Page 15 of Little Liar
I nod, stepping in and closing the door.
The buzzing of my phone pulls my attention away from the movie I’m watching. I’m half-asleep, my hair still wet from the shower, the towel around my waist.
Olivia: Are you awake?
I don’t even need to reply—I know what she wants. Olivia has nightmares sometimes, and when they happen, she needs me. She’ll always need me to push her demons away.
I get dressed and pull on my hoodie, then pause and pull it back off, keeping it in my hand as I climb over my balcony, crossing the ledge until I reach her unlocked window. I slide it open and jump in, stopping when I see Olivia sitting up in bed, visibly shaken.
Must’ve been a really bad nightmare this time.
She pulls her duvet aside and takes the hoodie after I drop it in her lap. But when I notice how red her eyes are, I frown.
What’s wrong?I sign.Have you been crying?
She shakes her head and lies back down, and when I lower myself beside her, she pushes her back to my front and wraps my arm around her, lacing her fingers and holding our hands to the side of her cheek. It’s wet from tears, and I feel another slide down against my skin.
Instead of pushing her to tell me what happened in the dream, I hold her tightly to me and inhale the sweet scent of strawberries.
“My tummy hurts,” she says quietly. She’s holding her stomach with her other hand, curling in on herself, her body shaking with soft sobs. “It hurts so much.”
I unravel myself from her after a few minutes, heading into the bathroom to pour her a glass of water from the sink. I stop when I see the underwear and pants discarded on the floor next to the toilet.
Blood. Not too much of it, but it’s there.
I stuff them into her laundry basket, not wanting her to feel embarrassed about her period. The gel packs she uses for her cramps aren’t under the sink, so I sign to her that I’ll be back in a minute and head to the kitchen.
I’ll do anything to make her feel better—when she was younger, her stomach would get sore and she’d cry from eating too much candy, and I’d cuddle her to sleep—I hate it when she’s like this.
When she first got her period, she came to me, crying again, and said the pains were everywhere. After a quick internet search on home remedies, I ran her a warm bath, heated up soup Mom had made for us earlier that day, and we lay in bed for two days until she felt better.
We both have school tomorrow or we’d do it all over again.
I stop as soon as I walk in, seeing Mom at the breakfast bar, her head down, drinking straight from the bottle of wine. A box of tissues sits to the side, some scrunched up and stained with mascara-tinted tears.
I should ask her if she’s okay, but I don’t. I walk in, heat up two of the gel packs, then grab some Tylenol and a bag of chips.
Mom lifts her head to look at me, her eyes dropping to the stuff in my hands. Her lips flatten, then her head lowers again as her shoulders shake.
Dad storms in, ignoring me, and stops in front of the breakfast bar. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing? We agreed to wait until Olivia was eighteen to meet Parker!”
Mom scoffs. “Calm down, Jamieson. He wanted to see her in person before agreeing to anything. They got on fine.”
My eyes narrow. There’s a stab of pain in my chest knowing she met the potential love of her life tonight.
“You had no right. Olivia is just as much my daughter as she is yours. You had no right to flaunt her to the Melrose family.”
Mom glares. “Are you done?”
His gaze snaps to me then drops to the stuff in my arms. Just when I think he’s going to give me a speech about staying away from Olivia, he fists his hands and storms out of the kitchen, his office door slamming in the distance.
Olivia is still awake and crying when I reach the room.
Her little whimpers are broken, but she sits up and takes the pills, drinks the water, and smiles weakly as I press a gel pack to her stomach for her to hold there. I climb in behind her againand put the other gel pack at the bottom of her back, holding it there with my own body pressing to hers.
After a minute, she whispers, “Thank you.”
I nod against her hair, my eyes closing, hoping the pain meds start to work soon. Her low sobs start to settle, then she turns in my arms and kisses my cheek. “You’re the best brother I could’ve ever asked for. I’m glad they adopted us both. You’re my best friend too.”
