Chapter 16: Feel It All

I'm looking to the sky
And I'll be listening to the stars
And maybe thinking of you
And wondering where you are
Do you know what you've done for me?
You made my branches grow
Now they can play with the wind
And they can carry the snow

—Feel It All by KT Tunstall

Fitz wakes up to Olivia stirring next to him and as his eyes gaze over the bite marks across her shoulder and collarbone he smiles, vividly remembering the night before. They had peacefully and contently drifted off to sleep, only to wake up in the middle of the night and resume right where they left off with their lovemaking. He looks outside to the after rain scenery and notices the sun starting to peek out from the grayish clouds. He hopes the school's graduation plans won't be disrupted since they would be hosting the ceremony outside. He takes a peek at the digital clock on his nightstand which reads 10am, eight hours before the ceremony. He glances back at Olivia, who looks like an angel with the most peaceful expression and slight smile on her face. He sweeps a strand of her hair out of her face and just stares at her for a long minute before waking her up with a kiss to her shoulder.

Her eyes flutter open and his eyes are met with the most gorgeous brown doe orbs. She gives him a lazy smile. "Hi."

"Hi, beautiful," he says then presses his lips to hers. "You sleep well?"

"I slept great. Last night was amazing," she says, gliding her hands up his chest.

He smiles. "I'm glad you enjoyed it as much as I did."

At that moment Olivia's phone chimes, presumably from a text message.

"Crap," she says, under her breath as she digs her way out of the covers, taking a blanket with her and goes to the living room to fetch her phone. "I hope my dad isn't freaking out right now. I forgot to tell him I wasn't coming home last night. He probably thinks I'm at Abby's."

He watches her intently as she walks back into the room, looking at her half covered ass and smiling slyly, which makes her blush when she looks up from her phone and catches him staring at her. But one thing in particular catches his eye. On her left hip is an orange and black tattoo of a butterfly.

"Nice tattoo. Did you get it for your birthday?" He asks as she sits back on the bed and glances at her hip, realizing what he's referring to.

"Actually, no. I got it about two years ago when I was out with some friends one night."

"Let me guess, you used fake ids," Fitz says knowingly.

She nods with a guilty smile. "Yeah..."

"Why a butterfly, and why there?" He asks simply, tracing the tattoo with his finger.

"I think I had been a little drunk at the time and I thought that would be the best place to hide it from my parents—and I guess it kind of was since they still don't know. I know this might sound a little silly to you but the reason I chose the butterfly was because at the time I was going through some things and I was frustrated with my life, I guess like most teenagers are, so I wished that I could just fly away from all of it and blossom into something beautiful, you know, like a butterfly would. But I don't feel that way anymore and I have you to thank for pulling me out of that dark and confusing period of my life. In fact, I haven't even touched alcohol since you acted like a stubborn prick and refused to let me have any back in Hawaii. Thanks for that, by the way."

They both smile and chuckle at the memory but Fitz is glad that he's changed her for the better. He loved it when they had moments like this and she allowed herself to be open and vulnerable with him. "I'm glad, Livvie. And I'm so happy to now have you in my life. For such a long time I went around searching for something, but now I've found exactly what I've been looking for. You complete me."

She seems surprised by his words, making him wonder if he said something wrong or strange. "What?" He asks softly.

"Nothing," she says, wearing a sweet smile as she sweeps a curl off his forehead. "You complete me, too."

He grips her waist, gently pulling her on top of him and kisses her passionately, morning breath and all. Her fingers comb through his messy curls, massaging his scalp, making him feel like he was in heaven and she moans into his mouth as his hands roam her body. They stop after a minute and she sighs against his chest as he traces her curves up and down with his hand, loving the feel of her body.

"I wish we could stay like this all day," she says dreamily. "But I still have to graduate."

"You do, but we'll have plenty more times like this to come, especially in New York," he assures her, depositing a kiss to her forehead.

After about ten more minutes of cuddling up together, Olivia and Fitz decide to get up and have some breakfast before they part ways. Fitz throws on a t-shirt and sweatpants and gives Olivia one of his flannel shirts, but as she's buttoning it up she notices a trail of hickeys starting from her breasts down to her pelvic area. She smiles and blushes as she continues to button up and then hops off the bed, but like before she has a little difficulty walking, because she's still a little sore from the night before, even though she had hidden it pretty well when she went to pick up her phone. She slightly wobbles to the kitchen where Fitz is in the kitchen getting some bowls for cereal. He looks up at her and smiles as she comes into view but does a double take when he sees her take an unusual pose in an attempt to seem like she was fine.

