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Chapter Text

At first, Otis thought it would be best to let Maeve have her space. She had seemed like she was still very upset with him this morning, and he knew she probably needed more time before she was willing to even listen to the message he sent her earlier. Besides, he had waited this long for Maeve to know how he really felt about her, he could wait a little while longer.

However, as time went on, and he couldn’t fall asleep, he began to wonder whether or not he should go see her in person. After all, the really good apologies and confessions are always made in person, aren’t they? He let that thought sit for a little while, while thinking of the advice his dad had given him earlier. Besides for Eric, Maeve was the only person he’d had a real connection with. He thought maybe Ola could be put on that list as well, even though they had recently broken up, but he realized that there were some things that he hadn’t been able to talk to her about.

With that thought in mind, Otis decided that he needed to go see Maeve in person. If she told him to fuck off, he would respect that and let her have her space. He had been an asshole lately, after all. But, if there was a chance she would forgive him for all he had done, he needed to take it. He didn’t want to end up like his dad, and he felt like this was a chance to start heading in the right direction.

So he left. His mom was already asleep, she seemed a little upset that night, but he just thought it was because of what had happened at the school. He needed to continue to make things right with his mom, but for now, he just had to talk to Maeve. She was the person who he had hurt the most, after all. She had trusted him so many times, and he had continually let her down.

He needed time to think and clear his head on the way there, so he walked instead of riding his bike. It was dark anyways, and Otis being Otis, he thought riding his bike in the dark would be too dangerous.

It took him about half an hour to get there, and he had plenty of time to think of what he was going to say to Maeve when he got there. So with as much confidence as he could ever have, Otis walked down to the trailer park, ready to finally confess to Maeve how he felt.

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As he knocked on the door, Otis felt sure that no matter what happened, what he was doing was the right thing to do. But when he knocked, Maeve didn’t answer the door. He saw that the light was on, and so he knocked once more.

Suddenly, a voice came from behind him. “She’s not here right now.”

It was Isaac, who he met at the party. It wasn’t like he remembered it that much though, he was too drunk. “Oh, hi there. Any idea when she will be back?”

Isaac thought for a moment, “No, she just left for the store, so it might be a while. Sorry.” He did genuinely seem sorry.

Otis looked disappointed. “Okay, can you tell her I was here and ask her to check the message I sent her?”

Isaac smiled. “Sure thing, I’ll let her know as soon as she gets back.”

“Thanks, I appreciate it.”
“My pleasure.”

And so Otis left, thinking that was the most anti-climactic moment of his life.

Chapter Text

Mave got back from the store with the milk about half an hour after Otis left. Isaac was still up, waiting for her, and so she came in, hoping that she could forget about her mom for a little while. When she got in, Isaac told her he needed to tell her something.

“Your friend Otis came by looking for you”

Maeve looked upset at the mention of his name. “What did he want?”

Isaac looked reluctant to tell her, but he didn’t want to wrong Maeve after all that had happened today. “He asked me to tell you he left you a message earlier, it seemed pretty important.”

This upset Maeve further, as it reminded her of the note he had left her the day after the dance. She didn’t trust herself to say anything without crying, so she didn’t.

Isaac wanted to be with Maeve, but he knew that she really wanted to be with Otis. He had listened to the message, and knew that it was likely Maeve would forgive Otis if she had heard it. He had almost deleted it, but as he was about to, he realized that if he did, he would be just like everyone else who had hurt Maeve. He decided that before he tried to get Maeve to be his girlfriend, she needed to let her talk to Otis first. If she decided she didn’t want to be with Otis, however, he would make his move.

Maeve finally spoke. “I guess I’ll listen to what he has to say.”

She took her phone and left the trailer, thinking that a simple apology wouldn’t make her forgive Otis this time. She took out her phone and looked at the message from Otis. For a moment before listening to the message, she hesitated. Otis had broken her trust so many times, while Isaac was right there, and he had never done anything to hurt her. But, she knew that she still had feelings for Otis, and she needed to address them before they tore her apart. So she pressed play and listened to the message.

As the message went on, Maeve began to cry. She was reminded of all the times she and Otis had come so close to being together. She remembered that day when they were in the pool, which was probably when she first started to have feelings for her. Then there was the time on the bridge, where they would have kissed, had he not suddenly exclaimed that he was a virgin. There was also the day after the dance, when he had practically all but admitted he had feelings for her, but she was too late and he was already kissing Ola when she got to him. And finally, there was the day that she confessed her feelings for him. She had seen that he was conflicted about what to do, but he ended up staying with Ola. All of that led up to her now hearing him tell her that he really did love her.

Otis seemed like the person who she was least likely to go out with, and yet as those moments happened, the idea became more and more perfect. She knew that even though he really screwed up, she had to go see Otis, because she still loved him as well. So, in the same fashion that Otis left his house to go see her, Maeve set off to go see Otis and hopefully settle this once and for all.

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After Maeve wasn’t there, Otis didn’t feel like going home, so he didn’t. Instead, he stopped on the bridge where he and Maeve had almost shared their first kiss. He missed that time now. That was right before he started being an asshole. As soon as he got home that night, he had started being an ass when Eric was assaulted and instead of apologizing, he said Eric was just trying to be the center of attention. He was lucky he didn’t lose his best friend forever after that incident.

As Otis sat there and thought about that night and what happened after that, he felt worse and worse. He was so lucky to have all that he had. He had a great mom, great friends, and even had a chance to have a great girlfriend. He had all of that, yet he pushed all of them away for no reason. Suddenly Otis began to think that he didn’t deserve any of it. He didn’t deserve Eric, Maeve, or his mom, yet they all stood by him. He began to cry.

Maeve didn’t know what her plan was when she got to Otis, she just knew she needed to see him. She had to at least try things with Otis, she wasn’t going to let all that time she spent crushing on him go to waste.

She didn’t question whether or not he would be awake, she knew he would be. He would still be stressing out about the message, and wondering if she was gonna send him anything back. That thought made her smile. She always found him to be cute whenever he got nervous, and he was almost always nervous.

She was right that she was awake, but what she wasn’t ready for was seeing him halfway across the bridge with his head in his hands, crying. She wasn’t sure what to say at first, so she just sat there waiting for a moment. Finally, she regained her confidence and spoke to the figure sitting halfway across the bridge.

Otis didn’t know how long he had been crying, but it had felt like forever. How could he have fucked up so bad? He had just about decided he was going to be there crying all night when he heard the voice coming from the end of the bridge.

“Hey dickhead, I got your message.”

He looked up to see Maeve walking towards him with a smile and teary eyes. He was stunned, he had no idea what to do. He eventually got to his feet, and as Maeve approached him, he tried his best to wipe his own tears away unsuccesfully. When Maeve got to him, he started to say something, but she shushed him. They both stood there for a moment, and suddenly, Maeve pulled Otis in for their first kiss, on the same bridge where it almost happened so long ago.

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The first thing Otis thought was that he had never had a kiss this good with Ola, and he didn’t want this moment to end. His second thought was, Holy shit, I’m kissing Maeve right now. And at this thought, his whole body relaxed. He felt so comfortable knowing that things were finally going to work out for them. For the first time in the past few weeks, Otis felt truly happy. It wasn’t like he didn’t have any other problems, he knew he did, but in that moment, nothing mattered. Otis knew that Maeve was one of the people that matched his dad’s description of who he wanted to keep around.

As they pulled away to look at each other, Maeve smiled, she had been more prepared for this moment as Otis had, yet she felt just as surprised at how right it felt. It had never felt that way with anyone, not even Jackson. She had feelings for Otis for the past few months now, but in that moment, she knew he was the perfect one for her, and she didn’t ever want to lose him again.

They both stood there for a moment, looking into each others eyes. They seemed to know what the other was thinking, and they both smiled.

Maeve put on a fake serious face, “You’re lucky that you’re good at apologizing, Milburn.”

Otis smiled more, “It seems to be the only thing I am good at.”

Maeve chuckled, “I don’t know, I’d say you’re a pretty good kisser.”

Otis’ cheeked turned red, “If you say so.”

Maeve studied him for a moment, thinking about how easily Otis got flustered. “You know, you’re pretty cute when you get embarrassed.”

Otis pretended to be offended, “Wow, I can’t believe you’re finding pleasure in my discomfort.”

Maeve gave him a playful shove, “Dickhead.”

They then fell into another thoughtful silence. Not because they didn’t know what to say, but just because they were truly enjoying the moment.

Neither of them had any idea how long they sat there in silence, but it was Maeve who spoke first. “Want to walk me home?”

Otis looked at the time, and decided that he still had plenty of it. “I’d be happy to.”

And with that, they walked back towards the trailer park, each of them feeling truly happy and whole since the first time they realized they had feelings for each other. They knew that things had finally lined up, and no matter how it ended up working out, they would get their chance.

Maeve hoped that Isaac wouldn’t still be awake when they got there. Even though he was the one who had pushed her to listen to Otis’ message, she knew it would hurt him to see them together, and he didn’t deserve that. Why am I thinking about Isaac right now? Was what she thought next. I’m with Otis right now, and I should be enjoying this moment.

This time, it was Otis who spoke first. “You know, in all the time I had feelings for you, I never thought this would happen.”

Maeve seemed surprised by that, “Really? Not even when I admitted that I liked you?”

“I never really had the self confidence to believe that someone as great as you would ever like someone as awful as me.”

Hearing Otis insult himself made Maeve feel bad, and it reminded her of how she felt about herself sometimes. “You’re not awful Otis, I wish you could see how amazing I think you are.”

Otis acted as though he was determined to make himself out to be an asshole. “I always end up hurting people, I don’t deserve any of the people I have in life.”

Maeve was even more determined to make him feel okay, even though she was one of the people he hurt, multiple times. “You do mess up a lot Otis, but you never intend to and you always make up for it in the end.”

Otis decided he could settle for that, “So as Adam would say, ‘I’m basically awesome and everyone else is wrong.’” he joked, remembering their unofficial first sex therapy session.

Maeve laughed, “That’s right, and don’t let anyone tell you any different.”

They reached Maeve’s caravan soon after that, and Maeve didn’t want him to leave her yet, so she asked Otis if he wanted to come inside for a bit. Otis was happy to come inside for a little while, he was just as reluctant to leave as she was to have him leave. So together they went into the caravan where only hours ago, Maeve’s mom had been taken away.

It was Otis’ first time being the caravan, and he thought that it was a pretty nice place to live, even if Maeve didn’t. Even if it was a bit messy, so was his room, and he actually found it quite charming. But Maeve seemed embarrassed about the mess, and began to pick things up.

Otis wanted to reassure her that it was ok, “You don’t have to do that Maeve, I’m not judging you.”

Maeve kept cleaning, “Even so, it bothers me. You can sit down and I’ll come join you as soon as I put these dishes in the sink.”

So Otis sat, and he took in the new surroundings even more. He thought the whole place made him think of Maeve. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but the whole place just seemed so… her. It made him happy to think that he was finally inside the caravan he had seen from the outside many times before.

Maeve took the dishes from the table and brought them to the sink. She was thinking about just how happy she was when she saw what was lying next to the sink. It was one of Elsie’s toys that must have been forgotten earlier. When she noticed it, all of the happiness was seemingly sucked right out of her, and she began to silently cry, not wanting Otis to see or hear.

Otis didn’t notice, but he say something to her, “I really like where you live Maeve.”

Maeve didn’t trust herself to respond without bursting into tears, so for the moment, she said nothing, still silently crying. Of course, though, Otis looked over at her when she didn’t respond, and saw that she was crying.

He got up, very concerned, and asked, “What’s wrong?”

At that question, Maeve began to audibly cry, “I called the police on my mom today. I found out she was using again, and I’m probably never gonna see her or Elsie again.” And at those last few words, she began to cry even harder.

Otis held out his arms to her, “I’m so sorry Maeve.”

She collapsed into his arms, and he led her over to the couch, where they sat down. She laid her head on his chest, and continued to cry, while he tried to comfort her. He couldn’t imagine the pain she was going through, and he knew that she needed time to let all of her emotions out. It was Maeve’s breakdown that made Otis realize how much she really hid her feelings. He had no idea that anything was wrong until she started to cry, and normally he was really good at telling how people felt. He was a 16 year-old sex therapist, after all.

They sat there for a long time, and after a while Otis realized that Maeve had fallen asleep. He looked at the time and realized that if he wanted to be home before his mom woke up, he would have to leave soon. He gently got up and laid her down on the couch, not wanting to wake her up. As he left he took one last look behind him and knew that he was lucky to have her, and he wasn’t going to hurt her ever again.

He got home just as the sun was rising and gently closed the door behind him. Had he still had the energy to be awake 15 minutes later, he would have heard his mom wake up, and realize just how close he was to getting caught. But, as with all the other things that had happened that had happened that night, it ended up working out.

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Maeve woke up confused that morning. At first, she didn’t remember anything about last night, and she had no idea why she was on the couch instead of in bed. All of a sudden, all the memories from last night came back to her, and she didn’t know how to feel. For one thing, she did lose her mom yesterday, possibly forever, but that was what always happened wasn’t it? And on the other hand, she and Otis had shared their first kiss, and that had made her feel so happy.

She hoped she didn’t freak Otis out with her breakdown last night, he had handled it pretty well in the moment, but that was a lot to put on him all at once. She was grateful that he was there when it happened, she didn’t know how she would have handled herself if he hadn’t been there.

She wanted to talk to Aimee, she would be excited to hear about what had happened last night. So she picked up her phone, hoping Aimee would be able to come over and talk.

-Hey, something crazy happened last night, can you come over and talk.-

Aimee replied almost instantly, -Yeah, I’ll be there soon.-

That made Maeve happy, she really needed to talk to someone about everything that had happened, good and bad. She knew that Aimee would be the perfect person to talk to. She was always caring and she really listened to what you had to say.

Aimee got there within the next hour, and she knew from the look of her that Maeve had a lot to say. She was fine with that, she had been bored that day, and she always enjoyed listening to Maeve’s stories, she had a very interesting life, and it always took her away from her own problem. Maeve invited her inside and they sat for a minute, and then Maeve told her about the whole night, beginning to end.

When Maeve was done talking, Aimee was astounded. Her first reaction was to worry for Maeve, she couldn’t imagine having to call the police on her own mom.

“Oh my god! Are you okay?” Aimee was very concerned.

Maeve gave a slight smile, happy that she had some people who cared about her. “Yeah, I think I’ll make it.”

After that, Aimee got very excited, “I’m so happy for you though, you though, you and Otis are finally a thing.”

Maeve smiled more, when Aimee was happy, so was everyone else around her. “Well, We’re not a thing yet Aimee, it was just one kiss. Obviously I want us to be a thing, and based on last night he does to, but I need to talk to him before we make it official.”
“From what you told me, there’s no way he’s gonna say no to being your boyfriend. You don’t just kiss someone and let them fall asleep on you if you don’t want to date them.”

“I appreciate the vote of confidence, Aimee.”

Now that Maeve was done telling her story, they didn’t really have that much to say. Aimee asked Maeve if she wanted to play scabby queen, and she happily accepted. So, that’s what they did for an hour or two until Aimee decided it was time to go home. Maeve looked on as she left, happy that she had been able to share her story with someone.

After his long night, Otis didn’t wake up until it was almost noon, and his mom was concerned.

“Are you feeling alright Otis? You slept very late today.”

Otis, not wanting to tell his mom that he was actually out all night, he replied simply, “Yeah mom, just tired.”

“Okay darling, as long as you’re fine.”

“Don’t worry mom, I’m okay.”

Even though he didn’t tell his mom where he was last night, he wasn’t lying, he was more than okay, actually. But if he wasn’t going to tell his mom about what happened, he needed to talk to someone about what had happened. He picked up his phone to text Eric.

-Hey, I need to talk to you about something, do you want to come over and play videogames tonight?-

-Sure. I need to talk to you too.-

Otis wondered what Eric needed to talk to him about, then he realized that Eric had his own romantic interest in Adam. He knew that tonight would be less about video games and more about what had happened to both of them last night, and he was fine with that, he was too distracted to play video games anyways.

Eric got there around five, and he seemed very happy to Otis, and he recognized it right away, because that was how he felt as well. They went up to Otis’ room to play video games, both of them excited to tell the other about how their night went. Neither of them said anything about it at first though.

They were in the middle of a game of Smash Bros when Eric asked, “So, what did you want to talk to me about?”

Otis was silent for a moment, “You first, I want to hear your story.”

Eric looked glad that he wouldn’t have to wait to tell his story. “Well, do you remember how I told you Adam was coming to my window, and you were saying he was hiding our relationship? Last night, he came to my door to talk to me, and even talked to my parents as well, he had nothing to hide. After he came to my door, we went out and walked and talked for hours. He really is a nice guy now, he was just living an awful life. Anyways, he walked me home after a while, and we kissed for a while, he didn’t even care who saw.”

Otis was glad to see Eric this happy. “I’m happy for you Eric, I guess I was wrong about Adam, and I’m sorry I criticized you for liking him.”

“No Otis, you were right, it wasn’t right for me to be with him if he was to ashamed of our relationship to tell anyone about it. Luckily, he finally woke up and needed to tell people the truth.”

“Well, I’m happy for you Eric.”

Eric looked questioningly at Otis, “So, now it’s your turn. What did you need to tell me?”

Otis pretended that his news was no big deal, not quite able to keep his excitement in. “Well, it’s no big deal, just that me and Maeve kissed last night.”

Eric paused the game and stared at Otis, mouth wide open. “You’re kidding.”

Otis smiled at Eric, “I most definitely am not.”

Eric was barely able to keep his excitement in. “Well? Please do tell more.”

And so Otis told Eric everything that had happened that night, starting with him not finding Maeve when he went to see her, and ending with Maeve falling asleep on his shoulder. Eric was so excited for his friend, he knew that Otis and Maeve being together was inevitable, and yet it had seemed like it was never going to happen. By the time Otis was done telling his story, Eric could barely hold in his own excitement, but Otis seemed upset about something.

“What’s wrong Otis, you seem bothered.”

Otis was bothered. “I’m just worried about Maeve, she was very upset last night.”

Eric understood why his friend was concerned. “You should talk to her and make sure that she’s okay, I should get going anyways. Send her a message.”
Otis nodded. “Okay, I will. Thanks Eric, I’ll see you later.”

“Bye Maeve’s new boyfriend.”

“Hey, it’s not official yet.” He called after Eric, knowing that it would be official soon enough.

Otis took out his phone to text Maeve, hoping that she was okay. And if she wasn’t okay, he would make sure that he was there to comfort her when she needed it. He felt like after all Maeve had done for him, it was the least he could do to be someone she could go to when she needed to talk about something, or even just to vent.

-Hey, are you okay, you were very upset last night.-

“Otis, dinner!” His mom called from downstairs.

He left his room for dinner, hoping there would be a response by the time he got back.

His mom seemed much less upset at him then she had yesterday, and for a while he thought she wasn’t going to bring up the sex clinic. He was glad about that, he knew it was wrong, and he planned to stop, but he still didn’t want to talk about it with his mom.

As they were almost done with dinner she did bring it up. “Otis, I think I’m ready to talk about your operation you had going at school. I want to forgive you, but for that I need you to have an open and honest conversation with me. Can you do that?”

Otis was glad his mom was willing to talk. “I can do that mom.”

So he told her everything that had happened. He told her about how the clinic had gotten started, he told her about their clients, and about all of their struggles along the way. From what she heard, Jean was impressed, and from what she heard, Otis would make a great therapist if he wanted to. She didn’t tell him that though, because even if he did a good job, what he was doing was still wrong. Otis finished off the conversation by saying that he had already made plans to end the clinic, and any advice he did give would not cost his friends anything.

Jean was relieved after having that conversation. “I’m glad you’re being honest Otis, and while I am still upset about what you did, I can start to forgive you for it now.”

