Hello, thanks to my one reviewer! Woo! Ahah, hope you like this one:p oh, and I know my title sucks, so anyone have any better ideas?
Schuyler xx
"I love you not." Olivia said, plucking another petal from the daisy. She glared at Cary, annoyed that he was such a baby. She couldn't believe he was making her do this.
Cary and Olivia both lived on the same street. His house was next door to Olivia, and even though the two disliked each other, they walked home together. Mostly out of habit.
Cary was trying to prove to her that she was like those girls in the movies. Olivia would pretend to hate the- and I quote- 'extremely amazing hot guy with a smokin' butt', but secretly be head over heels for him and scibble in her diary Mrs Cary Grant. Olivia, of course, scoffed at this. So, she had to prove it on these daisy petals.
"I love you."
"I love you not."
"I love you."
"I love you not."
"I love you." And the last petal dropped to the floor. She stared at the petal-less flower with disgust, while Cary cracked up.
"It doesn't have a clue what its talking about!" She insisted as Cary slung an arm round her small shoulders. Olivia tried to wriggle away, but his arm gripped tighter. Olivia huffed in annoyance. When I get home, Olivia thought, I'll jump in the shower and scrub every bit of my skin until it has been decontaminated.
"Au contraire, mes amis." He said. "The flower never lies!"
"Whatever." She mutters, and punches him to make him get off her.
"OW!" He yells. "That hurt dumbass." She gave him the most false smile she could muster.
"Oops." And before he could get her, she stood on his foot and ran down the road to her house as fast as she could, squealing with laughter. Olivia hated running down hills though, it always made her short of breath and giggily, and it was terribly difficult to stop.
She slows down and suddenly, she stops, stumbling a few feet forwards as momentum propelled her, causing Cary run to run right into her, causing Olivia to stumble forwards even more. He groans and clutches his bleeding nose.
"Ow, shit-head. I hate you." He says standing up and shoving her.
"Sorry, dick." Olivia snaps, shoving him back.
That was their relationship. We could be civilised at times, and at each other's' throats the next.
"You're such a bitch." Olivia doesn't even blink an eyelid, she was used to worse.
"Shut up Cary. Do you know where Charles is?" She asks naming the reason why she stopped, narrowing her brown eyes. He eyes Olivia sceptically, his blue eyes curious.
"Why?"
"I need to talk to him."
"What about?"
"None of your business."
"Why do you want Charles so bad?" He asks with a smirk, a glint in his eye.
"Because I want to go find him, and rape him." She says, rolling her eyes. "None of your business. Now, where is he?"
"Why are you so mean?" Cary counters. She grits her teeth.
"Shut up Cary. Where. Is. He."
"He went home." He says simply, and without another word he walks right past me, whistling 'My Sharona'.
Mentally punching herself for being such an idiot (of course that's where he is), she runs to catch up with him. He looks over at her and raises his eyebrows, but says nothing.
"And I'm not mean." She says quietly. His expression darkens and he glares at her.
"Urh, yeah, you are." He says, as if stating the obvious.
Her eyes pricked with tears, and she hurriedly blinked them away. She had a reason why she seemed bipolar.
"No, I'm not! I'm only mean to you." She grumbles, knowing that she was mean to everyone outside her circle of friends.
"I know." He says simply.
"Why do you want to know where Charles is?" He asks his voice all weird again. Olivia looks up at him with confusion.
"I forgot where we were meeting tonight." She says, twirling a piece of copper hair in her fingers worriedly. Cary watches her, fascinated by the colour of her hair, and grins.
"And why didn't you just ask me?" Cary jokes. She smiles despite herself, and quickly wipes it off her face. Oh god, he is annoying. She thought.
"Because you wouldn't tell me." He stays silent, knowing as well as her that is true. They walk for a bit, neither one of them wanting to speak to the other.
"Okay." He sighs. "Well we're meeting at midnight at the-"He smiles wickedly and dread courses through her, settling at the bottom of her stomach. Shit. "Get on your knees and I'll tell you."
"Erm, what?" She asks. Did I just hear him right?
"Get on your knees, and beg." Her jaw dropped.
"Hell no! Fuck off!"
