XoLuluoX — At first I was like, what, I’m doing what? LOL, but then I continued reading, and just started laughing. That is so cool! Real life Sydney and Oliver. (: Hello, there ;)

Efflorescent — LOOOL, I know what you mean. I have two versions of Oliver. One is the one in this story, the sexy, silent and brooding type… and then there’s that child during Christmas knocking on your door with big doe-like eyes, extremely cute but sad, saying, “Please, sir, would you care to donate?” LOL, your review made me laugh.

DOMOxKUN — Haha, THANKS! No, it wasn’t annoying. (:

To those reviews/lurkers thanks for reading/reviewing! It means a lot to me.

Author’s note: OK, so hi. Hi, hi. No, you guys, Oliver isn’t a bastard. He’s just a guy. And since it isn’t through his point of view, we don’t see his reasons for his actions… SIGH, we’ll forever be oblivious to the workings of the male mind. Haha.

OH, yess, so my friend (Conduit) and I are doing a collaboration on an account called arezou. Check us out!

PREVIOUSLY: Sydney confronted her mother about her lack of presence throughout most of her childhood, leaving them both vulnerable. Sydney ran out, Oliver followed her, and they both skipped school. Oliver brought her to a church, where she acknowledged that what she felt for him was love, making everything ten times more complicated for her than it was.

Jamari called Sydney, initially asking where she was, before requesting if she could tell Oliver to come on his mother’s (Oliver’s mum’s) birthday since she hasn’t seen him in two months. When they were at the mall, Sydney painfully acknowledged that he was still with Kylie and left him since he had to go and pick Kylie up from wherever she was. Back at home, Oliver caught her packing and felt an onslaught of different emotions at the sight. She was going to her Dad’s, but promised him that she would come back, in time to accompany him to his mother’s birthday. The chapter ended with Oliver telling Sydney he wanted to show her something.

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Chapter twenty four

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“You know, the library wasn’t the first time I’ve seen you.” Oliver casually changed the radio station. We’ve been driving for two hours or so, and the sky was orange. Was I getting worried? Nope. Honestly, I felt completely at ease. At least, I did with the way I was forcing myself not to think.

Startled, I tore my eyes from the orange hue. Blinking owlishly, I stared at Oliver’s hands gripping the steering wheel before traveling up his arm and finally to his face. He was staring straight ahead, but when he glanced at me, his lips were quirked slightly.

“What?” I asked, disoriented. “Yes, it was. I’ve never been here until I moved…” I trailed off uncertainly, trying to pin his face in my mind with a certain memory excluding the library incident. “Oh, you saw a picture of me from Mum?” I asked brightly.

He pressed his lips into a light smile. “No, Rhode.”

“Oh.” I thought rapidly, but my mind was blank. “Well, from where?”

“There was a soccer game last year.”

My mind flashed and I snapped my fingers. “Oh! You mean the finals? Wow. It’s kind of cool that I was there last year, and now, I’m here with you.”

“With me,” he confirmed.

My smile slowly dimmed as I looked at him from under my lashes. At that moment, he slowed the car before coming to a full stop. I literally had to force myself to look away and glance at our surrounding. We were in an isolated area, a mass of tree twenty feet away or so. My eyebrows drew together in confusion.

“What did you want to show me?”

“It’ll be here,” he said mysteriously, and before I could ask him, he unbuckled his seatbelt and reached behind his seat. He pulled out a white nondescript box. “Here.”

Silently, I took it from him and opened the lid, revealing all sorts of fancy looking sweets ranging from cupcakes to slices of cheesecakes… My eyes widened. Wha…?

“For all those times I stole your cookies,” he said with a shrug when I looked up at him.

I felt my lips pull into a slow smile. If time ever went still, this was the moment I’d want to be in forever.

“Thanks,” I murmured, pulling out a sugar cookie. I held the box out in his direction, but he shook his head. I directed my eyes back outside, noting the darkening sky. I felt myself shivering, but I wasn’t cold. I was gripping the white box on my lap tightly, but I tried to expel the building tension in my chest by exhaling.

“I never did want my mom to marry,” Oliver suddenly spoke up. Sharply, I looked at him, and saw him staring straight ahead. He hands were clenched tightly and his lips were barely moving to form the words. “Especially not to Charles,” he muttered bitterly.

“Jamari’s father?” I asked lightly, literally forcing myself not to reach out and pat his shoulder or squeeze his arm reassuringly.