That made Otis happy. “Thanks mom, I promise I’ll make it up to you”

“I don’t doubt that you will.”

Otis went back up to his room, noticing that he had a message from Maeve.

-Yeah, I think I’m fine now. Thanks for last night by the way.=

-No problem, I’m glad that I could be there for you. Can you meet me tomorrow? I need to talk to you about something.-

-I can meet you, just let me know where and when.-

Otis smiled to himself, hopeful for tomorrow. If all went to plan, him and Maeve would officially be dating by the time they were back in school on monday.

Chapter Text

Otis woke up nervous that morning. He hadn’t gotten much sleep last night, he was worrying about meeting Maeve today. He had little reason to believe she wouldn’t want to date him, but he was so scared of rejection, and he had little self confidence. He was up before 7, and he knew that it was going to feel like forever until he went to meet Maeve.

They had decided to meet at her place so they could talk, and Otis didn’t even know if he was going to have the courage to ask her when the time came. He was barely able to send her the voicemail, and that was just a message, this one would have to be in person. He had been trying to figure out what he was going to say to her, but he had no luck with that, he hoped it would come to him at the moment.

At one point, he got so nervous, he considered asking his mom for advice. He quickly decided against this, she would probably ask too many questions and then go get him some condoms to bring with him. That was the last thing he wanted, and Eric was busy today, so he couldn’t give Otis advice. Otis was on his own for this one, and he didn’t like it.

By the time Otis left to go see Maeve, he had been ready for almost an hour. He had considered wearing the ‘Casual Hamm’ suit, but decided that that would be very weird, so he just ended up wearing the same thing he always wore, which he guessed was as good as anything. He had brushed his teeth at least three times since he woke up, and in that time he had also put on deodorant at least 5 times. It took him awhile to get there, and he was still nervous, but he knew he was as ready as he would ever be.

On his way out Otis called to his mom, “I’ll be back in a bit mom, love you!”

His mom called back, “Where are you going darling?”

Otis responded nervously, not wanting his mom to find out too much yet. “Just to go see a friend.”

Luckily, his mom didn’t ask any more questions. “Alright darling, bye.”

So Otis left for Maeve’s house, knowing he would be early, but then again, that was what he always did, wasn’t it? He took his bike, planning to get there in about 15 minutes. He knew what he was going to say, but that didn’t make him any less nervous, and it didn’t stop him from worrying the whole way there.

While Otis was worrying about today, so was Maeve. It should have been obvious what Otis wanted to talk about, just as it should have been obvious to Otis that she wanted to be his girlfriend. After almost everyone she cared for had abandoned her, however, she found it hard to believe that anyone would ever want her around. For Maeve as well, the time seemed to pass at a slow crawl, and she was sure that it would never be time for them to meet.

Due to her nervousness, Maeve had been up cleaning for an hour already. She didn’t want her caravan to be in the same shape it was the last time that Otis was there. He may have been okay with the messiness, but it still made her feel embarrassed.

She had already talked to Aimee about it, and she even told Maeve what Otis was going to ask her, but Maeve didn’t believe that. She didn’t know what he might want to talk about, and that bothered her. Otis was supposed to be the one that got all nervous, and she felt like the roles were reversing. She had no idea that Otis was just as, if not even more nervous than her.

At around 11, Maeve sat down for a moment before getting dressed for when Otis got there. She almost never dressed to impress anyone, but Otis was different, he was one of the few people who actually made her feel nervous. He was the only person who she actively wanted to please and impress, she valued his opinion more than anyone else’s. She ended up wearing the same outfit she had worn on the day that she and Otis had helped Adam with his viagra problem. She didn’t expect Otis to make that connection, but that outfit felt special to her because of that day, so that was what she wore.

She had barely sat down again when she heard a knock on the door. It was only 11:30, so she didn’t think Otis would be there yet. Of course though, when she opened the door, he was standing there, with a nervous smile on his face.

She looked at him questioningly, “You weren’t supposed to be here for another thirty minutes.”

Otis shrugged, and said something that she remembered him saying to her a long time ago. “On time is late.”

She smiled, thinking that was such an Otis thing to say. “Come in, dickstain.”

Otis laughed, “You know, you should really try to think of some nicer names for me.”

“Meh, I think dickstain works just fine.”

Otis came in, and they sat on the couch. At first, they exchanged the usual formalities, just asking how they were and other questions like that. Both of them were too nervous to bring up the other night, and Otis didn’t seem to be in any hurry to tell her what he needed to talk to her about.

Maeve finally decided that she would get him started. “So, what did you need to talk to me about?”

Otis got very nervous while responding. “Well, um. I was wondering… if you… umm.”

Maeve laughed. “Otis, just say what you need to say, I’m not gonna make fun of you or anything.”

All of a sudden Otis just said the whole thing at once. “I was wondering if you wanted to go out with me?”

Maeve got really nervous, which she wasn’t used to, and suddenly she was the one who was stuttering. She didn’t really know what to say,so she decided to take action instead. “Can I kiss you?”

She didn’t wait for a response. From the look on Otis’ face, he had wanted to kiss her too. She leaned in for the koss and so did he. For the second time that weekend, their lips met.

After they pulled away, Otis didn’t really know what to say, and neither did Maeve, so they both just sat there for a moment.

After what seemed like forever, Otis finally spoke. “So, I’m guessing that’s a yes?” He asked with a smile.

“That’s a yes, Otis.”

They both smiled, and neither of them could stop. They both just couldn’t believe that the timing had finally worked out. This time there was nothing to stop them, and that made them both feel elated.

Maeve tried to look serious for a moment, but failed. “Wipe that smile off your face, Milburn.”

Otis couldn’t. “You first, Wiley”

They both chuckled, not sure what came next. They had both been in a relationship before, but they were so nervous that any previous experience mattered at the moment. Otis looked awkwardly at the floor, while Maeve tried to think of something to say.

After thinking, the best thing Maeve could think of to say was “You’re really weird sometimes Otis.” She said it in the gentlest way she could, it wasn’t meant to be an insult.

Otis smirked, still looking at the floor. “Yeah, I know.”

Maeve wanted to make him feel better about that. “Like I said the other night though, that’s one of the things I like about you most. And no, it’s not because I like seeing your pain, your nervousness shows that you care.”

Otis nodded, changing the subject. “So, when and what shall our first date be, M’lady.” he said in a joking manner.

Maeve was glad that he seemed to be more comfortable all of a sudden. “Ah yes, M’lady, the classic affectionate nickname.” She pretended that she was offended.

Otis put his hands up in an ‘I surrender’ gesture. “Joking.” Then he added, “But, more importantly, that date?”

“Hey, you’re the one who asked me, it’s up to you.”

Otis didn't know what he wanted to do. “At least give me a hint of where you want to go?”

Maeve decided to help Otis out a little. “I’ll tell you what, we can go out for dinner, and after I’ll invite myself over to your house to hang out. But you have to decide where we eat.”

“Okay, I think I can figure that out. How does Tuesday work for you?”

“That works great, Otis.”

Once again, they fell into one of their patented long silence, except this wasn’t an awkward silence, this was a content silence. They were both happy with the outcome of their conversation, and for the moment, Maeve was able to forget all about her mom and her sister. Otis was good at making her forget about the bad things, whether he meant to or not. When one of them finally spoke up again, they talked for about half an hour about whatever, just happy to be with each other.

Eventually though, Otis had to leave, and he did so with great reluctance. On the way home, he realized that he would have to tell his mom he was dating someone now, and he didn’t want to go through that embarrassing conversation again. He had barely made it through telling her when he had started dating Ola. His mom always asked the most awkward questions, and he thought it was really inappropriate. However, it was worth it if it meant he got to date Maeve. Earlier, he would have done anything to make that happen, and now it was happening.

When Otis left, Maeve finally let how excited she was really show. She didn’t stop smiling for what must have been 20 minutes. She picked up her phone to text Aimee.

-You were right, Otis asked me out and now we are officially dating.-

-I’m always right, and also congratulations by the way!-

Maeve smiled, she decided that next time Aimee had love advice for her, she would definitely listen. She spent what must have been the next hour daydreaming about her first date with Otis. That night, both of them drifted off to sleep without a problem, no longer nervous, and both of them excited for Tuesday.

Chapter Text

When Otis got home, he went to have the inevitable, uncomfortable, conversation with his mom. He found her in her office, and she looked up at him and smiled.

“How’s your friend?”

“Good, thanks.” Otis replied awkwardly.

They both sat there for a moment, Jean looking expectantly at Otis, thinking he had something else to say. Otis was reluctant to say it, though. He knew this was a conversation they would need to have eventually, but he kept trying to find reasons to put it off.

“Also, um, on Tuesday…” he trailed off.

“Yes, sweetheart?” Jean questioned.

“My friend… we’re” Otis was stuttering, then he chickened out “Me and Eric have made plans for Tuesday, I just wanted to let you know.”

“Okay darling, is that all?” Jean knew that wasn’t what he had really wanted to say, but decided not to push too hard at the moment.

“Yeah mum, that’s all.” Otis walked out awkwardly.

Jean called after him, “You know you can talk to me if you need to right?”

Otis reappeared in the doorway with a half smile on his face that didn’t quite seem real. “Yeah mum, I know.” He left again.

Jean sighed, she wished Otis would share things with her. She knew she had a tendency to take things too far sometimes and make him feel awkward, but that was just her nature. Besides, she was his mother, and she felt like she should have at least some idea of what was going on in her son's life.

Otis went up to his room, trying to think of somewhere that he and Maeve could go on their first date. And also what they would do when she came over after. ‘Shit,’ He realized ‘My house isn’t even near ready for Maeve to come over’. He would have to do a lot of cleaning before Maeve got there. The house was still a mess from the party, his mom hadn’t had much time to clean up from the party, and it was really his responsibility anyways, he had thrown the party.

Otis began to stress, he had so much to do, and what felt like so little time to do it. He needed to calm down, he realized that, but he just couldn’t. He put on some music and laid on his bed, trying to stop his brain from going a hundred miles and hour. He sat there for awhile, and he was eventually able to calm himself down. He decided that he needed to tackle his problems one at a time. The first thing he would do was start cleaning up from the party, as that was more physical labor, and he needed to give his brain a moment.

He went downstairs and grabbed a garbage bag, he would start by picking up all of the bottles and cans, that wouldn’t be too hard, it would just take a long time. After he got another look at the mess, however, he knew that it wouldn’t be that easy. His brain tried to tell him to panic, that there was no hope for him, but he reeled his emotions back in and began to pick up all the trash.

After he had been cleaning for what had seemed like forever, but in reality had only been around 20 minutes, Jean came out of her office to see what her son was doing. She was surprised that he was doing it without being told to, but she didn’t question it too much. She was glad he was trying to make things right with her. He may have done a lot of things to hurt her, which had reminded her of his father, but he always made up for it, which was something that Remi had consistently failed to do. She smiled at the thought that Otis was becoming a good man, and began helping him to clean up.

Otis noticed and protested. “Mum, you don’t have to do that, I made the mess, I can clean it up.”

Jean looked at her son with affection. “Otis, I didn’t clean this mess because I wanted you to take the initiative to start making things right, not because I wanted you to clean the whole mess by yourself.” She grinned, then added, “Besides, cleaning all of this is too cruel of a punishment, even for you.”

Otis was appreciative. “Thanks, mum. I know I get annoyed with you sometimes, but I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

They cleaned the rest of the mess in about an hour and a half, the process speeding up majorly when Jean joined the effort, and they both sat down on the couch to relax. Otis felt much more relieved now that he had taken care of one of his problems, and decided that it was time to try taking care of the problem of telling his mom about him and Maeve. He thought he owed that honesty to her, especially after she had helped him pick up the mess that was solely his responsibility.

It was a few minutes before he gained the courage to start speaking. “Mum, I wasn’t entirely honest with you earlier, about my plans for Tuesday.”

She looked at him, intrigued. “I sort of guessed that, but I didn’t want to press you for details. So what’s going on?”

Otis took a minute to continue. “I’m not hanging out with Eric, I’m going out on a date.”

“Oh,” Jean told herself to contain herself and not ask too many questions, but she did have a few. “Can I ask who it’s with?”

“You’ll probably recognize her from my story last night, it’s Maeve Wiley.” He hoped his mom wouldn’t hold anything about the clinic against Maeve.

“Okay, and what are your plans?” Jean asked this in a very neutral manner, trying not to upset Otis.

Otis was surprised about how calm his mom was acting. “We’re going out to dinner - not sure where yet - and then coming back here to hang out. And I just realized I didn’t even ask you if that was okay first, sorry mum.”

Jean nodded. “Well, I’m fine with that, and thank you for being honest with me.”

“No problem mum.” Before getting up though, he had one more thing to ask. “And mum, I know that last time I asked you this, things didn’t go well,” He gestured to the recently cleaned mess, “so I’m not going to ask you to leave the house, but could you please not start talking about sex therapy things while she’s here.”

Jean smiled at Otis. “I think I can do that, Otis.”

Otis was relieved, “Thanks mum.” he called on his way up to his room.

Now that Otis was gone, Jean was able to let her feelings on the subject out. She was never one to jump around and celebrate when she was excited, but she was unable to stop herself from smiling. She knew this wasn’t Otis’ first girlfriend, but she could tell from his story last night that this Maeve person was someone that Otis had liked for a long time. She was happy that he was happy, and she wondered how many details about his relationship with Maeve he had left out. He had said little to suggest that they had romantic feelings for eachother, the only reason she was able to guess that they did was because of the look on Otis’ face when he mentioned her. His whole face had lit up, and he had a look in his eyes that told her he was in love.

She didn’t hold the whole sex therapy thing against her, either. She had mostly blamed Otis, and by the time she knew Maeve had been involved in that whole operation, she had cooled off about the whole thing. In fact, from what she heard, Maeve would be the perfect person for Otis. It may not have seemed like it, but Otis was always so worried, and Maeve seemed like someone who might be able to get him to loosen up from time to time. She hoped that Otis would be happy, that was all she really ever wanted for him.

Otis woke up the next morning well-rested and elated. Only one day until his date with Maeve, and he couldn’t wait. He knew that he still had to figure out where to go, and what to do after dinner, but he felt much more calm about it today then he did yesterday. He would ask Eric for advice on where they should go at school today.

Otis got dressed and was ready to leave when Eric got to his house. Otis hadn’t told Eric that he and Maeve were officially dating yet, and he was excited to see Eric’s reaction. He could be a bit dramatic, but Eric’s reaction to Otis’ good news always made Otis happy.

They started riding, and when they were about halfway to school, Eric asked him about Maeve.

“Well,” Otis said, smiling. “I went to see her again yesterday.”

“Did you guys tongue each other more?” Eric teased.

Otis laughed, “Yes Eric, we did. Also, we have a date planned for tomorrow, so Maeve and I are officially dating now.”

Eric screamed happily. “Why didn’t you tell me last night!?”

Otis was happy that Eric was excited for him. “I wanted to see your reaction in person.”

Eric seemed to have a million questions for Otis. “So, what are you going to do? How did you ask her out? Does your mom know?”

Otis was happy that Eric was interested, but also overwhelmed by all the questions. “Yes, my mum knows, she was actually pretty normal about it. We are going to dinner, and then going back to hang out at my house. How about you, anything new on the Adam front?”

Eric was excited to tell Otis about his day yesterday. “Well, I actually went and met his mom yesterday. His dad may be a dick, but she’s really nice, I can see why she divorced him. I had dinner at his house and then he went up to his room and kissed for a bit. And speaking of Adam, now that his dad was forced to take a break, he’s being given a second chance at going to school, so I’ll get to see him even more.”

Otis was surprised to hear pretty much all of that. He hadn’t expected any of the Groffs to be nice people, and he had never thought that Adam would be given another chance at school. “That’s great Eric, I’m really happy for you.”

They got to school and got off their bikes, Otis looking around to see if he could find Maeve. He saw her standing by the main doors and said goodbye to Eric so he could go see her. Eric let him go happily, elated that Otis had finally asked out his long time crush. Besides, he had Adam now, didn’t he? He didn’t need to have Otis around all the time anymore.

Otis approached Maeve, and noticed how happy she looked. It made him relieved to see her that way, there were too many times where he had seen her looking sad or hurt. He was sure that she hadn’t gotten over what had happened with her mom yet, but he thought she was feeling better from how she had acted yesterday and by how happy she looked today. As he began ascending the steps, she started walking towards him to meet him at the top of the stairs.

“Morning dickhead.” She said affectionately.

“Good morning Maeve, how was your night?” Otis asked, replicating that same affection.

“It was fine, but you still haven’t told me where we’re going tomorrow.” Maeve said in a slight teasing tone.

“I’ll let you know by the end of the day, I promise, I’m just very indecisive.”

The bell rang, Maeve looked reluctant to go. “I’ve got biology, I’ve got to go.”

She leaned in to kiss Otis, which caught him off guard. He gasped a bit and stepped back.

Maeve looked concerned. “Sorry Otis, I guess you weren’t ready to do that in front of everyone.”

Otis shook his head. “No, I am ready, I was just caught off guard.”

This time it was Otis who leaned in for the kiss. It didn’t last as long as their other ones, but it was still just as sweet. They said bye to each other, and left for their respective classes.

After Maeve was out of sight, Eric ran up to Otis, “I saw that.” He laughed.

Otis didn’t need to ask what he was talking about. “Listen, I was just caught off guard.”

Eric looked at Otis like he had two heads. “What did you expect, she is your girlfriend now. You can be so weird sometimes Otis.”

“I’ve gotta go, bye.” Otis responded, embarrassed by the conversation.

“Bye, Mr. I Get Scared When My Girlfriend Kisses Me.” Eric called after him.

Eric and Otis met up again during break to eat their lunch. They both seemed to be lost in their own worlds though. Eric was thinking about Adam, and Otis about Maeve. It was funny how it worked out, both of them getting together with their crushes at the same time. Neither of them would feel left out now if the other wanted to go do something with their boyfriend or girlfriend.

It was Otis who broke the silence between them, interrupting Eric’s daydream. “Where should I take Maeve to dinner tomorrow, I don’t want to go somewhere super fance, but I also don’t want to settle for just any old restaurant.”

Eric thought for a moment, wanting to give Otis a good place to go. “You know that Italian place that just opened in town?” Otis nodded. “You should go there, I’ve been, and it’s not super fancy or expensive, but the food’s really good.”

Otis was really appreciative that he had Eric for a friend. “Thanks, Eric, I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“You wouldn’t be able to do anything without me.” Eric joked.

At the end of the day, Mave caught up with Otis, hoping he had thought of a place for their date. “Alright dickstain, time’s up. Where are we going to dinner?”

“I was thinking that new Italian place that just opened up in town, does that work for you?” Otis hoped she was okay with it.

Maeve nodded. “That works great Otis, I’ll see you there at 6.”

“Alright, I’ll see you tomorrow.” Otis responded, glad that everything was planned now, and he didn’t have to worry anymore.
“See you later.” She gave Otis a kiss before she left, and this time he didn’t pull away.

They both went home, both of them unable to think of anything but tomorrow night. They both already decided what they were going to wear that night. Neither of them wanted to be unprepared, and Otis thought that was the big difference between Maeve and Ola. He wanted to impress Maeve more, and he cared more about what she thought, he knew that she was definitely the right one for him. By the time they went to sleep that night, both of them had checked over their outfits multiple times, and had already had their fair share of anxious thoughts.

Chapter Text

The next morning was the day of the big first date, and Otis was up at six to be in the shower. He would probably take another one when he got home from school as well, just to be sure. He realized that he may never get another chance if he messed things up, and he seemed to do that more often than not, so he was going to make sure that he was prepared this time. He used that thought as motivation, and by the time Eric was there to ride to school with him, he was confident that today was his day.

