Secondhand Embarrassment

twenty eight: the past and present

lennon || olivia || billy

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when a rush of emotions, particularly nerves and irrational fears, flood lennon's mind and body, she drinks a lot to compensate for the loss of control. she's been walking around the beach with the wind in her hair and a bright red cup in her hand for the past fifteen minutes. she's been waiting for a text message, the phone in her pocket equivalent to a thousand pounds pulling on her heavy, confused heart.

for the first time all week, olivia has trouble catching up with her best friend who seems to have spinning helicopter blades for lips when she's drunk.

"slow down, lennon," olivia warns, snatching lennon's fourth cup away and pouring the contents into a trashcan nearby. "you're gonna get alcohol poisoning at this rate."

"i know," lennon says clearly. she's never really been one to slur her words out of intoxication. "i'm just not sure i even want to-"

"stop talking like that." olivia lets out a long, exasperated sigh before she grabs both of lennon's hands and pulls her next to the beach cattails away from the sparking flames. "you know that you've been waiting for this ever since he admitted he liked you."

"but-"

"no buts, lennon. do you know rare it is to meet someone through tinder who doesn't just want to hook up? noah's a fucking unicorn."

"well when you say it like that, you make it seem like i'm never gonna meet someone like him again."

"you probably aren't because all college guys are assholes. i need to find myself a wealthy billionaire or something."

"and what if you run into someone like christian grey?"

"pft," olivia scoffs, brushing her blonde hair behind her shoulder,"i wouldn't mind. i'd be honored to have my own fifty."

lennon laughs softly, slipping her fingers through her tangled brown hair. the night continues to pass, every minute tracked by the movement of how the stars align. olivia turns around and leans against the wooden fence, watching the crowd propagate as more people come down from the boardwalk.

in the distance, a guy with strikingly familiar brown eyes and tousled black hair fixes his gaze on her. nothing has changed about either of them in the last two years. the longer she stares at him, the more certain she is that the person staring at her is the one and only travis mccoy.

as in travis mccoy, billy's notorious best friend who she ran into the morning after one too many tequila shots and bad decisions.

travis runs his thumb against his bottom lip, dropping his beer bottle by his side. "well i'll be damned. she's actually here."

billy turns his head from left to right, trying to bring himself into the same perspective as travis who is still having a hard time wrapping his head around the blonde beauty staring at him from afar. he's going to have to read up on the likelihood of coincidences later tonight if things play out the way he thinks they are.

"who is here?" billy asks after he grabs a beer bottle from the cooler, the collective condensation from the ice bags leaving streaks of broken water drops down his tanned arms.

"olivia," travis answers with a suggestive smirk riddled across his lips.

"which olivia?" the question starts off casually, billy not seeming to pay much attention to the three syllables.

"only you would ask a question like that." travis laughs, shaking his head. "olivia jensen. do you remember her?"

and of course, billy does.

he remembers her blonde hair and blue eyes vividly, the way she stumbled out of his room that autumn morning as the leaves outside changed from green to red and gold. she had an addictive laugh, one that he almost fell for, but she wasn't looking for anything serious and neither was he.

they were only supposed to be friends, but alcohol has a strange way of rewriting promises they thought they locked away behind the walls of their hearts. and as olivia left billy's room that morning wishing that it -- they -- had never happened, she left puzzle pieces of herself behind under the tousled sheets.

billy spent weeks trying to put them together before he realized that he didn't have all the pieces. she never came back to retrieve them, so they still sat somewhere in his closet, tugging at his deepest thoughts.

"w-what about her?" the goofy smile on billy's face starts to fade into the darkness, leaving his heart pounding against his chest. this time, it isn't from the alcohol. his beer bottle isn't even open.

"noah said he saw olivia a couple of days ago at the beach, something about how she thought he was you. you would've thought that she could tell you guys apart by now."

"what?" that's the only word that billy can manage to utter as questions tap endlessly against his skull.

"didn't noah tell you?" when billy shakes his head, travis says, "no? well, i guess he must've forgotten. it's a good thing you found out before you two ran into each other."

travis' words slowly fade into oblivion as billy fumbles to open the beer bottle in his shaking hands. he needs something -- anything -- to deter his thoughts tonight. and if it's gonna take a couple bottles of beer, then so be it.

"shit," billy curses when half of the beer bottle spills onto his shirt, drenching him. "this night is turning out to be horrible."

the flames of the fire grow as a couple of guys still wearing their swim trunks toss firewood into the center. billy steps away from the pit, handing travis his beer bottle. he tugs the collar of his blue t-shirt from behind and pulls it off his chest.

thirty minutes has just passed for lennon and noah.

"when you said you were wearing a blue shirt, i thought you were actually going to wear it you know," a soft voice teases, some of her words gliding together in her sentence that sounds like a sweet accusation.

"what?" billy turns around and locks eyes with a girl with wavy brown hair that falls to the waistline of her floral sundress. one of the straps has fallen off her shoulder. he notices her tan lines. she has a timid smile painted on her lips to accompany her inviting but curious green eyes.

lennon's jaw drops slightly when the boy she's been waiting to meet turns around. the resemblance between him and billy is uncanny, the way their lips curve upward into the same exact grin. it's in the way their eyes shine brighter than the ocean merely feet away. the only difference she can pick out is their hair, billy's being slightly longer to the point where they brush against his ears.

"w-wait," she stammers, "you look exactly like-"

"yeah, we're twins," billy explains, figuring that she must already know noah somehow. this beach is a lot smaller than he had originally thought. first olivia, now someone who almost mistook him for his own twin brother.

olivia. that name continuously manages to take over his mind, and he doesn't know why.

"you should've told me that," lennon says with a more confident smile this time around. "and this isn't very bright blue. do you need to get your eyes checked? i'm pretty sure this is navy."

billy's head turns, following lennon as she points to the bundled shirt in his hands. the words she's said go in through in one ear and out the other. in that moment, billy realizes that being reckless is easier than caring.

he doesn't want to care about olivia anymore. he doesn't even want to think about her. he doesn't want to think at all, so instead he says, "do you want to go somewhere?" to the girl with green eyes and a pretty smile.

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