Chasing Butterflies Chapter 44: At First Sight (Patreon)

///HEY YALL! Chasing Butterflies just launched on Royal Road, so if you got a second, feel free to drop it a follow over there!

Also, if you have been keeping up with the story here, I've made a few revisions to these first 43 chapters that you should know about going forward. Specifically Olivia's PE teammate Debbie (she got replaced with Luna, it just worked better). The rest are more minor details to just polish things up.

Thanks again for reading!

///

The scene was like something straight out of a romance movie. A cheesy one, the kind that defied belief and worked to convince women that true love was something that one simply stumbled upon or else never had at all. It was the kind of plot that both she and Jason had always rolled their eyes at.

No, everyone wanted to believe that they were just one encounter away from falling into the arms of their soulmate. The one person who they were meant for. And with the way these two were looking at each other, all starry-eyed and dumbstruck…

Suddenly, the question of how Trisha ended up pregnant had a very clear answer. One with rather pretty blue eyes.

I'm actually watching a teenage whirlwind romance in real time. This is incredible.

The cheerleader recovered first. Her usual confidence felt oddly muted as she stood a little straighter, her cheeks flushed. "Hi! You're Wyatt, right?"

The boy smiled disarmingly. "That's me. We haven't met before, have we? I don't think I could've forgotten someone like you."

Not bad, not bad. At least he didn't try for a cringy one-liner. He's got at least a bit of sense.

Olivia watched the exchange as though spectating a football game. Trisha laughed. "We haven't, but c'mon. Quarterback and homecoming prince? Like anyone doesn't know you!"

Ah. That explained where Olivia had seen the boy before. He'd been atop the float at the homecoming game, then.

"Prince?" She found herself asking. "Wait. You're quarterback as a junior? That's kind of rare, isn't it?"

Wyatt's eyes finally left Trisha's. His grin turned lopsided as Bryce groaned. "Don't remind him. His head's already big enough as is."

"Hey, it's not my fault you and Rourke let me pull off the cool shit," the quarterback laughed. His attention flicked between the two girls. "Though I gotta say, you've got me at a disadvantage."

"Trisha," the cheerleader supplied, tucking a demure lock of hair behind one ear. The effect felt a little incongruous with her attire, especially now that it lacked the golden gauze keeping it modest. "And this is my friend Olivia. It's nice to meet you."

"You, too." Wyatt grinned at Trisha. "How in the world have we never met before?”

Olivia watched the pair blush at each other for a moment longer. A big part of Trisha's story snapped into place before her eyes. Of course. Football players and cheerleaders. They went together like peanut butter and jelly. And considering how they couldn't keep their eyes off each other, there was no possibility they didn't at least try to date. Barring some high school politics nonsense, of course.

I kind of doubt this kid is single. He seems like a pretty prime target for dating. Then again, with the way he’s acting, maybe he is somehow?

Part of her felt a bit relieved. While she couldn't be entirely certain about how things would end up, this was certainly a less tragic possibility for Trisha's future. Especially compared to some of the ones she'd been worried about. Thought that didn't mean she'd let her guard down entirely.

Not that Olivia was suddenly onboard with teenage pregnancy, of course. Far from it. In fact, if things went the way she expected, it made the prospect of preventing it a bit more straightforward.

"C'mon! We're gonna get started!"

All heads turned back toward the table. The crowd of participants and onlookers swirled, hurriedly converging on the scene of the action. Trisha grabbed her hand.

"Hurry up, Livi! Or we won't get a spot!" Her attention flicked to Wyatt. "You guys gotta join, too!"

She let herself be dragged along as the two boys followed. "I thought I was sitting out this round?"

"It's fine. I'll drink for both of us!"

She stopped. "Absolutely not. Drinking for yourself will be bad enough, but both of us? Nope. Not happening."

Even with all of Olivia's efforts, the cheerleader's cheeks were still obviously flushed. Olivia was already planning to stand next to her friend in the circle, making sure she could sandbag a bit and keep her from getting too wasted. But if she was drinking for both of them, it would make doing that way harder.

Trisha crossed her arms and pouted again. She looked like she was about to say something when Bryce spoke up. "I'll do it."

Olivia looked over with surprise. "You?"

