Chapter 14

Dinner ended up turning out quite… normally. There were no sudden insults, no awkward silences and, just like Cason promised, I wasn’t unexpectedly tossed in the pool again.

The burgers that Diana had fried were exceptionally delicious and, as I devoured two of them, I wondered what secret ingredient or extra spice she had added to the meat to make them so juicy and full of flavour. They were almost as good as the burgers that my dad used to make, and that was saying something because he was quite an established chef in our old time.

As my mom and I were headed out the door that night, after thanking Diana for the lovely meal and company, Cason snuck up behind me and pulled my phone right out of my back pocket.

After glaring at him, while also giving him a smack on the head for reaching into my shorts, he just rolled his eyes and entered his number into my phone, filling out the fourth contact spot in my phone.

I know it sounded sad, but it was true; I only had four contacts. The included my mom, the house phone, Olivia, and now Cason. I didn’t see the need to have any phone numbers registered in my contacts if I didn’t talk to anybody in my old town, so I simply didn’t.

Anyways, Cason returned my phone a couple seconds after programming his number, telling me that he would text me if he thought of a way to help me break out of my shell.

Slipping my phone back into the safety of my shorts pocket, I waved a final goodbye to Cason before leaving the house along with my mom.

Strangely enough, I knew that my mom had seen the little exchange between Cason and I, however, she didn’t question me at all during the walk home. In fact, she didn’t mention it at all throughout the weekend.

As I had planned, I spent the weekend relaxing; basically just walking up and down the beach, taking a swim and then watching a couple movies. It was quiet, simple, and a well-spent weekend in my opinion.

When Monday morning rolled around, I was a little less than enthusiastic to get out of bed in the morning when my alarm started to ring. I had gone to bed around midnight after finishing a movie, which looking back on it now, was probably not a good idea as I only ended up getting a little more than six hours of sleep.

Throwing my hand out to the side, I slammed it down gently a couple of times before it finally came in contact with my alarm clock to stop the excessive ringing.

Taking a couple minutes of relaxation and laziness to myself, I stayed curled up underneath my blanket with my eyes closed, however, I was very aware that I was not to fall asleep.

After a few more minutes passed I realized that time for sleep was over and it was now time to get up and get ready for the day that lay in front of me. Tossing my blanket to the end of my bed, I moved to a sitting position, stretching out my limbs and releasing a few yawns before standing up and heading to my bathroom for a shower.

I turned the temperature of the water up slightly before jumping into my shower, and as I stepped in, the spray made my senses awaken and brought life to the nerves in my body that had still been in hibernation.

It took me all of forty five minutes to shower, dry my hair, dress and get ready that morning and as I took a final glance in the mirror that morning, I didn’t think that I did such a bad job. I had matched a pair of greyish looking shorts with a light blue scoop neck and a grey sleeveless cardigan before braiding my hair to the side and adding a touch of makeup.

Grabbing my bag, I headed down the stairs to meet my mom in the kitchen, and feeling exceptionally good for a morning where I had only received six hours of rest, I decided to start up the stove and grill up a nice breakfast.

I had a pan of bacon, some home fries, and a pan of scrambled eggs on the stove when my mom strolled into the kitchen about five minutes later, dressed and ready for work.

With a big smile on her face, she glanced between me and the food as she rested her bag down beside the table. “What’s all this?” she asked wondrously.  

I turned my head slightly to send her a sheepish smile over my shoulder before I focused my attention back on the food that was cooking. “I guess I just felt like something other than cereal or pancakes.” I replied as I flipped over the eggs so that they could cook on the other side.

“You seem awfully happy this morning.” my mother commented absentmindedly. “Do you need any help?” she asked, disregarding her previous comment as she came to a stop beside me.

I smiled and nodded as I pointed to the bacon, which was looking crispy and delicious at the moment. “Yeah, do you think you could take the bacon off the stove?” I asked, trying to focus on not burning the eggs and home fries.

My mom nodded, flipping the burner that the bacon was frying on to zero before taking the pan by the handle and going to place it on the counter.

A couple minutes later my mom and I were both seated across from each other at the kitchen table, digging into the three-star breakfast I had made.

“These eggs are really good.” my mom said as she swallowed her first bite, before taking another heaping fork full into her mouth.

I shook my head at her in amusement as I shot her a smile. “Thanks.”

“They taste like your father’s.” she commented quietly, not wanting to ruin the happy atmosphere, but probably feeling the need to say it. As I looked up from my plate and at my mother’s seated figure, I saw that she had a ghost of a smile on her face.

