OLIVIA

Thursday morning, Olivia walked into the kitchen and sat next to Blake at the dining table.

"Blake, can I borrow your bike today?"

Blake had just shoved the last few bites of his peanut butter and banana sandwich in his mouth all in one go. Through half chewed food he mumbled, "Sure, what for?"

"Blake, stop talking with all that food in your mouth," Elijah scolded, putting things in a brown bag. He handed Olivia her lunch. "What do you want the bike for, Olivia?"

Olivia had already practiced her lie. "Me and Melanie are going to go biking after school today."

"Honey, it's forty five degrees outside," Elijah cut in. "You're going to catch-"

"Eh, she'll be fine, right, Liv?" Blake grinned and leaned an elbow on her shoulder, using her as armrest. Olivia rolled her eyes and pushed him away.

"Yeah, I'll be fine," she said.

Elijah didn't let it go. "Do you have a hat? Gloves? Scarf?"

Olivia didn't, but she wasn't going to tell him that. "Come on, Elijah, it's not even freezing-"

Blake jammed his own hat on her head, pulling it down over her eyes, and proceeded to wrap her face up like a mummy with his gray scarf until she couldn't see. "There. All done. She can go now, Elijah, can't she?"

"Blake!" she protested through the layers of fabric as she tried to pull it off.

"What?" Olivia felt him put his cheek next to hers. "Sorry, your voice was all muffled, you think you could repeat that?"

Olivia managed to pull the scarf away and glared at him. He was laughing so hard he was snorting and turning red in the face. The way his laughter rang in the room made her hurl the scarf at him, but she couldn't stop herself from smiling either.

Blake finally gained control of himself and leaned down and kissed her cheek. "Have fun biking. Don't get a cold or Elijah's going to kill me." He looped the scarf gently around her neck and wandered down the hall to get ready for school.

Phase one of her plan was complete.

After she biked to school and locked Blake's bike to the stand, she put phase two into action.

She took out Detective Julian Herrera's business card from her pocket and dialled the number on the back.

He picked up on the second ring. "Detective Julian Herrera," his voice came through.

She cleared her throat and swallowed at the thought of what she was going to say next. "Hi, Detective, it's Olivia. You know, Olivia Jones?"

His voice changed to more genial and easy. "Hey, Olivia, how're you doing?"

"I'm doing fine. I called because I remembered something about my mom, a few days before she died."

She heard shuffling on the other end of the line, papers flipping. "Really?" His voice was genuinely interested now. Olivia took a breath and tried to keep down the nauseous feeling in her throat.

"Yeah, but I don't want to talk about it over the phone. Do you mind meeting me after school?"

"After school?"

"Yeah, just in the office like before."

"Why don't we meet at lunchtime instead?"

"I can't," she lied. Her plan wasn't going to work if he came at lunchtime. "I have to meet with a teacher about my math grade during lunchtime. She said I needed to meet her by today."

"We can schedule it for tomorrow, then. How's that?"

Olivia clutched her phone, feeling slightly panicked. This was not how it was supposed to go. She had the plan on for today, not tomorrow.

"I - I think I would feel better if we could do it today. Just as soon as possible, you know?"

To her surprise, he suddenly relented. "Alright, after school is fine. You get off at 2:30?"

Olivia didn't want to know how he knew that. "Yeah, I do."

"Okay, I'll meet you in the office at 2:45. Does that sound good?"

"Yeah, that's good."

"Alright, I'll see you then. Goodbye, Olivia."

Olivia said goodbye to him and hung up.

Phase two of her plan was complete.

*****

Phase three began after school.

She went to the front office and waited there for about ten minutes, taking deep breaths in and out, trying to calm herself before she knew she would have to face the man in the uniform again. She closed her eyes and thought of home, thought of Elijah standing in the kitchen and scolding Blake for bringing in his muddy shoes, thought of Blake trying to help her with her math homework after he claimed to be a good tutor and admitting that he was almost failing math, thought of Logan and the way his voice could become so gentle that it made Olivia forget everything that had passed.

"Hello, Olivia."

