"You need something real, for any of this stuff to matter."

- Beyoncé

December 25th, 2015

8:28 AM

Lyman Hall

Stanford, California

Olivia's POV

"Fitz?" I suddenly jolt up, wide awake. I tap Fitz, who is sound asleep right next to me. "Fitz, what time is it?"

He groans and rolls his blue eyes at me for waking him up but he flips over to retrieve his phone. "Uh...it's half past eight."

"It's late," I mumble, throwing loads of blankets off my lap.

Fitz groans again, flopping back into the covers, his arm lazily looped around my waist. "Do you always have something up your ass?"

I roll my eyes at him but he makes it his job to elaborate. "Like, really. You're always up, always overthinking, always stressing. From the outside, you seem like such a carefree girl but I think there is something deeper."

"Fitz," I lean back against the headboard and trace his arm with my finger gently. "It's too early to be psycho analyzed."

Fitz chuckles into his pillow. "Good morning to you too."

I sigh and curl my fingers into his thick wavy hair. His hair is soft and fluffy that my fingers can get lost in there within seconds. "I have to-..." I pause before realizing that for once, I have nowhere to be. Except right here. And I don't mind that at all.

Livvy?" I hear Fitz mumble my name in his morning voice and I have to look down. Once I do, I can't stop smiling. Oh my god, he is so cute. And hot. And everything in between. I feel so bad for falling asleep last night. I really wanted to have sex with him, I did. But I was way too sleepy to wait for to come back from Professor Beene's house.

I want to apologize but then he would go all ballistic and give me another lecture about how I don't owe anyone sex. I know that for the most part. But the sex would be for me too.

I try to smile. "What did Professor Beene want?"

His face lights up at that. "Nothing much. He was just going on, telling me what a good student you were. How much potential you had. He..." He pauses before continuing. "He told me he was considering paying off your tuition."

"I know," I admit with a sigh.

Professor Beene heard about me planning to drop out and he went crazy. He went on and on about how much I needed to stay in school, how brilliant I was and he ended up offering to pay my tuition until I got my bachelor's degree.

To be honest, I don't want him to pay my tuition. I don't even want Fitz to. I want to stay in Stanford but I'm not comfortable with the idea of anyone giving that much. I mean, I know Fitz is rich and Professor Beene is probably even more well off but I'm still not one hundred percent about that.

"Livvy," Fitz squeezes his arm tighter around my waist and rests his head on my lap. "What's wrong?"

I look away. "I just...don't want that."

"Then what do you want?" Fitz asks softly. "Look, if you want me pay your tuition, it's done. If you want Cy to, done. Either way, you're staying in school, baby. Okay?"

I sigh, pressing my lips together. I'm really not okay with either of those options. "Can...can you come with me to the school board?"

Fitz looks at me, confused, so I take a deep breath to explain. Obviously he never had to deal with financial aid, so he must be a little lost. "Basically, I'm getting no help because my dad makes a big salary. The school board thinks he's still supporting me, therefore they won't give me any help. If I could just explain to them..."

"Oh," Fitz nods, suddenly understanding. "So they'll give you financial aid if they know you aren't getting any help from home?"

"Yeah," I grin at how long it took him to get that. "Because I'm not comfortable with you or Professor Beene forking over two hundred grand to me."

Fitz chuckles. "So it would make you feel better if I came with you to talk to them?" I nod, blushing slightly. Fitz face softens into a smile. "Okay, baby. Whatever you want. But if, in the end, they don't help you financially we'll work something out. Just don't worry about that, okay?"

I nod, but I honestly can't make any promises.

"Don't worry," Fitz repeats, sitting up, his arms still wrapped around me. He presses forehead against my, making me smile again. "Don't worry about anything."

He leans forward, his lips on mine and give him a peck back, smiling into it. I pull away. "Morning breath."

Fitz blushes, rolling his eyes. "I don't have morning breath."

"You keep telling yourself that," I pat his shoulder and laugh.

Fitz rolls his eyes again, a grin on his mouth. "I hate you, you know that?"

I smirk. "Love you too."

Fitz's POV

I squeeze Livvy's hand as we walk down the near empty campus. Once I leave, I am not going to miss this place. I'll miss Olivia, of course, but I'll try to have her come visit me instead - wherever the hell I'll be. I don't want to leave her but even walking around Stanford's campus is making me nauseous. I hate it here and I always have.

"Merry Christmas," I lean over and kiss the crown of Liv's head, inhaling the jasmine scented shampoo she uses to wash her hair. We stopped by at her dorm after we left mine so she could shower and change into some new clothes. "Love you."

"Love you too," Liv smiles, looking up at me.

I narrow my eyes and smirk. "You're short." I pat her head teasingly.

"I'm not short," she protests, while still standing at least a foot lower than me.

