ON A SUNDAY MORNING, Michael Connelly sits on the wooden chair on the front porch of his house, staring out into the early beams of the sunlight on the just-waking-up neighborhood. A steaming hot of an almost empty coffee held in his hand while the other hand sits comfortably on the armrest. Quiet padded footsteps were heard inside the house and stops just by the doorway and he looks up and meets the eyes of his daughter.
Olivia awkwardly stepped out of the house and joined her dad by the wooden coffee table, her eyes darting everywhere as a a lump forms in her throat, giving her a hard time to speak.
"You're up early." Michael pointed out monotonously, his eyes finding its way back to the front yard again.
"Dad.." She begins, her voice pleading and desperate. "I wouldn't want to leave with us still on bad terms."
Michael got up from the wooden chair and finished the remains of the coffee on his mug with one gulo before nodding his head at the street, "Let's go out for a walk."
Olivia look at him, stunned. She stood up from the bench and hastily followed her Father down the steps and to the empty sidewalk. They don't speak for a solid five minutes before Michael spoke up, "You're coming back to LA tomorrow, correct?"
"No need for small talks and clipped, businesslike tones with me, Dad. You can stop talking to your daughter like a stranger, you know." Olivia bites out bitterly, rolling her eyes.
"I do not."
Olivia arcs an eyebrow. "You just did."
Michael doesn't say anything before he continued, "It was nice to have you back, Liv."
"Really? That's very hard to believe." Olivia rebutts hotly and she knows she shouldn't talk to her Dad like that because he was the one who should be mad at her but for some reason, she couldn't bite down her tongue to keep the words from ushering out and do more damage than she had already done. "I'm pretty sure you rejoiced upon my absence. That's how much you hated me."
"I didn't. I never did." Michael replied smoothly, his blue eyes sweeping across the path ahead of them. "A father could never hate their own child. No matter how bad they did wrong, no parent could ever hate their children."
"It did feel like it.."
'Underneath anger, there is pain.' Noah's voice rings on her ears.
"I could never hate you. You're my little girl. You've always been my baby girl, Livvie." Michael says softly. "When I found out you and Montgomery started dating, I told you how I hated having you around guys who only makes trouble wherever they go. I don't want you having your heart broken from guys who would only take away your smile with them when they leave you."
"And it hurt me, more than you could ever imagine, to see you come home every single night looking so tired and devastated after a fight with that de la Cruz boy, it hurt me too to see your smile that your mother and I have always loved be taken away by some boy who you think loves you when he's made you cry more than he's made you laugh." He continued. "And when that day came, when you came home crying, I was on the verge of finally giving the boy a chance until I found out what he did to you. No father could ever want that for their daughter. No father could ever want their daughter to go through that heartbreak."
Olivia's chin trembles as tears brimmed dangerously on her eyes, listening intently on her father. It was only now when she sees the faint wrinkles forming on his face, the stressed lines on his forehead, up close. Her father had aged more than she expected within the two years she was away.
"Having you get yourself pregnant in a very young age was bad enough, but hearing the father of your child fooling around with someone else and hurt you was worse, knowing he would never be enough as a good father."
"But he is. He's a good father." Olivia chocked out quietly, a small part of her that used to automatically defends Montgomery when his name comes out of the mouth of someone who would underestimate and badmouth him when he wasn't around. Old habits die hard. "He tries. He's changed, Dad."
"I've seen that." Michael agrees with a smile but his following words contrasts the smile on his face. "But how long before he shifts back to his old patterns? How long does he have before he fools around again? How long before he makes you cry again?"
Olivia averted her gaze, hating her Dad for knowing the right, painful things to say but also hating him because she knew he was right.
"How many times did he promised you that he'll change?" Her dad asks. "And how many times did he break that promise?"
A lot of times. A small voice taunted at the back of her head and she angrily pushed it back at the back of her mind.
"You can't hate him forever." Olivia whimpered and she hated herself for sounding so pathetic and weak. Again, she was back to the Olivia who had always chosen Montgomery's side.
"You're right. I can't." He concurred. "I don't get to tell you who to be with anymore, Liv. I'm only here to guide you and be there in every step of the way. If you choose to be with Justin, then it's your choice. If it's down with Montgomery... then so be it."
"I'm sorry, Dad." Olivia choked out a sob and Michael shushed her gently, enclasping his arms around her small body and it was just like she was a little girl again from when he used to hold her when she cried.
"I forgave you long before you even apologized."
