“Olivia.” My voice is firm, but cautious. “Come over here and let’s talk.”
Her eyes practically shoot fire. “It’s not bad enough that people are teasing me about sending a note to the boy I like? Now I have to deal with gossip about my dad screwing my teacher? Just great.”
Olivia’s gaze focuses on Quinn, her eyes glassy. “How could you?” Her voice is hushed as she whispers, “I trusted you.”
“Olivia …” Quinn’s voice rasps from her throat. “I—”
Olivia slaps her hand down on the bannister, turning her back to Quinn before she can finish replying, and takes off at a sprint for her room.
My stomach churns. Quinn pivots to face me and the expression on her face reflects my thoughts exactly. Oh my God, what have we done?
“I’m so sorry, Liam.”
I close my eyes for a few seconds and take a deep steadying breath. “It’s my fault. I should have told her sooner. I should have told her, period.” I shake my head, chuckling without humor. “I fucked up.”
She swallows hard and lifts a shaking hand to her cheek. When she runs her fingers over the skin, she seems surprised to discover that a tear has slipped from her eye. Heaving a breath, she meets my gaze. “I should go.”
I nod.
All I can do is nod. My heart plunges into my stomach as I watch Quinn gather her things and walk out the door.
Chapter 23
Liam
After Quinn leaves, I feel sick inside. I’d hated the look on her face when Olivia lashed out at her. We’ve done nothing wrong, except not telling Olivia sooner. I knew the minute I’d laid eyes on those kids at the coffee shop and Quinn told me they were in Olivia’s class that the potential for a problem was there. I’m actually surprised it took this long for word to reach Olivia.
Dammit. I knew I should have talked to her over the weekend, no matter what. But I’d been waiting for the perfect moment. For stars to align or something. I totally should have known better.
I’ll have to reach out to Quinn later. For now, the only thing on my mind is talking this through with Olivia. I race up the stairs after her. When I realize she’s locked the door behind her, I almost pound on it, but think better of it. I give it a soft tap. “O. Can we talk about this?”
From inside, her voice is muffled. “What? About you sucking face with my teacher? My tutor? Oh my God, how could you do this to me?” she wails.
My chest deflates. I hate that she’s so upset by this. I guess I can only hope she’s more worried about the idea of people knowing than she is about the thought of Quinn and me together. “Olivia, please let me in so we can discuss this.”
“There’s nothing to discuss. My life is over.”
I rest my hand on the door and lean my forehead against it, closing my eyes. “Your life is not over. Come on, baby girl. Let me talk to you.”
Five seconds go by before the door flies open, and I stumble forward into the room. Quickly righting myself, I rest my hands on my hips, observing the puffy, red eyes and blotchy face of my sixteen-year-old.
She whirls back to her bed and sits down, arms crossed in front of her. “What?” Her tone is half-disgusted, half-betrayed.
I take a deep breath and cross the room to her desk, where I pull out the chair. I sit backward on it, my arms resting on the top rail. I prop my chin on my forearm, gauging her initial reaction to know how to handle this. “Olivia, I’m really sorry this is how you found out about my relationship with Quinn.”
She laughs incredulously. “I bet you’ve been laughing the whole time I’ve been calling her Ms. Lockmore, huh? Way more familiar with her than that, aren’t you?” She practically snarls at me, but when I look into her eyes, I see genuine hurt. “Have you been seeing her behind my back all year? How long has this been going on?” She scrubs her hands over her face, and I would do just about anything in this moment to fix this for her.
Pressing my lips together, I try to think of how to make things right. “I’m going to be honest with you because I think you are old enough to handle it.”
She rolls her eyes at me. I’d thought she was old enough to handle it; now I have reservations. I sit up straight on the chair and blow out a quick breath before I begin. “I met Quinn at the cider mill in January. I’d been seeing her off and on since then.”
“So, it’s all true … that people saw you. Both at the grocery store and at the coffee shop. Great.”
“She is pretty great. And, yes, we shopped together when we ran into each other one afternoon, and I did take her out on a date last weekend. We had coffee.” I shake my head. “I think if it hadn’t come out like this, you wouldn’t be having as much issue with it as you are right now. You like her. I don’t think you should blame her for this. And you definitely haven’t misplaced your trust in her.”
“Why should I trust her at all anymore? She told you everything about what’s been happening at school.” She throws up her arms, her face blanching at the idea of it.
“Actually, she hasn’t. I didn’t realize it had anything to do with teasing and a note to a boy until you said so yourself when you were shouting at us.”