There's going to be a tiny time jump here and a few things will be different which you'll see. Enjoy!

Chapter 11: I Will Always Love You

It had been a month since the dance and a lot had changed. She was now legally an adult, something she had been looking forward to for the longest time but now that she was eighteen, nothing really felt special or grand about it—just another year. Another thing was that she and Kenny were now a couple. She had accepted that she and Fitz were done and now she wanted to move on with her life and have fun in her last year of high school so she decided to give Kenny a shot. Things were pretty good with him. He was a dream. He treated her like a princess, he was sweet, affectionate, caring, and his feelings for her seemed to grow stronger and stronger every day. Everyone said that they made a good couple but while she liked being with him, she didn't think that she felt the same way about him as normal people did with their significant others. She never wanted to know what he was doing when they were apart or wondered if he was thinking about her or immensely looked forward to seeing him. She liked his company but she wasn't head over heels for him, not like she had been with Fitz…but she and Kenny had only been dating for a month and over time maybe her feelings for him would grow.

They were currently sitting together on the benches in their swimwear at a meet, waiting for their divisions to start.

"So, do you want to get a bite to eat with the team after this or do you want to go to my house? My parents really want to see you again. They love you, even after what they found…" he says, tightly gripping both ends of the towel slung around his neck. Olivia had celebrated her birthday that past Friday night with her friends and family but after it ended, Kenny told her that he had a surprise for her at his house. His parents had been out of town for the past week on some archaeological trip in Africa so it would just be them. He cooked a nice dinner for them and afterwards they watched a movie but one but a simple kiss on the lips quickly led to the shedding of each other's clothes and before they knew it, they had done the deed for the first time together.

Kenny used a condom but he either forgot about or lost the pack so a few days later when his parents returned from their trip, Kenny's mom was cleaning around the house and found it. She confronted him about it but he didn't really get into any real trouble.

"What even happened after they found out?" She asks him. She had dreaded even facing his parents again after the whole incident because she didn't know what to expect. She really liked them and she was sick and tired of so many adults being disappointed in her, but according to Kenny, she was still in their good graces.

He shrugs. "Not much really. She was really surprised, I think mostly because she didn't expect me to be this serious about us to take things to that level but she ultimately told me that she's glad we used protection and that you're a nice girl and I should hold on to you, which I intend to do," he says with a smile as he places his hand over hers on her left thigh but slightly slips his fingers into the space between both thighs.

"Kenny…"

"Sorry," he says grudgingly, pulling his hand back. "We're in public. I know."

She smiles apologetically at him and then rests her head against his shoulder. The main problem wasn't that they were in public but that she didn't feel right about him touching her that way. She didn't know what her problem was since he was her boyfriend and they had now gone all the way, but ever since that night she had been growing increasingly more awkward with him, almost to the point where a simple kiss made her uncomfortable. Instead of pleasure, she was beginning to feel like being with him was committing some kind of sin. She enjoyed him but she always got a nagging feeling in the back of her mind that wouldn't leave her alone, and she knew it had to do with her unresolved feelings with Fitz. She had felt extreme animosity towards him the first few days after their argument, if you could call it that, but as the month went by she found herself craving for things to be okay between them once again, even if they couldn't be friends. Before he had cut their friendship off, she had had hope that once she was eighteen they could be together but the time had finally come and they weren't anything close to being at that point. He had told her that he loved her but what did he expect her to do with that? He's the one that severed their relationship so it wasn't fair for him to play with her emotions like this. He had ultimately made his choice and now they both just needed to deal with it and move on.

"Liv, you're up," Kenny says, pulling her out of her thoughts as she looks up and sees their coach earnestly waving at her to stop daydreaming and get her ass over to the pool.

"Lightning speed," Kenny tells her, squeezing her hand once and then letting her go.

"Lightning speed," she mutters to herself as she slips on her googles and steps onto the starting platform, thankful that she'll get to swim some of her frustrations out and certain that she'll win first place.

