Downside Up

Chapter Twenty-Eight (St. Swithins Day - Billy Bragg)

I could think of nothing else but Oli's story. Of course, there was no way she would be interested in someone like me if she had a super cool boyfriend back home. Still, I could not believe that her friend would have told her about the accident just like that. What kind of a friend would do something like this?

Of course, I was not Sherlock Holmes and I would probably never find out the entire story, but at least I wanted to try. For her.

Because even though she was weird sometimes and avoided me for a couple of days and would probably never like me back, I wanted to help her. I felt like she deserved people who cared for her. If these people were friends from her hometown or people from Perth did not matter – but she needed someone. Outside of her family – and host family.

Connor would be gone in a few weeks. No one wanted him to leave but he would have to go back to America eventually. I was almost sure that they would stay I contact due to how close they had gotten but still, time zones were bitches and she needed someone to rely on.

I wanted to start with Izzy, Oli's so called best friend and after she had given me all the information I could need, as in her Skype name and her phone number, I got up early in the morning to video call her in the popular evening hours.

Thankfully she accepted my call and I was faced by a stunning young girl, with beautiful black hair and fascinating eyes. The second I saw her I couldn't understand why Oli's almost-boyfriend had chosen Oli over her and I knew why the older girl had questioned his motives.

"Hello?", she asked with a strong german accent and I remembered that I would have to use easy words so that she could understand me.

"Hi, my name is Tyde", I introduced myself, "and I am Olivia's host brother."

She seemed confused for a moment but then she recognized Olivia's name and smiled at me.

"Nice to meet you, Tyde. How is Olivia? I have not heard of her ever since she left Germany."

I wasn't sure if I was allowed to tell her the truth, but they had been best friends and Izzy would not hurt Oli, would she?

"She's fine, I guess. There are some people at school that don't like her too much and let her know every day, but I think she is good at standing up for herself. Now that she has got no friends left."

"Omg, I'm so sorry", she cried, but I knew that it was fake. Her eyes remained fixed on something above the camera and I could hear a male voice laughing in the background.

"I'm sorry, but is there anyone with you? I don't want to disturb any conversations!"

She shook her head and waved whereupon a young boy appeared next to her. He was quite good looking and they were obvious to the fact that they were a couple.

"Is it okay if he listens to our conversation?", she asked and this time, I shook my head.

"No, it's fine. I was just wondering why you two girls never talked to each other after Olivia came here. I'm sure she'd love to catch up with you. You are in your last year of school right?"

Izzy smiled and grabbed the boy's hand. "Yes, we are. I wish that Olivia could be here with us though school is hard sometimes but the parties are so much fun." The boy laughed and I could not resist thinking that maybe he was Olivia's "dead" almost-boyfriend.

"But aren't they dangerous as well? I have heard that there was a bad accident about 7 months ago." They looked at each other in alarm, before the girl turned back towards the camera.

"Did Oli tell you about that?"

"She mentioned something along this lines, yes. Why do you ask? Is it true?" She wasn't going to trust me because I was basically one of Oli's brothers, but I wanted to know the truth tho I had to show her, that I was on her side.