17 Can't Win Them All

Olivia went racing through the halls till she made it to the infirmary. "Autumn!" She yelled as she opened the door. To her surprise it was Rodan sitting on a chair applying anti-inflammatory spray on Autumns forearm and hand while Blair had a warm cloth on top of Autumn's head.

"How bad is it?" she asked as she closed the door behind her. Rodan looked up and pushed his glasses back onto his face with his index finger. "She will be fine, I'm gonna wrap her arm and hand up so the medication can absorb into her skin properly and not get on anything else." he said in the most saddest of tones.

Olivia made a double take at Rodan, his gold and green eyes were trembling from hurt and she couldn't help wonder why but as far as she could tell Rodan was on the very verge of tears. Blair removed the towel from Autumn's head once the warmth was gone and placed it in the laundry hamper as Rodan fastened the wrap on Autumns hand.

Blair walked over to Olivia and filled her in on the details about the information they learned from Rodan. It seemed that River was Rodan's cousin and she would sometimes go over to Eli's house when Rodan was over there playing. That all the boys had been together since elementary and have been inseparable. "I am so sorry that this happened to you Autumn. I know she has a temper and is really protective of Eli but to do this is..." Rodan looked at Autumn through his ash brown, layered mop top hair "..and to you as well Olivia.".

He brought Autumns fingers to the side of his cheek and lightly kissed the bottom of her palm. Olivia and Blair clutched at each other, they were holding their breathes as the watched the intimate scene. Autumn looked into his tear brimmed eyes and stared to caress his cheek with the tips of her fingers, while Rodan kept her hand in place on his face. "It's ok I'm not that hurt." she said in a shaky voice as big tears started to roll down her cheeks.

Rodan let go of the Autumns hand, he brought his hands around her tiny round face, his fingers went into her hair while his palms positioned themselves at the edge of her face. He started to brush her tears away with his thumbs as he locked eyes with her.

He looked at her face anxiously and said "Please don't cry, it was treated right away so it won't leave a scar." Autumn let more tears roll out of her eyes, the top of her cheeks started to turn pink and her lips were pouted and trembling.

Rodan took one long look at her and could no longer stop himself as he stole her lips. Autumn's tears stopped and her eyes were wide. She was shocked by the sensation and had no idea what was going on. As Rodan started to pull back and their lips were no longer touching, his glazed eyes look at her, his smile was alluring and he flashed her two small dimples while he said "If it even leaves the tiniest of scars I will marry you."

Autumn's jaw dropped and she turned bright red. Rodan gave a small chuckle and wrapped his arms around her tiny body bring her close. He gently kissed the red mark on the top of her forehead and said "Even if it's a small scar hidden by you beautiful hair you will be my bride."

Olivia and Blair couldn't stop themselves and started to squeal, breaking the enchantment Rodan had created.. Rodan dropped his arms and turn bright red as he adjusted his glasses. Autumn turned away from him as she placed her hands on her cheeks, how did she forget that they were there?!

Rodan tried to compose himself by tidying up the bandage wraps "So Rodan" Blair said teasingly as she bounced on the tips of her toes making her way towards him "What happens if she doesn't get a scar? Will you confess instead?" Rodan fumbled the nicely rolled bandage wrap and tried to catch it. With no luck it fell to the ground along with anti-inflammatory spray. Blair giggled and leaned close to whisper in his ear "She would probably faint from happiness if you did."

Rodan blushed a deeper red as he stole a glanced towards Autumn. Olivia was fanning her face and all he could see was her beautiful fluffy chocolate hair. He looked back at Blair and she gave him a quick wink before herding her friends out the door.

.....

Olivia was laying on her bed, hugging her pillow, she was so happy for her friend for being proposed to... well kinda proposed to there was a condition but she at least she witnessed such a cute scene! Thinking back on it Olivia couldn't help but smile and scream gleefully into her pillow.

Blair and Olivia tried to get her to talk about her feelings but Autumn was to shocked to even speak, she just blushed the whole time till their rides came to pick them up from the school. This was a side of her she never knew existed. It was adorable!

Olivia started to calm down and felt horrible that her friend had gotten hurt in the first place because of her. She didn't know what to do. Did Eli really want her to stay away, was that the reason she hadn't seen him all day and what in the world was River talking about Eli being her lover? Would he have really kissed her if he was already taken but she never asked if he had a girlfriend and why would she! It was none of her business.

