Charlie Williams

I wake up to the alarm on my nightstand. Groaning, I turn it off and heave myself up and try my best to stay awake. I want to go to bed and not go to school. Who decided that Mondays are a thing. The only reason that I'm only a little bit motivated is because I get to see my little ollie girl again. I didn't get to see her yesterday and she wasn't answering my texts. I could've just gone over to her house but I didn't want to force her to see me if she didn't want to.

I hop out of my bed and go into my bathroom where I take a shower and brush my teeth. After my shower, I go into my closet and get dressed.

I walk downstairs and greet my mom who's sitting at the dining table with a bowl of oatmeal that has strawberries and peanut butter mixed in. I go into the kitchen and make my breakfast: two pieces of toast with avocado and eggs on top with a banana and some strawberries on the side. I also grab a greens and our protein drink mix and pour the greens into a cup which I drink immediately. I grab my protein drink shaker out of the pantry and the milk out of the fridge. I pour the milk into the shaker before adding 3 scoops of the protein powder next. I walk to the dining room and sit across from my mom with my food and smile at her saying, "How was your sleep?"

"Good, how about you?" she asks me

"Pretty good, I can't wait to see Ollie again. I'm gonna see if I can take her to school today. I missed her. She didn't answer any of my texts yesterday."

"Why didn't you just go over to her house?" my mom questions

"I want to respect her privacy and boundaries. If she doesn't respond to me, she's either busy or doesn't want to talk." I answer

"Would you let her stop talking to you? Because of your respect for her boundaries? That could be a little bit of a dumb idea son." she says

"Well, I mean I live right next to her and we have multiple classes together, so she can't avoid me forever. I'm not worried about it. I'll talk to her about it when we're going to school today." I answer

She smiles at me and says, "I must say, I'm glad you're like this. We raised you right hun. Such a gentleman." She gets up, having finished her food and ruffles my hair as she passes.

I finish my breakfast and text ollie again to see if she'll reply. When she doesn't, I grab my stuff for school and walk out to my car to start it. I walk over to Ollie's house and knock on the door. A few seconds later, Leo opens the door and silently motions for me to come in. I walk in and close the door quickly as it's still freezing cold outside.

I give him a smile and say, "Good morning! Can I talk to Ollie?"

"How long have you been awake? Did you just get a new dog or something?" he says mystified

"That's just how he is Leo, no one knows how he's so cheery in the morning he just is." Ollie says walking into the room staying close to the door frame of the door she just walked through

"Make sure you and everyone else is ready to go, the bus is going to be here any minute." She tells him

He nods and walks away yelling up the stairs, "ALL OF YOU BETTER BE READY TO GO! I'M NOT HOLDING THE BUS FOR YOU GUYS LIKE LAST TIME"

Ignoring him I turn to Ollie, "Good morning little hedgehog! How was your Sunday? You know the one that you pretended that I didn't exist in."

She looks down at her feet for a second then looks up into my eyes and heaves a long sigh before saying, "I'm grounded so I didn't have my phone. You could've just come to my door if you really needed to talk to me though."

Why does everyone want me to invade her privacy? It's not cool.

"Didn't want to invade your privacy hedgehog. Sorry." I tell her

She doesn't answer so I say, "Do you want a ride? I don't have practice today."

"I'm walking." is her short two word reply.

What? It's like 10 degrees outside. No way her parents are letting her walk in such cold temperatures. No way she WANTS to walk in such cold temperatures.

"I can drive you instead." I offer

"No, I'm walking." And by the tone of her voice, I can tell she's getting annoyed about being asked.

"Kay, then I'll walk with you." I answer.

She gives me an annoyed look mixed with one that says, 'why are you acting like this' and I just smile and say, "Tell me when you're ready to go." And she walks away just as we hear the screech of the bus brakes.

"BUS IS HERE!" she yells up the stairs and a stampede of feet start running down the stairs.

They all run outside and then it's quiet as the door shuts. Ollie disappears as well and I look around trying to find her. Deciding that I will just wait for her I sit on her couch and start to play a game on my phone.

When she walks down the stairs a few minutes later she's wearing a coat and she has shoes on her feet. I stand up and greet her when she gets to the bottom of the stairs and she picks up her backpack and walks out the front door wordlessly. I follow after her and close the door which automatically locks when I close it. I walk over to my car and turn it off from where it was heating up and wasting gas. Oops.

I jog up to where Ollie is already starting to walk down the street. I catch up to her and say, "What's going on with you? You're acting weird."

