“Lucy,” I whispered and knocked on her door quietly. When there was no answer, I opened it and saw she was already deep in sleep. Closing her door, I padded down to the kitchen to grab a water bottle and get back to my room before I came face to face with Marcus, just in case he was the one who had slammed his door.
When I was safely back in my room, I turned on the lights and finally found my lost phone down on the floor by the bed.
Seeing the two notifications for new text messages from Jason, my heart decided it was time to have a heart attack. I hugged the phone to my chest, took a deep breath, and exhaled. Wanting to be alone in the dark, I turned off the lights again and got back in bed. My phone was still tightly clasped in my hands.
Just like it was years and years ago, I thought.
Now that there was nobody around and I was all alone with my thoughts, everything that had happened that day seemed like a dream. Seeing Jason’s name light up my screen was doing inexpressible things to my heart.
Before I could work myself into hyperventilation, I opened his texts.
Jason: I can see why you didn’t want me to read this.
Oh shit!
Jason: Are you awake?
My heart stuttered to an almost stop.
Does he hate it?
He hates it.
The last text had been sent fifteen minutes ago.
I contemplated saying, Yes, I’m awake, but decided against it. We had seen each other, talked to each other enough for a day. I didn’t want him to see me as the old Olive who trailed after him to get his attention.
If he wanted to say how much he hated my book, tomorrow was just as good as any day.
Chapter Nine Olive
Someone poked my cheek. “Wakey wakey, sleepyhead. It’s time to get up.”
“Go away,” I murmured, digging my head deeper into my pillow.
“It’s almost nine o’clock,” whined Lucy above me. “You have to get up.”
I opened my eyes and saw Lucy’s upturned face looming over me with an overly bright smile. Quickly, I closed my eyes shut.
“You’re like those annoying house cats we always watch on Facebook,” I mumbled. “Why do I have to get up? I don’t have a class today.”
“Because we need to get out and celebrate yesterday’s meeting. And I’m not a cat—I’m offended, woman. I’m a cute puppy everyone wants to take home.”
Unable to stop myself, I yawned again and reluctantly opened my eyes. Thankfully, she was no longer inches away from my face.
“What time is it?”
“Nine.”
“We’re celebrating at nine in the morning? Whose brilliant idea was that? I’m gonna say no. Come back at a reasonable hour.”
“Come on, Olive.” She pulled at my covers. “You don’t have a class, but I do. So get up, get up, get up.”
“Jesus, you are like a five-year-old.”
“If you don’t want me to dump a bucket of cold water on you, you’ll get up, get yourself together, and be by the door in less than half an hour.”
“Fine,” I snapped as I swung my legs down and pushed at her shoulder. “Get out of my way.”
She clapped her hands. “That’s the spirit I was looking for!”
In twenty minutes, I was all ready to go out, but neither Lucy nor Char were ready.
“I’m about to go out and celebrate on my own,” I yelled, standing by the front door.
“I’m coming!” Lucy yelled at the same moment Char opened her door and slipped out of her room.
“You have a class, too, Char?” I asked, noticing the big bundle of books she was carrying.
“Unfortunately, yes. Then I have another study session with the girls.”
“You sure are working hard lately. Is there anything I can help with?” Char was a shy and sweet blonde who was an English major like me, but unlike me, she had no interest in creative writing.
“That’s nice of you to ask with everything you’ve got going on. I might take you up on that offer when finals are getting closer.”
“Of course. Actually, it would help me a lot, too.” As much as I hated giving in to Marcus’ words, I didn’t want him to be right about what he said, especially when I was so close to graduating early.
“Your book is still doing amazing on the rankings!” A jumping and screaming Lucy came barreling toward me.
“Here we go again,” Char muttered with a smile in her voice as I braced myself for impact.
Two seconds later, Lucy’s arms were around my neck and we were jumping up and down, celebrating her excitement over my book for the…thousandth time? If it wasn’t already the thousandth, we were surely getting pretty close.
The truth was I was staying away from checking reviews and rankings and all that stuff because I was scared shitless that all of it would tumble down on me at any moment. Lucy was like a bloodhound anyway; she had refreshed those pages almost every hour, on the hour ever since the book had gone up on Amazon two months before. My fear was also the reason I was trying to lock down my excitement about the possibility of seeing Isaac and Evie on the big screen. Once Dream Catch Studios provided me with the contract—if they were serious about it—and I signed it…then I would either sit down and cry for a few days—happy tears, of course—or I would pull a Lucy and go crazy all over the town—naturally, with her by my side.
“Still in the top hundred?” I asked, the slight tinge of hope in my voice more than clear.
She flicked her hair over her shoulder. “Try top five, woman. You’re still killing it.”
I’d stayed as the number one bestselling book on more than a few platforms for almost six weeks, and I was still in the top five after two months? I gave in to the urge and completed another jumping session with Lucy, not noticing Marcus leaning against the doorframe and watching us.
Then we were out of there to celebrate with lattes and croissants.
It was well worth every damn calorie that went straight to our hips.
***
It was almost four o’clock when Jason’s name flashed on the screen of my phone. I was alone, sitting in our living room, staring blankly at an empty word document, trying to figure out which direction my mind and heart wanted to lead me this time around. Needless to say, neither of them was speaking to me at that moment.
Urging my heart to stop fluttering around like a wild bird in my chest, I took a deep breath and answered the call—at the same time wondering if it was weird of me to get so worked up over a simple phone call.
“Hi.”
“Hey, little one. I’m not interrupting anything, am I?”
“Nope. How can I help you?” I asked before tipping my water bottle against my lips to wet my suddenly parched throat.
“So formal.” He clucked, and I could almost see him shaking his head as a small smile stretched across his face. “Soon enough, I’ll win you over. You already loved me once; I’ll make it happen again.”
Sputtering water all over the cheap Ikea coffee table that was stationed in front of the couch, I coughed until I could speak without gulping breaths.
“What?” I wheezed out when what I wanted to say was, Oh, Jason, I’m still head over heels for you, maybe even more so.
“What’s going on, Olive? Are you okay?”
“Yeah. Yeah,” I replied in a rough whisper. “Just water down the wrong pipe. I’m fine.”
“Well, okay. You scared me; I thought someone was strangling you.”
“Yeah, nothing that exciting.”
“Being strangled is exciting to you?”
“Not for me, but definitely for some people. Don’t knock it ’til you try it and all that.”