OLIVIA
The man smirked.
Olivia shuddered.
He took a step forward and reached to grab her with his thick, ring clad hand.
No, not again -
Olivia shrieked and twisted out of his way, but he was already slipping where he stepped. His foot slid in the soap she spilled on the floor and she kicked him blindly when his leg slid and bent too far forwards into the soap.
The man cried out as his legs slid way too far apart.
The smoke detector finally caught a whiff of smoke and the fire alarm began to blare, loud and hard, from speakers. It echoed in the bathroom, forcing the man to cover his ears for three precious seconds.
As the gang member realized it wasn't a threat, he repositioned his hands against the floor to push himself up, only to slide again in the slick soap. Olivia jumped off the toilet seat right over him, and when he grabbed for her as he struggled to straighten his knees, she kicked him in between his outstretched legs.
His legs slid farther and he hunched over, hands clutching where she kicked him.
She grabbed Angel off the floor and pulled him out of the bathroom, leaving the man scrabbling to his feet.
Olivia kept her grip firm in Angel's clammy one, pulling him close behind her as they joined the throng of people exiting the gas station amid the wailing of the fire alarm.
The Sons of Solomon would be looking for two school age kids in uniform together, one tall boy with dark hair and one shorter girl with brown curls.
Olivia twisted her hair into a bun, snatched a cap off the nearest stand, and put it on her head. She wiggled off her blazer so if they were looking for the maroon color to spot her in the crowd, they would be disappointed.
"I'm pretty sure this is stealing," Angel whispered uneasily.
"I'm pretty sure they'll understand," she said, putting a grey hat over his head too. "Take off your blazer. And hunch over. Like you're an old man."
"What-"
"And walk next to that old lady. Like, super close so they think you're together. And no matter what, you have to walk slowly or they'll know who you are. I'll meet you outside." She took his blazer off his hands and tied it around her waist to conceal her loud plaid skirt. When Angel looked at her dumbfounded, she pushed him in the direction of the old woman. "Go!"
Olivia went the other way, dodging the few stragglers who were still in the gas station. The cashiers had thankfully already left so they weren't around to see the stolen hat on her head. She squeezed past two women talking excitedly to one another about the nonexistent fire and slipped out the door.
Outside, the tall man was still looking through the windows of Angel's car and checking underneath it. Olivia quickly turned around and grabbed Angel by the arm as he left the building, steering him in the opposite direction.
"We can't go there yet. There's a guy still by your car. He's looking in the back."
Angel tried to look back but Olivia socked him in the arm. He scowled. "Well, we can't stay here. There's not that many people that we can hide in them."
Olivia glanced around them. He was right. There was nowhere they could hide.
"Okay," she said. "Then the only way is up."
"Up?"
She turned to the wall of the gas station store, eyed an odd electrician's pipe running up the side of the white bricks, and jumped for it, her hand scraping against the wall but gaining purchase against the wall with her sneakers.
"Climb!" she whispered at Angel.
She nimbly climbed up the several things jutting out of the face of the wall - loose bricks, a ledge, the security camera. Angel was slower, second guessing every step. He didn't know his life was on the line. He had never done this before. He was too slow. Olivia kept one eye on the man still at the car, the other on how painfully slow Angel was.
As soon as he was within reach, Olivia leaned over, grabbed him by the back of his shirt, and hauled him over the edge of the roof.
"How are we going to get down-" Angel began nervously.
"Lay down flat," she breathed quietly, pushing him down, doing the same. The rough surface of the roof scraped against her hips and her elbows, but she pressed her face into it and held her breath.
Angel on the other hand, tried to raise his head and in her panic to stop him from doing so and being seen over the edge of the roof, Olivia wrenched his head back down against the roof, his chin slamming into the tiles. He blinked away sudden tears from the impact, then his eyes grew wide when he heard male voices angrily talking below them, barely audible over the cry of the constant fire alarm.
"How the hell did you lose them?" one man yelled at the other.
"Me? You're the one who was in the store!"
Olivia put her hands over her head and squeezed her eyes shut, trying to breathe. Her lungs felt like an electric cage, spasming with white hot shocks of pain in her chest. Below, the men continued to rage at each other.
"You were outside to make sure they didn't escape!"
"They did not come outside!"
"Well, they're not inside either. Are you telling me they disappeared?"
"People don't just vanish! They're a bunch of kids! How far could they have gone?"
