"I Love You." Sex Education

"I Don't, Maeve."

"I never got it." Maeve says quietly, sitting on the telephone booth. Her and Otis were left behind at the rest stop, something Maeve was secretly grateful for as it gave her and Otis a much needed time to talk and sort everything out. Sort out their love, anger, jealousy, all of it. She wants everything to be let out now. It will all end here.

"The voicemail, I mean."

She just hopes it ends the way she wants it too.

Otis stills at that. Months of silent suffering and sadness all flooding back into the pot that was his heart, at the rejection he thought he had been dealt. The silent no that came in the form of Maeve ignoring him which completely shattered his heart, only to find she never had the chance to ignore it in the first place? Really? All that pain for nothing?

"What do you mean you never got it?" Otis hates the way his voice wobbles, hates how pitiful it sounds. He can't really help it, considering what he's just learned. He vaguely hears Maeve jump down from her spot to lean on the booth and look at him. He doesn't turn around however, suddenly finding the ground to important.

Maeve starts picking at her fingers the same way she always does when she's nervous, "Isaac deleted it before I could hear it...said he wanted to protect me, heh." She says in a tone akin to betrayal, along with obvious nervousness.

She starts biting her nails when Otis doesn't respond and instead, balls his fist in order to reign in his anger, an emotion he's never been good at dealing with.

"Otis?" Maeve begins softly, going back to fidgeting with her fingers, "What did the voicemail say?"

Otis spares a quick glance at her form over his shoulder before going back to stare at the ground, "It doesn't matter; it was ages ago." Otis can't help the anger that bleeds into that sentence.

Maeve doesn't seem to notice, however, as she presses him once again, "It matter's to me Otis. Please?...tell me." The hopeful tone in her voice makes Otis' heart flutter for the briefest of moment's.

Otis stayed quiet for a little while before answering, "It was something like, 'Hi Maeve, I'm watching you one live TV right now...and I wanted to let you know how proud I am of you. And how you saying you had feelings for more me was what I always wanted to hear...because it's you, Maeve...It's always been you. I love you, Maeve.' ..Yeah." Otis have a small chuckle at the end. A chuckle that had no joy or humor. No mirth. None of his usual awkwardness and bumbling energy. It was a chuckle that told a story of pain and sadness. Of a love that could've been, but never will, no matter how much one side wants it to. Amazing how much of a story a mere chuckle can tell.

Maeve got off the booth and slowly walked towards him. Once she got to the object of her affection, she looked up at those blue eyes swimming with pain and sadness...just not for the reason she thinks. "Did you mean it?"

Otis looked at those eyes of her's, dreading what he's about to do. "Yeah...of course I did."

She smiled a soft smile and brought her hands up to caress his cheeks, slowly dragging her right thumb against it. She used her left hand to grab his and intertwine their fingers.

They stared at each other for a long time, so entranced with the other they didn't notice orange lights bathing their bodies and a coach full of their schoolmates pulling up. And if anyone noticed the absolute heartbroken face of Ruby Matthews once she laid her eyes on them, no one said anything.

The teachers got out to retrieve them but they didn't even react to their names, as if they were deaf. Mr.Hendricks stepped forward to fetch them, but a hand on his shoulder stopped him. He looked back to see his girlfriend, Ms.Sands, shaking her head. He was confused at first, but quickly understood. He smiled.