Olivia took in another deep breath.

She wasn't going to panic today because she was the one with the plan. She was the one calling the shots. She was the one that was going to get something out of him today.

"Hi, Detective Julian," she said, and she even managed a smile.

Detective Julian briefly spoke with Mr. Delaney, who began to tremble at the idea of the two of them meeting again. Olivia frowned, confused. Last time, he had been so willing.

"Olivia, this - this isn't allowed," he stumbled. "You must have a legal - legal guardian."

"But it's fine, I want to meet him. I asked him to meet me."

Mr. Delaney shook his head furiously. "No!" he practically yelled.

Olivia sighed. She couldn't get Blake in here; he thought she was riding bikes with Melanie. She couldn't get Elijah in here; he would be mad that she contacted Detective Julian without his knowing after she had caused a huge scene the day before.

"It's alright, Olivia," Detective Julian said. "We can do this another time when you have a legal guardian present."

As they walked out of there, Olivia mulled over the thought. There was always a chance her plan might still go on if she didn't tell him, but she didn't want to take the chance. She had to tell him now, or phase four might not come after phase three.

"Detective," she said as soon as they were out of earshot of the office.

He looked down at her. "Yes, Olivia?"

"Could I just - tell you out here?" she asked. "It doesn't have to be official right?"

He tilted his head to the side and a small crease appeared between his brows. "Are you sure about that?"

Olivia was desperate. She needed to go on with this plan today. She didn't want to have to orchestrate this whole thing again.

"Yes. Like an anonymous tip, you know?"

Detective Julian's face turned amused. "An anonymous tip?"

Olivia wanted to wipe the smile from his face, but she forced a small smile to her face as well. "Yes. I'd rather do it now, you know, so you can get whoever it was."

She stayed silent, waiting for him to agree.

"Alright," he said. "Why don't we sit down on the chairs by the entrance?"

When they sat down, Olivia told Detective Julian a wild story she made up the night before about a man her mother had met at a bar the week before and afterwards came home more depressed than usual.

"Do you know who this man was?" he asked.

"No. She only told me there was someone bothering her, and that he kept talking about the police. That was all."

Her mentioning of the police seemed to pique his interest. "What did he say about the police?"

Olivia shrugged. "She said he was really drunk, he probably had no idea what he was saying." She added, "I'm sure it was nothing."

"No, no," Detective Julian said. "That's good. Did she say anything else about this man? What he looked like? His name?"

"No. I'm sorry, I don't remember."

"That's alright, Olivia. We'll find this man. Do you know the bar it was at?"

"It was where Mom worked. Madame Cobra's."

Detective Julian noted something down on his pad, and this time, instead of feeling terrified, Olivia felt a little sense of accomplishment rush up her limbs.

"Thank you, Olivia. Don't worry about it anymore, alright? We'll find out what happened."

For a moment, Olivia faltered. She wondered if she was reading into his words too much, if what he actually meant was finding out whether she knew anything or not, if she was lying to him or not.

But she pushed away those thoughts and said, "I hope you do."

*****

Phase four began as she was kneeling on the concrete floor, unlocking Blake's bike from the stand. She heard a car door slam shut and heard the growl of a patrol car starting. She took out her binoculars and spotted Detective Julian reversing from his parking space.

Olivia threw her leg over the seat and pedalled after him.

It was tough work keeping up with the car, even on the residential roads where he wasn't going too fast. For one thing, she was trying to bike at a distance so he wouldn't notice her following. And two, he was driving above the speed limit. Twice, she lost him until she found him again, stopped at a stop sign or at a red light. She was glad though, that he was in a noticeable patrol car and not an undercover vehicle; if it had been the latter, she was sure she wouldn't have been able to follow.

After the first fifteen minutes, the muscles in her back and legs and arms burned, but she had five phases of her plan, and Olivia was not one to back down after she already had three out of five phases complete and was almost done with (or hoped she was almost done with) phase four.

