A short chapter this time but I really wanted to update this story again today. Do let me know what you think!

9.

"Are you ever gonna tell us what you're grounded for?"

Elliot and his friends had been curious. Not that they had any doubt Ms. Benson would impose a harsh punishment on her daughter for something small, but they still wondered what Olivia had done to be grounded for a full month, and if it had to do with the reason she'd transferred schools. Olivia struck them as somewhat of a rebel so they figured she had disobeyed her mother, but they wondered what exactly she had done against her mother's wishes.

He could tell that the question made Olivia a little uncomfortable, but before he could tell her she didn't have to tell him, she blurted out,

"She caught me with a guy."

Elliot's eyebrows shot up and several scenarios started playing out in his head. Caught with a guy, as in meeting a guy against her mother's wishes? Or actually doing stuff with the guy? She smiled at his obvious surprise and the questions that were probably written all over his face.

"An older guy," she added and now Elliot really didn't know what to think.

"You were … dating an older guy?" he asked cautiously.

Olivia's head bobbed and she stared in her drink.

"Yeah. She chased him off and then she grounded me and made me change schools. Stupid bitch."

Elliot tried to process this new information quickly, before Olivia might change the subject. He asked her,

"If this guy was older, he didn't have to do what she told him to, right?"

Olivia scoffed.

"Yeah, he did. I'm sixteen, remember? She could have had him arrested."

Elliot's mouth formed an "o" while a different, legal term popped in his head.

"Exactly. Statutory rape," Olivia said, confirming his suspicion immediately. She had been sleeping with the older guy. "He lost his job and I lost him."

Elliot felt the urge to reach out and grab Olivia's hand, to try and comfort her somehow. She was being very strong and barely showed any emotion, but he knew it had to hurt. No matter the circumstances, it hurt like hell to lose someone you loved. He knew that better than anyone now.

He kept his fingers wrapped tightly around his drink but offered her a genuine "I'm sorry."

"Thanks."

Olivia smiled at him, then added, "You're sweet."

Elliot shrugged, leaning back in his seat.

"Us broken hearts gotta stick together."

Her smile widened and it pleased Elliot that he could make her smile like that. He grinned too and raised his glass by way of a toast.

"To the broken hearts club," Olivia joked, raising her glass as well.

"To the broken hearts club."

...

"And older dude? Really?"

Brian couldn't hide his admiration for Olivia very well and Elliot punched him in the shoulder.

"Looks like the two of you have something in common," John remarked.

The three friends were at Brian's house, their usual hangout since Brian's parents were away a lot due to work and always had a decent supply of beer in the basement. Elliot had just told his friends the basics of what Olivia had told him earlier.

"I guess," Elliot said, picking at the label of his beer bottle.

"So how much older are we talking?"

Brian wanted more details of course but Elliot didn't tell them anything else. If they really wanted to know, they'd have to ask Olivia. She'd told him after a while that her boyfriend, Michael, had been 25 and that he'd been a teacher's assistant at her old school. The guy was lucky that Ms. Benson hadn't reported him. She doesn't like the police very much, Olivia had told him and he wondered what that was all about. But he hadn't wanted to pry too much. He was just glad Olivia trusted him enough to talk to him about things like this.

When they both went home after an hour, he realized that he'd totally forgotten about his talk with Kathy while he'd been chatting with Olivia, and that he felt better about the whole breakup now. Olivia had been a very welcome distraction and he had to remember to thank her soon for showing up at the exact right time.

"So Kathy's gonna back off now?" John asked him, and Elliot nodded.

"I think so. I don't want her back and she knows that now."

"Looks like you're finally getting over her," Brian said, clapping his friend on the back. "Good for you, man. There's plenty more fish in the sea."

"Right. They all just swim past you, right Bri?" John joked, resulting in a direct hit of the cap of Brian's beer bottle against John's forehead.

John dashed off to check if the cap had left a mark on his skin and the other boys just shook their heads. Then Brian remarked,

"You think Olivia needs a shoulder to cry on? I could be that shoulder."

Elliot frowned and tapped his beer bottle on the table a few times. He didn't like the idea of Olivia with Brian, but why not? Brian was a little rough around the edges sometimes but he was a good guy. He'd never cheat on her. Still, he had kind of enjoyed talking to Olivia himself, and he felt somehow that she'd also be a good listener. She wasn't as shallow as most girls her age and that was an attractive quality.

"What?" Brian asked, tilting his head and looking at his friend attentively. "Or do you wanna have a go at her?"

"Huh, no," Elliot said immediately, but he felt like he'd just been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. "No. We're just friends, that's all."

"If you say so, man. If you say so."

…

"He saw you, Olivia! Don't you try to deny it! Do I need to ground you for another month?"

Olivia stood rigidly in the middle of the living room. She knew better than to move, because her mother was in one of her moods again. She just let the verbal abuse go on until her mother collapsed on the couch with her precious bottle of booze in her arms.

"Of all the kids in school, you have to break curfew to hang out with the one boy I told you to stay away from!" Serena continued to rant, but Olivia knew it was safe to move now, since her mother probably couldn't get up anymore now even if she tried.

"Don't you walk away from me, young lady!" Serena screeched.

Olivia had to bite her tongue, she was that close to blurting something out that her mother wouldn't appreciate. She just stopped and looked down at her mother.

"Elliot is a nice guy," she said quietly, but her mother wouldn't hear of it.

"He's violent and evil! You stay away from him or you'll end up like me!"

Olivia scoffed. It happened before she could stop it but it was too late. Serena had heard it.

"You're laughing at me? You're laughing at me?!"

The drunken woman was bordering on hysterical now but the more agitated she got, the calmer her daughter became. Olivia was beginning to see just how pathetic her mother was. She should have gotten help years ago, right after she was raped. She could still get help, but she'd have to admit she had a problem first. And that wasn't going to happen any time soon.

"Just you wait until you cross him, Olivia. You'll see. He'll hurt you. They'll all hurt you!"

Serena made a wide gesture with her arm as she spoke and almost dropped the bottle she was holding. She quickly clutched it against her chest, panting as if she'd just saved someone from drowning. Olivia leaned over her mother as the woman tried to screw the cap off of her bottle again to continue drinking. She spoke calmly when she told Serena,

"I will never be like you."

Hot rage flashed in Serena's eyes and before Olivia could blink, her mother swung and hit the side of her head with the bottle, hard. Olivia fell on the floor, grabbing her head and gasping for air. She felt a sharp pain, but a quick survey told her there was no glass around her. The bottle hadn't broken. She quickly scrambled away from the couch, but her mother wasn't trying to come after her. She just opened the bottle and continued drinking as if she hadn't just hit her own daughter over the head with it. Olivia bit back her tears until she could drag herself upstairs and into the bathroom. She quickly leaned over the bathtub and let cold water from the shower run down the side of her head to cool the bruise before she'd get a massive swelling that she wouldn't be able to cover up. She cried then, sobbing softly because she could only take so much.

"She could have killed me," she whispered.

Her mother was escalating and it scared her. She sobbed again but nobody heard the young girl in the shower while she cried softly.

"Mama."

...