“I just didn’t like him. He tried to control me like he was my father.” His lips twisted. “My mom was disgustingly in love. She barely paid attention to me, she’d forget about her promises.” He lifted his hand up helplessly before allowing it to drop onto his lap. “She forced me to go, one time, to an amusement park for bonding time. It was just me, Mom, and Charles.” His voice was light, but mocking. I felt my chest start to ache, because Oliver seemed to sad. “I didn’t want to go because I knew I’d be the third wheel.”

He tapped his lap, his face pensive. I patiently waited for him to continue.

“They were feeding each other,” his face was revolted that I couldn’t help but smile a little. “So I decided to walk around before I hit the basketball competition. You pay five bucks to humiliate someone, so I decided that it’d be better to do that than anything else. I won this huge bear. Clearly I didn’t want it.” He made a face and a soft giggle slipped from my mouth.

He glanced at me with a brief smile, and almost instinctively, he opened his right hand. What scared me was I took it into my own without thinking twice.

“I was pretty happy, still, because it was a good competition and I went to my mum to give it to her because I knew she liked stuffed animals. When I saw her, she didn’t - ” He paused, thinking for his words. “She didn’t even care. She was embarrassed because she let me slip by without noticing, and I guess Charles said something. She would never have noticed if he didn’t say anything, I knew that. So she smacked me in front of him when I started arguing. Said I shouldn’t talk back. It wasn’t hard, but it might as well have been.” He shrugged. “She told me to keep the bear.”

My chest felt heavy, and without thinking, I leaned my forehead against his shoulder. I felt his hand slip from mine, only to place it around my back and pulled me flush against him.

I stared at his neck blankly, “What happened after?”

He chuckled a little, “I didn’t care anymore, Rhode. She did her shit, I did mine. That wasn’t the only time, but that was the last straw.” He exhaled before laughing under his breath. I felt the rumbles in his chest, and amused, I looked up at him. He smiled down at me, his brilliant grey eyes forever holding mine. “I guess we did face our fears.”

I grinned brilliantly at him. “I guess,” I conceded jokingly. His arms tightened around me. I lowered my head. “You still have to see her.”

“I know.” It came out as a murmur, the amused atmosphere vanishing as fast as it came.

I smiled, my cheek against his shoulder, inwardly preparing for all the future aches in my chest. Exhaling quietly, I pulled away without any warning and took my respective seat. We sat in silence, my head bowed down, trying not to feel completely and utterly miserable.

“What’s wrong, Sydney?”

I looked at him, his eyes inspecting my face inquisitively, a small frown on his face. I can carry this one more thing on my shoulders. I won’t break down. And with that small pep talk, I looked at him straight in the eyes and lied.

“Absolutely nothing.”

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“Oh, shit.”

The groan was made somewhere to my left. I was suddenly aware of the bright sun glaring at my face and my heavy eyelids.

“Fuck…” It was a male voice, husky with sleep. Almost after, I felt a hand on my shoulder and I was lightly shaken. “Sydney, get up. We‘re late.”

It was Oliver.

My eyes instantly shot open and I abruptly sat up. Oh, God. Moaning, I lowered my head into my arms as I let the lightheadedness pass by. Chuckling, Oliver moved away and stood up.

“Where are we?” I looked up. It wasn’t my room. In fact, it wasn’t even our house. Frowning in confusion, I tilted my head. “Why are we in a hotel room?”

He glanced at me from where he was standing, pulling a shirt over his head. “You don’t remember?” He raised an eyebrow. “It’ll come to you.”

I stared at him blankly. We were in his car until the sun set. Then, he pulled me out to show me something… I frowned thoughtfully.

And then I straightened and looked at him sharply.

He showed me stars. Thousands of them, glistening down at me. I could actually—

“See the stars,” I said, suddenly rapt. “You can’t see anything in this city smog. But it’s be so amazing to see all of them, twinkling down on you. I always use to think that each of them had an individual a face, and when they smiled brightly, that was when they would shine.”

Silently, I watched Oliver. He was ruffling his hair without thinking as he grabbed his cell phone from the table and checked for missed calls, I presumed.

“What?” He was glancing at me from the corner of his eyes, a tiny quirk to his lips. “Remember yet?”

I laughed helplessly. “Yes,” I said. “I remember.” It was late when we decided to head back. He was tired, I didn’t have my license, and I felt that it’d be safer to sleep at a hotel. I don’t remember how I got into the room, though. I frantically thought back, but came up blank.

