A Twist in My Story

Olivia took deep, steady breaths as she willed herself to keep walking. Her heart was beating rapidly in her chest as she approached her destination. Afternoon classes were over and after seeing Nick and Serena together a total of four times (it truly surprised her how often she saw them on such a huge campus) she decided that she couldn’t put off talking to Nick any longer. She had tried telling herself that it was none of her business whom he was hanging out with—he was a big boy and could make his own decisions. But then she would just think about all the things her quadmates had told her about Serena and she knew that she had to say something. She truly cared about Nick (even though he continued to be a jerk to her like when they were in high school) and she couldn’t sit aside with the information she had. She wouldn’t be able to live with herself if Serena somehow did manage to corrupt Nick and she hadn’t done anything to advise him against hanging out with her.

So keeping that thought in mind, she finished her trek to Driscoll Hall—the building Frankie had told her Nick would be living in their first day on campus. Luckily for her there was someone exiting the building, so she was able to go inside without having to wait for someone to swipe her in. Taking the stairs slowly, she made her way up to the second floor where Frankie said Nick’s room was. She looked down both ends of the long hallway and bit her lip, not knowing which way to go. Taking a chance she turned left and read the names on the doors as she walked. Of course none of them were the room she was looking for, so she turned back around (almost running into a guy covered only in a towel) and walked down the opposite side of the hall, the blush deepening on her cheeks. There were two other Nick’s on this end of the hall, but she knew they weren’t the one she was looking for because their doors also had what town they were from written under their names. It wasn’t until she reached the second to last door to her right that she found the door she was looking for.

If her heart was beating rapidly before, it was about to leap out of her chest at the moment. This was a ludicrous idea—she didn’t even know if he was there. And if by some chance he was, Serena would probably be with him; the two were inseparable! Before she could chicken out and turn around and run back down the hallway however, the wooden door was pulled open to reveal another guy, who was clearly Nick’s roommate. Olivia’s face flushed in a blush at having been caught just standing there.

The guy looked just as stunned to see her standing there, but gave her an easy smile after the surprise wore off. “Well hello there,” the guy stated.

Olivia looked up at him and blushed once more when she realized how attractive he was. She mentally chided herself for looking like a spazz in front of another cute guy—that was the third time in one day! “Uhm, hi, is—is Nick here?” she stuttered after a few moments of staring. She tried to control her blush when the guy’s eyes gave her the once-over before turning back into his room.

“Hey dude, there’s some chick here to see you,” he said.

“Who?” came Nick’s voice from inside the room. His roommate pushed the door open enough so that Nick could see Olivia standing there, lifting her hand in a quick wave when he looked at her. “Oh, hey Liv,” Nick said with a nod, hoping his disappointment didn’t show. Serena was supposed to be stopping by soon so they could hang out before going to dinner together. Seeing that Nick knew her, Tim gave him a curt nod before leaving the room like he had originally been doing. Olivia stepped in tentatively, her eyes roaming the room curiously before landing on the source of her stomach flops. “What’s up?” Nick asked.

Olivia felt her heart skip a beat before hammering in her chest once more. She was so preoccupied with coming over and warning him against spending so much time with Serena that she didn’t even think of a way to approach the matter—blurting it out right off the bat surely wouldn’t go over well. “Oh, uhm, I was just, walking by your building and, remembered Frankie saying this is where you lived. We didn’t really get to talk much this week, so I thought I’d stop by and see how your week went,” she said, surprised that she was able to come up with that on the spot…and sound convincing!

“Oh,” Nick said, gesturing for her to sit at his desk (he was currently perched on his bed). “Yea, sorry about that; it was a hectic week getting adjusted to all my classes and such,” he said. Olivia bit her tongue, refraining from making a remark about the real reason they hadn’t hung out this week. “How has your week been? How have your classes gone?” he asked, showing true curiosity.

Even though Olivia was upset with him for the way he had treated her, she couldn’t help but feel those foul feelings slip away at his comment. Deep down Nick was a nice guy, which is why she was determined to warn him against spending too much time with Serena. If the rumors she heard about her were true (which she was still unsure if they were) she didn’t want her corrupting the good values Nick was raised with. “They went okay. It’s definitely different than when we were in high school. I’m not used to being able to sleep in late or having such large amounts of time between some of my classes,” she responded.