“Yea,” I replied cautiously, “I added a bit of paprika, just like he taught me to.”

My mom nodded, taking a deep breath to hold in any tears that were threatening to fall before sending me a smile.

It felt weird to get through a conversation about dad without any tears being shed. We both wished that he was still here, enjoying this breakfast with us and being a part of our daily lives, but I guess that both of our brains were finally realizing that we had to move on; remember the good times and not the bad ones. Obviously we weren’t over his passing, but I think maybe we were finally starting to get better.

“So…” my mom said, breaking me out of my thoughts as my head snapped up at the sound of her voice. “Are you walking to school again today?” she asked, with a suspiciously unnerving smile plastered on her face.

I looked at my mom, slightly confused by her question. “Yes… why?” I responded warily, as I continued to eat.

“Well you know…” she started, thinking I would catch on, which I obviously didn’t. She rolled her eyes at my cluelessness before continuing. “I just thought that with this new friendship or whatever it is you have going on with Cason, he would’ve offered to give you a ride to school.”

My eyes bulged at her comment as I started choking on the eggs that were currently in the mouth. Taking a sip of my orange juice to clear my throat, I shook my head at my mom in disbelief. “How in the world did you come to that conclusion?”

My mom sent me a sheepish smile, realizing her mistake. “Well, on Friday you guys seemed like friends and then I saw him take your phone and add his number, I thought that something had happen when you went to the store.” she explained. “An agreement, an apology, a friendship, a kiss, anything!”

At that, I burst out in a round of laughter as my mom sat there quietly, finishing off her breakfast as I continued to laugh.

When my laughter had calmed down, I wiped a tear that had escaped my eye off my cheek before replying to my mom. “No, no, no.” I replied, trying really hard not to burst out laughing again. “We was annoying me at the store so I went up to the cash to wait for him to finish shopping, but then I guess the cashier was trying to talk to me or flirt with me and, I just kind of ran out of there. When we were walking back, he said he had saw the whole thing and asked what it was about. I told him that I was always shy and for some reason, I could talk to him a bit because the first thing he did was annoy me. Anyways, long story short, he apologized for being a thorn in my side since I’ve met him and told me that he could help me break out of my shell a bit, although I have no idea how he’s supposed to be doing that.” I finished explaining, shovelling the last of my breakfast into my mouth before downing the final ounce of juice my cup contained.

“So no kiss?” my mom asked, looking slightly disappointed.

I shook my head, giggling slightly. “No kiss mom. This isn’t like the movies where the lead girl and guy suddenly realize that all the teasing has been because there are millions of sparks between them.” I replied. “Right now, I guess we’re just trying to be friends.”

My mom nodded understandingly, a small smile appearing on her face. “Well then, I’m glad you’ve made another friend here.” she replied. “Now get to going while I clean up the mess here.”

I smiled at her, getting up from my chair and giving her a quick kiss on the cheek before picking up my bag and heading towards the door.

“Love you.” I shouted as I stepped into my flip-flops and headed out the door. I vaguely heard my mom repeating the same words through the door as it shut behind me and I started on my walk to school.

Even though the weather was fairly nice this morning, a brightly shining sun a slight breeze blowing in from the water, I couldn’t help but notice the lack of movement and action going on around me. The usual dog walkers were AWOL, there were no stray pets roaming around, no cars rushing down the streets, and no birds chirping their morning songs.

With nothing else to focus my attention on, I pulled out my cell phone and my headphones, deciding to listen to some music on today’s morning walk to school. As I selected a random playlist and pressed play, the corners of my mouth turned up into a goofy smile as the tunes of familiar Disney songs flooded my ears. I had always loved the romantic soundtracks of Disney movies, so a year or two ago I had downloaded a bunch of them, placing them all together in this playlist.

As the cliché lyrics and joyful melodies projected themselves out of my headphones, a constant smile was on my face the whole way to school.

When I entered the building, instead of heading straight for my locker, I headed towards Olivia’s.

We hadn’t got together this weekend because we both just felt like relaxing on our own so, since I hadn’t talked to her for a couple of days except for a few texts exchanged over the weekend, I decided to get her up to speed on the whole Cason situation.

When I turned the corner that led to Olivia’s locker, I was shocked.

I had definitely spotted Olivia at her locker, but the Olivia that was standing a couple metres in front of me did not look like the Olivia I was used to seeing. This Olivia wasn’t dressed in her usual quirky style or reading a new book, this Olivia was looking in a mirror inside her locker door while dressed in a pair of blue skinny jeans, a tight white camisole and a black leather jacket. She also had caked on a ridiculous amount of makeup that was making a few students snort or chuckle as they walked passed her.

