Love Me, I Dare You

Chapter 3 - Lucia

It wasn't often that there was an outburst at the shop. Hell, most days were pretty boring, so when the little Artadi-Macias's boy, Olivia's little brother, snapped in the shop, quite loudly may I add, it wasn't something that went unnoticed.

"Oh, fuck," Afri sighed next to me. Her eyebrows furrowed as she stared at the siblings at the far end of the shop.

Afri took her apron off and made her way to the scene but as soon as she got there, Julian walked away, leaving Afri and Olivia behind.

Afri sat in front of Olivia, seemed to be trying to talk to her, even reached out to grab Olivia's hand but Olivia didn't seem to be there at all. And suddenly, we were back to a situation that we've been in a little too often: Olivia having one of her moods and Afri trying to calm her down, trying to be loving and understanding. Afri always tried with Olivia and who could reproach it? She loved Olivia but I think she needed to realise that you couldn't help someone that didn't want help, someone that didn't see the wrong in what she did.

I knew what losing a loved one was like, how badly it hurt... and Olivia, instead of accepting the love and support her family was trying to give her, she pushed them all away, she rejected them and refused any help. I shouldn't get involved in her stuff, I shouldn't care at all but there was something about the way her mother would practically beg Olivia to let her in that hit home for me. I know that everybody had family issues, it was something inevitable. I had my own shitty relationship with mine, but Olivia's parents tried. They wanted to be there for her, to show her that they loved her and wanted her around. Mine didn't even bother to check on me when I left.

From what I understood, all Olivia's parents wanted was for her to stop by their house once in a while, for her to show up once or twice... but she never did. Instead she threw away the money they gave her and tried really hard to keep away from them. She was so fucking lucky and all she did was throw it all away.

There was a time where I would've given anything for my parents to try. To at least acknowledge the pain I was in, all the fucked up shit that was happening. Olivia had all that, she had caring parents, she had their support... yes, I know losing a brother was something unimaginable, but she still had her family, they loved her and wanted her around and she pushed them away, she seemed angry that they were even trying...

She was so fucking ungrateful for it, she didn't even seem to care that so many people would kill to have what she still had.

She was like a little girl, a little girl that had no regard for anyone's feelings but her own. I watched the scene as Afri tried to get through to her but she just sat there, letting Afri's words fall into nothing.

Olivia stood up, leaving Afri with her words hanging out of her mouth and walked out of the shop. And there she went, probably on her way to create chaos wherever she went with no intention to fix any of it once she was done. That was Olivia. And I got it. She was hurting. But we all hurt, the difference was that Olivia had the luxury to break, she could mess around, destroy a couple of things because she knew her parents had her, they wouldn't allow anything bad to stain her record, her future... and that? That pissed me off.

I know it wasn't her fault. But she just made it so easy for people to dislike her. Stupid reckless little girl, she'd be nothing without her parents' money.

"Do you want me to call Leslie?" Afri sighed once she was in front of me. The worry was clear on her face.

"No, it's fine." I said, "She probably won't come home, anyway."

When Olivia had a bad day, we knew her way of getting rid of her bad mood was by having parties, getting drunk or high and having music so loud that I couldn't even hear myself think, I didn't like being home when it was like that, I didn't feel safe, so I often stayed at a friend's house. I didn't care what Olivia did in her free time or what she put in her body, that was her choice, whatever, but whenever she had those parties? There'd be people we didn't know, and most of them would always get high. I had an issue with that.