She rolled to her side and looked at her phone screen. She pushed her face more into the pillow and inhaled the aroma. She wasn't brave enough to ask him, she wasn't brave enough to ask about anything even if she wanted to believe in herself it was futile she couldn't get the words out of her head "Stay the f*ck away from me."

....

The week went by in a flash and it was already Friday. The whispering and glares were starting to get worse and Olivia finally found out what everyone was talking about. On the school forum someone posted a picture of Eli and her kissing in front of the park vending machine with the caption 'Home wrecking slut stole my friend's fiance!'

This had caused a huge uproar among the Eli fan club so they retaliated and caused horrible rumors to float around about her. The people who didn't like her in the first place happily whispered more lies about her sexual endeavors while guys placed bets if they could get her to sleep with them.

The teachers couldn't stop the rumors from spreading and had since taken down the photo from the school forum. No one knew what to believe so the teachers decided to question Olivia instead, which only added more fuel to the fire. Olivia was enduring it all silently, she counted herself luck that at least her friends were sweet enough to try and hide it from her. To even come to school early to clean the graffiti from her seat and table.

Rodan even tried to cheer her up when ever he stopped by to check up on Autumn's wound but he would never talk about the one thing she wanted to hear about, Eli.

It was finally the end of the day. Rodan had pulled Autumn aside to speak to her privately while Olivia and Blair spoke to each other about their plans for the evening. Autumn came back with Rodan after some time and they both looked flushed. Rodan was rubbing the back of his head as he gave Blair a victory sign. Olivia and Blair congratulated the new couple and urged them to go on their first date right that second.

Autumn gave a worried face to her friends and Rodan was struck with an idea. He took out his phone and stepped a little bit away from ear shot. When he came back he flashed the girls a wide grin and said "Well I am going to be stealing Autumn for the night, please don't hate me too much..." He grabbed Autumns tiny hand and gave it a quick kiss. "Good night and good luck... to the both of you." he said as he walked away with Autumn.

The girls were left confused. Rodan was sweet with Autumn but sometimes his smarts went right over their heads. As Blair turned to Olivia to ask her what the hell Rodan was wishing them both luck for. Olivia started to grin.

An out of breath Marek had been running towards them. He tried to play it cool but slowing down his pace as he was getting closer to them, he obliviously wanted to make it seem that he was just passing by. However the sweat rolling down his face and messy golden brown hair that was tied into a top not was starting to come undone.

Blair turned around as she heard a heavily panted voice "Oh are you guys leaving together?". Olivia had to try and suppress her laughter. Her and Autumn knew that Marek was keeping close tabs on them and was never too far away if they ever needed assistance. She also had a hunch that he had a role to play when the girls ran into Rodan in the infirmary but had no way to prove it.

Blair unfortunately was oblivious to her surrounds so she never noticed Marek staring at her from the shadows. So when she saw Marek she was fuming mad "Why do you care if we are leaving together or not?" Marek didn't know what to do so he started to kick the dirt around his feet as he looked down. He knew he had no right to look Blair in the eyes but he had to try his luck. "Well you know there is safety in numbers and it's wouldn't hurt to have a guy around to walk you to your destination..."

Olivia tried so hard to not let the laughter out. It was so awkward and cute she needed to help him, she cleared her throat "Well... I have a dinner date tonight and Blair won't be picked up by her driver for a while... so if you could do me a huge favour and keep her safe...." at that Marek puffed up his chest before answering "Please leave her to me!"

Blair flushed at Marek's words, the dumb*ss didn't realize what he was saying. So Olivia pushed a little more. "Actually Blair has been wanting to buy a puppy but knows next to nothing about them. If you could help her find one then I don't need to worry when she goes out for her walks, she'll always have some sort of protection."

With that que Marek reached for Blair's hand and said "I love dogs! We should take the chance to look at some before your picked up! I know a great place!" and with that Blair was starting to be dragged off, before she could even say a word, but she did get a chance to give Olivia her parting gift. While Marek dragged Blair away, she flipped Olivia the finger and gave her a dirty look.

Olivia gave a small giggle, blew her a kiss and shouted "good luck!"