“I know! Me too! I don’t know what to do with myself!” Nick exclaimed.

“It’s kind of nice though. I take the chance to go to the library and get some work done during that time,” Olivia said, easing into their conversation. Nick seemed to be relaxed and not as mean as he was being before. He seemed open to their conversation.

He chuckled at her response, shaking his head. “Somehow that doesn’t surprise me,” he stated, inadvertently reminding her that he only saw her as the straight A, preacher’s daughter. She felt her cheeks get warm at the comment and hoped they weren’t flaming red as Nick continued to speak. “I just hang around and people watch. I’m still in the mentality that work should be done after classes, at night,” he said.

Olivia shrugged. “It’s only been a week; that mentality probably won’t work for the entire semester,” she stated.

Nick shrugged. “That’s a bridge I’ll cross when I get there,” he stated.

Olivia bit her lip and once more looked around the room, avoiding what she really came here to do. She took in all the posters on the boys’ wall—movie posters, cars, girls, and alcohol memorabilia—it was completely different than the flower posters and pictures she and Carrie had up on their walls. Nick clearing his throat made her focus her attention back on him. He didn’t seem to have done it to get her attention though because he was looking at his watch and then his eyes flashed to the door before they landed back on her. She kind of got the feeling that he wanted her to leave, so she decided to just get on with it.

But before she could say anything, Nick spoke again. “So, any plans for the weekend?” he asked to continue their small talk. His plan was to cover any possible conversation topics so that she could leave before Serena arrived.

Olivia let out a puff of air, making the hair in her face fly away before landing in her eyes once more. She brushed the stray hairs aside as she shrugged her shoulders. “None yet. You?” she asked, momentarily getting her hopes up—maybe he was asking to see if she wanted to hang out with him.

“Serena invited me to a party tonight. She’s actually coming over soon to hang out before we go to dinner and then we’re meeting at her dorm to go to the party,” he replied, his face showing his excitement.

Meanwhile Olivia was sure her features had fallen in disappointment. It shouldn’t have surprised her that Nick had plans with Serena…or that he hadn’t been asking to hang out with her, but somehow she still managed to get her hopes up. She really wished her heart would just get used to the fact that Nick would only ever want to be friends with her (if that) so that she wouldn’t always feel this disappointment. “Now that you mention her,” Olivia started off gently, her heart race picking up again.

“What?” Nick asked.

“Well, it’s just that, I’ve heard some rumors,” Olivia stated, biting the inside of her cheek.

“What rumors?” Nick asked, his eyebrows scrunched and his arms crossed in front of his chest.

“Just...some things about Serena…some not so good things. I heard she’s not the best of girls—apparently she’s pretty big into the party scene. She does the whole drinking and sleeping around thing and I even heard she does drugs. She was so bad last year that she didn’t pass all her classes, which is why she’s in so many freshman courses,” Olivia rambled.

She regretted having said anything the minute she opened her mouth. Nick’s face had contorted into one of anger and outrage. He had allowed his arms to drop when he jumped off his bed and his cheeks and ears were flushed red. “What the fuck, Olivia!” he balked. “Did you seriously come here to trash talk Serena?!”

“No,” Olivia started off, her own face turning red from embarrassment. Of all the ways she saw this moment playing out in her head she never imagined Nick yelling at her.

“No? Because it sure sounds like that’s what you’re doing!”

“Nick, you’re my friend and I just want you to be careful who you hang out with. I know you’re a sweet guy and I wouldn’t want anything to change that,” Olivia defended, she too having stood up to face him.

Nick scoffed at her. “You don’t know anything about me, Olivia. Just because our parents make us hang out sometimes doesn’t mean you know everything about me. And you definitely don’t know shit about Serena; she’s a really nice girl!” he exclaimed.

Olivia felt the tears burn behind her eyes but refused to let any of them shed. “I was just trying to look out for you,” she mumbled.

“I don’t need you to look out for me. I’m a big boy and I can make my own choices. Who do you think you are coming here and telling me who to hang out with, my mother?!”