"Sure," he shrugged. "I'm still doing pretty good. And I wasn't planning on playing, either."

"Omigosh, that's so nice of you!" Trisha beamed. "Olivia, you totally should!"

"He's a tank, but pretty trash at drinking games," Wyatt whispered loudly. "It's hilarious. Though now that you mention it... Do you want someone to drink for you, too?"

Trisha raised an eyebrow. "Me? Why?"

Wyatt smoothly sidestepped the question. "The night's still young, y'know? Don't wanna get too trashed too quick. Gotta pace yourself. Especially since the guy pouring the drinks looked pretty generous.”

The cheerleader glanced toward the table, then returned to batting her eyes at Wyatt. "I'd love that. Seriously, thanks!"

Olivia ignored them, instead frowning as she looked over Bryce.

"C'mon. It'll be fine."

A distant memory of her and Jason having this same conversation bubbled to the forefront of her mind. She could see his slightly amused grin as clear as day.

"Don't worry about me. I'll be fine, even if you're the worst player I've ever seen. Not everyone has the tolerance of half-drowned hamster."

He'd been right. Partially because she hadn't actually been bad at the game, even from the get-go. Still, Jason had more experience than the boy before her, more understanding of his limits.

...Though not that much more, I guess. Am I treating him too much like a child? Or not enough like one?

Olivia fixed Bryce with a serious look. "You don't have to. Really."

"I know." Her Algebra classmate smiled, his multicolored eyes twinkling in the light. "But I owe you. Let me pay you back, at least a little bit."

He didn't seem particularly intoxicated. Either he'd been staying responsible or just had enough tolerance to hide it and keep his wits about him. Still…

Without warning, Olivia’s hand shot up to poke Bryce in the nose. The boy’s eyes widened as he flinched backward and dodged. “What—?”

Olivia nodded. “Just checking if your reflexes were still ok. Seems like you are doing pretty good.” She relented, relaxing slightly as she let her hand fall. “Then all right. Thank you, Bryce.”

She wanted to refuse outright. But she also wanted to protect Trisha. Though if she played this right, perhaps she could manage to keep both of them from having to drink anything at all.

"Perfect!" Trisha jumped in, clapping her hands together before he could respond. "That's settled. Now let's go!"

The blonde ushered their entire group toward the table with renewed enthusiasm, drawing a fair amount of attention from the onlookers. Olivia just smiled. Hopefully she wasn’t too out of practice for this.

***

Apparently, being more than ten years removed from college did in fact significantly reduce her skill at drinking games.

That wasn't to say she was bad, by any means. She could still hold her own quite well. But between trying to keep both him and Wyatt from drinking too much, a couple of drinks managed to slip through.

Thankfully, she'd still managed to reduce their consumption to only a couple of shots each over the course of Rage Cage. She'd pulled Trisha away after the first round for everyone’s sake, since she proved far less adept at the game than Olivia herself. She half suspected that the girl was also sandbagging herself, but couldn't be entirely certain.

Their group remained together for most of the night, Trisha and Wyatt glued together like a fly on flypaper, though which was which was hard to tell. There were no overt mentions of dating or the like, but Olivia did overhear a few floated comments meant to ferret out the other's relationship status. Between that, the way Trisha intentionally had them revisit some of her friends to chat, and the not-so-subtle routing of their paths past other groups of influential upperclassmen...

...Yeah. She's definitely staking a claim on him. And milking all the social clout she can from this, too.

At least it seemed like they were genuinely attracted to one another. Then again, they'd just met. Who knew how things would be once Monday came around and everyone had sobered up?

Bryce and Olivia just looked on with amusement as Trisha worked to ensnare a willing Wyatt in her net. They talked quite a bit, which Olivia found herself enjoying once again. They'd spoken plenty of times, especially since she'd started tutoring him in the library at lunch. But most of those interactions were fleeting, cut short as other responsibilities demanded their attention. Here, it felt like she was actually getting to know the broad football player a bit better. 

Together, they worked to keep the blonde from getting too enthusiastic about drinking, something that they actually succeeded in. It helped that Wyatt also urged her to drink some water and eat some food. A small gesture, but one that earned an approving nod from Olivia and shot him higher in her esteem. But they couldn't stay forever. Olivia had a promise to keep, after all.