Fitz is walking down the hall, texting Harrison something when he slams into someone and the binder in his hands flies to the ground, spilling papers everywhere.

"Oh, I'm sorry, sometimes I can be a bit of a klutz," says the man Fitz bumped into with a short laugh as he bends down and starts collecting the papers. Fitz kneels beside him, putting his phone in his pocket and picking up the binder. He looks up to see Olivia's father and wonders what he's doing there.

"It's no problem, Mr. Pope," Fitz says, as they gather the last of his papers.

Eli stares at him for a long while before saying, "I can see that you're a teacher here but I don't think we've me before."

Fitz figures he's probably wondering how he knows his name. Fitz shakes his hand. "Mr. Grant, but you can call me 'Fitz' if you like. I'm Olivia and Simon's English teacher."

"Oh, yes, Mr. Grant. They've mentioned you before. In fact, Olivia in particular seems to be doing better in your class, I've actually never seen her grades so high…they're even higher than Simon's and that's saying something because he's the family genius," Eli says with a chuckle. "She seems to very much enjoy your class."

Fitz smiles politely and says, "Well, they're both a pleasure to have."

"Is that right? I've gotten a few complaints from teachers in past years because my daughter seems to have a bit of a smart mouth…that's an understatement, really."

Fitz smiles slightly at this, knowing it's true. "Hmm, I haven't had any trouble with her," Fitz says, when in fact their trouble went far beyond the walls of a classroom.

"Maybe she has some kind of special respect for you. I can see that you are one of the younger teachers at this school so maybe she relates more to you." He pauses briefly with a hesitant expression on his face. "An idea just occurred to me. Would you mind helping her out?"

Fitz furrows his eyebrows in confusion and slight apprehension. "Help her out how?"

"I'm just very concerned about what will happen to her once she graduates. She's not focused on school or anything having to do with her future but I think she has the potential. I just don't know how to get through to her. She's been this hard head ever since her mom and I divorced some years back and I can't help her but I was thinking maybe you could. I know that you're not a therapist and I'm not trying to make you one or waste your time but I was thinking you could help her with the whole getting ready for college process. Just an hour or so after school a couple days a week."

Fitz knew she would never agree to that and he wasn't sure that he'd be able to handle spending that much time alone with her, especially after how they left things a month ago. He could still hardly look at her or address her as he taught so he didn't know how they would make it through a one-on-one. "I don't know, sir…"

"I'll pay you for your time. Think of it as a tutoring session," he rushes to say. "Please?" He tries with a pleading expression and even though Fitz hates to admit it, the look in Eli's eyes is very similar Olivia's. Her eyes alone had the power to bring him to his knees and even though Eli's gaze isn't as powerful, Fitz still can't find it within him to say no.

He sighs defeated. "You don't need to pay me. I'd be glad to do it for free."

Eli raises his eyebrows in surprise. "Really?"

Fitz nods with a tight smile.

"Thank you very much, Fitz. I'll email you to set up a schedule. Right now I have to head over to Olivia's swim meet, I'm already running kind of late," Eli says, shaking his hands again with Fitz. "Thanks again."

"No problem, Mr. Pope."

"Don't you feel like you have enough of those?" Kenny asks playfully, referring to the three first place ribbons Olivia just won in her divisions as they walk away from the locker rooms together.

She smirks. "No, you never really get tired of winning. Though, second and third best isn't too shabby," she taunts at his 1st and 2nd runner up ribbons.

"I love it when you're a smart ass," he says with a mischievous smile as he slides his hand down to the small of her back.

She stops walking and turns to face him, stopping him before he could go any further. She was doing it again—feeling guilty.

"What?" He says with a genuine expression of concern.

She stares at him for a long hard moment before shaking her head dismissively. "Nothing."

"Are you sure?"

She nods and fakes a smile. "Yeah…sorry."

He smiles back as he cups her face and lays a smooth kiss on her lips. She has the same inner urge to pull away but she doesn't, mostly because he would know that something is definitely wrong, but also because she was tired of feeling bad for doing nothing wrong. She needed to let go and get on with her life.

