The Pledge

Chapter Twelve

Olivia’s POV

I made the short walk from Zack’s place to my slightly more humble abode. I couldn’t keep the giddy grin off of my face which made me feel like a stupid girl but unfortunately for my former self I was enjoying the new me. I mean, I judged her severely for being so clichéd and typical and, well, boringly stereotypical. Having a crush on Zack Jenner? How revolutionary. He has definitely never had this effect on any other girl. He definitely thinks you’re special. No way has he viewed me for being a bit of fun. Oh definitely an intelligent decision here Olivia.

But then again, I don’t really think properly when it comes to Zack. I’m surprised I get words out at all really. But when I am around him or when I’m thinking about him I get this...rush. It’s hard to explain but it’s like when I see him that everything else just seems to slip away; all the worry, all the pain and certainly all the crap. Like nothing else matters, no one else; it’s just me and him and everything is finally real. I don’t know, if I think about the logic of it for too long I generally end up feeling pathetic. I know this is only an infatuation although it is stronger than any previous. But it will fade like the rest, I know it will. It has to. I can’t keep feeling like this. This just ends up in heart break if it doesn’t drive me mad first.

It’s pretty late when I get in so I decide to use the sliding doors at the back of the house to try and be quiet. But the second the door shuts the lights from the kitchen turn on. I freeze automatically and turn around slowly to an amused looking older man.

"I saw you walk past the front door so I thought I’d try and scare you and oh my god your face." His face breaks into a big grin.

"Very funny dad." I relax and shake my head amused and drop my bag. "Where’s mom?" I lift myself onto the stool at the island beside him.

"She’s asleep. Not before she worried about you though." He raises an eyebrow at me. "But I covered for you." He walks over to the fridge and opens it. I sigh with relief. I forgot to text and my mom can really worry. I didn't even plan to go to Zack's, I was just walking past and found my myself turning for his door.

"Thanks dad, what did you say?" I turn and pull two spoons out of the drawer behind me and then turn back into the island. He walks back over to me with a tub of cookie dough ice cream.

"I said you asked my permission to go to a friend’s house to work on school stuff and I forgot to tell her." He smiled at me as he scooped out some ice cream and began to eat it.

"Have I ever told you I love you?" I raise an eyebrow.

"Not enough my little Olive." He winks at me and I can’t help but cringe at my parents nickname for me.

"Please stop calling me that dad, I’m not four." He just shakes his head amused.

"So where were you this evening?" He pretends to give me a stern glance. Dad was always the chill one. I mean mom wasn’t very strict either she just worried a lot. Once she knew where I was and what time I was home she was fairly chill too.

Fortunately dad got into a lot of trouble as a teenager and turned out fine so he trusts me to go through the usual phases of adolescence and come out the other end more evolved. He believes everything that happens to us is all just another stitch in the ‘tapestry of life’ or whatever babble he decides to come out with. That everything is all just building us up to the people we were meant to be so he trusts me as long as I don’t do drugs or get pregnant obviously.

"The weird thing is that I actually was at a friend’s house doing some school work." He raises an eyebrow at me. "I swear I was."

"Which friend? Do I know them?" Still attempting to keep up the stern dad routine. I couldn't help but shake my head amused.

"You know the Jenner’s down the road?" He nods. "Their son Zack. We have two projects to do so I’ll probably be hanging out with him a lot for a while." I take another scoop of ice cream and I look back to a grinning dad. "What?"

"Did you and Zack have fun then?" He winks and nudges my ribs.

"Dad!?" I look at him shocked even though he did stuff like that all the time. It was still slightly weird. "We’re just friends." He raises an eyebrow and I can’t help but sigh. "Whatever, I’m going to bed." I get up off my seat and grab my bag before walking out the kitchen door.

When I get upstairs, lying on my bed is the hair dye I asked mom to buy today. It’s time for a change although my mom was surprised how slight. It’s just to lighten my hair to a brown colour and put in some highlights. I’ll get it done professionally if I like it but for now this will be fine. I could wait until the weekend to do it but I had a bit of time now since I didn’t feel like sleeping so why not? Should be interesting.

After about an hour in the bathroom I look at my newly dried hair with a slight bit of pride. I think it looks good. For now at least, I’ll probably bore of it soon enough but for now I like it. With that I head to bed. I almost think I get lucky and might just slip straight asleep with the thought of my hair but then all thoughts of Zack come rushing in. Then literally the first question that comes into my head is will he like my hair and I almost slap myself. Will Zack like my hair? Seriously? Who cares? Olivia, get a grip. I roll over in bed and begin the gruelling process of pushing Zack out of my head.

I wake up the next morning with a shock. I forgot I dyed my hair and it came as a slight surprise. Probably because all thoughts were occupied by the Greek God. I jump in the shower to get the smell of dye off my hair. Unfortunately I lose track of time and end up rushing everything else. I don’t even straighten my hair after drying it. I barely get food on the way out. I almost go for my keys before realising my beautiful yellow beetle is currently broken down. I sigh and leave without bothering to say bye to the parents. They both work from home so they don’t usually get up until after I’m gone anyway. I end up being slightly late for first class but so is the teacher so it goes unnoticed.

The morning goes fairly slowly, probably because I keep thinking about the two classes I have with Zack later on in the day. I get to English fairly early and sit down in my usual seat. Yesterday at Zack’s house we actually got a lot of the essay done which was surprising. I mean we still have to edit it and write some more for other topics we need to cover but we should be fine.

We ended up choosing Zack’s poem so we’d only have 1 page to write. He didn’t want to use either so I forced him to use What Is Left? except we've renamed it to I Am All That Is Left plus some other edits. Also this way since he wrote the poem he has to do most of the thinking for the questions and stuff which is fine for me.

He strolls in a few minutes late but not many people are here yet anyways. He looks around the room for a bit until he sees me. Then he just stares for a few moments. It’s slightly unnerving but thank god he moves and starts walking over to me. Once he sits down he turns to me but with a small smile this time.

"Hey Ollie. New wig?" He points up to my hair. I had actually forgotten I dyed it again.

"Not everyone needs fake hair for their receding hair line." I grimace playfully. He fakes hurt which actually looks quite adorable.

"I see you have your claws out today." He winks.

"Yeah whatever Z." I roll my eyes. "I just dyed it so let’s move on."

"And curled it slightly I see." He nods. Oh crap I forgot I left it wavy.

"Um, no. This is it natural. I didn’t have time to straighten it this morning."

"Oh. Well I like it better this way." He smiles. "Anyways, the English project." He turns back to the sheets but I can’t seem to re focus just because of one stupid compliment on my hair. Seriously, Olivia what has happened to you?