"You drive down Maxwell street in the direction of the school, and I'll take Pineberry avenue. Call me if you find anything or Alejandro is going to get angry."
Their voices faded as the men moved away.
Olivia stayed where she was, her arms and legs trembling, her thoughts skittering wildly to white powder and dead, staring blank eyes. She clenched her hands tighter and forced air in through her nose. Out through her mouth.
It's fine, it's fine, it's fine.
She forced her thoughts elsewhere, imagining Blake and Logan arguing over who had to do the dishes, Elijah taking the wet dish towel and smacking them both in the backs of their heads with it, leading to a dish towel war that left them all wet and laughing on the kitchen floor. Her heartbeat managed to come down a notch by the time Angel whispered, "I don't hear them anymore."
Olivia raised her head the slightest bit to peer over the edge of the roof. She couldn't see the men anymore. It was only customers and cashiers. The sound of a fire engine began wailing somewhere down the street, getting louder by the minute.
"Let's go before the fire truck gets here," Angel said. "I don't have my license. And we're going to be caught ditching."
It was so ridiculous she had to bite back hysterical laughter. Ditching school? That was his biggest fear when they were hiding out on the roof of a building from the Sons of Solomon?
But he was right. They had to leave. She didn't want the police questioning her. She didn't want to go anywhere near them.
After making sure that the men really were gone, she slid down the rain gutter at the back corner of the store where no one could see them, then helped Angel down afterwards. They got into his car and drove away just before the fire engine and police cars arrived at the gas station.
Angel drove back to the school shakily. His hands shook on the steering wheel. His shoulders trembled. Every single car that made a noise or honked or even drove past made him curse and wipe cold sweat from his hands.
"Why are they after you?" he asked as they pulled back into the school parking lot. He let out a short, nervous laugh. "You don't look like a gangbanger to me."
Olivia pulled her knees to her chest. She couldn't tell him about the trial. It was illegal, and she was in witness protection for a reason. Besides, the less he knew, the better.
So she settled for telling him a half truth instead. "It has something to do with my brother's trial."
"He's...in the gang?"
"No! He's in there because -" Olivia's throat closed up. This was all her fault. Elijah would never be in jail if he hadn't adopted her, if she hadn't dragged them all into this mess.
She swallowed. "Um," she started again, hoping against hope he couldn't hear the tears in her voice. "It's a long story but - they were after him so he got put in jail, and now they're after me."
"That's crazy."
She leaned her forehead against her knees. "Yes," she said morosely.
Angel parked the car and turned off the engine. In an equally depressed voice he said, "Are you going to call the police?"
She glanced at him. She didn't want to, but why didn't he? Wasn't that what you did when someone came after your classmate and you were dragged along into the entire mess?
A tinge of doubt crept into her again. Did Angel not want the police because he was part of this? She had decided to chance it, that he wasn't a part of this, especially after his confession that the Sons of Solomon were a source of hatred. But maybe he was lying.
Just like Milo.
"Why do you sound like you don't want to?" she asked suspiciously.
"It's...." He rubbed the back of his neck and looked away. "Forget it. We should call them."
But Olivia didn't want that. And if Angel was giving her the go-ahead, maybe it meant he wasn't a part of this.
The back and forth was enough to make her head spin, but she said, "I won't call them if you don't want to call them. But I need an explanation."
Angel slid down in his seat, his voice quiet. "It's nothing really...I mean....they think I'm at home with my aunt, but I don't even know where she is. They'll put me in foster care."
Olivia was caught by surprise. Here she was, expecting to have to convince him not to call the police and not get them involved, and instead it had become the other way around. "Yes," she said, dumbfounded. "Great. I don't want to call the police either."
It was Angel's turn to look surprised. "You don't want to call the police after some gang came after you?"
"Are you trying to convince me to?"
"No. No way. It's just...isn't that the normal thing to do?"
"I guess."
They stared at each other. Olivia wondered why he would be put in foster care if his brother would be back soon. She remembered him saying that it was the Sons of Solomon that had torn his family apart. Is that why he was acting so calm? Because it had happened before?
But facing him now, like this, she was too afraid to pressure him into telling her about his business. And she had enough of a headache to go home and explain to Logan about what had happened to figure out Angel's life story at the same time.
"If you aren't going to call the police, please be careful," she said. "They might come back. I don't know if they saw you with me. They might know who you are."
Angel rubbed his eyes and sighed. "Shit, this is a mess."