She grips the back of his neck, beginning to deepen the kiss when she hears an "ahem". Both she and Kenny quickly break apart and look up to see Fitz glaring at them, with his arms crossed over his chest in a seemingly calm manner but his balled fists were an indicator of something otherwise.

She looks away from his hard stare, both embarrassed and angry that he of all people caught them. "No PDA on campus. If I catch you again, I'll be forced to write you both pink slips," Fitz says matter-of-factly.

She nods and grabs Kenny's hand so that they can get out of there before she says something stupid and gets them in more trouble, but Kenny wasn't ready to back down. "Well, technically our display of affection wasn't public since there's no one else around but us," Kenny points out in that take-everything-literally way of his.

"I'm here," Fitz says simply.

"But 'public' by definition means 'open to all persons' or 'relating to a community as a whole'. You're just one person."

"Yes, and, I'm counting myself as part of all persons and the whole, so technically your display of affection was indeed public."

Olivia feels like screaming in frustration and laughing at how ridiculous this was. Were they really having a serious conversation about the definition of public? Why did Fitz have to be such an asshole sometimes? It frustrated her and captivated her because she couldn't help but notice how sexy he was when he was angry or jealous in the least.

"That doesn't make any sense," Kenny says, not backing down. Olivia rolls her eyes, knowing that Fitz isn't going to give up easily either.

"It doesn't matter. We're sorry, we won't do it again, and we're leaving now," she says, dragging Kenny away without another look towards Fitz.

But this feud between the two of them continued in a different form the next day.

As Kenny gives his author's presentation in class the next day, Fitz won't give him a break.

"So, Charles Dickens got his first big break when he was the first editor of a magazine called Bentley's Miscellany."

"And when was that?" Fitz asks from the back of the classroom.

Kenny looks down. "Um, I don't know…"

"1836. Get your facts straight. Continue," Fitz tells him evenly.

Kenny furrows his eyebrows in confusion. "Okay…anyway, it was then that he published his first novel, Oliver Twist."

"And what was it about?"

Kenny shrugs. "Mmm, something about an orphan boy."

"Yes, and why did Dickens write it?"

Kenny shakes his head and Olivia can see that he's starting to get frustrated. "I don't know."

"It was inspired how he felt as an impoverished child who was forced to get by on his wits and earn his own wages. Did you not care enough about this assignment and ultimately your grade to properly prepare?"

"No," Kenny answers softly. "I wasn't aware that I had to know that."

"You may continue. I hope the rest of your presentation isn't as disappointing as it's been so far," Fitz tells him.

There are a several snickers heard around the room and Olivia can see Abby trying not to laugh but all Olivia does is glare at Fitz, wondering when he's going to get over himself and stop abusing his authority to get at both her and Kenny.

By the end of swim practice, Kenny is still upset over the whole ordeal. "I don't get why he hates me so much. He didn't ask anyone else those questions but he's been taking stabs at me for about a month now. What did I do wrong?"

"I don't know…" is all Olivia says in response. She was busy dreading the hour she would have to spend with Fitz talking about college. Of course she had tried to get out of it, but after a blowout fight with her father and a number of ultimatums made by him, she had reluctantly agreed.

"Hopefully he doesn't chew you out, too. It stinks that your dad is making you do this." He looks around in the empty hallway before, laying a kiss on her nose. "Just being careful. I wouldn't want to get a pink slip from Mr. Grinch."

She smiles deviously as she says, "I dare you to call him that during class."

"I'd probably get expelled if I did. Call you tonight?" He asks.

She nods and they go their separate ways.

"Olivia," Fitz greets from his desk as she walks into the classroom, looking like she rather be anywhere else which was probably the case.

"Mr. Grant," she mumbles, taking a seat on the chair in front of his desk. She crosses her arms over her chest and looks away from him with her mouth in a straight line. She was angry that she had to be there with him but he couldn't help but think about how adorable she looked when she was pissed.

