“This weekend without you was the longest ever, Liv,” Alex said with a pout as she got into Olivia’s car Tuesday morning.
“I know, sweetie,” Olivia sympathized. “I usually like the MLK holiday, but it was just another day I couldn’t see you. But at least we got to talk on the phone a lot.”
“Yeah,” Alex replied, leaning over and giving her a quick kiss on the cheek.
“But nothing beats the real thing,” Olivia continued, running her fingers through Alex’s hair.
Alex smiled. “Think we have time for a Starbucks run?”
Olivia reached around to the back and pulled out a cardboard drink holder and a paper bag. “Already did it for you.”
“Aww, that’s so sweet, Liv!” Alex said, taking her cup of white hot chocolate and a cheese Danish. “Man, I was starving, too!”
“I figured you would be,” Olivia said with a smile as Alex took a bite.
“You’re so good to me, Liv,” Alex remarked warmly, giving her a big kiss on the cheek. She left some of the cheese filling in her wake.
Smiling, Olivia wiped off the filling and sucked it from her fingers. “You got cheese on my face!” she said with a laugh.
Alex grinned. “By the end of the day, I hope that’s not the only thing I get on your face.”
Olivia gasped. “Alexandra Cabot! What has gotten into you?”
“I guess you’re rubbing off on me,” Alex replied with a wink.
Olivia raised an eyebrow. “Is that so, huh? I seem to recall a certain blonde with a very dirty mind on the phone this weekend…”
Alex put the car in drive. “Just drive, Liv,” she said, shaking her head and taking a sip of her hot chocolate. Olivia laughed and pulled out of Alex’s driveway.
**************
Alex slid into her desk beside Olivia. “Wow, you’re here before me! That’s a shocker.”
Olivia grinned. “I thought I’d surprise you. How was Euro?”
Alex rolled her eyes. “Boring—as usual. Having Euro again this early in the morning really is not my cup of tea. Already wanting to pull my hair out this soon in the semester is not a good sign of things to come.” Olivia snickered and leaned over to pull out her textbook.
About 10 minutes into class, there was a knock on the door. Mrs. Elleworth, the guidance counselor, beckoned for Mrs. Olivet to come outside.
When she came back in, a pretty, long-haired brunette accompanied her. “Class, we have a new student. This is Abbie Carmichael. She just transferred from Westminster Preparatory. I trust that you will welcome her and make her feel at home here.”
Alex froze in her seat. Please tell me I’m dreaming. Please tell me I’m dreaming, she thought. Abbie looked over the class and her eyes instantly made contact with Alex’s. Alex drew in a sharp breath. Her heart started to race and her throat became parched.
Olivia immediately recognized that something was wrong with Alex. “Sweetie, are you ok?” she asked, breaking through Alex’s thoughts.
Alex quickly shook her head to break her daze. “Yeah, Liv. I’m fine,” she lied, flashing Olivia a tight smile.
Abbie shakily made her way to her seat. She felt that her heart was about to beat right out of her chest. Oh my god. It’s Alexandra Cabot. Maybe fate has given me a second chance with her, she thought hopefully. But at the same time, she was afraid of how Alex would perceive her after their less than civil parting the previous summer.
Alex could feel her eyes tearing up. She didn’t know how she could make it through the last 35 minutes of class without bursting into tears. Flipping a page in her notebook, she suddenly became more engrossed in her note-taking than she ever had before.
Why is Alex acting so weird? Olivia thought. She wanted to pass a note to Alex to ask her what was wrong, but after Mrs. Olivet’s comment last Thursday, she decided that would no longer be an effective method. I’ll just get her to spill when class is over, Olivia resolved.
When class ended, Alex quietly gathered up her things. “You wanna tell me what that was all about?” Olivia asked her once they were outside the classroom.
“What was what about?” Alex asked, feigning ignorance.
“Your reaction when Olivet introduced the new girl. You acted like you knew her or something. And you seemed upset.”
