⇎CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

||find me||

" if you're ready, heart is open, i'll be waiting, come find me "

***

"Olivia, I don't suppose you suddenly don't have eyes, do you?" Diana asks her friend, pulling her arm so that her back is facing the school. Just a second ago, the raven-haired girl ran ahead of her two friends so that she could talk with Ruby about the whole situation with Josie and Gil. Now as Ollie made it to the school, Diana won't let her in.

Rolling her eyes which do in fact exist, she pushes past her friend and walks the steps into the building. Right as she makes it past the door, she is met with Josie and Gilbert, Josie practically sitting on him.

Scoffing, she pushes past the group of kids surrounding them setting her stuff down on her desk. Anne and Diana quickly follow behind the girl. Looking around, Olivia notices Ruby standing next to Josie with a sad look on her face. Ollie's heart clenches for a moment. She forgot that Ruby was hopelessly in love with him.

Josie was Ruby's best friend so how could she date Gilbert when she knew that Ruby liked him? Plus, Josie was the one who made such a fit that Ollie was talking to him. As if she could understand that Olivia was thinking about her, Josie looks to the dark-haired girl. A thought goes through her mind and she smirks.

"Tell us about how it happened!" Jane Andrews says to her friend.

"Well, Gilbert and I saw each other in town yesterday and got to chatting. Apparently, he had been crushing on me for weeks." Olivia snorts to herself, if he liked Josie so much then why was he kissing her? "So naturally he asked me to be his and I accepted."

Ollie scoffs again. "His? What are you, a tractor?" Josie's head snaps to her.

"Have something to say trailer trash?" she spits and this sends Olivia over the edge.

"Yes, in fact, I do you rich witch." She pushes off the wall she was leaning on and takes a threatening step towards the new couple. "It's stupid how you need the validation of a guy to be happy and how you let him claim you like you're a new ass someone bought from the market."

"Oh please, do you seriously believe those stupid thoughts that your stupid family puts into your mind." She mocks.

"I agree with her." Ollie is surprised at the voice who steps in. Turning her head, she sees that Charlie has stood up and is glaring at Josie.

The blonde opens her mouth to say something but Olivia isn't done. "You're a human being, Josie. Act like one instead of the devil reincarnate." Grabbing Charlie by the hand, she drags him outside and away from the drama.

"Good job back there," he gives her a lopsided grin. "You handled yourself well."

Letting out a small laugh and a genuine smile, she looks up at the taller boy. "Yeah well dealing with stupid girls comes naturally to me."

"We haven't really talked in a while, how are you doing?" He asks her, stepping closer.

"Pretty good, each day I get older and bit wiser than you, Sloan." She teases, shaking his hair with her fingers. He laughs, pushing her hand away although he doesn't let go.

"You know, that day at Reverend Marsh's picnic, we were having sort of a moment." Charlie gives Olivia a small and shy smile.

"Oh were we?" Ollie smiles back, looking up at him through her lashes.

"Yeah, I was hoping that maybe we could finish that moment." He takes a step towards her as he whispers this.

"Oh really?" Olivia is completely lost in his eyes at this point. They were this gorgeous brown that looks as though he was made out of a cookie and had chocolate circles for irises. They were so brown that it was almost black. A weird change from the normal brown eyes she sees every day. The kind of brown eyes that represented the earth with these random flecks of gold in them which were the equivalent of the sun beating down on freshly packed dirt. The owner of those beautiful eyes who infuriates Olivia with every cell in her being, the owner named as Gi-NO!

'Stop thinking about him, Ollie! You're supposed to be having a moment with Charlie right now!'

'Oh, yeah, Charlie.' Olivia tunes out the voices in her head and refocuses on the boy in front of her. The boy whose lips are so close to hers that they're practically touching.

Ignoring the doubt in her mind, she leans forward and presses their mouths together, tangling her fingers in his hair.

Hair not nearly as curly and luscious as he who must not be named's hair.

Ugh, of course, Gilbert would be the one to ruin this special moment even if he wasn't there physically. Why wouldn't she just get him out of her head? And why, when she did manage to rid him from her thoughts, would he show back up again and ruin everything.

Letting out an inner groan she pulls away from Charlie. "Is everything okay?" He asks her concernedly. "Did I do something wrong?"

"No Charlie you didn't," Olivia shakes her head. "You've done everything perfectly. You've been nothing but a gentleman, you're handsome and sweet, but-"

"But I'm not Gilbert?" He questions and Ollie's eyes widen in shock. "It's okay, I see how you look at him. And I also see how he looks at you."

It felt like her heart was about to burst. Charlie had been nothing but amazing to her and she repaid him by liking someone else. She felt like guilt was about to rip a hole in her chest and Charlie notices the look on her face.

"Really, Olivia, it's fine. I've seen for a while now and I should've backed down earlier to save yourself the trouble of worrying about my feelings. I don't ever wanna make you feel like you owe it to me to like me or something because you don't owe me anything." He pauses. "Maybe this is the best for both of us. I shouldn't go down a path where the girl doesn't like me back and you need to go after Gilbert."

"How could I do that? He's with Josie now." She sighs, leaning against the wooden planks on the outside of the school. Charlie moves to stand in front of her.

"Gilbert doesn't like Josie." He shakes his head and Ollie looks up in interest. "He only asked her out because he was trying to make you jealous."

"Really?" She asks in shock.

"Oh come on, Ollie. I thought you were smarter than that." He shakes his head and the girl rolls her eyes. "Gilbert has liked you since he first met you. Whenever we hung out or even when you weren't around, he wouldn't stop talking about you. It was quite annoying honestly. Always saying 'Olivia this' 'Olivia that'."

"I had no idea." She says quietly. "If I tell you something do you promise you won't tell anyone else?"

Charlie nods his head and Olivia takes a deep breath. "Gilbert and I kissed and we were technically together for, like, 6 hours last week."

He looks at her in shock. "Well, then why aren't you up there with him instead of Josie?"

"He had different plans for us. I didn't want to tell anyone because then my mother would pull me out of school but he got mad at me. We both said things, him more than me, and I stormed off. It ended as quickly as it started." She admits, leaning her head on the wall.

"He sounds like the one who was at fault. I understand why you didn't want to tell anyone. I wonder why he couldn't." Charlie furrows his eyebrows. "It's not like him to not be understanding."

"That's what I thought." Olivia groans in frustration, burying her head in her hands. "I don't know what to do."

"I think you should just talk to him if I'm honest." He suggests. "You both like each other so much that I know you will work it out."

Looking up at him, she smiles. "It may not be in a romantic way but I really love you, Charles." Leaning in, she gives him a lingering kiss on the cheek before walking into the school once again.

Little did either of them know that Gilbert was watching the altercation from inside with a sad look in his eyes.

_

Yooo after a while I finally updated and I forced myself to write past 1,300 words and I did it so yayyy

but

on a sadder note, I had added on to chapter 20 by like 1,000 words and I made the stupid mistake of not saving it before I left for a party so I left my computer screen on and when I got back it refreshed and deleted the words but I was thinking 'it probably autosaved' but I went into revisions and it didn't save and I almost started crying so now I gotta redo that chapter as well rip.

I GOT AN INTERVIEW FOR A JOB AND I'M LITERALLY SO EXCITED