Monday couldn't have come sooner. I had spent the weekend with my head buried in books in preparation for the coming exams. Brian and Will came over and we spent hours poring over individual problematic areas. Olivia came up on occasion but after dismissing their queries a few times, they quit asking and we focused on our work.

I walked into the classroom earlier than usual ready for the math test that would take place in an hour. The room was empty, the ideal time to go through last-minute concepts. I hurried to my desk and had just sat down when a soft "hi" froze me in place. I dragged my eyes from my unopened bag to the doorway where Olivia stood, her eyes trained on me, a soft smile revealing her flawless teeth.

"Liv?"

"Yeah, it's me, silly. Tom did tell you I was coming back today, right?"

"Uhm," I rose to my feet, "Yeah...yes he did."

"Come here." She walked toward me and pulled me into a hug. "I missed you, dummy."

"Ahem, I missed you too." I held her closer burying my nose in her flowery scented hair.

She pulled away and looked me in the eyes. "Nobody gave you trouble when I was away, did they?"

My eyebrows shot up at the question. Really, that was what she wanted to talk about?

"They didn't give you crap, did they?" She repeated the question after a beat of silence from me.

"Really? That's what you want to talk about?" I verbalized my thought.

"Uhm, sure, we are a team. That's why I left Tom behind, so he could watch out for you."

"First of all, I don't need a bodyguard, Olivia. Thanks for the gesture but that is the least of my worries right now. I mean, you kissed me then disappeared for four whole days, and you wouldn't even let me come and see you when I came over on Thursday. What the hell was that?" I snapped, all my pent-up frustrations from the past four days resurfacing.

"Uhm, It's a long story, Jake." She took a step back, her expression falling at my harsh tone.

"Which part? You planting your lips on mine or the part where you flew to London without so much as a goodbye?" I would have been sorry for my harsh tone but my nerves were raw from the days of agonizing about her and now as I watched her deflate in front of me, I had little empathy.

A beat of silence passed between us before she spoke again. "Thursday was the anniversary of my mum's death." She crossed her arms and held herself as if afraid she would fall apart.

Well, that froze me to the spot. 

"What?" I managed, my voice a mere whisper.

She dropped her eyes from my face and let out a shaky breath.

"Why...why didn't you tell me?" I took a step closer to her feeling like an idiot for whining about the unexplained kiss when she was going through unimaginable pain.

"I couldn't. It's just something I do every year, dad and I visit her grave but he didn't come this year, which I think is for the best because visiting her ages him a little more every year."

"So, you went alone?"

"No, Maria took me. She even came back here with me. You'll love her when you guys meet."

"Liv, I'm so sorry."

"It's okay you didn't know." She let go of herself and squared her shoulders looking me in the eye.

"I would have gone with you if you'd told me."

"And what, tell your dad you were skipping a bunch of classes for a girl he's never heard of?" She beamed. An act that not only resuscitated my heart—which had been withering at being deprived of that infectious smile—but also seemed to chase the demons that had clouded her from the minute she remembered her troubled trip.

"Good point." I smiled back. "Do you want to meet my parents?" I mentally slapped myself at the question. "Uhm, I didn't mean to make it sound so..."

"Official?" She finished, her smile getting brighter.

"Yeah."

She chuckled, "sure, only if you agree to meet my dad."

"After the exams?"

"Yeah, let's do it." Olivia closed the gap between us and threw her hands around my neck once more. "I really missed you." She let go once she heard footsteps and chatter as more students filed into the classroom.

"Ready for the test?"

"As ready as I'll ever get. Maria didn't let me waste any time, she insisted that I revise as much as I could if I didn't want to be the only Ansley heir to drop out of high school." Olivia moved to her desk and with a roll of her eyes at the nanny, started pulling out her books.

I chuckled, "I like her already."

Olivia stuck out her tongue at me, "of course you do."

***

The exam week flew by. None of us had any time to do much else other than study. My heart had gotten a pep in its beat since Olivia came back. I faced every morning and every test with a new zeal to conquer. We hadn't had an opportunity to talk about our steamy elevator moment but that didn't bother me much because I could tell things were different between us. There was more assurance in how we related to each other and I knew that we would talk about it soon enough.

The two weeks set aside for the exams flew by and the day we had all looked forward to, came. The whole grade had been invited to the party of the year, which Fred, Angela's cousin, was throwing.

The party was in full swing by the time we got there. Tom declined Olivia's request to leave and come back for us when the party was over. He opted to stick around and blend into the shadows. How his size went unnoticed at a high school party was beyond me, but he pulled it off.