He shrugged. "Fine, guess you're just not going to come tonight."
"What? Please just tell me!" he stubbornly shakes his head. "I hate you." She growls, to which he winks, and rubs a tongue on his braces.
Muttering darkly to herself, she gets down onto her knees, careful that her skirt doesn't fly up or show anything indecent, and looks up at him. "What now?" she growls.
I. Hate. This. Cocky. Little. Shit. Whose. Name. Rhymes. With. Lary.
Looking extremely pleased with himself, he pretends to think about it. Using this time, she imagines four different ways she could kill him, and it makes her feel all happy and warm. "Say 'I love you so much Cary, I have never met a human as awesome as you, and I want to be best friends forever! Cary, you are also so hot and I love your firework collection!" he demands.
"But, my mommy told me to never tell lies!" Olivia says innocently. Seeing his smug expression, she sighs. Gritting and grinding her teeth down to stubs she does what he tells her to do, and he helps her up. Olivia dusts the dirt from her dress and glowers at the blonde headed twat. Damn, I just want to slap that smug expression off his pretty little face.
Olivia stops. Did I just say pretty? She shudders with revulsion and shakes her head to clear her thoughts. What the hell? Cary? Pretty? Maybe in an alternative universe, but just ewwwwwww. I think I may hurl like Martin any second.
"You know that house that's up for sale near school? The one with like a massive driveway? Yeah, there. That's where we are meeting." He says cheerfully.
"Okay, thanks." Olivia says flatly, and crosses the road to her own beat-up looking house, not even bothering to say bye. She had no idea what infuriated her so much about him. She turns round and sees Cary staring after her. He notices Olivia looking, and grins. Annoyance courses through her, and she storms up the steps to her house, slamming the door behind her, realising too late that doing so was a bad idea.
Her mom, who was passed out of the kitchen table, woke up with a start, and her eyes zeroed on Olivia. Immediately, Olivia felt her armour melt, and stood where she was, feeling frightened.
"Olivia." She says to her patronizingly. "Come over here, sweet pea."
Not knowing what to do but obey, Olivia walks forwards into the kitchen with numb legs. This was the room she hated most. The front room was best. That was the room for punches and slaps. The kitchen was the room with the knives. Olivia stopped until she was standing a few feet away from her mother.
"Liv," Her mom said, and she winced. "Why did you slam the door? You know I hate rude awakenings." She said slowly, getting up from her position and walking over to the knife block. Olivia gulped, and knowing what was coming, took off her cardigan, and neatly folded it onto the floor by her feet. She didn't have very many as blood was very hard to get out.
Her mother was all for appearances, and each ruined one resulted in another punishment.
Her mom whirled around, holding the special blade, and no matter how many times Olivia saw it, she couldn't pretend it didn't scare or frighten her. She stood stock still, but whimpered as her mother came over to her, twirling the knife between her fingers with a scary malice.
Mrs Hobson motioned for Olivia to hold out her arm, and Olivia did, trying her best to keep it steady. The more it quivered, the deeper it went.
In one, quick motion, a flash of silver, the blade sliced into the meaty part of her arm as easy as sliding through butter. Sometimes, Olivia wondered how her mother didn't manage to get it so deep. It must be easy to get it to cut right through to the bone.
Olivia, gasped in pain, and struggled to stand upright. She gripped her arm to staunch the flow of blood. Olivia's mom, went to the frequently used first aid box, dumped rubbing alcohol on the fresh cut and handed Olivia a bandage. Her eyes watered from pain and she hissed as the alcohol stung like hell. But she didn't let them spill.
Mommy didn't like tears.
"Go wrap it up yourself and I don't want to hear a peep from you all night." She said harshly. Olivia nodded. This was the same every night. She was to go to her room and cry silently while her mother drunk herself senseless. Olivia was only to bother her if she was deserving of a punishment.
Holding her burning arm, Olivia rushed down the hall to her room, and with shaky fingers, wrapped up the wound. She secured it with some tape, and making sure she could still move it; she grabbed her pen and crawled to the corner of her room.
Lifting the flap of ripped wall paper, she stared at the amount of lines she'd made per cut. She looked at it sadly, and marked another one of, signalling another five and been done. She then threw the pen away and flopped onto her bed, and sobbed into her pillow, wondering what she did to deserve this sort of life.
You were fucking born.
At quarter to twelve, she left her house, quietly shutting the door behind her. She'd gotten changed since school as a few droplets had gotten on the hem of the skirt, and was now in one of her old tea dresses. It was supposed to be plain white, but since she loved to paint- it was covered with small specks of yellow, red and blue. She had on her special lucky white pumps on, which were blacker than white really- being so mucky when they played baseball. Her copper coloured hair was tied up in a messy ponytail and stray bits of hair flapped at her face. Unlike most girls, she never wore make-up. Her mom refused to buy her it when she once asked, and had told her that no amount of make-up could make her fugly face look remotely nice.
She shivered and had goose bumps down her legs, the only protection being the bandages round her knees and plasters on her shins from fights (which she got into, frequently).
She hated fighting, she really did, but when she came to school with bruises on her legs and face from unknown reasons, people started to get suspicious. Her mommy, had a perfect solution. She forced Olivia to start being a bitch at school, getting into fights as much as she could to a) ruin her future of getting into a good college (who would want a violent kid?) and b) it gave the bruises an explanation. This made Olivia develop a very short temper with people that she didn't trust, and she wasn't very witty with comebacks, so normally she would just punch people. It was why she didn't have any friends until she met the boys. People were scared of pissing her off and nobody wanted to be friends with a girl who could hardly ever hang out outside of school because she was always in detention.
Another thing her mother ruined.
It is always so easy to sneak out of her house. At night, her mom always drinks herself stupid and normally passes out on the couch. Tonight was no different, except she was sneaking out to meet people, not just aimlessly wandering the streets of Lillian like she usually does.
Rooting in her pocket, she comes up with a piece of gum and pops it in her mouth, and crosses her front yard to Cary's house. She gets a good, fist sized rock, and aims to throw it (and hopefully smash) his window, when he comes charging out his front door.
"Don't you dare." He snaps. She shrugs and drops the rock on the sidewalk. Hitching her red backpack higher on her shoulders and checking to make sure the sleeves on her cardigan covered her arms, she set off in a quick stride, Cary following closely behind humming 'My Sharona' once again.
They were the first to arrive, so Olivia sits on the bank and brings her knees up to her chest and wraps her arms round them to keep them warm, and rests her chin atop her knees, settling to wait for the others. Cary settles down next to Olivia and she glares.
"Move over you fatass, your nearly sat on my lap."
"Whatever." He mutters, giving Olivia the finger, blushing slightly.
Cary budges up and continues to hum that infuriating song. Not in the mood for an argument though, Olivia lets him hum, just occasionally sending him looks of disgust and annoyance. He doesn't notice, of course, and just sings until the boys arrive. Joe, noticing Olivia's infuriation gives her a twizzler and a small smile, instantly cheering her up a little bit.
"Thanks." She says, and viciously bites the end of the twizzler off wishing it was either her mom's or Cary's head. He nods, and Charles pushes Cary away for calling him fat, so now Olivia was at the end of the line.
The boys started singing some lines from 'My Sharona', making her even more annoyed and just basically started chatting, none thinking to involve Olivia in their conversation. She wasn't bothered though, her arm was still throbbing, and she has swathed it in more bandages to stop the blood from coming through, as earlier it was bleeding quite heavily.
Next thing Olivia is aware of, Alice is pulling up onto the curb next to them. Olivia waves slightly, a bit shy and Charles moves forward to open the door.
"Hey guys, get in." She says, smiling at Olivia. The smile drops though, when she sees Joe.
"Joe Lamb?" She asked, glaring at him.
"Yeah?" Joe asked, wearing a dopey smile.
"What the hell's he doing here?" Alice asked, seeming very very pissed off.
"Make-up, sound and special effects." Charles spoke, confused.
"He's the Deputy's kid!" She exclaimed.
"So what?"
"You knew that?" Joe butted in, seeming much happier, the dopey smile back.
"Charles, I don't have a license. I can't drive with him." She said flatly, pretending Joe didn't even speak.
"You want Joe to stay back? I guess…."
