I Can’t Love You

For as long as I can remember, my brother always stayed at his best friends house on the weekends. This weekend wasn’t any different. I have to go to the football games because my brother and Andrew, my brothers best friend, play on the team. My name is Olivia and my brothers name in Oliver. We’re not twins but my mom insisted on us having close names. My brother and I have always been close, which is odd to me because we have very little in common. He plays football, goes to parties, races cars, and still finds time to hang out with me. I don’t do any of that. I can race cars, my brother and I learned together, but I don’t. I spend most of my time outdoors but not like Oliver. I go out into the little patch of woods behind our house and write. I love to journal and read books. Sometimes I think I’m stuck in a book. During tonight’s game, Ollie was playing very well. I stood at the edge of the fence, as close as I could get to see him. Usually, I’m a quiet person, but not when it comes to my brother playing football. It was the second quarter and the other team were on defense. My brother is the quarterback and Andrew is his receiver. I’ve always hated that my brother chose such a dangerous sport to play. Last year he got a concussion and a broken ankle. He’s only a year older than me but he treats me like I’m twelve. I don’t mind it, though, no one messes with me. The play started and Ollie was about to throw the ball when one of the guys from the other team slipped through and tackled him..hard! “Hey! Tighten to line! Do your job Trout!” Trout is the one supposed to be protecting my brother from getting clobbered. “Shut up, twit!” Some fan of the other team yelled at me. I saw my brother glare from the field, knowing it pissed him off. I gave him a smile to reassure him. He pulled himself back together and continued playing the game. Thankfully nothing else happened to Ollie and we won the game. After the game, the guys went to the locker room. After a little while, they came out and Ollie came over to me. I stood on my tippy toes and hugged him. “You did so good!” I pulled away from him and smiled. I could tell he was still angry about before. “Who was it?” He asked with a tone face. “I don’t know, Ollie, and it doesn’t matter.” He huffed at my response. Andrew was standing next to Ollie but he refused to even look at me. I don’t know why but he’s always disliked me. “You played good, Andrew.” He still didn’t look at me. “Thanks.” Nicole, my best friend, came over and put her arm around my shoulder. “You ready to go?” I smiled at her. “Yeah, let’s go.” We turned around to walk away. “Be careful and don’t do anything stupid.” Nicole moved her hand mocking him. Nicole and I went to my car and I started driving to her house. “Hey I heard about this party over at Trevor’s, we should go.” I chuckled thinking she was joking. By her side-eye, I realized she wasn’t. “No.” She groaned at me. “Please!” I scoffed. “If you wanna go, then go.” She crossed her arms and pouted. “I don’t want to go by myself. Come on, we’ll have so much fun! We can get all dressed up and dance. Please!” I knew she wouldn’t stop pestering me until I said yes. As much as I hated going to parties, I hated disappointing her more. “Fine.” She uncrossed her arms and clapped. “Yay!” Her smile made most of my anger disappear. Nicole wore a really skimpy, skin-tight, black, dress that went mid thigh at best. She wanted me to wear close to the same thing but I settled for a short black skirt, with a white crop top that falls off your shoulder. I didn’t want to wear it but it was either that or a dress. We took Nicole’s car and went to the party. We walked through the door and it reaked of booze and pot. We went into the kitchen and saw James, one of my brothers teammates. I slowly walked over to him. “Hey, is my brother here?” I was kind of skiddish and he could tell. “No, he’s at a girls house.” I sighed with relief. We walked around the kitchen and Nicole seemed at home. I just felt out of place. She made us two drinks and handed me mine. I was hesitant but she insisted. I drank it and she smiled. An hour and five drinks later, I was wasted. I went outside to get some fresh air cause I was feeling claustrophobic. There were so many people I didn’t know. Half of them weren’t even from our school. I stood outside trying to get myself together when someone came outside but I didn’t know it. “Hey.” I quickly turned around. I let out a slight chuckle when I saw the guy. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.” He smiled. “It’s fine I just wasn’t expecting anyone to come out here.” I was hoping that would get him to leave me alone. “Are you here with anyone?” I knew better than to tell him I was alone. “Yeah, my friends are inside.” He smiled at me. “You want another drink?” I shook my head. He tried to hold my hand but I slowly pulled away hoping he’d get the hint. I turned around to walk away but he rubbed my arm. “Where you going?” I looked down at his hand as he quickly tightened his grip. “Let go.” I said softly. He flashed another smile at me. “I just want to get to know you.” I tried to yank my arm away. “The first thing you should know about me, is I don’t like people grabbing me.” I slapped his hand when he wouldn’t let go. “Let me go!” I yelled as loud as I could. I was drunk so I didn’t have much strength. He pulled me closer to him. He leaned in trying to kiss me. “Stop!” Before I knew what was happening, I was being ripped out of the guys grip and he ended up on the ground. I looked up and saw that Andrew had punched him and knocked him over. He stood over top of him and punched him again. “If you ever touch her again, I’ll hunt you down and kick your ass.” He turned to me and put his hand on my lower back leading me through the house back into the party. “What the hell are you doing here Olivia?’’ I was stumbling with all the alcohol in my system. “I just..Nicole she..” He didn’t even seem like he was listening. He was looking around for Nicole. We walked outside to see her car gone. Andrew huffed. “Let’s go. I’m taking you home.” Before I could say anything, he pulled me to the car. My stumbling got worse. He put one arm around my waist and the other held my legs. He carried me so easily. It was like I weighed nothing. I rested my head on his chest and closed my eyes hoping the world would stop spinning. He put me in the passenger seat of the car and buckled me in. He got in the drivers seat and we drove away from the party. “What were you thinking, Olivia? You know how your brother would react if he knew you were at a party.” I turned to look at him with slight tears forming in my eyes. “I just wanted to have fun.” I slurred my words but he understood. I looked down at the hand print on my arm. Andrew looked down too. “I won’t tell Ollie.” He flinched and looked over at me. “What?” I didn’t say anything, I just rested my head on the window. It didn’t take long for us to arrive at my house. He parked the car on the street so we wouldn’t wake my mom up. He turned it off and opened his door. I opened the passenger door and tried to stand on my own but my legs gave out. Andrew was by myself quicker than I could blink. He carried me again.