In The Eyes Of Olivia *ON HOLD*

Chapter One

I stepped off the school bus and turned back towards it to wave goodbye to my friends just before it drove away to its next stop. Joshua slid the window down, his arms hanging out of the bus as he smiled down at me. "Don't forget like you did last time. Eleven-o-clock, okay?" I laughed and rolled my eyes. "Okay, okay, I won't forgot this time. But it's not my fault that my father put up a new security system!" The bus began to roll down the street and I quickly walked beside it on the sidewalk to continue my conversation with Josh. "Just don't get caught, okay?" He said just before he slid the window back up.

I smiled as I watched the yellow, crowed with way too many kids, school bus turn onto Keeny Road. I don't know why, but for some reason Josh seemed to always make me smile. Maybe it was his blue, shiny eyes or the way his dimples poked out everytime he smiled, which was quite often. I knew he liked me and he knew I liked him, but we never considered ourselves boyfriend and girlfriend although we practically acted like it. My phone buzzed in the back pocket of my faded out skinny jeans and I reached back to grab it.

Joshua: "11:00..and don't leave your car keys on the beach this time"

I laughed, slid my phone back into my pocket, and began to flashback on that night. It was only two weeks ago. Just at the beginning of Spring Break, when Josh and I both got our driver's license, we had a huge party at the beach. I invited some of my college friends, whom I had met at previous parties, and Josh invited some of his. Altogether, there was about 40 college people there, not including the HighSchool drop-outs, which was plenty of people to bring alcohol and pot. By not going too much into detail, we all woke up the next morning surrounded by police officers flashing flashlights into our eyes and kicking the sides of people lying asleep in the damp sand. Luckily, Josh and I made it out safely without being questioned or drug tested. But I happened to leave the keys to my 2007 Honda Accord lying on one of the beer kegs. I never got them back; figured one of the shady HighSchool drop-outs had taken them. Thankfully, Josh's uncle was a locksmith and had made me a new set of keys within a few days.

I opened the front door to my house and closed it behind me once I was in. As I slid my shoes off and hung up my backpack, I could hear my father speaking to someone on the phone from somewhere else in the house.

"Dad?" I called out and walked down the hallway a bit towards his bedroom.

The sound of his voice got louder and louder the closer I got, until I opened his bedroom door to find him sitting on the edge of his bed, still dressed in the suit he was required to wear for work everyday.

He looked up at me, unusually not smiling at me like he normally did.

"Yeah." "Yes, I know." "Mmh." "Okay, Shaye." He said into the phone.

Shaye was my mother's name, whom I hadn't seen in years and lived in some small forgotten town in southern Oregon.

After my parents divorce when I was seven, we lost all contact with each other. I missed her more than anything, but words went around that she was in no good condition for me to come visit her. I knew exactly what that meant, too. My mother had always had an addiction to heroin. All throughout my childhood, I could always remember her coming home late from rehab and bickering with my father for what seemed like forever. Sometimes I would eavesdrop on their argument. Other times I would lock myself in my room and try to think of anything other than the words being said between my mother and father.

When they finally divorced, life was much better. I didn't have to come home to screaming and yelling after school and my father quit drinking so much. Even though it's hard for a girl to go without her mother, I think they're divorce was for the best.

"Listen, I have to go." My father said into the phone and then hung up.

He looked up at me, a huge sigh following shortly afterwards.
"Liv, we need to talk."