"It's too late! He's seeing me in the car right now!" She huffed, and as if expecting to see Deputy Lamb coming around the corner, she looked into the windshield.
"You can trust me. My dad will never know. I won't tell him anything." Joe said sincerely. She stared at him for a second.
"Get in." She sighed. Joe's smile came back immediately and we all piled into the car. Somehow, Preston, Martin, Joe and Olivia were able to squeeze in the back. Cary, Charles and Alice were all in the front.
"So, I wrote a couple new lines. Can I show you?" Charles said to Alice once they were on their way. Olivia stared out of the window, squished up next to Preston who waved awkwardly towards her. Rolling her eyes at his goofynes, she grinned and waved back, giving him a little wink.
He frowned, and then settled to try to wink. Olivia only winked at him because she knew he didn't know how, and he was always demanding her to teach him. She laughs at his funny expressions, and he grins at her.
"What! New lines? Charles, do I have new lines?" Martin asked disbelief and annoyance lacing his words.
"Don't throw up Martin." Olivia warns. "We can get through this. Save it for when we're out of the car." She teases.
"Shut up! Do you know what would be really great? Is if you could cry during the scene." Charles said, yelling at Olivia to shut up. "Can you do that?" He asked Alice, whose eyes were still on the road.
"No." She said flatly, glancing at him. Preston said something about how he loved her driving, and Olivia rolled her eyes. If that was a pick up line, it was absolutely terrible. She made a mental list to tease him later.
"You know the first place I'm gonna drive when I get my license? New Castle, Pennsylvania. Fireworks Capital of America." Cary told her. Olivia glares at him, not even knowing herself why he was annoying her so much tonight. She ignored him completely and her face became annoyed.
"Want one?" Joe held out a Twizzler to Alice. She eyed him for a second in the rear view mirror before turning round and snatching it. Joe smiled briefly and leaned back into his seat between Preston and Martin.
"Wait, so, I don't have new lines, right? Because I just learned these." Martin asked again. Which, was pointless. Nobody answered him. Joe caught Alice's eye for a second before she was once again concentrating on the road. The second her eyes flitted away, he had a small smile on his face.
The car pulled into an empty parking lot, and everyone bailed out of the car.
"Guys, there's an electrical output up here!" Charles yelled at everyone as he walked up onto the station platform.
"Of anything, why that?" Cary muttered, going around to the trunk and opening it. Preston and Joe went to the trunk to help him carry the camera, and Joe grabbed this little tool box of monster make-up.
Olivia walked up to the platform and sat on the railing, pulling her backpack onto her lap and looking at all her food. The amount of food I eat, Olivia thought, I should be the size of a house. Spitting out her gum, she took out some tablets. She managed to sneak a few painkillers, and while the boys weren't looking, she popped a few in her mouth.
"Charles! Charles, man, do I have new lines or not? Oh! No!" Martin yelled as the wind blew his script out of his hands and he went chasing after them. Olivia laughed at him, and stood to catch a piece in her hand. Grinning, she brought it over to a distressed looking Martin.
"Guys, this is going to be great!" Charles said excitedly as he checked out the scenery, using his hands as a frame. "Get the lights and camera set up on that end, we'll shoot this direction first. Joe, get the mike plugged in and make sure that the new batteries are in the camera, before you do the make-up!" Joe nods, and everyone rushes about. Not sure what to do, Olivia sits on the steps leading up to the platform, thinking that Charles got too bossy at times like these.
Looking around, she spotted Cary not too far behind her. "I took apart two packs of cherry bombs and made my own M-80. Do you want to see it?" Cary asked Preston eagerly.
"Your obsession with fireworks, and I'm saying this as a friend, concerns me." He says matter-of-factly. "And my mother." He adds, adjusting the lens on the camera into focus. Cary frowns and looks put out.
Olivia jumps down from my perch and sits across from him, making sure her dress kept her decent.
"What's an M-80?" She asks curiously.
"Seriously?" He gasps, shocked, his blue eyes as wide as saucers. Olivia nods.
He opens his mouth- no doubt to go into a very long explanation of what an M-80 is, but then Charles gives him a very hard look. Cary, obviously knowing what it means, sadly puts them away and goes to help Preston set up the camera.
He winks at her. "I'll show you later Liv."