“I carried you,” his casual voice reached my ears. “I didn’t want to wake you up.” He turned his back on my bewildered face. “Get ready, Rhode, we’re late for school.”

I practically tripped on my two feet as I skipped to the car. Oliver was taking his sweet time, sauntering. I glared at him, my hand shielding my eyes to keep the light of the sun from obscuring my vision.

“Oliver,” I groaned. “I already missed first period. I skipped yesterday! I’m not going to graduate high school at this rate. What am I talking about, you’re not going to graduate! You won’t get accepted into universities because of all your skips… you’re going to become a failure, your parents will kick you out!” I flailed my arms. “You’ll be those hobos I’m going to feel sorry for, and get robbed for trying to be nice by giving some money….”

That actually happened, and the thought made me frown a little. Well. I guess they needed to survive, even if it came down to stealing… I mean, what would I do if I was out in the cold, starving, without a home? I really don’t know.

He yawned. “Really?”

“Yes.”

He looked at me from over the hood of his car. “Would you really let that happen to me?”

Flabbergasted, I watched him unlock his car and get into the driver’s seat without even waiting for my reaction. That was good. It was good because I probably looked like an idiot. What the hell was he referring to?

I slammed the door shut. “Well obviously, Oliver,” I almost had the urge to shake his shoulders, “that’s why I’m saying that we shouldn’t skip anymore.”

He smirked as he pulled out. “Aw, Rhode. You care for me.”

Ignoring the burn of my cheeks, I stubbornly kept my eyes on my window. “No,” I muttered, “I care about what your parents think of you.”

“Okay, sure, we’ll go with that.”

I nearly threw my shoe at him. “You’re not very nice,” I told him, sinking into my seat. “We’re going home first, right?”

“Yeah.” He was quiet for a while. “So… when you leaving?”

I glanced at him. His face was expressionless. “Oh, tonight.” I smiled when he looked at me from the corner of his eyes. “I’m just going to school to get homework and tell my teachers. I’ll be back by Saturday.”

He exhaled, and smirking a little, he tilted his head at me. “You better be.”

My smile instantly lighted my features. “Oliver,” I said, barely containing my giddiness. “Will you…” I paused dramatically, “miss me?” I watched him carefully, ignoring the blush staining my cheeks, and I felt myself smile when I saw his neck instantly tense.

“What’re you talking about?” he muttered. “No.”

I giggled, “Sure, we’ll go with that.”

He smirked at me. “Watch it, Sydney.”

I waggled my eyebrows at him. “I’m growing on you, aren’t I?” I laughed. “Don’t deny it!”

He looked at me for a moment, his eyebrows raised. “What makes you think that?”

“You’re calling me Sydney more often.”

“Well, how do you know I just like Rhode better?”

I grinned, “Well, maybe I can feel it, too.”

“Who knew you had sass, kid.” He was laughing.

A wave of easy silence passed, the radio playing softly in the background. I was bent over my lap, studying for any possible tests or assignments that might have been assigned when I skipped. You can never be too sure.

“What’s your favourite type of book?” Oliver’s voice cut through my thoughts. Blinking, I looked up from my text.

“Um,” I frowned thoughtfully. “Astronomy books,” I answered after a pause. “What about you?”

He paused as well. “Don’t laugh,” was what he said. Puzzled, my lips pressed into a reassuring smile and he let out a heavy sigh. “I like to read Shakespearean literature.” He coughed. “Well, read, as in analyze and -”

I accidentally let a giggle slip.

He glowered, “Rhode.”

I had to laugh. “I’m sorry, Oliver, it’s just -” I gestured to him helplessly. “I never would have guessed. I honestly don’t like Shakespearean lit. I don’t understand what he’s saying, and I have to keep referring to the side notes for translation,” I rubbed my nose. “It’s quite irksome.”

He chuckled. “The language does exaggerate simple sentences,” he mused, tapping the steering wheel.

“Exactly.” I sighed. “Why can’t he just say what he wants to say?”

He snorted amusedly. “As if you’d take your own advice.”

I shut my mouth and glanced at him with a frown. “What’s that supposed to mean?” I said jokingly. He didn’t say anything, and he was lucky that we were pulling into the driveway. Making a face at him, I shot out of the car and ran into the house.

“Sydney Ella Rhode!”

I froze at the staircase, my leg hovering over the step. I heard two pairs of footsteps echoing from somewhere in the kitchen, heading closer towards me. I felt my back burning, and slowly, I turned around. Oliver was behind me, also immobile. He straightened, and I followed his lead.