Olivia bit her lip to keep the tears at bay. They were both staring at each other and even though it was fairly obvious she had tears welling in her eyes (she could barely see anything; everything was blurred) Nick didn’t seem fazed by them. He clearly wasn’t sorry about that snide comment and Olivia felt like even more of an idiot just standing there. “Sorry for caring,” she murmured, turning around and running out of his room. The hot tears that had been stinging behind her eyes cascaded down her face as she ran down the two flights of stairs and exited his building. She wiped at them as she walked back towards her dorm room, her head hung low. The more she wiped at them though, the more tears stained her face. She was so embarrassed by that confrontation and knew she must have looked like a mess.

Her assumption was confirmed when she walked into her room, making Carrie look up at her with concern on her face. “Oh my goodness, Liv, what happened?” she asked, getting up from her bed where she had been watching re-runs of One Tree Hill on Soapnet. She embraced her in a hug as tears flowed freely down Olivia’s face—she couldn’t control them. She kept running the argument between her and Nick over in her head and couldn’t suppress the hurt that clawed at her. She really had the best intentions in sharing the rumors she heard and never would have expected him to get so upset. He had only known Serena for three days but already was so defensive about her. That thought made the tears fall faster—it seemed Nick was already under Serena’s spell. She couldn’t bring herself to tell Carrie what happened for a solid five minutes as she cried it out on her roommate’s shoulder. “Are you ready to tell me what happened?” Carrie asked, rubbing Olivia’s back comfortingly. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to,” she added.

Olivia looked over at her (they had migrated to sitting on her bed) and knew that she could confide in Carrie. She had been worried about getting stuck with a rude or stuck up roommate, but Carrie was pretty great as far as roommates went and Olivia knew she could trust her—she already considered her to be a good friend. “I went to see Nick,” she started off, wiping at her eyes and sniffling.

“The guy from your town, right?” Carrie asked for clarification. Olivia nodded. “And you told him about Serena?” she asked again. Olivia nodded once more, her lower lip trembling as she thought once more about his reaction. “And he didn’t take it well,” Carrie stated more than asked—that explained Olivia’s current state. Olivia shook her head in response as a few more tears trickled out. “I’m sorry, Liv,” Carrie said sympathetically, rubbing Olivia’s back again.

“I didn’t expect him to be so mad!” Olivia said, shaking her head. “He hasn’t even known her that long!”

“I guess she has him hooked, huh?”

“I guess so. I really hope those things you guys told me aren’t true. Nick is a decent guy and I don’t want to see that change,” Olivia said.

Carrie bit her lip in thought as she looked at her roommate. The way she spoke about this guy and how upset she was made her think that she cared for him as more than a friend, despite what she told them the first time she and their quadmates asked her. “You really like him, don’t you?” she asked.

Olivia looked up at Carrie and knew it was useless denying it. She nodded her head and sniffled once more. “We used to be friends when we were younger—our parents are really close, so we were always put together at church events and had play dates and such. But once we hit middle school he started becoming more popular and I was just the same shy, quiet girl I’ve always been. By high school we barely talked at all and he…he acted like he really hated me. And me, well, I’ve had a crush on him since middle school. He dated all sorts of girls in high school but never bothered to give me the time of day. When we came here I was hopeful that maybe we could start over and be friends like when we were younger. There was no one that knew us here—no one to judge our friendship or tease us like his friends often did in high school. But it was stupid of me to think that because we’re still the same. He’s this gorgeous, nice guy that girls fall all over and I’m just a nobody,” Olivia murmured.

“Hey,” Carrie interjected. “You are not a nobody. You’re an amazingly sweet, super smart and incredibly pretty girl. Don’t put yourself down just because one guy isn’t interested in you.”

Olivia let out a humorless laugh and shook her head. “Try no guy,” she refuted.

“You never had a boyfriend?” Carrie asked, cocking her head in surprise.

Olivia shook her head. “No guys ever showed interest. All the boys at my high school saw me as the preacher’s daughter who was only focused on her schoolwork and had no social life.”

“I find that hard to believe.”

“Well it’s true. Not that I minded really, all those guys were immature jerks, but Nick…” Olivia trailed off at that, having chocked on his name. She cleared her throat. “Anyways, the first couple of days here he was nice to me and I kind of thought that he was going to look past the labels we were given in high school and want to be my friend, but then he met Serena and that just shot everything down the drain. He’s found himself his latest pursuit and a friendship with me is the last thing on his mind.”

