Author: fraidy bat

Rating: T

Pairings: Olivia/Viola, Viola/Duke, Sebastian/Yvonne implied

Summary: 98 percent of the time still leaves two percent in which anything can happen. A sequel to He's Not You. Viola POV.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything from She's the Man. None of it belongs to me.

Notes: I worked hard on this one because I know a lot of you have been waiting for this for a long time. I just hope it meets your expectations. Sorry in advance if this sucks.

Chapter 8

I didn't exactly mean to do it. I told my feet to take me to my room so I could think and sort it all out. But of course, my feet told me to screw off. They were going to do what they had to do, so they took me from the cab all the way to Olivia's dorm. Standing outside the front door, I knew she probably wouldn't be in her room, but I called all the same. Just as I thought, no one was there. I thought about calling her cell, but the idea of saying all the things that needed to be said over the phone felt really wrong, so that was out. I didn't know where she was, so I couldn't very well go to her. So, because there simply wasn't another option, I waited. I didn't know how long I would be standing around outside, waiting for her to come back, but it didn't seem to matter at all. I would wait until next Sunday or next month or next year if I had to. I needed to see her, and nothing my good sense could say would talk me out of it. I was prepared to wait forever.

I hadn't been standing there for very long at all when I noticed a VW beetle that looked very much like Paul's pull up at the curb several short feet away. I could see Paul in the driver's seat, Kia in the back, and Olivia at shotgun. All three of them were gaping at me like I had a basket of fruit balanced on my head or an ear of corn up my nose. I suddenly wondered what I must look like, having come directly from my breakup with Duke. Probably as red and swollen as a balloon, I thought with horror. Olivia opened her door, and I tried to quickly but nonchalantly wipe at my eyes and face.

But seeing how Olivia was looking at me as she carefully got out of Paul's car and came closer to me, I realized it didn't matter what I looked like. It definitely didn't matter to Olivia. She just seemed surprised to see me, and a little scared of what was going to happen. I don't blame her. If I were in her position, I'd be shaking in my boots. But the last thing I wanted was for Olivia to be afraid of me. I was impatient to tell her that she didn't have to be scared or sad or confused anymore.

Even so, as the distance separating us disappeared, I wasn't prepared for how nervous I got. She was beautiful, and her eyes never once left mine. I could almost feel, like a physical wave washing over me, how much she loved me. Love radiated from her soft, hopeful gaze and every single graceful movement of her body as she came nearer and nearer. And then she was right there, an arm's length away from me, and I discovered that I couldn't speak. Great goddamn timing, brain. I had all these fabulous words that I thought up in the cab, and now they had all abandoned me. I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes. Olivia might not get that I was annoyed at Viola and not at her.

"Hi," she said in a tentative way, like she wasn't sure yet if she could let herself be happy. "What are you doing here?"

I swallowed and opened my mouth. Where are those words?

"I um, thought you'd be out with Duke tonight," Olivia continued when I didn't say anything. The tremor in her voice made it clear just how hard it was for her to say that, not knowing what I was going to tell her.

And suddenly there were words. "I was. I'm not anymore." Not great words, but words just the same.

"Oh," she said evenly, trying to keep her composure, but I could see that this was torture for her.

"Olivia, listen. Duke and I—" and right then, I got a big, fat drop of water in my eye. I blinked uncomfortably and looked up—and got another drop on my forehead. I looked back at Olivia, who seemed to have stopped breathing while she waited for me to finish my sentence, and the whole sky opened up. Rain began to fall in sheets and hammered the roofs of buildings and cars in the parking lot.

Great. Perfect.

I shook my fist at the sky. "Could you be any more of a cliché right now?" I yelled at the rain. "I'm trying to have a conversation here!"

Olivia laughed a little, and I laughed too. We were both already half soaked by now, and her hair was wet through and clinging to her forehead in little tendrils. She smiled at me and reached out to touch my bare shoulder.

"You'll freeze!" she said in a loud voice so I could hear her over the rain. Her hand rested lightly on my upper arm, and that was it for me. I gently pulled her toward me by her elbow until she was close enough that I could see the pretty blue of her eyes.

"I'm fine. Rain's kinda warm," I said, smiling. Her breathing started to speed up, and I knew if I didn't say everything right now, she might collapse under the pressure. "Duke and I are over. We've been over for a long time. We just finally figured it out."

Hope like I'd never seen in her flared in her eyes, but she needed more from me. She needed to know. So I said the only thing that made sense.

"I'm here right now because—" I grabbed her hand and held on tight, ignoring the rain running down my face. "Because I need you the same way you need me. Because I want to be together."

She closed her eyes for a second, and even though it was raining and we were drenched, I could tell she was crying, but in a good way.