Alex sighed. She knew she might as well come clean with Olivia about exactly who Abbie was. “I do know her. You remember when I told you the story about being at cheerleading camp last summer after the whole incident with Brian Cassidy?”
“Yeah, I guess,” Olivia replied.
“Well…you know the part where I said I was dating this cheerleader and I caught her making out with a guy one day after lunch?” Alex continued.
Everything came rushing back to Olivia. She put two and two together. “Abbie’s the girl who cheated on you.”
“Yep,” Alex responded with a sad smile. “Small world, huh?”
Olivia swallowed hard. “You looked like you were about to cry during class. You still have feelings for her,” she said in a pained voice.
Alex was shocked that Olivia would think such a thing. She thought Olivia knew that she and only she owned her heart. “No, Liv! I don’t still have feelings for her! It’s just that seeing her again opened up old wounds of how she hurt me! I never thought I’d see her again after camp, and I took a lotta comfort in that. That is, until today. Yeah, I liked her last summer, but I’ve never loved anyone but you, Liv. I swear to you,” she insisted, placing her hand gently against Olivia’s cheek.
Olivia held her hand in place and smiled weakly. “Are you sure?”
“Positive,” Alex assured her, wiping away a tear that had fallen down Olivia’s cheek. “I was just reminded of the hurt, is all. Being cheated on made me feel…” Alex’s voice broke. “Like I wasn’t good enough,” she continued, trying to fight back her own tears.
Olivia wrapped Alex in a warm hug. “No, sweetie. Don’t ever feel that way. Alexandra Cabot, no one can ever measure up to you. She was the one who wasn’t good enough for you.”
Pulling back, Alex smiled slightly and looked Olivia in the eye. “Really? You mean that?”
“With all my heart,” Olivia said, giving Alex a kiss on the forehead. She hugged her again tightly.
At that moment, Abbie came out of the classroom. Who is that girl? she wondered. I hope they aren’t involved. Flipping her hair over her shoulder, she walked up to Alex and Olivia. “Hey, Alex. Long time no see. You got a minute?”
Alex pulled out of Olivia’s embrace, her eyes flashing blue fire. “I’m busy, Abbie.”
Abbie took a deep breath. “Listen, Alex…I know you must hate me, but I think we have some things we need to talk about.”
Olivia glared at Abbie and took a step closer to her. “No, you don’t. Alex doesn’t want a damn thing to do with you.”
Abbie frowned. “Who the hell are you?” she demanded.
“Her girlfriend,” Olivia responded with a smug smile. Her smile became wider when she saw the blood drain from Abbie’s face. Olivia took Alex’s hand and squeezed it reassuringly. Alex turned to her and gave her a soft kiss on the cheek.
Abbie gave Alex an annoyed look. “So can you speak for yourself or does your girlfriend here always do all the talking?”
Olivia’s jaw clenched. Alex wrapped her arm around Olivia’s waist and glared at Abbie again. “I can speak just fine. I just don’t want to speak to you,” she replied coldly, taking Olivia’s hand again and marching in the opposite direction. Abbie just stood there in hurt shock, watching them walk away.
“Are you gonna be ok?” Olivia asked her when they’d reached her next class.
Alex nodded. “Yeah. But it’s all thanks to you.”
Olivia smiled with pride. “If you need to have a good cry, just send me a text and I’ll get a hall pass and meet you in the bathroom, ok?” she said, gently rubbing her back.
Alex nodded again. “Ok. I love you, Liv.”
“I love you too, babe. See you soon,” Olivia said, giving her a quick kiss on the lips before turning to leave.
**************
Several minutes into 3rd period, Alex pulled out her phone and sent Olivia a text message under her desk. She then asked for a hall pass and waited in the bathroom until Olivia arrived. Olivia took her into her arms and smoothed her hair. At Olivia’s touch, Alex broke down.