Eric seemed to notice something was up with Otis. “Are you excited for your big night tonight?”

Otis was happy that Eric brought it up. “I am, I’ve decided that I’m going to be confident today, none of my bullshit irrational worries, not today.”

Eric was surprised at his friend's new attitude, and didn’t think it would last, but he didn’t say that. “That’s great man, I’m excited for you. And you better text me and let me know how it went when she goes home.”
“I’ll make sure I text you, Eric.” Otis rolled his eyes.

When they arrived at school, Adam was waiting right where they normally put their bikes. Eric smiled and ran over to him, but Otis felt slightly weird considering his last words to Adam had been, “I’ll mess you up.” He was going to find an excuse to leave, then he remembered that he was going to be less awkward today.

He walked up to Adam and smiled kindly. “Hello, Adam.”

Adam looked a bit uncomfortable himself. “Hi, Otis. Do you mind if I talk to Eric in private?”

“Not at all, I’ll see you guys later.”

Eric waved to Otis. “Bye.”

Otis thought that was a quick interaction, and that was probably because Adam felt slightly awkward around Otis as well. They did in fact have a history, between their project, the sex clinic, and their most recent interaction at the store. None of those experiences had been particularly good, but he hoped that those experiences could be replaced with good ones. He wanted to like Adam, he did make Eric very happy after all, so he was willing to work hard to build a friendship with him.

Otis saw Maeve standing at the same place she always did before school, and Otis thought she looked even better than usual today. He didn’t know if she had gone through an extensive routine this morning just as he had, or if she had changed something he couldn’t quite put his finger on. He walked up to her with unwavering confidence and when she turned around to look at him, smiling, he kissed her right on the lips. This time, it was Maeve who was caught off guard, but she didn’t pull away, instead leaning into the kiss. They Both kissed for a bit, not caring if anyone was watching, and nobody was. They were teenagers after all, they kissed each other all the time.

When they both pulled away, Maeve was speechless, so Otis spoke instead. “Good morning Maeve.”

Maeve finally regained her composure enough to talk to Otis. “Good morning, what’s gotten into you.”

Otis was happy that she noticed his confidence, but didn’t say anything about it. “Just woke up feeling great, are you ready for tonight?”

Maeve nodded. “Yeah, I can’t wait.”

“Alright, I’ve gotta get to class, but I’ll see you later.”

“Yeah, I’ll see you later.”

Maeve looked on at Otis as he walked away, thinking about how his spontaneous kiss had made her feel. She felt like she was walking on air at the moment. She did say she thought he was really cute about him when he was flustered, but there was something about the confidence Otis had just then that really turned her on. She knew he probably wasn’t ready for sex at the moment, he might not even be close, but when he was, she would be more than ready for him.

“Hiya!” came Aimee’s voice from behind her.

Maeve jumped. “Jesus Aimee, you scared me.”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to.” Aimee laughed. “So, how goes things with the pleasure master?”

Maeve remembered Aimee’s nickname for Otis and laughed, thinking about how appropriate that was considering what had just happened. “Things are great, we have our first date tonight.”

Aimee was excited for Maeve. “That’s great, what are you doing?”

“We’re going out to dinner and then going back to his house for a bit.”

“Do you think that you’ll… you know?” Aimee said, raising her eyebrows at Maeve.

“I don’t think Otis would, he may have had sex with Ruby, but I stilll don’t think he’s the type to have sex after the first date.” Maeve was okay with that though, she was willing to take things slow for Otis.

Aimee looked more disappointed than Maeve was. “Oh, alright. I’ve gotta get to class, seeya!”

Now that Aimee was gone, Maeve went back to daydreaming about Otis. She was unbelievably excited for their date, even if she didn’t show that excitement as much. She also realized that she would have to meet his mom, and she hoped it wouldn’t be as bad as when she met Jackson’s parents. She didn’t think it would, it wasn’t like she was having dinner there, it would probably just be a quick hello and that would be it. Suddenly, she realized that she was stressing out about something more than Otis, that was a first.

When she got home after school, Maeve showered again and got dressed in her outfit or the date that night. She didn’t have anything fancy to wear, so she just wore a black shirt, black pants, and her fringed jacket. She was ready by five and left for the restaurant by five-thirty, not wanting to be late. She took some time on the way there to calm herself down, telling herself that it was just a date, and that no matter how confident he appeared, Otis was just as nervous as her. She got there almost exactly at six, and of course, Otis was already there, waiting at a table for her.

Otis had ended up taking another shower when he got home as well. He wanted to make sure that he was there early, because no matter what anyone else said, he always felt that on time was late. He wore the same kind of outfit he normally wore as well, only this time he added a tie to the mix. He was ready almost a full hour early, so he texted with Eric for a bit.

-Hey man, you around?-

-Yeah, what’s up?-

-Just killing time before the date, any last minute advice for me?-

-Yes, do not order anything messy, because I know you’ll get all awkward and end up spilling it on yourself.-

Otis chuckled at that. -Okay, thanks man, I’ll take that into consideration.-

-Oh, I have to go, Adam’s coming over for dinner in a bit.-

-Alright, good luck.-

That had barely killed any time, so Otis decided that he would just go early, and maybe walk around in one of the shops around there while he waited. He left on his bike after saying bye to his mom, who was still being very cool about the whole dating thing, to his surprise. He didn’t end up stopping in any of the shops, instead he sat outside for awhile until he felt like it had been long enough. He went inside and asked for a table.

When he saw Maeve walk in, he had a sudden realization that he was actually out on a date with her, and all the confidence he had previously had faded away. He had no idea what he was doing, he had never been on a proper date with Ola, and he felt like throwing up. Maeve walked over to him, smiling.

Otis tried not to let the panic creep into his voice. “Hi Maeve, you look nice.”

Maeve was nervous as well, she didn’t really do dates ever, so she wasn’t used to this. “Thanks, you look great too.”

Maeve sat down, and both of them were too nervous to notice how nervous the other was. They both sat in silence until the waiter came to have them order their drinks. They both just had water, and they began to talk, but they both were still feeling so awkward and nervous. The waiter came back with their drinks and they ordered the food.

After nothing really seemed to be going anywhere, Maeve spoke up. “I have to go use the bathroom, I’ll be right back.”

“Okay.” Otis said, kicking himself for being so nervous and awkward.

After Maeve left, Otis heard a voice behind him ask. “First date?”

It was an old man who seemed to be there with his wife, they looked like they had been together forever. Otis thought that he would never be able to get there if he couldn’t get through one measly date.

Otis replied. “Yeah, can you tell?”

The man came back with advice that Otis would probably remember forever. “Listen, I’ve been with my wife for a really long time, and let me tell you, it’s not worth being nervous. You only get so many dates, and you don’t want to waste them. I don’t think anyone can expect to not have any nerves, and that’s a good way to tell if a person is right for you, it shows you care what they think. But don’t let the nervousness stop you, make the most of the time that you have. I’m also gonna let you in on a little secret, she’s nervous too, you might not be able to tell, but she is, she really likes you. So calm down, just relax, and when she gets back, just start a casual conversation.”

Otis was thankful for the advice. “Thank you sir, that really helps.”

The man replied. “Don’t mention it son, she’s coming back by the way.”

Maeve came back, and Otis thought about what the man had said, wishing his dad was around to give him advice like that. ‘Okay,’ he thought, ‘just start a conversation with her’. And at that moment, he did notice that Maeve looked nervous too, and that made him feel less judged and less vulnerable.

Otis began a conversation with a simple question. “How’s Aimee?”

Maeve loosened up a little bit. “She’s good, she’s been very interested in our relationship.”

“Yeah, Eric has been too but I kind of like it. He always gets so excited for me, it makes me feel great.”

They suddenly found themselves in a conversation, and the words seemed to come easy to them after that. Otis was grateful for the advice he received, and thought that he would need to thank the man on the way out. Dinner went smoothly from there. They talked until their food was ready, and they talked as they ate, both happy to be there in the moment.
The man had left without Otis noticing, so he didn’t get to say thank you, but Otis was too caught up in the moment anyways. They were done by seven-thirty, and decided it was time to head to Otis’ house. There was an issue, however. Otis took his bike, and Maeve had walked, so they weren’t sure what to do.

“Do you just want to sit on the back of my bike?” Otis questioned.

“Yeah, I can do that.” Maeve responded, actually glad that she would get to be that close to Otis for awhile.

So they rode to Otis’ house, both of them considerably less nervous and hoping that it would stay that way when they got there. They went inside and Otis showed Maeve around the house. She thought it was nice, and she really liked Otis’ room, it seemed so perfect for him. She did wonder about the broken wardrobe, but decided that would probably be a story for another time.

Otis sighed. “Well, I guess I should go introduce you to my mum.”

Maeve thought Otis looked worried and wanted to reassure him. “I’m sure she isn’t nearly as bad as you say.”

Jean was in her office when they walked in. “Mum, this is Maeve.”

Jean’s first thought was how happy Otis looked, and she was glad her son was with someone who made him happy. “Hi, I’m Otis’ mum, but you can just call me Jean.”

Maeve smiled and shook her hand. “Hi, it’s lovely to finally meet you.”

“I’m sure you’ve heard about me, Otis must complain all the time.”

Maeve looked at Otis grinning. “Sometimes.”

Jean laughed, thinking that Maeve was a really great person. She was glad that Otis found her. They left to go do their thing, and Jean continued to do her work, happy for her son.

Otis and Maeve decided to watch a movie together before Maeve had to go home. As they sat and watched, Maeve slowly inched closer and closer to Otis, but he seemed to be oblivious to it. She was about to try and kiss him when he got up to use the bathroom. ‘How obvious can I make it?’ She thought, hoping that he would eventually get the hint when he came back.

When he came back, he still didn’t get the hint, so she decided to keep going. She put her hand on his thigh, and that seemed to gain his attention. He looked at her and she saw the desire in his eyes. They kissed for a long time, making out on and off for about twenty minutes. After that was over, Maeve curled up in Otis’ arms and sat there, similar to how she had on the night of their first kiss, except this time neither of them were sad, they were the happiest they had ever been.

Maeve had originally been hoping that they would do something more than kissing, but she was satisfied with being wrapped in Otis’ arms. She felt safe, and she knew that he really cared for her. She felt more loved just lying in his arms than she ever had after having sex with someone, she could wait to have sex with him. And she knew that he wanted to, she had noticed the boner he had gotten when they were making out. She just concluded that he wasn’t quite ready, and she would wait to make her move. But she was almost completely sure that she would have to make the move, Otis was just too shy.

After they sat like that for some time, not really paying attention to the movie, Maeve decided it was time to go home. Otis offered to walk her home, and even though she didn’t need him to, she accepted, just to be with him more.

The walk to her house was mostly quiet, as was custom with them by now. It wasn’t an awkward quiet, though, it was a thoughtful one. And when they arrived, they both felt refreshed.

“That was a good night.” Otis said softly when they arrived at Maeve’s door.

“It was, we should do it again sometime.”

Otis looked into Maeve’s eyes for a second before he told her, “I really like you Maeve, and I’m sorry that I ever hurt you. You’re the one I want to be with, yet I constantly push you away. I guess I just want to say thank you for sticking with me when I really don’t deserve it.”

Maeve wished that he would stop apologizing. “You don’t need to say sorry anymore Otis, I’ve forgiven you by now, otherwise I wouldn’t have been with you tonight.”

Otis smiled sadly. “I know, I was just telling you that I know how lucky I am to have you, and I’m not going to mess it up again.”

Maeve felt tears welling in her eyes, feeling loved. “Thanks dickhead, I’ll see you later.”

And with that, Otis left, leaving Maeve to her own thoughts. She thought that Otis couldn’t have done any better tonight. He had really made her feel special, and she hoped he knew that she was lucky to have him as well. She stayed up for awhile longer after that, just thinking of him. He made her feel more special than she had ever, and she knew that even though she was just a teenager, she wanted to be with him forever.

Chapter Text

Otis and Maeve became much more comfortable with each other after their first date. There was no more awkwardness about kissing in school, and they had no trouble talking to each other. They weren’t doing the clinic anymore, but the only reason Otis had still been doing it was so he could see Maeve.

They hadn’t been on another date yet, but the weekend was coming up, and they planned on spending some time together then. Meve had invited Otis to her caravan that weekend, which despite them having known each other for a long time now, Otis had only ever been inside once. Otis accepted this offer enthusiastically, he was ecstatic any time that he got to see Maeve.

Seeing Maeve wasn’t the only reason Otis was getting out of the house, though. His dad had finished his book tour, but his flight didn’t go back to the US until next weekend. He wasn’t staying with them, but he was constantly coming to ‘visit Otis’, even though Otis barely talked to him while he was there. There was a lot of tension between his parents, so he looked for any opportunity he could to get away. His memories from his parents divorce didn’t bother him sexually anymore, but it was hard to not have those memories when he saw them both arguing everyday.

Otis and Maeve met up during break on Friday to discuss their plans for that weekend. They met in the toilet block where they had held so many clinic sessions, and as usual, Otis was there before Maeve.

“Hey dickhead, are you ever not early.” Maeve mocked being angry.

“Not really.” Otis responded

“Well, what do you want to do this weekend?”

“I don’t know, I guess just hang out and see where the weekend takes us?” Otis replied.

Maeve saw an opportunity to make a joke. “Wow, I didn’t know you were capable of going into something without a plan.”

Otis quickly came back with. “Do you not remember my completely spontaneous party just last week?”

Maeve was over the party by now, so it made it easy to laugh about by that point. “Yeah, and that went really well for you, didn’t it?”

“Not the point, it was still completely spontaneous, which proves you wrong.”

Maeve gave up and decided to let Otis have that victory. “Okay fine, you can be spontaneous. I guess our plan for the weekend is to ‘be spontaneous’ then?”

“I don’t hear you giving any suggestions.” Otis jabbed jokingly.

Maeve loved it when Otis fought back against her jabs at him. “Okay dickhead, we’ll just see what happens then.”

They sat and talked about whatever for a while, waiting until it was time to go back to class. Ordinarily, they wouldn’t want to go back to class, but going back to class meant they were one step closer to seeing each other all weekend. That was why when they heard the bell ring, they were still reluctant to go, but they were much more willing than they might have been any other day.

They planned on meeting at Maeve’s at six that night, where they would hang out until around ten, Otis would probably have to go home by then, his mom could be overprotective at times. Otis rode home, hoping that his dad wouldn’t be there, it was just unnecessary tension. He still loved his dad, but he had come to realize just how right his dad was when he called himself an asshole. He seemed to enjoy doing anything that would get a rise out of his mom, and with all that she had gone through recently, it didn’t take much.

Of course, his dad was there when he got home, why wouldn’t he be. “Hey Otis, I was thinking about having dinner with you and your mom tonight, you okay with that?” He didn’t sound like he was trying to cause trouble, but Otis knew there would be if he stuck around.

“I can’t dad, sorry. I’m going over to a friend's house tonight.” Otis hadn’t told his dad about Maeve yet, and he didn’t plan on doing it anytime soon. He felt like his dad would just make him feel weird about it, and then he would feel a ton of pressure with both his sex therapist parents asking him questions about it.

“Oh, okay. Well say hi to Eric for me.” To be fair, he did sound genuinely disappointed, but Otis was reluctant to give him any credit.

“I will dad.” He was already halfway up the stairs to his room when he said this, not wanting to have much of a conversation about where he was really going that night.

Otis hoped that his dad would be gone by the time he left, but he knew that probably wouldn’t be the case. Then his mom would probably mention something about Maeve, and then his dad would have a million more questions. He decided not to worry about it, if he got too uncomfortable, he would just leave.

When he got to his room, he put on some music and relaxed when he got a text from Eric.

-Good luck tonight, Oatcake. If you guys don’t at least move beyond kissing you’re going to have a lot to answer for on Monday.-

-Not gonna happen Eric. Besides, why are you so focused on my love life, don’t you have Adam now?-

-Otis, when will you learn? Having a boyfriend isn’t going to distract me enough to stop me from bothering me.-

-Dick.-

-Whatever Otis, make something happen tonight.-

Otis was glad to have a friend who cared so much, even if he was so weird about it sometimes. He had Maeve, who really cared, and he wouldn’t trade her for anything in the world, but Eric had been by his side for years, through thick and thin. He made a mental note to make it up to Eric next time he needed something.

His mom got home from the shop about half an hour later, and she heard her talking to his dad downstairs. The conversation seemed to be civil enough, but it always started out that way, so Otis didn’t hold out any hope. He certainly wasn’t surprised when he heard the tones from downstairs get slightly more aggressive. It usually started with his dad saying something about Jakob, and with that wound still fresh, his mom would usually snap back with something about his most recent divorce. From there, it would usually turn to topics that held no relevance to whatever had started the argument, they just wanted to hurt each other as much as they could.

Otis wondered if they ever considered them during their arguments, and assumed that they didn’t. Even though he had never told them how their arguments years ago had affected him, he still didn’t think it was fair for them to argue like them when he was around. If the argument was a bad one, or if it lasted for a long time, it usually ruined his day. He turned up the music to drown them out, not wanting to upset himself right before he left to go see Maeve.

He hadn’t been surprised that his parents were fighting, but when he turned the music down, he was surprised to hear they were still going at it, and by that point, they were almost shouting. He decided he would leave without saying anything, and just text his mom later, he didn’t want to deal with his parents at the moment. He couldn’t help himself from listening to their argument before he left, though.

“You need to be there for your son more often Remi, and while you are around, you need to be a positive influence. He needs to learn how to become a good man, and he needs to learn that from his father.” He was surprised to hear that the argument had been about him.

“I’m right here! I’m trying to make a connection with him, but it’s impossible when he won’t let me. I wanted to see him tonight, but he’s off doing his own thing. What do you want me to do?” His dad was practically shouting at that point.

“You need to stop being such an ass! Or at least stop letting your son see you act that way!”

“Well, I don’t think you’re helping him much either, it’s not like I’m the one prying into his life and even going to give sex therapy at his school!” Otis knew that the school was still a sore subject for his mom, and his dad must have known it as well.

“How dare you accuse me of being a bad parent when you’re the one who isn’t even a parent to him at all!” And then, she picked up a glass, and just as she had done years ago, she threw it across the room at him.
Otis suddenly couldn’t stop the memories that had haunted him for so long, and he found himself about to have a panic attack. He knew he had to get out of there, so he ran to the door and left as fast as he could. He didn’t care if his parents noticed, and of course they did, the only thing that had followed the glass shattering was dead silence, until they heard running footsteps and the door slamming. Remi decided that he should probably leave for the night, and Jean agreed. She wanted to text Otis, and if he didn’t come home later, she would text him, but for now he needed his space.

Otis tried to clear his head as he walked alongside the road. He didn’t want his parents' relationship to control his life, yet that was exactly what was happening, and he felt completely helpless. He arrived at Maeve’s a few minutes late due to the argument, and he had only half cleared his head by the time he arrived. He knocked, hoping Maeve wouldn’t notice that anything was wrong with him.

When Maeve opened the door, however, she instantly noticed something was wrong. “What’s wrong” were actually her first words to him.

Otis didn’t want to ruin the night by getting emotional, so he tried to smile the best he could. “Nothing, may I come in?”

Maeve knew he was lying, but didn’t want to push him if he wasn’t ready to talk about it. “Yeah, come on in.”

About an hour in, their plan to let the night take them where it wanted to was failing miserably. Neither of them knew what to do, so they ended up just watching a movie together. Otis found it hard to focus on the movie, and his head became filled with thoughts about what had happened only an hour ago. Maeve noticed he seemed distant, and tried to think of what she could do to cheer him up, but that was hard when she didn’t know what was wrong in the first place.

When the movie finished, they still had no idea what to do. This was largely due to Otis’ poor mood, but Maeve found it difficult to be upset with him, he really did look like he was hurting.

