A/N: Part 1 of 2 or 3 because nothing and I mean NOTHING ever goes right when the Cabenmichael girls are in the middle of nowhere :)

Not caring about the pouring rain, Alex ran over to her woman who was now standing and staring at the lonely road. She hated what Abbie said, but Abbie wasn't her concern at that moment—Olivia was the woman in her life and Olivia's feelings were what mattered, not Abbie's.

"Liv!" Alex said when she finally caught up with her. "Liv, let me hold you."

"I don't want to be held," Olivia told her as she continued to stare at the road. "We need to get out of here."

"Yeah, I know," Alex said. "It's cold and rainy and I don't want you to get sick."

"No, that's not the reason," Olivia said and leaned in to whisper in Alex's ear. "I don't feel…right…here. I feel like something could happen."

"Like what?"

"I want you to go over to the car, get Abbie and have her come over here. Tell her it's important that she hurries."

"Liv?"

"Just do it, Alex!"

In less than a minute, Alex returned with Abbie in tow. Olivia didn't want to be around her, but she was willing to put that aside when their lives were in danger. Olivia didn't want to tell them, but as she was staring across the road, she felt as if someone was staring back at her. It was unsettling and, although she didn't actually see anybody, she couldn't shake that feeling that someone was staring at her. There were no cars on the road other than their own, so Olivia kept wondering how this person had gotten there if they didn't have a car and there weren't any houses nearby.

"Livya, what's going on?" Abbie asked.

"I'm not talking to you," Olivia responded.

"Babe, what's going on?" Alex asked, well aware that she might answer her question instead of Abbie's.

"Nothing," Olivia said and pulled Alex close to her. "This storm is just getting worse and I don't want us to be out here for very long. We're going to walk to the motel you mentioned earlier. It's only a mile away."

"But we're safe?"

"Alex, I'd never let anything happen to you. I'm going to protect you today and for the rest of our lives."

"Oh, jeez," Abbie said sarcastically.

The Cabenmichael girls made it to the motel in less than twenty minutes. The rain drenched their hair and their clothes, but they knew the faster they walked, the faster they would make it to a dry motel room. Throughout the entire walk, Olivia had that same feeling that someone was watching them. There were no noises and she couldn't make out any figures in the trees, but whoever or whatever it was seemed to have walked toward the motel along with them.

The motel had only twenty rooms, but it wasn't as rundown as Olivia thought it would be. The décor was straight out of the 1950s and Olivia felt as if she had stepped back in time when they entered the lobby. She imagined it being nicely decorated in its heyday, but the chain hotels a few miles down had taken away its business. There were five cars in the parking lot, which is five more than Olivia had expected.

She had wanted two rooms—one for Abbie and one for the two of them—but all three of them were strapped for cash and Olivia didn't want this transaction showing up on the credit card that her mom received a bill for every month. Instead, they pooled their money together and were barely able to pay for a room with two beds.

As long as I don't have to sleep in the same bed as her, Olivia thought.

"Our car broke down," Alex told the front desk manager after they had booked their room. "May we use your phone to call a tow truck?"

"There's a pay phone around the corner," the man at the front desk told her. "I'm not paying for any phone calls that you kids make."

"No problem, sir," Abbie said and then tried to get Alex and Olivia out of there. Alex deposited a quarter in the slot and dialed the number that her mother told her to call in case of an emergency on the road. She arranged for a tow truck to tow her mom's car to a garage so they could work on the battery.

"The car won't be ready until tomorrow," Alex told them as they were getting coffee in the lobby.

"I wasn't expecting anything sooner," Olivia responded. "At least we aren't stranded out there."

"Yeah, but we don't have any dry clothes," Alex pointed out. "Abbie's luggage is still in the car and the three of us are soaking wet."

"I know plenty of ways to keep you warm," Olivia said as she wrapped her arms around Alex. "Staying here gives me the perfect opportunity to hold you all night. I wouldn't have been able to do that if we were still at the beach."

"Maybe I'll finally get some sleep tonight," Alex said, leaning into Olivia. "I can't sleep without you. I always wake up in the middle of the night and check to see if you're there, but you're not there. I miss our bed, Liv, and I miss falling asleep next to you."

"I'll be living with Scotty," Olivia pointed out. "He doesn't care if you spend the night. Staying with me would be so much better than staying in Fallbrook. You wouldn't have to get up so early and I'd be able to hold you. I'd even get up early to make you breakfast."

"You'd make breakfast?"

"For you, I'd do just about anything," Olivia said and then kissed Alex in front of everyone. That innocent display of affection elicited a range of emotions from motel workers and the girls were told to leave.

