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He left me. And maybe it was my fault for having just a tad bit of faith in him. For thinking he could change.

I could feel a few raindrops, so I began to pick up my pace. It was inevitable that I could escape the rain, and I was soaked within the next two minutes.

After the longest twenty minutes of my life, I finally made it home, dragging in puddles of water at the front door.

"What happened to you?" Henry laughed as he met me at the door. It practically looked like I had been swimming for the past thirty minutes with my clothes on.

"What happened to me? What happened is that sorry excuse of a father flaked out on me!" I complained. I wanted to forgive him. I'm sure he had a good excuse, but I couldn't help but imagine the worst. He left me because he doesn't care.

"Where's mom?" I questioned.

"She left about twenty minutes ago to pick up dinner," Henry said.

"So not once did no one wonder where the heck I was?" I sighed sarcastically. "Unbelievable."

"The world doesn't revolve around you, Charlotte," Henry said, retrieving an apple from the kitchen and heading back upstairs. I could hear the taunting noise as he aggressively bit the apple.

I followed him upstairs, heading to my room. My backpack was completely soaked, so I decided to empty everything out and throw it in the laundry room. I headed back downstairs, until I heard the front door unlock.

"You will not disappoint them again," I heard my mom say. "And you're gonna tell her the truth about everything." She must've been talking to Ryan.

"Tell me the truth about what?" I asked, revealing myself from the wall as I stood at the top of the stairs.

"Hey, honey," My mom began.

"Surely you have a good excuse for abandoning me again, right?" I directed towards Ryan. "For leaving your teenage daughter to roam about the streets in the dark. Did I mention it's raining?" I added, still dressed in the soaking wet clothes I came home in.

"I-I'm sorry Charlotte," He apologized. The most pathetic apology I'd ever heard I might add, besides the ones Chase delivered to Olivia every time he cheated.

"Why did you leave me again?" I asked. There were no words coming out of his mouth. I could see a few bruises on his face from the top of the stairs. Part of me wanted to ask what happened, but I didn't.

"My keys," I said, now talking to my mom.

"Here," She said, pulling my keys out of her purse and handing them to me. I rushed downstairs to grab them, then immediately reached for the front door.

"Charlotte, where are you going?" My mom questioned.

"Anywhere but here."

I hopped in my car and sat in silence for a few minutes. He could've had a good excuse. Either way, I needed some time away from my family.

I found myself pulling up to a familiar house. Her parents weren't home, so I used the front door. I knocked a couple of times before she finally answered.

"Hey, what's going on?" Olivia asked. It was probably eight or nine by now, but it didn't matter. I knew she'd be awake anyway.

"Can I come in?" I asked. It was still raining, so I'm sure I looked worse than I did before. She nodded, pulling me inside.

"Your parents aren't home, right?" I asked. "I didn't see their cars out front."

"Yeah, uh... business trips as always," She sighed. "Can I get you something to drink?" She asked. I never answered, but she reached for a bottle of orange juice anyway. It was the only thing I would drink when I was over here besides water.

"Thanks," I said as she handed me the miniature bottle.

"So what's going on?" She asked again, hoping for an answer this time.

"Just... family drama," I said. I didn't want to talk about it. I don't even know why I came over. I guess I just needed a little sympathy from someone.

"Okay," She said, accepting the fact that I didn't want to talk. "You're welcome to stay over," She added. I smiled, nodding at her invitation. Although we never asked to say over, only invited ourselves and hosted unplanned sleepovers.

After a few more minutes in the kitchen, we decided to call it a night and headed to Olivia's room.

"I can sleep on the couch or floor or something," I offered awkwardly. "I don't want Chase to get upset with me or anything."

"Charlotte, you're my best friend. I'm not gonna make you sleep on the floor," She laughed. "And Chase isn't here," I heard her add quietly.

Nowadays, it felt like the word best friend was just thrown around. We didn't feel like best friends anymore. We hardly even felt like friends.

I layed in bed next to her, staring up at the ceiling. It was quiet, but I didn't expect it to be anything other than that. Just as I began to fall asleep, I could hear her voice begin talking to me.

"Charlotte," She said.

"Yeah?"

We were facing opposite directions, and we decided to turn inwards and face each other. She didn't say anything after I answered, only stared into my eyes for a few minutes.

"I'm sorry," She said. I could already see the road we were about to go down. I didn't say anything only listened to her talk. She had already apologized when we agreed to just be friends.

"My mom thinks we're together," She said. It was in a monotone, sleepy voice.

"Why's that?"

"Maybe because she caught us making out," She said, making us both laugh. It didn't last long before a long gap of silence interrupted.

"I'm breaking up with Chase," She said. I'd heard this phrase more times than I could count, and this time it wasn't any different.

"For good this time," She added. I still didn't believe her. No matter what happened, she always found her way back to him.

"That's good news," I said, pretending as if I had believed the words coming out of her mouth. I focused on her lips, as they began moving closer to mine.

"I have to tell you something," I said, stopping her from moving any closer.

"What?"

"Brett and I. We're not really together. You know, together together," I said.

"Oh," She sighed.

"We've just been pretending," I admitted. As close as I had grown with Brett and his family over break, lying to everyone still didn't feel right. Especially Olivia. "I just thought you should know."

"Why?" She asked.

"Just cause, I guess."

"I mean why have you been pretending." I didn't answer for a minute.

"Because of you," I finally said. This was the assurance she'd been waiting for from me. Maybe this would change the fact that she was afraid of everyone knowing about us. Afraid of everyone knowing the truth behind her popular image.