She decided to try and get through to him one more time. “Otis, you know that you can talk to me about anything, right?”

Otis looked at her in a way that broke her heart. “Yeah, I know.”

She felt immensely bad for him, and leaned in to kiss him, she thought that might cheer him up. At first, Otis began to forget about his problems, and he began to relax. Soon though, he began to think about his dad having sex with his patient, and he saw his mom throwing the glass at him, both times. He began to panic, at that moment, nothing mattered more than getting out of there as fast as he could. That was why he suddenly pushed Maeve away, and ran out the door without looking back.

When he finally realized what had happened, he was at least a mile away from the caravan. He barely even remembered what had happened. All he could recall was running as fast as he could, and hearing Maeve’s voice calling his name. He felt bad for Maeve, and he knew he would have a lot to explain, but he just needed to get out of there.

He didn’t want to go home that night, he couldn’t talk to his mom, so he decided he would go to Eric’s house. He started walking there, hoping Eric would still be awake when he got there. He knew Eric would have the right thing to say, he always seemed to know what to do whenever Otis didn’t.

When he arrived, he saw Eric and someone else walking down the driveway, as if they were going somewhere. He realized it was Adam and suddenly remembered Eric had told him they were going out that night. He tried to duck out of sight, not wanting to mess up Eric’s date, but of course, Eric noticed him.

“Otis, what are you doing here? What’s wrong, aren’t you supposed to be with Maeve?” Eric was very concerned, he too had noticed something was wrong from the moment he saw Otis.

Otis got nervous and tried to avoid his questions. “Hey Eric, hi Adam, funny seeing you guys here.”

Eric wasn’t buying any of it. “It’s my house Otis, of course I’m going to be here. Now tell me what’s wrong.”

Otis began crying softly, and Eric enveloped him in a hug, giving Adam an ‘I have no idea’ look. “My parents were arguing, and it got really bad, and it reminded me of their divorce. Then I couldn’t focus when I was with Maeve, and now I think I might explode.”

Eric stayed silent, not sure what to say, he just stood there comforting Otis. It was Adam who ended up saying something. “That’s tough new kid, wanna go smash some shit?”

Chapter Text

Otis found it surprisingly relieving to ‘smash some shit’, as Adam would put it. Soon enough, he had relaxed enough so that he could hear his own thoughts. He decided that it was time to tell Eric everything, even the stuff from his childhood. Eric listened carefully, and so did Adam, which surprised Otis, Adam was really starting to change Otis’ opinion on him.

When he was done talking, Eric felt very bad for Otis. “Why didn’t you tell me before, now I feel bad for ever pressuring you about anything, I literally made fun of you for not being able to wank while you were suffering internally.”

Otis didn’t mean to make Eric feel bad. “Don’t beat yourself up, you were there for me more than anyone else whenever I needed help.”

“So you just ran from Maeve when she kissed you?” Eric questioned.

“Yeah, something like that.” Otis felt ashamed at what he had done, Maeve must have felt so bad after he did that.

“You definitely are going to have a lot of explaining to do.”

“I don’t know if I can talk to her about what happened Eric.”

“It gets easier.” Adam interjected, surprising both Otis and Eric. “Opening up to people gets easier, I mean. Trust me, you just let me know your whole life’s story. I know you were talking to Eric, but you knew I was right here. If you can tell your story in front of me, you can definitely talk to your girlfriend.”

Otis realized that he had been okay with Adam hearing everything that he had to say. “You’re right Adam. I can trust Maeve, she just wants to help me, and I should let her.”

“You should also talk to your mom, she should know that her and your dad hurt you when they argue, it’s the only way for things to change.”

Otis was grateful for Adam’s advice, and was surprised at how sensible it was. “Thanks Adam, I’ll try.”

Otis got a text from his mom at that moment.

-Are you coming home Otis?-

Otis didn’t want to respond, but he knew that his mom would literally go out and start searching for him if he didn’t.

-No mom, I’m with Eric, I can’t be there right now.-

That seemed to be a satisfactory answer, and he didn’t get anymore messages from her. He was glad she was leaving him alone, she probably knew that she upset him badly earlier, but she definitely didn’t know just how upset he was. He definitely thought he would have to talk to her about what had happened, and he hoped she wouldn’t try and turn it into a therapy session, and that it could be a normal mother-son conversation instead. While he didn’t get any other message from his mom, he did get one from Maeve.

-Hey, what happened back there? You need to talk to me.-

Otis didn’t know what to do. He knew Eric and Adam were right when they said he would have to tell here, but actually doing something was much harder than thinking about it. He had just told his best friend who he had known forever, and he had barely been able to do that. How was he supposed to be able to tell his girlfriend, the one who he wanted to impress, and having a mental breakdown certainly wasn’t going to do that.

He was about to put his phone away when Eric interrupted. “Woah, Otis, you can’t do that.”

Otis protested. “There’s no way I can talk to her right now.”

Adam tried to motivate Otis again. “Listen, new kid, she’s probably the person who’s least likely to judge you about this. You’ve been after her for a long time now, and we’re not gonna let you fuck it up now that you’re finally with her. So I’ll tell you what you’re going to do. You’re gonna pick up your phone, you’re gonna send her a message and you’re gonna meet up with her to talk.”

Otis was surprised that Adam seemed to care that much, and surprisingly, what he said did actually help. “Alright, I’ll do it, but I’m not gonna lie, I’m scared shitless.”

Eric put a hand on his friend's shoulder. “We’ll go with you.”

Otis returned to Maeve’s caravan around midnight, with Adam and Eric close behind him. He still didn’t know exactly what he was going to say, but he needed to say something, and it needed to be the truth. The more he thought about it, the more he realized Adam was actually right. He had worked hard to get where he was now, and he wasn’t going to let his parents ruin that for him. So, with a shaking hand, Otis reached out to knock on the door.

The sound of his own knocking startled him, and he heard footsteps approaching the door. He started to question whether or not he should be here. With every footstep he heard, he became more and more sure that Maeve would open the door and tell him that they were through. He probably would have run away again, but Eric and Adam seemed to have read his mind, because they were standing right behind him, ready to stop him when he turned around.

The door opened, and at first Otis thought he was right, Maeve did look angry, or at least annoyed. Then he noticed that the concern on her face definitely outweighed the annoyance. He realized just how badly him running away must have hurt Maeve, she had no idea what had happened, he just left her there, confused and alone.
Maeve noticed Adam and Eric behind him. “What are they doing here?”

Eric responded simply with, “Emotional support.”

Maeve was confused. “Huh?”

Adam explained further. “We came here to make sure new kid didn’t run away again, because he has something he needs to tell you.”

Maeve nodded her understanding. “Alright, well you guys are welcome to wait outside if you want, but I need to talk to Otis alone inside.”

With that, she practically pulled Otis inside and shut the door. “Are you okay? I was fucking worried Otis! I had no idea what was happening, and you just ran!” She was shouting by the time she was done, and Otis didn’t think it mattered that everyone else was outside and they were inside, there was no way they didn’t hear that.

Otis sighed, trying to keep his composure. “I’m not okay Maeve, I feel all backwards right now, and I don’t know what to do or think anymore.” He tried to keep a straight face, but he knew he was doing a pretty shit job at that.

Of course, Maeve saw how upset he was, and any anger she had just expressed in what she last said was immediately replaced with concern. She could be angry later, but for now, he needed her to be supportive. “What happened Otis?”

Otis tried responding and couldn’t bring himself to speak. Maeve tried to encourage him. “Otis, you can tell me anything, I need you to be honest with me, no judgement, I promise.”

After sitting there for another minute, Otis was able to force himself to speak. “My parents got into a pretty bad fight earlier Maeve, normally it wouldn’t be a big deal, but something happened and I panicked. I need you to understand, so I’m gonna have to tell you another story first, but I promise it’s necessary.”

And with that, Otis began telling his story, starting with his dad having sex with his client, and ending with the fight his parents had tonight. As the story went on, Maeve realized just how rough Otis could have it at some times. She knew he had trouble with his mom at times, but she had no idea that things had ever gotten that bad. She gained so much understanding about why Otis was so unconfident and why he got so awkward at times. His parents had probably completely ruined the whole idea of romantic relationships for him, and he only just started back up recently.

When Otis finished telling his story, they sat in silence. Maeve didn’t know what to say, and Otis felt like he had done enough talking to last him a lifetime. He felt relieved to finally be opening up to some people, but he also worried that even though they reassured him, they were secretly judging him.

Finally, Maeve, not knowing what to say, but also not wanting to sit in awkward silence anymore, spoke up. “So Otis, I’m going to be the sex therapist for a minute and try to connect the dots. Your parents had an argument when you were young that scarred you for a long time. This memory is part of your reason for having sexual anxieties. Now, today, your parents had another argument that reminded you of that one and brought all the bad memories back. Am I correct?”

Otis nodded, not trusting himself to say anything, and suddenly he found himself enveloped in a hug from Maeve. He realized at that moment that he didn’t make a mistake when he decided to open up to Maeve, and he hugged her back even tighter. Tears spilled from his eyes, but he cried silently, and Maeve didn’t notice. All of a sudden, a knock at the door interrupted them.

Maeve went to answer it, and when she opened the door, Otis heard Eric’s voice. “Are you sure that Otis won’t run away now, because me and Adam are trying to get out of here.”

Maeve told them that they could go and closed the door. She walked back to Otis, still feeling awful for him. He had wiped away his tears so she wouldn’t notice, and luckily, she didn’t. “Well, what do you want to do, do you have to go home?”

Otis shook his head. “No, I can’t be there right now, but I can leave if you need me too.”

“No way, you’re stuck with me for tonight.”

“I don’t mind that.”

They sat together on the couch for awhile, not talking about anything serious, but just making conversation, and Otis was beginning to feel much better. He was glad he opened up to Maeve, and she was glad about it too, she hoped he knew she really wasn’t judging him at all.

They sat that way until around five that morning, when Maeve decided she needed to get a few hours of sleep at least. Otis seemed to agree, as he fell asleep on the couch as soon as she got up to go to her bed. She thought he looked so peaceful, and was happy that he had at least found some kind of relief that night. She knew he wasn’t going to heal in one day, but she hoped that she had been able to help him. As far as she was concerned though, he could stay with her as long as he wanted, but she knew just as well as he did that he would be back sleeping in his own bed soon enough.
Before she went to bed herself, she grabbed a blanket to put over Otis, hoping she wouldn’t wake him up. She had just finished and was about to leave when she heard him quietly say, “I love you, Maeve.”

Maeve stopped in her tracks, at first not comprehending what he had said. She knew he was tired, but she also knew that he meant what he had just said, and he was the first person to tell her that since Jackson. They had admitted that they were ‘in love’ with each other before, but she thought that saying “I love you” was a lot different from saying “I’m in love with you” and she was definitely caught off guard. She realized that she did feel that way about him as well, though.

“I love you too, Otis.” She said, trying not to tear up. And with that, she kissed him on the forehead and left for her own bed, where sweet dreams of him waited for her.

Chapter Text

Maeve woke up that morning around ten, feeling refreshed and content. She hadn’t forgotten what had happened last night, or actually early this morning if you wanted to be technical, and she hoped that Otis had meant what he said and that he had been awake enough to remember it. She left her room and walked to the other end of the caravan to find Otis already awake, texting somebody.

Otis put his phone down and looked up at her. “Good morning, how are you?”

“I’m doing good Otis, I feel great. How about you Otis, are you feeling any better?”

“Yeah, I’m feeling a bit better, I’m still rattled if I’m being honest, but I’ll get there.”
“Have you talked to your mom yet?” She hoped that Otis really was okay, he had to have been really upset last night if it was enough for him to run away from her like she was radioactive.

“Not yet, I’ll do it later, I need to prepare myself for that first.”

“Just how much do you plan on telling her?” Maeve questioned.

“I guess I’ll have to tell her everything, but I really don’t want to.” He was reluctant because he knew that both his parents would try to therapize him if he told them, and he definitely didn’t want that.

“Well, when you’re ready, I can be there with you if you’d like.”

“Thanks Maeve, that means a lot.” He didn’t know that he would want her there, especially not if his dad was there, but it was nice to know that she would be if he wanted her to.

After that conversation, Maeve changed the subject. “So, is there anything you want to do today?”

Otis considered for a moment. “Not that I can think of, how about you?”

Maeve thought about it for a moment, then she had an idea. “Wanna see what Aimee and Steve are doing? They’re always fun to hang out with.”

Otis thought that would be nice, Aimee was always nice to him, and he had always wanted to get to know her and Steve better. “Yeah, that could be fun.”

Maeve called Aimee, and they talked for a while. At one point, Maeve turned to Otis laughing. “She wants to know if you’ll be wearing your Hedwig outfit?”

Otis smiled, remembering his almost first kiss with Maeve that night. “Not this time, but I’ll keep it in mind for next time.”

Maeve went back to talking with Aimee. “He says not today, but he’ll do it next time.”

They planned to meet up at Aimee’s that afternoon, then they would go to the mall. Neither Otis or Maeve particularly liked the mall, but apparently it was Aimee and Steve’s favorite place to go, so they decided they would give it a try. Besides, it wasn’t like they had any good ideas of what to do instead.

They left early and walked there instead of taking the bus, just so they could enjoy the time alone together. On their walk, they talked about anything and everything.

“So, what’s it like to be a national champion?” Otis hadn't talked to her much about the Quizheads, and he felt like she deserved some recognition for it.

Maeve seemed to be embarrassed about it, which was something Otis wasn’t used to seeing from her. “Feels good I guess, it wasn’t just me who did it.”

Otis knew that she wasn’t one to usually get super excited, but he was taken aback at the fact that she didn’t seem to take any pride in it. “I know that, but they couldn’t have done it without you, you should be proud.”

Maeve smiled, Otis was good at making her smile. “Yeah, I know, but you know what they say, ‘If you let your head get too big, it’ll break your neck.’”

“Wow, out of all the people you could have quoted, I never would have expected Elvis.”

“It’s never about who said it Otis, it’s about what they said.”

He thought that she didn’t know just how smart she really was. “Fine, but you should still give yourself credit every once in a while, it feels good.”

“I’ll think about it, dickstain.” They both laughed.

They walked in silence for a long time. At some point, Maeve felt Otis’ hand and he intertwined his fingers with hers. She told herself that she thought hand holding was much too sappy for her, and she was just going along with it for Otis, but deep down, she knew that she was happy to have his hand in hers. They walked like that the rest of the way to Aimee’s house, neither of them saying a single word.

When they got to Aimee’s house, Steve was already waiting outside. “She’ll be out in a minute, she’s taking longer than usual to get ready, she’s really excited for this.”

Maeve greeted him. “Hi Steve, that’s okay, we’re in no rush.”

“Hey Steve, congratulations to you on the national championship, hopefully you’re celebrating it a little more than Maeve.” Maeve gave Otis a death stare.

“Oh yeah, I’m super excited, it’s really going to help me out with getting into university.” Otis enjoyed how positive Steve could be.

“See Maeve, Steve’s celebrating, and he’s not arrogant, is he?” Otis liked being the one to poke fun at Maeve this time.

“Okay dickhead, I’ll try to celebrate a little bit more next time, I was just a little busy with things.” Maeve used a joking tone, but Otis knew she was referring to her mom, and he knew to leave it alone from there.

They waited about fifteen minutes until Aimee walked out, then they were on their way. They took the bus to the mall, and soon they were inside, looking around at all the stores. Both Otis and Maeve didn’t go to the mall often, except for when Maeve had been working there, so they just let Aimee take them around to all of her favorite stores.

After a bit of shopping, led by Aimee, they decided to go and get something to eat. While they sat down to eat, Aimee kept asking Maeve ad Otis questions about their relationship, she was very excited for them.

“So, how does it feel to finally be together, I was waiting forever for it, and I’m so happy for you two.” Aimee was smiling from ear to ear waiting for an answer.

Maeve didn’t answer, so Otis answered the question for her. “It’s been great, I don’t know about Maeve, but it’s been a long time coming, and I’m just glad we were finally in the same place at the same time.”

Maeve nodded. “I’m just glad dickhead here finally had the sense to come and talk to me. And can you imagine that none of this would have happened if Adam hadn’t taken Viagra and then sent out that video?”

“I guess I should thank Adam then, him causing one of the worst moments of my life eventually led to this right here.” Otis said, gesturing to Maeve and grinning.

“Awww, you two are so cute together.” Aimee seemed really excited to see them together.

“You seem more excited about it than the both of us Aimee.” Otis said.

“Well, Maeve’s my best friend, so I’m just so happy for her.” Then she added. “Besides, she tore herself apart over you for a while, and it’s nice to see her be happy after all of that.”

Otis grinned mischievously. “You tore yourself up over me, did you now? I knew that you were upset, but I really managed to make scary Maeve fall for me that hard?”

Maeve glared at him. “Careful, you keep talking and you’re gonna have a whole new definition of ‘Scary Maeve’.”

“Noted.”

They finished eating and decided to walk around for a while longer. Otis wasn’t in any hurry to get home, he didn’t want to talk to his parents, not after last night. Maeve certainly didn’t want to leave, not while she could still be with Otis, and Aimee and Steve were happy to stay as well.

They were all looking around in a clothing store when Aimee suddenly snuck up behind Otis. “Hey Otis!”

Otis jumped “Oh, hi Aimee, do you need something.”

Aimee smiled at Otis. “I just wanted to talk to you about Maeve, she’s great, isn’t she?”

“Definitely, I’m very lucky.”

“Something happened last night, Maeve is unusually happy, but she won’t tell me what happened, so now I’m asking you.”

Otis had almost forgotten about telling Maeve he loved her, and he was confused, then he remembered. “Oh, if Maeve doesn’t want to say, I probably shouldn’t either.”

Aimee grinned at Otis. “Oh my god, did you guys… you know?” She raised her eyebrows.

Otis found himself suddenly flustered. “No, We didn- we just- I told her I loved her!” He realized what he said and put a hand over his mouth. Why was he telling Aimee about his relationship, he knew that Aimee was cool, but he wasn’t comfortable sharing those things with her.

Aimee’s jaw dropped, then she smiled. “Oh my god! You guys are so cute! You must be so happy, congratulations!”

Otis figured there was no going back now, so he continued the conversation. “Yeah, I just hope she said it because she actually meant it, and not because she felt obligated.”

Aimee looked at Otis like he was insane. “Have you even met Maeve? If she didn’t love you back, she wouldn’t have said it.”

Otis nodded. “I guess that makes sense, I just get so nervous about these things.”

“It’s weird how you have all of this knowledge, yet you don’t seem to apply it to yourself.”

“Well, I guess Maeve is my blindspot, cause I’m always nervous around her and I never know what to do.”

Aimee leaned in closer and whispered to Otis, just in case anyone else was around. “I’m going to let you in on a little secret, she’s just as insecure about these things as you are, but you don’t see it.”

Otis thought back to their first date. “Someone else told me that too, I guess I should really take that advice, shouldn’t I?”

“Obviously.”

After they were done in the store, they left the mall for home. They were all happy with how the day went and were ready to get home, at least all of them but Otis. Otis knew his mom would want to talk to him when he got home, and he didn’t want to talk to her at all. He didn’t want to talk to his dad either, and there was a good chance they would both be waiting for them when he got home. He planned on just answering their questions with short quick answers and getting to his room as fast as possible.

When Aimee and Steve split off from Otis and Maeve to go home, Maeve looked at Otis, concerned. “You’ve been quiet since we left, are you sure you’re gonna be okay to go home.”

Otis looked at her and shrugged. “I have to go home eventually, I don’t really have a choice.”

She put an arm around him. “Well, if you ever need somewhere to stay, or someone to vent to, you know where I am.”

