A/N - Please give "Born to Run" by Springsteen a listen while reading this chapter. Trust me, it will add to the general atmosphere.

Until next time,

Gabi


"I hate people," Olivia grumbled, squeezing her fingers tightly around the straps of her backpack. Rolling her shoulders, she adjusted the weight somewhat. It wasn't too heavy - just a single change of clothes. She'd be damned if she was staying in NYC long.

"You do realise that you are going to be surrounded by people for the rest of your life?" David slung his carry-on over his shoulder, stopping to survey the crowded street corner they were standing on.

"Not this many people. I feel claustrophobic." Olivia lifted a hand, shading her eyes as she scanned the crowded sidewalk.

"You're right - there's going to be a glass wall," David grinned, playfully bumping his shoulder against Olivia's and pointing to the right.

"Let's get this over with," Olivia sighed, waiting for the light on the crosswalk to change before following David across the street.

"How long has it been?"

"A year? Maybe two? I've always hated coming here and Maya didn't seem to care if I visited." Olivia bit her lip, wiggling her foot inside the orange Converse she was wearing. Her eyes scanned the concrete beneath her feet. She frowned at the sight of a squashed pizza - sidestepping the mess and having to do a little jog to catch up with David.

"Have you talked to her?" David stopped outside a tall, brown-brick apartment building.

"Just texted her." Olivia held her phone aloft, nodding toward the small, black box near the glass door. "She'll have to let us in."

"You didn't tell her we were coming." David shook his head, leaning against the wall to his side.

"Told her last night," Olivia shrugged, dragging the toe of her shoe against the concrete. "Got an 'okay' this morning."

"Does she know about Fitz?" David turned his attention to the inside of the building, just past the glass doors. Maya was slowly making her way down the staircase in front of the doors.

"Everyone knows about Fitz," Olivia smirked, "I see my face on a magazine every damn day."

"Speaking of magazines...you see the one when we boarded this morning?"

"They're trying to figure out what we're doing before we even do it," Olivia observed, lifting her head to watch her mother's approach. Maya was getting closer.

"They want that royal wedding," David laughed, shoving off the wall as Maya opened the glass door for the two.

"Olivia." Her name was the only greeting Maya offered, standing to the side and allowing Olivia and David to enter the cool apartment building. Letting the door go, Maya stomped off toward the staircase - keeping her back to her guests on the way to her apartment door.

"You have not visited," Maya remarked, inserting her key into the lock and twisting. Tossing the door open, Maya pulled her key from the lock and continued through the small hallway that connected to the kitchen.

"I was living my life."

"At least you maintained your GPA. I have not heard of an application to Columbia, yet." Maya stopped in the small space between the island and the back of her sofa.

"I sent an application to Oxford. I should be hearing back from them any day." Olivia paused just inside the room, her foot tapping against the hardwood floor.

"Oxford? In the United Kingdom?" Maya clasped her hands together, her index finger brushing against the large, round opal ring on her opposite hand. Lines marred her face as she frowned.

"I'm planning on moving there." Olivia slipped her arms from the straps of her backpack and dropped it to the floor at her feet. Using her foot, she kicked the bag toward the white wall.

"For a man?" Maya raised a brow, twisting the side of her mouth in what could almost count as a snarl.

"For a man. For myself. Oxford's not easy." Olivia shrugged.

"Even if you get accepted, that Oxford education is not going to mean anything. They will have you wearing dresses and smiling and nodding while he does all the talking."

"Just because you can't be happy in a relationship, mom, doesn't mean that I can't." Olivia shook her head, treading across the space before the stove and to the stainless steel refrigerator. Opening the door, she reached for a couple bottles of water - tossing one to David.

"We will see. You will come running back when you realise that his family is trying to change you. That he is trying to change you."

"Hm," Olivia frowned, twisting the cap off her water and sipping heartily. Swallowing, she sat the bottle on the counter and tilted her head. "I guess at least you're not selling me to the papers like dad."

"Of course your father would do anything to bolster his own publicity." Maya wrinkled her nose, dropping her hands and turning on her heel. "I have a class in an hour. David may take the guest room."

And that was the end of Olivia's conversation with her mother. Once Maya had left for her class, David and Olivia sprawled out over the chocolate coloured roll-arm sofa. A reality show played on the flat screen, providing background music as the two friends spoke.