"But we already paid for the night," Alex pointed out.

"Then you'll get your money back," the front desk manager told her. Abbie and Alex were about to give him a piece of their mind, but Olivia pleaded with them not to. She wanted to tell him off just as much as they did, but she was more worried about their safety than their pride. The girls were unarmed, but Olivia had a feeling the owner of the motel wasn't. The motel was in the middle of nowhere and it wasn't uncommon for young women to go missing in areas like the one they were in. What he told them was wrong, but Olivia knew it wasn't worth risking their safety over.

Once they were outside, Olivia hurried over to the pay phone to make a call. Alex wanted to call her mom, but she didn't have the nerve to tell her about the car. Abbie could have called Serena, but this wasn't how she pictured seeing her again. She could have called her sister Addie, but Addie was even more irresponsible than she was, so there was only one person left to call and Olivia really didn't want to call her.

"Hello?"

"Mom?"

"Liv, where are you?" Serena asked worriedly.

"We're at the Palm Tree Motel," Olivia told her. The Palm Tree? Olivia thought. Why the hell would this place be called The Palm Tree?

"The Palm Tree?" Serena asked. "That's an hour away."

"Mrs. Cabot's car got a flat tire while we were on our way home from the airport and—"

"Olivia Lorraine?"

"What?" Olivia asked nervously.

"Wait at the motel and I'll be there soon."

"We can't," Olivia said. "We're going to be waiting in Alex's car because we got kicked out of the motel."

Uh oh, here comes a lecture.

"Olivia?"

"Yeah?"

"Stay safe and I'll be there in an hour."

Olivia had gotten off easy, maybe a little too easy, which made her worry about what the car ride back to the beach house was going to be like. She knew her mom was going to have questions for all three of them. All Olivia had told her that morning was that she was going to the pier to meet the mysterious beach girl and now she was stranded in the middle of nowhere because Mrs. Cabot's car got a flat tire on the way back from the airport. Olivia knew if she were a mother she would be furious with her daughter for sneaking off and for lying, but Serena had done her fair share of lying and sneaking around when she was Olivia's age so Olivia hoped her mother would keep that in mind.

"My mom will be here in an hour," Olivia said when they were walking back to Mrs. Cabot's car.

"Liv?"

"Yes, Alex?"

"In the midst of all that happened—you know, getting kicked out of a motel and deciding who to call—I forgot to remind you that the car is probably being towed right now."

"So, we're going to be standing out in the rain?" Abbie asked. "Damnit, Alex. You're so stupid sometimes."

They were the first words Abbie had spoken in almost half an hour and, for her sake, Olivia wished they had chosen them wisely.

"Oh, that's it," Olivia said angrily. "You can insult me all you want and I'll take it because I know you're nothing more than a bitch who nobody loves and nobody wants, but I'm not going to stand by and listen to you say anything hurtful to Alex. She didn't have to bring you here, Abbie, but she wanted you to get away from everything and enjoy yourself. I don't know what the hell is wrong with you. I don't know if it's your hormones acting up because you're pregnant or if you're just upset because Serena doesn't want you or maybe you're just jealous because Alex has something you'll never have—someone who loves you. Alex is my woman. I chose her over you once and I'd do it all over again."

"Go to hell, Olivia," Abbie said before walking as far ahead of them as she could.

"I don't believe in hell, Abbie," Olivia shouted at her. "You're going to have to try a lot harder than that."

Olivia expected some kind—any kind—of reaction from Abbie, but Abbie kept walking until the girls heard her start screaming.

"Abbie!" Olivia yelled out. She ran after her with Alex following closely behind. As angry as she was with Abbie, she was once her best friend and she didn't want anything happening to her.

"What's up?" Alex asked when they finally reached her.

Abbie began pointing at a symbol that had been drawn in the dirt. "Was this always here?"

"What is it?" Alex asked.

"A pentagram," Abbie responded. "I'd know that symbol anywhere. I used to draw it all the time when I wanted to scare Addie."

"That wasn't here before," Alex pointed out. "I would have noticed something like that."

Olivia thought about the eerie feeling she had gotten on their way over to the motel and she couldn't help feeling it again. There was someone or something watching them, but she didn't want to worry Alex and Abbie so she just tried to play it off as if there was nothing out of the ordinary happening.

"It's okay," Olivia told them. "I'm sure this has always been there. We weren't exactly looking at the ground, were we? We were just trying to get out of the rain."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Abbie told her.

Olivia looked down at her watch and saw that it had only been twenty minutes since she had spoken to her mom. They still had another forty minutes out there and she had no idea if she'd be able to keep them calm for that long.