"Sweetheart, this is my job. I have no choice. It's nothing you need to worry about. What am I supposed to do? Go to Michigan with you? Sweetheart, this is my job." Martin says. Olivia looks over at him, confused, thinking he was speaking to himself, but then she noticed the script in his hand and realised he must be practicing his new lines. Charles moves over to him.
"Martin! I wrote a new line."
"What? No!" He moans.
"What do you mean 'No'? It's awesome, okay? So, you know that part when-"
"I just finished memorizing this line." Martin complains.
"It's not gonna be hard-" Martin groans at Charles, and makes his expression all desperate and almost like he's trying to make himself look in pain. Olivia almost laughed at him.
"Look, it flows better. 'Honey, I love you.', 'I love you, too.' See? It flows." Charles insists, losing his patience.
"I know, but you keep changing things and making it more difficult for me." Martin moans, and she rolls her eyes. It's one stinking line.
"It's- Martin, its simple. 'I love you, too.' It's like, four words." Charles exclaims at the annoyed looking Martin.
"My dad works at the mill." Olivia's head snaps up, and is immediately drawn to the conversation between Joe and Alice, and can't help herself eavesdropping. Alice looks at him sadly, but he says nothing. Something bubbles up inside of her, she doesn't know what. Quite a lot of people work at the mill, and there have been a lot of accidents. The one before Joe's mom, was the accident where the whole factory went up in flames six years ago.
Her own father was devoured by the fire.
Olivia huffs in annoyance. What a silly thing to say to someone whose mother has died recently, Olivia thinks. If my own mother died, I'd dance on her grave, but that doesn't mean Joe doesn't love his mom and miss her. Joe looks awfully sad, and Olivia's heart pangs. She has mostly gotten over the death of her father, but Joe's mother has barely been gone.
She turned away from the station and sat back on the step, ignoring everyone. She looked up at the stars and waited for it to be over.
"So, this scene is very emotional. Alice, Mrs. Hathaway really doesn't want her husband to keep investigating these zombie murders. You really hate it."
"Yeah, I know. We read it. We get it." Alice says in a bored tone, speaking over Charles, annoyed to be bossed around.
"God, I'm just directing." Charles said back, snapping at her. Alice ignored it.
"Martin! Martin, get in position. You need to reassure her." Charles instructs. "Wait. Do you know what "reassure her" means?" Charles asked.
"Yeah, I think so." Martin said, looking sort of confused. He bit his lip, as if trying to remember. Olivia thought guys who had glasses were supposed to be smart. Internally, she laughed at her own joke.
"Okay. We're gonna shoot on Alice's side first. Okay, Preston, so, a few seconds after I say 'action', I want you to walk over to the pay phone. You know, make the place look like it's full. 'Hello, Hello?'" Charles demonstrated using the phone, as if Preston hadn't ever used one before.
"I know what that looks like." Preston said flatly, in his over-sized trench coat.
Straight from behind her small explosions went off, making Olivia leap from her perch and scream. Everyone else had jumped too and was staring at Cary in fury.
"Holy shit!" Olivia screamed at Cary. Charles , fuming, stomped over to where Cary was grinning.
"Asshole!" Charles yells. "Could you stop blowing shit up for two seconds, and deal with the camera?"
"God! Sorry, man!" Cary laughed, not seeming sorry at all. He waves his lighter in the air for a few seconds, and Olivia stares at the flame with a mixture of fear and fascination, transfixed, mesmerised. He flicks the lighter shut, snapping her out of the trance.
"You're a dick." She hisses. "I've told you not to put that thing anywhere near me!" He laughs at her, and Olivia's face heats up with shame, Cary shrugs, stuffing the firecrackers back into his backpack. Olivia stares at the ground, gently rubbing a finger over her new cut, before looking back at Charles.
"Okay you guys, let's rehearse this. But remember, save the real performance for when we're filming." Charles says bossily. Alice and Preston nodded, and Charles walks out of the way of the camera. "Here we go. Positions, and action!"
Detective Hathaway: So, I'm going to stay here and investigate. I think it'd be safer if you left town for a couple of days.
Mrs. Hathaway: John, I don't like it. This case. These murders.
