They met in 1992, sophomore year. At the beginning of the second semester, he walked into their English class, first period. He was the new kid and he had to go through with the awkward introduction. Being that he was introverted this was always really hard for him. He walked up to the teachers desk to inform him that he was infact the new student. Their teacher, Mr. Novak, began to introduce him.

"Okay, class settle down, this is our new student Fitzgerald Grant, he's from NorCal but we won't hold that against him."

Fitz began to chuckle nervously, then he cleared his throat, "Please call me Fitz."

He had no other option but to sit next to her, in the open seat in the front that no one wanted. He didn't have any of his books yet, they were popcorn reading a section of the The Great Gatsby because no one did their at home reading assignment except for Olivia. They scooted their desks together so they could share.

"Hey, I'm Olivia."

"Hey, Olivia." He said with a forced smile.

It was Fitz's turn to read and Olivia was taken aback by his beautiful speaking voice. Once he was comfortable it was music to her ears. She could listen to him talk for hours. The bell rang just as the teacher gave their assignment tomorrow.

"And do your reading assignment, I am not dealing with this again, be responsible, you guys are too old for this mess," yelled Mr. Novak.

Fitz rushed out of class since he didn't know his way around school and was already going to be late because Mr. Novak held them back.

"Hey new kid, Fitz, wait up."

He turned around confused and surprised that anyone actually remembered his name, it was Olivia.

"Oh hey sorry I am in a rush, I have no idea where I am going."

"Where are you headed, maybe I can help." she offered. He didn't want to be rude but he didn't want her help.

"Chem, with Mr. uh Mr. Keating."

"Oh that's where I am going to, I'll show you the way."

"Are you sitting in the very front in that class too?"

"Yup, and you're in luck there is another empty seat near me." Olivia said.

At lunch Fitz started to panic when he didn't know where to sit.

"Do you know where you're going to sit?" she asked.

He involuntarily scrunched up his face. Where did she keep coming from and why was she always there to his rescue. He didn't know if he should be worried or not, but he was a little annoyed. He definitely didn't have anytime for thirsty girls. Ever since his last relationship he was very cautious when it came to women. He learned the hard way they can be manipulative and just mean, so he always had his guard up.

His look of annoyance did not go unnoticed by Olivia. She was about to let him off the hook when something told him to just be nice to the girl.

"No I don't have a place to sit do you mind if I sit with you."

x

Two weeks had gone by and it seemed that she was his only acquaintance that could have been turned into a friend, one day she mentioned how she didn't have time to make her coffee that morning so he brought her a latte. She thanked him but told him that she didn't drink dairy products, it suddenly made sense to him that she refused to eat anything from school and always had a salad or a pb&j which he relentlessly teased her about. The next morning he brought her a vanilla latte with soy milk. The 5th week into the semester Fitz didn't show up to english class. During passing period she sent him a quick text. She hadn't heard from him, not that they yet texted much outside of class. What she didn't know is that over the weekend Fitz was rushed to the hospital with a case of appendicitis until Mr. Novak informed her class. He was feeling really down about already missing so much school. He wasn't answering any of her texts, so she worked up the nerve to call him it went straight to voicemail.

"Hey," she paused, and in the sweetest voice said, "Would it kill you to atleast text me back, so that I know you aren't dead, a signal or something. That's what friends do. I care about you. I just want to know you are ok."

Now he felt guilty. All he said was, "Sorry."

"Sorry? Where are you? Home? Hospital? I am coming to see you."

"UCLA, Room 221"

The day seemed to drag on, she decided she was going to skip practice. She was unsure whether or not to buy him flowers, she made the decision to bring him balloons instead, and applesauce, she knew that he couldn't have any unhealthy food but hospital jello was a killer.

She asks her mom to drop her off at the hospital. She makes her way to the nurses station and finds his room. She knocks and comes in with balloons in one hand, a grocery back in the other and under her arms she has a stuffed sloth and one of her favorite, not too girly blankets. As she sits the balloons down out of her view, she notices a woman with graying hair sitting in a chair near his bed.

"Liv," he says in a loud but sleepy voice.

"Hey," she whispers. He looks sick and it scares her.

"Hello, I'm Olivia, Nice to meet you," with the stuffed animal and blanket under both of her arms she reaches her hand out to Fitz's mother. This is the Olivia that she has heard oh so much about that past few weeks. To her knowledge Fitz's only friend. She was obviously beautiful so mind immediately went to the suspicion that they were in fact more than friends, or at least one of the two parties thought they were.

"Hello Olivia," she says with a smile on her face, she is happy to meet her but she's exhausted. "It's very nice to meet you too." She turns to her son, "Do you mind if I step out for a little bit?"

