Love and Other Infinities

02 | Inevitable

What I learned about Olivia that day was that she was very unsure about things. She wasn't sure if she trusted me, or anyone for that matter. But she was surprisingly talkative for someone who didn't trust easily.

She started speaking about quite a few things and then would abruptly stop and realize I am only a stranger and this is the first time she was talking to me. She'd purse her lips and shake her head slightly.

"Um, you want to eat something?" I said, understanding that this was the end of the conversation. She shook her head no. I looked back towards the party that I'd mostly forgotten existed. 

What is surprising though, is that no one bothered to interrupt us or remind us that we are, in fact, in the middle of a gathering.

"I'll leave you alone now," I said, chuckling and she grinned back.

"See you around." She'd said.

I was making my way away from her and towards my relatives, laughing and mingling and making small talk. I wasn't good at it, but I liked to pretend I was.

Fake it till you make it, right?

***

Buzz. Buzz. Buzz.

Ugh, what the hell.

I opened my eyes groggily, my vision slowly coming into focus. The phone continued to buzz as I tried to comprehend who was calling me with this number at three in the morning.

"Hello?" I cleared my throat, "Who is this?"

"Uh um, Hi, I am Olivia, I hope you remem..."

Oh. I felt my eyes practically fall out.

"What? Oh, of course, Olivia, I remember you. Are you okay?"

"I am great, I just needed a bit of your help."

"Oh okay, shoot, how can I help?"

By this time, I was wide awake, my mind racing with way too many thoughts.

"So um, Mia and I went to a party last night, and uh, it looks like...well..."

"Olivia", I feel my voice get serious, "What's wrong?"

"I...Mia is completely drunk and all our friends have left and I can't call up my parents at this hour. I just, I feel awful here and Mia's on the edge of getting sick and there's this guy..."

"I am on my way. Stay on the line." I was already in the car, my heart almost beating out of my chest at the thought of Mia and Olivia alone in that god-awful party, with all these weird guys.

"What's the guy doing, Olivia?"

"He spilled a beer all over me."

"WHAT?!"

"I...he was trying to hit on me and I said no, so he moved on to Mia but she's too drunk so I just....well I uh...punched him and he got mad."

"Are both of you safe now? Is that guy still bothering you? I swear I am going to kill him."

"I got Mia to come outside with me and I don't see him anywhere so....."

"Hold on, I am almost there."

I pulled up near the house and the absolute after-party wreck was in front of me and in the middle of it was Olivia barely supporting a drunk Mia. I ran out of the car and I immediately saw Olivia's face relax a bit as I took most of Mia's weight on me.

"Hey, let's go, you're okay."

While it was my sister I should've been worried about, it was the sight of Olivia that shocked me. She sounded okay on the phone but it looked like she'd been crying, the stench of beer reeking from her clothes.

It took me a moment to realize she was shaking.

"Shit, Olivia, why didn't you call me sooner." I immediately took off my sweatshirt and gave it to her. I wanted to hurt that guy so bad but getting these girls home was more important right now.

"I am sorry, I didn't want to bother you, I was trying to call up my friends but they..."

"It's okay Olivia. Relax now, you're going to be okay."

Making sure both of them were comfortable in the car, I drove home.

***

I opened the door silently, stealthily getting the girls inside the house.

Olivia helped me put Mia to bed. It wasn't very tough, we just had to drag her upstairs, and then she collapsed and went straight to sleep.

So I shifted my attention to Olivia.

"Do you want to go take a shower? You can take Mia's clothes. I'll make hot chocolate in the meanwhile."

She nodded shyly and I left the room to go to the kitchen.

I was pretty sure mom must have woken up by now, she needed only the slightest of sounds to wake her right up.

"Noah Asher Jones!"

Yup, that confirmed it.

"Uh, hi Mom, what's up?"

"WHAT'S UP!? You, you are up in the middle of the night. What are you even doing at this hour?!"

"I...uh..um...making hot chocolate?"

"At this time?"

"My stomach doesn't have a closing time mum, I can be hungry at this hour too."

I hoped she hadn't heard the girls because they'd be obliterated if she knew what was up. She kept looking at me, trying to find a loophole and I just stood there grinning at her awkwardly.

And then she nodded. "Don't make too much noise. People are trying to sleep." And with one last glare, she left.

By the time I had made hot chocolate, I could hear Olivia in Mia's bedroom. We obviously couldn't drink downstairs, so I took the two mugs, went upstairs, and knocked.

"Hey, Olivia, can I come in?"

"Yeah sure" came a muffled answer and the door opened.

She looked like she was feeling much better now. She had washed the beer out of her hair and the tear stains had gone away.

I handed her the mug.

"Feeling better?" I said, taking a seat on a chair.

"Uh, yeah much better." She sat down on Mia's bed and chuckled, "I've had one hell of a night Noah. One hell of a night." And then a tear trickled down her cheek.

I wanted to hug her but I felt that would be an advance she wouldn't welcome. So I kept sitting in my place.

"Want to talk about it? Or...shall I leave you alone right now?"

"I wouldn't mind some company right now." She said slowly.

"Okay, so, did you at least get to have some fun before that creep hit on you?"

"Well, I did dance some but you know how I am not a people's person. So partying never really is my thing unless I can dance and forget about people. The other aspects are your sister's thing."

I shook my head in Mia's direction. "It's evident, isn't it."

She chuckled again.

"She can be a little much sometimes but it's okay with me as long as she's happy, you know. She's a weird creature though. She could be jumping around and the next minute we could be talking about weirdly deep stuff."

I shrugged. "That's Mia. She's always been like that."

I could see her eyes slowly drooping. I saw them flutter and close and open again.

"Hey, sleep. We can talk later, right?"

"Yeah." She nodded and I left.

But all along the only thing on my mind was Olivia Davis. I'd just met the girl but she was amazing and what was coming was ultimately inevitable.