The Twenty Year Triangle

Chapter Thirty-Nine

"And then you bit my head off," he chuckles.

"I know," I say sheepishly. "But it worked, your advice that day. You said chin up, get through the day and cry later, and that's exactly what I did, and you know what?"

"What?"

"I kept taking that advice my whole life."

"Yeah? So did I," Oliver says. "Everything I told you was stuff I was telling myself. Everything you were feeling back then, I was feeling, too, for you."

"I'm sorry you were hurting," I offer. "But still."

"You're upset. I knew what to say to make you stop hurting and Hunter too, but I didn't," Oliver correctly guesses.

"I think that's what bugs me the most," I confess. "You saw me crying and hurting over him so many times. Yet you didn't say a word."

"I know," he says. "And it's not an excuse, but not even a week after the dance. Mary Beth was his girlfriend, and I told myself I was right."

"I ain't going to hold choices made at fourteen against you, but, what about the summer of 2000?"

"I knew this was coming up," Oliver says quietly.

"We were almost sixteen then," I finish for him. "My crush on him was a lot more than a crush by that point."

"I know, but so was mine on you," he says.

"You called Hunter and told him you were going to confess that you loved me," I tell him. I don't ask, but he doesn't deny it; he simply nods.

"But that call came right after I told Brandi I was going to confess my feelings to Hunter," I prompt.

"... that timing wasn't a coincidence," Oliver admits, and a surge of anger causes my cheeks to flame up.

"So, you manipulated Hunter again, only this time it literally shattered my heart, Olly!"

He flinches." I know! And I'm sorry, but it wasn't... it wasn't all planned out like you think."

"Hunter thinks you lied about even planning to confess anything to me."

"Well, he's wrong!" Oliver cries out, and the lady from the front desk looks sharply at us.

He takes a breath and lowers his voice, "Look– when Brandi called me and told me it was going to happen, that you were going talk to Hunter, and I needed to move on. My first instinct was to do that; I swear," Oliver says. "But I couldn't. I sat there staring at the wall for hours, knowing I couldn't move on. My second instinct was to call you. Tell you how I felt, and then you'd know before you talked to Hunter. I thought I could move on if you still wanted to talk to him after you knew. Or at least try.

"But you didn't. You never talked to me," I point out. "You talked to Hunter instead."

"Because I couldn't tell you I loved you over the phone," he says. "You have to understand that much."

"I do. I get that," I say. "I was scared as hell to talk to Hunter, so I can't imagine what you were feeling."

"I needed to buy time until I got home, and so I told him I was going to confess my feelings for you when I got back from my dad's, and that time he did fight me on it."

"He did?"

"He tried," Oliver agrees. "He said he can't turn his feelings off, and he felt like you two were heading somewhere. It got a little heated actually, I think my friendship with him took a pretty big hit after this phone call, but I didn't care at that point."