Nathan. The ex. Part of the reason she left. A big part. 

Why the f- why was he calling, she thought. Conflicting. Answer or not answer? But she took too long thinking about it and it went to voicemail. Oh god, please don't leave a voicemail. She never wanted to ever hear his voice again. 'I can't. I can't. I can't. I know what he'll do'. He'll suck her back in and she can't let that happen. Be strong. All of this was tiring so she put her head down on her arms and fell asleep but sadly not for long. 

Back a bit sore from sleeping in that position, Olivia woke up sort of suddenly because someone else was in the kitchen. She noticed that she had a blanket wrapped around her which she found weird because she didn't remember having a blanket earlier, so she figured it was probably Hailey. It wasn't. But when her eyes adjusted to the light being on, it was Noah that was in the kitchen, getting breakfast. He was wearing a long-sleeve shirt that showed off his arms and sweatpants. 'Was I that tired or was Noah kinda cute?' "Sorry," he said softly, "I didn't mean to wake you"

'Am I that tired or was his voice calming..and kinda hot?'  Thank god she didn't say that out loud though. 

"Um, don't worry about it, it's not like I've been able to sleep through the night, not for months anyway" Olivia said trailing off at the end. He looked down. His messy bed head showed that he probably enjoys being able to actually sleep at night. So he probably felt bad that she couldn't sleep well anymore. 

"Can I ask you a question?" He asked. There he goes with his voice. It was calming her from when Nathan had called, that is still on her mind. She just nodded. 

"Hailey told me yesterday that you are still in school. But it's the middle of the school week and you are here, a whole time zone away from your school-" He stopped when she sighed, "I'm sorry.. I'm just curious.."

"I don't know.. I don't know what I'm going to do. I'm not planning on dropping out-" She stopped cold when her phone started vibrating again. For a second she forgot she talking to Noah and slowly flipped over her phone. But noticed that Noah was watching how tense she looked doing it. She closed her eyes and hoped that when she opened them again that it wouldn't be Nathan that was calling. So she opened them and although it didn't make her happy that it was actually her parents calling her again, she sighed in relief. Something that Noah definitely noticed but didn't push about. 

Just then Hailey came in the room, and looked concerned and a little confused when she saw Olivia. "Is everything okay?"

"Um yeah nothing is wrong" Olivia lied, and it looked like Hailey didn't believe her. Then she looked at Noah. 

"All good here" He nodded. He knew it was a lie, but he went with it. And it seemed to be enough for Hailey, at least for now. What happened with Nathan is not really something Olivia tells people about. 

"Okay well Olivia, I do need to talk to you, I should have asked you when you first called me yesterday"

She sighed, "I know. School"

"How did you know I was gonna ask about school?" Hailey asked confused. Olivia glanced at Noah and it didn't seem like Hailey noticed that. 

Olivia ignored the question and as she was going to respond her phone started vibrating again.  Groaning, she flipped it over angrily and it was her parents. "Great, my parents-"

Noah stopped eating and declined the call. Normally Olivia hated whenever someone touched her phone but for some reason it didn't bother her and she don't know why. "If I don't talk to them soon they are going to get the police to find me so they can yell at me in person"

"Olivia" Who then turned her head, it was Clara. She looked at Hailey and Noah, "go get dressed for school"

Then they were alone. "Olivia, you can live with us but you have to talk to your parents and you have to finish school first. I don't want you to drop of out of high school." Clara said softly sympathetic. 

She was honestly a little relieved. She didn't think she'd tell her to go home but still. But the part of talking to her parents made her nervous because she didn't know what was going to happen. She knew she would have to do it thought. 

"I didn't want to drop out, I guess the easiest thing would be to finish school online-"

"One thing though, " Clara interrupted, "you need to call them today because if you don't and you have been gone for 24 hours then you would be considered a missing child since you are a minor and I don't want to be getting in trouble"

...

Olivia was laying down on their couch just looking at the ceiling. This couch would be good for naps if she could actually sleep. Like she sleeps but not really. Hard to fall asleep and hard to stay asleep so you can't really consider that actually sleeping. 

At this point, Clara left for work and Hailey and Noah came in the room. He took the tv remote and put on Netflix since they have time before school. After Hailey gave him a look, he muted the tv and put on sub titles. Silently, Hailey sat on her knees on the floor next to me. Olivia didn't look at her. 