"You think your mom will get used to you and Fitz?" David's feet were propped on the white, round wooden coffee table in front of the sofa.

"Maybe. Maybe not. She's too caught up on being a feminist to be happy that I'm in a relationship."

"Liv?"

"Yeah?"

"You're a feminist."

"Except I want equality and she hates men," Olivia shrugged, stretching her legs out and crossing them over David's. "She and my dad didn't end on good terms."

"They were a recipe for disaster." David's attention was drawn to the television as screaming echoed through the room. "Talk about one hell of a fight."

"This is such a cheesy show." Olivia moved her arm, using the tips of her fingers to pull the remote toward her on the coffee table. "Can't say I blame Maya too much."

"I had a chance to be like your dad," David confided, watching as Olivia flipped through channels. "Interviews with your best friends are expensive."

"Seriously?" Olivia snorted, tossing the remote and swinging her legs off David's at the sound of a knock on the door. Standing from the sofa, she ventured to the door.

"Your food, Liv. I gave the guy your tip." A balding, older man stood on the other side of the door with a bag of Chinese carryout in his hands.

"Thanks, Gary. You're the best." Olivia grinned, taking the bag from the man and shaking his hand before shutting the door again. She had been gone for a couple years, but the friendly apartment manager had remembered her well.

"Food is served," Olivia announced, reentering the living room and placing the bag of takeout on the table.

"Finally." David opened the bag, digging through the containers and haphazardly tossing Olivia an unopened pair of chopsticks.

"I'm going to miss this," Olivia commented, using her chopsticks to swirl the kung pao chicken around in its container.

"This is still going to happen, Liv. Maybe not as frequently...but we'll never stop being friends. Never stop doing friend things." David bumped his shoulder against hers.

"We were all supposed to go to college together," Olivia remarked, frowning slightly.

"You and Abs were going to be kickass lawyers and me… Well I still don't know what the fuck I'm doing," David laughed, clearing his throat and adjusting his glasses.

"Abby would've been the kickass lawyer. She always did win her arguments."

Silence filled the room as the two remincised on their sorely missed friend. For the first time since it had happened, though, they had mentioned the fiery redhead without crying.

"She would like Fitz, Liv. She'd have approved. Probably would've told you to keep him balanced and focused on making the kind of change he has the platform to make." David's smile was wistful.

"That...means a lot, David." Olivia swallowed, blinking rapidly. "What about you?"

"What about me?"

"Do you approve? Of Fitz?"

"I approve of anyone who makes you happy and doesn't hurt you, Liv. That's all one friend can wish for another."


"You sure he's going to be okay with this?" Olivia wondered, watching David lug her large, blue-green suitcase into the RV. It was considerably bigger than the backpack she had lugged back from NYC the day before.

"I don't see why he wouldn't. You can always call and ask." Margot stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Olivia, Sylvia perched on her hip. A white sunhat hid her head from the glaring sun.

"Not that I want to," Olivia mumbled, reaching into the back pocket of her jean shorts and pulling her phone free. Sighing, she ambled away from Margot - down the asphalt. Unlocking her phone screen, she hesitated, holding her finger above her dad's name before taking the plunge and tapping the screen.

"Liv?" Eli answered the phone in a whisper, prompting a frown from Olivia. What was he doing?

"Hey dad," Olivia greeted, "I was calling to see if it'd be okay if my friends and I took the RV for a week. A final road trip before college."

"You and Fitz? Of course you can borrow the RV!" Suddenly, Eli was loud and boisterous. That didn't sit well with Olivia.

"Fitz isn't here -"

"Yeah, yeah. No problem."

"Fitz is in Lon -"

"Yeah both of you have fun! I'd love to catch up before the two of you fly to the U.K., too." Eli's voice continued getting louder and Olivia could just imagine how he was peacocking before his colleagues - other writers who thought they were some God-given gift to literature.

"Thanks, dad," Olivia muttered, ending the phone call and slipping her phone back into her pocket. Wrapping her arms around herself, Olivia made her way back to her place beside her stepmother.

"How'd it go?" Margot inquired, taking her attention from the baby on her hip. Sylvia, unbothered by the conversation around her, continued her assault on her mother's hair.

"He wasn't alone."

"I'm sorry, Liv."

