Coup De Foudre ➵ Allison Argent (1)

Thirty-five

Olivia's POV:

"You haven't told your friends?" My mom asks as we load my luggage inside the car.

I shake my head. "I didn't want them to worry." I lie.

"Not even Allison?"

"We haven't talked since that night, but I didn't want to bug."

She rolls her eyes. "Olivia, a friend is there to make sure you're going to be okay. I doubt Allison would think you bug her." She closes the trunk. "It's just surprising that you would keep it from her since you two are so close."

"She's seen the scratch mark disappearing. We just never talked about it since we were facing a monster at the time." I reply as I lean against the trunk. "Anyway, you kept it a secret from me for the majority of my life."

"I'm the mom, you don't have to know everything yet." She says and copies my position. "You're lucky I even agreed to this. I could've just forced you to stay home and figure it out ourselves."

I push myself off the car and face her with a teasing smile. "That's exactly how that plan obviously backfired since we couldn't find anything."

She opened her mouth to say something, but then her eyes widen as she looked behind me. "You know, I think I'm gonna double-check your room to see if you left anything behind."

I furrow my eyebrows. "Mom, I'm pretty sure I have--"

"Hey." I turn around to see Allison with her hands clasped together, which causes my eyes to widen.

"Hi." I clear my throat. "What uh...what are you doing here?"

"Came to see how you were doing since I'm leaving for Paris tomorrow. I wanted us to talk before I left." She says as she glances at the trunk. "I guess I'm coming at a bad time."

"After the whole werewolf and kanima thing, I wanted to learn more about myself," I explain as she leans on the car as well. "So I decided to head back to Florida."

"For how long?"

I shrug and uncross my arms so I could scratch my neck. "As long as it takes to figure out what the hell makes me do what I do."

"So...you might not even come back?" She softly asks and I watch as she fiddles with her fingers.

"Depends if I have something to come back to," I say, the floor suddenly becoming my main focus. "Or else I could just stay with one of my aunts back home."

"You have your mom, your friends," her hand briefly brushes mine and I look up, seeing that she was already staring. "and...me."

Is she...? No. She's just being friendly, that's all. For god's sake, she just broke things off with Scott.

"Uh," I clear my throat. "is everything okay with you?"

"Yeah it's just...remembering that night when you pushed me out of the way," She begins. "it terrified me. I couldn't live with myself if something happened to you. I thought you were gonna die because of me."

"Allison, if I was given the chance to save you again, I'd do it in a heartbeat." I give a small smile. "I didn't regret anything and I still don't."

"I know that, but it got me thinking about us and how horrible I acted towards you when we, you know, almost kissed." She shyly explains and I feel my face start to flush. "I was so stupid for thinking it was your fault for almost ruining Scott and I's relationship. In reality, it helped me see what I really wanted for myself."

Where is she going with this?

"It scared me. A lot. Suppressing what I felt made it easier to just avoid it, but after that night with the kanima, it made me realize that I can't let my fear stop me from being who I am."