“Thanks Maeve, I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

They reached Otis’ house soon after that, and Otis was right, his dad’s car was there. As he reached the stairs descending to his front door, his breath quickened, and he started to panic. He told himself to reign it in, and managed to at least slow down his breathing.

Maeve noticed his distress and said, “You don’t have to do this now if you don’t want to.”

Otis tried to take control of himself. “No, I have to do this, I’ll be okay, you can go home now.”

They kissed goodbye, and Maeve left him with “I’ll keep my phone close, if you need anything at all, just text me.”

Otis descended the stairs, and prepared himself for the conversation he was about to have with his parents. And as he expected, the second he stepped in the house, he heard his mom’s voice calling his name. He walked into the living room with great reluctance, finding his parents there, sitting on the couch waiting for him. He sat on the couch and waited for one of his parents to start talking.

His mom started the conversation. “Otis, first I think we both wanted to apologize for what happened last night. We are sorry that we upset you, and want you to know that this is a safe space where you can express anything you need.” His dad nodded as his mom spoke.

His mom continued with, “We realized how our fight may have affected you, and we wanted to let you know that it won’t be happening again.”

His dad chimed in here. “I’ll be staying at the hotel, I won’t be here at all from now on unless you want me to be, Otis.”

His mom finished off with, “We know that you don’t like to talk to us about these things very much, but if you have anything to say, now would be the time to say it.”

Otis shook his head, he didn’t feel like opening up to anyone else about his problems, he would rather handle them on his own. He was surprised that the conversation was that easy, but thought that maybe he would have to talk about it again with his mom another day, but for now, he seemed to be home free.

His dad got up to leave, and he asked Otis to walk with him out to his car, Otis agreed reluctantly. They were silent on their way up to the car, and for a moment, Otis thought maybe he wasn’t going to tell Otis whatever it was he wanted to. When they got up to his car, he turned around to talk to Otis, but paused when he seemed to see something behind Otis. Otis looked back and saw Maeve, walking down the road back towards his house.

Maeve walked up to them and looked at Otis. “Everything work out okay?”

Otis nodded. “It went fine, I’m okay.”

Otis’ dad was visibly confused. ‘Otis, can you introduce me to your friend.”

“Yeah, sure. Dad, this is Maeve, she’s my…” He debated whether or not to tell him and decided to tell the truth, he didn’t want Maeve to think he was ashamed of their relationship, and his dad would find out eventually anyways. “Maeve is my girlfriend.”
Otis’ dad looked surprised. “You didn’t tell me about her, why not?”

“Well, it’s relatively new, I just haven’t had the chance to tell you.” Otis was feeling very awkward.

Remi noticed how uncomfortable his son was, so he decided to leave it there. He turned to Maeve. “Well, it’s great to meet you, but I really do have to be going.”

They all said their goodbyes, and soon he was driving down the street in the direction of his hotel. Otis watched him go, relieved that things seemed to work out, and that he had been saved from too much embarrassment.

Maeve looked at him, concern showing on her face. “I couldn’t stop worrying about you so I came back, are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine, it actually went a lot better than I expected it to, they didn’t even talk very much. They just apologized and said if I had anything to say, I could say it and they would listen.”

Maeve nodded. “Good, they owe you at least that much courtesy I think.”

“Yeah, do you want to come inside? We can hang out for a bit.”

“Sure, that sounds good to me.”

So they walked down the stairs together, going inside and up to Otis’ room, both of them happy that the weekend had worked out so they got to see each other so much.

Chapter Text

Otis led Maeve up to his room, not bothering to stop and talk to his mom, he didn’t want to risk her trying to talk to him any more about the situation with his dad. When they got up to his room, he and Maeve sat on the bed next to each other. Maeve took in her surroundings, she had never been in Otis’ room before, they had spent most of their first date in his living room. She found his room to be quite charming, and one of the first things she noticed was his giant music collection on the shelf in the corner of his room. She thought that it might be nice to listen to some music, but she didn’t say anything.

It was a minute before Otis spoke. “Maeve, I just want to apologize again for what happened last night again, I’m really sorry that I ran away, I should have talked to you instead.”

Maeve wished he would stop apologizing. “Otis, you don’t need to apologize, I understand why you did what you did, I’m just happy that you’re okay.”

Otis knew he was lucky to have a girlfriend who was so understanding. “Thank you Maeve, you’ve been so understanding this weekend.”

“Hey, you were there for me when I was upset, I’m just returning the favor.” Maeve said affectionately. “Now let's talk about something else, I don’t feel like getting sad tonight.”

Otis felt the same way. “Sounds like a deal, what do you want to do.”

Maeve shrugged. “I don’t know, what do you normally do when you’re up here?”

“I usually just play video games or go on my phone.”

“That’s boring, Otis, do you ever have fun?” Maeve said sarcastically. "You know what, that reminds me that you never stole actually stole that chocolate bar, I’m not gonna make you steal something, but we should go somewhere and do something fun.”

Otis thought going somewhere wasn’t a bad idea. “Okay, but nothing illegal, promise?”

Maeve grinned. “There’s a 95% chance that nothing illegal will happen.”
“Okay, but just know if there’s trouble, I’m running as fast as possible and leaving you behind if I have to.” Otis joked.

“Deal.”

So they left, sneaking past his mom, who had fallen asleep on the couch, and heading off into the dark, hoping to make the most of their night. Their first stop was the convenience store where Ola and Adam used to work. Maeve picked up a bottle of whiskey for them, and for a minute, Otis protested her, reminding her of the party, but she said she would make sure he didn’t have too much, and he gave in.

They walked through town for a while, looking for interesting places to go that were still open, drinking as they went. They were pretty drunk by the time they passed the arcade where Eric had taken Rahim on their first date, and Otis was actually able to convince Maeve to go in. They looked around for something to do inside, and Otis noticed the dancing game in the back of the room.

Maeve seemed to notice what he was looking at. “No way, I am not doing that.”

Otis started laughing. “Hey, you saw me dance at the party, but I didn’t get to dee your skills, let’s do it.”

Maeve grinned, shaking her head. “There’s no way in hell you’re going to get me to dance tonight, Milburn.”

“Fine, I guess you’ll just have to watch me do it then.” Otis said, pretending to be angry.

Otis started the game up and began to dance. Maeve thought he was horrendous, but the alcohol probably had something to do with that. After the first song he looked at her and asked if she was sure she didn’t want to join, and she just shook her head, less sure this time. Otis played the game again, and this time, Maeve decided that she would join in for the next song, they did come out to have fun, after all, and she wasn’t going to have fun if she wasn’t willing to do things.

Otis didn’t seem surprised that she joined him, he had probably planned on getting her up there eventually. They danced together for that song, and Maeve thought she had never had so much fun playing an arcade game, they weren’t really her thing, but she was having fun with this one. Maybe it was just because she was with Otis, or because she was drunk, most likely it was a combination of the two, but she could not stop laughing.

When the song finished, Otis looked at her, and for a moment she thought he was going to kiss her, but then he started swaying, and he fell off of the ‘dancefloor’ of the game. She panicked and ran over to him, hoping he was okay, and there he was, laying on the ground, laughing. She hit him. “You scared the shit out of me, dickhead.”

“Ow, sorry” Otis said, trying to be sincere, but he was still laughing.

“Okay, now it’s my turn to pick where we go.” Maeve said smiling.

“Okay,” Otis said, curious about where she wanted to go. “What did you have in mind?”

“You’ll see, it’s a surprise.” Her smile turned into a devilish grin.

They left the arcade, Otis following Maeve, wondering where they could possibly be going. She led him down a street he didn’t know that well, and soon they found themselves in front of a clothing store. Otis was confused, but Maeve seemed to know what she was doing, so he followed her.

“Let’s find something fancy to wear.” Maeve said, grinning from ear to ear.

They looked for something for Otis first, and it didn’t take them long to find something. He decided on a simple black suit, with a plain white shirt, and a blue tie. He tried it on and it fit well, Maeve thought he looked hot in the suit, and Otis thought it looked nice too. Happy with Otis’ outfit, it was time for Maeve to pick out a dress, which she thought would be harder than it was. She ended up picking a dress similar to the one she had worn to the dance, thinking that most traditional dresses didn’t look good on her. Otis was no help during the process, he just told her that she looked great in everything, but she could tell a difference in his reaction when she walked out in that dress, he sounded much more genuine, and she knew that was the one to get.

They got to the checkout counter, but when Otis looked for his wallet, he realized he left it at home. “Shit, Maeve, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it Otis, I’ve got money, do you think I would have let you pay for me anyways?” And when Otis looked at her in a way that told her he was wondering where she got the money, she responded with, “My mom left it behind, she didn’t end up being good for much, but at least she forgot her money.”

Otis reluctantly agreed. “Okay, Maeve, I’ll let you pay for me, but I owe you.”

Maeve paid for their clothes, and they got changed into them. Once they were ready to go, Maeve led him outside and started walking down the street. He was going to question where they were going, but decided not to, knowing she wouldn’t tell him anyways. Soon they were in front of a club, which actually was the same one his mom had gone to with Adam’s mom a while ago. They finished the whiskey and snuck inside, knowing that they probably weren’t old enough to be let in.

When they got inside, Maeve looked at Otis and said, “You wanted to dance, so let’s dance.”

She led him onto the dance floor and soon they were both dancing crazily, not caring if anybody was watching. Maeve thought that what she had heard Eric say was correct, ‘drunk Otis is a monster’, she thought. But she thought that tonight, drunk Otis was a good kind of monster, and she was glad she had gone back to see him that night. They both danced together for what must have been an hour, neither of them feeling tired at all.

“This was a great idea!” Otis shouted over the crowd.

“Of course it is, I thought of it!” Maeve shouted back. “We should do this all the time!”

“My mom would kill me if she knew I was here!” Otis said, but he was laughing.

They continued dancing, and soon they found themselves dancing with others as well, having what both of them considered to be the best time of their lives. Maeve was glad that they had gotten drunk, she didn’t think either of them would have been willing to do this if they were sober. Instead, though, they were the life of the party, and Maeve thought that sometimes drunk minds were better than sober ones. Otis was covered in sweat, and Maeve was getting there too, but neither of them cared, they were having way too much fun to be tired.

The only issue with being the life of the party was that a lot of people noticed you, and they definitely weren’t supposed to be there that night. Most people who noticed didn’t know them, so they either didn’t know that they were so young, or they didn’t care, but they were recognized by one couple. Mr. Hendricks tapped MissSands on the shoulder and pointed in Otis and Maeve’s direction, and after looking for a few moments, she noticed them as well. She didn’t know Otis very much at all, but she recognized him from class, and she definitely knew Maeve very well, and also cared for her very much. She considered just letting them go about their business, they were having fun, and they weren’t hurting anyone, but her teacher's brain kicked in soon after that. She thought that it was much too late for them to be out, and also knew that they wouldn’t be allowed in, and she didn’t want them to get in trouble. She told Mr.Hendricks where she was going and left to go and talk to them before something bad inevitably happened.

Otis and Maeve were dancing, blissfully unaware that they had been spotted, they were having too much fun to notice. Miss Sands walked over to them and was standing almost right behind Otis when Maeve finally noticed she was there. She stopped dancing and just stared for a moment, and Otis was confused at what she was looking at, so he turned around too.

A look of surprise came over Otis’ face, “Shit!” he exclaimed.

Mrs. Sands did her best to sound serious, though it was hard with how badly she had scared them. “I don’t think you guys are supposed to be here, and I think you know that.”

Otis got nervous and tried to think of an excuse. “Um, we were allowed in, they said there wasn’t a problem, and ummm…”

Miss Sands directed her gaze at Maeve, still managing to keep a stern face, “Which way did you two sneak in, Maeve?”

Maeve just looked down, over the past few months Miss Sands had become one of the people that she didn’t want to ever disappoint.

Miss Sands nodded. “Get out of here, guys, you both have bright futures, I don’t think you need to be sneaking into places and getting into trouble.”

Otis was going to protest, but Maeve grabbed his hand and began leading him outside. He was surprised by the sudden role reversal, normally, Maeve would be the one fighting back, and he would be the one who would agree and just leave. He wondered what brought her to listen to Miss Sands and leave, and thought it might have something to do with the fact that she really cared about what Miss Sands thought, and that ended up being pretty close to the mark, he was a therapist, after all. He just went along with her, not wanting to fight back, and soon they were back in the street, but now it was much later, and soon the exhaustion began to creep in.

Otis looked at Maeve questioningly. “Why were you so willing to just leave back there?”

Maeve shrugged. “Other than you and Amy, Miss Sands is the only one who really believes in me and supports me, I don’t want to disappoint her.”

Otis smiled, he was exactly right when he had guessed that, but he didn’t say that to her. “Alright, we had fun anyways, is there anything else you want to do?”

“We could just walk around for a bit? I’m not quite ready for you to go home and leave me yet.”

That comment made Otis grin, he was happy that she wasn’t getting tired of him. “Okay, I’ll stay out as long as you want me to.”

They walked down the street hand in hand for a long time, heading in no particular direction, just enjoying each other's company. Otis reflected on how many times he had imagined something like this in his head, even when he was with Ola, though he didn’t like to admit that. Maeve used to have similar thoughts as well, back when Otis was dating Ola, and it was the possibility of that actually happening that had moved her to admit her feelings for Otis, but that hadn’t gone nearly as well as she thought.

Thinking about that, Maeve asked Otis. “When did you first start to like me, Otis?”

Otis thought about it for a moment, the answer was more complicated than it might seem. “I guess it kind of started as early as Aimee’s house party, but I didn’t realize that. It really took of after the day with the abortion clinic, but I still wouldn’t admit it to myself, and it was the day when you pushed me in the pool that I finally realized I had feelings for you. Eric actually knew it before me, though.”

Maeve nodded. “What happened in the pool that made you realize that you liked me?”
Otis almost choked, he didn’t think he could tell her that story. “Umm… Well, I… I guess it was just the way we were having so much fun, and I just knew at that point.”

Maeve saw right through his lie. “Nice story Otis, but what really happened.”

Otis swallowed nervously, he knew that Maeve would be able to tell if he lied again, “Umm… when you ran your fingers down the sides of my face, I may have gotten a boner.” he forced himself to say boner, even though his mind told him to say erection, he was trying to be less clinical about those things.

Maeve smiled, but forced herself not to laugh. “I should have known, I knew you weren’t really staying in the pool for ‘exercise’, but I didn’t say anything.”

“I sat there for almost an hour waiting for Eric to find me.” Otis stated, sadly.

This time, Maeve did laugh. “Oh you poor thing, dickhead.”

“Let’s change the subject,” Otis said quickly, “When did you first start to like me, y’know, romantically?”

Maeve sighed, thinking. “It was probably that day in the pool for me, and I realized it that night on the bridge, when we almost kissed. Then I was full on in love when I saw you at the dance, talking Liam down off the moon. When you said that you knew what it was like for someone to not like you back, I knew you were talking about me.”

Otis looked at her questioningly. “Why didn’t you say anything to me at the dance?”

“I didn’t get the chance to, at least not until after I had found out that Jackson had paid you to tell him what I liked, and at that point I was furious at you. But then, the next day, when you gave me the trophy, I decided to go and tell you how I felt, but when I got to your house, you were kissing Ola.”

Otis was shocked, he had no idea that had happened. “Wow, and just think, if I had decided to apologize to Ola another day, or if she decided not to apologize to me, we could have avoided so much trouble.”

Maeve smiled at Otis. “I wouldn’t change anything for the whole world, Otis.”
They stopped and stared into each other’s eyes, and Otis told her. “I love you, Maeve.”

She felt her heart skip a beat, he had told her he loved her before, but he had been half asleep and she wasn’t sure if he meant it, know she knew he did. She pulled him in for a kiss, and he didn’t panic like he did last night, this time he was in the moment, and he wasn’t worrying about anything else. When they pulled away, Maeve responded. “I love you too, dickhead.”

Otis looked at her fondly. “I’m so lucky you’re my girlfriend, Maeve.”

“I think I’m the lucky one here, Otis.” Maeve countered.

Otis shrugged. “Agree to disagree, I guess.”

Maeve smiled at him softly. “I guess that’ll have to do.”

They kept walking, both of them smiling, and not wanting the night to ever end. They knew it was closer to the end than the beginning, however, and they would soon be done for the night. Otis knew he had to get home eventually, he didn’t want his mom to wake up and start worrying. He knew that if he explained to her she wouldn’t be too angry at him, but he didn’t feel like talking to her about his love life, not when she would try and get every little detail out of him. He would rather talk to Eric about it on monday at school, and he knew that Eric would be excited to hear it.

“I know I said that I would stay as long as you wanted, but I think I might have to get going home, my mom might have already noticed I’m gone.” Otis said regretfully.

Maeve was reluctant for him to leave. “Alright, I’m walking with you until you get home, though.” then she added. “If it makes things easier, you can blame me if your mom finds out.”

Otis shook his head. “She won’t actually be that mad, she’ll just be worried, and she’s generally very understanding, the only thing is she would start asking me questions about it and trying to find something about it to therapize me for. Plus, if she had woken up, I’d assume she would call, but I don’t want to push my luck, I’ve already been pretty lucky tonight.” He smiled at her, indicating once again that he was lucky to have her.

Maeve laughed. “I haven’t talked to your mom that much, but you make her out to be much worse than she actually seems to be?”

Otis came back with, “Oh yeah? Did I ever tell you about the time she talked to Adam about ‘man milk’? That was why he sent out that video last term.”

Maeve kept laughing. “There’s no way she did that!”

Otis smiled and nodded. “She most definitely did, she also smoked weed with him before that.”

Maeve finally gave in. “Okay, I believe you, but I want to see her in action at some point.”

“You most definitely do not.” Otis said firmly. “But knowing my luck, you will, and sooner rather than later.”

Maeve grinned at him. “I can’t wait to see it, it should be fun to watch you get all flustered.”

They went back to walking in thoughtful silence after that, and Maeve put her hand back in Otis’ hand, wishing it could stay there forever. Otis made her feel special, and he made her like herself, which was something she hadn’t felt very often before she met him, especially when it felt like everyone was abandoning her. She thought that she would never do anything to hurt him and she would kill anyone else who ever did something to hurt him. She couldn’t bear to be without him, and she hoped he knew just how much he meant to her, because she didn’t know how she had ever lived without him.

Soon enough, they were almost to Otis’ house, and Maeve was still reluctant to leave him. She thought that it was partly the alcohol making her more emotional and clingy, but she also knew that part of it was just that she never wanted to be without him. She didn’t want to be one of those clingy girlfriends, though, and she didn’t feel like she was the type to be a clingy girlfriend anyways, so she didn’t say anything. Little did she know, Otis was just as reluctant to leave her, and he was dreading the moment when they got back to his house and they would have to say goodbye, and he was already thinking about whether or not he should try and convince her to stay for a while.

They got to his front door, and they both looked at each other, waiting for the other to speak. Otis ended up speaking first, deciding that he would try to convince her. “You don’t have to go if you don’t want to, we can go back upstairs for a bit.”

Maeve shook her head, but she didn’t mean it, she wanted to stay. “Sorry Otis, I don’t want to go, but I should get home.” She hoped he kept pushing, she would stay for a while if he did.

Otis saw her hesitation and decided to push a little bit. “Come on Maeve, if you don’t want to go, come on inside, I don’t want you to go either.”

Maeve thought that it was hard to say no to Otis. “Fine, but only for a little bit.” She said, knowing that she would most likely be there for longer than just a little bit.

He led her inside and up to his room, first checking to see if his mom was awake. Lucky for him, she was still sleeping on the couch, and he was glad he wouldn’t have any explaining to do. They got into his room and laid in his bed, neither of them saying anything at first, both of them unsure of what to say. They hold hands while they lay next to each other, similar to what Otis did with Lily, except this time it’s not weird or scary, it’s just nice. Otis thought that if there was anybody who could help him work through any issues that had come back, it would be Maeve. He knew that she would take things as slowly as he needed, and that she would listen and be understanding, and he squeezed her hand, she squeezed back.

“Thank you for tonight Maeve, that might be the most fun I’ve ever had.” Otis said appreciatively.

“I had a lot of fun too, Otis. I don’t think it matters what we do though, I’m just happy to be with you.”

That made Otis feel good, and he smiled. “I feel the same way Maeve, I just hope you know that.”

Maeve knew that, and she often wondered what she did to deserve his love. “I know that, Otis, and I hope you know just how much you mean to me.”

He nodded. “I know Maeve.”

They fall into silence again, both of them exhausted from their eventful night. They both knew that they had never had a night quite like it, and they were appreciative of that, they hoped there were many more nights like it in their future. They sat that way for a long time, neither of them moving, not wanting it to end, and afraid that if they did start moving, it would. Exhaustion soon fell over them, and they both felt stuck to the bed, but they were fine with it, it wasn’t like they had to do anything, and they were both content to be exactly where they were.

Before he fell asleep, Otis said something to Maeve. “I really love you, more than you know, Maeve.”

She didn’t say anything for a minute, and Otis thought she might be asleep, but she finally responded. “I love you more, Milburn.”

Finally, they both fell asleep, Maeve having long forgotten her promise that she could only stay for a little bit, and wishing sh ecould stay forever.

Chapter Text

Jean woke up the next morning feeling refreshed after staying up all of Friday night worrying about Otis. She hoped that they had handled the situation correctly by allowing Otis to have his space, and not forcing him to open up if he didn’t want to. She was talking to Jakob last night before she fell asleep, as she had been for the past few nights, trying to make things right. She knew she had messed up, and she wanted to make things right, so if talking to him was all she could do for now, it was all she would do. She hadn’t told him about the pregnancy, but she had gotten the abortion, she realized she should have told him, but she also thought there was no chance that she was willing to have another kid, and she didn’t want him to feel obligated to get back together with her.

She got up, hoping that Jakob could find it in his heart to take her back, and that Otis actually would be okay with it like he said he would. He certainly seemed to be improving, and he thought that his girlfriend was really helping him out with that, she had no idea that he had been to see his dad. She began making herself some breakfast, and wondered whether or not she should make some for Otis as well. She ended up making some for him, just in case he woke up, and if not, there would be more for her.

She was sitting at the table, eating her breakfast when she saw a text from Jakob.

-Jean, we need to talk, can you meet me later?-

She almost choked on her food at first, she was almost certain she knew what it would be about, and she was surprised that he was willing to talk to her about it so soon. She told herself not to get her hopes up, she didn’t really know what he would say, and it could even be something bad, so she tried not to expect anything. She was still excited though, and she wished she could meet him right at that moment, it was going to be a long day for her.

She looked at the time, and she wondered where Otis was, it was almost ten, and normally he was well awake by this point. She walked up to his room, wondering what had kept him asleep for so long. She opened the door to find him and Maeve lying in the bed, asleep. She was reminded of the night Otis threw the party at the moment and she came home to find him with Ruby, but she realized soon enough that it was different this time. First of all, there had been no huge party in her house that time, and also, it was with someone she was at least familiar with, so she had really had nothing to worry about this time. She decided that she would leave it alone as best as she could, and let Otis figure things out on his own, things certainly seemed to work out better when she didn’t force herself into his life.

Otis woke up not long after his mom came in to check on him, not remembering what had happened last night at first. He was definitely hung over, but much less than he had been the day after the party, and he was glad Maeve was there to limit him. He wondered what Eric’s reaction would be when he told him about it, and realized he had Eric-and Adam- to thank for forcing him to go back and talk to Maeve, and made a mental note to thank him tomorrow.

Otis was almost going to go back to sleep and wait for Maeve to wake up when he looked down and saw a dark stain on the blanket. All of a sudden he felt he wet spot in his pants and then he jumped up, hoping he could clean everything up before Maeve woke up. His panic, however, made him lose any rational thought he might have had on what to do. He ripped the blanket off of the bed, trying to get rid of it as quick as possible, but his blind panic began to wake up Maeve, and he saw her starting to stir. He towards the door of his room, trying to make it to the bathroom and tripping over the blanket on the way there. He got up quickly and ran into the bathroom, but he had left the blanket behind in his room.

He heard Maeve call out from his room. “Otis?”

He wasn’t sure what to say, so he just yelled back, “I’ll be out in a minute.”

He could hear the concern in her voice when she responded. “Are you alright?”

He cursed himself and hit his head wishing he had the sense to not wake her up when he was trying to take care of the issue. “Yeah, I’m fine, just a minute.”

He sat for a moment, unsure what he should do, and trying to keep himself calm, he decided to just start by cleaning himself off. While he was busy doing that, Maeve got up off of the bed to see if she could figure out what had happened. She saw the blanket he had tripped on in his frenzy almost immediately, and went over to look at it. She picked it up and saw the dark spot, she had to keep herself from laughing, she was fine with it, but he was clearly embarrassed, so she didn’t want to make him feel worse.

She was going to get back in the bed so that he didn’t know she had found it, but before she could, Otis walked out of the bathroom awkwardly. He saw her standing there with the blanket and cringed back, looking like he would rather be dead than be where he was at the moment. Maeve tried to give him a comforting look but he didn’t seem to notice.

“Maeve, um… I can explain.” Otis found himself unable to say anything else.

“What is there to explain Otis? It seems pretty obvious to me what happened. There’s nothing wrong with it, it happens to everyone.” She could tell Otis wasn’t going to accept that, at least not right then.

“It’s not okay Maeve, I’m disgusting.” He couldn’t even bring himself to look her in the eye.

Maeve told herself to be patient with him. “Otis, you’re not disgusting, I wish you wouldn’t talk about yourself that way.” When Otis still looked upset, she added, “If somebody came up to you for advice, and they told you that this had happened, you would assure them that it’s completely normal, right?”

Otis sighed. “That’s probably what I’d say, it doesn’t make it any less embarrassing though.”

“Don’t be embarrassed, I’m your girlfriend, we should be getting comfortable with this kind of stuff.” She didn’t want to push Otis to have sex or do anything he didn’t want to, but she thought that he could use a little reassurance.

Otis nodded and sat down on the bed. Maeve joined him and took his hand in hers. “I don’t ever want you to feel like you have to hide things from me, okay?”

“Okay, but I can’t make any promises.” Otis said with a slight smile.

Maeve looked around Otis’ room, observing all the things she had been too tired to notice last night. She saw his music collection and was surprised by how many records that he had. She noticed his gaming console as well but didn’t know much about it. She hadn’t played many video games before, but she knew that Otis liked them a lot. She really liked his room, and hoped that it would be a place she would become very familiar with in the future.

Otis turned to look at her. “Are you hungry? I can make some breakfast.”

“Sort of, but do you want me to go down there while your mom might see me?” Maeve questioned.

Otis let out a quiet chuckle. “You don’t know my mom well enough, do you? She doesn’t care, in fact, she’ll probably congratulate me later.”

Maeve laughed at that. “I guess that makes sense, let’s go down then.”

They went downstairs and Otis’ mom was sitting on the couch. “Good morning Otis, good morning Maeve.”

Otis gave Maeve a look that said ‘I told you so’ and led her into the kitchen. He put some toast in the toaster and sat down while he waited for it to be done. He wondered if his mom would think that he and Maeve had sex last night, and thought she probably would. He just hoped his mom wouldn’t approach him about it, because that would definitely be an awkward conversation to have.

Once breakfast was done, he brought it out to the table where Maeve was waiting. His mom seemed to have gone back to her office. “It’s not much, but it’s the best I can do.”

Maeve smiled lovingly at him. “I couldn’t do much better, dickhead, thank you.”

They sat down and began eating, but Otis was wondering something. “Maeve, I know this weekend hasn’t really been the best time to do so, but why haven’t you asked me to do anything more than kissing yet?”

Maeve was surprised that he brought it up. “Well, there hasn’t really been much time other than this weekend, also I never wanted you to feel like you had to rush into anything.”

Otis nodded, then nervously continued. “Well, um…. If you ever want to do anything more… I don’t know about going all the way just yet, but if there’s anything else, I think I can handle it.” He found himself embarrassed by what he had just said, and wished he hadn’t said it.

It was suddenly like a switch had flipped inside of Maeve. “Well, as long as you say that, I might be ready for something more tonight.” She raised her eyebrows at him suggestively.

Otis found himself immensely nervous but also excited. “Umm… yeah Maeve, cool.” He wanted to hit himself, why was he acting so stupid?

They ate the rest of their breakfast in silence, both of them thinking about the night ahead. They were both nervous about taking this step forward in their relationship, but Otis was more nervous than Maeve, he hadn’t had much experience other than Ola, and he had no doubt that things would be different with Maeve. Maeve didn’t show her nervousness, but it was there. She didn’t know why she was nervous, she had plenty of experience, but she guessed that she was probably worried because Otis was the first guy she ever really loved. He was definitely the first person that she truly trusted in a while.

When they were finished, Maeve asked Otis, “So, today’s the last day we have before we go back to school, what do you want to do?”

“Do you want to stay for dinner tonight? I think my mom is anxious to get to know you.” Otis was nervous for Maeve getting to know his mom, but he knew it would have to happen eventually. He then added nervously, “And then we could go hang out in my room for a bit.”

Maeve smiled, thinking Otis was so cute when he got nervous. “That sounds good, Otis.”

“Okay, cool. I’ll go talk to my mom then.” He got up and walked into his mom’s office, she was sitting at her desk with her laptop open, but she seemed to be distracted with something else.

She looked up at Otis when he walked in and smiled. “Hi, sweetheart, how was your night?”

“It was good, I was actually wondering if Maeve could stay for dinner tonight?”

“Of course she can, as long as you’re okay with Jakob being there though, he’s coming over for dinner tonight.” She smiled slightly as she said Jakb’s name.

Otis was happy to see his mom as happy as she was. “Yeah mom, that sounds good mom. I’m glad you guys are talking again, and I want to apologize again.”

“Thank you Otis, I hope you know how much that means to me.”

Otis nodded. “It’s the least I can do mom.”

He turned to leave, happy for his mom, but of course, as he walked out, he heard his mom call out from behind him. “I hoped you used a condom last night, darling!”

Otis sighed, of course she had to say that, but he just kept walking, too focused on tonight to worry about his mom for the moment. He just hoped everything would go okay.

Chapter Text

Otis and Maeve passed the day watching movies and making out while waiting for dinner that night. Otis tried to convince Maeve to play Smash Bros., but she refused, and Otis knew he wouldn’t be able to convince her to do it. Otis was nervous for that night, they hadn’t exactly clarified how big of a step they would be taking, and even though he had done almost everything except for having sex with Ola, he was still nervous. He had even had sex with Ruby, but he didn’t actually remember that, and knew that it would be different with Maeve when the time came.

Eventually, it was almost six, and Jean was making dinner when the doorbell rang. “Otis, that’s probably Jakob, could you go get the door?”

“Yeah, sure mom.”

He made his way to the door, happy that his mom was finally getting her chance to be happy for once. He was also glad that he had formally apologized to Jakob at the musical, otherwise, things would be extremely awkward at dinner. He opened the door to see Jakob standing there smiling, but then he also saw Ola behind him, and forced himself to smile and invite them in. He had no idea that she would be there, and he wondered why his mom hadn’t told him, because if he had known that, he would have changed dinner with Maeve to another night. He knew that Ola had moved on, and obviously, he had too, but that didn’t make things any less awkward for him. He didn’t want to make Ola feel like the third wheel with them, but he had also planned the night so he could spend time specifically with Maeve. He would just have to hope they wouldn’t stay too long after dinner, because that was when he wanted to have some alone time with Maeve.

“Hello Jakob, hello Ola, you guys can go sit down at the table, dinner will be out in just a moment.” His mom said in a cheery tone that told him she had known that Ola would be here, she just hadn’t told them.

Jean and Ola made their way to the table, but Otis stayed behind to talk to his mom. “Mum, why didn’t you tell me Ola was coming?”

Jean looked surprised that he was asking her that. “I assumed it was a given that she would be here as well, I didn’t think it was a big deal.”

Otis tried to hold himself together, not wanting to start an argument with his mom. “Mum, it’s just that Ola is my ex girlfriend, and Maeve, my current girlfriend, is also here for dinner.”

Jean shook her head, smiling. “Otis, there shouldn’t be any jealousy, you guys are both dating someone else now.”

“It’s not about jealousy mum, it’s still awkward to have dinner with someone you used to be dating and someone you’re currently dating.” he said, letting a little bit of his anger seep out that time.

“It’ll be fine, Otis.” Then she turned away and muttered just loud enough for Otis to hear, :I swear, your generation is so touchy sometimes.”

Otis sighed and walked up to his bedroom to get Maeve. He had heard that she and Ola had made up to the point where they at least weren’t fighting anymore, but he was still worried that there might be tension between the two of them, and he did not want to be caught in the middle of that. He just hoped that they could get through dinner, and if things got too bad after that, there was a whole house for them to spread themselves out around, but during dinner, there was only one table that they could eat at.

He got up to his room and Maeve got up, walking towards the door. “I’m assuming dinner’s ready?”

Otis looked awkwardly at her for a moment before he said anything, wringing his hands in his shirt. “Yeah, but before we go down, you should probably know that.” He hesitated. “Ola’s here as well.”

Otis saw Maeve’s facial expression change when she heard that, but she tried to hide it. “That’s fine, why would that be a problem?”

Otis could tell from Maeve’s reaction that it probably would end up being a problem, he just prayed it would be one that he could fix. “Okay, let’s go downstairs then.”

They made their way downstairs, and Maeve found herself trying to control her emotions. Ola had her own girlfriend now, she had no reason to be jealous, Otis was with her and he wouldn’t leave her. She still found herself angry, however, which surprised her, because while she and Ola weren’t exactly friends, they had still made up and agreed to stop fighting over Otis. She told herself she would just have to contain her emotions during dinner, she was used to it. She knew that hiding her emotions would be difficult this time though, she was shit at hiding her emotions when it came to Otis.

They went to the table and sat down next to each other, across the table from Jakob and Ola. “Ola, you know Maeve, obviously.” He said with a nervous chuckle, then turned to Jakob. “But I don’t think you two have met, Jakob, this is Maeve, my um… girlfriend.”

Jakob smiled his usual charming smile at Maeve. “Nice to meet you.”

Ola smiled genuinely at Maeve and said, “It’s good to see you, Maeve.”

Maeve hated how little Ola seemed to care compared to how much she cared, it made her feel out of control. “Hi, Ola.” She said, trying not to sound angry or upset, but it was hard to do that when your boyfriend’s ex was sitting right in front of you.

Jean came out with dinner and sat down at the table with them. They dished out their dinner without saying much, and Otis was grateful for every second of silence they had. He didn’t mind being with Ola, they had pretty much made up, but he could see that Maeve was struggling with having her around. He knew it was something they would have to work through though, if his mom and Jakob were going to get back together, Ola would be around more often.

After they had all begun eating, Jean was the first to talk. “So, how is school going for all you kids?”

Otis was the first to respond. “Nothing very exciting for me lately, mum.”

Ola replied next. “It’s been the same thing for me, nothing’s really been going on except for the musical.”

Maeve just nodded and quietly said, “Same here.”

Otis opened his mouth to tell her that wasn’t true, that the quiz heads had just won the nationals, but he stopped before he said anything. The look on her face told him that she didn’t feel much like talking that night, and one or two word answers would mostly be what she would give. He decided that maybe another time was better for Maeve to get to know his mom, when Ola wasn’t around, and she felt a little more comfortable.

Maeve wasn’t planning on saying much of anything that night, her policy was going to strictly be to only speak when spoken to. It wasn’t dinner with Otis’ mom that made her feel this way, it was the fact that she was still jealous of Ola. She knew she had no reason to be jealous, but as she had come to realize, she wasn’t quite in control of her emotions when she was around Otis.

Ola spoke up next, turning to look at Jean. “This is really good, you have no idea how much I missed your cooking. Dad does alright, but he can be so busy sometimes and he doesn’t have the time he needs to make home cooked meals all the time.”

Jean’s face practically lit up at that. “Thank you Ola, I’m glad to be having you guys for dinner once again.” Then she turned towards Maeve. “We’re happy to have you here too, Maeve.”

Maeve nodded and managed to get out a few words. “Thanks for having me.”

Jean either didn’t notice or didn’t care about Maeve’s discomfort at that moment. “Otis hasn’t told me much about you, so maybe you could fill me in on a few things? How did you two meet,”

Maeve tried to fight through the pain, Ola hadn’t even said anything to her, she could hold a basic conversation with someone else. “Well, this year he bumped into me in the hallway on the first day, and then he sat next to me in Biology, and then things just happened from there.” Maeve had heard about the whole sex clinic fiasco, and she didn’t want to bring up something that might still be a sore subject, so she didn’t mention how they actually started hanging out.

After that Maeve started to feel a bit more comfortable. She still wasn’t necessarily fine with Ola being there, but she knew she could handle it. She didn’t want another disastrous dinner like she had with Jackson, so she took all the measures she could take to keep herself from running away again.

After that, things seemed to go well for a while. Jean and Jakob made conversation with Otis and Ola, and whenever someone asked her something, she would answer. She thought she was going to make it through the whole dinner, and then if she got uncomfortable after that, she could just say she had to get home, and it wouldn’t be a problem.

However, her plans for making it through dinner began to crumble when Jean asked her another question about her relationship with Otis. “So, when did you and Otis admit your feelings for each other? You were obviously friends for a long time before you started dating.”

Maeve found herself unprepared, she didn’t know whether or not to tell her about what had happened that day when she spilled her heat out to Otis. “Well, um… it was a while ago, and I had made up my mind to tell Otis how I felt. I told him, but we didn’t get together right then, it was still a while before that actually happened.” She slouched down in her chair, not wanting to say why they hadn’t gotten together right then.

Jean, of course, still brought it up. “Why didn’t you? I’d assume Otis felt the same way.”

When Maeve failed to say anything, it was actually Ola who spoke up. “Otis was still with me at the time. It really confused him though, when you said that you liked him. I was mad at you for a long time, but we’ve made up by now, right Maeve?”

Maeve didn’t know why she was getting angry, but she was. Ola hadn’t used a tone that told her she was still upset about it, and it seemed as though Ola didn’t even care that it had ever happened. It still made her angry though, and she guessed it was because that definitely wasn’t something she had wanted to talk about in front of everybody. Ola had no right to just interject like that and tell everybody that she had tried to take Otis from her. She was seeing red at that point, having completely forgotten about getting through dinner.

She was about to say something bad to Ola, but suddenly she felt Otis’ hand on her thigh under the table. She looked at him and saw that he knew what was about to happen. The feeling of his hand brought her back to earth, and turned her rage into something as small as a subtle annoyance. She was thankful that he was so observant, otherwise she would probably end up saying something she would regret.

She took a deep breath in and responded. “It’s all in the past now.”

Ola smiled, not seeming to know how close Maeve had come to exploding, and Maeve wondered what her reaction would have been if that had happened. She guessed that it would probably be met with just as much fight back from Ola, because from what Maeve had seen, Ola certainly wasn’t afraid to speak her mind.

At this point, they were all done eating, and Otis stood up. :Let me get your guys’ plates.” he said, then making his way into the kitchen to put them in the sink.

The rest of them stood up as well, and Jean said, “It was a lovely dinner, thank you all for coming.”

Ola and Jakob both said thanks, and then went to go sit down for a bit. Maeve, however, didn't think it would be a good idea to stay. “Thanks for dinner, I should probably go home now, though.”

