Silent Lies - Chapter 26: Chapter 26

This is really fucking happening. Me and Olivia, on a date. A fucking dream come true, after all these months of having a crush on her.
I was annoyed, embarrassed, all that when Ashton and Danny really just had to expose my crush-but now I'm so damn thankful because it led to confessions and now here we are. On a fucking date!
Olivia actually likes me back. How? My first true crush-I hate that word-likes me back? How lucky am I?
Me and Olivia walk together, holding hands as mine sweat, maybe hers too but I'm sure it's mostly mine. I'm so nervous, I don't know why. It's not like I haven't hung out with Olivia alone before, but now that we're calling it a date? Holy hell. I've always been nervous around her but it's worse than ever now.
And then dad about to give us the talk? That was about the most humiliating thing in my life that's happened. Especially when Olivia's face along with mine flushed so much. Damn you dad.
I glance over at Olivia, the same second she does so we smile at each other once again, this has happened a lot. It's hard for me to not steal glances at her over and over, not with how damn pretty she is.
Her hair is down as it usually is, covering the remaining marks on her neck, most are healed now, that I have to look away from because it pisses me off. Her own damn dad.
But to the point, her hair is down of course, flowing perfectly as usual. She's wearing makeup, it covers the faint bruises left on her face, but she has on some eyeliner or something and lipstick on too. But with or without makeup, she's perfect. And she's wearing a purple sweater I've never seen her wear, I haven't seen her wear anything other than these certain three or four outfits, I'm sure she got it from Divine. It looks perfect on her, fitting her small frame just right.
Olivia's looking healthier already, since she's been staying with Divine and her mom Admira for nearly a week. Her bruises and body overall are healing, and none are being added. She looks so much happier. Her cheeks have gained color again, under the makeup. I'm so happy she went with Divine finally.
I just worry about her mental health. She doesn't talk about what happened much, she has but not as much as she should to let things out, and no one asks too much about it, not wanting to upset her. But she really does seem happier than she did for the month I knew her before finding out and all that.
"Oh, my god," Olivia says, bringing me back to reality. "Is that it?" She points to the boardwalk, seeming so excited and even more when I nod.
"Ready to have some fun?" I wrap my arm around her shoulders, keeping her close by me when I see crowds of people on the boardwalk. It's November, so it's a shock to see this many people here, but the weather has stayed decent lately-not hot nor cold, just right.
"So ready!" I've never seen her so excited and now I want to do everything I possibly can to continue to keep her this happy and excited.
She deserves the fucking world and I'll do my best to give her just that.
We don't get far into walking down the boardwalk before Olivia stops by the railing just in the middle, admiring the ocean underneath us. The boardwalk is one of the best views of it. She takes out her phone, which still has no service thanks to her dad, and takes a million pictures.
"It's so fucking pretty." She smiles down at all the pictures, looking through her camera roll until my eye lands on a certain picture.
"Is that us?" She looks confused until I tap the photo myself, revealing that it is us. The same night or day when me and Ashton had to take her to the hospital, me on the ground and her on the couch, holding hands.
I've found my new favorite picture.
"Oh, yeah." She's smiling so brightly now. "Ashton took it. I completely forgot to show it to you."
"Well, you better send it to me." Oh right, she doesn't have service. "That's the best picture ever." She agrees, taking my hand into hers as we continue walking.
Twenty minutes later and we're playing ring toss at some booth, attempting to win this huge fucking teddy bear that caught her eye. But, I'm terrible at this and she's only just a little better at it.
"You're horrible at this," Olivia whispers to me while giggling, staying quiet with the amount of people around us, just as I don't land any of the six rings I was given chances with.
"Okay, well, you only made two of yours," I remind her as I pay for another round of chances for us.
This is our eleventh time trying.
We really are bad at this. And it's only ring toss.
Another couple rounds later and finally, we made all six each. And since we each did, there's two prizes involved, both of which I made Olivia choose and keep. I saw the way her eyes lit up at all the stuffed animal prizes, I couldn't not let her choose and keep. But it took a lot of convincing for her to listen to me.
"I probably look like such a child." Olivia carries around the big brown teddy brown that I offered to carry for her but she refused to let it go, and a smaller Stitch stuffed animal, from Lilo and Stitch, in her arms, looking happier than ever.
I smile and shake my head at her, just happy that she's happy. "You'd probably take all of the stuffed animals there if you were given the chance, wouldn't you?"
"Abso-fucking-lutely." I laugh, wrapping my arm around her waist as we search for the next thing to do. "I was a hoarder when it came to stuffed animals when I was little, but then you know..." She trails off, laughing the saddest laugh ever as I pull her closer.
