A Twist in My Story

The rest of Wednesday Olivia was in a downer mood. She loathed eating lunch alone after Nick blew her off. She hated that she couldn’t stop thinking about him and how his voice sounded when he’d cancelled their lunch date – wait, not date, rather social time as friends – then lit up as he walked off with Serena. She tried not to let it show that it affected her, but it did…severely. She saw nothing fabulous about Serena. Then again she could just be jealous. No she would not be jealous. Nick wasn’t even hers. She only wanted to be friends with him again, nothing more…she convinced herself of this. However, Serena was sending this plan straight down the tubes by hogging Nick’s attention.

To add insult to injury, Olivia saw them everywhere together. In the commons, walking across campus, in the dining hall; Nick and Serena were always together and always laughing about something between the two of them. It made Olivia’s stomach turn sourly. By Wednesday night after seeing Nick and Serena a total of 5 times between lunch and dinner, Olivia secluded herself in her room with her homework to be who she was best – the preacher’s daughter who got straight A’s and was a major nerd. No wonder Nick saw nothing in her.

Thursday after her classes, to avoid seeing Nick and Serena again (she’d already seen them twice this morning before 11am because they apparently had the several classes together), Olivia set up camp in a library cubicle and worked on her writing composition assignment that wasn’t due for another week. The library was the last place a girl like Serena would go, she figured.

As she wrote down her latest sentence about the relevance of Shakespeare in today’s society, a shadow fell over her.

“Hey Carrie,” she smiled at her roommate as if there was nothing wrong at all.

“Don’t give me that, Liv. You’re avoiding something. I can smell it. I’m very astute like that. Now what is it?” Carrie crossed her arms.

“Carrie, honestly, I’m not avoiding anything,” Olivia chuckled, hoping Carrie would buy it. “I just need to get some work done and its quiet here.”

Carrie propped her hip on the cubicle desk counter and stared at her. Her eyes changed from intense to soft compassion in a minute. “I understand if you don’t want to tell me because we’ve only known each other for a week, but please don’t shut yourself off. College is supposed to be fun too. I’d hate to see my really awesome roomie not enjoying her first experience away from home,” she implored.

Olivia sighed and knew Carried was right. She couldn’t corner herself off like she did in high school all because Nick found another girl he liked. She was a pro at coping with this since it was a common thing all throughout high school. She had no idea why she felt differently now, but she was happy she had Carrie as her roommate. She knew exactly how Olivia felt and was nice in her approach to addressing the issue. Olivia liked that about her. Carrie was becoming a fast friend to her.

Looking up at Carrie, she closed her book. “You know I was just going to get a late lunch. Wanna join me?” she asked, stuffing her supplies in her bag. She would not let Nick ruin her college experience.

Carrie smiled. “I’d like that very much. We can have some chat time since you were out of it last night and do I have news to tell you.”

Olivia listened as Carrie animatedly ranted about the guy who caught her eye in biology class. Carrie talked the entire way to the dining hall. She talked the entire time they were in line. She talked as they found their table and started eating. And she was still talking when Jamie and Christina joined them 15 minutes later.

“…and then Luke says-” Carrie rambled giving a play by play.

“Liv, what are you staring at?” Christina asked, turning to glance over her shoulder.

Olivia had paled when she spotted Nick eating lunch with Serena and now she blushed at being caught by her friends. Serena and Nick were laughing at something said and Nick held a fry up to Serena’s mouth. Olivia watched as Serena locked eyes with Nick, bit the fry he offered, and then licked her lips slowly, seductively, giving him a lustful smile. Nick touched the corner of her mouth to wipe off some ketchup. The scene had Olivia’s stomach clenching. A minute later Nick and Serena stood and walked out hand in hand.

“Isn’t that the guy who you know from home?” Christina asked.

Olivia cleared her throat, mentally telling her stomach to behave. “Uh yeah…it is,” she mumbled, looking down at her plate.

“And he’s hanging with her?” Jamie asked with raised eyebrows.

“Guess so,” Olivia shrugged, making her hand be steady as she sipped her water. She desperately didn’t want them to see how disturbed she was by the scene she’d just witnessed.

“Why is he with Serena?” Carrie asked.

Olivia snapped her head up in surprise. “You know her?”

“Yeah, everyone does. The rumors you hear about her are true,” Carrie nodded, biting into her brownie.

“She’s in Nick and mine’s writing class,” Olivia supplied.

“Lucky you. Mark told me about her,” Jamie referred to her older brother who was a senior this year at Penn State. “He warned me to stay away from her. She’s supposed to be a sophomore apparently, but she likes to party a lot so she failed most of her classes last year. So technically she’s still a freshman credit-wise.”

“Really?” Olivia raised her eyebrows.

“I heard that she guy-hops like other people bar-hop,” Carrie commented casually.

