“Nooooo,” Olivia said, dropping her fork. It made a loud clunk. She used both of her hands to cover her face from second-hand embarrassment.
“YES!” Jacob laughed. “So here I was, just this random guy who didn’t really know him and I’m out on my balcony, I’m the only one out, and I see this happen not knowing at all that it was some secret show just for me. And then Bry falls in and immediately begins to sink like a stone. I had to jump down and physically pull him out of that pool. He could’ve died! It was deep!”
“Long story short: I’m an idiot,” Brian smiled awkwardly at Olivia.
“God, that’s embarrassing,” Olivia blushed, eyes locked with his.
“And I’ll never live it down,” Brian reminded, a small shrug before he ate something in silence.
“Did he take you upstairs?” I asked Brian, amused. “Hell, that’s what I would’ve done.”
“He did,” Brian laughed, cheering up a little bit. “Heeeee- offered me clothes. Tried to pat me dry.” He coughed. “Then his hands found my buttons,” he lifted his water to his lips and sipped with raised eyebrows. He was sort of like Olivia, hiding his eyes away, only saying suggestive things, and always in such a way.
“He made me nervous,” Jacob said. “I knew he was rich and he was usually so shy and quiet. He was shaking. I’d never talked to him before.”
“That sounds like us,” I said, glancing over at Vi.
“Anyway, it was pretty hilarious,” Jacob said. “I didn’t find out until we were already fucking that he had done all that to try and get me to notice him. I mean, hey, he could’ve just asked. I noticed him around. Just never thought-”
Brian pushed him grumpily and Jacob almost fell out of the booth.
“Enough,” Brian said.
“Okay, okay,” Jacob chuckled, raising his hands up in retreat.
There was a pause for a second as everyone sort of calmed.
“I’m glad I met you today,” Olivia said. When I looked over at her she was staring at Brian, a soft grateful smile on her tight lips.
“I’m glad I met you too,” he said, blushing just a tad.
“Okay, you guys really need to stop hitting on each other in front of us it’s extremely rude,” Jacob teased.
I just shook my head. They really were cute and I was glad that Olivia had a new friend.
“I guess this means you and I need to get fake married,” I said to Jacob.
I mustered a gentlemanly demeanor and held out my hand to him. “Jacob will you gay marry me?”
“Oh, Avery, I thought you would neva ask. Of course, I will.”
I was laughing so hard he couldn't grab my hand. It was like a male Scarlett O’Hara right in front of me. His voice was octaves higher and the fake southern accent was so over the top.
“Good, now we’re all even,” I said.
Olivia let out a small cough and took a drink of her water.
I started to eat again, wondering how long we could stay here. It was nice to be around people we didn’t have to worry about offending. My phone vibrated in my pocket. It couldn’t be Olivia since she was with me. I didn’t want to take it out. It could be anyone but it was probably him.
So, I just sat there, eating eggs, wondering what my life would be like if my mom had never decided to get sober. It would probably be better. I clenched my jaw. Thoughts like that made me feel like I really was a crappy daughter. It vibrated again and I knew it was him. All my friends knew to text me if I didn’t answer.
It stopped and a few seconds later I felt a small vibration that meant I had a voicemail. He couldn’t find me and that was the way I wanted it.
The boys ate their food fast and I finished soon after then. Olivia was still picking at her salad by that time. She did things at a different pace, not rushing for anyone. I didn’t mind but I think our waitress was getting a little impatient and wanted us gone. She kept swinging by the table and making sure we were good, bringing us the check and bringing back our cards when we gave them over. It made me want to stay all night but Brian and Olivia had to get back.
“Come on girls, let’s get Jacob home so we can go act like good little heterosexuals for our mommies and daddies,” Brian said.
Jacob slid out of his side of the booth and I did the same on mine. Olivia grabbed my hand as soon as she was up and we walked to the front. As soon as we went out the doors, I shivered. It was cold and I was in short sleeves but the car would be warm eventually.
