Never Crossed My Mind

“So, what’s the deal with you and Julie anyway?” Olivia asked, her mouth full of hot dog.

Bam shrugged, swallowing his bite before speaking. “She’s just cool. She can hang with us, but doesn’t get get all like … girly. She’s like you.”

“Aw, Bam. That’s cute.”

“Shut up,” he laughed. “She’s all wet over Ehren anyway.”

Olivia raised her brow. “Do I detect more than a small hint of jealousy?"

“Here’s the deal, Liv. It sounds weird, to warn you, but I can’t think of a better way to say it. Knoxville’s been so hard up for you since day one, none of the rest of even had a chance to think maybe something might happen. I mean, you’re cool, you know. You don’t get all freaked out when we’re puking up fish guts we’ve just willingly eaten. That’s how Julie is. I accepted the fact a long time ago that it’s going to take a different kind of girl to be happy with me. there can’t be that many of those out there, so when one comes along that I actually like -- well, I gotta try to put in a little effort.”

Olivia nodded. “Makes sense. Have you tried talking to her yourself?”

“How? She’s always with Ehren.”

“You underestimate me.”

“What are you going to do?” Bam laughed. “Rig the elevators?”

“I’d tell you what I have in mind, but if you had prior knowledge, you might be held somewhat responsible.”

Bam just shook his head. “You’re a trip, Liv.”

“I know,” she grinned, balling up the wrapper from her food and throwing it in a nearby bin.
Bam followed suit and stood. “Knoxville’s a lucky guy. I hope he knows that.”

“I’m just as lucky as he is,” Olivia said with a wistful tone. “Now, get the hell out of my office so I can try and get some fucking work done.”

***

The night before Julie went home, the whole crew partied at Johnny’s house. Liquor flowed from bottles to cups to mouths -- then eventually just from bottles to mouths -- like it was going out of style. There was a lot of laughing, a lot of talking, and a lot of noise.

“I wonder how long until the cops come out,” Johnny laughed.

Olivia snorted. “They’ll just join in. I mean who wouldn’t want to, right?”

Julie snagged the whiskey bottle her cousin had just taken a large gulp from and took a swig for herself. “I think that pain medication is kicking in with the alcohol, Liv. Cops don’t generally come to party.”

Olivia shook her head, adamant that it could happen. “I dare someone to call the cops. Make a noise complaint, whatever. Just get them out here and I’ll bet you anything that I can get them to stay and have at least one drink.”

“I’ll take that. It’ll be payback for that big ass woman you guys found when I was in the plastic bubble,” Steve-O laughed. He pulled out his phone and dialed. “Yeah, is this the police? We’re out at Johnny Knoxville’s place, and there’s some girl creeping around out here.” He turned to look at Olivia with a funny smile on his face. “What does she look like? She’s pretty short. Dark hair. She’s dressed in a pink tank top and light jeans. Hair’s in a ponytail. She thinks Johnny Knoxville is her boyfriend or something.”

“Steve-o, I’m gonna kill you!” Olivia laughed.

“Now she’s in the house, making murder threats! Better hurry!” He hung up the phone, pointing and laughing at Olivia. “Dude, I’m not going to make it easy for you. You should know that.”

She just shook her head and grabbed a bottle of whiskey from the counter before going outside to wait for the police officer to arrive.

Johnny watched Olivia walk outside and decided maybe he needed to share that whiskey with her. The others were too involved in their own conversation to notice he was gone.
“Hey there, pretty girl,” he whispered, hugging her from behind. “You going to share that whiskey, or do I have to take it from you?”

“With you?” Olivia smiled, leaning back against his chest. “I guess I can share.”

He took a few swigs and handed it back to her. He sat on the porch, pulling her down to his lap. Leaning back on both arms, Johnny let himself enjoy the feeling of having her body against his. After a minute or so of silence, except for the liquor sloshing in the bottle as she drank, he noticed that she was staring intently at the sky.

“What are you looking at up there?”

Olivia shrugged. “Not really looking at anything. I was just thinking about Ryan.”

His heart fell momentarily. Ryan would have loved being around Olivia, and probably would have encouraged Johnny to take advantage of meeting her. Really though, if it hadn’t been for Ryan, he wouldn’t have met Olivia in the first place.

“What were you thinking?”

“I don’t know. I never met him, but I feel like he’s around sometimes. That makes me sound super drunk, but I’m serious. You know that I love you and the other guys, but Ryan was always kind of my favorite. He could make the most mundane lines funny. I always thought that if I got to work with you guys, I’d get along best with him.”

