He had called and texted Olivia many times and felt like an idiot every time that she didn't answer. He was growing worried after a week so he tracked down Lauren's number.
"Hey it's Alex." He said awkwardly not sure on how to approach the situation. He had no idea what Olivia had told Lauren - if she even told her at all or if she was too embarrassed by the whole situation.
She sounded surprised . . . pleasantly surprised, at least she wasn't repulsed by the sound of his voice giving him some hope, as she replied, "Oh! Hi."
He coughed and scratched the back of neck, "Yeah, erm, sorry Katie gave me your number, hope you don't mind me calling you." He rambled and she shrugged it off not caring, "You haven't talked to Olivia by any chance have you?"
"Yeah, yeah I have." She said cautiously. Not sure exactly how to reply - she didn't want to be in the middle of their mess.
That confirmed that she had been avoiding him, the calls were his first clue but there could've been some sort of explanation for it - there was no excuse for this. He felt angry and hurt at her for ignoring him, leaving him in the dark. "Right." He muttered realising that she didn't want to talk to him by choice, still he asked the question he called for, "Is she okay?"
No matter how angry or upset he was he still cared for her. The question had been eating away at him. He could ignore the other questions, like why she kissed him and why she left, just for a while until he knew she was okay.
Lauren sounded surprised as she blurted out, "You haven't talked?"
She had told Olivia since from day that she slept over that all she needed to do was to talk it out with Alex and it would work itself out - it always did with them. They didn't argue, they always managed to figure things out.
"No, it's kind of hard when she's ignoring me." He admitted sheepishly.
Lauren sighed, "I've been telling her to talk to you. I think she's just confused about the whole thing."
Alex coughed, "Right. Well, erm - she's alright?" He didn't want to talk about Olivia to her best friend. He only wanted to make sure she was okay any explanations - any excuses - he wanted to hear from her.
"Yeah she's . . . She's fine."
Lauren wasn't sure what to reply. Olivia wasn't doing well, she was, quite frankly, a mess. She hadn't eaten for the first day and when she did eat she'd just throw it back up she was that anxious. She had been a nervous wreck. Though, Lauren wasn't sure Olivia would approve of her telling Alex that. She settled for something vague.
"Right I was just worried because she hasn't been home at all." He explained feeling like he had wasted her time.
"Oh, she's in Bristol so yeah. She'll be back next week I think." Lauren told him.
Alex nodded, "Okay. Well that was all I wanted to ask." He said stiffly.
When she heard his dejected voice she quickly added, "I'll tell her to call you."
Alex laughed lightly, "No don't. She's not the type of person to do what she's told."
Olivia had to get out of London.
She needed space. Time to think where she didn't have the looming possibility of accidentally bumping into Alex.
Whilst her dad had stayed in their childhood home her mum had moved to a small apartment in Bristol. When she left Lauren's apartment that night she packed a suitcase and called her mum from the train - her mum wasn't offended by the short notice and was thrilled to see her daughter again.
