My Forever (Canary Series) (5 page)

"She's better off anyways," he said quietly, gla
ncing at her for only a moment.

She lay back down. "In my opinion, anyone who
isn't here having to worry about the Organization, and Anthony, is better off I think. But what do I know? I’m just a stupid Mapleleaf and know nothing about anything." She turned to her side away from Nate and tucked her knees into her chest and looked straight ahead thinking about Ian, her mom, and her best friend. "Do you worry about the Organization?"

He looked at her suspiciously wondering what might become of their friendship in the next year. "I do, but then again I don't, it's weird. But mostly I don't, I guess there will alw
ays be a little bit that does."

"If I want to be a
n agent, not saying that's what I've chosen; but if I do want to be one then I can't worry right?"

"Right, you can't,"
Nate said and then sat up. "Looks like you have things pretty well worked out."

She got up and started to walk over to the trail, "I guess. For years I wanted to be a singer but they said that was no kind of future. Then
Ian died and my passion for music died. So all summer my parents were like, 'You have one year left. This is when you need to figure things out without Ian clouding up your future because he is dead.' So I guess all you can do is think about your future when you’re alone."

"Or you can sit and think about your present," he said as he watched her, "because you don't know how you will get to your future if you c
an barely survive the present."

She turned and leaned against a bolder, "You're right. I never thought about that before."
Olivia reached her hand out for him to take hold of, "Are you coming?"

"Yeah,"
Nate said as he watched the night sky for a moment longer before standing up. He took hold of her hand as they began to walk down the steep hill.

"This night has been a good night away from studying, just getting away from everything for a while makes everything better," she said as they walked hand in hand.

Throughout the night she couldn't help but look at him and smile. Olivia didn't know what was going on with her; all that she knew was that he made her feel better about herself and about what was going on in her life. He walked her to her house and gave her a goodnight kiss on her cheek before he turned to go back to his house. She went inside and went up to her room. Once inside she leaned against the door and placed her hand on her cheek where Nate kissed her and smiled.

A few weeks had passed since Nate and Olivia had spent that evening just talking. She started to feel better about herself. Her grades were improving, she was hanging out with her friends and she was happier than ever. She was proud that she was passing all of her exams and assignments. Her study sessions with Nate were happening every day, even though most of the time they just walked around the grounds instead.

One day after her morning class
Olivia ran up to Nate in the hall really excited with a piece of parchment in her hand, "Cole, guess what I have?" She said as she waved the parchment in front of his face. He caught a glimpse of it seeing that it was the test from her Chemical Reactions class that they had studied for a few weeks back. "I PASSED THE TEST! I ACTUALLY PASSED THE TEST! All thanks to you," she gave him a quick hug and then backed away. "I better get to class, just thought you would like to know. See you later?"

He watched as she walked down the hall to go to her next class. "MOVE ASIDE PEOPLE, SMART MAPLELEAF COMING THROUGH!" He shou
ted down the hall with a smile.

She looked back at him and yelled, "THANKS
COLE FOR HELPING ME! SEE YOU FREE PERIOD?" He nodded then proceeded to go to his own class.

All throughout class he kept glancing up at the clock a
s if that would cause time to speed up. It was always this time of day that he would start to get anxious. It wasn't enough for him to see Olivia at night anymore; he had to see her during the day as well. So he decided that they should hang out during free period everyday too. When he brought it up the first time they hung out during free period he figured that she would say no. When her face lit up and she smiled that big smile of hers he released the breath he didn't know he was holding. When she finally said yes he felt like he was going to burst with excitement, but he kept his cool and said “Great.” Since then they had hung out pretty much every day except for the weekend. When most students looked forward to the weekends he didn't, only because that was when she hung out with her other friends. They always made sure that they had their homework done by Friday night so they could be free on the weekends.

When class ended he ran to the courtyard to wait for
Olivia. He was there for five minutes when she ran up and tripped on a rock. Her books went flying everywhere and she got on her knees trying to pick up everything while laughing, feeling embarrassed. "Olivia McGuire, you NEVER let books hit the ground. It's practically a rule in my eyes. Have you no shame?"

She looked up at him and shook her head, "Why yes I'm fine. Thanks for asking
Cole."

