Invisible

Invisible Chapter 36

Chapter 36

Stupid, Stupid Boy

(Olivia) 

Everything feels fuzzy. Opening my eyes seems more difficult than usual. There’s a strange pressure around my arm. My fingers twitch as I try to reach the spot, but my arms don’t want to move. A tired breath slips between my lips.

“Olivia?” Mason calls out. A second later his hands are pressed against my cheeks. “Olivia, are you awake?”

If I hadn’t been already, I am now. My lips curl into a smile as I finally open my eyes and find him hovering over me. “Mason,” I say softly.

I reach up and wrap my fingers around his shirt, pulling him closer. I can’t pinpoint why, but I feel a strange longing for him, as if we’ve been apart for ages. As I look into his eyes, confusion plagues me. Why does he look so sad, so anguished?

 “Mason, what’s wrong?”

His shoulders jump as a pained breath shudders out of him. “I was so scared. I thought you were going to die, Olivia. I thought I had lost you.”

Mason buries his face in my hair, squeezing me. His arm tightens around my shoulder and sends a sharp pain shooting down to my fingertips. I gasp. The fuzziness disappears. My eyes travel past Mason’s shoulders to sterile looking walls that can only belong in a hospital. The sharp scent of antiseptic reaches my nose and the events that led me to this moment swim back into my mind.

Roughly, I shove Mason away from me. “Lost me!” I shriek. “Apparently that’s what was going to happen all along! How could you not tell me that you had to go home on your birthday? How could you …”

My voice weakens and disappears as I realize I already know the answers to most of the questions running through my mind.

When did he find out? I clench my bottom lip between my teeth. He found out the morning he kissed me. After the kiss. Only something like this could have convinced him to do what he did.

Why didn’t he tell me? Because he was afraid I’d spend the rest of our time together clinging to him, ignoring everything else, planning a way to get him home even if it meant my life was the price.

Why did he leave me for Robin? My chin starts to tremble. He didn’t, not really. It was an act, a ploy to make me forget him, to move on so his leaving wouldn’t be so hard.

Was he really going to let me date Hayden when he knows I’m in love with him? Tears roll down my cheeks and my shoulders start shaking, because I know the answer to that question too. Yes. If he thought it would protect me, he would have stood by and pushed me toward someone else.

“You stupid, stupid boy,” I say through my tears. “What were you thinking?”

Mason’s face crumbles. “I just…I didn’t know how to protect you from everything. You’ve kept me safe for twelve years and I couldn’t manage to do the same for you for even a few weeks!”

“No,” I interrupt, “that’s not what I’m talking about and you know it!”

“It was never about Robin,” Mason says. His eyes drop, and his fingers find mine. “I love you, Olivia. That never changed. I’m so sorry I hurt you. It killed me to do it, but I honestly thought it was the right thing to do, at least until…until I saw the look on your face when I took Robin’s hand. I didn’t know …”

“You didn’t know how much I loved you?”

Mason shakes his head slowly. “I didn’t know you were in love with me.”