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Later that night, Montgomery was on the driveway, leaned back on his car as he twirled a cigarette stick on his fingers, contemplating whether he should smoke or not. The night breeze ruffled his hair around the top of his head, the coolness of it against his skin making it almost close to soothing. The stars twinkled delightedly, it was too bright and optimistic almost as if it were mocking him for the situation at hand, mocking him for things he can't have.
The de la Cruz boy clenched his jaw and his left foot tapped restlessly on the pavement, continuing to weigh his options if he should go visit the household of the Connelly's or not. Tomorrow was supposed to be the day Grayson and Olivia goes back to LA with Elizabeth which meant it was the day he officially loses her, theoretically speaking. He hated Olivia for being so hardheaded and noble, always thinking of the greater good. Never mind if it included hurting herself in the process. But he couldn't blame her. That's how it always has been between the both of them. Olivia, always putting Montgomery above all. Olivia, defending him despite his absence. Olivia — never mind if he did her wrong — who doesn't know how a lot of time has passed, and she's still the same Olivia who cared for him, who still sees him for the way she perceives him no matter how he screwed up, who still wanted the best for him.
Olivia, who Montgomery loved and without intending to, who he also broke.
And then there's him, Montgomery de la Cruz, who doesn't seem to be making everything fall back to place no matter how hard he tried. Montgomery, who always seemed to wreak havoc wherever he went and broke whatever he touched. Montgomery, who changed so much after he loved and lost and nonetheless, he still felt he was the very same asshole who broke her heart and doesn't deserve her. Montgomery, who was second best when it comes against Justin, who would always be entitled the first love, the one that got away, the one she loved best, and the one she'd still go back to. Montgomery, who ached for things he knew he can't have.
Montgomery, who loved and lost and now that she's at an arm's length away from him while he still has the chance, she decides to let him go. Montgomery, who was now ready to drop everything for her, only to have her give everything up for the sake of him.
Olivia, who would choose what's good for him.
Montgomery, who would choose her.
But if Montgomery chose her instead of Vanderbilt like had wanted, he wasn't quite sure if she could ever forgive him. Giving up Vanderbilt meant taking down two birds with one stone.
The boy sighed sharply through his nose and dug inside his pocket to pull out the kitchen lighter he got from the cupboards, staring at the flame as it danced on the small opening of the lighter. He licked his lips nervously as he brings the cigarette up to his lips, double-guessing if it was a good idea to smoke. He hasn't smoked a cigarette for half a year now. Was he ready to shift back to his old, bad, habits again? Now that he has a child?
"You don't want to do that."
He jumped inwardly at the sudden voice cutting through the silent atmosphere outside the house. He looked over his shoulder and sees his Dad watching him impassively with the green eyes they both shared.
Bradford de la Cruz walks around the car and leaned back beside his son, taking the cancer stick from his mouth and stepping down on it by the pavement, crunching the nicotine under his boot heel. "You quitted smoking a long time ago. What makes you want to smoke again?"
"You and I both know damn well the reason, Dad." Montgomery muttered gruffly, running his tongue over his teeth. "You're making me choose something you know I don't want."
"In life, there are some things you gotta do even if you hate them." Bradford responded. "Did you think I wanted for your Mother to leave for Manhattan?"
"I..." Montgomery trailed off, dropping his gaze on the floor. "never really thought about it."
"I didn't. Because it meant having her away from me everyday, not getting to see her as much as I'd want to, not getting to hear her voice echoing around the house." Bradford explains shortly, chuckling. "But it worked out, you see. I let her go because it was what she wanted and who was I to keep her from reaching for her dream of working in that fancy company with all those fancy people? I swore in front of the church to be there for her and with her through her ups and downs, through richer and poorer. It's all about partnership, son, not ownership. Just because I'm her husband doesn't give me the right to hold her back because it was something that I didn't agree on."
"Why are you saying these stuff to me?" Montgomery grumbled but his eyes holds interest in his father's words, the situation sounding quite familiar with his and Olivia's.
"Because I understand where Olivia's coming from." Bradford concluded and he tajes a deep breath before exhaling sharply, he claps his hands swiftly and stood up from the lean on the Jeep. "Which reminds me, your Mother's got through my head again. She told me something about giving you an option aside from Vanderbilt."
That got Montgomery's undivided and full attention and he sprung up from his slouch and stared wide-eyed to his Dad. He gulped, "Yeah.. And?"
