CHAPTER EIGHT

JUST SAYING — 5 SECONDS OF SUMMER
You don't need him
I'll help you get over it

THE HOUSE SURROUNDED by unruly vegetation sat peacefully as the sun hit its peak. It was a nice day and Olivia was taking advantage of it. She and Mikey were in the backyard, playing fetch with their dog and having a competition on who could get Solo to jump the highest.

Olivia swore that she had won and was about to defend her case when the voice of her mother cut through the air, asking if one of them could come inside. The doorbell had just rung and she was too busy baking to answer it.

The two Montez kids looked at each other before their pointer fingers flew to touch their noses. "Ha!" Olivia shouted, pointing at her brother with her free hand. "I win!"

Mikey threw his head back and trudged into the house, groaning the entire time. He passed his mother, who gave him an odd look, and swung the front door open.

The boy on the other side of it waved. "Hi," Luke greeted. "Is Olivia home?"

Mikey raised an eyebrow and leaned against the open door. He looked up at the teenage boy in suspicion. "Who are you?"

"I'm her friend," Luke responded, though it came out sounding more like a question than it did a statement.

His eyes narrowed. "Olivia doesn't have friends."

"Mikey, what's taking you so long?" Olivia's voice rang out as she entered the house through the back door.

"There's some guy at the door saying he's your friend. I think he might have the wrong Olivia!" Mikey shouted back into the house. He turned to look at Luke again and had the sudden realization that he had seen him before. "Wait, aren't you the guy she snuck out with the other we—"

Olivia came up behind him and covered his mouth with her hand. "Sh..." she hushed, pushing him away by the top of his head. "Shut up, go over there."

Mikey walked away, grumbling about how much he hated when she touched his hair.

Luke watched in amusement as she turned to face him. "I thought we could work on some songs together," he explained, pointing to the guitar bag on his back. "But if it's not a good time, I can leave."

"Oh, uh, no, that— that sounds cool," she stammered. She looked into the house before awkwardly taking a step back. "Uh, come in."

At the sound of the front door closing, a large golden retriever came thundering through the house and headed straight to Luke. Solo's tail wagged rapidly back and forth, hitting Olivia's leg. Luke's face broke out in a wide grin as he bent down to greet the dog. "Hey, buddy," he said in excitement as he scratched the back of his ears. He had always wanted a dog, but his parents repeatedly turned him down because of how much work it was to raise them. "Who's this?"

Olivia smiles and lowered a hand to pat her dog's head. Luke's interaction with him was the complete opposite of Jason's. "His name is Solo."

"Like Han Solo?" Luke asked with a slight smirk.

Olivia nodded and somehow she could tell that he knew she was the one to name him.

"Cute," he grinned, standing up.

Further up the hall, Sylvia walked out of the kitchen with a plate of biscottis. "Mija, can you try these? I need your opinion and your brother is no help—Oh! Who's this?"

"Mom, this is Luke," Olivia introduced. "He plays guitar in the band. Luke, this is my mom."

Sylvia gave the boy a warm smile as he waved at her. "It's nice to meet you, Luke. I've never met any of Livy's friends before."

"Mom." Olivia cringed and shook her head, giving her mom a wide eyed warning stare.

"Oh...? Oh." Sylvia nodded, catching Olivia's drift. She hadn't realized she was embarrassing her. "I'm just kidding, I've met tons of Olivia's friends. Like tons."

"Okay." Olivia stepped further down the hall and ushered her mom into the kitch with Luke following closely behind. "What was it you needed me to try?"

"Oh, right." Sylvia places the plate she was holding on the counter. "I've been experimenting with flavours and I want your opinion. Luke, you too. The more opinions, the better."

"She's a baker," Olivia explained quietly, grabbing a biscotti. "She's opening her own shop next year." Luke nodded and reached for his own.

The two teens took a bite and flavour erupted in their mouths. They both nodded in approval.

"This is really good, Mrs. Montez," Luke praised, taking another bite before he finished chewing the last one.

Olivia's mother didn't jump to correct him, as she was no longer married, but smiled instead and said, "Please, call me Sylvia."

"What is this?" Olivia asked, looking around the messy kitchen for any clues.

"Lemon and lavender."

"Luke's right," she said, reaching for another one, "this is delicious."

"Here." Sylvia pushed the plate closer to the pair. "Take the rest."

Olivia picked it up as Luke took a second one off of it and started walking towards the back door. "Thanks, we'll be in the back working on songs."

"Okay, shout if you need anything."

Before they could cross the threshold of the door, Luke stopped Olivia. "Hey, do you have a bathroom?"

"Yeah, there's one in the garage." Olivia nodded. She walked down the side of the house and placed the plate on the nearby picnic table. "C'mon, I'll show you."

Luke put his guitar down and followed her as she led him into the garage. It was a large room with light blue panelling lining the inside. There were a couple of boxes shoved in the corner, but the main centrepiece of the room was the walnut coloured piano that sat near the back wall.

"Wow," Luke said with a whistle. "This place is cool."

Olivia played with the hem of her shirt as he walked further into the room. "Yeah, um, we put my piano out here so I can practice without annoying anyone. I don't really know what to do with the space," she confessed.

Luke made his way over to the bathroom. "It would make a pretty good studio."

It was an off-handed suggestion, but it prompted genuine thought in her mind. "I guess it would."

