Waking up is not my favorite part of the day, let me just make that clear. Not when I wake up willingly or if I’m woken up by another force.
Waking up is especially not enjoyable when there is a phone blasting in my ear. And it’s even worse than that when I look at the caller ID and see that it’s my mother calling, of all people to wake me up on this lovely Australian morning.
“Hello?” I grumbled.
“Olivia, why do you sound tired?” Her harsh voice pierced through my nine o’clock grogginess.
“Because I was sleeping.” I groaned.
“Sleeping?” She yelped. “It’s six in the evening, why on earth are you sleeping? You should be studying and I’m sure you have homework, you can’t let yourself get behind, I’m so tired of having to tell you this every time I call you. I don’t want to keep having this conversation, Olivia.”
“Then stop having it, you start it, not me.” I mumbled, cursing myself for forgetting the time difference between America and Australia and, because my mom doesn’t know that I’m here, I can’t tell her that it’s morning here. “What do you want?”
“Don’t you dare give me that attitude, young lady, you haven’t responded to any of my emails and you haven’t called me back in three weeks, what is going on?”
I sighed heavily, standing up from my bed and moving over to my dresser. I put my phone on speaker, even though I really didn’t want to hear her annoying voice, and started brushing my chocolaty brown hair. “I’ve just been so busy with those classes you told me to sign up for.”
“Really?” She asked in shock.
“Yeah.” I chirped, sarcasm dripping from my voice, but I knew that she wouldn’t be able to pick up on it. Maybe Jackson was right, maybe I should just stand up to her and my father and move on from my earlier years. Maybe my life would be a lot easier without them in it.
“Good, because we know that you need all the schooling you can get. You’re not the sharpest tool in the shed. That’s an idiom.” She informed me.
“I know what a fucking idiom is.” I snapped irritably. “And I’m not smart? You just called me dumb and I graduated high school with a 4.3 GPA.”
“Watch your language, young lady!” My mother gasped. “You weren’t not raised to act like trash.”
“Well, I’m just an all-around disappointment, then aren’t I?” I growled, deciding that I’d just go with it. I mean, it was nine in the morning and I am absolutely not a morning person and I was not in the mood for her nagging and ridicule and jabs at my already nonexistent ego, I was tired of it all and I was just tired. I was on vacation and I should enjoy it and I might have still been grumpy from the conversation with Jackson a few days ago and I still haven’t worked things out with Holly and I just wasn’t in the mood for this.
“I guess so.” She snapped. “You can never do anything right. You really need to get your act together, Olivia.”
“Well, I think that you stink!” I snapped. “And you know what? Maybe I’m not the failure here, did you ever think that maybe you’re just a terrible, terrible person? And a mother- you’re a god awful mother, too. So if I am a bad person, it’s because of you and my father for being such awful, heartless people.”
“Olivia, stop this!” She gasped, but I wasn’t done, I wasn’t even close.
“News flash, Mother, I’m not taking those stupid summer classes, I’m not even in America, I’ve been in Australia for the past month and I’m staying for the whole summer. Another news flash, I’m not a virgin, not even close. I’m actually a whore, thanks to you. I’m a fucked up person and it’s all your fault.”
“We are talking about this when you come home. Tomorrow, you get your ass on a plane right now, Olivia Cross.” Whoa, she never cusses, she must be really pissed. But I was even more pissed. “I will see you tomorrow.”
“The hell you will!” I cried loudly. “I’m not coming home. In fact, I’m never coming home. I hope I never see your ugly fucking naggy stupid face ever again.”
“Don’t you dare talk to me like that!” She shrieked.
“What?” I snorted. “You don’t want me to call you ugly? You’ve called me ugly for my whole damn life!” I screamed, completely losing my humanity as I screamed at the lady on the phone. “And I’ve believed you, too, that’s the worst part. But I’m not ugly, I don’t think. Jackson said that I’m hot! Jackson and Ryder and Brendon and Damon, they all say that I’m pretty so you’re the one who’s wrong! You’ve always been wrong about everything! You’re the stupid one. You’re stupid and ugly and mean, you’re so mean! And it’s really pathetic of you to always force me to do shit that I don’t wanna do. I hate you!” I screamed. I didn’t even care if the other people in the house could hear me because I was so far beyond gone. I had angry tears running down my face and I was half-sobbing as I screamed into the phone like a lunatic, frantically pacing back in forth in my room.
“Well, if that’s how you feel, then-“
“Go to hell.” I snapped, not letting her finish her sentence before hanging up the phone and out of white hot anger, I let out a loud shriek as I threw my phone across the room. It thudded into the wall with a loud crash and then fell to the ground in multiple pieces. Gosh, she makes me so mad. But letting out those years of pent up anger and frustration felt… well, amazing.