Otis walked in as she said that, and she was worried he was going to push her to stay, if he did, she didn’t know if she would be able to refuse. “That’s too bad, I’ll walk you home though.”

She didn’t protest, knowing that Otis would walk her home even if she told him not to. They said their goodbyes quickly, and then left for Maeve’s house. Otis wondered what had happened to their plans for later that night, and assumed that it would have to wait until another night. He wasn’t too upset about it, he was okay with taking things slowly, he just didn’t want their relationship to come to a stand still.

For a long time, they walked with an empty silence between them. Otis wanted to talk to Maeve about things with Ola, because if they didn’t address it, it would definitely happen again, but he found himself unable to talk about it. Maeve wasn’t saying anything about it either, she was obviously still upset about it, and didn’t want to say anything about it.

It wasn’t until they were only a few minutes away from the caravan when Otis finally said something. “Are you okay Maeve? You seemed to be a little upset at dinner back there.”

Maeve was reluctant to admit what had happened. “I’m fine Otis.”

Otis could definitely tell that she was lying. “Maeve, I know that’s not true, please just talk to me? Ola’s probably going to be around a lot more, and I need you guys to get along.”

Maeve sighed, and just when Otis thought she wasn’t going to say anything, she spoke up. “It just brings up bad memories Otis, back when you were with her. I’ll get over it, I just need more time.”

Otis knew that was all he was going to be able to get out of her, and he was satisfied with that. “Okay Maeve, if time is all you need, that’s perfectly fine.”

They kept walking until they reached the caravan a few minutes later. Maeve debated inviting Otis inside, they could probably carry out what their plans for the night had been in her caravan instead. “Do you want to come in for a while?”

Otis thought for a moment and replied. “Sure, but I can’t stay too long, we’ve got school and everything tomorrow.”

Maeve nodded, smiling. “I know, only for a little bit.”

Chapter Text

Otis’ chest was filled with a light, fluttery feeling, and he found himself tossing and turning, his mind racing a hundred miles an hour. He was restless after the night with Maeve, and his love for her was unending. He wasn’t only feeling like this because of the handjob she had given him, he genuinely just felt thankful to have ever met her, that moment had just made him realize it. After tossing and turning with a stupid grin on his face, he finally got himself to sleep around two in the morning, still thinking of her.

Maeve slept easy that night, not worried or upset about anything for the first time in a while. Her jealousy of Ola had long passed for the moment, and she fell asleep without an issue, unlike Otis. She hadn’t expected to do anything when they had gotten back to her caravan, but it had just happened all of a sudden, and she didn’t stop because it just felt so right. She had dreams about him as well, and in them it was just the two of them, nobody else, and she wished it could be like that forever, if it came down to it, she didn’t need anybody other than him.

The next morning, however, Maeve was feeling much less blissful. She had counted her money, and she only had about enough to last her two more weeks. She didn’t want to start writing people’s essays again, she had promised herself she wouldn’t stoop that low as soon as she joined the aptitude scheme. She had been using money saved from the clinic to pay rent, but now that was almost gone. She had been approached by multiple people in the last week asking for “Sex Kid” now that Jean was gone, but she had told them the clinic was done.

Short on money, Maeve began to wonder if she could convince Otis to start up the clinic again, and she thought that she could. She still questioned whether it was the right thing to do, however. He had worked so hard to change from the person he had been just a few weeks ago, and stopping the clinic had been one of the important changes he had made. She didn’t want to reverse his progress, but then again, how much of his issues had actually come from the clinic. She resolved to approach the topic with him, but she wouldn’t pressure him into it, she could find other ways to make money.

The next morning, Otis saw a text from Eric saying he couldn’t ride into school with him that morning. Not having to wait for Eric, Otis decided to try and get to school early to see if he could find Maeve before he had to go to class. He had only just seen her the night before, but he found it difficult to be without her, and he hoped that he wasn’t being too clingy, and knowing that he wasn’t, Maeve felt the same way. He knew he was extremely lucky to have someone as understanding as her, and he reminded himself every day to not mess it up.

Otis was about halfway to school when a familiar red van slowed down and pulled up next to him. He saw Ola and Lily inside, and waved to them with a smile. He had forgotten that they were together, it had been a long time since he had talked to Ola, and he thought that he should talk to her more. He had long since forgiven her for the break-up, and in the end it had worked out anyways, so why couldn’t they be friends?

Ola rolled down the window. “Hey Otis, want a lift?”

Otis thought for a moment, then decided that now was a perfect time to start rebuilding his friendship with Ola, and maybe he could get to know Lily a little better as well. “Sure, why not? Eric couldn’t ride in today.”

Ola gestured toward the back of the van. “You can put your bike back there, then we’ll get going.”

Otis loaded his bike in the trunk, and got in the van, sitting in the backseat. “So, how have you guys been?”

Ola responded simply with, “I’ve been pretty good lately.”

Lily looked back at Otis with a straight face. “I moved up a size.”

Otis was confused, he had no idea what she was talking about. “What?” he questioned.
Lily sighed, looking at him like he was an idiot. “Y’know, my vaginismus? You didn’t forget, did you?”

Otis suddenly realized what she was talking about and felt extremely awkward talking about that with them, but he managed to get himself to talk. “That’s great Lily, congratulations.” He missed when he was a sex therapist, and he hadn’t felt awkward tlaking about that stuff with other people, but he had no plans to bring back the clinic, even if he did miss it.

Ola seemed unsurprised by what Lily had said, and Otis guessed he should have expected her to say something weird when he asked them how they were doing. Ola looked at him in the mirror. “How have you been Otis?”

Otis was relieved to change the subject. “I’ve been really good lately, thanks for asking.”

Ola smiled. “Yeah, I bet, congratulations about Maeve by the way, you two are so cute together.”

Otis was surprised that Ola seemed to just be fine with his relationship with Maeve, but it wasn’t like she still liked him like that, so why wouldn’t she be happy for him. “Yeah, she’s pretty great, I’m lucky to have her. Thanks for the advice the other day by the way, about always trying to be the good guy, and actually being an asshole instead. That advice is pretty much the reason I was able to get Maeve to forgive me.”

“I’m glad I was able to help, Otis.”

Lily turned around to look at him again. “Have you guys had sex yet?”

That question did manage to catch Ola by surprise, neither her or Otis had expected it, and he didn’t seem to know how to respond. She hit Lily lightly. “Lily! You can’t just ask people that.”

Lily just sat back in her seat, still keeping a straight face. “Whatever.” They rode the rest of the way in almost complete silence.

Maeve had the same idea as Otis, and got to school early, hoping to catch him before classes started. She was waiting at the bike rack where he and Eric normally put their bikes, and she had seen Eric walk in with Adam just a few minutes earlier, but Otis hadn’t been with them. She was about to give up and go to her locker when she saw Ola and Lily get out of Ola’s van. She didn’t know what had caught her eye at first, but the next thing she saw was Otis getting out of the van with them. Her forgotten jealousy from the night before bagan to come back, why was he with them? She knew it was an absurd thought, but what if Otis was having a threesome with them on the side, and she was too stupid to notice. She told herself that was a stupid thing to think, but she still found herself seeing red once again. Her heart was pounding in her chest as she felt a mixture of rage and devastation build up inside her, and she didn’t know whether to confront them, or get out of there as fast as possible so she could go cry by herself.

She was still trying to comprehend the emotions rushing through her, when suddenly Otis was standing right in front of her, grinning. “Hi, Maeve. How are you?”

She forced herself to smile and hide her insecurity. “Hey dickstain, I’m good, how are you?”

“I’m doing pretty good, Ola gave me a ride to school today, Eric told me he couldn’t ride in with me today” Otis didn’t think about Maeve’s jealousy from the night before when he said that.

Maeve studied him, still feeling paranoid, but she knew he was telling the truth, he was a very bad liar. “Cool. Listen, I’ve got to go get ready for class, but can you meet me at break? I need to talk to you about something.”

Otis nodded with a curious look on his face. “Sure, I’ll see you then.”

They shared a quick peck on the lips, then Maeve left to go get ready for class. As she walked, she told herself how stupid she was for thinking Otis would ever cheat on her. She told herself to get her jealousy under control, she and Ola were on good terms now, there was no reason to believe she would try to take Otis from her. She soon found herself unable to worry about it anyways, however, because Mrs. Sands had just assigned an essay, and she got busy thinking about what she was going to write.

Eric found Otis in the hallway between classes and jumped on his back before he could notice. Otis let out a small scream, surprised by Eric’s sudden appearance. “Jesus Eric! You scared the shit out of me!”

Eric laughed maniacally. “You’re too easy, Oatcake.”
Otis shook it off and then began to question Eric. “So, why couldn’t you ride into school today?”

Eric smiled, excited to share with Otis. “Well, Adam spent the night last night, and he was just really great, he’s really starting to come out of his shell. And so this morning we came into school together. I know it’s not huge news, but he just makes me so happy.”

Otis was glad that Eric was finally happy with someone. “That’s great man! I don’t care if it’s big news or not, I’m so happy for you.”

They continued talking about whatever they felt like, and Otis decided not to tell Eric about what had happened to him the night before. He wasn’t sure why he kept it to himself, but he thought maybe he would tell him later. They eventually parted ways as they each needed to get to class, but they promised to meet up and talk more after school at Otis’ house.

Maeve was between classes when she was approached by a girl that she didn’t recognize. “Do you need something?”

The girl just stood there for a long time, and Maeve was about to just walk away when she finally spoke up. “I have a problem, and I heard you can help me?” When she saw Maeve’s hesitation, she added, “I can pay.” She held out money to Maeve.

Maeve had been ready to turn this girl away, that if she had a problem, she needed to see a professional, but then she saw the money. She was reminded of her current rent situation, and she didn’t think she could say no to this girl, she really needed the money. She debated it for a while, and again, came to the conclusion that she could convince Otis to do the clinic again.

She took the money from her. “Alright, tomorrow during break, in the old toilet block, don’t be late.”

The girl nodded appreciatively. “Thank you so much, I really need this.”

By the time break rolled around that day, she had been approached by multiple students about scheduling appointments. Word had travelled fast, and suddenly everyone needed sex kid again. She didn’t book any more appointments yet, she didn’t want a disaster if she somehow couldn’t convince Otis, but she told everyone who asked to come back tomorrow to schedule an appointment.

She walked into the toilet block where they had held so many clinic sessions before, and wasn’t surprised to see Otis waiting there already. She gave him a kiss and sat down next to him on the windowsill, thinking about how to start the conversation about the clinic.

After she didn’t say anything, Otis spoke first. “So, what did you need to talk to me about?”

Maeve almost decided against asking Otis, but the money they could make was too enticing for her, and she began to tell him what she wanted to do. “I think we should start the clinic again, people still need our help, Otis, and I think we should give it to him.”

That caught Otis off guard, and he found himself unable to respond, so Maeve kept talking. “You have no idea how many people have approached me asking for help, they really need us here.”

Otis finally regained control and responded. “Maeve, you know I can’t do the clinic again, my mom was right, it was completely unethical.”

Maeve had known that he would put up a fight, she just hoped that it wouldn’t be a big one. “But Otis, is it really unethical if they’re asking for our help, they need us.”

Otis found himself hesitating, she was right that some people did need help, but it was wrong for him to do it. Besides what would his mom say if she found out he was doing the clinic again? She probably would never forgive him, and he couldn’t deal with that.

He shook his head, trying to hide the conflict that he was feeling, but ultimately failing in doing so. “Maeve, it’s wrong to charge people to get sex advice from me, I’m not a proffesional, adn I shouldn’t be doing it.”

Maeve was about to give up, and was already thinking of other ways to make money when she got an idea. It was a smart idea, but she didn’t like the idea of using it. She could tell Otis that they would do it for free, just to help out their classmates, and then she would get twice as much money as before. She was conflicted about it, but ultimately, thinking about how rent was due in just a few days, she decided to go for it. She was desperate for money, and Otis would never have to know.

:if money’s the issue, Otis, we don’t have to charge, I just think we should help, everybody needs it.”

At that point, Otis’ confidence that he wouldn’t do the clinic again wavered even more. His mom had suggested that one of the big issues with the clinic was that he was charging, what was wrong with just giving out advice? Plus, as Eric had said, there seemed to be almost nothing that made him happier than holding a therapy session.

“I’m still not sure Maeve, you wanna do it for free?” She had told him multiple times before that she was only in it for the money, nothing else.

Maeve nodded, trying to hide the fact that she was lying. “What, dickhead? You can’t believe that I might want to help people?”

Otis put his hands up in an ‘I surrender’ gesture, and smirked at her. He was beginning to think that it might not be a bad idea to bring the clinic back. If he was able to help people, why shouldn’t he? He resolved that he would try out the clinic again, and if it came to be too much, he would just tell Maeve he didn’t want to do it anymore.

Otis sighed. “I guess I can give it another try, but we don’t charge anymore, right?”

Maeve nodded. “No charge, right.” Then she gave him a hug. “I knew you’d come through, muppet, I’ve got to go get the word out.”

She kissed him goodbye, and left him wondering if he was going to regret his decision, but he thought he would be okay, so long as they weren’t making people pay. He walked out not long after Maeve, smiling slightly at the fact that there was still a future for the clinic.

Chapter Text

Some people had known that ‘Sex Kid’ was back before he even did, but now that he agreed to do it, the news travelled like wildfire. Everyone seemed to need an appointment after the disaster that had been caused by his mom’s notes being released. By the end of the day, he was booked for an hour before school and an hour after school everyday that week. They had all seemingly forgotten that just a few weeks ago, they had left Otis behind for his mom, who they all thought was much better at giving advice.

Otis hoped the appointments would slow down after a while. He didn’t want the clinic to start taking up all of his time, he was trying to make himself more than just the weird sex therapist, and he couldn’t do that if he didn’t have any time to do other things. The clinic would always be important to him, that was how he had met Maeve, and he was willing to keep doing it, but that didn’t mean it was all he ever wanted to do.

Maeve, however, didn’t seem to mind all of the appointments, which Otis found weird. She had only ever done the clinic for money before, and all of a sudden she just wanted to do it for free. He knew that she was a lot nicer than most people thought she was, but it didn't really seem like something she would do. He shrugged it off though, thinking he still had a lot to learn about her, and excited about that as well, he loved discovering new things about Maeve everyday, he just wished she wouldn’t be so secretive about them.

As he was getting on his bike to get home, Eric came running over to him, obviously having heard that the clinic was back. “Hey Oatcake, I heard that you and Maeve are doing sex therapy again?”

Otis nodded. “Yeah, this whole thing is a shit show, people need our help.”

Eric looked a bit confused. “Yeah, I agree, but didn’t you promise your mum that you weren’t going to do it anymore. I thought you said it was unethical or something.”

Otis considered that for a moment. “The problem that my mum had with it was that I was charging people, she wouldn’t care if I was just giving advice to people so I could help them. We’re not charging this time around.” Then he added. “That doesn’t mean I want my mom to know, so don’t say anything about it.”

Eric nodded. “And Maeve was okay with doing it for free? I thought the whole reason she was doing it in the first place was for the money.” He began to get on his bike and ride away.

Otis shrugged. “I thought the same thing, but she was actually the one who suggested doing it for free.”
“Well, as long as you think it’ll be okay.”

Before Eric could ride away, Otis told him, "By the way, because of the clinic, I’m not going to be able to ride into school with you this week. Hopefully things slow down so we can get back to normal next week.”

Eric shook his head at Otis, pretending to be upset. “Oh Otis, be careful about missing out on things with me because of the clinic, I might have to tell your mum and have her put a stop to it.” Then he laughed, letting Otis know that he was just joking before riding away.

Otis got on his bike soon after and began to ride home. He was feeling optimistic that day, things were looking up. Nothing had been particularly bad lately, but that didn’t things couldn’t get even better, and he thought they would. The clinic was an excuse to spend even more time with Maeve, and he always wanted to spend more time with her. He still didn’t want to tell his mom about it though, he didn’t think it was unethical at all if he wasn’t taking money for it, and she might agree with him, but he also didn’t want to risk her not being okay with it, he didn't want another argument with her.

When Otis got home. He saw that Jakob was there, and he smiled to himself, glad that his mom had fixed things between them. He had never seen his mom as happy as she was when she was with Jakob, and she deserved to be happy more than anyone else in the world. He said hi to when he passed by on the way up to his room, then sat down in his bed, bored. He decided to invite Eric over, if he wasn’t doing anything, it had been a while since they had properly hung out.

-Hey Eric, wanna come over and hang out?-

-Sure, I’ll be there in a little bit-

Eric got there a little over an hour later, and they went up to Otis’ room to play Smash Bros. Eric was thrilled to be hanging out with Otis again, he liked that they were both in relationships, but he did miss the time when it was just them and they hung out together all the time. He felt like he didn’t know anything about Otis’ life recently, except for whatever happened to be going on with him and Maeve at the moment.

In between rounds of Smash, Eric asked Otis. “So, what’s going on between your mom and this Jakob guy, you always told me that she doesn’t do boyfriends.”

Otis shrugged. “I thought the same thing, but I guess she had a change of heart.”

“Do you like him?” Eric questioned.

Otis nodded. “Yeah, he’s a nice guy. I was kind of an asshole to him at first, but it was only really because I was jealous that my mom was giving attention to someone other than me. And the funny thing is, the more of an asshole that I was, the nicer he was to me, it bothered me so much. I was a big reason that he and my mom stopped seeing each other for a while, but they got back together just yesterday I think.”

Eric grinned. “He is pretty hot, if you know what I mean.”

Otis groaned, recalling all the way back to when Eric had called that one guy his mom slept with (was his name Dave?) hot. “Eric, I find it extremely weird that you and my mum have a surprisingly similar taste in men.”

Eric laughed. “Your mom is my hero, of course I’m going to want to follow in her footsteps.”

They had a great night together, laughing and joking. It reminded Otis of the old days, at the beginning of last term when he and Eric hung out all the time. He was happy where he was now, but sometimes he missed his best friend, and he promised himself to start hanging out with Eric more often again. They may both be in relationships at the moment , but Eric and him had been inseparable for so long, and he wasn’t going to let anybody stand in the way of their friendship.

Eric felt the exact same way about Otis. He had Adam now, but there was something about his friendship with Otis that made them one of a kind. They had still talked to each other all the time, but they hadn’t properly hung out since the camping trip with his dad, and that hadn’t gone well at all. He did come over the night after Otis’ first kiss with Maeve, but that had been more about their relationships than it had been them hanging out as friends.

After a long time of playing video games, Otis paused the game and turned to Eric. “I miss this, Eric. I wish we hung out more.”

Eric nodded. “I do too, I don’t want to let any romantic relationships get in the way of the best friendship on earth.” he chuckled a little at that last bit.

“You’ve always been my best friend Eric, I’ll never let anything come between us.”

Eric smiled. “Oh, get in here Oatcake.” He said, wrapping Otis up in a big hug.

Eric had to leave soon after that, but they both promised each other that they would hang out again soon. Otis went upstairs and wondered what Maeve was doing at the moment. He was going to text her and see if she wanted to talk for a while, but then he remembered that he had an early clinic session the next day, so he decided to go to bed and make sure he was ready for tomorrow. He would have a busy day, but it certainly felt good to be back in business, and this time with no ethical dilemmas, he hated those.

Maeve felt great, and she knew she shouldn’t. She had booked the next week with appointments and she knew that she wouldn’t have trouble paying rent for a long time. But she had lied to Otis in order to get it. She had done something to him that she would never be able to forgive if he had done it to her. She didn’t quite know why she felt so good about it, but she ended up bringing it back to what she had once told Otis, people do things they shouldn’t do because it gives them thrill, there’s never really a reason.

