Location: Simonè's Coffee Cafè
Interacting With: Olivia Johnson with Grant Wells
Olivia had prepared for the Memorial service at school today. She had even picked out the black dress she would be wearing to the sombre event, where several people had lost their loved ones to the tragic tragedy that had befallen the sleepy town of Verona. But no, despite all the preparations she had done to prepare herself for the event, it seems like fate didn't want her to attend the event after all. And, it all because of that ill-fated crash that rang through the house that early morning. She was already fully dressed, doing some minimal primping in front of her dressing mirror, when a loud crash echoed throughout the house. It seemed to came from the stairs outside her room, and rather taken aback, she opened the door to her room. She could hear a commotion down the stairs, and the voices of her parents, most notably, her mother. She hurried down the steps, only to see her father lying in a crumpled heap at the bottom of the stairs, clearly in agony.
Her mother rushed off amongst cries of alarm and dismay, helping her husband up as she did so.
"What happened?" Olivia queried. "I'm pretty sure, I'm just tripped and fell down the stairs. My head hurts, and I'm starting to see stars. Thee last thing I remember was me losing my footing and stepping onto nothing." Mrs Johnson caressed the back of her husband's head, searching for any signs of injury. She found a small bump that was definitely going to be developing into a bruise. "We best get that looked at. Head injuries are nothing to joke about. Let's get you to the hospital." Olivia fixed an anxious gaze at her father. She was unsure at what was going on, but her dear father clearly looked in pain.
"I'll accompany you to the doctor as well!" Just like that, the Johnson family bundled into one car and made their way to the hospital near the town centre. By the time, they were at the hospital, the Memorial service was already well on its way. Looks like she would be missing the entire thing.
While she was in the hospital's lobby, lounging around waiting for parents to come out from the consultation room, her phone rang, its quirky Super Mario message tone gave out a cry. A text from Grant. The only thing that could brighten up her day just did. Grant. Oh, how much she loved that boy. It was a secret of course, and no one knew but her. She'd convinced her that it would be better that way. As much as loved him, she didn't want to risk jeopardising the great thing they had going on if he didn't feel the same way. That would be incredibly awkward, and things would never be the same again. Grant wanted to meet her at Simonè’s, the coolest cafè in town. He really needed to talk to her, and she was always happy to talk to him.
Hey Grant! I'm so sorry, I couldn't be there with you to attend the service. My dad fell and had an accident and we had to send him to the doctors. I'll be at Simonè’s as soon as I can! I'm looking forward to seeing you! I'm leaving in a bit, as soon I inform my parents.
Just as she finished sending the text back to Grant, her parents came out from the doctor's room. Olivia got up from her seat.
"How is it?" Her mother did a brief waving gesture in the air. "Oh, its nothing. Everything seems to be fine. He'll be real sore for a couple of days though with a bruise." Olivia gave out a sigh of relief, now that she knew her father was going to be fine. Grabbing her backpack, she then informed her parents.
"I've got to get going now. I'm meeting Grant." Without waiting for a reply, she quickly left the hospital and started making her way to the cafè, a common meeting point for just about everybody in town. In about fifteen minutes or so, Olivia finally made her way to Simonè’s, her golden tresses and the hem of her black dress fluttering lightly in the breeze that seemed to come without warning. Looking around, she spotted Grant sitting at one of the tables outside the cafè, alone. She walked up behind him, hugging him by the neck, uttering a
"Heya!" before releasing him, and taking up a seat on the opposite side of him. She was definitely pleased to Grant again.
When Olivia sat down, there were two cups of White Chocolate Mocochas waiting. One of them were for Olivia and the other for Grant.
"Hey Liv!" Grant said excitingly, a wide smile plastered over his face. But it was a false smile. Grant couldn't hide his previous worry that much. He couldn't hide it entirely. He just couldn't, especially in front of Olivia.
"I'm so glad you are safe." Grant, again, put that facade of a smile on for Liv, thinking it might be able to hinder her detection of his great worry. His hand somehow found it on Olivia's. Perhaps an uncontrollable reflex or partially his own doing, Grant wouldn't know. It just seemed to happen.
As Olivia sat down, she noticed a cup of White Chocolate Mocha sitting in front of her. Seems like Grant had taken the liberty of ordering for her.
