I Will Always Love You

Chapter Nineteen: Oliver's

Victoria Vega

"I love Jade," I repeated out loud. "I'm in love with Jade. Jade is my soul mate." I continued pacing around and around, trying to convince myself of every word, hoping that by saying it aloud would make it true. "I've been in love with Jade ever since we first hugged. That fire in my stomach when we first touched was unlike any other." The part I didn't admit out loud was that it had been like one other, the one Cat had supplied when we kissed. I shook my head, thinking that if I shook it the facts would become false. "No," I muttered. "Jade and I, we were—are—made for each other."

"Anybody that says that so much probably doesn't believe that," a semi-familiar voice said. I turned my head to look over at the guy that had been sitting a little ways away, who I had thought was just a hobo in nice-ish clothes.

"Oliver?" I hope that's his name... What was Cat's former bibble guard doing here? When I looked at his hands, taking giant fistfuls of bibble and shoving them into his mouth I finally understood why Cat's bibble addiction never went away. I kind of glad it never did, it's so adorable watching her munch away on bibble in Sikowitz's class. I started imagining if she'd bitten on my lip the way she did that bibble... shit! I'm not supposed to be thinking about Cat like that.

"Hey Tori," he said with a nod as he continued chowing down on bibble.

"Why are you eating bibble?"

"It's like a motherfucking drug," he replied. "Once you eat it, you can't stop." Okay, a food this addictive cannot be healthy.

"Um... so what are you doing outside of a boat dock?"

"I could ask you the same thing," he shot back.

"I was just going back to the place I had my first date with somebody," I said tersely. It wasn't any of his damn business. "You?"

"It's a nice place to eat bibble peacefully. Y'know, watching the tide go in and out as you enjoy a delicious, colorful snack," he replied with a nonchalant shoulder shrug. "Is that somebody Jade?"

"Yeah... how'd you know?" I asked skeptically.

"Well, you were just muttering on about loving Jade, that girl who gave up singing at The Platinum Music Awards for you," he replied knowingly. "Y'know, if you gotta keep convincing youself you love her than maybe you should just break up with her."

"I don't want to break up with her. I love her," I stated. Even I didn't believe myself. Shit, I am a crappy actor.

"C'mon girl, level with me. I'm probably not gonna see you again and it's not like I'm gonna go blabbing. Tell me what's going up."

I sighed. Taking a seat on the hard wooden dock next to Oliver I decided, who else am I going to tell this to? "Jade and I were going fine. But things got hard and... I started having feelings for somebody else. Jade hasn't been faithful either, but it's not her fault that she hasn't been. Things just got 10x worse when I kissed that other person tonight. Now I'm confused on who I want now."

"Is the other person Cat?"

I stared in shock. "How'd you know?"

"Well firstly, you could cut the sexual tension between you two with a knife. Secondly, Cat talked a lot about you. She talked about all your little quirks and how she was going to be with you someday. Let me tell you, this girl is hooked on you."

"She is?" Holy crap, when did this happen? How could I have missed this?

"Yeah, and if you ask me, you should give her a chance. She does love you, a fucking blind man could see that," said Oliver genuinely.