"You okay?" He asks with a lopsided smirk.

"Mmhmm," she tells him, quickly moving over to the couch and taking a seat and smiling up at him.

He still doesn't seem convinced but lets it go for now. "So, Lucky Charms, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, or Cheerios?"

"Mmm, how about all of them," she says with a wide grin.

He seems to consider the idea and nods, returning her expression. "I like how you think."

He sits down next to her on the couch with their bowls of cereal and gives her hers. He welcomes her onto his lap and she gladly obliges. They start eating and they both agree that the combination of the three different cereals tastes amazing.

"I can't believe that I'm graduating today. It's like I'm leaving behind an entire chapter of my life and starting anew. It's a little scary but I'm excited for what the future holds…for us, too."

He smiles at her and kisses the spot between her eyebrows and he says, "I can't wait to begin this new chapter with you, baby."

Her heart flutters at him calling her 'baby' and she knows that she would never grow tired of hearing him call her by that. After breakfast, they clean up and head back to the bedroom so that she can get dressed. She puts on her jeans but Fitz lets her keep his shirt which makes her happy that she'll have her own little piece of him to keep.

By 5:00pm Olivia and her family are at the school the graduation ceremony, but Olivia can help but feel stressed out and upset as she continuously tries to contact her mother but gets not response. Her mother hadn't bothered to call her in months, Olivia had stopped reaching out, and she had come to accept that their relationship was slowly dying, but she had hope that maybe they could rebuild it if she came to her graduation, especially since it was such a milestone in her life, but she should've known better. Ever since her parents divorced it was as if her mom had just forgotten that Olivia and her brothers even existed and she was done letting her mom get her hopes up only to have them crushed every time. Simon had given up on her a while ago and it was time Olivia did the same. She sends her mom one last text, telling her to not even bother coming and turns her phone off.

She had been strolling around the school, needing to get a little time to herself to just walk off some steam before the ceremony officially began. She's now in one of the school's hallways and she's about to turn and go back to where the rest of her classmates were waiting but she stops when she sees Fitz in the midst of a small crowd of people. She smiles at how handsome he looks in a dress shirt and slacks and the stubborn little Superman curl that would never conform to the rest of his hair no matter how much gel he used. She wonders if she should wait until the crowd clears to go talk to him or just wait until he noticed her and came over but as she's thinking this, some brunette walks up to him, exclaiming his name and throws herself into his arms. Olivia frowns when he hugs her back and smiles widely at her as he begins to engage in conversation with her. Olivia wonders who this girl is, who seemed somewhere around Fitz's age, why she felt the need to let her hand linger on his arm as they talked, and why she was laughing every ten seconds. Of course Olivia knew that he could be funny but that didn't mean she wanted him showing off his charm to random chicks. They looked like they had known each other for a long time and were catching up, but he seemed to be enjoying her company a little too much in Olivia's opinion and since she was already aggravated from dealing with her mother, just watching him interact with this girl was pissing her off and causing her to be filled with many doubts about where she and Fitz really stood.

The girl leaves him after two more minutes of chatting and Fitz glances in Olivia's direction, making eye contact with her, but by then she's seen enough and doesn't want to even talk to him.

"Livvie," he calls out to her in a hushed yell. She spins around to see him smiling widely at her.

"You look great," he tells her as he approaches her with that trademark swagger of his that was enough to make her weak at the knees, but all she does now is glance away from him and cross her arms over her chest.

"I have to go," she mutters, turning around but he catches her arm.

"Wait." she spins back around to face him as he asks, "Why do you seem so upset?"

"I'm not upset."

"I think you are," he says daringly.

"Well, I think you're mistaken," she shoots back.

"I'm not letting you go until you tell me what's bugging you."

"Look, Fitz, I really need to go so why don't you just leave me alone and go hang out with that girl you were with just a minute ago. You seemed to really enjoy her company," she says, wiggling her way out his grasp, but as she begins down the hall she hears him let out a laugh.

She turns back around, even more pissed now. "You think I'm being funny?"

