Duets

(6) Measure in Love, Seasons of Love

Olive knows that she is breaking Drew's heart because she's breaking her own at the same time.

She can't stand to see the sad look in his eyes anytime they see each other and another bruise is blossoming on her skin. She attempts to hide any with makeup, but it's not necessarily easy to cover a baseball-sized bruise on her stomach when every time she breathes she can feel her insides breaking.

The girl stands in front of her mirror, wiping away her makeup with a moist towelette. She's careful moving around her eye, and the small cut on her jawline. She's learned from experience that makeup remover in a cut hurts just as bad as rubbing alcohol in a cut. Her eyes carry the same sadness that Drew's do. She can't continue how she is, but she can't tell anyone either.

After throwing away the dirty wipe, she beings running her fifth bath in a row. She finds it strange to sing in the bath, so this was her way to cut the final tie she had with Drew. She knows that continuing to see him isn't good for either of them. It gives them both false hope of something that they will never have. For Drew, it's false hope that he could ever actually date quite possibly the greatest girl he's ever met. For Olive, it's false hope that she could ever actually be happy.

Olive has spent most of her life with people telling her that she will never happy. Her mother used to doubt her dreams of wanting to become a writer. She'd tell her that she'd never make it, but to her daughter, writing was everything. If she wasn't writing, she wouldn't be happy.

Then she went through what every girl goes through in high school. The constant nagging and picking by other girls that lowered her self-esteem even farther than it already was. It was never too bad, but Olive can still remember every horrible insult that was thrown at her when she would walk by a popular table at lunch.

During her sophomore year of college, she met Ben Thomas. He was sweet and liked her way before she liked him. They seemed like a match made in heaven until the first hit. It came with a threat that Olive will never be able to escape. You tell anyone about this, and I'll kill you. That's her main reminder that happiness is just out of reach.

The short-haired girl shakes the thoughts from her head and steps into the hot water. When the water first washes over her abdomen, she hisses through her teeth but eventually relaxes against the cold tub. She hears water running right next to her and curses beneath her breath before sinking further into the bath.

"Are we really going to do this, Olive?" Drew calls through the wall before there's a loud splashing sound. "Cait, you gotta get out of my bath, babe." Olive giggles quietly at him fussing over his puppy but keeps mainly to herself.

"Well, I happen to know all the emotionally triggering musicals you have. I don't want to have to make you cry, but if it made you fall back into my arms, I'll do it." She can hear the teasing in his voice, and it makes her grin brightly.

"You can't sing in a bathtub, Drew. That's just inhuman of you." She calls back, hating herself for still trying.

"Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes. Five hundred twenty-five thousand moments so dear." Drew starts quietly. Olive almost has to strain to hear him singing.

"I hate you so much." She giggles, trying to be quiet but Drew obviously hears because he laughs during the lyrics before picking them up again. "How do you that's my favorite song from Rent?"

"Lucky guess, I suppose. You also sing it all the time." The brunette boy answers. "Now, shush. I'm trying to get through this song since someone won't help me."

"In laughter, in strife, in five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes, how do you measure a year in life?" Olive joins in, enjoying the way that Drew's voice molds against hers. She loves the way it feels to connect with him this way. It's such a unique and touching thing that she will hold with her for the rest of her life, whether she spends it alongside him or someone else.

They sit in silence after the song is finished, neither saying anything as the water in Drew's bathtub splashes around, most likely from Caitlin by the way that something metal clangs against the side of the tub every few seconds. "How is Cait? I feel like a mom who hasn't seen her daughter in a week." Olive asks, missing the puppy almost as much as her owner.

"She's slowly slipping into a depression about not seeing you for a week. First she stopped eating and she cries all the time. She's been wearing a lot of black recently." The boy jokes, placing his head against the wall carefully.

"And how are you?"

"Every time the doorbell rings, I think that it is you. Anytime my phone rings, I hope it's you. I even wish that they would get the elevator working again so you would be forced to stand next to me for a good minute." Olive leans her head against the wall, exactly where his is. She sniffles and wipes at her eyes as tears begin forming. "How are you, Ms. Jane?"

"I'm good, I guess. I'm not bad, but I'm not great." She shrugs even though he can't see her.

"Why are we torturing each other, then? You want to, I want to. Screw what anyone else wants, okay?" Drew rants, hating that Olive has given up so easily.

"It's for the best." She says shortly. As he begins demanding what she means, she stands and plucks the drain for the bottom of the bath. Without opening her mouth, she dresses for bed and crawls under the sheets, covering her ears as she hears Drew still screaming. His screams quickly turn to sobs, and the brunette girl can't stand the fact that she just left him to cry, but she also doesn't do anything to change that.