Olivia (28 page)

“
God damn it, Jon! Stop talking to
me like we’re
peers
... like we’re
equals
in this! You’re just a
kid
, for Christ’s sake! The
hell
I’m going to respect your privacy! The
hell
I’m going to let my daughter be alone
with you anymore!”

I put my hand on the knob, but my mom pulls it away
quickly, putting her finger over her mouth, telling me to be
quiet.

“
Jack, that’s not fair–”

“
I thought I’d done a good job
protecting her, all her life...” My dad sounds sullen.

“
You did. But I’m not a predator.
I’m not going in for the kill. She doesn’t need you to protect her
from me, because I’m not going to hurt her. I respect her as my
friend and as the woman I love.” I hear Dad laugh at Jon’s use of
the word ‘woman.’ “Accept that she’s growing up, Jack. The longer
you postpone this realization, the harder it’s going to be on both
of you... and the further it’s going to drive you two apart. She
loves me. You forget that.”

“
She loves me, as well.”

“
Are we having a pissing contest
now?”

“
Please,” my dad says, his voice
disgusted.

“
Are you going to make her choose
who she loves more? Because I can guarantee you it will be the man
who’s not giving her an ultimatum. Livvy doesn’t respond well to
those. You should know that about her.”

“
Don’t tell me I don’t know my own
daughter.” I can tell his teeth are gritted, and his voice is
threatening.

“
Well, then you have to realize
that keeping us apart is not going to help your relationship with
her. It won’t. If that’s what you intend to do, I’ll be up front
with you right now. I’ll do everything I can to see her. We’ll
sneak around.” I look up at my mom, feeling my cheeks flush. It
actually looks like she’s smiling at me.

“
We’ll lie,” Jon continues. “She’ll
leave you wondering where she’s going, all the time. You’ll
constantly be wondering who she’s with and what she’s doing. You
can have it that way, or you can just accept the fact that I’m here
to stay, and not force us to lie to you. Neither of us wants
that.”

My mom holds my hand in hers and squeezes it
tightly.

“
In all the days I’ve known you,”
my father says, his voice softer now, “I don’t think I’ve ever
disliked you as much as I do right now.”

“
I understand,” Jon says, his words
still confident.

“
I don’t like your honesty, and I
especially don’t like the fact that you’re right.” I look up at Mom
and smile.

“
I’m sorry?” Jon asks,
surprised.

“
I’m not saying it
again.”

“
Yes, sir. I mean, Jack. Of course,
Jack.”

“
That being said, I don’t approve
of what you two have decided to do. I would ask that you at least
consider my request to wait until after she graduates to...” Dad
doesn’t finish his sentence, but Jon answers,
nonetheless.

“
Of course I’ll consider it.”
There’s no way I’ll consider it,
though.

Dad’s heavy footsteps warn us that they’re coming.
Mom and I rush to the couch, sitting down just as he opens the
door.

“
Emi,” he calls out to my mom, “can
you start checking some of those sites you were looking at
earlier?” Jon walks back into the dining room, ahead of my father.
Mom and I follow them, both of us a little stunned still from their
conversation. Jon’s checking on his computer, but he glances at me
quietly, looking pretty pale.

I pull out my laptop and hand it to Mom. Moving to
the other side of the table, I watch over her shoulder. The photo
is gone from the first website, with a small message in the space
where it had once been.

“
The picture that
had been posted here previously was a photo manipulation. We
apologize for the misinformation, and regret posting it. We had no
intention of publishing libelous material about the parties
involved.”
Our names had been removed completely,
too.

Mom looks at Dad, impressed. Impatiently, I click to
another site. They have a similar statement, with no photo. A third
website follows suit. “Did you have to call all of these sites?”
Mom asks.

“
We left that to Hollis,” Dad says
plainly. “He got them to post it within an hour–I figure he can get
it removed in roughly the same amount of time. Of course it will
never be gone completely.”

“
I told him it was an art
project–that it was a manipulation using a model’s body. We also
reminded him that you’re technically still a minor. That leaves no
doubt of its illegal nature. I figured that would scare everyone
into removing it,” Jon says softly. I guess the adrenaline is gone,
because he sounds as if all life has been zapped from his
body.

“
Jon’s pretty fast on his feet,” my
dad says, going into the formal dining room for a drink. “I don’t
know that I should be impressed that he’s such an accomplished
liar, but it works out in our favor this time.”

“
I feel awful,” Jon says. “I’d do
anything to fix this.”

“
Well, with your carefully crafted
lie and my threat of a lawsuit, I think we’ll get past this
relatively unscathed. But I’m sure Livvy will be haunted by that
picture for quite some time,” Dad says.

“
I’m sorry,” Jon sighs heavily,
running his fingers through his hair, looking at me
remorsefully.

“
Should I order in dinner?” Mom
asks.

“
I’m not hungry,” Dad
says.

“
Me, neither,” Jon adds.

“
Pizza, Liv?” Mom asks.

I shrug, feeling hunger after the relief sets
in.

“
You two are excused, if you need
to go talk for awhile,” Dad says. “Keep it in the media
room.”

“
I know,” I say quietly, leading
the way to the basement. “What exactly happened with
Hollis?”

“
Just what he said. Plus, your dad
can be quite imposing when he wants to be. I don’t think I needed
to lie to Hollis to get him to take action. He was genuinely scared
of your dad.

“
But he wasn’t sure how to get the
sites to take it down. That’s where I came in.”

“
It’s brilliant,” I say with a
smile. “Thank you for thinking of it.”

“
Olivia, I am so sorry this
happened.”

“
I know you never meant for it to.
I’m not mad at you. But I will inflict bodily harm on that ass if I
ever have to see him again.”

