A few days later, Tristan stormed inside the mansion. I was in the middle of my classes when there were loud knocks on my door. I frowned and was about to open the door when Tristan’s angry voice confronted me.
“Juliet, what did you tell her?” Tristan demanded from the other side of the door.
I kept quiet. Did Olivia tell him that I told her about him?
“Juliet, open the door. I want to talk to you.”
I still didn’t say anything, hoping he would think I was not here.
“I know you’re there. Don’t think that just because you aren’t speaking I’d think you aren’t here.”
Well, damn.
“What is it?” I asked.
“What did you tell her about me? Why is Olivia acting strange since our date? It feels like she’s avoiding me.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Open the damn door.”
“No, I’m busy. Let’s talk later.”
“Later when?”
“After lunch. Can you wait till then?”
Tristan didn’t speak for a minute. “Fine,” he huffed. “But I want answers today.”
With that he walked away.
When I was done with my classes for the day just in time for lunch, I was scared to open the door and face Tristan.
I silently opened the door and padded down the hallways and into the living room. It was deadly quiet. What made it worse was the rest of Mr. And Mrs. Jenson couldn’t make it to lunch today. Both of them wouldn’t be around for lunch for a couple more days.
Even Ethan was busy with his work commitments as a result of his breaks in between to spend time with me.
I spotted Tristan at the table with Olivia at the farthest corner away from him. I already knew this was going to be very awkward. He was staring at her every now and then and she was ‘busy’ on her phone.
I took a seat two chairs away from Tristan. None of us said anything and the silence was deafening.??
Our food was served and I tried to concentrate on it. Olivia didn’t eat much and after she was done, she left hurriedly for her room, throwing a quickly goodbye at both our ways. That traitor, leaving me here to face Tristan’s wrath. I didn’t even know what happened between them.
“I’m waiting,” Tristan said simply.
“Waiting? For what?”
“Cut the act, Juliet. Tell me why Olivia’s been ignoring me for the past few days since our date.” Now that I was looking at him, he looked hurt more than angry.
“Well, did you do something on the date that she didn’t like or didn’t mean for something to happen?” I asked, subtly hinting at the kiss.
Tristan instantly turned red. “No.”
“Are you sure?”
“We kissed. But she seemed to like it. I don’t know what I did wrong.”
“Are you really sure that’s what happened?”
“Yeah.”
“Then explain how you two ended up kissing each other when Olivia only wanted to kiss your cheek.”
“Fine, I moved my head a little so she could kiss me on the lips.” He grumbled quietly.
“Tristan, I’ll be honest with you. She doesn’t like you that way. She told me herself.”
Tristan looked sad. “Then what is her type?”
“She’s not one for serious relationship. Even if she’ll be with you, it would only be temporary, only for the physical aspect of the relationship or just for fun.”
“I can be that. Just tell me what her type is and I’ll be that. That way she’ll like me more and maybe change her mind.”
I shook my head at him. “Don’t change yourself for any girl, Tristan. If a girl falls in love with you, let it be with your true self, not with someone who you made yourself out to be just because she likes that type more.”
“But I like Olivia, a lot more now.”
I slammed my hand on the table. “But this can’t be. I know I shouldn’t be saying this about my own best friend but you deserve better than her. Don’t let your feelings develop more for her. You’ll only end up getting hurt, and I don’t want that. I don’t want to see you hurt.”
Tristan didn’t say anything but continued eating. After he was done, he washed his hands and left immediately.
I knew Tristan was hurt. I could see he genuinely liked Olivia but it would be the best for him if he just forgot about her. If he got to know about the truth, he wouldn’t want Olivia anyways.
I tapped on Olivia’s door. I heard a faint ‘come in’. I pulled open the door and walked in. Olivia was sitting on the bed, with the bed covered in several papers and books.
“Hey,” I said as I sat on the edge of her bed that wasn’t covered with papers or books.
“Hey,” she replied back, seemingly engrossed in the laptop Heather had given her so that she could attend classes on it.
“What did you say to Tristan that he was so angry at me for?” I asked, not wasting any time to get to the point.
“After our talk that day, I met up with Tristan and told him that it would be better if we didn’t hang out so often. He asked me several questions but I told him that I didn’t want to hang out with him anymore.” She looked nonchalant but I couldn’t help but suspect that she didn’t like what she did and was somewhat upset about what I made her do.
“What? That’s rude. Couldn’t you have done it any other way?”
She shrugged. “Hey, I didn’t know how to tell him. Usually I don’t care if my words will hurt a guy or not, but with Tristan, I wanted to care about what he felt. I’m sorry but that was the best way I could tell him so that any feelings that might have been there would stop.”
I sighed. “One day that mouth of yours is going to hurt a lot of people.”
“I know. And I don’t want that but it just happens. If they try to get too close to me, I just tell them how I feel about them honestly. I can’t help it if my words are a little hurtful.”
“Whatever. Just please try not talk to Tristan for long. I don’t want anything to happen between you two again.”
Olivia nodded absentmindedly.
She seemed to be in deep thought. I knew she didn’t want to hurt Tristan by outright rejecting him. And I knew I shouldn’t have told her about Tristan’s feelings but if we have to live here without blowing our cover, it was necessary that no feelings came into play.
A small voice in the back of my mind brought Ethan to the forefront and called me a hypocrite.
***
Seeing Heather a few days after my talk with Olivia made me feel guilty for some reason.
Ethan and I had almost kissed twice. I know Ethan and Heather were in a relationship. They were a perfect couple as portrayed by the media. And I had no desire to get in between them. I was sure Heather wouldn’t thank me for almost kissing her boyfriend who might most probably be her future husband.
She was so oblivious though. I wondered how she was okay with me hanging out with him at odd hours of the day, going to movies which according to high school standards could be considered a date or even being alone with him. She was something else really.
“Oh my God,” Heather exclaimed from beside me.
We were all lounging around the pool that afternoon, just us girls in bright bikinis in the middle of summer. Heather and Amelia were on either side of me while Olivia was on Amelia’s other side because she liked Amelia more than she liked Heather.
“What?” Amelia asked as she applied generous amount of sunscreen to her toned legs and arms.