Chasing Butterflies Chapter 46: Fallout (Patreon)

One day later, Olivia once more stepped foot on the RHS campus. As usual, the early hour meant only a few scattered clusters of students milling about at this point, most awaiting the arrival of their friends and classmates with apparent boredom. Most sheltered under awnings or slipped inside buildings as the morning chill tried to keep them company.

The sheer mundanity of the place felt incongruous with the past weekend's events. It wasn't just the rush of homecoming and the subsequent afterparty, either. It was also the enormity of the changes those events had brought. Her entire mindset and approach to this life had shifted so significantly that it felt like it should somehow be reflected in the world around her.

But of course, that wasn't the case. The world remained more or less apathetic to her personal troubles.

I guess I should take solace in that. It means reality might not care about my deviations quite as much as she feared.

Olivia began meandering aimlessly through the campus. She did need to drop off her flute at the band room, but that could wait. She had plenty of time, and definitely needed to take a bit of it to herself this morning.

She still wasn't entirely sure how to feel about the way things had gone. Even after the sugar had worn off and she'd felt like herself again, the doubts continued to linger. Her avoiding Lance was one thing. There was no way she'd date him again, or anyone else until Jason came back into her life. But everything else...

Was going to that party really a good idea? I wanted to help Trisha, sure, but...

It was a hard question to answer. Morally, it felt correct. Paying back her friend and watching out for her was the only acceptable thing to do in that situation, and considering how many other kids she'd helped, Olivia felt pretty good about the decision. Especially with the direction things could have gone. But when she considered the second and third order effects of her decision... That was when things started to become far less clear.

She sighed. What's done was done. Considering Trisha's encounter with Wyatt, the timeline from her previous life may well prove more stable than she'd initially feared. Then again, who was to say that would continue to be the case?

More and more, the reality that her family might be far out of reach encroached on her thoughts. Yet at the same time, it was clear that her best efforts at retracing her steps weren't getting anywhere.

I have to hope that things are more stable than I feared. Either I'll be able to get my family back despite completely changing big parts of my life, or I won't. That's it.

Worrying about the precise size of the deviations she could introduce was driving her mad. Especially considering her absolute failure at keeping them in check. She could still try to keep the broadest of broad strokes of her life intact, but otherwise...

Well, even then, I can't be certain. What counts as too broad? Is Lance that important in my life? Is my parents' divorce that important? Or is it enough that I just go to the same college, regardless of how I get there?

She shook her head. This was driving her crazy. Some of the most formative parts of her teenage years loomed before her like massive hurdles, and she had no idea whether she should try to clear them or simply duck underneath. It felt like too early to completely throw caution to the wind and do whatever she wanted.  But she also couldn't walk on eggshells forever.

One thing was for certain—the previous balance of old and new she had simply wasn't working. It needed to be changed, and badly. She just wasn't sure where the middle ground would end up.

There was one thing she hadn't given up on, though. Jason. Even if she'd failed to act her part, even if things completely went sideways from here, he would still be there. She would make sure of it. Olivia had absolutely zero intentions of leaving her husband behind.

The crowd of students had grown thicker by the time Olivia peeked inside the band room. Upperclassmen lounged around the wide space, chatting and goofing off as usual. One of the trombones produced a colorful three-by-three sliding cube and began to solve it while a drummer relentlessly thwacked on his drum pad nearby. The muted sound of a piccolo strained to reach them from an adjoining practice room. The quiet cacophony filled the room, blessedly quiet compared to the full-volume variety.

No Lance. Great.

Not that he usually showed up here in the mornings. Still, it didn't hurt to be careful.

She stepped inside and headed toward the lockers. Alyssa and some of her posse lingered in front of them, gabbing animatedly about some reality show that Olivia had never watched.

"...Seriously? Can you believe they got rid of Michael?"

"I know!" Alyssa sighed. "I really wanted Barbara to get voted off. She's such a bitch."

