Chapter Two
"History lesson"
Langley Hall
Olivia was lying on her belly, feet kicked up behind her swaying as she read through a thick history textbook. Three more piled on her bedside table. Her fingers are stained with yellow cheese dust, and music is blasting through her headphones. Not an effective method of studying for most, others prefer silence but not Olivia. She hated reading in silence and the music helped her focus in most ways.
Snatching off her headphones sure she'd heard heavy thuds against the door. It wouldn't be the first time in this past week that she had to open the door for Kelly who had lost her keys more times than she could count. Please invest in a keychain. "Coming!"
Opening the door, her eyes widened as she looked up and down at the stranger from yesterday. "What are you doing here?" And how did you get past the R.A.? Olivia grabs his hand and yanks him inside before he can answer her question, poking her head out the door, checking for anyone in the hallway.
"I came to return your umbrella, I figured you would need it." His smile, wide and playful. Holding out the umbrella with water still dripping from it. Olivia handed it and water splashed her bare leg, she shook off the chill and it reminded her that she was not wearing pants. Pulling him in here seemed like a good idea at first but now that he was standing in her dorm and she was pantless, the awkwardness alone was enough to make her never want to show her face on campus again.
"Thanks" I need pants, why am I just sitting around without clothes on? She pulls on the oversized shirt she was wearing hoping it would magically grow and cover her legs. "How did you get in here?"
"I walked through the front door. I didn't know you wore glasses?" Olivia slides the prescriptions off her face and tucks them in the drawer. "You have a twin?" Fitz held up the gold frame that housed a photo of Olivia and her sister.
"Yeah" Olivia sticks her thumbnail in her mouth and starts chewing on it as if she were biting off a hangnail. But her nails were fine. To keep from ruining her pedicure, she sat on her hands. Fitz didn't seem like he was in a rush to leave and despite the weirdness of this visit, she wasn't exactly ready for him to leave either. "Her name is September."
"Why doesn't she go here?" He asks.
"She's taking a gap year." Why did you lie? He doesn't know it's a lie. Well, he's nosy, so he might find out. Olivia watched as his eyes roamed the room. "So what are you doing here?" she asked again.
"You play call of duty?" He held up the video game case that was shelved with other video games. Olivia walked over to him and took it. She stuffed it back in its place and moved to stand in front of the shelf so he wouldn't be tempted by any of her other shiny bobbles.
"I don't even know you, why are you in my dorm?"
"One you do know me, I'm Fitz. Two you pulled me in here." A self-satisfied smirk tugged his lips upward. "I'm just messin' with you. I came to see if you wanted to go to this party at the Frat tomorrow night."
"Didn't they just have a party last night?" She asks. Olivia was skeptical about hanging out with random boys on campus. But something about Fitz intrigued her and that's why she wasn't throwing him out of her dorm right now.
With the rain and wind obscuring her vision that day she couldn't get a good look at him. But under the honey tint in her room, Fitz had a perfect face and a million-dollar smile that made her skin bump up. She'd noticed how he bowed his head when he came into her room so he wouldn't knock his head into the tall frame. She marveled at the confidence in his step, the way he held his head high, and the way he sent a smirk to her every time she asked a question just for him to send back a question.
"Jake will be there, come hang out with us. It'll be fun I promise" Fitz says, sitting down on her bed she catches his eyes, falling down her legs and coming back up to her face. "What do you say?"
"I can't, I have to study" She points to the textbook behind him. "And I have a quiz tomorrow morning."
"Your undergrad?" Fitz skims the book and Olivia wonders if he's buying her lie. Her quiz isn't until Thursday and she's reading that textbook for the fun of it. A smirk plays on his lips.
"I will give you all the answers right now- If you agree to come to this party. Even if it's only an hour."
"You don't even know what's going to be on the quiz?" Olivia says.