After twenty minutes, Olivia was forced to consider the possibility that maybe, her plan wasn't the best. Chasing after a cop car on a bike was hardly efficient. She was panting and her lungs were aching and she was sure she wasn't going to be able to ride home. As an added plus, Blake's scarf was beginning to feel like it was choking her.

After twenty five minutes, the patrol car drove into a coffee shop and stopped.

Olivia breathed a sigh of relief and tried not to collapse where she stood, waiting at a red light. She slowly wheeled her bike to the donut shop next door to the coffee shop and locked it outside.

Phase four had been painfully painstaking, but it was now over.

Inside the donut shop, she ordered a coffee and a donut because she was starving, and because she didn't want the owners to kick her out, and took a window seat on the side farthest from the coffee place.

She took out her binoculars and looked through the glass at the other end of the shop, through which she could see the inside of the coffee place. She held them to her face, despite the weird looks she was getting.

At the moment, she could see Detective Julian sitting at a table in the middle of the room, drinking coffee and talking on the phone with someone. He was facing towards her, so she could see that he had his notepad out and was writing things there that Olivia couldn't make out because of the tilt of the page. She strained her eyes trying to make out what it was that he was noting down, but he was too far away.

When her eyes started to burn from staring and her arms really began to ache from the combined efforts of biking here and now holding up the binoculars for so long, phase five began.

Someone wearing a blue uniform sat down in front of Detective Julian, blocking him from view.

Dammit. Now she couldn't see either of them. Olivia tried to lean this way and that, but the man's broad back covered everything. All she could see were wisps of thinning black hair atop his head and thick fingers that waved about every now and then.

She downed the rest of her coffee, wrapped up the donut in a napkin from the table, and put it in her backpack. Then she took a pointer from Blake and wrapped her face up in the scarf, making sure that her hair was hidden from sight.

She took the bike and slowly began walking down the street in front of the coffee shop, desperately hoping Detective Julian wouldn't look out the window and recognize her. Her face and hair were covered, and she was wearing her jacket now on top of her clothes, but that wasn't to say that he wouldn't be able to identify her from her backpack or something else.

She got to the corner of the shop and took out her phone. She turned the camera towards herself and it took a bit of awkward maneuvering, but eventually, her shot had a little bit of the inside of the coffee shop.

And she still couldn't see the other man's face. Now Detective Julian was in the way.

Olivia's head hurt. Her fingers and nose burned from the cold. Her legs ached. All she wanted to do was sit down right where she was and ask Elijah to pick her up.

But she had told him that day that she would bike home, and that meant he wouldn't have made any arrangements at work to leave for her. No one would be able to come for her, and Olivia took that as a sign.

Phase five was not complete yet.

Three people walked into the coffee shop at once, and Olivia took the chance to snap the bike lock to the front of the store and rush in after them.

The door opened in the left front corner of the place. There was a bathroom in the back left corner. Thankfully, Detective Julian was sitting on the left, meaning he had his back to where Olivia was coming in. She walked quickly to the bathroom and took out her phone.

Detective Julian was speaking to the balding officer, pointing to his notes and speaking rapidly. Olivia decided against taking out her binoculars and using them here; if they saw her, she wouldn't be able to explain it away.

She could only see about three fourths of the other officer's face, but that would have to be enough.

She raised her phone and quickly snapped four pictures, feeling extremely smug about the fact that it was no longer her that people were taking pictures of. Now she was the one with the camera, and she was the one that was going to figure out what the hell was happening.

She let out a sigh of relief as phase five finished, and with that, decided that she was never going to make another plan like this ever again. 

Hello everyone and hope you all are doing well and staying safe. I'm not sure if I like this chapter, and I promised myself I'd put my best work on Wattpad even if it's just an experiment, but this is sadly where I have to break my promise. 

Anyways, if anyone needs a little uplifting in their life, something that reminds them that they are stronger than their sadness or past, or just enjoys heartfelt poems, please go give My Creations by @Horsecrazykay17 a try. The poems are truly amazing and will make you cry and/or feel better, whatever you need <3

Remember to vote and comment :)

For next time: I still don't know if I like what I have written in the next chapter, but for right now, Olivia's using Google to do some detective work...