𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒃𝒐𝒅𝒚 𝒕𝒂𝒍𝒌𝒔, 𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒂 𝒎. ¹

𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘺 𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘦. 𝘣𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘯𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵

when olivia walked into the school, she wanted to walk right out. she hated parent teacher night, mostly because she always felt so anxious around her mother but now it seemed to get worse. her mother was miles away which meant wes had to go with her for the meeting.

"they better not tell me about your sex life." wes groaned, he wore a black t-shirt and a pair of knee shorts, she hated him for it. she asked him nicely to wear something at least decent and this is what he came up with.

"don't talk to me. i don't want people to think i know you." olivia pulled her headphones on, softly blasting mitski while he looked around, at the different teachers. some of them were young, beautiful and he seemed very interested in them. more interested in them than his sister.

"don't embarrass me." olivia told him as she walked away, seeing hanna approach her. "i heard there's trouble in paradise." of course that's the first thing the blonde tells her.

"i didn't realise paradise had a group chat." olivia stated, leaning against a locker.

"it does when you're being a bitch." hanna leaned against the locker too, looking over at olivia who leaned back, now looking down at hanna.

"well, you know me." olivia shrugged, "you've heard the rumours, i mean, everybody talks."

hanna shrugged, she knew that. everyone knew olivia didn't do relationships and she didn't go around falling in love. but everyone also thought it would be different with aria. she actually seemed to care about her.

"im just me, han." olivia shrugged, licking her bottom lip. "im just really bad at being a person sometimes. it's like im not programmed right."

hanna sighed, crossing her arms. "that's the dumbest thing i've ever heard you say."

olivia huffed out a laugh, but there wasn't much humor in it. "glad i can still surprise you."

"you're not broken, liv," hanna said, her voice softer now. "you just don't let people in."

olivia looked away, staring at the scuffed tile floor. she hated when people did this-when they peeled back her layers like it was some fun little puzzle to solve. like they had the right to.

"maybe i don't want to," she muttered.

hanna studied her for a moment before shaking her head. "no, you do. you just don't know how."

olivia clenched her jaw, feeling something twist in her chest. "well, maybe that's aria's problem, not mine."

"yeah," hanna said, pushing off the locker. "but if you keep pretending like you don't care, eventually, she's gonna believe you."

olivia didn't say anything as hanna walked away, but her words stuck, settling into the space between her ribs like a weight she couldn't shake.

she could barely catch up with the moment when wes came back eating a slice of watermelon. she sighed, "where did you get that?" she rested her fingers to her forehead, trying to push away the growing migraine.

"the lunch lady gave it to me because im hot." he shrugged.

"god, this is gonna be one long day."