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Olivia sat patiently on Wen's jet black sports car as he opens the car door, allowing her to finally step out. She drops her right foot, her 4-inch cherry red platform shoe gently touching the flat concrete. She smiles, making him smile back in content. He rests his hand on her waist as they step inside the spacious, well-lit restaurant, making her squint at the brightness. She nearly trips over herself, but is saved by a pair of strong, loving arms. She walks daintily across the room, her flowy skirt swinging along to her motions. She searches the room, trying to find familiar faces. In the corner of the fancy restaurant, there she hears recognizable laughter. There they are—Stella, Charlie, Mo, Scott and their manager slash agent, Lane—sitting comfortably on the velvet-covered chairs. They walk towards their table as they holler at the couple's arrival. "Hey guys," Olivia says enthusiastically. "Hey, man," Scott says, bumping fists with Wen. They take the vacant seats, joining the others.
"So," Lane snapped, clapping his hands together. "We're here for important matters, so let's get into it, shall we?"
The guys nod as Stella sips from her glass of water.
"I would like to announce that I found a new client," he chimes. Stella choked on the water, shocked. "What—why?" The others react the same way she did, completely surprised by the declaration.
Lane rolls his eyes. "It's not bad, people. This new talent of mine's actually a pretty familiar face. In addition to that, I decided that it would be good if they toured with you."
They sighed in disbelief, annoyed at the situation. Lane jerked at the sight of the doors opening. "Good. They're here!"
A group of four darkly-clothed guys entered. As if in a cliché movie, they appeared to be walking in slow motion. Or maybe it was just in their heads. They walk with refined swagger, making people's heads turn their way. Strangely, the six felt like this already happened before.
Scott's brows creased. "Ray."
Lane stood and excitedly welcomed the group. "Guys, you remember Mudslide Crush, right?"
The bunch's jaws dropped for a second, taking in the moment.
"How could we not remember them?" Stella shakes her head and folds her arms.
"This cannot be happening right now," Charlie mumbled.
Ray did his signature smirk, bringing horrible memories to the six. He eyed Olivia, who looked down in fear and hysteria. "Hi Olivia." He inserts his hands in his denim pockets. "Long time no see."
Olivia shut her eyes, trying to recall the scenes in her life with Ray in it. Torment, hurt, humiliation, anger. It was horrifying. She tried to recall further, when all there was were care, concern and friendship. She missed that part of him—the part where he would walk her home and come with her to the library even though he extremely resents books. Now, she fears him.
It wasn't always like this.
8th grade
"Olivia," he said in irritation. "Where are you?" Ray's been outside the school grounds, waiting for nearly an hour. "C'mon. It wouldn't hurt to pick up the phone." He angrily presses the buttons. He sits on one of the benches and decides to open his notebook. She's supposed to help him with his schoolwork this afternoon like she promised, but unfortunately, she's nowhere to be found. Like they say, if you want something done, you gotta do it yourself. He might as well make the best of the free time.
He takes his pen out, the tip touching the fresh paper when Olivia barges out of the doors. He looks up. "Whew," he sighed in relief, standing up. "I almost did my homework." She rolled her eyes and ran to his direction. "I'm sorry I took so long," she apologizes, panting.
"Where have you been?" He shoves his books in and picks his backpack up.
"I talked to Ms. Hendricks, the head of the school paper."
"M-hmm." He fixes his leather jacket and grabs Olivia's books. "Let me get that for you."
"Oh, thanks," she smiles. "I'm writing for the school paper now, Ray. Isn't that amazing?" She grins in joy.
"That's great," he smiles half-heartedly. "I'm happy for you."
"Thanks. I've been wanting this my whole life. Now I can finally do it."
They start walking out of the campus, leisurely strolling the quiet streets. "You're not the only one with good news today," he pressed in animated voice. "Really?" She enthusiastically listens to him. "You know those covers I put up on the internet?"
"Yeah." She kicks the dried leaves as they float around.
"A certain Andrew Alonso casually noticed them and gave me a call." He glanced at her, waiting for a response.
"The Andrew Alonso? Ray, that's so awesome!" She raised her hands in excitement. "What did he say?"
"He said he really likes my work," he tries to explain calmly, despite Olivia' s reactions. "And he also told me that he'd like to see more."
"Wow," she gasps.
"But," he raises his finger in front of her. "I told him I'm part of a duo."
"What are you talking about?" She frowns in bafflement. "Where are you gonna get a partner?" She scoffs.
"Hmm," he chimes, dramatically stroking his chin. He looked at her. "I think I see one right now."
Her eyes widen. "No, no. We're not a duo."
"Of course we are, Liv," he inputs. "The two of us together would be phenomenal! We're great musicians, you know that."
She frowns in fear. "I don't know, Ray."
"I told him we'll perform during the school talent show two weeks from now. He'll be there!"
"WHAT? Ray, what did you do?" She widens her eyes in shock. She walks away, quickening her pace.
"Hey!" He runs to her, catching up. "C'mon. Tell me you'll do it." She shakes her head. "This could be our big break." She does the same, but vigorously this time. "For me?" He's practically begging for her.
She pauses and stops her steps. She looks at him. "Listen. You have soccer practice nearly every day and now that I'm part of the school paper," she sighs. "We're gonna have to exert a lot more effort." He yells a 'yes!' and punches a fist in the air.