Why not? He knew what she liked anyway. As she gazed at him, she noticed that something wasn't quite right. He was smiling of course, but they have known each other long enough to be able to differentiate genuine feelings from false ones. Grant seemed to either be bothered by something or he was hiding something from her. She lifted the cup from the table, taking a couple of sips, before placing it down onto the saucer. It was then that he spoke for the first time said he said hi. He was glad she was safe. Must have been the story she'd had heard about the murder of Rachel Lewis, at school earlier, when she had conveniently missed because of the issue with her father. Olivia answer him.
"I'm glad you're safe as well, considering you were at school when you happened." Narrowing her eyes as she continued to fix a gaze onto him, she inquired,
"Is something the matter? You look like something is bothering you deeply. What was it you wanted to talk about so urgently anyway. Sounds really important."She had saw through his facadè. What was Grant even thinking? Of course she saw through it. This person in front of him, sipping her White Chocolate Mocha, knew him for the longest time — almost as long as Tess has.
"Yeah, I guess you can say that," Grant said, looking down at his coffee briefly. He was unsure how to proceed to what he texted her so urgently for. After about half of a minute, he looked up at her, smiling softly.
"Seeing Rachel's body, hanging there lifelessly, opened my eyes to a lot of things. We aren't on this planet for that long. Considering the recent events with all of us getting these weird abilities, the longevity of our lives might be cut somewhat short." The usually quiet, verbally-minimal Grant was not present today. He was replaced with a more thoughtful, talkative version of the guy he normally was.
As Grant spoke, Olivia placed her hand onto his, slipping her fingers into his, gripping him for moral support. She would do anything to support him, anything for him, really. Seeing a person die, or a dead person could often led one to do things one would normally not do. She read that in a book before somewhere, sometime ago. Giving his hand a little squeeze, she said.
"Don't worry G, I'm not planning on going anywhere, and I hope you aren't too." The death must have shaken him up considerably as the boy began talking with a purpose, his speech and words suddendly impactful and confident. The usually timid and unconfident boy was no where to be seen today. This must have been more serious than she thought it would be. Feeling the warmth with her hand in his, with their fingers interlocked, she said
"Is there anything I can do to help? I know you might be going through a rough time and all, seeing such a thing."Though he looked at her somberly, Grant gave Olivia a smile as he felt her hand squeeze his.
"Thank you, Liv. You've always been there for me and Tess too, especially when Janice died," Remembering that time brought a frown to Grant's face. Seeing Rachel's body brought him back to that time when his cousin died, specifically how Tess pretty much lost her whole world. Only recently has Grant seen her get better. Perhaps it had something to do with Austin.
"I-I think today showed me just how much I appreciate you, Liv. I thought I saw you today at the crime scene, but it wasn't. I think that's when I realized—" Grant cut himself off abruptly, a strange sensation starting to fill his stomach. What could it possibly be?
"I know it's difficult, so I've always tried to be there for you whenever I can." Olivia then giggled at the thought of Grant mistaking her for someone else at the memorial service at school.
"You thought you saw me? Oh that must have been embarassing. One might have thought that you missed me too much or something!" She ended with a joke, seeing it fit to do so.
Yeah, Tessa seems especially close to Austin recently. Perhaps they were an item? "I appreciate you as well G, you know I do." Cocking her head sideways, she gave him a puzzling look as he cut himself mid-sentence.
"You realised what? Why made you stop halfway?" Olivia gave her best friend another quizzical look. He most certainly was acting weird today,
perhaps the incident at school had shorted his brain out? That was a possibility, considering the fact that he was acting the way he was.
"Something's really wrong isn't it?""I, uh," Grant tried to collect himself. He needed to say it and he wanted to do it without studdering or rambling. "
“I realized that, ever since I can remember, you’ve been there by my side. You were there when we were all in elementary school and the kids used to pick on me, calling me G-spot. You stood up for me when King couldn’t. You were there for Tess and I when Janice was murdered unexpectedly. You were there when everyone, despite us being friends since our K-years, didn’t want to hang out with me. You’ve always been there, Liv.” Grant’s words suddenly stopped, his hand squeezing hers warmly. There was a light sprinkle of tears dropping from Grant’s eyes as he spoke sincerely.