“Are you positive? Maybe those are just nasty rumors?” Olivia suggested wanting to believe the best in everyone.

“Liv, I’m sure. Mark’s seen it firsthand. The only thing I’d maybe doubt would be the rumor about her doing drugs. I’ve seen no proof of that,” Jamie said.

“I’d warn your friend about who he’s hanging out before things get out of control,” Christina said seriously.

Olivia nodded numbly. She’d never suspect that someone could do all that bad stuff and still want to get other people into it too. “Yeah…I’ll let Nick know…” However, she wondered if Nick didn’t already know this stuff and chose to stay with Serena in spite of it. He did say he wanted a new start and Serena would give him one hell of a start that’s for sure. But Nick always thought out his decisions so carefully. He wasn’t one to make rash decisions like Joe was. He had to know what he was getting into. Maybe she’d mention it to him anyway just to make sure.

Having sensed Olivia’s withdrawal into her thoughts, her friends continued their girl gossip about Carrie’s encounter with cutie Luke.

Friday morning came around and the ending of her much anticipated first week of college was not good. The battery in her clock died in the middle of the night, so she overslept and had to rush to her first class without doing anything to her hair or putting any makeup on. She looked like a wreck in her personal opinion but didn’t have time to care about it.

The 50 minute class flew by and had her rushing back to her dorm across campus to get her books for her writing class. As she sprinted across the lawn she passed Nick.

“Nick!” she stopped and yelled after him. He didn’t seem to hear her. “Nick!”

He stopped that time and faced her as she jogged back to him. “Hey Olivia.”

“Hi. Just wanted to let you know that I will be in class, I just have to run and get my books and then I’ll be there. It’s been a crazy morning,” she panted, but smiled at him.

“Okay. I’m sure you won’t miss much,” he shrugged indifferently.

“Probably not, but I’m shooting to be there on time. We’re still on for lunch together, right? The bistro on campus has some excellent food and we can tackle some weekend homework together too,” she said hopefully. Just the thought of spending some one-on-one time with him made her day so much better.

“Um actually, Olivia…Serena and I already made plans for lunch yesterday,” Nick informed her, not sounding very sorry at all. “She’s really a cool person to hang with. She’s got a killer personality to go with her killer eyes.”

Olivia faltered, her hopes evaporating into thin air. “But, Nick, we planned to eat lunch together…never mind. Have fun with Serena. See you in class.”

She bolted away before her face betrayed her. She made herself focus on the task at hand rather than dwell on her feelings for Nick and how he was hurting her without realizing it. By the time she got to class she was out of breath and back in a foul mood. The huge lecture hall was nearly filled completely; people weren’t skipping yet. She hurried up the aisle to her row where she sat with Nick only to stop in her tracks. Her seat was taken by someone – Serena.

She stood there like a dummy until Nick noticed her.

“Oh hey Olivia. Yeah sorry about your seat, but someone took Serena’s so I let her sit here. I knew you wouldn’t mind,” Nick smiled his killer dimpled smile at her.

Olivia’s mouth opened and closed like a fish. “But, but her seat is right there. No one’s in it,” she pointed to where Serena sat on Wednesday.

“No, I sat over there,” Serena pointed to a seat two down from where Olivia pointed.

“No you didn’t! Nick couldn’t talk to you there and he definitely talked to you,” Olivia argued, allowing herself to get worked up.

“Olivia, I think Serena knows where she sat. Just find another seat and you can have this one back on Monday. Stop freaking out. It’s just a seat,” Nick frowned at her, laying his hand on Serena’s leg.

Olivia looked between the two of them not believing what just happened. He couldn’t even be her friend for an entire week before shoving her aside for someone else. Hitching her bag up on her shoulder she excused herself, holding back her tears. She didn’t fail to catch Serena’s possessive smile and her casual touch on Nick’s hand as she went to find another seat.

As the professor called the class to order she dropped into a seat and yanked out her supplies. Lucky for her it was a few rows up from Nick and Serena and she had the perfect view of them. She tried to focus on the board, but tears blurred her vision. She would not let them fall. Nick didn’t deserve them and she shouldn’t be crying over him anyway. She had no freaking hold on him. Why couldn’t her heart understand this? She looked down at the words on her paper and caught a peek at Nick and Serena. No way was the professor’s lecture on writing styles and grammar getting in their notes today.

She watched as Serena reached over and wrote something on Nick’s paper. He smiled back at her and wrote on her paper. He leaned over to whisper something in her ear or tuck her hair behind her ear and Serena blushed like a little school girl getting her first attention from the hottest guy in school.

“Yeah right,” Olivia muttered under her breath. There was no way Serena was flattered by Nick’s attention. She was used to it and just wanted Nick to think that she liked him. And this ripped at Olivia. She would not let Nick get hurt by this tramp because he was too kind and naïve to see the danger she presented to him. She knew she had to let Nick know about Serena’s reputation. Serena would corrupt all of his wonderful characteristics that made Nick so special. Olivia decided to talk to Nick the first chance she got.