"No it's fine, you've been here all day, I'll let you know if I need anything," he says, he wants her to go. She is extremely devoted mother and sometimes that just runs her ragged.

As soon as his mother is out of earshot, "You asshole, I was so worried about you."

"Sorry," he says in an almost childlike fashion.

"Don't do it again." He nods in response.

"Cold?" He nods yes. She unfolds the blanket to the perfect size to put on his lower half. She knows from personal experience that he has to be freezing. She sees the empty cartons of jello on his bedside table.

"Jello, huh?" She chuckles.

"Ugh, Yes, make it stop." She reaches over her back into the grocery back. She breaks one of the applesauce cups out of the back and opens the bag of plastic spoons.

She holds them up with a smile. He returns a weak smile, "You're a lifesaver." He says, she pulls the foil back with a smile on her face and prepares a spoonful.

"I'm 16, I can feed myself you know."

"Oh, hush just let me do it." She is a few spoonfuls in when she starts to tease him with airplane and train noises. She accidentally makes him laugh and it hurts. He begs her to stop and then she feels bad.

"How did you know?"

"Last summer I got my tonsils taken out, they tried to make me eat that disgusting jello. I told them before hand that I was vegan and I didn't want any of their nasty jello, even in my loopy state I recall eating jello and crying about it. I called Abby and she brought me organic applesauce."

She leaned draped her forearms over the side railing of his bed.

"Abby?" he questioned.

"Abby is my best friend, she moved away last year, we still we wrote to each other everyday but it's not the same. I hope we can go to the same college so that we can be together. I try to stay positive even though it's two years away. So much can change between now and then." They fall into a silence, it's not awkward though, oddly comforting for how little they know each other.

"It's freezing in here." He says. She grabs her beanie out of her purse and put's it on his head, she touches his forehead and he doesn't feel warm to her.

"You should be sleeping."

"Thank you Livvie," he says as he drifts off to sleep. It's the first time he calls her by the nickname, she can't say she doesn't love it. She gets situated in the seat previously occupied by his mother. She opens her copy of her favorite novel, The Beautiful and Damned. She was planning on waiting for his mother to get back but visiting hours are almost over.

She sends him a text telling him to call her when he wakes up. She heads out.

When she gets home from school the following day he calls her, sounding in a much better mood.

"You sound better," she remarks, happy to hear it.

"I am better, thank you for coming by, yesterday, sorry I was so out of it."

"Of course, so when are you coming back?"

"Good news is, I get discharged tomorrow, bittersweet news I have all next week off of school next week then another doctors appt on friday to clear me for normal activity. My mom already spoke with all my teachers to get my assignments."

"So can I come by tomorrow after school?"

"Yeah, here is my address."

They chat a little longer about stuff that people said at school or the gossip he heard in the hospital that day. She breaks the conversation because she has hours of homework to do and encourages him not to get too behind on his class work.

She doesn't make it to his place after school. This disappoints him. She decides to take the rest of the evening to finish homework, so she can hangout with him the next day if he even wants to.

To her complete surprise Fitz lived a whole two blocks behind her. She figured she would walk, she called him up and talked to him on the way there for safety reasons.

She hung up when she got to his door. She was about to knock when the door opened, it startled her.

"Hey ," she said with her biggest smile.

Mrs. Grant gestured her to come in. She gave her a hug which also startled her. "Thank you so much for coming by it means a lot to him and me too," she said in a whisper. Olivia nodded her head with a concerned look on her face when a toddler no older than the age of 4 came running around the corner. When he saw that there was a guest he immediately recoiled behind his mother.

Olivia noticed his shyness, but she had a way with kids. She knelt down on the floor and asked, "Well who might this be?"

She tried to coerce her youngest son to make conversation with the stranger. He didn't say anything so after a moment she spoke for him," This is Teddy, my youngest son."

"Hello, Teddy my name is Liv." She rose back up to standing height, "I made Fitz some soup. Do you mind if I put it in the fridge?"

"Oh not at all, what kind is it?" his mother asks as she takes the container from Olivia and walks toward the kitchen. Olivia laughs before she starts to explain," It's chickenless noodle soup, it's chicken noodle soup but with out the meat. I wasn't sir if Fitz likes tofu so I left it out. It's really good though, I'm a vegan and I don't know how to cook meat but it's from scratch," she tried to stop as she was starting to ramble.

"I am sure he'll love it, he just ate not too long ago so he's probably not hungry yet, you can go see him, up the stairs first door on the right."

"Thank you Mrs. Grant," she said with a smile and a sigh.

She went to his door and knocked with the softest knock, "Come in."

"Hey you," she said with the biggest smile on her face, as she opened the door. He was sitting on the right side of the bed. She walked around to the left side kicked of her chucks, and sat on the bed folding her right leg while the other one was hanging off.