“Sorry you had to settle for second best,” Johnny teased.

She glared at him for a moment before letting a small smile slip out. “Seriously though. I guess it sounds weird to say that I miss him because I was never around him, but I do. I feel like I miss him. But, I think he’s up there, laughing at you guys and with you guys. Maybe even at me.”

“I think you’re right, Livvy. I was pretty angry and confused after Ryan died, as you know, but I think that he pushed you in my direction. He knew that I would need you, even if it took some time for me to know that.”

“Yeah, I guess we have a few things to thank him for.”

Johnny nodded, looking back up at the sky, then processed something she had said a little deeper. “Did you say you love me?”

Olivia was sure he could see her blush, even in the dark. “I said you and the other guys. Not like in love, but I love you all. You know?”

“So you’re not in love with me?”

She moved off of his lap, instead sitting next to him and picking at a hangnail on her thumb. Olivia wasn’t sure how to answer that; she had been falling for him for some time, but was she completely over the edge? Maybe drunk wasn’t a good time to decide that.

“I don’t know.”

“Hey,” Johnny whispered, pulling her close to him. “It’s okay if you are, you know. I’ve been falling for you for awhile.”

She swallowed hard, blue and red lights flashing in her vision. “The cops are here. Show time.”

Olivia re-entered the house with Johnny, who was clearly masking some negative emotions, and a police officer who just knew he was asking for trouble.

“Gentlemen, and Steve-o,” she smiled, “this is Officer Morrison. He is at the end of his shift. After this call, all he has to do is go back to the station and clock out.”

Steve-o groaned. “Yeah, I’m going to eat my words on this one, aren’t I?”

“And since I’m not trying to creep into anyone’s house or kill people, he has agreed that he will take a shot with us.”

There were cheers all around as someone located a shot glass for Officer Morrison, and everyone else grabbed their beer or a bottle of something. Holding their bottles and cups high in the air, had a toast before downing the liquor.

***

Finally around four, most of the guys had passed out. Julie and Ehren had gone to Olivia’s room -- where she swore she would have to burn the sheets and buy Johnny new ones after Julie left -- and the rest of them had found random couches or floor space to sleep on. Olivia had noticed that Johnny was more than a little tense after her avoidance of his question earlier, but figured once they went to bed they could sleep on it and discuss it further in the morning.

When Johnny started to put on his shoes and gather his jacket and keys, Olivia eyed him suspiciously. He was in no state to drive, and she told him as much.

“I’m not driving. Steve-o is, and I’m going to stay with him for tonight.”

“Why?”

He just shrugged, crossed his arms, and stared at her.

“Oh, I see,” she said, shaking her head. “When I get mad at you for something and don’t want to talk, you push me until I tell you what’s wrong. When you get mad though, you just leave -- and what, because I can’t say that I’m in love with you yet?”

“No,” Johnny said, pointing a finger at her. “It’s because you can’t take a chance without being pushed, Liv. I have to push you or we’d never get anywhere.”

“That’s not fair,” she replied through clenched teeth, trying to hold back her tears. “Maybe it took me a little while to be with you, but you knew that I had things I needed to deal with first to make this work. You knew that going into it, and you still pushed. If I wasn’t worth the effort, then why did you even try?”

She didn’t wait for an answer, simply turned and walked to his bedroom. She slammed the door behind her though, letting Johnny know that while she may be drunk, she had full understanding of the situation.

“Look, dude,” Steve-o said, slapping a hand on Johnny’s shoulder. “Maybe I’m not always the greatest judge of character or any shit like this. Thing is, I think you’ve got something real with Olivia, and you shouldn’t mess it up. Stay here tonight, dude. Talk to her.”

Johnny sighed, taking off his jacket and setting his keys down. “I can’t be the only one pushing all the time.”

“I’m sure she knows that. But she’s here, she’s with you, and she wants it to work. Plus, if you break her heart, you’ll have the rest of us to deal with.”

“Since when did she become everybody’s favorite?” Johnny pouted, kicking off his shoes. “Thanks, man.”

“Ah, good man. Anytime. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Johnny hugged his friend, then headed for the bedroom. The light was off and Olivia was facing away from the door. He pulled his shirt off and crawled into bed with her, trying to decipher if she was still awake.

