What If I Lived a Lie? [You Me at Six]

Chapter Fourteen: Learning to Swim in The Oceans We've Made

The social worker across from Olivia studied her intently, as if her eyes alone could capture and describe the glow that had dimmed from her subject's eyes on her yellow note pad. "Obvious depression." She'd taken a good look at the young woman's file and found that the child she'd put up for adoption some four years ago was still un-adopted. Making the suggestion to re-enter the child into its mother's life—and vice versa—was a risky one, but would it ultimately pay off?

"Miss Ellington?"

"Yes, Miss Bello?" the young girl seemed disinterested, eager to get back to her boyfriend, and very tired: all things the slightly older social worker understood. But she certainly hoped Olivia would hear her out when she posed her next offer.

"What if I told you that you could gain custody of your child again?"

***

The weird thing about the word implode was that it implied everything collapsed inward on itself – the only problem with that was how to describe the mess that came afterwards. Life could implode in on itself, but cause such an outward mess. An implosion, and a responding explosion. A secret could explode into a fight, a fight that could cause a mess and cause a riff in a relationship.

***

"Dan, what do you mean fake girlfriend? Why would Liv be Josh's fake girlfriend, Dan?"

The horror on Dan's face revealed that he wasn't just poking fun at the sometimes rocky relationship, but that he had said something he shouldn't, and now there was no way he'd make it out of this conversation without giving up the one secret he'd pledged not to. So, he froze.

"Hunter."

"Daniel, I cannot fucking believe you," his dark haired girlfriend scolded, tears now burning in her eyes, "But Liv lied to me, too? And you stood by, knowing she was lying to me? Jesus, Dan."

"Hunter, listen, I..." Hunter's arms folded even tighter over her chest and Dan all but shrunk back in response to the waves of anger all but radiating off his girlfriend. "It's just that I never got around to telling you; I wasn't sure if it was my place. I thought 'Liv would have told you already. I was too afraid to bring it up, then you tell me that she hadn't told you."

"Well, why didn't she?!"

"The arrangement was basically that... Josh would namedrop your business to a few of our friends to help the bakery take off, and Olivia would pretend to be his girlfriend so that his ex, Emma, would believe he was over her, so that Emma would ultimately end up wanting Josh back, but –"

"But 'Liv is falling for Josh..."

"Correct."

"So, that means, the thing that you asked me about, when you asked me what I'd do if I knew 'Liv was going to hurt someone was because you knew Josh was going to hurt her?"

"Also correct."

"So, you knew my best friend was going to get her heart broken, and you didn't even bother to say anything to me? That girl has kept me alive through worse times than you can even imagine, did you seriously think that you'd admit to me that you knew she was going to end up in pain and I'd just let you off scot-free?"

"Hunter, you have to understand, I just thought that it wasn't my place," the blond man pleaded with his girlfriend.

Everything had spiraled so far out of control that Dan felt as though he was trying to grasp sand with his bare hands. Besides the fact that Hunter was red-facedly, unwaveringly, scarily angry with him, Dan had let out his best friend's secret, likely caused a semi-argument between Hunter and Olivia, and had hurt the girl he never even bothered to get to know that well. Dan and Olivia likely could've been great friends. Tonight, he'd learned that Hunter and Olivia were so drawn to each other because of their strength; in spite of the whole ordeal she'd been through with Derek, Olivia was still managing to be encouraging Dan and Hunter to go out and do something, or at the very least enjoy each other's company, and stop worrying about her. Olivia had been thanking them for all they'd done for her that night, and apologizing relentlessly. The girl was as selfless and kind as Hunter was. Olivia and Dan could have likely been the best of friends. But he was a participant in what would ultimately break her heart. Just one look at 'Liv was all it took for anyone, everyone, to know that she was falling in love with Josh. As much as Josh seemed to be into Olivia, too, he still hadn't let go of his ex, Emma – the start of this whole thing. So, he'd string Olivia along—without really intending to, and she'd let him—without really intending to. 'Liv would end up heartbroken, and Josh would end up back in the arms of the toxic woman who had hurt him all those months ago.

It was strange how the things people would do for love could cause the opposite. Olivia, out of her love for Hunter and their baby, their business, agreed to an unbalanced deal. Olivia, out of her budding love for Josh, did all she could just to pretend she was his – even if only for a little while. Dan, out of his love for his best friend, kept the secret with the power to shatter relationships. Dan, out of his love of Hunter, didn't want to involve her in the whole sordid tale. Hunter, out of her love for her best friend, couldn't bear to look at Dan anymore that night, or the rest of that week, or the rest of that month. Hunter, out of her love for her best friend, had caught off the man she loved – even though her best friend had been lying to her. Josh, out of his love for Emma, concocted a whole plan to win her back – at the expense of someone else he loved.

An implosion of love resulted in an explosion of hurt feelings, and all anyone could do was struggle to pick up the pieces.