“
I’m going to request a transfer.
I’m pretty sure he could get expelled for something like this,
anyway. Not that I’m going to push for that... I just don’t want to
share a room with someone who’s that untrustworthy.”

“
Good.” I start to rub his right
shoulder when I realize he’s changed clothes. “You weren’t wearing
this earlier.”

“
No, your dad suggested I change
into something with
less
holes
in it,” he explains with a blush. “I think he
pretty much just hates everything about me right now. It was an old
concert t-shirt. I didn’t expect to see any of you today, and I
came over as quickly as I heard.

“
Oh, and subsequently, your dad saw
my tattoo.”

“
He did?” After a year of Jon
having the quote inked on his back, it had become a part of him
that I didn’t think was so scandalous or remarkable anymore. Just
sentimental–and ours, until now.

“
Yeah. It never even occurred to
me. I had on an undershirt so I just quickly pulled the old shirt
off, and while I was putting the other on, he just said,
‘
Twelfth Night
. Did you get that for
Livvy?’ I froze for a second, but then put this shirt on and turned
around and admitted that I had. I wasn’t aware your dad knew
Shakespeare so well.”

“
Yeah, he does. So he wasn’t mad
about it?”

“
He was already in a heightened
state of agitation, what with all of this happening, but it didn’t
seem to make matters worse. Once we left Hollis in the dorm room,
his demeanor changed entirely.”

“
Like how?”

“
He was really quiet. Lots of small
talk. I started to think maybe I’d misunderstood you when you said
you’d told them
everything
about that
night. But obviously that wasn’t the case. I don’t guess you heard
what just happened.”

“
Oh, we heard.”

“
Well, I didn’t mean the last part.
I won’t consider waiting–that is, unless you want to.”

“
I don’t.”

His smile is big.

“
He’s on to us about Mykonos,
though.”

“
I know. I think you did a better
job of keeping that to yourself than I did. I may have given it
away to my mom.”

“
Given what away? Nothing happened,
Olivia,” he says with a smile. “That’s
our
truth.”

I smile and lean in to kiss him.

“
I want that night to be ours and
ours alone. That’s what we agreed, right?”

“
Yeah.”

“
I have to be honest, Liv. I’m not
sure how things are going to go after tonight...”

“
You held your own,” I say to him
encouragingly.

“
Yeah, but with Mykonos...” He
pauses for a second. “I kind of hope that’s the last lie I have to
tell him.”

“
I don’t like lying to him either.
Or to Mom.”

“
It kind of feels like it’s all out
there now. If he gives us the privacy I asked for, I feel like I
need to give him the honesty he deserves.”

“
Yeah. I’m sure it will be next to
impossible for us to do anything we’d want to lie about anyway, now
that they know.”

“
Yeah,” he agrees regretfully.
“It’s okay, Liv. We’ll get through this. You graduate in five
months–”

“
But I’m not eighteen for another
nine and a half months. I’m pretty sure that’s the benchmark my
parents will latch on to–well, that or when I move out for school
next fall.”

“
What in the hell did you do,
Little Liv?” my uncle announces his presence from half-way down the
stairs. He pauses as soon as he sees me and Jon on the couch. “That
wasn’t really you, was it?”

We both nod our heads in sync, finding no point in
lying to my uncle. “What we admit in the basement, though, stays in
the basement. Okay, Matty?”

He laughs and agrees to my terms, going quickly to
his room to set down his messenger bag. “Emi had me bring pizza
home. It’s upstairs, if you’re hungry.”

“
Are you going to leave?” I ask
Jon.

“
Nah, my computer’s going to take
another three hours, at least. Jack said I could stay until it’s
done.” I look at my watch and grin, happy that I’ll get some
unexpected time with him. He follows me upstairs, but he stays
quiet as Dad and Matty talk about current events while Mom and I
eat dinner. Jon’s clearly shaken by this, because he’d normally be
leading such a conversation.

After Jon leaves that evening, my mom comes down to
tell me good night. “I don’t think your dad would admit it, but I
know Jacks has a lot of respect for him, Livvy. I know his heart
was broken when you told us what you and Jon had done, but if you
two continue to be good–and to be honest with us–I think he’ll
forgive him. I’m not happy that you’ve decided to grow up so fast,”
she says, “but I don’t think you could have made a better choice in
a first love.”

“
I love him so much,
Mom.”

“
I know, sweetie. I truly hope it
lasts. I see how invested you both are, and I’d honestly hate to
see either of you hurting.”

“
You like him too,” I state
smugly.

“
I adore him,” she admits. “But
whatever happens, Livvy, just know I’m always here for
you
, okay?”

“
Thanks, Mom.”

Trey is the center of attention this Christmas,
which is completely fine with me. After last year, I’m happy to
have the focus shift to someone else.

And fortunately, it’s all good attention my brother
is getting, too. Having a stress-free house is the best Christmas
gift I could ask for.

After spending Christmas Eve with Frederick’s
family, Jon will be spending today with mine. I’ve invited him to
do everything with us over the holiday break because I know he has
nowhere else to go, and I know he misses his brothers very much.
I’ll do anything I can to help get his mind off of things.

Trey greets him at the door, pointing his Christmas
present at my boyfriend.

“
Hi, Trey,” Jon says as he smiles
and waves to the small video camera. “Making a movie?”

“
Yes!” my brother says excitedly. I
can’t wait to hear how that will sound, with his mouth being so
close to the mic. I still think he’s too young for the gift, but
with Matty in the house, constantly talking about set design and
movie-making, it was either the camera or a jigsaw. It was an easy
choice. “Go over there,” Trey instructs Jon, pointing to me on the
other side of the living room.