"I need to be with you, Olivia. I know this seems rushed and kind of insane, but I don't care. I know this is what I want, that you are the one I want, and I don't want to wait anymore," I said. She looked into my eyes and her face broke into the biggest, most gorgeous happy smile I could have asked for. With a truly adorable giggle, she threw her arms around my neck and hugged me so hard that she almost knocked me over. I wrapped my arms as far around her as they would go, and I think I even forgot to breathe for a few seconds. It was sort of a perfect moment, holding onto Olivia in the rain, like out of a romantic comedy that ends really well. Something with Meg Ryan, maybe.

She loosened her hold on me and pulled back a little, and I thought with a flip in my stomach that she was going to kiss me. I realized then how badly I'd been dying to kiss her again, and I was a little disappointed when she didn't lean in like I'd hoped. Instead, she looked at me with a worried expression and let her hands slide down my arms until she was holding both my hands.

"What?" I said, confused. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong, I just—" She looked scared again, like any second it was all going to disappear, and it would be like none of it ever happened. "Are you sure you want to do this? Be in a relationship with me, I mean? If we're going to be together, I don't want to hide it or sneak around. It won't be easy, you know…some people won't understand. And I just want to make sure—that you're okay with that."

She was terrified that I would suddenly remember that not everyone is cool with same-sex relationships and take off running. I grinned at her.

"Liv, remember who you're talking to? Everyone knows I'm the girl who cross-dresses and plays for the guys' soccer team. Since when do I have any kind of reputation to worry about?" I said, smiling and shaking my head. I reached up and smoothed her wet hair back from her forehead and then held her face in my hands, lightly brushing my thumb over her cheek. "Besides. I don't care what anyone thinks about us."

"I don't care either," she said softly. Then she gave me a half smile. "How do I know I'm not just your rebound girl?"

She was joking on the outside, but I could hear the worry underneath. She was so afraid to put her heart into this and then have me get cold feet or change my mind and leave her alone again. Touching her face and seeing her eyes, I suddenly knew something that I simply hadn't been ready to know before. But now there it was, clear as day and bursting to get out in the open.

"You are not my rebound girl," I said seriously, "because I love you, Olivia. I love you."

"I love you too," she whispered so quietly I almost couldn't hear her over the rain.

And then I was kissing her, and not just her lips, but her forehead too, her cheeks, her eyes. Her hands were spread over my back, pressing me as close to her as possible. And we stood there, kissing in the rain, for a very long time, and not giving a damn who saw or what anyone thought. We were free, free to be happy. Happy and together.

It was the most wonderful thing I'd ever felt.

It only took about a week for the entire school to be informed of the changes in my personal life. Olivia and I got more stares and whispers than before, but not a whole lot more. Just like I thought, once people got over the novelty ("They're together? Are you serious?"), they pretty much went back to treating me like they normally would. I was weird before, and being with a girl didn't make me anything but still weird. I was way more worried about Olivia and what some of the thoughtless people at Illyria might do to her, but people mostly left her alone, the only exception being all the horny guys who found her even more attractive than before because now all their girl-on-girl fantasies were coming true. Every time she had to endure another lewd comment from some asshole, I felt like I was on fire, it made me so furious.

But what was more terrible than the occasional closed-minded jerk making trouble was the way Duke had completely cut off contact with me—with both of us, really. Sometimes when he would walk right past and purposefully not make eye contact, I felt a little like my heart was being strangled. Every time I tried to talk to him, he avoided me or told me he still needed time. So I stopped trying and decided to wait until he was ready to either be friends again or tell me he never wanted to see me again. And waiting sucked.

But I had Olivia. And it's funny, because even though so many things had changed, some things were exactly the same. It was still absolutely impossible to concentrate or pay attention in McCoy's class when Olivia was sitting in front of me, looking and smelling the way she did. More than once, I had to fight the urge to sweep everything off my desk and throw her down on it. I think she wore that certain perfume on purpose. Damn that perfect, gorgeous girl.

It was two weeks after Valentine's Day, and the bell rang to release us from our educational prison. I followed Olivia out of the classroom, ignoring the obvious stare of a freshman boy passing by.

"You'd think they'd at least try to be discreet," Olivia sighed, taking my arm and walking with me toward the afternoon sunlight outside.

"Don't be silly. Staring at us is only fun when we know everyone is staring. Being discreet just sucks all the excitement out of it," I said brightly, giving her a wink.

She smiled at me, looking lovely, and then she saw something across the hall that made her smile fade into an expression of wistful sadness.

"What?" I said, turning around to look at whatever it was that had killed the mood.

Duke.

There he was, walking in our direction. His head was down as he rummaged through his bag for something, and when he looked back up, our eyes locked. He wasn't expecting it, so we just looked at each other for a couple empty seconds. Then he blinked and turned away for the twentieth time that week, and the sensation that someone was strangling my heart came back again. Then I felt her hand slip into mine, and our fingers laced together like it was something we'd been doing for years, and it made me think that maybe, just maybe, everything would be okay.

(A/N: Be sure to read the epilogue!)