"Are you upset about something?" He asks with some sarcasm in his voice.

She narrows her eyes at him and then smirks. "I could ask you the same thing."

He raises her eyebrows at her. "What's that supposed to mean?"

She shrugs as she says, "I don't know…you just seemed a little crabby earlier when Kenny was giving his presentation…and yesterday."

He can see that she's trying to play his own joke back on him but he's not going to let her get to him. "Well, maybe he should've been more prepared for his presentation, and as for yesterday, I have nothing to say."

She rolls her eyes and slouches more in her chair.

"So, let's start with your test scores. What'd you get on your SAT or ACT?"

Olivia sighs. "2270 on SAT."

Fitz raises his eyebrows. "That's not something to be ashamed of. That's actually a ridiculously good score."

She shrugs.

"So, you don't have to worry about test scores. You're the captain of the swim team, which is very good, you're at least taking one AP class, which qualifies you for some of the Ivy Leagues, you also have some work experience with your job at B&N, which colleges also like to see. How about your community service?"

"It's average."

He nods. "Okay. Well, the main problem here seems to be your grades. A 3.0 GPA isn't extremely bad but it isn't great either. You shouldn't be a B student since you're pretty smart as seen with your test score and you're almost perfect grade in my class, so I'm curious as to why you're grades are so low."

"I don't know, Fitz—I mean, Mr. Grant," she corrects mockingly.

"We're not in class, you can call me 'Fitz' if you want," he offers, hating the whole Mr. Grant thing because it felt so superficial, especially out of her mouth.

"No, I can't. That would be inappropriate and God forbid anything in appropriate happen between us…" she says

He sighs, knowing that they wouldn't get anything done if they continued to beat around the bush. "Look, Liv, I'm really sorry about that night. I didn't mean to ruin anything for you or hurt your feelings…I don't know what was up with me."

"It's not about that night," she mumbles.

"Then what is it about? Let me know so that we can fix this somehow. I hate how things have become between us…"

"You said yourself that this is how you wanted things to be."

"I didn't plan for you to hate me," he tells her, seeing how much of a mess he's made.

He's surprised when her cold stare turns into a sympathetic expression. "I don't hate you, Fitz…I'm sorry I said that," she admits, looking genuinely sorry.

"It's just that this whole situation is so frustrating," she says, burying her face in her hands. "How did we get here?"

"I don't know…" Fitz tells her, but he does. He pushed her away, he cut them off and then he tried to reel her back in by telling her that he loved her, which wasn't fair of him to do, but it was the truth. He loved her and he would always love her.

"Nice bracelet," he tells her, gesturing to pearly silver chain around her wrist.

She gives him that sweet smile that has the power to make him weak at the knees. "Thanks. My dad gave it to me for my birthday."

"Well, Happy belated Birthday," he tells her, thinking in the back of his mind that they could now be together, but he pushes the thought aside.

"Thanks." She meets his gaze and sees the longing in them that he's felt ever since he first laid eyes on her. She did love him. He knows in this moment that they still have a chance and that they'll always have a chance because their love for each other would never go away. They were forever bonded to each other.

Present—2026

Olivia spent the past hour thinking about what he had written. Did he really mean that or was it part of the fiction? He hadn't made a move to reach out to her since their last encounter, but she doesn't see why he would since it hadn't been exactly pleasant. She knew that deep down she would always have love for him but so much had happened between them and he probably wouldn't want anything to do with her once he discovered what she considered her biggest secret. Though, it was only a matter of time before he did.

I hope you enjoyed NCF which stands for No Chill Fitz lol. He would not give Kenny a break! But there will be more NCF to come so be prepared. So, Liv is now legally an adult and Fitz knows it. Do you think that he'll still be able to hold back from making a move on her? What do you think of Fitz helping Liv with college stuff and her future? Do you think this will lead to something else? What will Liv do about Kenny? What do you think Present Liv's secret is? Other thoughts? Thanks for reading!