We grabbed our drinks and set out to mingle. Olivia's skill to knock back cup after cup of the spiked fruity drink, yet remain steady on her feet, put my lightweight self to shame. I was swaying easily by the time I drained my third cup. Her close proximity had my body more alert than it ever had and my heart fell more in love with her every time she looked my way or touched me, even playfully.

Boys continued to hover over her, trying to get her attention and at first, I was okay with the attention she was receiving because she easily shrugged them off. However, as she continued to down the flavored drink, she was starting to entertain them. She would giggle at the silliest jokes and even agree when they asked her to dance, and boy did she dance. Olivia moved like she had no bone in her body and her moves caught plenty of attention from the party-goers.

Having had enough of the sly looks cast her way by every testosterone-filled party goer, I pulled her to myself and asked her to take a walk with me where it was less crowded. She agreed, earning herself a round of groans from the throng of fans waiting for their turn on the dance floor with her.

The gardens were quiet under the starry sky. The booming sound from the party slowly diminished as we walked further away, her warm hand in mine. I had imagined this moment ever since she came back from London. I wanted to confess my feelings for her and had rehearsed over and over what I would say. Now that it was actually happening, I couldn't remember a word from my well-revised speech. My heartbeat increased with every step we took and feeling like I could walk no further, I stopped and let go of her hand.

It was now or never.

"What's up?" She turned and lifted her eyes to meet mine. "Are you drunk already?" She chuckled.

"Uhm, no. I haven't had that many." I threw the now empty tumbler to the ground. Taking a deep breath, I readied myself. "I like you, Olivia." I breathed out afraid my heart would burst a hole through my rib cage. "No, scratch that, I love you." I watched as emotions I could only hope were a reflection of how she felt about me flitted through the amber in her doe eyes.

She smiled and closed the gap between us. Her lips landed on mine which were ready for her this time around. All the precious moments from our first kiss that I had over-rehearsed in my mind were blown completely out of the water as we filled our wants for each other. Her strawberry-coated lips glided against mine in a rhythmic nudge and pull. My hands traveled through her back, pulling her even closer to me. Every lustful thought I had about her consumed me at that moment and soon, I found the kiss wasn't enough, I wanted more. I pulled my lips from hers for a second, just to see if she could feel what I was feeling and the dreamy eyes that looked back into mine told me all I needed to know, before I could take her lips in mine again, a throat was cleared from somewhere within the shadows. We both turned towards the sound and groaned when Tom's silhouette appeared from the pine trees surrounding the property.

"Really, Tom?" She groaned.

"You know the rules." The mountain man slinked back into the shadows.

"Yeah, but this is different. It's Jake, and you like him."

"Not that much if he starts acting on those teenage hormones." He said, his voice devoid of any humor.

"He's right," I said, pulling away from her and straightening my clothes. "We can't do this here."

"Such a buzzkill," Olivia muttered.

"I heard that." Said the voice in the shadows.

"Good! You were meant to." She turned around the way we came and strode up the grassy path. "Let's go, Jake."

Back inside, I thought nothing would kill my joy. Not the boys who seemed to forget their dates once they saw Olivia again, or the nasty looks sent my way by Sandra and her cronies, or even the sly remarks sent my way by jocks who still couldn't believe Olivia was with me and not them. Yes, nothing could have put me down until I walked in on the said prized Olivia making out with Fred's Older brother in the bathroom only an hour after we had rejoined the party.

I froze and watched as Olivia let another do to her what I had been doing not so long ago. The pain that flooded my heart was unfathomable. I wanted to run and erase everything I was seeing but I couldn't move. It was as if my legs were made of lead. And so, I watched, I watched as my precious Olivia became another's plaything. I watched as she let him lift her dress and aim for a more intimate part of her than what I had managed but before he could, he was pulled off her and hurled across the room.

Tom stood between Olivia and her make-out buddy seething, his venomous eyes glued to the half-dressed college guy on the floor. After recovering from the shock of being tossed like a ragdoll, the guy scrambled to his feet and ran out, almost knocking me down when he passed me by my stationary position.

"What the hell?" Olivia screamed.

Tom only glared at her. His chest rose rapidly. If I had looked closely I believe I could have seen smoke coming from his ears.

"May I remind you that you work for me, not the other way round." She seethed, the comment surprising the bodyguard for a second before he recovered. He lifted his arm and pointed my way, his eyes never leaving hers.

Olivia's head followed his hand. The sharp intake of breath that followed was the indicator that she knew she had screwed up when her eyes landed on me.

"Jake."

I ran out.

********

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June.