I thought about sleeping in the cold. My dad would be furious by now. I ran out and I wasn’t answering my phone. I took it out, looking at the little voicemail notification. “Ugh,” I grunted, releasing Olivia’s hand so we could both get in the car when the right time came.
“What is it?” Olivia asked worried.
“My dad, he called and left a voicemail. I really don’t want to check it.”
“Here,” she said, taking my phone away slowly and pressing on the voicemail icon. I watched her put the phone up to her ear. I could faintly hear the mechanical woman talking.
Olivia gave nothing away. She stood by me and stared out at the parking lot.
I couldn’t take it. I didn’t want her hearing. Frustrated, I pulled the phone from her hand.
“Avery, answer your damn phone. I'm still your father. Call me immediately. Don't make me come looking for you.”
“Like he would even know where to look for me,” I muttered.
The sound of his voice made me mad. Its tone was pure parental condescension. Coming to look for me had to be a bluff. I wouldn’t care even if he did find me. I was glad that I didn’t tell him Olivia’s last name. There wasn’t an easy way for him to find me through her.
Still, what was I going to do? I chewed my lip, looking down at my phone. Brian started the car and I slid over so Olivia could get in. I just sat there, wondering if I was going to keep getting curveballs thrown at my head by life.
“I’m not sure what I’m going to do.” I turned to Olivia. I didn’t want to freak out but I could feel it coming on. “I don’t want to go home. I guess I can figure something out.” My phone lit up again and my heart jumped but it was just a snapchat.
“Just come home with me,” she said. “Brian can distract them while I sneak you in.”
I didn’t look up for a second. “You sure that’s not going to get you in trouble?”
“Honestly Avery, right now I could care less if my parents find out. I’m just worried about your safety. I don’t want you out in the cold by yourself with nowhere to go. The thought of that kills me inside.”
“Even if they do catch you sneaking me in or find out I’m there we could just tell them that I’m your friend and I had a fight with my dad if you want,” my chin quivered.
“Oh sweetie,” she laughed awkwardly and pulled me in for a tight hug. “I know. Just let me worry about that, okay?”
“Okay,” I said, settling in her arms.
“Come on,” she said. “It’ll be okay...”
We dropped Jacob off and Brian drove us back to Olivia’s. I hadn’t noticed the outside of the house before but now I could see it silhouetted against the night sky. The shadow of the roof reached up into the sky and I could barely distinguish the lines of it from the darkness.
There was a gate in front of the long drive. Olivia told Brian the code and we drove on. I turned around in the car to see the fat expensive palm trees all around the stone circle drive. The house had soft beautiful lighting all around the entrance that made it appear ideal and almost romantic. An imposing Mediterranean style home with a vast yard. There were no other houses really close and it was secluded on a hill. I could only imagine the amount of land they had.
Brian stopped the car at the apex of the drive and I shrunk down in the seat a little. I was going to enter Olivia’s world for real this time. Her parents were here and I wasn’t delirious from swimming myself to death.
“Brian, if we open the door, and they're right there, can you di
stract them so I can sneak her in?” Olivia asked.
“Piece of cake,” he agreed.
Olivia got out on the other side. This was going to be interesting. We all went to the door. Brian opened it first to see if they were around. He stuck his head in and solitarily checked the foyer.
“Coast is clear,” he said and slipped inside.
Olivia and I followed close behind. The lights were on everywhere and I could see used wine glasses out on a table in the formal sitting room to the right. The stairs were just beyond that. We were almost there. I was practically running, dragging Olivia with me.
“Woah,” Brian called out. I heard the sound of voices coming near.
“Shit,” I whispered and ran for the stairs. I didn’t even remember which room was Olivia’s, I just ran. She was behind me, trying to keep up. I ran up onto the landing and kept going.
“Avery, here!” Olivia was stopped behind me pointing past the door she was holding open. Her voice was an urgent whisper.