With more than a bit of cajoling, Olivia managed to drag Trisha away from the party—but not before she slipped Wyatt her number, of course. It took a lot more effort to find a ride than she'd hoped, though. Apparently, 1 AM was early to leave even by high school party standards. But she didn't want to stay much longer. Her poor dad needed his sleep.

Olivia: Running late hard 2 find a ride

It hadn't taken long for Olivia's texts to lose their grammar. With how infuriating her old Yeskia's numpad was to type on, it was inevitable. Though she drew the line at abbreviating "late" as "l8" like some kids used to.

Dad: Need me to pick you up?

Olivia: No we found one see u soon

"Allllll righty! Everyone ready?"

A bright-eyed junior with far more energy than necessary spun to regard her passengers. Despite her overly enthusiastic demeanor, she was both sober and old enough to drive. Though perhaps not old enough to do so without adult supervision. Olivia couldn't honestly remember the guidelines about that part. Regardless, it was as good as they would get without her calling up her dad, and this didn't seem like nearly a dire enough situation to warrant that. 

Olivia and Trisha squeezed in the back beside another girl who swayed in her seat. She smelled rather distinctly of alcohol even now.

"Ready to go, Vicky!" Trisha called back.

"Ready," Olivia confirmed. Her hand reached out to touch the plastic grocery bags she'd begged off of Dom, the thin plastic rustling in the door compartment.

The last member of their trio mumbled something unintelligible that Vicky took as assent. "You got it! Then let's get a move on! First stop, Cadence Court! Gotta get poor Ella home before she pukes! But first..."

The girl reached over and pressed play on the car's CD player. The speakers blared to life with the sound of thudding guitars and drums, loud enough that Olivia almost reflexively reached for her ears. Then the old sedan rumbled away from Dominic's house.

Huh. I don't remember the last time I've seen someone use the CD player in their car.

Her dad didn't use his, preferring instead to listen to the radio. And while they hadn't been completely rendered extinct in her time, the things were almost entirely relegated to old models of used cars and served as decorations more than anything else. Who would lug around a collection of bulky disks when every song ever made was already on one's phone, a mere touch away?

"Ooooh! I like it!" Trisha giggled beside her, bobbing along to the song.

Olivia's brow furrowed as the music continued to play. It sounded oddly familiar. The style was different, but the singer's voice...

"...Is this Tundra Apes?" Olivia found herself shouting over the music. Vicky's surprise was reflected in the rearview mirror.

"Yeah, it is!" She shouted back. "How did you know?"

"I've listened to them before. They're really good." Jason was quite the fan, especially back in college.

"I know, right? They're totally gonna make it big! What's your favorite song?"

She waggled her head back and forth. "I dunno. They've got a lot of good ones. I know it's not the most popular, but I do really like 404."

Vicky's enthusiasm turned to confusion. "404? I don't think I've heard that one."

Olivia kicked herself and forced a smile. "I might be getting the name wrong. My memory's all over the place tonight. What's your favorite?"

Vicky chuckled and reached over. "At least you're keeping it together better than Ella over there. This one's my favorite!"

The music abruptly cut off and transitioned to another song as Vicky began animatedly jamming out. Olivia nodded along to the beat, grateful that her slip had gone more or less unnoticed. She'd tried to pick out one of the band's older songs to avoid suspicion. Apparently, she hadn't gone old enough.

Just one more thing to look out for... As though I needed another one.

The car jolted as one wheel rolled over a particularly large pebble in the road. Olivia heard the girl beside her hiccup slightly. She leaned forward, one hand over her mouth and...

"Open the windows, please!" She shouted. One of the grocery bags appeared in her hands and then beneath the girl's head as she began to hurl noisily.

"Eeeew!" Trisha scooted further into the corner of the car.

"Fire in the hole!" Vicky called gleefully. "Don't get it on the seat, you hear? You'll have to clean it if you do!"

The windows lowered, allowing in a fresh torrent of cool night air. Olivia winced as she placed the bag into the puking girl's hands, moving to hold her hair out of harm's way. This was one of the many less savory parts of partying she certainly didn't miss.

It's a good thing she's going home. Maybe Trisha will take this as a cautionary tale... I can only hope.

The car rumbled onward, leaving a trail of music in their wake as they cruised beneath the moon above.