The Rules They Broke

Chapter 26: Action Movies

OLIVIA

On Friday, as Olivia was shutting her locker, a familiar weight came down across her shoulders and she found herself involuntarily smiling at Milo.

"Ready to go?" he asked her.

For nearly the past ten days, Olivia had been holed up in front of Blake's computer, either doing homework or looking up police officers and court cases, unable to do anything else. Her search had been fruitless other than what she had found that first night, and it was beginning to cut into her sleep without yielding any more information. It was purely a gracious miracle that Milo and Emily had invited her to the mall to catch a movie today.

Another arm slung her neck from the other side. Olivia looked down to see black leggings tucked into Emily's signature four inch black heeled boots. "Milo, what did I tell you?" she demanded. "Olivia is my friend, not yours."

Milo's jaw dropped open at Emily's words. "How can - she's - how does that make any sense?"

Emily laughed and ruffled his hair with her hand. "Chill out, Milo. Come on, let's get out of here."

The action movie that the three of them decided to watch wouldn't start for another two hours, and they spent the time wandering through the mall. Emily insisted on getting frozen yogurt, and they spent some time at an arcade with old fashioned video games and pinball machines. When they got back to the theater about fifteen minutes before the movie started, they got in line for snacks while they waited.

"Popcorn or..." Milo looked at the options. "French fries?"

"Both," Emily said without hesitation. "Why would you make me choose? That's like asking me to decide between two flavors of ice cream. Why would you force yourself to go with one if you could do both?"

"You really have no sense of being health conscious, do you?" Milo grumbled.

"Nope!" Emily said happily. "Olivia, what do you think?"

Olivia looked at the two of them, Emily grinning and Milo with his arms crossed over his chest. "I don't know Emily..."

Emily gasped and Milo burst out laughing. "Now whose friend is she, Emily?" he teased.

She stuck her tongue out at them good naturedly. "Don't either of you be eating out of my food when you run out of this salty goodness."

"Us?" Milo exclaimed incredulously. "You're the one who's always eating out of my ice cream. And chips. And pretzels. And-"

"That was so long ago!"

"That was two days ago!"

"What can I say? I like to eat."

Milo rolled his eyes. "Too much."

"Aw, don't be so sad, Milo." Emily laughed and swatted his arm. "Anyways, stay here and don't leave if the food comes, I'm just going to go and wash my hands."

She left Olivia and Milo standing at the counter, waiting for their orders to come. Milo sighed and leaned down against the counter. "How are we going to carry all of her food to the theater?" He looked down at the receipt she handed him so he could take her order when it was called and his eyebrows shot up. "Oh no, she ordered a drink, too."

Olivia laughed at his despondent face. "She said she's coming back. We won't have to carry it all back ourselves."

"Can you imagine the mountain of food?" he demanded dramatically.

He was looking through their order numbers when Olivia noticed that his sleeve had slipped upwards with the way he was leaning down against the counter. A dark, blotchy patch of skin showed through just the edge of the sleeve.