"Just pressed that I'm grounded, that's all." she answers, colder than the air around us.

"Why are you grounded?" I ask

"Because I forgot to tell them I was dating you and they found out through your parents and apparently they don't know you well enough to judge whether or not you're ok for me." she answers frustrated again.

I don't answer. Instead I slip my hand into hers and give it a small squeeze.

We continue walking before I say, "I'll talk to my parents about it. We'll help them understand."

She doesn't answer but I see a slight frown form on her lips.

The school is only like 15 minutes away when you walk but it's still pretty cold which makes the walk seem to never end.

Finally we arrive at school and Ollie's practically a snow ma'am because of how cold she probably is.

We go inside and she tells me she's going to her class and sprints off into the direction of it. I go check in with the nurse and check my blood sugar real quick before she lets me go to my class.

Checking the time, I see that I still have some time so I decide to look for Ollie. Something was off about her today and I know it was more than just being grounded.

I get to her class and peek in to see her sitting at her seat with her head laying on her arms on the desk. I walk through the open door and take the vacant seat next to her and nudge her foot with mine.

"Go away Charlie. I'm not in the mood to talk about anything right now. I know you're concerned, but you need to just remove yourself from the equation." she states point blank.

Shocked at her declaration and telling me that what she needs right now is definitely to talk, I stand up and say, "Fine. I'll just leave and never talk to you again. Never. Who is this Olivia I hear of? Nope never heard of her. In fact, I don't even think I want to hear of her. She's just hot air to me." That makes Ollie's head pop up and give me an annoyed look. I just give her my biggest smile and say, "Cheer up little hedgehog, you have me! Your little sunshine! I'll make you happy!"

The warning bell rings just as I say that, making me groan inwardly in frustration. She gives me a smug smile like she knows exactly what I was thinking and says, "Looks like your sunshine giving will have to wait. Good bye" as she shoos me out the door.

Sighing defeatedly, I walk to my history class. I plop down into my chair and Jordan, one of my new buddies, sits down in the chair next to me.

"Wassup dude." He says

"Not much except that my girl has decided that I don't exist anymore. Got any suggestions as to how I could fix that?"

He gives me a small laugh. This isn't funny at all. It's aggravating.

"Just talk to her man. Figure out why she's acting this way. Also what do you think of this-" He says while pulling out an ice tray.

"I thought it was super cool because it makes hexagonal ice cubes." he continues on.

"That looks so cool! You need to make some and bring it so you can show me." I answer. He gives me a blank look.

"No you got it all wrong. I'm gonna make it HERE. It's cold enough that I'm just gonna put some water in it and put it outside then check on it at the end of the day and hope that there'll be some ice in it." he says while shoving the ice tray back into his backpack.

"I'm gonna do it between this hour and next hour, wanna join me?"

"Nah, imma walk with Ollie. Take Elijah. He'll LOVE it." I tell him sarcastically with a smile on my face.

"Yeah if he doesn't murder me first. I'll drag him out to do it with me though." He answers.

Elijah is more of the 'you do it and I'll watch you act like an idiot' kind of person. He doesn't really do shenanigans. He's like the mom of the group. I'd be surprised if he didn't go though. He's a very time management type person so he'll go out to make sure that Jordan gets to class and practice on time.

We tune into the lesson when the teacher puts slides up on the board for us to copy down and we get to work. The end of the period approaches fast after we snap into note taking action.

By the time the bell rings, my hand is cramped and I'm ready to get out of that class. I've heard enough about the wars the US fought to gain independence for one day.

I head over to Ollie's class to see that it's completely empty. She didn't wait for me. That feels like a spear to the heart. She's always waited for me. And so it is with a heavy heart that I start walking BY MYSELF to the athletic building.

I need to get to the bottom of this. She can't avoid me forever and even if she wants to try, she won't because I've got a million different ways to see her and claim her as mine.

I walk straight towards the girls locker room intent on waiting for her to come out. I don't care if I'm late to basketball, that hurt. Getting to her class to see she had already left be physically hurt and I'm too invested to let her get away with it.

When she emerges from the locker room, I step aside so I get in her way.

"Why didn't you wait for me?" I ask her.

She side steps me and says, "I've gotta get to class, we can talk later. I know you have a million things to say to me because I can see the questions floating around your head. Not right now though. It's gonna take a lot more than five minutes to have this conversation because I know you're going to have a ton of questions and lots of words for me."

She starts walking towards the dance room and I follow like a blind puppy.