She didn't say another word after that, only ran her fingers over my lips and scooted closer to me. Our lips weren't touching, but were close enough.

She sat up, hovering over me and admired my face before leaning in for a kiss.

I placed my hand on the back of her head, pulling her closer to me. Only after a few minutes did we speed up the pace, Olivia now sitting on top of me passionately planting kisses over my body.

I frantically removed Olivia's top as she took off mine. I was only dressed in one of her t-shirts, so I was left in just a bra and underwear.

We hadn't been together like this for awhile, excluding the horrifying scene at the dinner party. With no interruptions this time, we were able to finish what we started.

~

I woke up the next morning smothered under Olivia, her arms both wrapped around me. She was always a wild sleeper. I'm surprised I'd gotten any sleep at all with her snoring. Perhaps I'd gotten used to it.

I reached for my phone on one of her nightstands, only faced with a million calls and texts from mom and Henry no doubt wondering where I was. It was almost ten, so there was no point in going to school now. Maybe Olivia and I needed the time alone anyway.

I slowly removed myself from Olivia's grasp, getting out of the bed and going to the bathroom. I had a text from Brett, too.

If anyone was actually worried about where I was, they would've checked Olivia's house first. It was practically my second home. I decided to answer both Henry and Brett so they wouldn't be worried.

I took a quick shower while Olivia was still asleep, giving my hair a quick wash as well. I had yet showered after getting soaked last night and was only wearing one of Olivia's t-shirts. I threw on a pop playlist while I showered, listening to a bunch over overplayed songs.

After about thirty minutes, I finally left the bathroom dressed in black leggings, a black t-shirt from Olivia's closet, and a towel on my head. Olivia was no longer in the bed, not that I expected her to be. I was practically blasting music in the bathroom.

I looked around her room for a minute before finally making my way downstairs since she was nowhere to be found.

"Olivia?" I said as I heard a few rattling noises downstairs. She must've been in the kitchen because I caught a huge whiff of a delicious smell on my way down the stairs. I followed the smell to the kitchen to find Olivia hovered over the stove.

"Breakfast?" She smiled, waving around a pot of hashbrowns. Have I mentioned hash browns were one of my favorite foods?

"How did you manage to do all of this in thirty minutes?" I questioned, admiring at least four dishes she was preparing, including chocolate chip muffins in the oven. "Are you feeding the brady bunch?"

"Charlotte, you can never have too much food," She insisted. I smiled, fixing myself a glass of orange juice as she raced around the kitchen. I sat down on a bar stool at the kitchen counter and watched her as she scrambled a few eggs over the stove.

"This is so much better than listening to Mr. Teague talk," I said, referring to the teacher we'd have around this time.

"Tell me about it," She laughed.

After about ten more minutes, she laid out hashbrowns, eggs, fresh fruit, muffins, and bacon across the bar.

"Bon appetit," She said smiling.

"Where did you even learn to cook?" I asked, helping myself to a plate.

"Oh don't have too much faith in me, Russo. Most of these just had to be heated or were already ready. The real challenge was the muffins," She laughed. I could tell. Most of them were deformed, but they still looked delicious.

"What's the occasion?" I asked, biting into a muffin that no doubt tasted as if she had forgotten an ingredient.

"Us," She said, slowing down the pace she had been keeping. "I'm breaking up with Chase, you're breaking up with Brett. There's much to celebrate."

"Slow down, Atwood. I never said I was breaking up with Brett," I said.

"I figured you didn't have to," She said confused. "You practically admitted your unrequited love for me last night," She grinned. "Besides, you guys are just pretending so it's not like you're gonna hurt his poor feelings."

She was completely right. Brett and I were only together to make Olivia jealous, but that didn't mean our fake break-up wouldn't hurt. We'd grown closer than when we were actually together.

"How about you break up with Chase for good, then we'll talk about Brett and I," I suggested.

"And how do I know you won't abandon me after I break up with Chase and choose Brett?" She asked.

"I guess you'll just have to trust me. And we both know you and Chase could get back together no matter how many times you break up," I laughed.

"Charlotte Russo, did you just throw shade at me?" She asked in a fake surprised tone.

I just laughed harder at the comment. I was hilarious. I almost hesitated releasing the comment, but it was too funny not to say.

"Oh you're gonna regret that!" She said as she ran around the counter to reach me, but I had gotten up before she could get to me. I ran as fast as I could, which wasn't very fast. I had only made it to the living room before she caught me, attacking me in tickles as I fell to the ground.

"Okay, okay, I give!" I shouted in between breaths as she continued to tickle me.

"Say sorry!" She said, still hovering over me and attacking me in different spots.

"Alright, alright! I am sorry!" I said in giggles. She finally stopped, but was still hovered over me.

I was still laughing my ass off, but her face was more serious as she studied my face. I heard her mutter something under her breath.

"What?" I asked.

"I choose you," She said louder this time. "I don't care what anyone thinks. I wanna be with you, Charlotte."

As much as I wanted to believe her, I don't think I did. I knew Olivia. She loved the attention, the popularity. She wasn't a person to risk everything and put her reputation on the line. But for the moment, I didn't care.

We spent the rest of the day stacked on the couch having a movie marathon as always. I sat underneath her tucked away in a blanket and we ate the rest of the muffins she had cooked for breakfast. I still managed to avoid my mother's missed calls.

For the first time, everything felt perfect. The possibility of us being together felt real. And I didn't care. I didn't care that she could be lying about us finally being together. For the day, this was enough. This was better than nothing.

a little bit charlivia time for you guys :)

do you think Olivia is telling the truth? what do you think happened to Charlotte's dad?🤔

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