“Oliver,” Jace growled as Mum and Jace appeared. Mom had bags under her eyes and she looked tired and worn. Jace looked livid, but I also saw the relief present in his face as he glanced between the two of us with narrowed eyes. He directed his glare to his son. “Where the hell have you been?”

Oliver crossed his arms over his chest. “Well, a minute ago I was passing through the doorway.” He pointed to the entrance. “A minute before that I was inside my car -”

“Watch your tongue, boy. I want to know why the hell you didn’t go to your classes; why you both didn’t come home last night!”

Mum looked at me. “Sydney, you never skip.” She frowned. “Where were you? Were you together? Or did Oliver pick you up? Where did you spend the night?”

Oh, God, oh, God. I tried not to hyperventilate, and I inhaled shakily. Their concern was making me panic. What did I tell them? Why didn’t I think of this on the ride back home? Because I’m stupid, that was why. Gah. Obviously they’d make a big deal out of it. They made a big deal when Oliver didn’t come home that one night. With both of their teenage kids gone…

“Um,” I said nervously, “well, we didn’t sleep on the streets, so it’s okay!” I smiled brightly. Their glares never wavered. “No really, it’s okay,” I said honestly, “we got a room at a hotel.”

From the corner of my eyes, I saw Oliver smack his forehead, before sighing heavily and he raised an eyebrow at me, as if to say, Really, Rhode, really?

Gosh. I could practically hear his voice at the back of my head.

Jace looked choked, and Mum said, “A… hotel?”

I nodded furiously. “So, see, it was fine!”

Jace slowly turned to Oliver. “And… what did - ”

Oliver glared at his father. “Don’t even,” he said curtly.

I stared at them blankly, before suddenly, everything clicked. My jaw dropped and I felt my face flame. “No!” I blurted, “Oh, my gosh, we just slept, I promise.” Mercy killing. Oh, my God, why me? “I mean, as in closed our eyes. You know, dreaming? Our clothes were on -” I broke off, resisting the urge to slam my forehead against the wall.

No. No. I was scarred.

Oliver chuckled, and walking to me, he nudged me up the stairs. “Go change, we’ll be late for third at this rate.” His voice was light, and when I looked up at him, he smiled at me.

I couldn’t help but smile back, despite my red face. “Right,” I sighed and turned around, missing the strange look that covered Jace’s face. “I’ll be back!”

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Catching sight of the school building, I felt my pulse suddenly increase and my back go ramrod straight. The easiness and comfort I felt for the past day instantly vanished, and I was alone again, even with Oliver in the car just a few inches away. All the things I’ve managed to forget instantly came flooding back, and the warmth I felt shared between Oliver suddenly felt… imaginary.

“School,” Oliver muttered under his breath. “I can’t wait.”

I cracked a smile, and grabbed my bag. “Me neither,” I mumbled and got out of the car. It was lunch time, and I had two more periods after lunch. At least I made it halfway.

I walked ahead, not bothering to wait for Oliver, even though he was suddenly, and casually walking next to me as he glanced at his cell phone for the time. Discreetly, I furthered myself from him.

“What’re you doing?”

Tensed, I looked at him and saw him smirking a little.

“Nothing,” I blurted, rubbing the side of my face. “Um, nothing.” We reached the front. “Well!” I smiled brightly. “Thanks for the ride, and I shall see you…” I paused briefly, “well, this Saturday! Okay, bye!”

I whirled around, ready to make a run for it, but I wasn’t moving.

He caught me by the back of my shirt.

“Oliver!” I glowered, whirling back to face him. I tried to wrench out of his grip as he threw an arm around my shoulder, leading me in the direction of the cafeteria. “What’re you doing? I want to go to the library.”

“You need to eat,” was what he said.

“I’ll eat in the library!”

“What, you’re going to eat paper?”

I wavered. “W-well, if I have to! But I’m not hungry, so -”

He shoved me through the double doors. “Shut up, Rhode.”

My eyes instantly zeroed a specific table, and they didn’t notice us yet. But then Reese casually looked over the cafeteria, and I swear, she locked eyes with me. Quickly, she lowered her head, and I presume whispered to the rest of the table.

Oh, my God. I shouldn’t even be here.

I turned around, ready to run.

“Running away?” he asked lowly, his eyes daring me to say yes.