"A little yes," he says with a smirk. "You're jealous."

"I'm not freakin' jealous!" She yells back. "Ugh, just leave me alone." But the moment she turns around, his hands are on her waist and in a split second, he has her pinned against the lockers as he vigorously attacks her lips. Olivia is so shocked that she gasps amid their kiss but he doesn't waste any time reconnecting their lips, holding her face with his hands. She feels an aching between her thighs and groans as she can't hold back from kissing him back and comes at him with the same intensity, grabbing his shirt collar and pulling him closer to her so that there's no space in between them whatsoever. But just when she's starting to get into it, he pulls back. She tries to reconnect their lips, feeling like she was being deprived of oxygen when in fact the opposite was true, but he holds her at a distance. He waits until they both gain their breath back, also seeming in a little disarray from that soul-evoking kiss and then takes her hand and leads her into a classroom.

She watches him as he runs his fingers through his hair but he doesn't say anything and she eventually gets tired of waiting. "You still haven't told me who that girl was."

He rolls his eyes. "That girl was my sister Lindsey. You remember me telling you about her?"

She nods subtly.

"She's here, along with the rest of my family to support Bob, and I guess me in a sense. I haven't seen her in almost six months so we were just happy to see each other. That's all," he tells her, sitting down on a desk and having her stand between his legs. "You were jealous."

She glances away from him, feeling like an idiot. "You could've told me that to begin with…I see you getting all chummy with some girl—who I now know is your sister—but I didn't know what to think. We just made love all night yesterday and it was the greatest thing I've ever experienced but for a moment I thought that it didn't mean much to you."

"Liv, last night meant everything to me. I've never felt closer to you. It wasn't just sex to me—it was my way of showing you how much I love you. You're not some trivial part of my life or someone I would just use and then ignore. We've been through too much. I'm in love with you. My every move is controlled by the look on your face. You own me, you control me, I belong to you, Livvie. So, don't ever doubt my love for you. You're the only one for me. You're my girl," he says, bringing her hand up to his mouth and kissing it. "And I'm all yours."

She nods, knowing that she had overreacted and that he meant every word he said. She smiles coyly at him. "I'm sorry for doubting you. I've just never felt this way about anyone, so I'm sorry if I get a little jealous or mad whenever I see you with another girl. Your sister is really pretty, by the way," she admits.

"Don't tell her that, it'll only feed her ego, though I want you two to meet someday. I think you guys would get along really well. And by the way, I love it when you get jealous and mad—it's so sexy," he whispers against her lips. She smiles and wraps her arms around his neck as they engage in a slow but simple kiss. She pulls back and rests her hands on his chest and just looks into his eyes, feeling like the luckiest girl in the world to have someone like him all to herself.

"I should get going. I'm really not supposed to even be here but I just needed to take a walk to get rid of some of the distress I was feeling because of my mom. She said she would be here but she's not answering any of my calls or texts. My own mom doesn't even have the decency to show up much less tell me she's not coming to my high school graduation…" she says with a humorless chuckle.

"I'm sorry, baby," he says, rubbing circles across the back of her hand.

"It's okay," she tells him, dismissively shaking her head.

"No, it's not, but don't let her take your joy away. Today is all about you, so don't focus on the fact that she's not here. Just enjoy yourself and have fun tonight, okay? The rest of your family and I are here for you."

She nods and smiles lightly at him, knowing that he was right. If she focused her energy on being upset that her mom hadn't showed up, she wouldn't get to enjoy this moment with the people who were actually here for her and loved her most.

He opens up his arms for her and she glad goes into his embrace, needing to feel his comforting arms around her. After a minute, he says, "But before you go, I wanted to give you something." He digs into one of his pockets and pulls out a blue jewelry box. He opens it and inside is a silver necklace with an infinity symbol wrapped in a heart. "As a graduation gift…and the start of our new relationship."

She beams. "Fitz, I love it. This is so perfect—you're perfect to me," she says, knowing that she would always remember this moment and was determined to make their love last for infinity.

He grins as he says, "Ditto."

She turns around so that he can put the necklace on for her. He softly caresses the back of her neck once he's done doing the clasp and then they exit the classroom and say their goodbyes for the night. "Enjoy yourself, Livvie. I'll be thinking about you nonstop. I love you," he says, squeezing her hand.