"Saved by the bell," he said.

"No, you aren't safe, we are over the Great Gatsby now," she sighed, "If you need any help catching up just let me know I don't want you to fall to far behind."

"Why?," he said somewhat defensively.

"What do you mean why?" she said confused.

"I mean why, why do you care if I fall behind, why did you come to visit me in the hospital, why are you visiting me now."

"Because you are my friend and I care about you, I don't want you to be hurt or lonely or fail your classes."

"Why, no one cares about me," he said feeling somewhat defeated, she had no idea he felt this way and this was his first time being vulnerable in her presence.

"Is that how you feel about me? I'm no one?," she said feeling hurt.

"No. no you're not no one you're everything. I mean you're the first person to ever treat me with as much kindness as you have and I want to know why."

"Fitz, as much as I don't want to admit it you're not just my friend, you're my only friend at school. You've been so kind to me, you bring me lattes.," she laughed. "You're smart, you're kind, we love the same movies, the same books, you're basically the male version of me, we may be bad for each other because we don't push each other out of our shy comfort zone, we nurture it. You couldn't have walked into my class at a better time. I have been feeling down all year, on the first day of school I was super bummed when Abby wasn't in my English class, I knew she wasn't going to be there it's just when she actually wasn't there it was real." She was starting to get choked up thinking about Abby, life wasn't the same without her best friend. He grabbed her hand to comfort her, "Sorry, I just, I really miss Abby, but other than that, you're a really good friend, school has already been hell without you, so after this no more getting sick alright. Promise?"

"Okay," he gave her a hand a firm squeeze and let go. "I just ordered the this super cheesy horror movie, wanna watch?" they bonded over their love of serial killer and horror films pretty quickly.

x

In the coming week, Olivia and Fitz had spoken every day on the phone, one day she decided to bring his assignments to him and that was the only time they saw each other. Fitz' post-op appointment was on Friday, February 13th. He wasn't superstitious but he thought is was hilarious.

"Have any plans for Valentine's day?" the nurse that was taking his vitals asked.

"Ha, that would be a no." Fitz said sarcastically.

"You mean to tell me someone as handsome as you doesn't have a girlfriend."

Before he could answer his mom cleared her throat and had a judgey look on her face.

"Come on mom she is not my girlfriend."

"She is a girl that's a friend," his mom replied quickly.

The nurse started to smirk at their conversation. She excused herself and mentioned that the doctor would be in shortly.

Fitz continued, "Why would I alienate my only friend by trying to ask her out on a date, besides, I only see her as a friend."

"Son, why don't you guys just hang out, it doesn't have to be valentine's day, it can be anti-valentine's day, it could a just friends type of hang out or whatever. I have a date."

"A WHAT?"

"Oh who is the parent, it's time I moved on. I've already arranged for a babysitter for Teddy the house will be open. OH! why don't you two cook dinner and watch a movie."

"That sounds like a date mom!"

"A horror film, you both love horror films, you told me that."

"Okay so should I ask her to be my valentine. Lol my pal-entine. That's punny." He giggled awkwardly.

"Yeah maybe don't do that."

"Mom."

"Just ask her to be your valentine in the most platonic sense."

"Okay mom, sounds good."

A victory for her. Olivia and Fitz didn't know it yet but they would get together someday.

x

When Fitz, came home that afternoon, he was trying to work up the nerve to ask to hang out with him the next day and he didn't want it to be awkward. He paced around his room thousands of times, then he began to wonder why he was so nervous. Right, because he could potentially be losing his best friend if it got awkward.

"JUST DO IT!" He said be for picking up the phone. She answered after the third ring.

"Hey you! How was your appointment? Is everything okay? Can you finally come back to school on Monday?" She started firing off questions right when she answered the phone and had yet to give him the chance to speak.

"Ummmm, hey yourself, everything is great, I was actually calling to see if we could hang out before then, do you have any plans for Valentine's day tomorrow?"

"Uh," she began, then he cut her off.

"I know it's sudden and unexpected, I have the house to myself, not that it matters at all I'm not trying to be alone with you or anything, it's just I was thinking maybe we could have a chill friends type of Valentine's day, or an anti-valentine's day, but it is just the celebration of love, all types not just the romantic type, the friend type, we can just chill and eat popcorn and watch horror movies, but because you like them and aren't scared of them, I know some guys are losers and they want to scare girls but you're not scared you're a badass anyways, my point is do you want to hang out tomorrow, we can't just hang and not acknowledge the date or holiday or anything."

"Sure, sounds good."

"Sure, sounds good?"

"Yeah, what time do you want me to come over?"

x