Page 58 of Waking Olivia

“Yes,” replies Jessica. “Olivia was just telling me she was helping with the horses. If you needed help, you should have asked me, Dorothy.”

What utter bullshit. I don’t know how this girl affords a BMW or those designer heels she’s wearing by working for the university, but there’s not a chance thatshe’scleaning stables.

“Olivia grew up working with horses,” Dorothy explains.

Jessica walks around Dorothy and goes to Will’s other side, grabbing his hand. “You should teach me what to do, so next time I can be the one to help. I’ll need to learn eventually anyway, right?”

Whoa. What in the actualfuckdid that mean? Is hemarryingthis girl?

Will acts as if she hasn’t spoken as he turns to her. “You ready to head out?”

“Head out?” she asks. “But your mom made dinner. We don’t spend enough time out here anyway. You know I love the farm.”

“I thought we were eating out,” Will argues, sounding a bit like a surly adolescent.

“We can eat out any time,” she exclaims. “But how often can we eat with your mom and your star athlete?”

Pretty much anytime, I think with a smirk.

It’s uncomfortable, sitting down at the table with her there, especially when I don’t know my role or what Will has told her. Dorothy asks me how our climb was over dinner, though, so that’s one cat out of the bag. I tell her Will taught me to belay.

“So you climbed?” Dorothy asks him excitedly.

“Yeah,” he says with a half smile. “I haven’t lost it entirely.”

“He hasn’t lost it at all,” I tell her. “He looked like Spiderman. Which was good because I wasn’t entirely sure I was doing it right and didn’t want to find out by watching him plummet to the ground.”

“You don’t need to worry about Will,” says Dorothy. “He’s a natural born climber.”

“I wasn’t worried about him,” I reply with a grin at Will. “I just didn’t know how to get home on my own.”

Jessica’s jaw drops but Will laughs.Hisreaction is the only one I care about.

“We should go climbing sometime,” interjects Jessica, looking at Will. He blinks as if she’s speaking in some foreign language he needs to translate. Or maybe he just forgot she was there, though that’s hard to imagine given the way she’s clinging to him.

“Sure,” he says hesitantly. “I didn’t think you were into it.”

“Well, I’ll never know until I try,” she says with another bright smile. She turns to me. “So, Olivia, what are your plans for Thanksgiving?”

I shrug. “I don’t know yet.”

“You have to come here,” says Dorothy, “if you’re not going home, that is.”

“Oh, I disagree,” says Jessica decisively. “You should go home. It’s important to keep those ties strong when you go away to school.”

I smile tightly, managing to not roll my eyes. “I’ll figure it out.”

“Stay with us,” Dorothy pleads. “It won’t be the same without you.”

I feel as if I’ve been put on stage and was never provided the lines. I don’t want Dorothy to always feel like she has to take me in, but her last words have clearly made Jessica so very unhappy that I find myself agreeing just to see Jessica’s face fall a little more.

After dinner, I start clearing the table and Jessica inserts herself there too, reaching for the dishes in my hands. “Here,” she says. “Will and I can get this. You’re the guest. You should sit.”

For some reason, this completely reasonable statement makes me want to punch her in the face.I’mthe guest, but she’s not?She’sthe one they want around, and I’m the one they’re forced to host?

“I’m good,” I say, brushing past her to walk to the kitchen. I start rinsing the dishes and putting them in the dishwasher. She takes the bowls I’ve just placed there and moves them for no evident reason. “Isn’t Will’s family great?” she asks. “I’m surprised Dorothy doesn’t have a houseful of pets. She just can’t resist a stray, you know?”

And with that, she gives me that sunny pageant smile and walks back into the family room.

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