the thing about love.

|1| c o m p l e x i t y.

******
EARLY SEPTEMBER
SOUTHERN CAL CAMPUS
OLIVIA & JORDAN'S APARTMENT
MONDAY
******

Walking into his shared apartment with his sister, Jordan slid out of his shoes, leaving them by the door as he sat his bag down and made his way into the living room. His shoulders slouched with exhaustion, but a smile lit his face up once he saw his nephew enjoying his time with his toys in his playpen.

He walked towards the fridge first, grabbing a water bottle before greeting his sister, who was busy preparing dinner for the two of them. He then made his way over to his nephew, joining him during his play time in his little world of laughter and innocence.

While Jordan played with Kai, he noticed his sister's hesitation when hearing her phone ring. With her hand hovering over the device, her expression troubled before her eyes rolled in slight aggravation. Jordan saw turmoil on her face and immediately understood the caller's identity.

He sighed, tousling with the loose curls of Kai's hair before getting up and stepping out of the pen, making his way toward Olivia.

"How long are you gonna keep avoiding her?" Jordan asked, leaning against the wall after taking a French fry from the air fryer and eating it.

Regardless of the situation, Jordan would always care for both his sister's and Simone's feelings. They were two of the most important people in his life. Seeing them upset would always hurt him, but seeing them at odds with each other hurt even more.

Especially since it's never been like this before.

"I'm not avoiding her... I just don't have anything to say right now." Olivia shrugged, carefully placing the smoked chicken wings on the serving plate.

"Mmhm." Jordan said, eating another fry.

"I talked to Spencer the other day..." He mentioned.

"Oh."

"It was brief. We're still no way near on the best terms right now but it was the first time we've actually talked since dad got onto us and told us to figure out how to get our crap together a few weeks back." He explained.

"Kinda hard to be team captains when you're beefing with each other, but we're managing, I guess. Definitely hasn't been easy though." He added, shaking his head as he thought back to the one altercation he had with his now estranged best friend, still unable to understand how things became the way they were now.

"At the end of the day, he's been my guy since middle school, but honestly, I'm just not tryna hear dad's lecture about brotherhood again." Jordan continued, not realizing his twin had grown tired of the conversation already before she interrupted him.

"Well, I'm glad you two are finding your way back to 'brotherhood'." She sneered, grabbing two plates and handing him one.

Jordan sighed, knowing the signs his sister was showing was her way of avoiding the situation once again. It wasn't like he could blame her, but he knew if she kept storing everything in... she'd eventually explode.

"Liv, I know it's been hard..." He hesitated, hearing her let out a deep breath while she made her plate.

"And, I know this summer was a lot, but you can't keep holding everything in. You haven't talked to anyone about the situation since the night it happened."