The Lies He Spoke

SIX

OLIVIA

The next morning, Olivia was forced to go back to school.

She and Logan had a huge argument the morning he woke her up and forced her out of bed, and although she knew that she was the one being childish, she sulked the whole way to school. While the bike was still rolling to a stop, she slid off the back of it and nearly burned her ankle on the gas cylinder.

"What the fuck, Olivia," Logan grunted, steadying her by the arm as she stumbled. "What are you doing?"

"I'm going to school." She hiked her backpack up her shoulders and turned away from him.

"Can you just be careful?"

"Whatever."

She stood there with her back to him, waiting for him to snap at her, but he didn't. His voice was dead tired as he said, "I'll just wait here for you after school-"

"I know, I know," she muttered irritably. "You've told me a thousand times."

"Don't be late."

Without waiting to say goodbye and without looking back, Olivia squared her shoulders and walked into the building.

First period was awful. All she could feel where the whispers and stares and eyes glued to the back of her head everywhere she went. Nobody spoke to her, but they parted gently in the hallways and hurriedly looked away when she turned towards them.

And the worst was that everyone thought that he had done it.

Olivia wanted to stand up and yell at all of them that he could never have done it, that Elijah didn't even have the capability to be angry at her without feeling bad himself much less stab a man seven times.

"Olivia," Ms. Rivera said quietly as students filed out of her class.

Olivia stopped and let the other students pass her. "Yeah?" she said when she was sure everyone was gone.

Ms. Rivera wrung her hands. "I've heard about-"

"Ms. Rivera, I'd really rather not talk about it right now," she said tightly. Tears heated her eyes until she could barely see.

She didn't want Ms. Rivera's pity. She didn't want her sympathy. And she certainly didn't want her kindness. Her brother was not a murderer, and he was not in there forever, so she didn't need a single one of those things.

Please just leave me alone.

To her surprise, Ms. Rivera bowed her head. "As you wish. But if you ever need a quiet place to sit, my office is always open."

Second period was the same. The teacher tried to talk to her, but she deflected his questions and escaped as quickly as possible. During third period was when it got really bad.

Coincidentally, Ms. Mayhew was teaching about the first world war. And every single time she spoke about the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, she would use the word murdered and glance testily in her direction.

And half of the class would snicker. And Ms. Mayhew would do nothing about it.

After the third time it happened, Olivia got a horrible burning in her throat and started feeling nauseous from holding back the tears. She picked up her bag and slowly stood up. "I need to go to the bathroom," she said.

Ms. Mayhew turned her watery blue eyes on her and her mouth became hard set in a grim line. "Miss Powers, there are only fifteen minutes of class left, surely you can-"

"I can't," Olivia managed through the squeeze in her chest and despite all of Ms. Mayhew's calls, she ran out of there.

And thus she found that she really did need a quiet place to sit.