Me and Oli Talking

Oli and I sit in our usual spot, only this time everything is different.

-Oli-

I don’t even know where to begin. Tonight was suppose to be a good night; homecoming. Lita had gotten asked to the dance, she even got a dress. Now she’s sitting here in our little field, mascara running down her face.

“I just… I don’t understand.” Her sobs are heart wrenching and have been going on for approximately thirty minutes. “How can you be so fucking mean!?”

I look at her from my perch upon an old tractor tire left long ago, “Lita…”

I slip to the ground, my feet making a soft thud in the damp grass, and looking at my best friend in tears I can’t help but feel terrible. I should have gone with her, I should have protected her from this.

But you can’t protect everyone all the time.

“C’mere,” placing my fingers under her chin, I make her look at me and wipe black streaks from her cheeks, “You look beautiful tonight and Michael is an asshole for what he did to you.”

Lita looks at me for a moment before bursting into another round of tears and hugging me. She does look beautiful tonight, but she always looks beautiful. I still cannot fathom why someone would ask a girl (especially a girl like Lita) to a dance, only make an ass of themselves by pushing themselves on to said girl and throwing a fit when she refused. Reportedly he called her a tease and told her she could have at least made herself a little more presentable for this occasion.

I push Lita back so I can look at her face, “Wipe away those tears and we’ll go get some ice cream and watch Repo! The Genetic Opera. We’ll turn this around, I promise.”

Her blue eyes immediately light up and a hint of a smile plays on her lips. Just as suddenly as it happened that look slipped from her face. She sits back on her knees and looks down at her hands like she’s in trouble. “Can we not go back to my house? I don’t want my mom to know what happened… It’s just she’s been so happy lately with dad doing so good and all, I don’t want to ruin it for her.”

Getting to my feet, I offer her a hand. “I’ll see if my mom would mind. C’mon.”

I walk with Lita on my back, her arms around my neck and her cheek pressed against my shoulder. Passing under street lights with my best friend’s soft breathing in my ear. These are the small things I enjoy, just quality time with Lita. The only thing in my life that isn’t completely messed up. The only person that doesn't look at me with that stupid sympathetic look. Lita keeps tracing circles on my clavicle with her thumb and humming softly to Intensity In Ten Cities.

“Oli, you’re my best friend.” Lolita’s voice sounds like she’s about to fall asleep. “I just wanted you to know that, okay?”

I shift her weight further up onto my back and smile, “I know.”

When I arrive at my front door, Lita is already asleep. Instead of taking her into the hell hole I call home, I grab the spare keys to the car from under the porch and take Lita home.

-Lolita-

Waking up, I’m a little confused. I remember the dance. I remember the field with Oli. I remember agreeing to ice cream and Repo. I don’t remember getting ice cream and Repo. I change out of the dress from last night and pull on an over-sized sweater and some knee length, lace leggings before opening my bedroom door and heading to the kitchen for what smells like bacon and pancakes.

“Hey there, Teddy Bear!” My mother’s smiling face greets me at the kitchen’s threshold. She’s so cute sometimes. She stands before me now, flour on her face and a frilly pink and white apron around her waist. “Oliver stayed last night but he had to go home for a minute he should be back in no time.”

Just as the words tumbled from my mother’s mouth, the front door of the house opens and Oli’s small frame strides through the door frame. Today, his hair is a mess and his clothes are wrinkled from, no doubt, sleeping in them last night. He gives me that grin of his that lights up his brown eyes. The kind of grin you could just tell that he was the happiest person in the room. “Ahoy, Lita.”

But then his smile falters a bit, and it hits me; something isn't right.

“Oli, can we talk?” I tug at my collar as I look at him.

“Um… sure.”

After assuring my mom that we would be back in ten minutes, Oli follows me out to my back yard. I gesture for him to take the swing next to me on the old swing set that looks like it has about had it.

Dragging my feet through the dirt I ask, “There’s something going on at home, isn't there?”

His dark eyes look at me startled. “Why would you ask such a thing? You know I tell you practically everything.”

“Yes. Key word being practically,” I dig my feet into the loose dirt under the swing to anchor myself in place, “Don’t lie to me, Oli. Please, don’t lie to me. Tell me what’s going on. You miss so much school. You always seem miserable at home. You never talk about your home life or your parents or your family. You never allow me over. Oli, what is going on.”

-Oli-

If you could see her right now. Lita, with her red hair and bright eyes, on the verge of tears as she talks. It hurts to see her like this, and yet, I still hesitate to tell her.

“Lita, if I tell you the truth you have to promise me you won’t tell anyone and you won’t interfere.”

Her eyes search my face for a moment, deciding whether or not to agree to my terms. Finally with a sigh, “Fine, I promise. Just tell me what’s going on.”

-Lita-

Oli lifts up a corner of his shirt to reveal a baseball sized bruise forming just under his rib cage, making me gasp.

“This is what goes on. My dad abuses us and my mother is too doped up on whatever to stop him. Sometimes I don’t even think she cares. If I’m not there to protect my siblings, they’d get it to. I don’t want them to have to know what it’s like to be beaten for no reason.”

As he talks his eyes begin to water.

“It wasn't always like this. I wasn't always afraid of what I might come home to. But now I’m scared, Lita. It gets worse and worse. I used to just be his hand or fist. Ya know kicking and hitting. Then it
Escalated to objects; hitting with them, throwing them. Lately, it’s been the worst. Lately its been being beaten to the point where I lose conscience; I black out.”

By this point, Oli, my happy-go-lucky Oli, is full out crying. Heavy tears trailing down his face and sobs racking his frame. I slip out of my swing and pull him toward me, wrapping him in a hug; his head under my chin.

“Lita, I’m scared. I’m scared for what might happen to me and what might happen if I’m gone and no one is there to keep him from abusing the littler ones. I don’t know what to do. Any time anyone has gone to report him, he’s slithered out of it. He lies, he lies well. Every charge that has ever been placed against him has been dropped.”

His sobbing has gotten so bad that his words are barely audible. I run my fingers through his hair, resisting the urge to cry for him. Taking his face in my hands, I push him back enough to see him eye to eye. “Why didn't you tell me before?”

“Because you were the new girl at school. You didn't see my behavior as odd. You didn't watch as I changed as the abuse got worse. To you I was normal; you didn't look at me with pity. And I liked that. I like being around you. When I’m here it’s easy to forget that none of that happens. I’m happy here and I don’t wanna go back home when I have to. But my siblings need me. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do.”