I frown, worrying about her again. It hurts to know a decent chunk of her childhood was taken from her, but then these two stuffed animals are healing her inner child left after everything that happened to her. I'll do anything to help continue healing her inner child, even with as sad as it is. I fucking hate her dad. "Let's go win you some more stuffed animals then, shall we?"
A few hours later, plenty of booth games played, and even went on the rollercoaster that goes around the boardwalk-which took me a shit ton of convincing to get Olivia to go on-and we're sitting at a table near the end of the boardwalk, watching the ocean waves while eating funnel cakes.
I smile at Olivia, because with her seven stuffed animals sitting next to her and the strawberry topping from her funnel cake along with the powdered sugar all around her lips and mouth, she looks truly carefree and happy. I'll do anything to keep her that way.
"We're going to look like lunatics walking home with seven stuffed animals," she says, still eating the funnel cake oblivious to the mess around her lips, making me laugh.
"Happy lunatics, at least." She nods, agreeing happily as my phone dings.
It's Divine again, solely checking in for one of Admira's million check-ins for the day since Olivia's phone is no use for texting or anything.
I text back, giving the usual 'We're fine.' again, when we're way fucking more than fine. I smile at Olivia as she drinks her water after finishing her funnel cake, her lips even messier now. She glances up at me, narrowing her eyes as she's confused while I continue grinning at her. "What?"
"Your lips..." I laugh, her immediately grabbing her phone and clicking on the camera, face flushing in embarrassment once she realizes.
"Seriously! You only now say something?" She grabs a napkin, wiping the mess away as I laugh.
"Sorry?" She glares at me, I can't tell whether it's playfully or not, making me laugh more and more.
A few minutes later and I finished my funnel cake, me and Olivia decided to walk around the boardwalk once more to see if we missed any of the games. We didn't. We played every single one, winning Olivia the stuffed animals and some just for fun.
"Let me carry some." Olivia finally gives in after she drops three of the stuffed animals. I carry all the small ones as she continues to carry around the big teddy bear, a huge smile on her face.
We decide to go back to dad's beach house then, the sun starting to set and we're both tired now. There's also not much left for us to do.
"What the hell?" Danny's the first to see us as we walk into the house, seeing all the stuffed animals. Divine runs in from the kitchen, smiling when she sees us, but also confused with the seven stuffed animals.
"Maybe we went overboard with winning stuffed animals?" Olivia says casually, talking in front of Danny and now Ashton as he walks into the room next. I can smell dads cooking in the kitchen.
"Maybe?" It takes Danny a minute to even realize she talked as me and Divine smile at each other, both happy and proud of her, as Ashton's jaw is practically dropped. "Wait! You just... oh my god."
"What?" Olivia smiles, acting like her talking is nothing as Divine walks over and hugs her, along with the teddy bear, tightly.
I mouth 'Don't make a big deal.' To Danny and Ashton, not wanting Olivia to get uncomfortable or anything. Even though it's a huge fucking deal. I can't even imagine what's going through her head right now, and how safe and comfortable she's gotta be feeling now that she's talking to all of us.
"Okay, lasagna is about done so get ready for dinner kids." Dad walks in, confused why the two idiots look stunned and me and Divine are smiling so brightly. "What did I miss?"
"Nothing, Mr. Jackson." Olivia grabs Divine's hand, dragging her upstairs as she smiles at me.
"Mr. Jackson? Am I looking that old now?" Dad worries, until he realizes also. "Wait... I thought you said she didn't... talk?"
"She didn't. But now she is." I confirm for him, setting the six other stuffed animals down on the couch, not wanting to interrupt Divine and Olivia, knowing what they're more than likely talking about.
"Holy shit," Ashton finally says as dad shrugs, making his way back into the kitchen as he doesn't know the full story so he's not acting like Danny or Ashton.
I leave Danny and Ashton to go to the kitchen, helping dad set the table. But I should've known not to help when he starts talking.
"How was my son's first date?" He grins.
"It was fucking amazing." That only makes him happier. "But, asking if we needed the talk? Are you fucking serious?"
"I just want to make sure you're being safe," he defends himself. "Do you need condoms? I can give you the money-"
"Dad!" Don't get me wrong, I appreciate that he'd rather me being safe and not judging me instead of killing me for if I were having sex, but this is too much.
"I'm just asking." He holds his hands up. "Does your mom know about Olivia?"
"No. She's always working." I shrug and he frowns. I love mom, but it'd be great if she were home more. Especially when I stay at my mom's house about 70% of the time rather than my dad.