“I hate myself that it took a tragedy like Rachel dying to realize how much you really mean to me.” Grant leaned closer, as if wanting to look her directly in the eyes.
“I never once thought that, through all the time you were there by my side, that I would end up falling in love with my best friend.” Grant finally said it. All of the years that they have been best friends has been leading up to this moment. The moment that Grant told Olivia his true feelings for her.
And then it came. The bombshell. The Grant equivalent of a fat man and little boy. He began spilling his heart to her, reminsicing about the elementary years, when they were already together, friends, and their peers would already began picking on him, calling him G-spot because he was so sensitive. Everytime she heard them call him that, she would always yell back,
"He's G-SHOCK! not G-SPOT!" Back then, watches like Baby G and G-Shock were really popular, and that was the only thing she could think of that hopefully reversed the effect of the negative word being used on him. Olivia had been there for Grant ever since. She'd been there when Janice died, and she's here now. As he began pouring his heart out, she began to see tears welling up in his eyes, beads of tears dropping off his face. She leaned forward, catching the tears on her fingers.
"Don't cry G, you'll make me sad too." Then the real bombshell came.
He said the 'L' word. He said he
loved her. Olivia was stunned, completely taken aback. She would never in a million years thought he would love her as well. She had carried a torch for him, for a long while now, probably even longer than he had, and now she knew that the feelings were mutual. Tears began to well up within her eyes as well. It was something she had always wanted but had never dared ask. Now that she knew he felt the same way, she would let her true feelings be known as well.
"I'm been in love with you for a long time Grant, for a long time now. I would've never had imagined that you felt the same." She ended as she caressed his hand lovingly.
"You love me too?" Grant was surprised as much as she was. He didn't think it was the same for her. Never would he had thought she felt the same way as he did for her. There was never a moment that it would occur to him. He always thought it was a one-way street on this express way to Lovesville. Who knew that he was wrong?
"Had I known you felt the same way, I would have told you sooner — and there were so many times I wanted to," Grant felt himself laughing through the remnants of his tears, looking at Olivia with a wide smile.
"I just can't believe this. We were both in the same place and still we didn't confess," Grant couldn't help but find a laugh or two out of the situation. He and Olivia both felt the same way for each other and both were too afraid to say anything. Gotta love irony.
It was a rather peculiar situation the couple had found themselves in. Both of them actually had feelings for each other, and yet not one of them actually said anything! As Grant started laughing through his tears, Olivia began chuckling along with him as well. The situation they had found themselves in was so ironic that she couldn't help but laugh out loud along with him. She got up from her seat, stepping over next to him, before pulling him up from his seat, giving him a warm hug as she did so.
"I'm really glad I'm with you G. I can't imagine life without you. I'm so glad you feel the same way.""I couldn't either, Liv. I don't even want to think about life without you." Closing his eyes, Grant embraced Olivia. He felt the warmth of her arms around him and he smiled. There was an overwhelming feeling of happiness going through Grant's body right now. In the entire time he has been best friends with her, Grant never felt as close to Olivia as he did at this very moment. Feeling her arms around him, feeling her body lightly snug agianst his. This must be what real love felt like. That feeling of never wanting to leave someone's side. It was something that was relatively new to Grant, yet, as he rested his head on her shoulder, Grant felt as if this was one of the most natural feelings he could ever experience.
Lifting his head up from her shoulder and breaking the hug for a moment, Grant gazed into her beautiful, bluish, almost gray eyes. He had known her to have eyes of a rare shade, but today seemed to make them pop out to him even more. In his mind, he was thinking that here she was, the one person whom he confessed his love to received them back tenfold and now he and her had this moment to do what they wanted. Forget it being in a public space. Grant felt as if that was just a detail that didn't matter, not at the moment it didn't. Grant brought his left hand to her right cheek. For a moment, he was holding his breath, as if anxious about what came next. He then, slowly but steadily, cocked his head slightly and embraced her lips with his own. It was soft and a lot of love went behind it.
The last thing Olivia remembered was being in a hug with Grant. Now, he had pulled her back, caressing her right cheek with his left hand. As his hazel eyes gazed affectionately into her own blue-gray ones, she return the loving gaze to him. Before she even realised what was happening, he brought his lips onto hers, giving her a passionate kiss. It was their first kiss, and all she had to do now was savour the moment, and enjoy the experience.