Not Quite Like the Movies (Otis Milburn x OC)

Not So Cruel Intentions

cw: mentions of blood, internalized homophobia

Chapter XX

"She's so selfish," Jackson muses as he sits next to Maeve on top of the hill overlooking the caravan park. "She pretends the crazy food regime and early mornings is for my benefit, but it's all about her. I don't even know if I like anything but swimming."

"Shut up."

Jackson stares back at Maeve in confusion. "What?"

Maeve smiles ruefully as she tells him, "You don't know how lucky you are. She gets up every morning to take you swimming. She goes to all your races. She cries when you lose."

"Wh-"

"She shows you she loves you every day," Maeve finishes.

"I'm not..." Jackson begins to protest.

"It might be annoying, but at least she cares," Maeve says.

"Okay," Jackson admits with a sigh.

"Maybe just...tell her the truth about you feel," Maeve says, before looking up at Jackson and resting her hand on his bicep. "I didn't mean to snap. I'm sorry."

"I don't get it," Jackson says.

"Don't get what," Maeve asks

"Why you're so mad at your friends, but not me," he says. "I mean...we all did the same thing."

"I trusted them," Maeve says. "You...I didn't trust you when you did that to me, but I know you now. I know you wouldn't do something like that to me again. But Otis and Abby...they already had me convinced they were better than that." Maeve pauses. "You admitted it. They didn't."

"That's not fair, though," Jackson says. "I mean, maybe it's like what you were saying about my mum. You know, that they're annoying, but they care."

"Except the thing is they weren't even together when they did it," Maeve says. "It's like some dishonest scheme targeted at me brought them together. And now they're all loved up and that. I mean, if anything, Otis got a bigger reward than you paying him. He got a girlfriend. And Abby just went along with it, because, you know, she acts like she cares about every angle of everything, but really, she only cares about Otis. I just...thought she was my friend, and now I know I was a tool to bring her closer to him."

"Oh, come on," Jackson says. "That's a load of shit and you know it."

"Why," Maeve asks. "Why would I know that? Everything she's ever done for me either involved her seeing Otis or impressing him. And Otis..." Maeve snorts. "Not only did he fall for all of it, he freaking leapt at the opportunity to have her as his little pet. Shit, for all I know, him taking your money was his way of saying, "You know, if difficult Maeve gets a boyfriend, you may as well have one too.' I was just a prop."

"No, look, they care about you," Jackson says. "I...I was jealous, okay? Because with the two of them and the clinic, it's like even after I got their help, there still wasn't room for me." He shakes his head. "I mean, how many times have I seen you text either of them or ask them for something, and they just dropped everything and did it? Even when I could have been the one...look. I know you don't want to admit to needing anyone. But you admit you might need the same people that need you? I mean, there's me, and Otis, and Abby, and Aimee, and...maybe even Cynthia."

Maeve looks out over the hill, seeing her brother walk toward the trailer with a beer in hand.

"We'll talk about this later," she says. "Right now, I need to go talk to my idiot brother."