He was quiet for a while, and before she could lose the courage, Olivia blurted, "Um, if there's no one at your house...do you want to....maybe - stay at mine?"
Surprise took over his face. Then he gave her a small smile. "No. It's fine. My brother will come home soon."
Olivia wasn't buying his fake smile. "Are you sure?" she asked.
"I hope so."
*****
When Logan picked her up from school that day, Olivia completely forgot all about what had happened the day before and she ran to his bike. She silently got on behind him, put her feet up on the pegs, and waited for him to start the bike, but he turned around and looked at her curiously.
"Are you not going to take off your tights?"
All Olivia wanted to do was go home and hide under her blankets so she didn't have to confess to Logan that she left the safety of the school when she wasn't supposed to and almost got kidnapped. She kept her eyes on her legs and shook her head.
But Logan didn't take the hint. He kept staring at her.
Olivia wanted to squirm underneath his stare. What did he want her to say? What did it matter to him whether she kept her tights on or off?
"You always take your tights off," he said stubbornly.
"Well, you always complain about it," she grumbled. "So now I'm not and you're still complaining."
Logan didn't say anything caustic back. Olivia just wished he would stop thinking and drive them home, but she could almost hear the gears churning in his brain.
Finally, he said very awkwardly, "You know, um...Blake hugs me all the time. He does it to the point where it's annoying really, but it's...whatever. He's my little brother. And..." He cleared his throat and continued in a clearly uncomfortable voice, "And you're my little sister. I'm not going to bite you. And you don't have to ask every time either."
Olivia's eyes and throat burned. Logan wouldn't be talking to her so gently if he knew what she'd done. He would be angry and disappointed and he would think she was stupid. She was stupid. She should never have done that. Regret made her heart drop down to her feet. "Okay," she said in a small voice, hands clenched against her knees.
Logan stared in silence at her. He pushed his hands into his hair. "Well, are you mad at me?" he asked, his voice bordering on panic and confusion.
Olivia shook her head, her throat too tight to speak.
She could feel Logan fighting himself, or fighting something, but he took a deep breath and came to a decision.
"Then come here, dummy," he said, and he leaned down awkwardly in the seat, and hugged her.
The weather was unbearably hot, but Olivia nearly started to cry right then when Logan hugged her to his chest and the warmth of his body eased her shaking. She held fistfuls of his shirt and pressed her face into him and tried not to cry.
"Whoa, hey," he said. "What's wrong?"
"It's fine," she said, but her voice came out a sob and a few tears trickled down her face and wet his shirt.
She was never going to be free of this. She was going to spend her entire life living in fear of them, putting the people she loved in danger, making one mistake after another until one day she did something fatal that either she or her family would not recover from.
She didn't want to lose anybody anymore. She didn't want to let go of her brothers but she didn't want to keep doing this either.
Logan shifted on the bike, swinging his legs over so he completely faced her on the bike. He held her wrists in his hands and pulled them away from her tearstained face. "You are not fine," he said. "What happened?"
Olivia shook her head and tried to cover her face again, and he let her, but he whispered gently, "I'm here now, okay? I'm here."
And he hugged her tight, and those broken pieces of her heart that missed her mom and Emily and Elijah felt a little bit better. She hadn't lost Logan yet, and she wouldn't lose him, she didn't want to, she wanted always to be his sister and be his friend and be by his side, no matter what angry things they said to each other.
So what if they didn't always agree? So what if sometimes she didn't know what she was supposed to say? They were trying harder to get along, and he was there for her and it always comforted her that he was there.
Eventually, she felt better enough to let go of him and wipe her eyes. "Is everyone staring at us?" she murmured.
"Only a little."
"Tell the truth."
In an indignant voice, Logan said, "The truth is, I don't give one single fuck, and neither should you. Screw all these people. They know nothing."
Olivia glanced at the people staring at them. Some of them hurriedly looked away when she caught them staring, some of them continued to do so unabashedly. But she realized what Logan meant. They had no idea what she had been through. What they thought couldn't matter when they didn't know all of what she had done to get here.
"I guess they don't," she said.
Things are going really nice for me in my life and you guys are all so great and I just want to cry happy tears (but I never have and never will? I just can't seem to lol). That is all.
The next update will be SUNDAY.
For next time: Blake has a breakthrough. Two, actually. A nice everything-is-going-really-nice-in-my-life moment for him too because the poor boy deserves it.