olivia || billy

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pebbles crackle against the glass panel outside billy's window, pulling him out of his deep sleep. the force with which they are thrown exponentially grows, the interval between every tap growing shorter.

"who the hell is it?" billy grumbles as he forces himself to climb out of bed. he stumbles to the window, sliding it up.

his eyes adjust the lights shining in the direction of the beach. when the blurry shadow standing on the deck sharpens, his jaw drops, but only after his heart does.

"took you long enough," olivia says in a hushed whisper that somehow has the power to make it to his ears clearly. her blonde hair flies in the wind behind the hood of her light jacket. even without any makeup on in the worst lighting possible, she still manages to take his breath away.

"it's almost 2 AM," billy replies, rubbing both of his eyes. "you do know that, right?"

"of course i do," she responds. "now get your ass down here before i get charged for breaking and entering. we need to talk."

billy grabs his sweatshirt off the ground and rushes down the stairs, pulling the hoodie over his head simultaneously. he unlocks the door and steps out onto the deck barefoot. olivia shifts her gaze from the moon to billy once she hears the door shut.

the first thing olivia does to billy when she sees him is introduce her hand to his face. her hand leaves a quite literal impression across his cheek, faint outlines of her long manicured fingers marking his skin.

"what the hell were you thinking?"

"ow," billy shouts, clenching his cheek to ease them seizing pain. "that hurt like hell, liv. is that all you came here for tonight? to smack me and then leave just like last time?"

"don't you 'liv" me," she scowls. no matter how hard she tries to separate the past from the present, it keeps catching up with her. "it's olivia to you now, william."

he frowns, catching the seriousness in her tone. "you used to call me will."

"that was a long time ago."

billy stuffs both of his hands into his pockets, swaying from side to side. his voice trails off as he wonders, "what happened between us, liv?"

"i see what you're doing," olivia says, wagging a finger at him in disapproval."you're trying to change the subject, but that's not going to work with me. this isn't about you and me. this is about noah and lennon. how could you kiss her?"

"i didn't know it was lennon," he explains. "the lennon."

"who did you think she was? do you just go around kissing random girls? there are easier ways to get them into bed with you, billy. rule number one: stop going by a name like billy. it makes you sound like an idiot, which you are, but that's beside the point. rule number two-"

"do you want to know why i kissed her in the first place?" billy raises his voice, cutting her short.

"why? i've probably heard this one before."

"because travis told me about you."

"what?" she wonders aloud, trying to figure out where he's headed with this.

"once travis told me you were also at beach week this year, i couldn't keep it together anymore." the words rush out of him before he can stop them."because, olivia, there was one part of me that kept saying that this was fate, you and me. but then i remembered that i'm not good at pretending to be someone i'm not, so i did what i do best. i fuck things up."

"and that's what, breaking girls hearts for a living?" she bites back. "even after two years, you still haven't changed one bit, will. this is why it would've never worked out between us. you're still willing to sleep with anything with legs."

"wait a minute," he says, biting on the edge of his lip. "you told me the reason why you left was because you didn't have the same feelings for me."

"stop changing the subject, will." the way she says his name distracts him from the fact that she's completely avoiding their tangled past. "we're supposed to be talking about lennon and noah."

"how can we talk about them without talking about us?"

"because there isn't an us." olivia rolls in both her lips and shakes her head, feeling her heart constrict in her chest. "tell me something. is your brother even stupider than you are? why the hell didn't he show up tonight? i know lennon gave him an an out, but she didn't exactly expect him to take it."

"what?" billy has no idea what olivia is talking about.

"don't act like you don't know what i'm talking about," she accuses. "lennon waited for almost two hours at oliver's tonight for noah. the funniest thing is i actually thought he was gonna show up. looks like you lyons are all the same."

"i-i didn't know about that," billy utters, retracing his steps. "that's why he didn't want to go to oliver's for dinner."

"how can he forgive you but not her?" olivia asks. she's been spending these past couple of hours trying to figure out the turn of events.

"he hasn't exactly forgiven me," he mutters. "it's probably going to take a while. it's not like i accidentally ate the last cookie. i almost slept with lennon."

"at least he's talking to you. he's responsible too, you know?" olivia looks at billy, her eyes heavy with sorrow. "sure, lennon kissed you that night, but he shouldn't have lied to her. pretending to be you was probably the worst idea he could've gotten."

"do you know that feeling when you want everything to be perfect?" billy asks olivia. "when all you have are high expectations, so you're doing everything you can to make it all come true. and sometimes, that means doing really stupid things like pretending to be your twin brother or almost sleeping with the best friend. it means ruining a relationship because you weren't brave enough to tell her how you felt."

"we're not talking about lennon and noah anymore, are we, will?"

after a couple beats, he tells her, "i miss you, olivia. i really do."

she can't bring herself to look at him, dropping her gaze to the flip flops separating her feet from the ground. "i didn't come here tonight because i wanted to-"

"i know. i just wanted to tell you that." he gives her a small smile, pain tinting his eyes a darker blue. "but i have a plan for lennon and noah. what do you say? are you in?"

"it can just be like old times."

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