“Whoops,” I hissed and turned back, nearly twisting my ankle with the sudden turn. I jumped through the door and stopped just shy of her bed, while she closed us in.
“That was close,” I croaked.
“Okay, I love you but please be quiet, and lock the door,” she said, walking forward and pulling me in to kiss me really hard. She wanted to show me she loved me. “I’ll be up soon,” she promised. “I just have to take care of this, okay?”
“Woah,” I smiled. I was dizzy from the kiss. “Love you too,” I called after her. I locked the door like she’d asked and turned to check out her room.
I’d been here before but it wasn’t like I had time to browse while I was sneaking out. It was big. The biggest impression I got was BOOKS. There were loads of books. I couldn’t imagine reading that many in a lifetime. Everything was perfectly neat, nothing out of place. The carpet was a darker beige and looked new but there was an ornate, almost royal, rug that covered a lot of the area. There were no stains anywhere, unlike my room.
I crossed to the big picture windows and looked out, seeing the pool in the back and a hot tub. In low lighting it seemed a tropical paradise, rocks and a low waterfall that ran right into the pool. My eyes bulged out. I needed to swim in that pool.
I stepped into her closet. It was a huge walk-in with tall ceilings and tons of built in shelves. There were clothes for every occasion. I’d never seen that many shoes either. The entire back of the closet was lined with them. All perfectly placed in their spots on the shoe shelves.
I ran my hand along the clothes. They flipped through my fingertips, each type of fabric making a different impression on my skin. At the end of the rack I pulled a skirt out to look at it and caught sight of something below.
It was a document box with no label. It looked old but in good shape. I crouched down and pulled at the top. Inside were a ton of journals, different types. I just stared at them, tempted sorely by the possibility of seeing inside her head. She would be back soon and I wasn’t going to be that person so I closed the lid and moved back into the room.
Her books were on the built-in shelves in the wall opposite the bed. In the middle was an entertainment area with closed wooden cabinet doors. I opened them, finding a curved flat screen and a PS4 which would obviously play movies. Below there were drawers. I pulled one out to find rows of DVDs and a half row of games. They were in alphabetical order.
I backed up, looking down and found four similar drawers below. I pulled out another one and found all classic films. At lot of them were old black and white movies from the 30s and 40s. As I looked through them I smiled. She had some of my favorites. My Man Godfrey was in there along with Bringing Up Baby. Someday we could watch them together and just hang out.
The next drawer was filled with musicals, all kinds, from film to Broadway. She had bootlegs even. Several. Careful handwritten labels and everything current: Hamilton, Dear Evan Hansen, Sunday in the Park With George 2017, Miss Saigon, Anastasia (these had all just come out). She had more movies than I did. I didn’t know it was possible. I closed the drawers and the cabinet and started to look at her books.
There were old and new books divided into different genres and sorted alphabetically. Some of them I’d read or heard of but there were a lot I had no clue about. Some were even in different languages. I’d never asked her if she spoke anything other than English. We still had some basic information to learn about one another.
Finally, I ended up back at her bed. It was big, covered in a fluffy down comforter, large and 100% down. It was white, white, white. I wanted to jump on it, to mar its surface. It was too perfect. She must make her bed with a ruler and a quarter. Thinking of stories I’d heard from my dad about boot camp, I sat down gently not willing to defy her need for perfection. I disturbed the surface as little as possible as I scooted all the way onto the bed, making sure to let my shoes hang off.
When I looked up, the expensive ceiling fan spun above me in lazy circles. It was a tray ceiling, painted grey with white trim. The whole room had a sense of richness but it lacked personal effects. There were a lot of things I could see around the room that I knew represented who she was but they weren’t obvious. No one would know whose room this was unless they knew her first.
I still felt her in the room. She grew up here and this is where she’d thought about me. I was lying where she slept. I turned my face into the pillow, trying to find her there, wishing that she would come back. It smelled of fresh laundry. I slipped my hand underneath it and pressed it to my face, inhaling.
