Wheel of Fate

42.

Two weeks had passed since Olivia was allowed to go back home.

Those two weeks were a bit of a challenge for both Billy and Olivia since their father had died, and so did Susan they were now in charge.

Being in charge was a lot of work, and they had more responsibilities. Olivia didn't know how hard it was to be an adult with duties and bills. They started to receive a lot of letters saying that they had a lot of bills to pay.

Since summer ended, Billy didn't work at the community pool anymore, and with everything that happened in the mall they shut it down, meaning Olivia didn't have a job either, and Max was still too young to work.

Billy had applied for a few jobs, but so far he hadn't gotten any calls back. Olivia had also applied for a few jobs but wasn't in a rush to work again; instead, she decided to stay at home for those weeks and clean around the house.

She was also trying to balance both roles of being a big sister and a parental figure to her younger sister Max. She would get bored at times, and sometimes she would stress clean all around the house.

She was stressed about having to find money to pay the bills and bring food to the table. She also had to take care of Max, which was getting a little harder than she thought. Max was being a bit rebellious; Olivia wasn't sure why she knew it was hard for her to lose her mother, she tried talking to her, but Max would simply close the door on her, not wanting to talk about the subject.

Olivia didn't pressure her since she knew the feeling, but she wanted Max to be fine to not bottle up her feelings like how she was doing.

Taking care of a teen wasn't easy, also Max would spend most of the time at Lucas or El's house and come until very late.

One day Max didn't even come home. She didn't make a phone call to let Olivia know she was going to spend the night with El and Will. Olivia was worried sick about her; she couldn't sleep; she would be pacing back and forth in the living room, waiting for the front door to open, revealing Max.

Olivia had even called the police; they weren't of much help saying that Max needed to be missing for a certain amount of hours, and they told her that she was probably fine with a few friends; even though that turned out to be true.

Olivia was still mad, the way that they didn't show any worry for the safety of a teenager something horrible could have happened, and they wouldn't be of much help. It was until Will called the home phone that Olivia was able to relax a little, knowing the whereabouts of her sister.

Billy and Olivia drove all the way to Will's house to pick up Max. Olivia had grounded Max that day for leaving without permission and staying at Will's house without letting her know. Max was furious, to say the least; she had yelled at her saying she wasn't her mother; she left crying, going into her room. Max locked her room door and wouldn't let her in no matter how many times she knocked.

It broke Olivia the way that Max was reacting. She was trying her hardest to be a good sister but at the same time be a good parental figure too she had to be both; it was hard to balance both roles.

As she was cleaning the house and remembering that night, she didn't realize she got into the room of her father. She was doing the bed when she realized where she was.

It was the first time she was back in that room since the day he had hit her. She started to panic, looking around, feeling that he would appear out of the shadows and hurt her once again.

Her eyes started to water, tears were forming, and her heartbeat was going faster. Olivia was having trouble breathing; she needed air; she needed to get out of that room.

She stumbled out of the room, holding herself to the hall walking down the narrow long hall. She fell to the floor, sliding down her tears running down her face.

With her eyes closed, still having trouble breathing, she felt a pair of arms wrapping around her, hugging her. "Hey, I'm here, Ollie," Steve said, hugging her and caressing her hair, "ssh you're okay. I'm here," Steve kept saying, trying to calm her down.

Steve would go and visit her, keeping her company, that's why he was there. The front door was unlocked, he decided to go in, and he saw Olivia on the floor crying. He wasn't sure what was wrong or why she was crying, but he went and hugged her as she continued to cry.

Tears falling on his shirt started to make a small wet spot on his shirt, but he didn't care; he continued to brush her hair with his hand.

She let out a small hiccup once her breath was calming down; her tears slowly stopped running down her cheek. She didn't want to let go of Steve; she hugged him a bit closely; he placed his hand on her back as she rested her head on his chest.

Once Olivia was a bit calmer, Steve helped her get up, and they walked to her room. She lay in bed, her eyes red from crying; her nose was a bit runny. Her head was on her pillow; Steve got on the bed next to her and lay by her side. He placed his arm above her, resting on her. She held his hand close to her chest and closed her eyes, calming her breath.

She felt safe in Steve's arms; she began to calm down and shortly after fell asleep. Steve was planning on staying with her for a little while but ended up falling asleep.