Ollie’s face twisted into a look I’d never seen before and raised his brows. “You’re going to embarrass me like that, yeah? In front of your friends?”
His facial expression and tone weren’t him, and I was sure my Ollie hadn’t returned. My Ollie never cared about what other people thought. His eyes, touch, and tone conflicted with one another, all contradicting. He didn’t hold the same low and carefully controlled tone. No. His voice had a hint of hostility, dripping with the reminder of him slowly slipping away before my very eyes once again. “And you didn’t?”
His mouth set in a hard line, and I shook my head, backing my chair from the table and gathered my belongings all at once. His hand caught my wrist, but I snatched it away. “The Ollie I know is certain,” I said through gritted teeth.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean for it to come out that way,” his leg bounced under the table, and he pressed down on his knee before standing. “Mia, let’s go talk.”
“I have class.” With my books clutched to my chest, it was my turn to walk away from him. The green eyes staring at the back of my head burned a hole, but I kept my feet in front of me. It hurt to be around him, only bringing back the day he slipped away. All I wanted was for my Ollie to be back, and I wondered how long I would have to wait.
“You alright, Jett?” Ethan asked as I passed him while leaving the mess hall. Without stopping, I nodded and picked up my pace. “Wait up!” Ethan followed after me, and I didn’t stop until his hand rested on my shoulder and spun me around. “Listen, it’s none of my business—
“You’re right. It’s not,” I snapped.
“Just listen to me for a second.” His electric blue eyes burned as he peered down at me, and he scratched the back of his head. “You’ve been doing so good. I don’t want to see you fall back into that same place.”
“Why?” I asked, my voice on the verge of breaking. “Why do you care?”
“Don’t play coy. It’s no secret we’re close, or at least I thought we were close,” Ethan rolled his head back before returning his eyes to me, “We’re friends, and I’m not going to sit back and watch him bring you down again.” His blue eyes went cold, and there was something he wanted to say, but he bit his tongue, refusing to cross a line.
“What’s this?” Ollie’s voice came from behind. His arm draped around my shoulder, marking his territory. The tingles shooting up my spine blended between what my heart wanted and what my brain couldn’t understand. It was Ollie, but it wasn’t. Twisted confusion. Total mind-fuck. My head snapped up to see Ollie’s eyes darting back between Ethan and me. “Ah, it makes sense now. You’re screwing another security guard, Mia?” Ollie turned his chilling tone to Ethan. “You banging my girlfriend?”
Ethan shook his head and took a step back. “You have the wrong idea.”
“No, I don’t think I do,” Ollie pulled his arm away and shoved me forward with enough force, my books fell to the floor and my face crashed into Ethan’s chest. “Have her, mate. I have no use any longer.”
I went into shock, and I pressed my face further into Ethan’s chest, gripping his shirt into my fist. Ethan took a step forward, taking me with him and a calculated chuckle came from Ollie while his footsteps faded behind me, adding more distance between us.
Ethan’s hand pressed against the back of my head. “He’s gone,” he mumbled and tried pulling me away, but I refused. “What a fucking prick.”
“It’s not him. That’s not Ollie,” I cried, “He’s never done that before … I don’t…”
Ethan’s grip tightened around me before his chest rose against my cheek then fell as he released a long, exaggerated breath. “Don’t make excuses for him.”
Chapter Five
“I’ll wake up when the nightmare is over.”
—Oliver Masters
mia.
IT HAD ONLY been a week since Ollie’s return, and already he’d proven I could hate him. He warned me this would happen, as if his forwardness would have prepared my paper heart. It would have been easier if he just stayed away. Luckily, classes kept me occupied, and Ollie kept to himself.
Knowing he was within touching distance, talking distance—within distance, period—didn’t help. Three times a day, I’d seen him throughout the week. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I felt his eyes on me as if he were watching me from across the room from his old table with Maddie, Gwen, and Jude. But each time my eyes drifted, all I’d ever catch was the side of his face.
“So, I’m thinking we should get together in the woods. It will be like old times,” Bria announced as soon as she sat down across from me on Friday morning in the mess hall. “Think of it as a welcome-home-Ollie-get-together.”
“No, I don’t think that’s such a great idea,” I stated.
Jude’s mysterious behavior turned Bria utterly smitten with him, and the get-together had nothing to do with Ollie. The smile on her face when she looked at Jude told me so. All Bria wanted was to get Jude in the woods, and though I’m not a cock block, I didn’t know which side of Ollie would show up, or if he would show up at all.
“We need something to cheer us up,” she whined, turning to see Jude at the same table Ollie sat at.
My gaze followed hers until my eyes landed upon Ollie once again. He looked the same in his black jeans, faded tattoos, and dirty-brown chaotic hair, though his smile was different and his eyes never found me like they used to. Some moments, I’d swore I’d caught a glimpse of the old him, as if a light bulb went off inside his head. But mainly he paid no attention as if our time together never existed.
Since he pushed me into Ethan, he hadn’t made an effort to talk to me. Ollie was back to his medicated self, and I’d rather him be gone than see him like this. At least with him gone, I could imagine the old him and the memories we shared.
“Mia?” My attention moved away from Ollie and back to Bria. She stared at me from across the table with her black brow in the air. Her expression transformed when she noticed mine, and a sigh escaped from her lips. “You don’t have to go.”
Bria needed this.
“I’m going,” Tyler piped up from beside me. “I’ve never gone to one of your get-togethers before. Should be interesting.”
Tyler never witnessed the nightly parties I suffered through. She never met Isaac, never met Stanley, had never known the old Ollie, or the old me for that matter. At this point, I missed the former me. Not caring and no heart. “I’ll go,” I uttered through a sigh, wrapping my rebellious lock of hair around my index finger, pretending all was right in the world I lived in. “Just no games.”
“No games? Do you know who you’re talking to?” Bria laughed and pushed out her chair as she stood. Her black pixie hair grew into a short bob, and it swayed as she walked over to Ollie’s new table and leaned over, surely informing the four of them of today’s get-together.
“And she’s back,” I moaned.
A recent storm brought a tree down at our old spot in the woods. Bria sat beside Jude on the broken tree while the rest of us grouped over the ground. Jake’s hands thread through Tyler’s blonde hair, finishing off a French braid, whilst Ollie sprawled out along the leaves with his hands behind his head, looking up into the sky beside Maddie.