Olivia and Ricky's Odyssey to Rock Bottom

8. Genie

Ricky frowned at Olivia. Was there something wrong with her? Did she have some kind of mini blackouts that kept making her fall over? But then he noticed she was looking at his bruised side.

"It can't be from when I fell into you just before." Olivia shifted her gaze from the bruise to Ricky's face.

"Uh." Ricky turned his body, trying to hide the bruise from her view by holding the wet shirt higher, fighting his initial urge to put it back on to cover up. "No. Don't worry about it. It's nothing."

Olivia looked at him for a moment as he ignored her, focusing on drying his shirt. She was no stranger to bruises. Her legs were always littered with smaller and bigger bruises. Most of the time, she had no idea where they came from. But Ricky's bruise was not the kind you suddenly discovered when you took a shower and wondered when you'd acquired it. Far from it.

"Is the first rule not to talk about it?" she asked, being half-serious. Like everyone else, she had heard the rumors surrounding him.

"What?" Ricky finally looked at her, feeling at a loss of what she was talking about, unintentionally lowering his arms.

"You know." Olivia could feel her cheeks heat up at the thought of actually saying the words out loud. "The first rule of Fight Club is: you do not..."

"...talk about Fight Club," Ricky finished with her. He didn't know if he should laugh at the idea or not. "Not exactly."

"It doesn't look like nothing. It looks painful." Olivia spoke in a low voice, talking more to herself than Ricky while she reached out to touch the bruise again.

Ricky paid close attention as she moved her small fingers over it with a feather-light touch, ready to step away should it hurt. To his surprise, it felt nice.

Olivia realized what she was doing then and snapped her hand back, shocked by her action. "I'm sorry." She looked at him with big eyes, feeling horrified. "I didn't mean to touch you. I, I just..." What exactly 'she just' Olivia didn't know.

"It's okay." Ricky grinned and tried to play it cool by shrugging, hitting the button on the hand dryer again, realizing it had stopped.

They were quiet then, both a little unsure of the situation when Ricky noticed the restroom door opening behind the shielding partition screen. Someone was coming in, and he did not need more witnesses to the bruise—or some false rumor about him fooling around with Casini in the restroom.

Cursing under his breath, Ricky grabbed Olivia's wrist and quickly dragged her with him into the nearest toilet stall, the clicking sound of her heels rebounding off the walls as he pulled her in and locked the door behind them.

"Hello?" the guy entering called out. It was Blaine, Josephine's boyfriend. "Joey?"

Ricky pressed a finger to his lips inside the stall, telling Olivia to be quiet when someone else could be heard coming into the restroom.

"Have you seen Josephine? I can't find her," Blaine questioned the new arrival.

"No. Why would she be in here?" the boy asked with a snort.

"I don't know. I'm just looking for her," Blaine sighed before he left, and the other boy locked himself inside a second toilet stall.

Ricky and Olivia were standing completely still in their own stall. He was towering over her with his six-foot-one, still half-naked, and listened intensely. Only inches were between them as they waited with bated breaths.

The adrenaline was rushing through Olivia. Her heart beating so hard it felt like it would break through her ribcage. Why did he have to smell and look so good? It was making it hard to think clearly, an ache stirring in her body.