Loving Oliver

【Ｃｈａｐｔｅｒ ２９ Ｌｏｖｉｎｇ Ｔｈｅ Ｆｒｉｅｎｄ Ｇｒｏｕｐ... Ａｎｄ Ｉ'ｍ Ｗｉｎｇ Ｗｏｍａｎ ｏｆ ｔｈｅ Ｙｅａｒ】

【Ｃｈａｐｔｅｒ　２９　Ｌｏｖｉｎｇ　Ｔｈｅ　Ｆｒｉｅｎｄ　Ｇｒｏｕｐ...　Ａｎｄ　Ｉ'ｍ　Ｗｉｎｇ　Ｗｏｍａｎ　ｏｆ　ｔｈｅ　Ｙｅａｒ】

Sam, Owen and I made it home after the library. Owen was smirking the entire ride there and I managed to sit between them so that Owen's smug attitude wouldn't piss off Sam too much. Sam tried to fight a soft smile as he watched the winding road back to our home but I could still see it.

His time spent with Bronte had an effect on him and I hadn't seen him this happy since getting here. It was so sweet but I suppressed the urge to tell Sam and embarrass him further than he already was.

But this afternoon was different. Things were beginning to feel different and I couldn't put my finger on it. And I just knew that I had made the decision and I would stick with it.

I was going to go after Ollie. If Oliver couldn't remember us, or himself then I would help.

We would start all over again. I would make new memories with Ollie and maybe just maybe we would fall in love all over again.

But I'd have to be careful because I wouldn't sacrifice Ollie's health to do it.

~~~~~

"Hey, can I help?" I find myself sitting at the breakfast table in our kitchen as Sam stands over the pan of baked chicken that he's making for our dinner. Owen is finishing setting the table around me.

I had been reading a book on string theory for the last half hour and been content in the warm kitchen with my brother and Owen floating across the room preparing dinner. I had offered to help twice already but each time Sam had shook his head no and told me to enjoy my book.

I think the guilt came because aside from Ollie, I couldn't remember the last time someone had cooked for me.

Well that wasn't true, mom had hired a chef years ago but that didn't count. I couldn't remember the last time someone cooked for me when they weren't paid to do it.

I wanted to help Sam.

"No, we're just about ready here anyway Kid. No worries, Just enjoy that book of your's." Sam nodded to me before he began making the salad he insisted I have tonight because of my cotton candy overload yesterday.

"It's so much easier to grasp the concepts when Ollie breaks it down for me. He's always been better at taking apart an idea to understand it and then reconstructing it in a way I would understand it." I find myself explaining as I mark my page and close the book leaning back with my glass of lemonade.

"He was into a lot of science and astronomy?" Sam asks me briefly looking up before he returns to the cucumber he adds in the salad.

"Oh absolutely. I mean Ollie is so so so smart. He's genuinely interested in a lot of things. At first I thought it was only because he had to learn all these things for some of his college courses but I was completely wrong. Oliver loves learning it's really incredible. Anything that can challenge him or his thinking really inspires him. He love's politics and law and he loves anthropology too. But we kind of bonded over science and stars." I reply thinking back to the first time Ollie came over to my house.

He brought baking soda and vinegar and I was so nervous until he explained everything about the experiment to me. We spent the first hour making the paper mache volcano and then let it dry before we painted and designed it.

I had had so much fun with him. He took time to teach me how to perform each step and then when the Volcano exploded over the entire kitchen because I used a little too much baking soda we ended up laughing until pieces of our paper mache volcano fell off the ceiling of my mom's chef kitchen.