𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐋𝐈𝐅𝐄 ✔️

Chapter Fifteen

"What is it?" I asked, confused.

"Nothing," Dylan said, looking away suddenly. When he looked back up at me, he looked confused. "It's just..you sounded awfully like Olivia then."

I froze, "With the shower before the bath?" I asked, trying to sway Dylan.

He laughed, "Not just that, everything else too. I mean, if you're trying to imitate her, you'd got her down to a T."

I shook my head quickly, "No, I'm not trying to copy Olivia. We just probably have similar interests and stuff," I said, trying to convince him.

He nodded, smiling up at me, before gesturing to his en suite behind me.

"This is the bathroom, did you want me to show you how the shower and bath work?" He asked, pulling a clean towel out from a rack on the door.

I shook my head, grabbing the towel from his hands, "I think I'll survive." I told him, making him laugh again.

"Okay," he said, "and all the bath stuff is in the cabinets under the sink. It's all stuff Olivia has curated over the years and she always seems to notice when something has been used, so take it easy." He told me before he patted me on the shoulder and left.

I closed and locked the door as I smiled, placing my towel on the side of the sink. But when I looked up into the mirror and it wasn't Olivia Clark who looked back at me, my smile fell.

I sighed; no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't just be best friends with Dylan. I couldn't just be Olivia Clark again. Dylan said it himself—I sounded like Olivia. And whilst it's nice that Dylan knows me so well, and that I still hang onto little things from my real self, it's just not going to work. I'm Alessia Trent, at least for the time being, and I need to start acting like it.

When I was in the shower, my mind was completely open for Alessia to unearth herself in. And she did. Thoughts trickled. Stuff about her liking Dylan even more and that, perhaps, if Dylan liked me—Olivia—as much as she had just seen, she should act more like me.

Well then. So much for not copying myself—Alessia probably already dug herself that hole when we were at school.

I guess now I don't have to stop being myself to exist in this body, since being Olivia Clark all the time is probably what Alessia did last year at school to get Dylan's attention. There won't be much difference now.

After my shower, I dipped my body into the bath I had prepared before my shower began. I relaxed into the tub, closing my eyes and pretending that I was Olivia Clark again.

I'm Olivia Clark. And I'm at my best friend, Dylan's, house. It's just another sleepover. His parents, after all, trust us. And so they should; Dylan and I never do anything that isn't friendly—we don't go further than hugs. We've just come back from Matt's latest party and we're going to watch a film after I've washed away all of the drunken fun that we had tonight. If my back aches from all of today's standing and dancing, Dylan might give me a massage, and I'll comb through his hair—because he secretly loves his hair being played with; it relaxes him.

When I opened my eyes, I was still Alessia Trent.

I drained the bath, not sad, but not happy. I was in some transit between worlds I couldn't control—forces I couldn't control.