He laughed, "Sorry. How are you
Olivia? Did you get hurt?" He wanted to slap himself for not thinking about her and any possible injury she could have had. No, he had to get onto her for dropping her books.

She smiled and started to move around, "Nope
. I'm not injured." She then winced as she moved her right wrist. "See, just fine," she said trying to play her injury off.

He looked at her with those stern eyes filled with worry, "Complete honesty
, remember?" He reached out to take her arm in his hands and she flinched as he examined it. "Olivia, you're not OK. We need to get this looked at." He bent down and collected her stuff along with his.

She looked at him and wanted to argue but knew she wouldn't win, "Fine, but
I'm telling you I'm OK. It's just a little sore. I can still move it, see." She tried to move her wrist around but when she bent it slightly she yelled and tears escaped. "See, just fine," she said through gritted teeth.

He just laughed and shook his head, "You're not fine, come on
Miss Stubborn Butt." He wrapped an arm around her as she laughed and took her to the Medical Building so she could get it checked on.

She looked up at
Nate as they walked and smiled, "Thanks Cole."

He didn't know why but when she called him that it made him feel special. He never liked being called
Cole before but for some reason he didn't mind it when she called him that. "No problem, so you think pretty highly of yourself now that you got that grade?"

"Yeah, but I wouldn't have gotten that grade if it wasn't for your help. I have more faith in myself now. It seems that the better I do in my classes the more faith I have in
myself, my confidence grows daily."

"Good, I can tell that there's a difference in you. Pretty soon you won't need my help anymore." He had no clue where that came from, but once he thought about it he got scared. He didn't wa
nt this to ever come to an end.

He didn't realize that they had stopped walking until
Olivia used her good hand to force his face so he could look at her. "Nathaniel Cole Bowen don't you dare say that ever again. I will always need your help. You help me understand things better that I could ever imagine. We work great together. I have fun with you. So you need to stop thinking that right now."

He just looked at her and at that moment wanted to kiss her. "I have fun studying with you as well. I never thought that doing homework could be fun. But I guess the main thing I was worried about
was not hanging out with you again. We have an amazing friendship, some type of strong connection that I have never experienced before. I don't want to lose that."

She continued to stroke his cheek, "
Cole you are stuck with me no matter what. You hear me? I'm not going anywhere."

He smiled down at her and took her into a strong hug.
Nate let go when he heard her scream out in pain. "Oh Canary, I'm so sorry. I forgot about your arm." He kissed her on her forehead and wrapped his arm around her protectively and led her to get her arm checked out.

***

While they were waiting for the nurse Olivia looked to Nate completely worried about what could be wrong. She felt like there was more to this injury than it seemed but wasn't sure what it could be. It was too quiet for her liking so out of the blue she said, "I just know that summer is going to suck."

Just before he could say something the nurse came in and took
Olivia to get her blood drawn and her arm scanned to see what was wrong. As he waited for her he shook his head trying to figure out where her statement came from. When she returned he could tell she was worried and wanted to comfort her. "I agree with you about summer, but you know what? I'm sure I can sneak over and visit you at some point."

"Really?”
She had her smile back that had disappeared as soon as she returned from having her arm scanned. "You're more than welcome to come over. It will be great."

He laughed, "Just make sure you run it by your father. I'm sure he would want to know before some guy came to
the house to see his daughter."

"My father wouldn't care, he is never home anyway. So it wouldn't be a problem," she said
with hope and joy in her eyes.

It was at that moment that everything clicked and he realized why
Ian fell in love with her. "I just don't want you to get in trouble. I don't know what I would do if I found out that you got in trouble because of me."

She smiled and jumped off the table to walk over to him. He looked at her and grabbed her by the waist and moved so that she was sitting on his lap.
Olivia cuddled into his chest and took a deep breath in. Not a word was said between the two for a while; just a mutual understanding. He rubbed her back letting her know that he was here. "I'm going to miss you Cole."

He kissed the top of her head, "I'm going to miss you too
, Canary." And for once in his life he really meant it. It wasn't one of those times where he said it just to be nice. This amazing girl in his arms had touched him in a way he never thought possible. He could feel her breathing slow and finally glanced down at her. She had fallen asleep in his arms and he felt like he was in heaven or on cloud nine, whatever this feeling was he didn't want it to end.