“I thought you weren’t staying here tonight,” she said after a few seconds. Her voice was hoarse and he could tell she had been crying.

“How did you know it was me?”

“You got in the bed with me, Johnny. Either it was you, or Bam got lost on the way to the bathroom and things were about to get really gross and weird in here.”

He had to smile, but didn’t laugh. “I’m sorry that I got mad, Livvy.”

Olivia rolled to her back. “I just didn’t want to have this conversation when we’d been drinking, you know? People get drunk and say things they don’t mean all the time. I’m comfortable with you, and I thought it would take a long time to even get there. Yes, we connected right away, and yes, we spent a lot of time thinking about each other in between, but that doesn’t accelerate how fast our relationship goes. Just because I don’t say something to you without you saying it first, or say it right back when you say it, that doesn’t mean that you have to push me to say it or that I don’t feel it.”

“I know that. I was angry when I said it, but I know you’re right. Once everything was out in the open, you’ve been the one to drag us out in public and you show in front of everyone that you care about me. Pushing you to say the L-word was too much.”

“Hey,” she said, hovering over him. “I never said that I wasn’t falling in love with you. I just said I wasn’t ready to talk about it.”

Johnny’s grin matched Olivia’s, growing when she kissed him. The words would come eventually, but for right now, it was enough for her actions to say how she felt.

***

“Bam! Wake up!” Olivia yelled, leaning right over Bam’s face.

He startled awake so fast, Olivia barely had time to move out of his way before he sat up. He shook his head, which was a mistake with the hangover headache pounding through his brain.

“What time is it?”

“It’s almost noon. Listen, I need you to take Julie to the airport. I have to meet with Nick in about forty-five minutes to look over some footage.”

Bam eyed her suspiciously. Olivia never scheduled appointments that couldn’t be moved, especially for events like taking Julie to the airport. When she did nothing but smirk back at him, he finally caught on.

“All right, maybe I do underestimate you.”

“Do yourself a favor though -- brush your teeth before you leave. You can’t take to the girl with some rank breath like that.”

“Hey, what about Ehren?”

Olivia shrugged. “They agreed to just see what happens. You know, the distance and all.”
“So he’s gone already?”

“Yeah, he left about fifteen minutes ago.”

“Did you tell Julie about your little plan?”

“I mentioned that I might not be able to take her but that I would get whoever was left from the party last night to take her. She didn’t want Ehren taking her though, I can tell you that.”

“Why?”

“Don’t know. So are you going to take her or what?”

“Yeah. I guess let me get a hold of a toothbrush and toothpaste and we can go.”

Bam headed for the guest bathroom and Olivia smiled, fully satisfied with herself. Johnny showed up in the kitchen, fresh out of the shower, and she told him he smelled good.

“You sound surprised,” he chuckled.

“Well, usually you smell like puke or fish guts or hot beer or something equally gross.”

“So judgemental,” he laughed, wrapping his arms around her. She turned in his embrace to kiss him, making him smile all the more. “I guess smelling good gets me bonus points.”

“You’re right, it does.”

“Think I could interrupt your magic moment for a little bit so I can say goodbye to my cousin?” Julie interrupted.

Olivia wiggled away from Johnny and attacked Julie with a huge hug. “I’m so glad you came out here.”

“Me too,” Julie smiled, hugging Olivia back just as fiercely. “And I’ll see you in a couple weeks.”

“You know it. Call me when you land,” Olivia instructed.

“I will. Be safe.” Julie turned then to hug Johnny briefly. “Try and keep her out of any serious trouble. No more broken bones.”

Johnny smiled. “I promise.”

“All right, kiddo. Let’s get you the hell out of here,” Bam said. “I’ll see you guys at the office later.”

Julie handed over her suitcase, hugged Olivia once more, and followed Bam out of the house. Olivia went back to the kitchen, and Johnny watched the door, puzzled.

“What’s with you?” Olivia asked.

“Why is Bam taking Julie to the airport?”

Olivia grinned and even blushed a little bit. “Because I have to leave for a meeting with Nick soon.”

“You did that on purpose!”

“Maybe.”

Johnny once again took her in his arms, setting her on the kitchen counter and kissing her passionately. “You, pretty girl, are a troublemaker.”

“You’re a troublemaker,” she shot back, feeling her resistance fade. “I’m going to be late for work!”

“Don’t worry, I’ll talk to your boss.”

Olivia laughed while his lips traveled down her neck. There was no doubt in her mind that this would be worth running a little late.