Songs from my Bewilderment

Chapter Fourteen

Flashback - March - Junior Year of High School

A spring day in Sacramento is sunnier but still has a chill. The trees are starting to bloom and Olivia is sitting in her room at her desk still wearing her uniform. She had just sent over an article to the features editor of The Sacramento Bee she wrote titled "Songs I Hope to Hear at Prom" She had been interning at for the newspaper since her sophomore year of high school. Writing had always been a hobby of hers that she never really wanted to pursue as a career. Her parents wanted her to pursue something that was more on the business side of things. But, even if it wasn't going to be her career, she still loved writing and being published in her hometown newspaper. With her obsession with music, creating mixtapes and playlists became her column.

*Ding* She gets an email back from the editor:

*Hi Olivia, thanks for this submission.

We'll be publishing this in tomorrow's paper!

Sincerely,

Sarah*

"Mom! Mom!" Olivia says running down the stairs.

Her mother is sitting with a book of fabric swatches, "Yes?"

"My article is going to be published tomorrow in The Bee!" Liv squeals.

"Oh, that's nice..." she said, as she continues to flip through the book of fabric.

Olivia's mother was a busy woman. She co-owned an interior design firm with Max's mother, Savannah. That's the main reason why they still kept in touch in high school. Before they each got their driver's licenses, Mrs. Ames would pick up both Max and Olivia from school after their extracurriculars and take them straight to their office in downtown Sacramento, where they'd do their homework. Once they got their licenses and their own cars, they didn't see each other as much. Except for occasional family dinners, birthday parties or celebrations at their mother's firms.

The next morning, Olivia anxiously gets ready. She throws on her school uniform, a plaid green and blue skirt paired with a white button-up t-shirt and cardigan. After tying her black oxford shoes, she grabs her backpack and rushes to her car. She had just gotten her dream car for her birthday, a light blue Volkswagen Beetle from the 1970s. It was manual, so she spent a whole weekend with Alex learning how to drive it.

Driving to school, she stops by the nearest gas station to grab a stack of newspapers. As she goes in, the cashier says, "Published again?"

"Yup!" Olivia says, she's seen this man almost every Friday since she started working at The Bee, but she didn't know his name.

"20?" he says, scanning one newspaper.

"As always," she says, grabbing the stack and handing him a $10 bill.

She rushes to her car and grabs the features section of one of the papers. There it is! She says to herself. It reads *Songs I Hope to Hear at Prom* As she reads the edits from the article she thinks about how this all started. Just a few days before, she had argued with Max about how he didn't want to go to prom. He was depressed and sad because he had just broken up with his girlfriend, Mia. Olivia was saying that she was going regardless of whether or not she had a date. She had already set a plan with four of her other friends to get a limo and go together. Olivia was saying that prom was a once in a lifetime opportunity and that he definitely needed to go. With his hesitation, their argument escalated and they hung up on the phone angry at each other. Max was just sad. He and Mia had been together for two years, they met their freshman year at an open dance.

Olivia knew that all he needed was to have fun and get out of this sad and depressed phase. That's when Olivia thought of writing the article. She knew that if she wrote an article as an inside joke with Max and had it published, it would at least cheer him up and make up for the fight that they had. The article had about 5 of Max's favorite songs out of the 10 listed on there. The other 5 were songs that they had both been obsessed with throughout the years. Olivia hated to see Max hurt, but she knew that this would make him laugh. Because even though it was thought through, Olivia admitted to herself that it was a little ridiculous.

She picks up her phone and calls Max.

"Hello?" Max says.

"Hey..." she says nervously. Whenever they were in a fight, they would always get weird and awkward.

"What?"

"Before you go to school, can you just grab today's issue of The Sacramento Bee and read the teen features section?"

"Why?" Max says.

"It's really important. Just do it, please?" Olivia begs.

"Okay..." Max says hanging up. 

The day goes by and she hasn't gotten a text from Max. She doesn't think anything of it, but she hopes he reads it and that he has a positive reaction. Maybe he'll ask Mia to the prom and they'll get back together, she thinks.

After her last class ends, she walks to the parking lot and sees Max. He's in his uniform as well. Wearing khaki pants, a navy blue polo, and white tennis shoes.

"Hey!" she says, wondering what he's doing there.

"Hi, Liv," he says, giving her a hug.

"Did you read The Bee?" she asks, at this point, she thinks it's weird that he hasn't said anything about it.

"Let's go for a drive..." Max says smiling.

"Where?" Olivia asks. She looks at her car and is anxious about leaving it.

"Leave it here. I'll give you a ride to school tomorrow," Max says, as they walk towards his car.

As they both get into his car, they start driving. They head onto the 160 Freeway and start driving towards downtown. This route was familiar.

"We're not going to the office, are we?" Olivia asks. This was the route they always took to their mother's office. 

"Just relax. Why do you always have to control everything?" Max says laughing.

They pass through downtown and Olivia can now tell where they were going. River Park. It's a walkway that overlooks one of Sacramento's icons, the Tower Bridge. This was one of Olivia's favorite spots. A lot of memories were made here.

Along one of the railings in pink large letters on butcher paper, it says

*LIV, WILL YOU GO TO PROM WITH ME?*

Olivia looks at Max and says, "You did this?!"

Max smiles and they both get out of the car. In his hand, he's holding a burned CD and hands it to Olivia. Written in sharpie it says, *10 Songs Liv & Max are going to hear at Prom.* 

"So, will you go with me to prom?" Max says, giving her an innocent smile. 

Olivia smiles and gives Max the tightest squeeze. "Of course, I'll go with you!"

"If I'm going to go to prom, these songs better be played that night," Max says smiling.

"Oh, I'll make sure of it," Olivia says and smirks.

They both look at the view of the Tower Bridge ahead of them. The Sacramento River underneath the bridge is flowing rapidly and many boats are on the water at the moment. Max knew that taking Olivia to prom wasn't something he expected to do, but he knew that it would be a nice gesture. Besides, going to high school dances were her favorite thing. He couldn't let her go to prom without a date. One of the reasons why him and Mia broke-up was actually because of Olivia. Mia sensed his feelings towards Olivia and she didn't want to be a part of it anymore.