"But I know history. Come on try me" Fitz offers her the book. "Ask me anything"
Olivia takes the book and there's a funny swirl in her belly that feels like she's about to be schooled. But she goes with the better part of her judgment and settles on the logic that Fitz couldn't possibly know everything in the history textbook. She flips a few pages, and Fitz smiles almost as a taunt. Olivia flips faster until she gets to the section covering United States political history. Olivia sends a taunting smirk to Fitz when she lands on the perfection question.
"What date will live in infamy?" It doesn't give many context clues. I got this!
"December 7th, 1941. Japan attacked Pearl harbor." Fitz laughed, shaking his head softly. "You gotta come better than that."
"That was a warm-up question. Okay- Who was the President during the Louisiana purchase?"
"Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson. Liv- I'm gonna call you Liv. It's looking more and more like you're coming to this party.
"I'm not done-" Of course, he took this class before ugh. Olivia starts flipping the pages faster and faster looking for her "gotcha" moment. "Which constitutional amendment eventually got repealed." She asked, closing the book.
Fitz got up from her bed and walked to her closet, he grabbed a blue jacket and rain boots. "You can pick what jeans you'll wear with this. The 18th amendment, prohibition. Which is good for us cause there will be lots of alcohol at the party."
"You took history before, that's cheating"
"I never said I didn't and you never asked. So what do you say, Livvie, come to the party and have some fun with us." Fitz says and that million-dollar simper appeared again and Olivia's arms tattered with goosebumps. She couldn't say no now, and even more, she didn't want to. Her nickname sliding off his tongue felt like honey in hot tea on a cold day, it warmed her.
"Okay, but I'm not wearing rain boots to a frat party."
"Wear whatever you want. Jake and I will be here to pick you up at seven-thirty tomorrow."
"Okay."
XXXXXXX
Olivia pulled her jacket tighter around her body to keep the cool air off her skin. She turned her wrist for the third time since she stepped outside its seven-fifty-five. She sighed and started heading back inside when a black Mercedes pulled up and whoever was driving had their hand glued to the horn.
"Liv" Fitz called from the passenger side, half of him was inside the car and the other half hanging out of the window. The driver pulled sideways blocking two student parking spots. "Hi"
"Hi," Olivia says. She catches herself smiling and stops. Jake doesn't bother getting out of the car but Fitz holds the door for her and she slides into the backseat. Olivia pulls the seat belt across her chest and locks it. Then she pulls on it to make sure it is secure.
"It's nice to see you again Olivia," Jake says, as he carelessly backs out of the lot. Olivia chews her thumb but then scolds herself, and she sits on her hand to keep from doing it.
"Yeah, you too."
"I thought you would have called, did you lose my number?" Jake asks. He turns sharply and the tires squeal against the asphalt. The roads are still wet from last night's storm. Olivia checks her seat belt again.
"Liv- Olivia?" Fitz says, looking over the back seat to see what has her distracted.
"I'm sorry what?" she says. She's been watching the road ahead the entire time she didn't catch a word of what was being said.
"Do you have your phone?" Jake says
"Um, yeah"
"Give it to Fitz and he'll save my number to your contacts" Olivia hands Fitz the phone over the shoulder on the seat.
"I'll add mine too, maybe we'll play call of duty sometime," Fitz says as he quickly types in the digits into her blackberry before handing it back.
"Who's house is this?"
In large greek hieroglyphs, A.M.B was scribed across the white house. The front lawn was filled with what looked like half the Princeton student body. A speaker blasted from the house, which had music spilling outside. A pair of icy hands gripped her waist pulling her across the grass and up to the front door. It was Jake. But still, Olivia could feel her nerves prickling. Fitz was lagging behind them with his head buried in his cell phone. Olivia looked back for Fitz but he'd disappeared with the outside crowd.
"What about Fitz? I think he's still out there." Olivia shouts over the music. Even if she concentrated hard enough she still wouldn't be able to hear her thoughts. Parties were foreign to her. In high school she never branched out to the quote, unquote cool kids so she only had the Mean girl's understanding of what went on at these events. Which usually included a keg, red cups, and mean girls. And if you were lucky maybe a cute boy would give you a second glance. But September was always there with her to make those moments worthwhile.