"There's no way she's staying for much longer. Everyone hates her..."

As Olivia approached, the section leader looked over. Her tone immediately turned neutral. "Oh. It's you."

Olivia stopped. Oh, boy. Here we go.

She knew there would be some fallout from the homecoming dance, especially after Trisha had let slip their invite to an exclusive afterparty. Alyssa had already made her disapproval of Olivia quite clear during that whole debacle. But apparently, it wasn't just her. The slightly disapproving expressions of the rest of the group made it clear they'd been poisoned as well.

She wished she could say this was a novel experience. But it just wasn’t true. She’d seen one too many college dorms and mom’s groups fracture over less. It was one of those things that some people never quite grew out of, and honestly, Olivia didn't want to deal with it now either.

Olivia nodded in greeting, pretending not to notice the group’s frostiness. "Hey, Alyssa. Excuse me..."

Alyssa didn't budge. Olivia tried to step sideways and slip by, but the other girls in the groups didn't move either. She just sighed inwardly.

Really? Is this what we're doing? Are we going to be this petty today?

"How was your party, Olivia?" Alyssa asked with saccharine sweetness.

"Good." She had enough class to know that saying more would rub salt in the wound. But unfortunately, Alyssa didn't seem willing to let it go.

"Just good?" Alyssa let out a small laugh. "That's it? What a letdown."

"Should've been at Cory's," another girl chimed in. "Now that was a party."

"I'm glad you had fun," she replied simply. "Now, excuse me. May I get through?"

The response only seemed to inflame the girls more as the attempt to inspire jealousy fell flat on its face. Alyssa's eyes narrowed. "Let me give you some advice. Don't get mixed up with that cheerleader. She's bad news."

Olivia resigned herself to the fact that she wasn’t going to avoid this confrontation. She shifted her flute case in her grip. "I'm surprised you even know her. She's a freshman, after all."

Alyssa scoffed. "I don't have to know her to know her type. She's a backstabbing bitch who loves to manipulate people. They all are. You don't seriously think she wants to be your friend, do you?"

"Is that so unbelievable? That someone would want to be my friend?" Olivia asked dryly.

If Alyssa noticed the sarcasm, she didn't show it. "C'mon. Girls like her always have an angle. She's totally dragging you along, showing you off like a cute puppy, using you to show that she's so nice to everyone. It’s textbook popular girl behavior. Then, when she gets bored or doesn’t see a use in keeping you around, she’ll toss you aside like a used towel.”

It was such a gross mischaracterization that Olivia was rendered momentarily speechless. She simply stared at Alyssa, astonished.

“Don’t tell me… you seriously thought she was your friend?” Alyssa misinterpreted her shellshocked silence and gave her a look of disbelief. “Oh, honey. You can't be that naive."

"...Why are you being like this?" Olivia asked honestly. “And why do you even care?”

The section leader's eyes narrowed. "I just don't want to let them take advantage of one of my freshmen. It's not your fault that you got tricked once. But if you keep hanging around her... I'm just saying you should be careful about picking your ‘friends’.”

“Your” freshmen? Awfully possessive, there.

Alyssa had only seemed to care about Olivia so far as she could order her around. Which honestly explained a lot of this interaction. She was probably trying to reassert her dominance after feeling challenged by Trisha. The idea of a senior feeling so insecure that they had to one-up a freshman like this… It just made an already sad situation even worse.

The thought of helping Alyssa briefly crossed her mind. The girl clearly needed a voice of reason or at least someone to point out how much of a bully she was trying to be. Then again, considering how things were going, Olivia was rather certain that her efforts would fall on deaf ears. She was just a freshman, after all. One that Alyssa clearly had zero respect for.

Still, the implied threat was obvious. The section leader was making it even more abundantly clear that this was an us-or-them kind of situation. At least, that’s what she was trying to make it seem like.

"I'm just trying to drop my flute off." She tried to sidestep the situation one more time, saving all of them the trouble. She tried to step toward the lockers, but the trio of girls actively blocked her now. A quick glance around revealed more than a few curious gazes watching the exchange intently, though the conflict hadn't escalated enough to draw more attention than that.

The rather smug look on Alyssa's face made it clear she expected Olivia to capitulate, maybe even apologize for hanging out with Trisha. The alternative would be to commit social suicide and alienate the senior flute and her companions.

The problem was, the senior’s leverage was severely lacking. Old Olivia hadn't had enough of a social life to kill, and new Olivia... Well, she quite honestly didn't care about all of this. She wouldn't keep in contact with a single one of these kids after high school, anyway. So what relationships did Alyssa think she could sabotage?

Olivia closed her eyes briefly, impatience welling up from within. “Do you really have nothing better to do than this?

The words hit Alyssa like a slap in the face. Her smug grin turned to a snarl. “Excuse me?!”

The volume of her voice drew more attention than before. Olivia couldn’t find it within herself to care. It was all so… tiresome. Was this really how teenage girls got their kicks?

...Probably, yeah. I've got way fewer responsibilities than I would like. No kids, no husband, no house payment... Without actual problems to worry about, maybe manufacturing drama like this is as close as they get to a good time.

"...Thank you for the advice," Olivia finally sighed, deciding to simply shut things down. "But I'm perfectly capable of choosing my own friends."

Alyssa's eyebrow twitched as she sneered. "You think you're so special now, huh? Just because some cheerleader decided to tote you around for sympathy points. You really think she likes you? That she and her real friends aren't talking about you behind your back?"

This was sounding like an awful lot of projection on her part. But Olivia kept that to herself. "She was there when I needed help. That's enough for me."

With that, she turned and walked away. She didn't need to drop off her flute today. She could carry it.

The other girls gasped at Olivia’s sudden dismissal. Alyssa called after her angrily. "Yeah? Well, don't come crying to me when you end up the laughingstock of the whole school!”

Olivia just raised a hand without looking back. "Have a good day."

She was done with all of this. Whatever grudge Alyssa had against cheerleaders was none of her business, nor would she allow the girl to make it her business. Trisha was her friend, and that was that.

The heavy door of the band room crashed closed behind her.

***

Alyssa couldn't help but stare after the cocky freshman. The slip of a girl walked out without a single shred of hesitation, without even the slightest bit of shame.

"Can you believe her?"

"I know! Who the fuck does she think she is?"

"She goes to one party, gets a bit of attention from the popular crowd, and look at her. Her head's so big."

Alyssa's friends whispered to either side. And no wonder. The girl had seemingly done a complete one-eighty with her personality overnight. Well, that's how it seemed to the others.

The senior flute crossed her arms. "I always knew she was faking it. All that trying to act humble and shy... Now she's showing her true colors."

Alyssa had never trusted that freshman. For all that she tried to act quiet, she'd seen the flashes of defiance in her eyes whenever Alyssa told her to do something. She saw the slip-ups when she forgot to keep up the act. Between her showing off during every practice and pretending to be awkward, it was obvious that Olivia girl was just a stuck-up know-it-all who enjoyed looking down on other people.

And now, the mask was off entirely. It hadn't taken much at all for the quiet doormouse of a girl to start strutting about.

But that wasn't the worst part. The biggest problem was that the damn freshman had directed all that confidence at defying her. At making her own section leader look bad. The sheer nerve of the girl, to talk to her like that. It was unbelievable.

"What're you gonna do?"

Alyssa looked between her friends. The pair of girls eyed her with a mix of challenge and anticipation.

She couldn't let this insult go unanswered. That was a surefire way to tank her own reputation. It would make people think they could just walk all over her. And she'd worked too hard to let anyone think that.

Alyssa smiled thinly. "She wants to act like a cheerleader? Fine. Let’s give that bitch a taste of what she’s in for.”