My feet suddenly felt like lead. I stared at him for a moment, before I sighed heavily. “No,” I muttered, straightening my back. I wasn’t. Not the way he thinks, because should he even be next to me? No. I sighed again, trying to ignore his hand lightly guiding me (but I’m pretty sure it’s to keep me from running away).

And besides, why the hell did Oliver care if I was or wasn’t at their group?

“Hi, Oliver!”

“Hey, Oliver!”

“Yo, Creston, where were you!”

“Hi, Oliver, come sit; we didn’t see you yesterday.”

“Oliver, how are you?”

I felt my face flaming, and I looked away, silently cursing Oliver for putting me through this. I wouldn’t been happy to sit by myself. I really would. I bit the insides of my cheek, trying to keep a light smile on my face. But this was okay! I was fine, because this was better than scathing remarks, right?

“Hi, Sydney,” Reese’s amused voice came. I looked up and saw her smiling lightly at me. “Where were you yesterday? You missed practice.”

“Oh,” I said, taken aback, trying not to panic. Will they penalize me? Will they kick me out for crap’s sake? OK, OK, I’m calm. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know we had a practice.” I smiled apologetically, scratching the back of my head. “Do you mind if you’ll give me a brief…?”

She smiled reassuringly. “No problem. After today’s practice.”

I smiled weakly. “Thank you.” I noted the one chair meant for Oliver at the table and I glared at it for a while before brightening. “OK, it was nice to—” I began walking backwards. Oliver watched me, amusement clearly in his eyes. “Um, I’m going to go and buy—”

“Are you lying to me, Rhode?”

I tried not to meet his gaze. “No.” From the corner of my eyes, I caught sight of Isaiah and my legs nearly buckled in relief. “Oh, look, it’s Isaiah! I need to tell him something!”

Without waiting for his reaction, I practically threw myself in front of Isaiah. He stopped abruptly, his face frozen, before he relaxed when his eyes ran over my expression.

I suddenly noted the similarities in their smile. Tilting his head, he smirked a little. “Running away?” His eyes flickered to the side where the Jocks and Cheerleaders were situated, and smiling brightly, I locked arms with his.

“Nope!” I persuaded him to start walking.

Isaiah grinned down at me and casually tilted his head back. “Just so you know, Oliver looks like he wants to rip my head off my shoulders.”

I looked up at him. “Why?”

Isaiah shrugged, a mischievous glint to his eyes. “I don’t know, Sydney…” He trailed off, before abruptly, his arm circled around my waist and I was suddenly in his arms, bridal style. My surprised shriek caught the attention of those around us, and amused laughter lit the room. My arm went around his neck and I clutched his shoulder for support.

“Isaiah,” I said breathlessly, all air knocked out of my lungs. Glaring, I looked up at him, but his smile was too wide and boyish for me to truly get angry. I ended up laughing. “You’re so mean!”

“You’re pretty light,” he commented as he pushed us out the doors and out of the cafeteria.

“I guess that’s a good thing for you.” I giggled lightly and wriggled in his arms. “Thanks, I needed to get away from Oliver.” I jumped out of his arms. “Are you going to Oliver’s mum’s birthday?”

“Yeah, and I’m guessing you are too?”

I sighed, “Only to get Oliver to go,” I grumbled good-naturedly and nudged him. “So I’m going to go and get my homework. Thanks again, Isaiah.”

He threw an arm over my shoulder. “I’ll come with you.”

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So Dad and Marie didn’t know I was coming today. They thought I was coming tomorrow, but nope! I leaned back comfortably against the seat of the bus, observing the passing scenery. I’ll be at the station in ten minutes or so, where Paige told me she’d pick me up. She would get any excuse to use her brother’s car… The thought made me giggle.

Quelling my shriek, I jumped in surprise when I felt an odd sensation on my bum. It took me a moment to realize that it was my cell phone that vibrated.

It was a text message.

Thanks for the good bye, brat.

I had to laugh.

Sorry, Oliver. Bye (:

No, shut up.

Aw, but I really am sorry!

Sure.

Smiling, I closed my phone after reading the reply. I saw the station out the window, and I felt glee spreading throughout my body. This could be my break. Funny how the place I thought was hell would be my sanctuary.

Rhode.

I got off the bus and looked up briefly, trying to locate a certain dirty-blonde head.

Creston?

“SYDNEY!”

Laughing, I whirled around and saw a girl around my age, arms opened wide, running full speed towards me. I felt my phone vibrate in my hand, and I looked down.

Take care.

My lips pressed into a smile, just as Paige barreled into me.

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Author’s note: We’re almost there, darlings.