girl next door | steven conklin

four.

Olive wasn't complaining one bit. She was honestly grateful she wasn't sitting next to Shayla, worried that if she did, she'd only tear herself down, picking herself apart to find all the perfect aspects of Shayla Steven liked that Olive didn't have.

She muttered a small smile as she sat at the table. Before she could even get a hello out, a body leaned over her from behind her seat. Olive jumped at how close the body was to her and turned around to see who it was.

Olive calmed, yet somehow got more nervous when she noticed it was Steven, filling up her glass with water. He looked down at Olive, meeting her eyes and giving her a small and goofy smile. Olive rolled her eyes, holding back her own smile as she turned to her glass of water.

She took a sip and watched as Steven left the spot behind her, moving to stand behind Shayla and fill her glass. Olive's heart dropped as she took her sip of water, her eyes glued on Shayla, who stood up with a beautiful smile, whispering something into Steven's ear that made him blush.

Olive blinked as she put down her glass and looked down at her lap. She never had boyfriends that lasted very long. Olive wanted the kind of love she saw in movies and TV shows. She wanted the classic cliches. She thought she was starting to get that with Steven until Shayla started talking to Steven.

And Olive never blamed Shayla. It's not like the girl could read Olive's mind. She was mad because something she had been wanting for so long, Shayla got in one night. She had something in her that made Steven chose her over Olive. Olive wanted that. She wanted Steven to look at her the way that he looks at Shayla.

"Olive?" Gigi suddenly asked and Olives head snapped up, her eyes wide as she looked around at all the girls looking at her. "What?" She asked cluelessly, making Gigi giggle.

"Where are you applying?" She asked again and Olive smiled, calming down a bit as she nodded. "Oh, um. Princeton. Or somewhere in the bay area. Like San Francisco." She said and all the girls eyes widened at her statement, Belly turning to her with furrowed brows.

"Berkeley. Nice." Nicole whispered as Olive turned to look at Belly. Her heart sank a bit when she noticed how sad Belly looked. "I didn't know you were looking into schools so far away." Belly muttered and Olive gave her a reassuring smile. She grabbed Belly's hand and squeezed it tightly. "Don't worry. Princeton's my top."

"I know Olive lives here, but is this your first summer here in cousins, Belly?" One of the girls across the table from Olive and Belly asked. Olive frowned at the question. It was honestly rude in her opinion. These girls could remember Conrad and Jeremiah, but the not girl that's hung out with them and has lived with them every summer?

Belly gave the girl a small smile, but Olive could tell she was starting to get a bit uncomfortable. "No, I've been coming here for my entire life." She said and Nicole leaned forward, pointing at Belly from over Olive. "Yeah, she's liked family friends with Conrad and Jeremiah." She said and Olive squinted, getting annoyed with how boy crazy these girls were and that's coming from her!

Olive sarcastically huffed, putting her elbow on the table and her chin in her hand even though it may be incredibly disrespectful as she gave the girls around her a fake pout. "Yeah, I mean... me, Belly and the boys have always hung out. It's kind of hard to miss her since we're with them all the time unless you're like... stuck up or something."

Olive felt pride at all of the girls glares towards her. Belly whipped her head to Olive and kicked her feet from under the table. Olive jumped, pushing herself off of her hand as she glared at Belly.

"I'm trying to help you." Olive grumbled as Gigi tilted her head at the two girls, her eyebrows furrowed in curiosity. "So are either of you with Jeremiah? Like a thing? Or are you gonna take him to the ball?"