When I lay back my hand rolled over under the pillow and on top of something. It was fabric, bunched up underneath her pillow. I leaned up. My eyebrows squished together and my tongue peeked out of my mouth a bit as I tried to pull it free. It came loose with a hard tug and I held it up to look. It was one of my shirts. My breath caught and my mouth fell open. It was the shirt I was wearing when we went to the Inn for dinner she must’ve taken it out of my car that day at the docks. “You little thief,” I said, barking out a laugh.
Chapter Six
Olivia
Brian was really nice. Like, astonishingly so.
If my parents hadn’t taken so long to introduce us we might’ve actually hit it off for a while and courted each other awkwardly but that’s all what if’s and alternative timelines, just fun to concentrate on with everything else looming off to the side. I’d never give up Avery though, ever. This was the timeline I wanted and for once it was the one I actually had.
“Is she secret?” Brian teased. “Is she safe?”
“Shut up,” I said, pushing him on the arm with both of my hands. I liked the way he walked with his hands in his pockets like everything was easy. I could never figure out what to do with my hands, I always felt like a phony. A lot of times I would hold my hands in front of myself until I realized I was doing it and then I’d shove them in pockets and pretend to be as put together as he seemed to be.
He made it seem effortless though. He pulled it off well. I wondered if that was just a natural boy thing. For that, I envied him in some ways.
“I can’t even begin to thank you,” I said. “If we both end up at Stanford next fall we really do have to hangout.”
“What do you mean if?”
“I dunno. I haven’t told my family about Avery and I really don’t know what will happen with us. I’d give up Stanford for her. I know that.”
“I- doubt she’d let you,” Brian warned. He was right too. Avery would leave me before letting me do that. I hated thinking about it. It put me in a tough spot.
“I know,” I said nervously.
We approached the open French doors that led out to the patio. Our parents were outside on the verganda, indulging in the pleasant night air. Overpriced outdoor furniture gave them a fine place to reside beneath the often calculated mood lighting setup to appear secondary.
“Olivia! There you are,” my mother called.
“Yes,” I said. “Here I am.
”
Where did she think I was? Why should I care?
“How’d you two get on?” My dad asked.
So dumb.
He hadn’t seen me in a week but he was asking me this?
“Brian’s amazing,” I said. “Doesn’t hurt that he’s cute.”
“Olivia?!” My mom didn’t like when I said suggestive things like that in a situation with elders.
“What?” I asked, pretending not to know what I obviously said on purpose.
“You’ve got a very talented daughter on your hands here,” Brian said.
“Well,” Mr. and Mrs. Givens began to stand. “It’s been lovely chatting and lovely meeting you Olivia,” Brian’s mom actually did seem sweet.
“Nice meeting you too,” I said sweetly. She offered her hand and I lightly squeezed it, in confidence.
“We hope to see a lot more of you.”
“I hope that too,” I said. I wouldn’t mind being Brian’s good friend. Not in the least.
“I'll walk you out,” I said, walking to Brian and taking his arm with my own.
“We could get married,” he joked. “Move in together. Take all those wedding gifts to set-up shop somewhere grand.”
“I could bring my maid and you could bring yours,” I teased.
“Jacob would never be a maid. He might acquiesce to the title of pool boy though.”
“Entertainer?” I joked. Avery would love to do monologues and sing me songs.
“Seriously though. You guys were adorable. I hope it all works out.”
“I hope so too,” I said solemnly, that sharp pain in my chest from before was coming back.
We got to the cars and had to part. I watched Mr. and Mrs. Givens get in their own car away from us and begin to leave.
Away from my parents I stood out on the drive with crossed arms and lent our guests friendly waves.
As soon as they drove off I turned to look back at my family.
My mother’s smile dropped as she turned away and went inside.
Bullshit.
I walked back into the house with a definite chip on my shoulder. The only thing that was making me feel sane was knowing that Avery was safe up in my room and waiting for me.
Paper Dolls [Book Two] Page 5