She leans up on her tip toes and kisses his cheek. "You don't know how much I'm looking forward to tomorrow. I love you, too."

The ceremony goes off without a hitch and two hours later Olivia and her classmates have their diplomas and are throwing their caps into the sky.

After taking a million pictures, Olivia goes home with her family, changes, and heads to the party. She knew she would be up celebrating until at least two in the morning so she stops by Starbucks and grabs some coffee before arriving at the party. She ends up enjoying herself, dancing, chatting, and partying with her friends and even some people that she didn't know well—the only thing that would've made the party complete was if Fitz were there as well.

Though when Olivia pauses from her dancing to go grab a cup of water, she's a little surprised by who she runs into on the way. "Abby."

"Olivia," she greets just as curtly.

They hadn't said more than these two words to each other since their fight months ago and even though some of Olivia's hostile feelings still lingered, she was getting tired of them beating around the bush and continuing to give each other dirty looks from afar instead of trying to talk things out.

She sighs. "Can we talk somewhere?"

She nods subtly, much to Olivia's surprise but Olivia gestures for her to follow her to a quitter area of the party and she does. They sit on a bench next to a tiny pond in the backyard with about a foot of distance in between them.

"How are you?" Olivia asks, thinking it was as good a start as any to the conversation.

"I'm alright," she says with a shrug. "I'm glad to finally be out of high school but I don't really know what I want to do with my life, but what do you care? You don't want anything to do with me anyway, I don't even know why I followed you out here."

"I care," she truthfully admits. "I may be mad at you still but that doesn't mean we're done," she says, somewhat quoting what Fitz had once said to her when she had gotten mad at him for telling her parents about the Edison incident many months ago. "I've known you since we were in kindergarten. You're the sister I never had, and sisters fight sometimes but that doesn't mean that we're still not sisters. I was just angry when I said those awful things to you and I'm sorry, it was none of my business."

She shakes her head. "No, you were right. I shouldn't have taken advantage of Simon like that. I don't even go after nerds, it's just that we had been hanging out a lot around that time and I was really starting to like his company. I don't know what's up with me."

Olivia glances at Abby and sees the genuinely confused look on her face and an idea occurs to her. She smiles slightly as she says, "Maybe you like him. I know he's in love with you."

Abby looks taken aback. "He's a great guy but I don't think that I could ever be with him in that way. I've never even gone on a date before."

"There's always a first time. Maybe you do have feelings for him. I say you two should go on a date and if it doesn't work out then that's that, but what if you end up really falling for him. You'll never know unless you try," Olivia says, nudging her.

"Maybe I'll ask him…but are we okay again now?" Abby asks hopefully.

"We're good," Olivia says, smiling. They reach out and hug each other, both glad that the chasm between them has finally been sealed.

"So, how about you and Mr. Grant? You don't need to freak out, I've known for some time now about you guys and I haven't told a soul," Abby says, rushing to add the last part.

Olivia gasps, giving her friend a horrified look but all Abby does is smirk. "How long have you known?"

"For about two months now. When I was out with my grandma I saw you guys walking hand-in-hand, hugging, and him kissing you on the forehead before you guys parted ways. It was by that pasta place, the one that does karaoke."

Olivia remembers and shakes her head at how foolish she and Fitz were. If Abby had seen them then anyone could've but somehow the news of their unconventional relationship hadn't come out. "Why didn't you say anything? After I called you a slut you could've easily pinned me for doing the exact same thing, especially with a teacher."

"Maybe I didn't want to. I mean, I considered it because I was still pretty pissed off at you but I knew that if I did, you would never forgive me and I didn't want to damage things between us any further," she says coyly, making Olivia realize that Abby was in fact one of the best friends she had ever had. "And you guys just looked good together. You seemed really happy with him. How long have you guys been together?"

"It's complicated…we weren't exactly together the whole time. It's a long story."

"I'm all ears."

"Well, I guess I can shorten. We met in Hawaii when my family went on that week-long trip last summer and we just really hit it off, but we weren't able to stay in contact because we hadn't exchanged any contact info, in fact the entire week that we spent together we didn't even know each other's names," Olivia says, smiling at the memory. "We met again when he became our teacher and that's where things got more complicated. We agreed to keep things relatively friendly between us and we had a few fights along the way over stupid things but we somehow found a way to keep it all together."

