and tries not to trip on a branch. She was surprised when he took her hand when he noticed she was falling behind. His hand was warm in hers. It engulfed her hand by how big it was too. But she didn't mind, it was cold and he warmed her up.

"Your hands are warm, aren't you cold?" He shakes his head and then ducks to dodge a branch.

"My sweater has a heating pad that warms me up." She nods. Those sweaters were big back in freshman year, but they were too expensive so her mom couldn't get her one back when she was married to her father. She didn't care to ask for one now, it didn't matter. Plus her mom was always overseas.

Suddenly they reached an opening and landed on the edge of town, where it overlooked the city and all its lights. "Wow."

"I came here once a week with my dad before he passed away right before high school started." She snapped her head at him.

"I'm sorry...did he tell you how he found this place?" He licks his lips and looks over at the view with a nod.

"Yeah, he and my mom were looking for a lake and they thought it was over here, and instead they found this view. So he took me here and made it our spot. I came here alone when I wanted to think and needed to be alone." She nods. "When he died, I was here every day after school. No one heard from me. And then when my mom met my stepfather I lashed out a lot and came home late, I even did things I wish I hadn't. Like get with girls I didn't like but liked me. But then my mom sat down with me and showed me a letter she found that my dad wrote for me. It changed my entire perspective on life. I changed my ways, got along with my stepfather that now I just call dad, started doing better in school. Only spoke to girls I liked. But if I didn't like them I didn't allow myself to speak to them in an unplotonical way. When I texted that girl that ended up being you, I thought she texted back to be a bitch and I was planning to block her right after but I read your text and I knew it wasn't her."

Olivia listened to every word he spoke. It was like she was getting an inside look at Nolan's life. She hoped that him thinking that she hated him didn't fuck up his life more than it already was.

"The crazy thing was that I always liked you, Talia, even before I did that one thing that made you never want to talk to me again. And I'm sorry I did that. The truth is, I did it because I wanted you to stop hanging out with us, I didn't want to be in a relationship with your sister and have feelings for you too. I thought I was doing the right thing, but instead, I caused a girl to hate me. Somewhere deep inside, I hoped that the girl whom I texted accidentally was you, and sometimes I imagined it was you. Crazy how it was you all along so I never had to imagine."

She weighs his words as she looked at the lights from below. She wondered if maybe she had liked him all along too. And if her dislike for him was merely her feelings for him being forced down by the baggage she held due to Olly's mistreatment. That would explain why she spoke to him at the party without anger seeping into her flesh. Maybe deep down, her body and mind knew it wasn't his fault she ended up depressed. Olly took care of that all on her own. 

"Crazy how things happen, huh?" She looks up at him, and he nods before turning to look down to meet her eyes. "I'm glad they occurred how they did."

He smirks. "I'm glad to hear that."

She wrapped her arms around his torso and hugged him. "Still weirded out though," she says. "Life knows how to get people on the same path, one way or the other."

"We started from the bottom, now we're here." He snorts at his joke, and she laughs into his chest. "But I have a question for you."

She leans back and looks up at him. "Yeah?"

He licks his lips. "So I told my mom about you, and um," he scratches the back of his head. She smiles at him. "And um, she told me to bring you over for dinner one day, so how does tomorrow night sound?"

She nods. She reaches up and squeezes his cheek. His cheek heats up and he peels her fingers off his face. "You're so adorable when you get nervous."

"I'm not nervous." She puts her hand on her hip and gives him an unconvinced expression.

"Oh yeah?" He nods. "Say that to your face."