Take Me as I Am

“What is it now?” Olivia asked as she saw Summer come storming into the living room with Patrick on her heels.

“Summer, calm down,” he said, but she turned to look at him.

“Je ne vais pas calmer! Comment ont-ils même pas de cette connexion?” Summer questioned, turning around to glare at Patrick, saying that she would not calm down and asking how they had found the connection.

“What?” Patrick asked, not being able to understand her French.

“Que s’est-il passé maintenant? Ont-ils en savoir plus sur Olivia?” Jonathan asked Summer, wanting to know whether they had found out more about Olivia.

“Oui. Ils ont découvert qu’elle a été adoptée par ma mère et mon père. Maintenant, ils parlent de ma mère et de la façon dont elle est à l’hôpital avec un cancer,” Summer told him.

“What?” Olivia asked, confused.

“Lui dites. Elle va trouver de toute façon,” Jonathan said, telling Summer to tell Olivia what she had said since Olivia would find out anyways.

“Fine,” Summer said, looking over at Olivia. “They found out that you were adopted, and they’re now running a story about it, including that Mom’s in the hospital with cancer.”

“What does any of this have to do with anything?” Olivia asked.

“It doesn’t matter,” Jonathan said. “They think they’ve found something interesting, and they’re going to run with it. They don’t care who they hurt in the process,” he said wrapping an arm around Olivia.

“But, I don’t understand,” Olivia said, about ready to start crying. “Faith has nothing to do with Sokolov getting fired. I don’t understand why they’d even bring her into this. I feel awful. Especially with her already dealing with the cancer and everything,” she said as the tears broke free.

“Liv, this is not your fault,” Summer assured her. “It’s those damn reporters’ faults, the ones that have no lives,” she said through gritted teeth as Patrick pulled her into a hug.

Two days later, Olivia’s background and the fact that Faith had cancer had practically become national news. Summer was becoming more infuriated every minute, as every time she turned the television on, there would be something about Faith on.

She had called her mother the day before, and Faith had told her that she was fine with it. She was ignoring it and was more worried about how she and Olivia were taking it. Summer had told her they were handling it the best that they could.

Summer sat in Patrick’s living room flipping through channels, trying to avoid any channel that would have a story about Olivia. She stopped on one that had a commercial, and when it went back to the show, she saw that they were doing a story on Olivia, too.

“Oh my god!” Summer screamed. “Why can’t they just leave it alone? It was a damn hockey coach that was fired! It wasn’t that big of a deal!”

“Hey,” Patrick said, looking at her. “Hockey’s big again in Chicago. So, they’re making a big deal of the coach getting fired.”

“You’re kidding me right now, right?” she asked. “My best friend and my mom are at the top of the news now. And, you’re saying it’s fine because it’s associated with hockey?”

“I’m just saying that they’re looking for a story that deals with hockey because it’s big right now. I understand you’re upset that they’re talking about your mom right now, but there’s nothing you can do.”

“Unless I go to the reporters themselves,” Summer suggested, a plan forming in her head.

“Why would you go there and create bad press for yourself and me?” Patrick asked without thinking of what he was saying.

“Did you just say I would create bad press for you?” Summer questioned.

“That’s not what I meant,” Patrick assured her quickly.

“Yes, it is,” Summer yelled. “Is that all you care about? Your damn image?”

“Summer, like I said before, I understand that you’re upset, but do you really want to cause even more problems for Olivia and your mom?” Patrick asked her. “Because that’s all you’re going to do.”

“Don’t pretend like you’re concerned for Liv or my mom. You’re only worried about yourself. You think if I go talk to the reporters that they’ll connect me to you, and you’ll get bad press. You’re embarrassed of me!” Summer yelled.

“Where the hell did you get that from?” Patrick questioned. “All I said was that maybe you shouldn’t talk to the press, and now you think I’m embarrassed of you?”

“You are,” Summer told him. “And you care more about your image than you do for me. And until it’s the other way around, don’t even talk to me!” she yelled walking out the door and slamming it behind her.

“Don’t you think you overreacted just a little bit?” Olivia asked Summer after she had told her the details of her and Patrick’s fight.

“You’re taking his side?!” Summer shrieked.

“No!” Olivia assured her. “I’m just saying that you overreacted. Pat says one sentence, and you twist it around.”

“Liv, it’s true. He cares more about his image than me.”

“Summer, you know that he loves you.”

Summer didn’t say anything, so Olivia continued. “I’m still going to say that you overreacted about all of this.”

“I can’t believe you’re siding with him!” Summer yelled.

“I agree with Olivia,” the girls heard someone say from behind them, and they turned around to see who it was.

“Mom!” Summer shrieked, as both girls stood up and ran over to hug her.