“What happened?” I heard Andy ask, hurrying into the room- her and Tommy’s room was right beside mine, so I guess it made sense that she heard me screaming at my now-shattered phone. I didn’t answer her, but seeing my tear stained face, she hurried over to me and wrapped me in her arms. I hugged her close to me and tried my best to calm myself down. Luckily, I didn’t break into sobs or anything, I just had to calm myself down from that roller coaster of anger.
“What’s wrong?” Jackson’s voice pierced through the air.
I looked up to see him hurrying over to where I was standing with Andy with Tommy standing in the doorway so I assumed that Tommy had gone to get Jackson.
“Why’d you get Jackson?” Andy asked in confusion.
I didn’t hear Tommy’s reply before I darted into Jackson’s arms and clung to him. I didn’t even care if Andy was standing right there, I just hugged him. “Oh my gosh, thank you so much.” I croaked. “That felt so damn good, thank you.”
“What did I do…?” He asked awkwardly.
I pulled away from him with a grin and a sniffle. “I did what you told me to do and I stood up to my parents. I probably got disinherited and I’m now hated by my whole family, but I’m free. Gosh, and it feels so good.” I exclaimed excitedly.
“Wait, what happened?” Andy asked, still clearly confused.
“Yeah, I’m still lost.” Jackson mumbled, shaking his head.
“And why did you get Jackson?” Andy repeated her question, looking at Tommy who was still standing in the doorway.
He just shrugged. I knew why he went and told Jackson that I was in my room screaming my head off- because he knew that we were now more than friends. I don’t know what exactly we were, but definitely not just friends. However, I don’t know what he was going to tell Andy, because Andy’s not allowed to know- not yet, at least. “Because Holly’s not here and, you know, and I panicked.” He said awkwardly.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you guys up or anything.” I mumbled. “But she called and I was just so tired and not in the mood for her poopy voice, so I just kinda… went off.”
“Your mom? What’d you tell her?” Jackson asked curiously.
“Well, I started off with ‘I’m not a virgin’ and ended with ‘go to hell’.” I admitted sheepishly.
“What’d she do?” Andy asked.
I shrugged. “She was so shocked, I also told her that I was never coming home. But I hung up on her before she could say anything.”
“Libby, I told you to move on, I didn’t say, go tell off your mom.” Jackson sighed.
“Well, that’s how I’m moving on.” I defended.
“Okay, so if everything’s okay, I’m going back to bed. I’m exhausted and a woman needs her beauty sleep.” Andy huffed, giving me one last hug before exiting the room.
When she was a safe distance away, Tommy looked at both me and Jackson who were standing beside each other next to my bed. “You two need to figure your shit out because I’m a terrible liar.” He informed us.
“Tommy,-“
“No, I’m a singer, not an actor, and there are reasons for that.” He told us. “I swear, I’ve never met such priapic people.” He muttered quietly, exiting the room and following his fiancée towards their room.
That made me giggle a little bit.
“What’s so funny?” Jackson asked me.
“Nothing, it’s just that I called Holly priapic at the beginning of the summer. When she was trying to talk me into a friends with benefits relationship with Brendon and I just thought it was the worst thing ever, a friends with benefits relationship.”
“Is that what we are?” He asked curiously.
I shrugged. “I don’t know, Jackson.”
“Me neither.” He admitted. “And by the way, if you ever need a place to stay or money or anything, since you’ve just told off your mom, you don’t hesitate to ask, alright?”
“I’ll take the place to stay, but I’ll never ask you for money.” I told him, rolling my eyes. “I do have money, I work on campus during the year, just not for the summers. I’ve always planned for this day, so I have a money stash, I’ve never been dependent on my parents.”
“Well I’m here. I’m always here, Lib.” He assured me.
“Are you trying to seduce me again?” I asked with raised eyebrows. “You said you wouldn’t do that anymore.”
He let out a soft laugh. “I’m not trying to seduce you, I’m just letting you know.”
“I don’t think we’re priapic.” I told him randomly. “I mean, we’ve known each other for like sixteen years and we’ve only done it three times. Holly’s only known Kale for three years and they’ve done it countless times and I mean, they-“
“No.” Jackson interrupted me. “No, don’t do that. I’m sure my sister tells you all about that stuff, but do not relay that information to me.” He said quickly.
“Okay.” I laughed. “Fair enough.”
“Now, back on topic, if I was trying to seduce you, would it work?” He smirked as his eyes darkened. That kind of darkness in his eyes that informs me that we are about to get into even some more trouble, into a deeper hole, but it would be so worth it.
“I think we’ve already been through this.” I said, rolling my eyes at him. “The whole self-control thing is like at zero and I mean, I think we’ve both accepted the fact that whether we want it to or not, it’s probably going to happen again, so I suppose it would work, yes. But you could at least let me brush my teeth first, morning breath sucks. You too, you have to brush your teeth.”
He playfully rolled his eyes at me. “You’re so strange.” He chuckled.
I grinned at him. “Strange is my middle name, just call me Libby Strange Cross.”
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Thank you to NinjaNisha for the cover to the side! (: