OLIVIA
Olivia sat at the end of the nearly empty lunch table, the side of her head resting against her hand, eyes closing. She had hardly gotten any sleep last night after she lied to Logan that she was just worried about Elijah, and nothing else. She could see she hadn't fooled him, but he didn't make her say anything else.
After she got to the bottom of this rumor, after she found out whether it was a truth or a lie, she promised herself that then she would tell him everything.
"Mind if we sit?"
Olivia opened her eyes and looked blearily at Kendra and Hillary, the two girls she had met on her first day at school, staring down at her. She shrugged. "Sure."
As soon as she was sitting, Kendra leaned across the table so far that Olivia could practically taste her strong, cloying perfume, thick against her tongue. "So," she began, her eyes huge, her voice low. Olivia fought the urge to roll her eyes at the drama of it all.
The sooner she talked to them, the sooner they would leave, and the sooner she could sit in peace again. She heaved a sigh and asked, "What is it?"
"Is it true? You had a fight with your boyfriend yesterday?" Kendra asked.
Olivia's jaw fell slack, all thoughts of sleep banished.
"Did you kiss and makeup?" Hillary added.
Olivia's hands clenched into fists underneath the table.
"Did you-"
"Oh my god, shut up," Olivia growled. Her blood boiled. "Stop being disgusting-"
Kendra waved her hands wildly in front of her face. "No, no, no, we totally don't judge that he's older, I mean, aren't they, like, more experienced and-"
"He's my brother, alright!" Olivia burst out.
They both gasped, and for a moment, Olivia naively thought they would finally be silent and leave her alone.
Then Hillary ruined it. "You're dating your brother?"
Olivia threw up her hands at their stupidity. "What the hell is wrong with you?"
Just as she was about to get up and walk away so she wouldn't punch them in the nose, she was stopped by the person beside her. "Hi, Olivia," Angel said, sliding into the seat next to her. "Hey Hillary, Kendra."
"Hi, Angel," they said in unison, their grins stretching across their faces. Olivia resisted the urge to bang her head against the table.
"You mind if I steal Olivia?"
To her surprise, both Hillary and Kendra nodded. As Olivia gratefully got out of her seat and escaped with Angel, she heard one of them murmur, "I wish he would steal me away."
She nearly gagged.
Angel dragged her all the way to the school library. When he finally stopped, she asked, "What is it?"
His face morphed into one of panic. "Do you have a partner for the history project? Please say yes. I'm not going to do it with Christina, please."
Olivia narrowed her eyes. "I'm working by myself."
"You're allowed to work by yourself?"
"Mr. Anderson said I could."
"No, no, no!" He shoved his hands into his thick, dark hair, his dark eyes panicked. "He didn't say I could. Come on, Olivia, she's going to eat me alive."
"Christina's not going to eat you. She's got the hugest crush on you."
"That's the problem," he protested. "Please be my partner."
She crossed her arms over her chest. "I'm not helping you."
"Why not?"
"You're a boy."
"So what?"
"I already told you that I hate boys."
"You don't hate that boyfriend you ride home with everyday."
Olivia was certain that steam was coming out of her ears. If she heard that ridiculous sentence one more time from one more person, she was going to hit someone, and it wasn't going to be pretty.
Through gritted teeth, she said, "That's my brother. And my brothers are different. They're not stupid."
But he had only heard one word. His face changed, his eyebrows raised in a hopeful expression. "Brother?"
She gave him an exasperated look. "Yes. As in, a male who is related to you by -"
"Wait, wait, wait, so he's not your boyfriend?"
"Come on, Angel," she complained. "Now you're just being really gross."
"Hm. Interesting."
"What's interesting?"
"Nothing." He shook his head. "Come on, Olivia, we're friends, aren't we? Friends can do a project together."
Olivia nearly grimaced at the thought of how she had spilled her home problems to him yesterday. He had been willing to listen. He had given her some hope. At the time, it had been comforting, but later, she had been humiliated at the thought of making the same mistakes with Milo all over again.
"Angel, I just can't."
"Is this about yesterday?' His face fell and his voice became tight. "Shit, I knew I overstepped-"
She waved a hand. "No, it's not that," she said quickly.
"It's not?" His shoulders relaxed. "Oh thank god. I didn't want it all to be so awkward."
"It's not awkward."
He moved a bit so he was standing in front of her, so she couldn't look away from him. His hair stuck up where he had run his hands through it, his sharp jaw set tight, stubborn. He was standing so close that she could smell him, a clean, musky cologne that finally cut through the smell of Kendra's offensive perfume. She unconsciously inhaled it in, soothing her nose.
"Then give me a chance," Angel said. He didn't make a move to touch her, and Olivia was grateful. "I don't know who hurt you before. I don't know what they did. But I promise, we'll be friends. I won't hurt you."
Olivia wondered if Angel would ever stop reminding her of Milo, of what he had done, of the feelings she had trusted him with. She wondered if she would ever sit next to him, muscles relaxed, not terrified that he would turn around and blurt her secrets to the highest bidder. She wondered if she would ever feel comfortable around anyone ever again.
But when she looked into his eyes, she saw nothing that reminded her of Milo. He was open, honest. He had been forthcoming about his own family, his brother. She knew something about him, something she couldn't say about Milo.
Besides, all she had to do was not make the same mistakes. If she didn't slip up, there was no reason she couldn't give it a chance.
"Okay," she agreed. "But if we're going to do the project, I have some rules."
He bowed low and swept his hands to his sides. "Lay it on me."
Olivia didn't give in to this theatrics. "Don't touch me, don't hug me, and don't kiss me. Got it?"
Angel raised his eyebrows. The corner of his lips pulled upwards in a crooked, heart stopping grin, making Olivia's heart pound. "Damn, don't you think we're moving a little fast-"
Olivia fought the blush heating her neck at his words. "If you don't like the rules, we're not going to work together."
He pulled his lips into his mouth in a failed attempt to suppress his smile. His eyes still danced. "Alright, alright, I shall accept your terms and conditions. Pinky promise."
He held out his pinky. When she glared at him, he slowly drew it back.
"Right, thou shalt not make physical skin to skin contact with me. Understood." He nodded solemnly, the corner of his mouth twitching upwards.
Olivia forced herself to stop looking at his beautiful smile. "I'm serious," she said.
"Me too."
"Then what are you going to tell Christina?" Olivia asked, keen to shift the attention away from herself, to dispel the nervous tension. "She won't have a partner anymore."
"I don't know, Mr. Anderson didn't actually take down partner names yet, right?"
"You're really going to break her heart. She told half the class already that she was going to be working with you. She seemed pretty excited."
Angel put his face in his hands and groaned. "I knew she was going to eat me alive."
Olivia rolled her eyes. "Your call. You can still work with her if you want."
Angel adamantly shook his head. "No way."
*****
Contrary to Angel's prediction, Christina did not eat him the next day, but Olivia could see the girl glaring daggers at her when Angel and Olivia paired up for the project. To avoid a scene, and also to avoid everyone in general, she made Angel come with her to the library during lunch. He groaned and complained, but she argued that since he was the reason she was now Christina's Enemy Number One, he could do at least that much for her.
They sat at one of the large, wooden tables in the library. Angel wrote while they discussed an outline for the essay and who would write which paragraphs. Angel was smart and quick, Olivia had to give him that, but she hoped he would type this outline up later. She could hardly read a single word of his messy, hopeless chicken scratch.
"So why are you in this school, Olivia?" Angel asked suddenly while flipping the page in his notebook to outline their presentation.
Her muscles tensed. Again with the questions. She should have made no personal questions one of the rules. "My parents put me here," she said, the lie effortlessly rolling off her tongue.
Angel furrowed his eyebrows. "You don't seem very Catholic to me."
"Why? Because I'm dating my brother?"
He rolled his eyes. "You know I don't believe that."
"Well, neither does anyone else, but they like to lay it on me anyways. Half the kids in this school aren't so religious, I don't see why I have to be, to be here either." She rolled her eyes. "No offense, you're hardly the poster boy of high and mighty yourself."
Angel put the end of his pencil in his mouth. "You're different," was all he said.
"Different how?"
"I don't know. Like you're always looking for something. Waiting for something."
Olivia shrugged, trying not to let on that he had read her perfectly. "I'm just waiting to get out."
"And when is that?"
She shrugged and waved a hand towards him. "And why are you here?"
"It's kind of a funny story," he said. He began writing down things in the notebook in front of him, and Olivia got the feeling he didn't want to talk about. Still, she was curious.
"Parents?"
He shook his head. "Don't have any of those."
"Oh." The word popped out of her mouth on hearing his words. She shouldn't have assumed anything about him. "I'm sorry-"
"No, it's fine," he said casually, looking at her with a smile. "I've got my brother. He's pretty cool. Not as cool as your biker bro, but...it's cool."
"So...your brother put you here?"
"Kind of. It's more for safety, I guess. He's got a kind of serious job."
"Serious?"
"Very serious."
Olivia wondered if they were in witness protection too. But people in witness protection didn't continue during dangerous jobs. That was the whole point of being in the program, wasn't it? "The job that's for revenge?"
"Yeah." Angel pressed his lips together and pointed the pencil at her. "But don't tell anyone I told you that. People aren't supposed to know."
Olivia was dying to ask him more. Who was to say that the witness protection program didn't just lump all the kids that were in one area and still transitioning to normal life in one designated school so they could keep close watch over them? Who was to say St. John's Catholic school wasn't actually a safe haven for WITSEC members still in limbo?
Maybe Angel was one too.
But if there was anything the program had tried their best to drill into their heads, it was that they weren't allowed to talk about it. And if she kept asking Angel questions, sooner or later he would start asking questions too. Questions that she wasn't supposed to answer truthfully.
"I won't tell," she reassured him, taking the notebook from him. "Let's just finish this. And I'm writing this time."
I feel blah about this chapter but at this point I want to write the next one so oh well.
Sorry about the wait, I completely forgot on Friday and couldn't update on Saturday and so I decided to do it today. The next update will be next Monday or Tuesday because I have end of semester exams all this week.
Remember to vote/comment :)
For next time: Elijah does not understand Jimmy Peters one single bit [was the last chapter with his POV boring/did you feel like it took away from the story? let me know]