Carrie gave her a sympathetic smile. Olivia was truly a really nice girl and any guy would be lucky to be with her; it kind of made her mad that Nick couldn’t see that and that he had been such a jerk to her. “If he can’t see the mistake he’s making, then he’s not worth your tears,” she stated, reaching over to Olivia’s desk and grabbing the box of tissues that sat there.

Olivia cracked a smile at her roommate and said, “Thanks.” Just then her phone rang. She reached into her pockets and pulled it out, seeing an unfamiliar number on the screen. “Hello?” she asked curiously as she answered it.

“Your voice sounds just as beautiful as I remember it,” the person on the other side of the line stated.

Olivia felt her cheeks flush crimson red. She recognized the voice as that of the guy that she sat next to in her writing class that morning. She had been so preoccupied with Nick and Serena that she had forgotten all about him. Even though he had called her right after she gave him her number, she never programmed his name into her phone, so she was extremely caught off guard by his phone call.

“Uhm, hi,” Olivia said, averting her gaze from Carrie’s, who’s eyebrows were raised up to her hairline.

“Is this a bad time?” Carter asked.

“Uhm, no, not at all,” she replied. “What’s up?” she asked.

“Nothing really. I was just sitting in my lounge with a few of the guys on my floor and they were talking about all the parties they’re going to tonight and all I could think about was how you had turned down my invitation to go to one,” he started off.

“Yea, like I said, that’s not really my scene,” Olivia stated, playing with the edge of her comforter. “Sorry.”

“Which is why I was wondering if you wanted to go out with me tonight? I was thinking we could go into town and watch a movie or something; maybe grab a bite to eat and get to know each other a bit,” he said, the smile evident in his tone.

That really caught Olivia by surprise. She figured that since she had turned him down on that party invite he would lose interest in her. But he was asking her out! That’s never happened to her before! And all she could do was sit on her bed with her mouth gaping open like a fish out of water. Carrie shoved her forcefully and when Olivia looked at her with a ‘WTF’ look, she realized that she needed to give Carter a response.

“You’re…you’re asking me out?” she asked just for clarification.

He chuckled on the other side of the line. “Yea, I am. I’m sort of hoping you’ll say yes too—I don’t know how well I’ll handle being rejected by you twice in the same day,” he added.

Olivia bit her lip, fighting the blush that continued to creep on her cheeks. She looked up at Carrie who was nodding exuberantly at her to the point where Olivia was concerned she was going to snap her neck. Rolling her eyes at her she focused back on the guy on the line. “Uhm, sure, that sounds nice,” she finally conceded in a small voice.

“Awesome!” Carter exclaimed, the relieved smile evident in his tone. “Alright, well, what do you say I pick you up from your dorm at around 6 and we’ll go to dinner? What building do you live in?”

“Lavis Hall,” Olivia replied, ignoring the giant grin on Carrie’s face. “I’ll meet you outside,” she added.

“Sounds good. I’ll see you then,” Carter said.

“Can’t wait,” she replied without thinking.

“Good to know,” Carter stated. “Bye Olivia.”

“Bye Carter,” she said before hanging up, purposely avoiding looking at Carrie.

“Guys don’t show interest in you my butt!” Carrie exclaimed as soon as Olivia had put her phone down. “Who was that?!”

“Just this kid in my writing class,” Olivia responded, hazarding a glance at her roommate. Carrie was staring at her with wide eyes, clearly wanting more information. “I sat next to him in class today and we got to talking a little bit. He invited me to a party this weekend but I turned him down cuz I watch movies and I know what goes down at college parties—that’s totally not my scene. He asked for my number and I gave it to him, not really expecting him to use it,” she elaborated.

“Girl you must have made an impression if he asked you out again.”

“Guess so,” Olivia murmured.

“So, is he cute? He sounded cute,” Carrie stated, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively.

Olivia couldn’t help but giggle and nod her head. “He’s gorgeous,” she responded, earning a squeal from Carrie. The next hour or so was spent talking about Carter (Carrie demanded to know every physical feature and the exact words exchanged between them earlier in the day) and Luke, the guy Carrie had already taken a fancy to.