I couldn’t understand why she was dressed like this, especially since it was really warm outside.

“Umm… hello.” I greeted warily as I stopped at the locker next to Olivia.

Olivia turned to look at me and, up the close; you could really see what a horrible job she had done with her makeup. “Hey Jessalyn.” she replied cheerily.

“What’s with the new look?” I asked cautiously, not wanting to offend her choice of clothes right of the bat.

Olivia bit her lip, smearing some of the lip gloss she had applied, and looked down at herself. “Do I look okay?” she asked, and honestly, I didn’t know what to say.

In the end, the truth prevailed. “Honestly,” I started, taking a deep breath before continuing, “This isn’t you Olivia, and what I don’t understand is why you’re suddenly dressed like this, especially with the weather today.”

Olivia sighed, picking up her bag and shutting her locker before grabbing my wrist and pulling me into the nearest washroom.

Locking the door behind us, she blocked out any further admittance as we seemed to be the only ones in here.

“I know this isn’t me. I guess I just thought that maybe if I tried to be somebody else or dress fashionably, I could get a little bit of attention in this school.” Olivia said, looking at herself sadly in the mirror. “I guess I’m just tired of being known as the nerdy girl with a quirky personality.”

“Did something bring this on because to me, this seems kind of sudden? You’ve never really talked about feeling out of place or anything.” I replied, leaning up against the bathroom counter, hoping that it was relatively clean.

Olivia sighed before turning to me and smiling sheepishly. “Well…” she trailed, and I immediately caught on when I saw two small rosy spots appear on her cheeks.

I smirked at her as she ducked her head and continued to blush. “This is about a boy isn’t it?” I asked smugly, finally realizing what could have brought on this change of character. As Olivia nodded shyly, I bumped my hip with hers playfully. “So, who’s the lucky guy that has the amazing Olivia Greene falling head over heels in love with them?” I asked teasingly.

“I’m not falling in love with anybody; it’s just a silly infatuation.” she replied, taking off the leather jacket she was wearing and throwing it on the counter beside her.

“Sure.” I said, rolling my eyes. “Now tell me who the mystery guy is before I have to yank the name out of you.”

“Umm… actually, you know him.” she said quietly, as her cheeks grew even redder, if that was even possible.

I scrunched my nose and eyebrows up in confusion at her reply. “What are you talking about?” I asked. “What do you mean I know him?”

“I mean, you actually know this guy.” she replied, repeating herself.

“But I barely know anybody in this school or town. The only guy our age I know is…” I trailed as my mind made a connection between her words and the people I knew at this school and my eyes widened. “Oh my god, you like Cason!”

Olivia’s eyes widened and she immediately began shaking her head back and forth. “No, no, no! It’s not Cason, definitely not Cason, but you’re close.” she explained, playing with the end of her tank top as she finished.

“Well Cason doesn’t have any brothers that I know of and then the only guy I see him hanging around is Evan.” I stated, and as soon as I said his name, I saw Olivia’s cheek’s gain colour once again. I gasped as I came to the right conclusion. “You like Evan.”

Olivia bit her lip and nodded shyly, her blush fully visible once again. “Yea.” she whispered, confirming my current train of thought.

“Aww,” I exclaimed, “When did this little crush start budding?” I asked.

“Umm… I don’t know.” she replied. “I guess I’ve always found him attractive but I never really thought I’d have any courage or guts to talk to him. Then you showed up and Cason started talking to you and suddenly Evan was hanging around us. I thought that he would be rude and it would totally corrupt my vision of him being attractive, but so far, he’s been really nice and actually kind of funny.”

“Okay…” I replied, smiling at her as she described her crush. “But have you ever talked to him without Cason or I around, like besides lunchtime or anything?”

Olivia bit her lip and nodded, which shocked me slightly because I actually thought she would reply with a negative answer. “Remember when I said that I was partnered with somebody on the boat trip a couple weeks ago.” she said and my mind instantly went back to the conversation we had over lunch that weekend. She had said that there was only one person in her group that she knew and that person ended up being her partner for the day.

I smiled at her as I put the pieces together. “You were partner with Evan?” I asked, just to be sure, but when she nodded, I let out a slightly embarrassing shriek. “Oh my god, what happened on that boat that you forgot to mention?”

Olivia started to giggle at my excited form. “Well I guess he was just really nice and when we got to talking about things we liked to do and stuff, he didn’t laugh or tease me for being a bookworm and interested in school, he actually complimented me on being so smart and not caring what other people think about me.” she explained, blushing slightly. “We basically just got along like friends would I guess.”