After thirty
minutes the nurse finally returned and saw that Olivia was asleep and Nate was being gentle with her arm as he held her. "We have her test results back Mr. Bowen. Can you please wake her up?"

He looked at the nurse and then back down to
Olivia. "First tell me, are they bad? I don't want to wake her up if its bad news. So, if it is please let me be the one to tell her."

The nurse could tell that he cared for her. She knew that it would probably be best that
Nate told her the news. "There was something abnormal that came up in her blood work. We want to do some more testing, but we are going to also set her arm. That must have been some fall to cause her wrist to break so easily."

He chuckled, "
Funny thing is she didn't fall that hard. I have seen people fall harder and walk away with just mere scratches. How could this fall, on the grass, cause a broken wrist?"

The nurse just shrugged, "
It could be what is causing her blood work to come back off."

Nate
took a deep breath and fought back the tears. He feared that Olivia might be really sick, "Can you do her cast in any color or design?" The nurse just simply nodded. "Can you do her cast using some type of musical design like notes or sheet music?"

"Of course we can. Do
you think she will like that?"

He nodded, "
Yes, very much so. And if it can have an antique feel to it that would be amazing."

"I'm sure we can do that. I will go get it set up and you wake her and tell her."
Nate nodded as he tried to figure out a way to tell Olivia the news. "Thanks, you are a great friend to her. I just hope whatever happens you will continue to support her."

"Oh I will, trust me," he thought as the nurse walked off. He knew that he didn't have much time to tell
Olivia the news. "Olivia, darling, it's time to wake up," he spoke into her ear. She moved around some and ended up cuddling more into his chest than actually waking up. "Canary, you need to wake up before the nurse comes back." She signed and opened her eyes but closed them again. He leaned down and kissed her cheek, "Canary please, the nurse will be back any minute and I need to tell you something."

Olivia
stirred a little before opening her eyes all the way, she yawned and stretched. When she stretched she let out a loud painful scream and yanked her arm back down close to her chest. She calmed down after a few moments and caught her breath. "Dang that hurt, what did the nurse say?" She realized she was still on his lap. When she tried to get up he tightened his hold on her. She looked into his eyes and realized something was wrong, "Cole, what did the nurse say?"

He could see that fear in her eyes and closed his hoping that this was all a dream. When he opened them he knew it wasn't. "I would say have a seat but you are already sitting down." He tried to laugh to lighten the mood but failed. So he moved her so she
could look straight into his eyes. "The nurse said that you broke your wrist and they will be setting it. So you will be in a cast for a while. At least it's not your writing hand."

She looked down at her wrist then looked back up at
Nate. "That isn't all, is it?"

He
shook his head, "No, it isn't."

"I'm sick
, aren't I?"

Nate
nodded, "Possibly. Something came up in your blood work. They want to do more tests to see what is going on." He looked at her and she just looked down at the ground trying hard not to cry. He knew that if he saw her crying he would cry too.

"Crap," she said very quietly. She had hoped it wasn't true. She had done everything to take care of herself how could it be back? 'I beat this once I can beat it again,' she thought to herself. She just worried how she was going to tell
Garrett. He was there for her this last time; he would know what to do. "Nate?"

"Yes
Olivia?"

"No matter what
happens promise me that you won't give up on me, that you will help me fight and that you will never forget me. Please promise me Nate."

He took her face in his hands and kissed her softly and rested their foreheads together. "I promise," he said quietly. He didn't know what was going on; he just knew that he n
eeded her in his life, forever.

The two of them sat that way for what seemed like forever. When the door opened the two of them looked at the nurse who had come in with a cart full of supplies to do her cast. "Are you ready for you
r new fashion accessory for the next six weeks?"

The nurse laughed and
Olivia nodded, "Yeah, let’s get it over with." She gave Nate a one armed hug and got off his lap and onto the table. Nate stood up and walked to be beside her. The nurse prepped her arm and he held her other hand. "So, can we talk about the results or do we have to wait for the doctor?" She asked the nurse as she was finishing up.

"I believe its best that we wait for the doctor... there we have it. Nice and clean, enjoy it while you can. The doctor will be in shortly, do you need anything?" The nurse asked as she cleaned up the mess.
Olivia just shook her head. "Alright then, I will be back in a few."