There was a humble silence.
Olivia broke it by laughing. He helped her up a second time.
Bella took her hand, leading her out of the café and onto the high street.
"You totally like him" she shouted, making Liv blush.
"Can you be any louder?" She asked, laughing again, "maybe I do.. just abit?"
The boy's ears perked up at the mention of the girl liking him- he knew he wasn't meant to hear it, but he waited to see if anything else got said.
It didn't, so he pretended to shove it off as he was with his friends. Alex saw the phone that fell from Liv's shallow pocket and walked towards her, phone in his hand..
"Here, I think you dropped something." he said cutely.
Olivia took the phone, thanking Alex and blushing, again!!
They both walked in opposite directions, Liv examining her phone to see if anything was broken. She saw her reflection in the glass but it faded as the brightness lit up her face when the phone turned on, and the thing she saw made her smile, a smile that ignited the street.
It was so bright, you'd be able to see it from Saturn; and that's the furthest planet from Earth!
"What are you smiling at?" she heard "you're smiling like an idiot Liv, what happened?"
She turned the phone around to face Bella, unveiling her phone book, and the top contact.
'Alex<3'.
*time jump*
A week passed.
Alex was on her mind for the nearly a whole week.
Did she ring him though? Absolutely not.
She didn't have the courage. What if she said the wrong thing? Or what if he thought she was weird.
*31st May, 1999*
Sunday.
"Hey Alex... it's me, Olivia" *deleted*
"Heyyy, wassup!" *deleted*
"Dear Alex.." *deleted*
Every message she thought of, was eventually deleted. She didn't know what to say.
'Alex<3'
"Hey"
*delivered at 15:06*
She said it. Hey. It wasn't interesting but it was something. He replied almost instantly: "Olivia?"
She send the thumbs up emoji and the conversation flowed for hours. They talked about all sorts: from favourite colours and animals, to lucky numbers, and how many kids they wished for in the future.
She looked up at the left corner of her phone screen. The time read 18:47. She whispered "wow" and sat up gently covering her knees with the warm blanket, finally plucking up the courage to ask him to meet her, not at a football stadium where they were both cheering for opposite teams, or at a café full of people. He agreed and made the plan for the next day. Alex seemed eager, yet Liv got butterflies in her stomach just thinking about it- the good butterflies, the ones that you get when you're excited, those!
The next morning arrived, she woke up early to prepare her outfit. She showered, ate her breakfast, blow dried her hair and straightened it, all before 11am. She sat in front of her desk that had a mirror on the surface, reaching for her makeup bag, sitting on the edge of the table. 30 minutes later, she finished her makeup, an alluring and mostly aesthetic red lip.
She texted Alex just before leaving; double checking that they were still set to go.
They met up outside of a restaurant. She couldn't help but stare, he wore blue jeans, a white tee, and a black leather jacket, with sunglasses tucked into the v-neck collar.
He was admirable.
He took her hand and led her into the restaurant, sitting on a table facing each other.
"At least now I can offer you my hand, without you being on the floor" he laughs in a jokingly manner.
She smiled, lighting up the restaurant, her smile could change the mood of anyone at this moment at time. Right then Alex saw his world, everything he ever wanted and more.
This WAS love at (third) sight.
Their date went excellent. Alex dropped her off outside, kissing her cheek and wishing her a goodnight as she stepped out of the car carefully: this gave Olivia butterflies for a second time.
Alex messaged the boys group chat as soon as he returned home:
"Guys, I think she's the one, honestly. Her smile and just everything about her, she is polite and well mannered, her personality, her charm, her charisma. She's just ultimately pulchritudinous➰."
He fell asleep that night, and Olivia was on his mind for all of the dream.
➰ The adjective form of pulchritude is pulchritudinous, meaning beautiful.
YOU ARE READING
Us
Romance*strong language *time jumps *conall: celtic meaning for 'strong as a wolf' *ambrogio: italian meaning for 'the immortal'