"Well, whenever you get the chance, tell her. Your mom will love Olivia." I can tell he means it. "I hardly know her, but you've got a good one, son."
I smile. "Yeah. She's great."
"Are you guys... what do you kids call it nowadays? Official?" I cringe at him, but do wonder what we are. We've only just gone on our first date, is it too soon to start a relationship? I've got no fucking clue what I'm doing.
"We only just went on our first date, dad."
"But you want to be, don't you? Official?" I cringe at him again, ignoring the last part.
"Yes. Absolutely." Being in a relationship with Olivia is what I secretly dreamt about all these months, not creepily, as I denied having a crush on her even as my two idiotic best friends even knew I did like her even without knowing much about her.
Maybe if you would've just stopped being a nervous wreck and talked to her soon, you'd two be dating by now possibly.
Oh fuck off.
"What happened to her, Adrian? Seriously... She's got black eyes, a bruised jaw, marks on her neck like she was strangled, and a broken hand. They're healing bruises but still. What happened?" His tone goes serious and I frown.
"It's not my story to tell, dad." I've done enough of spilling her business already, even if it was to help her, I don't want to do anymore unless it's necessary.
"Someone did that to her." He doesn't say it as a question, just a statement that he knows. "Are you okay?"
Why does everyone ask if I'm okay once they realize Olivia's situation. "I'm fine, dad." Really, I am. It took me a couple years to be okay again after mom's ex, but now I'm more than okay. I've made plenty of progress.
"You promise?" Him and his damn promises.
"Yes, I promise." And I really do.
"I like Olivia," he tells me as her and Divine walk back downstairs, making him whisper. "Do good by her. I don't want to have to hate my own son."
Me and Olivia sit on the towel I had laid out on the sand again, both of us sitting and watching the waves while it's nearly 5am.
"I'm so proud of you," I tell her as she rests her head on my shoulder, seeing her smile as she knows why I say it. I wrap an arm around her shoulders, keeping her close.
"Thank you for today," she says with a yawn, her head now on my chest as my heart pounds in my chest as usual.
"Thank you for today too." I kiss her head and her face flushes, just as my nerves go up then down seeing she reacted fine to that.
"It was a really fucking fun day." I agree with her, replaying the whole day in my head over and over.
She pulls away, sitting up and looking at me with a huge smile on her face. She just stays like that for a minute, making me curious as she seems to contemplate something.
"What?" I ask as I smile too now, her face flushing once again as she looks down at her hands.
"Is it too early into... this, to want to kiss you?" I'm taken aback by the question. I'd never expected to hear her flat out say that, but I'm not at all upset about it. More like I'm fucking ecstatic.
"Surely it can't be, because I do too." I have been for a while now. My nerves rack up, both of us grinning at each other like idiots with the confessions as we lean in closer to each other.
"I don't know what I'm doing," she admits nervously, our faces merely inches apart.
"Neither do I." We both laugh, nervous wrecks about our first kiss-not just our first kiss together, but in all time neither of us have had kisses with others.
"I've never felt this way about anyone." She's on my lap now, both legs on either side of me as my arms wrap around her waist and hers are around my neck, keeping us close.
So much has changed in so little time. Just over a month ago, Olivia would've been flinching away and not giving me the time of day, now look at us.
Is this too fast?
You're in high school, what's it really matter?
Whatever.
"Neither have I," I say, relating to Olivia with all of this, nerves going up more as my heart damn near explodes out of my chest.
"It's kind of scary," she admits quietly.
"Very," I agree. Because really, it fucking is scary. I go on about the feelings I have for this girl being great, but after never once feeling this way for someone and not understanding a thing about them, yes it is scary.
It goes quiet as our lips aren't even inches apart more, brushing over each other but not exactly a kiss at all. That is until Olivia goes for it, her lips on mine, and I've never felt better than the feelings from her lips on mine.
Oh my god.
Everything in this moment is perfect, as we kiss, stealing each other's first kisses.
Her hands thread through my hair as our lips continue moving together in the perfect rhythm we've created, as my arms tighten around her waist.
The kiss lasts for a few more seconds, both of us pulling away for air as we smile at each other breathlessly. Olivia's the first to talk. "That was fucking great."
"It was. It really was," I agree and she kisses me once more before hugging me. Her head rests on my shoulder as I'm sure she can hear my heart pounding now.
"Thank you," she says after a few minutes of a comfortable silence as we stayed in this position, making me confused.
"For what?" I ask as she pulls away from me, my arms still around her waist, though.
"For wedging yourself into my life, even if I'd thought other things about you at first." I smile for the billionth time, my cheeks starting to hurt with how much I smile most of the time once she's around, kissing her again.