I grin as we approach a large fraternity house. "Whatever helps you sleep at night. Are you going to tell me where the hell we are, Liv?"

"David Rosen's house," she explains while we keep walking. "He's having a little Christmas get together party thing." She pauses. "And then I have to go to work."

I stop walking. Since my hand is attached to hers, she jolts back too. I lower my eyes to her. "You're not going back to work at that place, Liv. I thought we talked about this."

"Actually," Olivia raises her eyebrow. "We never talked about this at all. Fitz, I -"

Just when I know she's about to unleash an anger fueled lecture on me, the door behind us swings open and Abby, her friend is there.

"Liv!" Abby smiles and begins to greet her until her eyes stop at me. She looks taken aback for a moment before grinning widely. "Well, hello."

"Hi, Abby," I force myself to smile as Liv goes over and hugs her.

I know this isn't the end of this argument but my mind is set. She's not going back to the Coffee Express and that's not up for debate. I can take care of her now and I will. If she were to go back there and open herself up to more sexual harassment, I wouldn't forgive myself. And I would probably have to beat up Harrison more often. I might even do something I couldn't take back.

Abby pushes both Liv and I into the frat house and it's not what I expected at all. It's very classy, clean and neatly decorated. Much different than your average frat house.

"Abby, can Fitz and I have a second to talk?" Liv asks her friend slowly. Oh shit - she's really gonna try to do this now? Okay, I'm ready. I have a ton of leverage to bring this up and argue it.

Abby nods with a little wink. "Y'all can go upstairs and use any bedroom...to talk, I mean."

So, Abby obviously thinks something sexual is going on between us and Liv looks beyond annoyed. But she drags me upstairs anyway and throws me into the closet bedroom we can find.

I take a second to look at her before she starts screaming. She's beautiful - my girl is beautiful. Right now she's wearing a lacy peach tank top with light wash jeans and converse but she looks as gorgeous as always. And I really do love her - a lot. But I'm ready to fight on this.

"Before you say anything," I hold up my hand and try to ignore her enraged expression. "There is nothing to talk about. You should know that..."

"What?" Liv demands, scoffing. "You think you can walk into my life and dictate everything?"

That is not what I said at all but interrupting Liv when she has obviously not finished making her point is a death sentence. I literally just want to help her and I've done so so far. I'm helping her with tuition - which I would be more than happy to pay in full. I have beyond enough money for it and I know Liv is gonna be hella successful in the future so she doesn't have to rely on me always. I know she's not a gold digger and I trust her. So I would be happy to help her in whatever way she needs.

"You think you're so entitled?" She goes on, rolling her big brown eyes. "You think that just because you're more financially stable than me you have the upper hand?"

"No," I can't help but cut her off. I hate her talking this way. "That's not what I said. Now you're putting words in my mouth..."

"I have never worked a day in my life before this," she yells at me, as if I never even said anything. "Before...this. And guess what? I actually kind of like it. I like not feeling like a worthless piece of-"

"You're in Stanford," I look at her as if she's an idiot because she's actually kind of acting like one right now. She's brilliant but right now she's ignorant as to what I'm actually trying to say. "Of course you're not worthless. Can you actually let me fucking speak?"

"So now you're gonna curse at me?" Liv demands, pacing around the room.

I close my eyes and try not to scream. This is so exhausting and not even worth fighting about. Not now, anyways. I open my eyes back up and reach out to her. I swear she overreacts at everything. I love her like hell but she is so frustrating. "Liv-"

She backs away from me but I try and grab her arms. "Get off me!"

She screams so loud that I actually get taken aback and draw my hands away from her wrists. "Olivia, can we go downstairs and get enjoy the party?" I sigh. "Please. We can talk about this later, baby..."

"No!" Liv shakes her head, her dark wavy hair flying around her shoulders. "We can talk about this now, since you obviously have so much to say."

I inhale, trying to keep my cool. "I just don't want you working with Harrison. I can take care of you financially...you should let me."

"This is 2015," she looks at me as if I'm a moron. "You don't get to say 'I can take care of you', you sexist asshole."

Okay, I am not sexist and she knows that. I don't know is if she's on her period or something but she's acting ridiculous.

I open my mouth to speak but she's not done. "Seriously, Fitz, are you really this fucking stupid? Just because you're...ugh. Tuition doesn't cover my living expenses. There is housing and meal plans and so much more."

I know this. I know all of this and I'm willing to cover it. I have enough money to do that. That's not bragging, that's facts. I open my mouth again to try and explain this to her but then she says something that completely takes me by complete, horrible surprise.

"You literally think that just because you were raised into a rich family, you can pull out your wallet and everything will be okay?"

AN: I'm sorry for the late update but I hope you liked it.. And I hope you understand that there are gonna be obstacles before we can have one percent happy Olitz. But I just wanted to say that I'm posting the next chapter later on tonight, so don't miss it. :)