Jake led them to the kitchen when he hadn't responded Olivia assumed he didn't hear her over the noise. The house was huge and still, the guest managed to be on top of one another. Though the kitchen was clear except for a few stragglers who also wanted a moment to regain their hearing.
"Maybe you should text Fitz and tell him we're in here, so he doesn't waste time looking around," Olivia says. Jake cracks a smile and moves closer, his hands snaking around her waist again.
"He'll be fine. But I'd rather talk about you," he says.
Olivia swallows hard, and a shuddering breath slips out of her mouth as Jake's lips graze her neck. But she doesn't back away and her thoughts go back to his deep sandy blonde curls, cerulean gaze, and that stubborn curl that falls like Superman. Hearing herself moan brought her back to reality.
"Do you have a crush, Olivia? Maybe some guy back home"
Olivia shakes her head. She wants to bite her nails but she decided against it. The air stiffens and the house is the quietest it's ever gonna be tonight. Jake slowly backs her up to the island but she moves around him as she then hears a familiar melody. "I think I know this song, we should dance." She says and her hand is already on the door thrusting them back into the party. Olivia's not fully certain of the lyrics but she's able to hum along, swaying her body to the beat.
"Oh my god, you're here!" The shriek of delight had Olivia looking over her shoulders and turning to see who it was coming from. Because someone had the brilliant idea to throw a party and turn off the lights. "Olivia, it's Abby from history class. I'm so glad you're here"
Abby gleamed and laughed, pulling Olivia into a big hug. Jake looked annoyed but his attention was pulled away by Fitz. Olivia tried not to look too interested in his arrival. Which was easy because she had Abby screaming over the music about hanging out again. Trying to watch Fitz so he didn't disappear into the crowd again, Oshe nodded along with whatever Abby was going on about, smiling so it didn't look robotic.
But between the deafening noise and constant body bumping she started to see why Fitz had stayed outside. It was overwhelming, hot, and loud. She needed some air. Olivia said bye to Abby as headed for the front door. And just when the light switched on and the house filled with a dim glow, Olivia felt a stranger's hand slap her ass and heard his chuckle as he walked off. She froze and stared with wide eyes as the boy cut through the dancing crowd.
"What's wrong Livvie?" snapped from her daze she looked up meeting the bluest eyes she's ever seen, and something about him felt safe.
"He just smacked my butt." Olivia points and Jake and Fitz's heads turn in the direction of a tall boy with a letterman jacket on, he wasn't hard to spot in a dim room, and his height was a giveaway.
"Handle it," Fitz whispers to Jake and nudges him by the shoulder.
There was a hint of reluctance in Jake but suddenly all at once he felt everyone's gaze on him including Olivia's. And since he refused to be embarrassed he puffed out his chest and called out the jock's number printed on the back of his jacket. Jake balled his fist as the boy turned around making his way back to him. The room was silenced and this time people were staring. As the jock strolled through the parted crowd, the height difference was even more embarrassing but still Jake wasn't going to back down. Fitz recognized the boy as Derek, one of the star hockey players. Holding Olivia's wrist as Fitz moved in front of her to shield her from that asshole.
"Dude, apologize to my girl," he says. Derek chuckles at him, deep and taunting. He tells Jake fuck off. Causing a few people to laugh and before Jake can process this decision he lounges forward with his fist balled tight. No one likes being publicly humiliated but Jake especially didn't and he often resulted in violence. As the first punch landed on Derek's jaw, chaos ensued. He wasn't at all phased by the blow and when he struck, Jake fell at Olivia and Fitz's feet.
Fitz shrugged out of his jacket and handed it to Olivia as Jake was stumbling to his feet. This wasn't a new tradition in their friendship. Jake started many fights that he couldn't finish. "Olivia, go outside."
"Are you assholes really fighting?" Abby screamed. "Come on Olivia."
"What no, Fitz-" However her plea came too late. Fitz already landed a blow on the tough guy. While Abby was yanking Olivia out of the party.
