"Oh yeah?" I didn't really want to hear about her college boyfriend. I knew Olivia had been in love with him, and I knew that their relationship had been semi-serious, and I hated it. I hated him and I hated the relationship, and I didn't want to hear about him, but I wasn't going to tell her that. "Well, you know what? We all have bad relationships, Olivia. That's life. One day, you'll have a good one. And that will be the person you're with for the rest of your life."
"Do you really believe in true and everlasting love now?" She laughed loudly. "I don't believe that. You never believed in love."
"I always believed in love. Why do you say that?"
"Because you never had a serious girlfriend. You always used every single one of them."
"I didn't use them, Olivia. I had some fun. Lots of guys do. But I never lied to them. I would never do that."
"Uh-huh? You think I don't remember all those girls that would always be calling the house for you and Derrick, and crying, and asking me if you had other girls? That was absolutely awful. I even had girls trying to pretend to be my friend, just so they could get information from me."
"Well, I'm sorry about that, but I'm sure that was more about Derrick than it was about me."
"I don't know about that."
"Hey, Olivia." I touched her lightly on the shoulder, not able to resist the urge to be closer to her anymore.
"Yes, Tyler?"
"You know, I wanted to let you know that you've really grown and blossomed into a beautiful woman."
"So what, are you trying to say I was ugly when I was younger?"
"No, you were a very beautiful teenager, too. I'm just saying that, you know, you are amazing now." I could hear my voice stuttering, and I wanted to curse myself. Why did I sound like such an idiot? I'd dated many beautiful women in my life. There was no need for me to feel so nervous talking to Olivia, not when she was someone I'd known for almost all my life.
"Okay. Well, thanks, Tyler. I mean, you look great, too."
"Well, thanks. I always love to hear that. So, you're going to introduce me to your hot friend, Millie, then?" I regret the words as soon as they came out of my mouth.
"Oh my gosh. Really, Tyler? Is this what that whole conversation was about? You just want to meet my friend Millie?"
"Sure. Whatever you say, Olivia," I lied. I had no interest in meeting her friend Millie. Well, I didn't mind meeting her, but I didn't care about meeting her to have sex with her or anything like that, though I knew Olivia wouldn't believe it. The reason I wanted to meet her friends was because I wanted to see the sort of people she had around her. And I wanted to make sure that they were good people, people that would look out for her. Because neither Derrick nor I were here, and we were the ones that always looked out for her, her whole life. But maybe that was why she'd moved. Maybe she didn't want us in her life like that anymore.
"Hey, Tyler, why do you look like that?" she asked me softly, her gaze concerned.
"Look like what?" I chuckled, trying to pretend that I wasn't feeling sentimental and like I was losing control.
"You looked really sad just now. You okay?" She touched the top of my forehead as if she were checking my temperature and something in me flipped. I was fed up of being treated like some sick invalid.
"Yeah. I was just thinking that it's been a really long time since I've had some pussy." I was crude and I didn’t care.
"What did you just say?" She shook her head, looking upset and I knew I’d gone too far, but I couldn’t stop myself.
"I said, it's been a really long time since I've had some pussy. You know what I mean?"
"You know what, Tyler, I'm going to bed. I've had enough of this. I don't need to hear you talking like that. That's disgusting."
"My bad. Should I have said it's been a really long time since I've had sex?"
"That sounds slightly better than talking about the P-word."
"Oh, wow. Are you a 27 year old woman that can't say pussy?"
"You know what, Tyler? That's enough. You don't really need to keep saying it to me." Her voice was getting louder and louder and I enjoyed seeing her so riled up.
"Pussy, pussy, pussy, pussy, pussy." I shouted, loving the way it made me feel to irritate her once again. She wasn’t looking at me like I was some lost little sick boy. She was looking at me like the man that I was.
"Okay. That's it. I will absolutely kill you if you say it one more time."
"Pussy. What are you going to do now?" I laughed, and she came running towards me, hitting me in the shoulders.
"That is a disgusting word. How dare you use that in reference to a woman's vagina?"
"So you'd rather I say vagina instead of pussy?"
"I'd rather you not say either of them in front of me, thank you very much, Tyler."
"Oh my gosh. You must be an absolute joy to date, Olivia."
"I'm sure I'm more joyful to date than you, Tyler."
"Oh yeah?" I held her to me and then pushed her down on the couch, holding her arms back, and then coming down and looking into her face. "Oh yeah? Do you really think that you're a better person to date than me?" She looked up at me. Her nostrils were flaring, and her eyelids were fluttering. I could see the pulse in her neck beating, one, two, three. I wanted to kiss it, wanted to feel her heartbeat against my lips. But I knew that would shock her.
"What are you thinking?" I looked down at her as she stared up at me, lips trembling. Would she let me kiss her? Would it be okay?
"I'm thinking that you are absolutely disgusting," she said, but her words were nothing more than a whisper.
I had a feeling that she could feel the chemistry between us as well. It had always been there, something that we'd never acted upon, but both felt. I was almost confident of that fact. "Oh yeah? Huh." I touched the side of her face softly. "I've been thinking about you a lot recently in many disgusting ways."
"What have you been thinking, Tyler?" she said, with that little attitude that she always had, though I knew that she was wondering what I was thinking, because there was a light in her eyes that was questioning me and seducing me at the same time.
"I was wondering if you've ever had a really good kiss."
"What?" she said, as my mouth came closer to hers.
"I said, I was wondering if you've ever been kissed like the world was about to end."
"That's not exactly what you said."
"Okay, well, I changed the words a little bit, but have you?"
"Have I what?"
"Oh, Olivia, stop trying to play dumb and change the subject. I want to know, have you ever been kissed like the world's about to end?"
"I don't know what it's like to be kissed when the world's about to end, because the world hasn't ended yet."
"Yeah, but have you ever been kissed so well that you think, if the world were to end right then and there, you would have wanted for nothing in your life?"
"I don't know," she said softly, as my lips came even closer to hers.