"I really wish that I didn't have to go to school, I don't want to leave you here alone.." Hailey said quietly. Olivia turned to face her but didn't look her in the eye. 

"It's fine..I'm used to being alone" She said quietly enough hoping only she heard it and not Noah, but since the tv was muted she saw that he did hear. He gave her this look that she couldn't exactly figure out. It wasn't pity but looked sad. 

To break the silence that came after that she said, "I called my parents.." Olivia sat up and put her head in her hands. "We are still working things out but we came to a deal. I can stay here but I have to go to your school instead of online and I have to answer every single one of their calls. And I have to get good grades and no detentions. Or else-"

"-or else what?" Noah asked, pausing the tv. 

She looked him straight in the eye and said, "or else they said they would get the police involved and force me back home". That sounded just as bad and dramatic as it did in her head. It was almost amusing how surprised and shocked he looked at that. 

"Aside from the or else, it sounds pretty fair to me," Hailey said with small smile, trying to cheer her up. "We will get to go to school together"

Olivia tried to smile a bit, but "when aren't in the same grade though, you are a sophomore, I wouldn't be completely alone but I would still be alone at the same time."

"Well Noah is in the same grade as you, you would have him"

She's pretty sure that she internally blushed at that, the way it was phrased. She is just trying to show her the bright side of this. "That would be true if I knew him at all". She didn't mean any offense by that, it's just that she really didn't know him. She was sure that if it came to it she could go to him. 

Noah got up and walked around the coffee table and sat next to her. "Then we'll get to know each other, you aren't alone"

It sounded like he meant it and it made her want to cry. She loves this family. She had an impulse to hug him but restrained herself because she didn't really know him yet and felt like it would be awkward. Instead, she hesitated but lightly grabbed his hand, and softly said, "Thank you"

There were tears in her eyes and was trying not to cry now. Great. He tensed not knowing what to do, but decided to just squeeze her hand to not cross any line. "Hailey, we should get going.." Noah said, letting go of her hand. Olivia could feel the warmth leave. 

Olivia walked outside with them and Hailey told her that she should be home no later than three. Then she left with Noah, she guessed that he drives them both to school. Sounds way better than riding the bus. The second they were gone she went back inside and locked the door. 

There was something Olivia had wanted to do that she could rarely do because while she was always alone, she wasn't alone enough to do this. To her it's therapeutic. She has a playlist on her phone called 'if you don't jam to this, you are truly dead inside'. Long name but you get the point. She hooked up her phone to her speakers and hit shuffle. There is just something about listening to your music very loud that makes people feel better. And this was the best opportunity to do it. 

Or she thought, she thought this was the best time to do this but her playlist is so long that she lost track of time. "You like this band too?!" Noah asked excitedly. Olivia stopped in her tracks. She was basically dancing around the house smiling because she thought no one would see her.

She turned around to face him. Her face was very red. Of course this happened. She literally didn't know what to do. So she did the only thing she could think of, to hide her face, she turned off the music and covered her face with her hands.

"What are you doing here?" She forced herself to say, spreading her fingers to see his face.

"I came back for lunch, so you wouldn't be alone the entire time we were at school. " He trailed off, "since Hailey can't drive. "

She slowly removed her hands from her face and awkwardly crossed her arms. "That would be nice if you didn't witness..that" She was thoroughly embarrassed. She couldn't even imagine how red her face must have been, it definitely feels very red to her. But she was just glad he didn't hear her sing. 

"I know we don't know each other and we don't have to talk but sometimes just having some company can help. We can always just FaceTime Hailey if you would prefer that"

He doesn't know her but he's trying to make her feel welcome and not alone. It's sweet. She really like this family. She wanted to smile.

Olivia unfolded her arms. "How long until you have to get back to school?" If she was being honest, what she really wanted right now was fast food. But she figured she really should try to spend the day being productive since she wasn't in school right now. Which she probably will be in, in a few days.

"Forty minutes" He replied. "What do you want to eat?"

He opened the fridge and just stared into it. "I don't even know what you have.." She said. She hadn't eaten anything since last night on the road. 

*************

***rewritten chapter***

Once I got out of my own head I was able to write. My problem was that I always compared my writing to others and I never felt like it was good enough or even good at all so I never wrote anything. But this is supposed to be for fun. I decided to write this book for fun, for myself. I'm not a writer and I was pressuring myself as if I was an actual writer. I don't need to compare my writing to others. because its bad and i know it :) lol