Recover: Book 2 of the Magic Mutations Series | ✓

61: We Can Still Run

August 2018

I figured it would be smooth-sailing from here in terms of the not-letting-anything-slip-to-Ollie front. Of course, dealing with my uncle and returning to the town that harboured mostly painful memories for me would be anything but smooth... But at least with my relationship with her... things were supposed to get easier. I was supposed to be able to distance myself. Because I thought, for sure, after the slip up at the gym, Ben would never let her be alone with me again.

Which was why, when Ben told me to take Olivia on a walk through Windeck so that he could have 'alone time' with his father, I was more than surprised.

But I'm getting ahead of myself here.

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When we left the outskirts of Cologne and the landscape slowly began to turn into a more than familiar one, I felt equal parts of nostalgia and dread consume me. The thick, pine forests zoomed past as we travelled down the autobahn at 150 kilometres per hour towards Windeck. And in between the thickets were sparse meadows and tiny villages, before the scenery would repeat itself once more.

With each passing town I counted down though, my stomach began to clench more.

I hadn't been back since I left.

I hadn't seen my uncle since I left.

Had the distance I had put between the past and now been enough? Or would the wall of memories and emotions make me incapable of thinking straight and protecting Ollie? I hoped for the former.

Ben's constant chatter with me though was a reprieve from the thoughts though. He asked me about this town and that town. Recalled his one visit to Windeck—after I had left—and how much he enjoyed the small village. He discussed his own memories of growing up alone in England while his father lived and worked here. Ben was way more talkative than normal. And eventually I began to realise why.

Olivia was just as silent as me.

If not more.

"Ollie?" I asked after Ben came to a stop, casting another wary glance in the rearview mirror.

Why didn't he just ask her what was wrong? I wondered. Did they fight last night or something?

"Yeah?" she mumbled, head turning away from the window to meet my gaze.

Face softening, I said as warmly as I could, "We were wondering why you're so quiet. Are you okay?"

See, Ben? It's not that hard to ask this of her...

She nodded and forced a smile onto her face. Ben's shoulders relaxed and his grip on the steering wheel loosed, as though he believed her.

But I saw straight through the facade she was trying to erect.

Unbuckling myself, in one quick manoeuvre, I swung through the gap between the seats, landing on the spare space next to her in the back.

"What's wrong, Zappy?" I asked.

She rolled her eyes before saying, a little more believingly this time, "Nothing. I'm fine."

"That's not true, Olivia," Ben suddenly said, now finally starting to see what I was seeing in her tense shoulders and shifting eyes. "Talk to us or I'm pulling the car over."

Her nostrils flared at his threat, and her comment from the gym echoed through my mind in a loud burst once more.

He will always try to smother me.