"Yeah, well. This is just the new normal, right? Dad pretending he's best friends with Fitz," Olivia rolled her eyes, sighing. "He kept talking like Fitz and I were the ones going on this trip."

"Whoever he's with, he wants them to think he's close to you two. Gives him bragging rights," Margot shook her head. "I'm sorry he's like this, Liv."

"Don't apologise for him, Margot." Dropping her arms, Olivia turned to look at her sister. Plastering a smile on her face, she cooed at the baby: "I'm going to miss you, Vi. I'll see you before I leave for London, though."

"Have fun on your trip." Margot wrapped an arm around Olivia, careful not to squish Sylvia between them. With a final kiss to Sylvia's cheek, Olivia was waving goodbye to her stepmother and stepsister and boarding the RV.

"Ready to go pick up the rest of the gang?" David asked from behind the wheel, a pair of Raybans covering his eyes.

"Yeah," Olivia nodded, walking past the driver and passenger seats to the sofa that sat against the wall. Flopping onto the grey sofa, she propped her legs over the edge of the arm. "Let's get going."

The drive to Quinn's house was short and it took even less time for Quinn, Huck, Hanna, and Zeke to board. Everyone sprawled out: Huck in the passenger seat beside David, controlling the GPS; Hanna and Quinn at the table across from Olivia's sofa, and Zeke napping on the bed in the back.

"He not sleep last night?" Olivia asked, tilting her head to glance in the direction of Zeke's snores.

"He and Huck played poker. All night." Quinn rolled her eyes, frowning at something on her phone. "So Fitz is on this trip with us, huh?"

"What?" Olivia snapped her attention to Quinn. "I don't think it's even been an hour since I talked to my dad."

"It's all over Twitter. The Prince of Wales is on a secret roadtrip in California with his girlfriend."

"My dad is pathetic," Olivia groaned, slapping a hand over her face. "If I'm lucky, Fitz will have plans this weekend and make my dad look like the liar he is."

"How about we play a game? Forget about this?" Quinn suggested. "I Spy?"

"Really?" Hanna frowned. "No thanks. I'm going to go take a nap, too."

"She's been acting weird," Olivia observed once Hanna was gone.

"Jealousy." Quinn watched Olivia stand from the sofa and take Hanna's now vacant seat across from her.

"Jealous?"

"Hanna's the materialistic one, Liv. You know that. Calling her Malibu Barbie in school was probably mean but...it was also true. She thinks she should be the one dating Fitz. This is like her fairy tale," Quinn snorted, opening her bag on the seat beside her and digging around until she produced a deck of cards.

"It's not a fairy tale," Olivia shrugged. "I love him and he's great, but I'm not ecstatic that he's a prince. It just adds a whole 'nother level of headaches."

"And that's Hanna's problem. She wants the title - not the love." Quinn began dealing cards, one at a time.

"Imagine that…" Olivia pursed her lips. "What are we playing, Quinn?"

"Egyptian Rat Screw." Quinn dealt the last card, squaring the pile of cards before her into a neat deck.

"I don't even remember how to play this," Olivia complained, squaring her own pile up.

"Bull! You'll probably still beat her like you used to all of us," David's voice floated to the girls from the front of the RV.


"It's so fucking beautiful."

"So are you."

Olivia smiled over the top of the square glass in her hand, burning liquid sliding down her throat, at the cute exchange before her. Quinn was smiling, blushing, at Huck's intense gaze. The two were adorable. Meant to be. It made Olivia happy.

"We have a perfectly good RV right there and you all decided on tents," Hanna was still grumpling, pacing between the row of trees just past their campsite. She had lost the argument earlier - refusing to help pitch the tents they had brought.

"Aw. Nature isn't going to kill you, princess." David shouldered his way past Hanna, dumping his collected sticks into the metal fire ring at the campsite.

"Statistics are on our side," Zeke stated, dumping his own pile of sticks once David had moved out of the way. "Just don't fuck with nature and nature won't fuck with you."

"That's not always true," Quinn pointed out, calling back to the group from her semi-secluded area between two fir trees. Huck held her hands between his, his expression unreadable so far away. "But yeah, generally speaking."

"See!" Hanna crossed her arms, a smug expression on her face.

"Not helping, Quinn," Olivia laughed, resting her glass on her knee. "You can sleep in the RV if you want, Han. Maybe you'll get lucky and no one will kidnap you while you're all alone. In the big, scary woods."