Detective Hathaway: Well, what am I supposed to do, go to Michigan with you?
(Enter Extra on the phone)
Mrs. Hathaway: Mackinaw Island's beautiful this time of year.
Detective Hathaway: Sweetheart, this is my job.
Mrs. Hathaway: The dead coming back to life? I think you're in danger!
Detective Hathaway: I have no- I have no choice.
Mrs. Hathaway: You do have a choice. We all do.
(Mrs. Hathaway begins to cry/ look sad)
Mrs. Hathaway: John, I've never asked you to stop. I've never asked you to give up, or walk away, but I'm asking you now. Please. For me. Don't go. Don't leave me. I need to know this isn't the last time I'm going to see you. I just love you so much.
Detective Hathaway: I love you too. (WITH FEELING MARTIN)
"Was that good?" Alice asked, looking at Charles. Everyone was frozen in shock at her amazing acting. Everyone seemed lost for words.
"Um… urn- yeah. Yeah, that was… that was, great." Charles stuttered, his eyes wide and misty. Preston hurriedly blinked away tears and Martin wiped a tear from his eye with his sleeve, trying to be discreet. Olivia just stared at Alice in shock. Wow, she was good!
The sound of a train wheels and horn snapped them out of their reveries. Olivia peered into the darkness, and saw a train coming their way. Charles was already way ahead of her though, and was stood at the end of the platform, staring ahead in delight. He turned back around, excitement etched in every crevice of his face.
"Production value! Cary, you put film in the camera, right?" Charles barely waits for an answer, no doubt expecting it to be a yes.
"I didn't put it in." Cary said.
"Uh oh." Olivia mutters, and she almost feels sorry for Cary for the look Charles is giving him right now.
"What? Put it in! Put it in! Joe, get the mike ready! Go go go!" Everybody scrambled around, leaping into action, all except for Olivia. The boys preferred her not to get involved. That was another reason why Olivia just brought the snacks. She always seemed to ruin everything.
Last time she tried to 'help' she broke the boom mic. She had to pay for it to get repaired, which meant stealing money from her mom, which meant even more neglect and hatred and slaps and pinches and cuts from her, because of course she found out.
As everyone bustled about, Olivia huddled in the corner on her own, she never felt more alone. She was surrounded by her friends, but was merely a shadow, and no-one even glanced her way, she thought sourly.
"Get in costume, costume, costume! Joe, help her! Hurry up! Martin, get that tripod set up!" Joe and raced over to Alice and zipped the dress up over her jeans. She wriggled out of it quickly, the dress covering her and got into position.
"Preston get in position!" Charles yelled at poor Preston.
"I will. I have to get the money." He yelps, scrambling to do as Charles wants.
"Go! Get these headphones ready! GO! Martin, you know your lines!" Charles snaps and scrunches up the script as Martin hurriedly reads over them once more. "Hurry! Get that camera ready! Go! Go!" He turned to Cary.
"Shut up! We'll start on Alice and pan to the train, right?" Cary asked. Charles completely blanked him and ran to the end of the platform.
"Oh god, I hope we don't miss it!" Charles moans, and runs to stand behind the camera to boss Cary about.
"Shut up! I'm trying!" Cary yelled at him.
"Hurry! Get that set up! Let's go! Positions, positions!" Charles put the headphones on, Cary took hold of the mike and Joe brought over the boom mike and made it hover above Alice and Martin.
"Ready. Start filming. Be extra loud when the train passes by. Here we go. And action!" Olivia stayed where she was sat and just leant forward a bit, to watch the train come past. She didn't bother to watch the Alice act again, so she sat and waited, and listened to Martin and Alice try to shout over the rumble of the train.
They were basically screaming at each other, but, Charles was right. It did make for good effects. The wind blew and battered everyone's hair and clothes. Her copper hair fell completely out of its band and Olivia's eyes stung as her hair whipped her eyes. Everyone 'behind the scenes' were exchanging gleeful glances that this was all turning out alright.
She watched the others for a few minutes before standing up to stand next to Joe. He was looking off into the distance and his smile had completely gone. Olivia followed his gaze, and before she could even comprehend what she was seeing, she let rip a blood curdling scream.