"Now that Grayson's in the picture, you're no longer just a college student pursuing your baseball career but you're also a father now, which meant having you to balance both responsibilities on your shoulders. It won't do you any good if you were to stay all the way from across the state away from your girl and your son which gives me no choice but to abide to your mother's proposal to have you in a nearer school placement with Gray and Liv." Bradford goes on and couldn't help but mirror the excited grin forming on his son's face. "So instead of Vanderbilt, I'm allowing to send you off to Oregon State University which is 14 hours away from LA but if you catch a plane then you're about less than 2 hours away from them. Not only because it's the school I graduated in but also ome of the best schools that offers baseball scholarships. I've already talked to the school administrators and they're happy enough to give you a chance to study there. Your mother and I could drive down every other weekend for when you come home to Olivia and don't worry about the plane ticket, your mother said she'll take care of it."
Bradfod wasn't even done yet with his statement when Montgomery throws his fist up in the air, yelling out triumphantly. The young man ran all across the yard and jumped up and down in pure joy, his happy and victorious cries echoing down their street and the he didn't care if it woke up the entire neighborhood because all he cared about was Olivia and Grayson and her Dad's agreement and Oregon.
Bradford watched his son with smile and the front door bursts open with his wife, Emilia, fussing over their first born child who was struggling to balance his dufflebag slung on his arm and the other extra package his Mom forced him to bring all the way to Tennessee. There was no doubt that Dawson didn't even objct with his Mom's insistence to make him bring an extra bag filled with resources that only Mothers knows that would be best for their son. Though Dawson was almost 21, he's still a big Mama's boy.
"Mom, I'm gonna be fine. Stop—stop licking your thumb and pressing it down to my brows, Jesus! I've already came down to Tennessee on my own just fine, don't worry about me!" Dawson whined, hissing and stomping as he was mercilessly attacked by his mother's hand. "Stop it! You're—you're freaking me out!"
Dawson was cut short when Montgomery leaped up behind their mother's back and hugged her back tightly, abruptly ceasing her actions of assault on her son's features. Montgomery smiled against the flowery-scented sleeve of his Mother's blouse and spoked muffledly, "Thank you, Mom. For everything."
Emilia smiled and squeezed his arm. "Told you it'd work out."
Dawson rolled his eyes and sighed, "I'm leaving for Tennessee and I don't get a hug too?"
Montgomery snorted and pulled away from Emilia before tackling his big brother with more like a shove than a hug. Montgomery sneaks a punch on his rib while Dawson retaliates a knee up his younger brother's groin, making him yelp and double over.
"I'll see you soon, brother." Dawson dramatically bids his goodbye and a slap on his cheek for good measure before he nods his head to his Jeep. "Now, go get her before someone else does."
Montgomery nodded and gave his brother a last and final hug before he starts running for his car but not after he surprised his Dad with a hug, whispering his gratitude and that's only when he starts the car with a growl of its engine and gunning down the streets and to the way to her neighborhood.
He could almost imagine how he would greet Olivia with the news, the way how her eyes would light up in delight and how she would grapple him in a hug so tight he didn't care if it cuts his air supply. He could almost picture himself in Oregon and coming down every other weekend to Olivia and Grayson, pursuing his career and at the same time, his small family blossoms.
He parks the car at the end of the street and walked all the way to her house for the element of surprise. Because it feels like the perfect moment to surprise her.
But as he neared the house, the grin was wiped off of his face when he sees two forms of people under the small porch chandelier and the waning light of the moon. Both arms around each other and faces only an inch apart, their noses brushing against each other.
At that exact moment, he knew he was too late.
And what comes next only crushed him even more. As if it were applying alcohol to an open wound. Or maybe ripping off the bandaid in a laceration.
Olivia throws her head back to laugh and Justin leaned closer and kissed her square on the lips and she kisses him back, her hand coming up to cup either side of his face, the same way she used to hold Monty's.
Only Montgomery could do was watch.
And he didn't know how long he stood there until he felt the numbness on his foot riding up on his knees and he insensibly walked back to his car.
'You, Montgomery de la Cruz, wins every fight he wages against other guys your age but when it comes yo fighting for love, fighting for your love, you're easily discouraged.' His mother's voice echoed in his head and it dawned on him how she was right.
Montgomery, who won every fight he stirred only when it comes to love, he loses.
And instead of marching up to the house and professing his love for Olivia and dramatically shoving Justin out of the way as he gets up to win his girl, he decided to drive back home like a puppy with its tail tucked between his legs.
Because love is not always to fight but also to surrender.
— x —
i'm guessing you're all hating me rn not only because i didn't update like promised and took me ages before i did, but also because i just broke ur monty/olivia heart.
but don't worry, this isn't the last chapter yet! tell me guys what u think!
which do u want to be endgame: monty/olivia or justin/olivia.