“So let me ask you this, if Evan told you that he admired that you were always true to yourself and didn’t care what other’s thought, do you think he’ll like you any better dressed like this and with a bunch of makeup?” I asked in a soft yet serious tone.

Olivia fidgeted with her hair and sighed. “I guess not.” she replied. “It’s just for the longest time I’ve wanted to start dressing more girly or dressing a little more grown up, but I’ve never really known where to start.” she admitted.

“Well, if you wanted to start dressing a little more grown up, you should still look for things that reflect who you are. Your outfit should express the quirkiness inside of you and not emphasize your ass by squeezing it so tight you can barely breathe.” I ended teasingly, nodding to the current pair of skinny jeans that looked glued to her behind.

Olivia laughed at that, nodding her head in agreement. “So, do you think you could help me with this?” she asked after her laughter calmed down, gesturing to her current fashion disaster.

I nodded in agreement, coming closer to her. “I think the first thing I better do is get all this makeup off of your face.” I stated, grabbing a paper towel from the dispenser beside me and dampening the end before starting to wipe off the makeup.

It took me a couple of minutes but I finally got all the makeup off, with little to no scrubbing at all.

“Secondly, I’d say keep the leather jacket off unless you feel like obtaining heat stroke today.” I continued while tossing the makeup covered paper towels into the trash. “Finally, I guess we can’t really change the basis of you outfit, but I think you should take off that belt and let your thighs breathe a little. Oh, and you can wear this to cover your shoulders.” I advised, taking off my sleeveless cardigan and passing it over to her.

Olivia smiled at me as she slipped her arms through the holes in the cardigan before undoing the belt from around her waist and tossing it on top of her discarded jacket. “Do I look a little bit better now?” she asked, looking a little bit worried.

As I looked at her newly improved outfit for today, she definitely did look better. The only thing that looked a little off about her was the lack of quirkiness in her outfit. “Besides the fact that you’re currently wearing jeans in summer weather, I think you look cute.” I replied honestly with a small smile.

“Thanks.” Olivia said with a smile. “That’s going to be the last time I ever change for a guy again.”

“I think that it’s admirable that you figured out that you shouldn’t have to change for any guy, however, I don’t think you’ll need to change if you want a chance with Evan. I mean, he already likes you at least as a friend, and all you’ve done is shown him who you are; you’re true self.” I said with a smile. “But, if you still want to make yourself look a little more grown up, how about we go shopping Friday night? I’ll help you update your wardrobe with things that are a little more girly and grown up but still show the quirky personality that shines bright within you.”

At my offer, Olivia smiled at me. “Really?” she asked, not sure if I was being completely serious.

I nodded in response. “Sure.” I said. “I think that with the right pieces and right advice you could end up looking like a model straight out of a magazine.”

“I’m not quite sure about that, but it sounds like fun to get a bit of a makeover.” she replied with a smile. “So, I think I’ll take you up on that little offer.”

“Great.” I said smiling. “I could get my mom to come along if you want and we could go a little ways out of town, look around out there a bit.”

“Yea, that’d be great.” she said, smiling at me before coming and giving me a grateful hug. “Thanks a lot.” she continued as she pulled back from the hug and collected her jacket and belt from the counter.

“No problem.” I replied. “Plus, I kind of want to see how this whole thing turns out with you and Evan. I really think that you guys would be cute together; the smart girl and the bad boy get together.” I continued with a teasing intent.

“Oh shut up.” Olivia said, rolling her eyes as she bumped her hip with mine playfully. “Let’s just get to class before the bell…” she continued, but she was cut off when the bell sounded above us, signalling the start of our first class.

I laughed at her annoyed face before she sighed in defeat.

“I guess this day is just going to get worse and worse.” she stated. “Let’s get going before we get a detention for being too late.”

I nodded in agreement as we both headed out of the bathroom and to class with smiles on our faces, joking about what we could try on at a bunch of different shops Friday night.

Friday just couldn’t come fast enough.

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I am extremely sorry for the delay, and even though this is a filler chapter with basically no Cason, I hoped that you all enjoyed it.

For the next week I am taking driver’s ed and I have been sick for the past couple days, so, I have no idea when the next upload will be this week, however, it will be within the week – that’s all I know for sure.

Remember that I appreciate every vote, read, and comment on this story for the Watty Awards and I’m very grateful of all the support I’ve gotten so far! It’s ridiculously amazing that even though this story isn’t even half done it’s already received more than 1,000,000 reads! Thanks so much x