“Ex-boyfriend of yours?”

Olivia jumped in surprise and turned to her neighbor. A guy with luscious shimmering dark hair and amazingly clear brown eyes stared back at her with an amused smile.

“Ex-Excuse me?” she stammered flustered, hastily tucking hair behind her ear.

“I asked if that guy down there is your ex-boyfriend. You’re glaring daggers at him and his lady friend,” the guy repeated in a whisper.

Olivia’s face turned a deep shade of red in embarrassment. She didn’t realize she’d been staring that hard at Nick and Serena. “O-Oh. N-No…he’s not-” she shook her head.

The guy chuckled good-naturedly. Olivia was surprised to find she liked his rich laugh. “No, it’s fine. I didn’t mean to embarrass you even though you look cute when you blush.”

Her color deepened causing her to look away. If a person could die from embarrassment and flattery she’d be dead ten times over. No guy had ever thought she looked cute. Most just saw the geek in her.

“I’m Carter Shea,” a hand appeared before her bent head. “No connection to Shea Stadium. Sorry about embarrassing you.”

She gave him a half-smile and shook his hand. It was surprisingly smooth and firm. “It’s fine. I embarrass easily. I’m Olivia Chadwicke,” she responded shyly.

“Nice to meet you, Olivia. Whoever that guy is doesn’t deserve your thoughts if he’s too stupid to see what a great girl you are.”

Olivia turned once again in surprise to Carter, but he’d gone back to concentrating on the professor’s lecture. So she forced herself to do the same, barely noticing Nick and Serena now, more focused on the guy sitting to her left who thought she was cute.

All too quickly the class ended with Olivia barely having any notes on her paper. She winced at the nearly blank page, but shoved it in her bag any way. She’d just deal with the consequences later. As she packed the rest of her stuff away, she became aware of Carter staring at her, waiting.

“Yes?” she asked, looking up at him as he leaned casually against the seats in front of them.

“Oh don’t rush. Just thought we could walk out together,” he smiled friendly.

“Oh.” Hiding her nerves she zipped her bag shut and stood up. Carter gestured for her to go first in a very gentlemanly fashion that touched her. Once they exited the classroom he stepped beside her to carry a conversation.

“So are you a freshman, Olivia?” he asked pleasantly.

“Yes I am. Are you?” she responded.

“Yeah I am too. Writing’s not my thing but I was told I had to take it,” he grimaced. “I don’t like all the rules and stuff.”

“Oh well I don’t mind it,” she shrugged trying to downplay how much she really loved writing. She did not want him to know how geeky she was and then have him disappear. New starts, she reminded herself. “We could study together some time and proofread each other’s papers if you want.”

Carter looked over and smiled at her. “I’d like that. Thanks.”

“No problem,” Olivia said, pleased.

“So, Olivia, I know this awesome party this weekend. Would you be interested in going with me?” Carter asked as they stepped outside into the sunshine.

She bit her bottom lip in contemplation. Everything her parents had taught her about strangers and being safe echoed in her mind followed by her dad’s lecture about college parties being for those people not serious about life.

“Carter…” she hesitated.

“Hey that’s okay if you don’t. I had to ask though. You’re too pretty to sit in your dorm studying all weekend,” he smiled sweetly at her.

She blushed again at the compliment. “No, Carter, it’s just…I’ve seen the movies about college parties where girls go with boys they don’t know and it never works out well for the girl. I don’t want to put myself in that situation,” she explained as gently as she could.

Carter couldn’t help but laugh. She was just too precious. “So true, Olivia. You’re right to be cautious. How about I get your number then? Then you can get to know me better because I’d sure love to get to know an amazing, beautiful girl like you,” he requested.

Olivia fought down the blush and nodded. “Sure. I’d like that.” She rattled off her number for him as he punched it in his phone.

“Thanks. See ya later,” he touched her hand before walking away.

She stared after him until he was a small dot in the sea of people. She took one step towards her dorm and her phone rang. She dug it out and answered the unknown number.

“Hello?”

“Just wanted to hear your voice one last time until we meet again,” Carter said sweetly. “And bonus, you actually gave me your number and not some bogus one. Awesome. Talk to you later, Olivia.”

She stood stunned as the dead tone replaced Carter’s voice. Slowly she lowered it and put it back in her purse, not being able to stop the silly grin that spread across her face. No guy had ever taken interest in her before and here Carter, a very cute, drool-worthy guy, had. Maybe things were changing after all.

She looked up as she headed towards her dorm and saw Nick talking with Serena. Her smile fell. Then again some things don’t change at all no matter how much you want them to.