Seconds later a group of drunk college students ran out of the house, some stumbling and holding onto each other. And in that crowd was Jake holding his jaw. Olivia's eyes widened and before she realized she was stomping towards Jake demanding to know where Fitz was. "Why are we leaving him?" she asked, her voice reaching an unfamiliar octave as she clutched Fitz's black windbreaker tighter.
"He knows what he's doing. Get in the car." Jake grunts. "The cops are gonna come soon, get in the car."
XXXXXXXX
The consequences of last night were catching up with Fitz and Jake. But Fitz was the only one brave enough to show his face on campus after that fiasco. Besides the few dirty looks and whispers, it wasn't as bad as Freshman year first semester when they crashed a Colombia frat party and started a brawl. For weeks guys from the fraternity stalked Princeton's campus waiting for Fitz and Jake so they could get round two.
Fitz was busy using the drink bar to soothe his swollen knuckles, dipping his hand in and out of the tub of ice. He didn't even notice Olivia had snuck up on him. "That's unsanitary," Olivia says, leaning over his shoulder as much as she could with their height difference.
Fitz slapped his chest with his bruised wet hand, feigning fright. "What are you doing here," he says and Olivia holds up a bright red apple, giving a tight smile. She was new to this and she didn't know if she was imagining the unspoken chemistry between her and Fitz. But lord knows she's old enough to act on whatever was happening between them.
"Sorry about last night, I shouldn't have said anything. That guy was a jerk- But I'm sorry" Olivia says.
"This wasn't your fault" He holds up his hands, his knuckles an ombré of pink and purple. "Derek is a notorious creep. His beating was long overdue."
I think I love him. "I should go."
"Wait, I'll walk you over," Fitz says. "Are you okay from last night?"
"I should be asking you that" Olivia used her hand to block the sun from her eyes. The clouds have finally disappeared and the puddles are drying up. A rather warm morning for a January day so Olivia left her jacket back at the dorm. The tiny bumps on her arms were visible and her cheeks were the shade of the apple she was eating. Fitz didn't say much on the walk over and she didn't mind, the less they say to each the less likely she'll put her foot in her mouth and blurt out something embarrassing.
"Thanks again for last night and-"
"You're not getting rid of me that easily. How did your test go?" The corners of his mouth went up, smiling. Olivia sighed thinking what a delightful mess she's gotten herself in now.
Olivia opened the door and peeked her head around the corner to see if the security guard was at his post. When she was sure the coast was clear Fitz slithered past her. And they sprinted the rest of the way to her dorm. Laughing when they'd successfully made it there without being caught. Olivia fumbled with her keys and Fitz reminded her to breathe.
Fitz plopped down on her bed and sat up on his elbow. "Why did you lie to me about your test?"
"Because two days ago you were a stranger and…"
"And now I'm your best friend. I get it, no hard feelings." Fitz chuckles. "What?"
"What?" Olivia says but secretly freaked out that Fitz knew she was thinking something.
"You were gonna say something." Fitz scoots to the edge of her bed, his hands collapsed together like her father does when he has something serious to tell her. "Jake wanted to apologize but I don't think he's coming out for a while. Derek wouldn't be on a hockey scholarship if he wasn't hard-hitting."
"Yeah." Olivia sat beside Fitz on the edge of her bed. "I told him not to leave you there, not when it was my fault."
Fitz brandished his knuckles to show her that he was okay. Before explaining that the fight got broken up by a couple of his biology buddies and then the cops came and broke the party up. "I'm fine. But I don't think Jake's pride will recover. He really likes you. You should give him a chance."
Ugh, why does he do that? "Yeah" Olivia wanted to scream out loud but all that came out was a small chuckle followed by an overly enthusiastic nod. Time. Give it time. "You probably have somewhere to be."
"Nope. And it looks like you have the dorm to yourself." Fitz scans the room adding emphasis to his statement. Now that Olivia isn't blocking the shelf he can see the variety of games she has. Picking up the red and black Mortal Kombat video game case, Fitz waves it. "Let's play." Fitz grinned.