Olivia walked towards the piano and picked up her notebook. She had a bad habit of leaving it out here which often resulted in her leaving the house in the middle of the night to go get it. Solo would always bark at the sound of someone leaving, waking her mom up, and she'd usually get in trouble for it the next day.

When she left the garage, she saw Solo sitting beside the picnic table, patiently waiting for someone to give him one of the biscottis. Olivia smiled at the dog before turning around and getting one of the dog treats she kept in the garage. She tossed it over and Solo jumped into the air to catch it. As she sat down, Solo rolled on the grass underneath the large tree nearby.

"So I marked all the songs I think we could work on," Luke said once he came out. He dug into the front pocket of his guitar case and placed his journal in front of Olivia. "I've started them but I got writer's block, maybe you can add something special."

Olivia nodded and turned to the first dog eared page. "Crooked Teeth?" she read with a laugh.

"Yeah," Luke grinned, sitting beside her, "that one's about Reg."

"Long Weekend?"

He thought of the day the band watched the sunset. "That's about the band."

"Just Saying?" Olivia peeked at him over the pages with a sneaky grin. "Who's this about?"

Luke's eyes widened. "That's not dog eared—"

"When you change your mind I'll be—" She held the book out of reach as he tried to grab it from her. "I'll be waiting, cause I'm better than him, just saying—Hey! I was having fun with that one."

Luke shook his head, playfully rolling his eyes as he took the book. He flipped to the next page without knowing what song was next and handed it back to her.

"Get Lost," Olivia read. Her eyes scanned the page littered in doodles of an angry lacrosse player. It was no doubt Jason. "I think I can guess who this one's about."

"Is he still ignoring you?" Luke asked hesitantly.

"He called me for the first time in two weeks yesterday," she revealed with a sigh, "but it was just to say he was busy and that he'll call me again, which he didn't."

Luke, who was never that good at dealing with other people's emotions, had no idea what to say to make her feel better. "That sucks." He watched as she looked off to the side where Solo slept. A distant expression came over her features.

"I don't know," she shrugged. "I'm kinda used to it by now. I stopped being mad and now I'm just annoyed."

Luke leaned forward and took another biscotti off the plate. "I don't know how he could stay away," he said with his mouth full, "your mom's baking is amazing."

Olivia chuckled and turned to take another biscotti for herself. "She was never really a fan of him, honestly."

"Really?" He got his guitar out of its case. "What about your dad? What's he think of him?"

"He... Um..." There were a lot of things Olivia could say about her father. He was a liar who abandoned his family and ignored her existence ever since. All of these things were articles of clothing in the baggage she had yet to unpack. "You know, can we just work on the songs?"

"Y-yeah," Luke stammered, taken back by how tense she had gotten in such a short amount of time.

"Cause I have these lyrics—" Olivia opened her own book and passed it over to him, "—that I think will fit really well with Long Weekend."

"Uh oh," he teased, taking it from her. He strummed the chords to Long Weekend and Olivia chimed in, singing a melody. He watched as her eyebrows furrowed in concentration and was reminded of how mesmerizing she could be when she was focused on her music. He sang the harmony as they moved into the chorus, his eyes never leaving her as she read the lyrics from his journal.

Their voices blended together seamlessly. Olivia looked up to find that he was already looking at her with an unreadable expression. No one's ever looked at her the way Luke was and she found herself staring back, trying to decipher what it meant. Their voices faded as the chorus came to an end. There was no song between them but the resonance of their souls.

Olivia tore her eyes away with a shy smile as she turned away from him.

"I like your smile," Luke said softly. His words caused her to meet his gaze again.

There was a moment of silence as the pair processed what had happened. They turned away from each other, nervously chuckling in an attempt to make the situation less awkward.

"Sorry, I—"

"No, it's okay, um—"

"Right, so—"

"Yeah, we should..." Olivia cleared her throat and pointing to her journal.

The pair worked on the song for the better part of an hour. The air between them was no longer awkward as the tension faded with time. Both of them knew that they were good songwriters on their own, but together, they were great. The ideas never stopped flowing out of them and there was this certain kind of trust that existed between them that allowed for complete and utter honesty. 

When the song was finished, their conversation shifted to random topics that had nothing to do with their band. After a discussion about how their favourite Bon Jovi song was Living on a Prayer, Luke looked down at his watch. "I should probably start heading home," he said.

Olivia realized that the sun was now setting behind the trees that surrounded her property and nodded. He'd have to be home for dinner soon and she didn't want his parents to worry.

The pair gathered their belongings and walked through her house. As they walked past the kitchen, Sylvia insisted that Luke take some biscottis home, which he took graciously.

Olivia walked him to the door and the moment he left, Sylvia and Mikey stepped into the foyer. They wore matching grins and were buzzing with excitement.

"I like him, Livy," Sylvia said after a moment.

"Me too," Mikey added, speaking a little bit louder than he meant to, "he's cool and likes Solo."

Olivia rolled her eyes and moved towards the stairs. "I'll be sure to tell him that, Mike."

"No, you can't!" The twelve year old protested. "What if he thinks that's weird?"

Olivia reached forward and ruffled his hair, laughing when he swatted her hand away. "He won't, cross my heart."

Mikey's hands flew to his hair in an attempt to fix it. Olivia watched in amusement, but turned to her mother once she felt someone watching her.

In the doorway of the kitchen, her mother stood with a knowing look.

"What?" Olivia asked, a small smile growing on her face.

Her mom shrugged and tossed a dish towel over her shoulder. "Oh, nothing."