Olivia pulled her knees to her chest as she waited for the family meeting to start. James came to sit by her, and she nodded in reply to him and then sweetly rested her head on his shoulder. Riley stood in front of everyone, and then James covered Olivia’s ears as Riley started pelvic thrusting into the air. Unfortunately just a tad too late, as Olivia heard Kylie’s comment about Claire being an easy slut. It seemed like a jab at Olivia’s virginity status, not the Kylie knew anything about that. As far as anyone was concerned, Olivia was still a pure innocent little girl. Shame and self-hate filled her mind. She bit her bottom lip and stared down at the floor. Kylie was kind of right, it was basically her fault that [i]He[/i] had done that to her, she had to be asking for it in some way like a slut right? She wondered if she should just tell everyone the truth right now. What would they all think, what would they do? 

She remained silent as she looked back up at Riley, and buried the thought of speaking up inside her heart. Olivia raised her eyebrows at Riley, just like their mother always did when she wanted Rye to stop with the pervert stuff. When Riley pulled out the old beanie baby, Olivia smiled remembering their parents happily bringing it out for family meetings and peace talks between bickering siblings. James uncovered her ears, since the mischief seemed to be over.  She fidgeted with the end of her left braid as she always did anytime she was feeling anxious or nervous. Riley began the summery of today’s terrible events. She was not really listening, but he caught her attention with two words... ”Elliot’s Back”. She lifted her head from James’s shoulder and listened for more information. 

Elliot Longstreet had lived on their block her whole life up until about five years ago when he vanished. He had been Sophia’s best friend, and Olivia’s first crush. In fact she remembered asking Elliot to marry her when she was five years old. She had been dressed in a juice stained Cinderella costume and a plastic tiara, when she handed Elliot a bundle of flowers she picked out of her mom’s garden. [color=A9D0F5]“When I grow up will you marry me?”[/color] She had asked giving him puppy eyes and hugging his leg. Olivia’s cheeks turned red for a split second remembering her embarrassing past. She had been completely infatuated with Elliot when she was little, and spent a good amount off her childhood following him and Sophia around the neighborhood on her pink hello kitty bike. The one Elliot had taught her to ride without training wheels when she was six. As long as she was not annoying Sophia, she was usually welcomed along on their tween adventures, typically riding piggy back on Elliot. 

Then Riley explained their mother’s medical marijuana use to Olivia, and she just glanced over at Kylie rather peeved. She sighed looking back at Riley who still had the beanie baby, though no one seemed to be respecting the beanie baby talking rule. The idea of changing the diner in anyway hurt her inside. It was their parents dream. She understood they were under a lot of stress, and it was a burden but she didn’t want anything else to change, too much had already. 

Olivia wished she could help her family more. She wished that she was older and could take over the diner and stop being a burden to her older siblings. Their lives were on hold all because she was too young to legally take care of herself. They should be starting their lives and doing what they pleased without worry. Their mom had been so proud when they got accepted to college, and Mom would gush about her early twenties. She would talk about how she backpacked through Europe with her friends, joined a sorority, how she met Dad at a Duran Duran concert in California, and then they joined the Peace Corps straight out of college. Dad had his stories too, about his time before marriage and babies. He always talked about how he got his pilot license; how he was a bar tender in Vegas, that one time he sat next to Cindy Crawford on a flight to Australia for a surfing competition, and he would talk about the summer when he and his friends followed their favorite band on tour all across the west coast.  

Olivia said nothing though; as she let her siblings make the decision about the diner.