"You're not going to regret this."
Of course, he was wrong. She regrets that decision.
Every afternoon after his soccer practice, they would go straight to Ray's house since no one would bother them there. With his parents out of town and her sister away in college—visiting him at most twice a week—he practically had the house to himself.
She enjoyed those simple moments of them playing and singing together—doing what they love most-even though she knows that she'd have to perform on stage, the very thing she dreads most. Despite her fear, she continued to do it for him. It's always been a dream of his since they were little and she couldn't ruin it now that it's all coming together.
The day of the talent show finally came. He was completely pumped up, jumping up and down and rotating his neck. She, on the other hand, sat in anxiety with her hands cold as ice.
"This is it, Liv. Can you believe it?"
"Barely."
"...Ladies and gentlemen, let us welcome, Raymond Beech and Olivia White!"
He steps on the stage, waving excitedly at the audience. Olivia smiles shyly, tugging on the hem of her tiered dress. He wears the guitar strap on his shoulder and takes the mic. "Hey! How's everyone doing?" 'He has always been full of charisma', she thought. "I'm Ray and this is my partner, Olivia." He points to her as she smiles conservatively. "Here we go."
He plays his guitar ever so smoothly, his hands gliding effortlessly on the frets. She sees a wireless microphone lying on top of an amplifier. She hesitates to take it, although she knows she must.
He sings his part of the song while girls scream hysterically at him. Everyone takes notice of his amazing stage presence. She's starting to wonder what she's doing in there.
His part of the first verse ended. He played a short guitar solo—that was her cue. She brought the mic close to her trembling lips. Her hands were shaking and her knees were wobbling. She never felt this horrified in her life. She held the mic tighter, stopping the shakes. She opens her mouth, and then drops the microphone to the ground, letting out a loud audio feedback. Her eyes raced around the room full of people covering their ears while Ray glared at her, still playing the guitar. She looked him in the eye. "I can't." She ran away from the stage, weeping. From backstage, she could hear Ray singing her parts of the song that they wrote together. She ran home, taking refuge in her warm, safe bed and comforting cat.
Looking down, she could feel his green, hurt eyes staring at her. "Hello?" He put his weight on his other leg. "Earth to Olivia?" She jerked her head, snapping out of it. "H-hi Ray," she says softly, twiddling her fingers.
Wen looked at her affectionately, noticing her change of expressions. "Are you okay, Liv?"
"I'm alright," she says.
Lane cleared his throat. "As I was saying earlier, Mudslide Crush is opening for Lemonade Mouth. Isn't that great?" He was the only enthusiastic one.
Stella stood up, folding her arms. "Well," she chimes. "Look at that. Ray Beech is opening for a bunch of nobodies. What do you know?"
He smirks. Classic Stella. "I know I've been a jerk, but that was in high school. We're adults now. I think it's about time we set aside our differences and work mellifluously."
She snorted. "Just 'cause you use big words doesn't prove you've changed."
He smirked again. "We'll see, Yamada."
Mo stands up and smiles. "Ignore her Ray. I'm happy for you. We all are." Charlie rolls his eyes in disbelief.
He nods. "Thanks, Mo."
"Welcome aboard, Ray," Wen says, standing up and shaking his hand.
Olivia looks up. Everyone was so open-minded about this whole thing. She, on the other side, couldn't let him get away like that. After all he did to her.
"I have to go to the washroom," she says hastily.
She briskly walks to the bathroom, keeping her fast pace. She knew a tear would fall any second. Suddenly, she felt a pair of equally fast feet walking towards her direction.
"Olivia."
She paused. She recognized the voice, yet she wished it wasn't who she thinks it was.
She turned around, not surprised by the sight of Ray.
"I know," she says. "I know. 'I'm-sorry-and-let's-forget-about-it' stuff."
"That's not it," he says in a soft voice. "Actually," he pauses. "I don't want to forget about it. In fact, I missed all of it. What happened to us?"
She frowns in anger. "Oh, so now you decide to be nice to me? What, is it because I'm famous?" She breathes deeply, calming herself. "You tormented me for half of my life, Ray! Just when I needed you most, you left me and became a self-centered beast."
"Look Liv, if it bothers you so much to have me on your tour, I'll talk to Lane myself an—."
"It's not about that anymore! This is about you leaving me hanging. We were the best of friends once. We had each other's backs. Then, out of nowhere, you ditched me after walking out of that talent show. Let me tell you, I never even wanted to join that stupid contest. But I did it for you—because I cared for you and your dreams. I'm sorry if I wasn't ready to sing in front of that audience. I'm sorry for disappointing you, but that doesn't give you enough excuse to leave me when I needed you the most. I spent half my high school life alone and tortured by you and your posse. You can't just sugar-coat it like that and pretend nothing happened."
She sighed heavily, wiping the tears and brushing her curled locks back.
"Don't you dare say you missed everything we had because I will never, ever make the same mistake of letting you in my life."
She barged in the ladies' room, leaving him speechless.
Shortly, Wen came worried. "Ray? What did you do?" His brows wrinkle in anger. He knocks on the ladies' room, desperately calling Olivia's name. "I'm coming in, Liv."
"Wen, I didn't do anyth—" He barged in the room, slamming the door to Ray's face.
thank you for reading :) I may or may not continue this story. Review first before next chapter!