"Kidnap me?" Hanna frowned, dropping her arms and glancing around the trees that obscured their view of the surrounding area.

"Hey, serial killers like the woods for some twisted reason," David agreed.

"Harder for people to hear their victims scream?" Huck postulated from his position.

"Nah. Harder to find the bodies," Quinn corrected.

"Guys, seriously?" Hanna furiously rubbed at her arm, biting her lip.

"Ya know: statistics wise," Olivia smirked. "Let's see…Edmund Kemper. Gary Ridgway. Jerry Brudos. Ted Bundy. Ed Gein was kind of in the woods...Definitely secluded."

With each name, Olivia held up a finger - a pensive look on her face. Hanna swallowed hard, her mouth falling open as she took a deep breath.

"Alright. Alright! I'll sleep out here with you guys, but can we please stop talking about serial killers?"

"Depends," Zeke drawled. "Are you going to stop being irrational?"

"And a bitch," David muttered, catching Olivia's gaze as she bit her tongue - anything to keep from laughing out right.

"Just...which tent am I sleeping in?"

"You, me, and Quinn are in that one." Olivia pointed to the orange tent on her right.

Hanna nodded, trudging across the ground and throwing the flap of the tent open. After she had disappeared inside, Olivia let her laughter go.

"She kills me." Olivia widened her eyes.

"I didn't miss that," David deadpanned, shaking his head.

"You used to love picking on Han," Olivia reminded him, raising her glass to her lips.

"And she used to not be so bitchy."

"It's a hard time for her right now," Zeke confided, reaching into the cooler near Olivia's chair and tossing a beer to David. Sitting in the chair across from the two, Zeke popped the bottle cap off. "She's a little upset she didn't get to Fitz first."

"Did everyone just know that she wanted to fuck Fitz except me?" Olivia tossed her empty hand in the air, huffing.

"I don't think she cared too much about fucking him…" Zeke shook his head, "Just the title."

"Just let her marry him, have the title, and you can keep seeing him," David laughed. "Problem solved."

"One: we're not engaged. I really wish people would stop talking like we're getting married soon," Olivia rolled her eyes. "Two: what the what?"

"Hanna would be happy being a trophy wife. She just wants the money and title that comes with marrying big, Liv. She could care less if her husband cheated." Zeke shrugged, sipping at his drink.

"Well that's real shallow." Olivia's eyes darted, unbidden, to the closed flap of the tent.

"That's because she is." David's expression mirrored Zeke's as he nodded in agreement: completely confident in their assessment.

"Thank small miracles Fitz met you first. He's anything but shallow," Zeke asserted. "She's almost as bad as that Mellie chick."

"You've met Mellie?" Olivia's attention was back on her friends in her immediate vicinity.

"Nope. Just seen the texts she's sent Fitz and listened to him bitch about her. Almost made me reconsider my ways. That's one crazy chick." Zeke shuddered, his whole body moving.

"Ex-girlfriend?" David wondered.

"More like ex-fuck buddy," Olivia corrected.

"Running into a crazy chick like that almost makes you reconsider having fuck buddies," Zeke laughed.

"He was a player?" David raised a brow.

"Runs in the family," Zeke smirked before Olivia could speak.

"Was, David, not is. You can't tell me you were a saint before you started dating Abs."

"I was a virgin."

"Bullshit!" Both Olivia and Zeke exclaimed at the barely suppressed smile on David's face.

"Why is David's virginity even a topic?" Quinn gagged, entering the circle of friends and taking her spot to Olivia's vacant side. "Bring the marshmallows!"

"Marshmallows, scotch, graham crackers, chocolate. Anything else?" Huck rattled off the list Quinn had apparently given him.

"Not that I can think. And that would be because David is trying to maintain an image of saintly hood." Olivia rolled her eyes.

"Yeah...no," David shook his head, placing his beer in the chair's cup holder and standing. "I'll help you, Huck."

"Chicken!" Olivia stated.

"Weirdo," David countered, tossing a hand in the air and giving a short wave before trekking back toward the parked RV with Huck.

"I'm gonna miss this," Olivia grinned, leaning sideways over her chair and resting her head on Quinn's shoulder. The late afternoon sunset was perfect - this trip with her friends, despite the hiccups, was perfect. Bittersweet though it was…

And she couldn't wait for her next chapter.