Meant to Be

January 3, 2005

Olivia sat in bed, casually skipping through songs on her iPod, keeping herself preoccupied. Her phone would vibrate every five seconds and she figured there had to be at least fifty unread text messages. Finally, after the last buzz, she decided to check, and as she figured, it was from Brendon.

Liv, stop ignoring me and answer your damn phone. TALK TO ME DAMN IT!

She rolled her eyes and tossed the phone on the other side of her and quickly changed the song before the lyrics were sung – the song being their song. Brendon and Olivia were currently in a fight, which had been going on for two days. It was the longest they had gone without talking to each other and Brendon was the first to break.

Her phone started to buzz again, only this time it was a phone call. “Ugh, Brendon leave me the fuck alone,” she muttered as she pressed the ignore button.

Two seconds later it was him again; she knew he was persistent, but now he was pushing it. She grabbed her phone and forcefully pressed the answer button.

“What!” she yelled into the phone.

“Wow you actually answered your phone,” he said in a surprised tone.

Olivia sighed. “You’re getting really irritating. What do you want?” she asked harshly.

“Liv, can we just talk or meet somewhere? I miss you. I want to see you,” desperation and sadness in his voice.

She scoffed. “Well, I don’t want to see you. I’m still mad at you,” she said angrily.

“I told you I was sorry,” he almost whispered.

Olivia shook her head. “That doesn’t help Brendon. It still hurts. What you did.”

“I was drunk and –,” he began.

“And you think that’s a good excuse for what you did! Whatever Brendon, I’m hanging up.”

“Wait! Look outside your window,” Brendon responded.

Olivia looked towards her window, eyeing it curiously, and then rolled her eyes as she got up and walked over to it. It was really dark outside; the street lights were dimly lit and hardly illuminated the neighborhood. She opened the window to get a better look outside.

“What am I looking for?” she asked after staring at nothing.

“Nothing. I was gonna go over there, stand outside your window and sing to you, but my parents have me on lockdown since the New Year’s party. So, I’m just gonna pretend I’m there and sing to you.” He was smiling and she knew it.

“You’re such a loser,” she smiled, making her voice sound friendlier towards him.

“Does that mean you forgive me?” he asked, hopeful the answer would be “yes”.

“No, but we can talk about it tomorrow at school.”

“Okay, I’ll take what I can get. I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said about to hang up.

“Hold on. I thought you were going to sing to me?” she said, still looking outside her window.

He smiled, cleared his throat, and began to sing.

September 2010

Three weeks. It had been three weeks since Brendon found out about Kayla’s lie, three weeks until he was finally able to make it out to Vegas and look for Olivia, and three weeks since he had sent her the email. When she didn’t respond, it felt like those five years ago when they had a fight and she wouldn’t answer him back. She was stubborn and he knew that, so he had to stay persistent.

He would’ve made it out sooner, but a few more things needed to be tweaked for the album and it took him longer than he thought to get his locks changed. He drove past familiar sites, smiling as he looked his right and saw Bogart staring happily outside the window. Before driving to Kara’s house, he cruised around old hang out spots, hoping for the possibility of seeing Olivia walking down the sidewalk or coming out of a building.

With no such luck, he parked his car in Kara’s driveway, grabbed his things and Bogart from the car, and rang the doorbell. Kara smiled wide as she saw Brendon standing in front of her and let him in.

“How was your drive?” she asked, closing the door behind him.

Brendon dropped his stuff, sighed heavily, and then plopped down on the couch with Bogart still in his arms. “Long,” he said before yawning.

“You look tired, maybe you should go up to the guest room and sleep. Mom and dad are coming over for dinner later, they’ll be happy to see you.”

Brendon shook his head, letting Bogart sit on the sofa. “No, I’m not tired. Besides, I came here to do something and I’m leaving here ‘til I do it,” he said with determination.

“How are you planning on finding her anyways? I got very lucky when I saw her; it’s nearly impossible to find her again. She might not even be here anymore…”

“Don’t make me lose faith Kara. After all I’ve been through with Kayla, I…I really need to hold on to this hope that Olivia’s still here. Where? I don’t know, but I’ll find her,” he said optimistically.

Kara smiled, almost sympathetically, knowing her brother wouldn’t give up on looking for the girl he loved, but couldn’t help but feel like something would go wrong or get in the way.

“Well, you know you’re welcome to stay here as long as you need to,” Kara said as she started walking to the kitchen.

“Thanks Kara,” he said before she reached it.

Brendon grabbed his things once again and headed up the stairs to the guest room to settle in. He threw his bags on the bed, decided to unpack later when he got back, and picked up Bogart to take him outside before he left.

“Hey Kara, you going anywhere?” Brendon asked peeking into the kitchen.

Kara was washing dishes and turned around when he asked the question. “No, I’ll be getting dinner ready,” she responded.

“Okay, I was just checking, because I’m leaving Bogart upstairs, and I’m heading out.” She nodded her head. “If you need anything, just call,” he yelled as he left.

Brendon sat in his car for five minutes, thinking of where to start. She hadn’t been at any of the spots he checked on his drive over here, but she could’ve been if he had actually looked. Then the simplest idea came to him – her dad’s house.

He quickly turned on the car and backed out of the driveway. Trying his best not to speed, he made his way to Olivia’s house. When he arrived, he felt his heart beat faster, and breathing become heavier. This was it; it was now or never. He got out of the car and slowly walked towards the front door. He contemplated not ringing the doorbell as he stood in front of the wooden door, but the image of her face smiling back at him, made him do so.

After a minute the door began to open; he felt the nerves leave him as he took a deep breath and waited for Olivia to appear.



Olivia waddled her way back to the car after a fulfilling lunch with Travis. After receiving the email from Brendon, she didn’t, for some reason, didn’t delete it nor did she read it. But because of this, the message was always on her mind, and needed to keep busy to forget about it. Charlotte and Travis had been doing an excellent job of preoccupying Olivia the past three weeks.

“Told you you’d love the place,” Travis told her as they drove back to her dad’s.

Olivia smiled as she rubbed her bulging stomach. “It was so delicious. Thanks for bringing me.”

Travis replied with a smile that Olivia caught from the corner of her eye and without realizing it, she smiled too. Ever since she came back to home three months ago, she finally felt at peace and happy with the way her life was going.

“Thanks for today. I had fun and really enjoyed the food,” Olivia said before getting out of Travis’s car. Travis waved her a “don’t mention it” gesture. “Oh and don’t forget about dinner tomorrow with Charlotte and her fiancé,” Olivia reminder him before closing the door.

“Right, right. I’ll text you when I’m on my way,” he said.

She waved goodbye before entering her home and tiredly lay down on the couch. Everything all at once began to hurt her; her back was aching, her feet felt swollen, and she suddenly felt exhausted. She didn’t think pregnancy would leave her so drained at the end of the day.

Just before she felt the heaviness of sleep take her away, she heard the doorbell ring, which made her open her eyes immediately. She had a hard time getting up from the couch and became slightly irritated at the person on the other end of the door for making her get up.

Olivia opened the door and felt her heart stop as she stared wide-eyed at the person in front of her. “Jason?” she whispered.