“Why am I always getting hurt?” she asked, sobbing into Olivia’s shoulder. “Is there something wrong with me?”
“No, baby,” Olivia said, rubbing her back soothingly. “You’re perfect.”
“But what if you meet someone else and fall out of love with me?” Alex asked, the tears streaming down her face.
Olivia pulled back and looked deeply into Alex’s eyes. She hated that seeing Abbie had caused Alex’s insecurities to resurface. “That will never happen, Alex. I’m no one’s but yours,” she said with conviction.
Alex tenderly held Olivia’s face in her hands. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
Olivia gave her a lopsided grin and gently wiped her tears away with a tissue. “Probably get a little more sleep at nights.”
Alex giggled. “Oh, Liv.” She sighed and then asked, “How do you think I feel about Abbie, Liv? Honestly.”
Olivia pondered things for a moment before she responded. “Did things end on a good note between you two? I mean, were you two able to resolve things somehow before you went your separate ways?”
Alex shook her head. “No. When I caught her cheating on me, I blew up at her and told her I never wanted to see her again. We got into this huge argument and then we tried to avoid each other as much as possible for the rest of camp.”
“She never offered you an explanation of why she did it?”
“No,” Alex responded, wiping away another tear that had fallen. “It was just a bunch of name-calling and she told me that I just needed to worry about what she did with me, not what she did with others. I never understood why she did it. It caught me completely off guard. I mean, things had been going well between us. We never even argued or anything.”
“Well…” Olivia began, rubbing her hands up and down Alex’s arms. “I think that at one point, you really cared about her and you never had time to properly heal from the hurt she caused you. That’s why seeing her upset you today. You never really got any closure.”
Alex smiled, thankful that Olivia had been able to make such an accurate assessment of her situation. Olivia was not only her lover and her soul mate, but she had become her most valued confidante, her mentor, and in a way, her best friend. “Why is it that you make so much sense?” she asked.
Olivia shrugged. “I guess I’m just good like that,” she said with a grin.
“Yes, you are,” Alex said, leaning in to capture her lips. “So what should I do, Liv?”
“Confront her about how she hurt you so you can heal. I can tell by the way she looked at you that she still likes you. Tell her you no longer have feelings for her and that she needs to move on with her life like you have. I mean, things weren’t serious between you, were they?”
“No,” Alex replied, shaking her head.
“Good, then. It will be even easier for you,” Olivia said reassuringly.
“But what if she tries to make a move on me?”
“Then I will rip every strand of her hair out,” Olivia said with a calm smile.
Alex laughed. “So you won’t get mad if I talk to her?”
“Well…I’m not gonna say that I’m gonna be 100% comfortable with it or that I’m gonna like it, but I know it’s necessary for you to completely move past this. I don’t want Abbie making you upset every time you see her. I also don’t want her making me jealous.”
Alex reached out to gently stroke her cheek. “Liv…I’m so in love with you. I don’t want you thinking Abbie is a threat to our relationship because she’s not. You have nothing to be jealous of. You’re so much better than she is in every way.”
Olivia smiled happily. “You really mean all that?”
“With every inch of my being, baby.” She gave Olivia another hug and then said, “We should be getting back.”
“Yeah, I only have about 10 minutes of French left anyway,” Olivia agreed. “You ok now?”
Alex nodded. “Yeah. You’re wonderful, you know that?”
Olivia grinned. “I think you might’ve mentioned it a couple times before.” She gave Alex a kiss on the cheek. “See you at lunch.”
She turned to leave, but Alex grabbed her arm and turned her back around to passionately kiss her. When Alex pulled back so they both could catch their breath, Olivia said, “Wow, Alex. What was that for?”
“Because I love you.”
Olivia smiled in response. “Well, I love you, too.” Taking Alex’s hand, she said, “Come on. Let’s get outta here.”
As Olivia led them out the door, Alex had the peace of mind and confidence that everything truly would be ok after all.