"But Ollieeeeeeee, I missssssss youuuuuuu. I don't want to waittttttttttttt"

She gives me the 'really?' look and keeps walking, not a care in the world that she's breaking a man's heart right now.

"Not right now Charlie. And don't you dare try to throw a fit right here in the hallway." she says almost like she knows my motives.

I give her a devilish smile and start to walk closer to her as she backs away with a half knowing half curious gleam in her eyes. "Charlie..." she warns which only makes my smile grow bigger. She knows what I'm trying to do.

I race forward and grab her hand -the one she hasn't injured yet- and start to jog at a steady pace before I find a quiet place around the corner to talk to her, the biggest smile on my face from knowing I just won that battle.

"I'm sure we can talk about it right now. It'll be ok if you have one tardy in dance. I know you love to be a perfectionist when it comes to dancing, but I'm pretty sure you're already the most perfect dancer ever to walk the earth so you're fine."

She heaves a sigh and says, "It's best if I don't be with you anymore. If my parents don't approve then it doesn't make any sense when we will never be able to do anything with my parents breathing down my neck all the time. We can be friends but I don't think we should be a couple."

She avoids my gaze and it's probably for the best. I am seething at this new truth. I knew her parents disapproved of our relationship, but it has to be a deep hatred if she's breaking up with me because of it.

"Did your parents tell you that you need to break up with me?" I ask

"Well it's pretty much implied when they say 'I don't want you to see that boy again'" she says, sarcasm dripping from her voice.

"Well here's the thing I like you, and I'm not going to let that stand in my way. Even though that's probably not the wisest decision, I'm not going to let your parents control every little thing we do and you do. It's your life and you deserve to live it the way you want to. But there is absolutely no way that I'm going to break up with you to make your parents satisfied. The only reason they don't approve is because they didn't make that decision for you. Think about it hedgehog, they've made every decision in your life up to this point. Even dance was their choice at first."

The look on her face tells me she knows that I'm right. "Fine. Ok. What do you want to do then? How are we supposed to overcome my parent's hatred?"

I smile at how easily she wasn't willing to protest and tell her, "I have to text my parents for their help then I'll get back to you. But for now let's get to class."

She grabs my hand and we start walking towards the building where our second hour is. When we near the dance room door, she stops and turns to face me. "Thank you." and she walks inside. I go to the gym for basketball to see them running drills.

"Charlie! Where you been!" Coach yells as soon as I enter the gym and jogs over to me as he says it. "Class started almost 15 minutes ago! What have you been doing!?"

"Sorry coach, I had some problems with one of my friends." I say. Somehow I don't think he would like it very much if I told him I was talking to my girlfriend.

"Hmm. Whatever, don't make a habit of it. Get over there and start running drills."

I jog over to where the rest of the team is and Levi makes eye contact with me and motions for me to come over to him.

"What's up with you man? Are you sick? You're always on time for practice. If you could, you'd probably live on the basketball court." he says

"Nah I had to talk to my girlfriend, we're having a minor hiccup." I say

"All good though?" he asks, slapping me on the back lightly.

"It will be. It's nothing we can't overcome." I answer him. Then we get to work on our drills.

School flies by extremely slow the rest of the day, and I just want to go back home and figure out my plan for Ollie's parents.

Finally school ends and me and Ollie start the walk back home. We walk in silence and my mind is reeling with all the possibilities of getting on her parent's good side. By the time we get onto our street, I have at least 6 different possibilities of how to get on their good side.

"I have dance so I have to go get ready. I'll see you tomorrow" she says before walking up to her door.

I follow her up and ask, "When do you get your phone back?"

"Next week." She replies

"Ok. If I need something I'll come to your door. And you should come over when you're done with practice." I tell her

"We'll see. If not, I'll see you tomorrow." she says

She opens her door and walks in and says, "Bye." before closing the door. I walk back to my house and open my garage before walking in and closing it behind me. I hate that she's putting her walls up again. She opened up to me and now her parents are making her recede back into her shell. I hate it.

I grab my homework out of my bag and start working on it waiting for my mom to get home so I can talk to her. I need to figure out how to make this easier for Ollie. She doesn't deserve to not date the person she wants to date because of her parents. I understand that her parents are still in charge of what she does, but it's not fair for them to not even try to understand or give her a chance to explain. I just hope that I can find a way to make her parents accept and understand our relationship. 

A little bit later my mom gets home and I'm able to discuss with her what I want to do. We're going to figure out how to solve this problem.