"That's nice…" Abby says with a forced smile and Olivia knows what she's thinking.

"I know you think that I slept with him to do well in his class but I didn't. Our relationship was nothing like that—my second semester grades are proof of that. The first time we had sex was last night, actually. And now that we're both done with school we're going to try at a real relationship. Tomorrow we're going to New York for a week to go visit his friends and just spend time together. I'm kind of nervous about the whole thing and that I'll finally have him all to myself after wanting him for so long but I'm excited. I know that I may not sound very convincing and it seems that he's using me and that I'm delusional but just believe me when I saw that he's not. He's a sweet, respectful, caring guy, and I love him."

Abby raises her eyebrows. "Wow, I never thought I'd hear you say those three words, but I believe you and he seems to love you, too. I wasn't going to mention this but I saw you guys fighting earlier in the hallway when you called him out on flirting with another girl. I saw and heard everything, up to you guys saying bye and parting ways. Sorry for spying, I was just curious."

She shakes her head, feeling a little embarrassed that her friend had seen the whole ordeal but says, "It's alright."

"I'm guessing your dad doesn't know anything."

Olivia shakes her head no. "I told him that I'm going to some baking retreat for the New York trip, but it's going to be a while before I tell him about our relationship and I know he won't take it well, but I don't care what anyone says or thinks. We're going to be together."

Abby nods and smiles. "Well, I'm glad you've found someone who makes you happy. And he better keep making you happy or else he's going to face my wrath, former teacher or not. What's his real name anyway? It feels awkward to call him 'Mr. Grant' now."

"It's Fitzgerald, but he prefers to go by 'Fitz'."

"Fitzgerald?" Abby says amidst her laughter. "Wow, I never would've guessed that."

Olivia rolls her eyes, but can't help but laugh as well. "I had the same reaction when he first told me, but now I think his fancy name is hot," she says with a huge grin.

"Damn, Liv, you are sprung. I guess I can understand why you didn't tell me but we have known each other for almost our entire lives. You could've trusted me, especially since I didn't tell anyone when we weren't on good terms."

"I know. You really are a good friend and I should've known that you wouldn't tell anyone, I was just on edge, especially since we almost got caught by Principal Parks."

"Seriously? Tell me what happened," Abby says eagerly. Olivia recounts the story to her and they spend the next few hours talking about everything, mostly Fitz and what their dreams and hopes were for the future. Overall, Olivia is just happy to have her friend back.

Present—2026

Olivia fingers the eleven year-old necklace that Fitz had given to her the night of her high school graduation. Even though their relationship hadn't lasted 'for infinity' like she had hoped, she had kept many of the gifts he had given to her as mementos that she often found herself looking through every once in a while whenever she got really down and though there was a sad aura around them, the good memories never failed to bring a smile to her face. Her mind goes back to that night that she and Fitz fully gave themselves to each other and marks it as the first time she had actually made love, not just had sex with someone. The level of intimacy and the connection between them had been out of this world and since then he had left his permanent mark on her. She couldn't escape him since something always reminded her of him and he was always running through her head. She always wondered about how he was doing, if he was happy, and if her walking out of his life had been the best thing for him. But she would be forever thankful to him. She wouldn't be where she was today without him. She was one of the youngest and richest CEOs in the nation, even though she lived way below her means because the huge mansions and ostentatious crap she had wanted before became meaningless and left her feeling empty when she had them. She also wanted Danny to live as a normal kid. She had a pretty sweet life, but she knew that she wasn't living it the way she should or wanted to. She wasn't filled with joy or as enthusiastic as she used to be, now she was just going through the motions and doing what needed to be done and she didn't know how to fix that.

She puts the necklace back in the shoebox of mementos but as she's about to slide the box under her bed, she hears a knock at the door. She wonders who would visit her on a rainy day and goes to answer the door.

I hope you enjoyed that chapter. Liv has now graduated and she and Fitz are moving on with their lives together. How did you feel about Liv getting her panties in a bunch over Fitz "flirting"? How did you feel about Abby knowing about Olitz and still keeping it on the down low? How about Liv and her box of mementos? Who do you think is at the door? Other thoughts? Some of the next few chapters will feature a little more present day stuff so be prepared for that. And thanks for reading!