She knew deep down that the clinic would have to end eventually, but that didn’t stop her from doing it while she could. She just hoped it would stop because they both decided to, not because Otis found out she lied, that would end very badly. She had considered telling him the truth from the second she started lying, but she was in too deep at this point, there was no turning back, she had already collected money in advance from multiple clients.

She considered how she was going to keep the fact that she was still collecting money from Otis, and came to the conclusion that if people didn’t schedule appointments with him, then he would never find out. She didn’t think anyone would try to hand money to Otis instead of Maeve, but just to be sure, she was going to always start collecting the money when she scheduled the appointments. But nobody knew about her lie to Otis, not even Aimee, she knew that Aimee would make her stop if she found out, so she didn't tell anyone.

Fittingly enough, she had to write an essay about trust for her aptitude scheme, and she thought that was pretty ironic as she sat down to start writing it. The hand-in wasn’t for a week yet, but she always liked to get a head start on her work. As she began to write, she found herself unsure of what to say, but she refused to admit that it could be because she lied to Otis. After sitting there for a long time, she decided to write about how her family had abandoned her, even though that wasn’t what she wanted to write about, she just couldn’t think of anything else to write. She was actually very comfortable writing about her family, even if they might have to read their essays out loud. At that point, there was nobody in the class that would judge her, she was sure of that, so she was comfortable writing about pretty much anything.

After still getting nowhere in her essay, Maeve stormed off into her bedroom and fell onto her bed, full of anger and annoyance. She would try again tomorrow, she just wasn’t thinking straight that night, and she would have a clear head tomorrow.

Otis woke up early the next morning, and when his mom questioned it, he just told her that he was going to meet Maeve on the way to school. She didn’t seem to suspect anything, so he left without a worry, trying to get in the right mindset to start the clinic again.

He got there a few minutes before his appointment, so he went and met Maeve, just like they had back when the clinic first became a thing. “Wow, this is really a blast from the past, huh?”

Maeve just nodded, chewing one of her fingernails, she was obviously preoccupied with something else that morning.”

Otis, of course, noticed it immediately, as he always did. “Is something wrong Maeve?”

Maeve nodded again, but this time she spoke as well. “Yeah, sorry. Just thinking about my essay for aptitude scheme, it looks like you’re 7:30 is here.” She gestured to someone standing about a hundred meters away, staring right at them.

He kissed her goodbye. “Alright, I’ll see you later then.”

All of his appointments that morning were pretty much normal, nobody’s issues stood out, and he didn’t have any trouble answering their questions and giving them advice. He truly was feeling nostalgic for the first few days of the clinic, reminded of how simple things were then. He wouldn’t change what he had for the world, however, because now he had Maeve as his girlfriend and nothing could beat that. But there had been a lot of good things going for him then, such as a stronger relationship with his mom, who he felt more distant from recently, even if she wasn’t angry at him anymore.

On his way to his locker before first period, Otis ran into Ola again. “Hey Otis, how are you?”

Otis smiled, happy to see her again, despite what he had said about liking being the guy in the corner, he did quite like the fact that he had more friends now. “Hey Ola, I’m good, how are you?”

“I’m good Otis, thanks.”

They both sat there for a moment, the Otis asked her, “My mom told me your dad is coming for dinner tonight, are you coming as well?”

Ola shook her head. “No, I can’t make it this time, I’m hanging out with Lily, I’ll be around next time though.”

“Alright, well I’ve got to get going, but I’ll see you later.” Otis said, beginning to walk away.

“See you later Otis.” Ola said, heading towards her locker in the opposite direction.

Neither of them noticed Maeve watching them from down the hall with a look of jealousy and anger on her face. ‘That bitch already had her shot with Otis, she broke up with him’ She thought angrily. ‘I’ve waited too long to be with him, there’s no way I’m letting someone take him from me now.’ She angrily stalked off to class before Otis could notice her, vowing that she would never let anyone take Otis from her again, not after all the work they had put into their relationship. She just hoped she didn’t do anything drastic to do so, but she was certainly willing to do anything.

Chapter Text

The first week doing the clinic again was like a dream. He got to do what he really loved, and this time, there was nothing shameful about it this time around, and that made it even better. He was very busy that week with researching various sex issues that weren’t in his area of expertise, but he found it almost fun in a way. He supposed that people were right when they said if you love what you do, it won’t feel like work as much.

He was at his locker before classes on Friday when Maeve came up to him. “Hey muppet, you’ve got a three and a three thirty after school today, okay?”

Otis’ face fell. “Shit, I told Eric I’d hang out with him after school.”

“Well, it is a Friday, you guys have all night to hang out if you want to, I think you can make these appointments.” Maeve countered.

“Alright, I’ll be there.” Otis groaned. “But only if you’re there too.”

“It’s a deal, dickstain, see you then.” She kissed him and began walking away.

“Wait,” Otis called after her. “Are we still good for you to come over to mine for dinner on Saturday?”

Maeve turned back and nodded. “Yeah, I’ll be there.” Then, as an afterthought, she added, “Is anybody else going to be there this time?” She didn’t want to specifically name Ola, but that’s who she was really asking about. If Ola was there, it would be hard for her to keep her cool through another meal.

Otis shook his head. “I asked my mum. It’ll just be us and her this time.”

“Alright, see you later then.” She said, relieved, and already walking away again.

“See you later.” Otis called out after her.

Eric was not going to be happy that their plans would be delayed to later that night because of the clinic. Hadn’t they just had a conversation the other day saying that they weren’t going to let anything come between their friendship? Yet there he was, about to tell Eric they would have to hang out at least an hour later because of the clinic. But he thought that it was a good thing they were at least getting to hang out together, so he decided to take what he could get, and hoped that Eric would be okay with it as well.

He wondered who he was going to talk to today, and what problems they were going to have. He hadn’t really had anything too crazy yet since his return, but it was bound to happen eventually. He would get something that would take him hours of research to figure out, and even then, he wouldn’t be sure if his advice would be the right advice. Things like that always had a way of working out in the end when it came to the clinic, though.

He was on his way to biology later that day when he noticed Ruby out of the corner of his eye. He noticed her because she wasn’t with Anwar or Olivia, and that was a rare sight. He also noticed that she looked fairly upset about something, and he thought it was probably about her dad, and he felt bad for her. She was just leaning against the lockers, staring into space, seemingly unaware of anything happening around her.

They hadn’t talked at all since the day after they had sex, but Otis still felt like he should go talk to her and ask her if she was alright. “Hey Ruby, are you alright?”

She snapped out of her daze and turned to look at him. “Oh, Otis, it’s you. I’m fine, now go before too many people see you talking to me.”

Otis was slightly hurt by what she had said, but he could see that she was lying, she clearly wasn’t okay, so he stayed. “What’s going on Ruby? You need to talk to someone, and I don’t think you’re going to pour out all of your feelings to Anwar or Olivia. You can talk to me about anything.”

She sighed, seeing that he wasn’t going to leave, and secretly feeling glad about that. “It’s my dad, he’s not working anymore and my mom has been so stressed, trying to find a second job so she can support both of us.”

Otis tried to put a comforting hand on her shoulder, but quickly took it off, thinking that it was more weird than it was comforting. “I’m so sorry, is there anything I can do?”

“No! Obviously not, unless you can somehow magically cure my dad.” She said, clearly irritated, her eyes welling up with tears.

Otis decided to ignore her hurtful comment, as she was obviously upset. He pulled her in for a hug. “Well, if you ever need to talk to anybody, I’m always around, okay?”

After a minute, she pulled away from him. “Okay, Otis, thank you.” She said gratefully, wiping a tear from her eye. “Now get to class.”

“Okay, bye Ruby.” He said, and then he walked away, hoping that he helped,, even if it was only a little bit. He thought that he did.

Maeve was on her way to her aptitude class when she saw Otis talking to Ruby. At first, she had to do a double take, she couldn’t possibly imagine Otis talking to Ruby, not when Ruby was so mean to her, surely he wouldn’t talk to someone who treated his girlfriend like shit. Despite that thought, she couldn’t deny what she was seeing. Otis was talking to ruby about something, and she felt so betrayed. How could he do that to her? She didn’t think he was cheating on her, but she thought that Ruby might be trying to get him to, and she was upset with him for even talking to her in the first place.

As she watched them, she could almost imagine how the conversation was going. She was probably flirting with him heavily, and he was probably too oblivious to even notice. She was about to go and confront them when Otis hugged her. She saw it clearly, she hadn’t even initiated it, it was him who pulled her in. She felt her eyes fill with tears as she ran in the opposite direction. She could handle Ruby trying to get Otis, that was easy to deal with, she could just tell her to fuck off. But she didn’t know what was going on with Otis, he would never cheat on her, would he? She thought she knew the answer to that, but she was beginning to doubt herself.

She decided that this time she couldn’t bury her feelings, she would have to ask him about it later. She wouldn’t be confrontational, or at least, she would try not to be. She wanted to hear him out before she jumped to conclusions, because she doubted that he would ever purposely hurt her again. She just hoped that whatever his explanation was, it would be one that allowed her to be okay with his interaction with Ruby.

The clinic sessions after school that day had been very generic. One guy wanted Otis’ advice on how to ask out a girl he liked, and another was feeling pressured to have sex, but he didn’t know if he was ready. He was able to quickly reassure both of them, and he thought that maybe he wouldn’t be too late to get home and hang out with Eric after all.

He was about to leave when Maeve stopped him. “Otis, what’s going on with you and Ruby?”

He was unprepared for that question, but she was clearly upset, so he kept his cool and answered the question to the best of his ability. “Well, the day after the party, I was talking to her, and she mentioned that her dad had MS. She said she was fine, so I left it alone. But then today, she was upset about something, so I asked her what was wrong, she said she was upset about her dad, so I comforted her and told her she could talk to me about it if she ever needed.”

Maeve believed him, and she was relieved, but she still didn’t like him talking to Ruby. “Okay, but why do you feel bad for her? She’s such a bitch to me, and you’re just okay with that?”

“I haven’t heard her say anything mean to you recently, and anyways, you helped her for free when that picture went around, why can’t I help her out now?”

Maeve thought he had a point, she hadn’t said anything to her recently, and helping her was probably the right thing to do. She still didn’t like that it had to be her boyfriend who was helping Ruby. “Okay, I guess you have a point, sorry if it seemed like I was accusing you of anything.”

Otis shook his head. “Don’t be sorry, you weren’t accusing me, you were just curious. And I do understand where you’re coming from Maeve, but I wouldn’t have comforted her if I didn’t think she needed it.”

Maeve forced a fake smile, hoping Otis didn’t notice. “Alright, asshat, I believe you. I’ve got to go though, okay?”

“Alright, I’ll see you tomorrow then?” He asked, kissing her goodbye.

“Yep, I’ll see you then.” She said, with a smile that felt a bit more genuine this time.

Otis hopped on his bike and cycled home fast, hoping to get there before Eric. He had been understanding when Otis told him that he had clinic after school, but Otis could tell he was at least slightly upset by it. He wanted to make sure that he wasn’t late, he owed him that much at least.

He made good time getting home, and he arrived about ten minutes before Eric was supposed to be there. He went up to his room and got his TV ready, assuming that Eric would want to play video games when he got there. He got some crisps as well and brought them up to his room for them to eat while they hung out. He was really excited to be hanging out with his best friend again, and told himself to text Maeve later, asking her to not schedule appointments in the mornings anymore so he could ride into school with Eric.

Eric showed up not long after Otis, knocking on the door excitedly. Otis answered it quickly and they went up to his room to play video games. For a while they talked about random stuff, neither of them mentioning their relationships, adn Otis liked it that way. He liked it being just them and nobody else.

He did want Eric’s opinion on Maeve’s jealousy though, so he decided to bring up their relationships. “Eric, I need your advice about something.”

Eric paused the game and responded. “What’s going on, Oatcake?”

Otis wasn’t quite sure what to say, because he wasn’t quite sure what was going on wither, Maeve wasn’t talking to him about it. “Well, Maeve has been getting really jealous whenever I talk to any other girls, and I don’t know what to do. Like, she got jealous when Ola was over for dinner with Jakob the other night, and she also got jealous when I was talking to Ruby earlier today. She won’t talk to me about it either, so I don’t know exactly what she’s feeling and I don’t know how to fix it.”

Eric sighed, thinking that despite him being a sex therapist, he didn’t understand much about relationships. “Well, it was your ex-girlfriend and someone that you slept with, so I wouldn’t really be surprised that she gets jealous when you talk to them.”

“Yeah but I would never cheat on her, she has to know that!” he exclaimed.

Eric put an arm around Otis. “Calm down, Otis. Just because she’s jealous doesn’t mean she doesn’t trust her. Maeve’s a smart girl, she knows you would never cheat on her. I think you need to just let her work her feelings out, and be there if she needs it.”

Otis was surprised at how good Eric’s advice was. “Wow, Eric, I feel a lot better, thanks. Maybe you should join me and help out with the clinic.” He joked.

“No way, Oatcake, I’m not getting sucked into your weird sex clinic. Good try, but you can’t trick me into it.” He said, laughing.

After that conversation, the conversation quickly turned away from relationships again. They talked about new games coming out soon and possible plans for next weekend as well. Eric didn’t mention Adam, their relationship was doing just fine. He had to leave once it started to get dark, but he promised Otis he would hang out again soon, and Otis promised that they would start riding to school together again soon. Otis went to sleep soon after, having completely forgotten Maeve’s jealousy, he had nothing to worry about and he fell asleep almost immediately.

That night, Maeve sat alone in her caravan. She had talked to Aimee, and while Aimee had told her that it was a little weird that Otis was talking to Ruby, but she also reassured her that Otis would never do anything to hurt her, and that helped her a little bit. She still felt a hint of jealousy, however, and she knew that she would feel so much better if Otis didn’t still talk to Ola and Ruby.

Before she went to bed that night, she looked at the money she had been paid for the clinic that week. It was a lot more know that she wasn’t splitting it with someone, and it made her feel good to have it, but she also felt guilty about it. She told herself not to feel guilty though. She needed the money, and there was no other way to get it. She would end the clinic eventually, but for now she was going to keep it going. She just had to be lucky enough for Otis to not find out about it, because that would not be good at all.

Chapter Text

Otis scrambled around the house trying to clean up and still leave himself enough time to take a shower before Maeve got there. He was past the point of being super awkward and nervous when he was around her, they had been dating for almost two weeks now. Despite that, however, he still felt the compulsive need to make sure that the house was spotless by the time Maeve got there. Things hadn’t even been that messy in the first place, but if there was a single thing out of place, he noticed it, and he felt like he had to clean it up.

He was moving from the living room into the dining area to clean up when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned around to see his mom standing there with a concerned look on her face. “Otis, darling, I don’t think you need to do this much cleaning. It wasn’t really a mess in the first place.”

Otis knew she was right, but he couldn’t stop himself from wiping down the table multiple times, sure that he could make it cleaner than it already was. “Mum, things need to be clean when Maeve gets here.”

Jean shook her head, wishing her son wouldn’t be so worried about these things. “Otis, it is clean, I just cleaned the whole house earlier today.”

Otis nodded absently, not really hearing her. “Yeah mum, I’ll be done in just a minute.”

She knew that he wasn’t really going to be done soon, so she walked up to him and put her hand on his shoulder again. “Sweetheart, I can finish this if you really want it to be cleaned again. Just go do what you need to do to get ready.”

He was reluctant to let her clean instead of him, worrying that she might not really do it. He wasn’t going to let her when he stopped to think for a moment and realized just how crazy he was being. His mom had cleaned earlier, and even if there had been any kind of mess, Maeve wouldn’t have minded at all. “Alright mum, you don’t have to clean. I’m gonna go have a shower before Maeve gets here. Thank you.”

Jean smiled. “See? It’ll be fine, go take your shower.”

He went upstairs to get himself ready, doing his best to avoid any thoughts that might put him into another frenzy of cleaning or anything else he might feel the need to do before Maeve arrived. He got into the shower about a half an hour before Maeve was supposed to get there, giving him plenty of time to get ready. While he was in the shower, he thought about the possibility of taking another step forward with Maeve, that is, if she wanted to as well. He thought that he was over what had happened between his parents, and he was ready to move their relationship forward faster than they had been before.

He got out of the shower fifteen minutes before Maeve was supposed to get there, and he went into his room to get dressed. He chose one of his usual outfits, knowing that if he tried to wear anything else, he would take too long to decide, and it would almost certainly be the wrong decision. He was dressed and heading downstairs when he heard Maeve and his mom talking. He checked his phone to make sure that he hadn’t gotten the time wrong, and he saw that Maeve wasn’t supposed to be there for at least another ten minutes.

He rounded the corner and saw Maeve and his mom talking at the table. “You’re early, how long have you been waiting?”

She smiled at him, holding in a laugh. “On time is late, you taught me that one, muppet. Now you know how it feels when you do it to me.”

Otis sighed, realizing what she meant. “Alright Maeve, I’ll keep that in mind next time. Sorry to make you wait.” He said that last bit with a hint of sarcasm that she might not have caught if she hadn’t known him so well.

“Oh, have I upset you? I’m sorry.” Her sarcasm was more obvious. She walked over to him and kissed him, not for too long though, as his mom was still there. She probably wouldn’t have minded though, if what Otis had said about her was true.

“I’ll leave you two alone while I go make dinner.” Jean said, smiling. As she left, she shot Otis a thumbs up while Maeve wasn’t looking.

“Your mum’s nice, I don’t know why you complain about her so much.” Maeve said once Jean was out of earshot.

Otis shook his head. “Trust me, you don’t know her like I do. But she has gotten better recently, I’ll admit that.”

“Alright, I guess we’ll have to see about that.” Maeve still didn’t quite believe some of the stories that she had told him about Jean.

He took her hand and led her over to the couch. “We can sit down for a bit before dinner’s ready if you want.”

She sat down next to him. “Okay, are you sure your mum doesn’t need help with anything.”

Otis shook his head. “No, she wouldn’t let us help anyways, she would insist on doing it herself.”

“How was your night with Eric?” Maeve asked him.

“It was good, we haven’t been hanging out as much lately, so it was nice to do that again.”

Maeve hoped that he wasn’t blaming her for not seeing Eric as much, and she thought that Otis wouldn’t blame her for that. “Yeah? Well I’m glad you had a good time, because now I’m here to ruin it.’ She joked.

“No, you just make it even better Maeve.” Otis said fondly, and he leaned in for a kiss.

He kissed her for a long time, and Maeve was surprised that he was comfortable with that. She didn’t know if she could have initiated that kiss, not with his mom right in the next room, but she didn’t have a problem with it once it was happening. Otis was equally surprised by his sudden confidence to start basically making out with her when his mom could walk in at any moment.

Sure enough, when they pulled away from each other, Jean was standing there, smiling. “Dinner’s done if you guys are ready for it.”

Otis wasn’t sure what to say at first, so he just quietly said, “Yeah, sure. Are you ready?”

Maeve nodded, slightly embarrassed herself. She figured out she was right when she said Jean wouldn’t mind if they started snogging right in front of her. They walked over to the table and sat down, they were next to each other, and across from Jean.

“Maeve, it’s so nice that I’ll finally get to know you better. I’m sorry we didn’t get to talk much last time.” She said, referring to dinner when Ola and Jakob were there.

“Oh, that’s alright, I’m happy to get to know you as well, Ms. Milburn.” Maeve said with a smile, she was determined for this dinner to be less awkward than the dinner with Jackson's parents. And she definitely, under no circumstances, was going to run away if things got uncomfortable.

“Please, call me Jean, Ms. Milburn makes me feel old.” She said with a smile and a small chuckle.

Dinner went well, at least compared to how it had gone with Jackson’s parents. She managed to keep things from getting awkward for her, but she couldn’t say the same for Otis. Similar to Jackson’s parents, Jean had plenty of embarrassing stories about Otis, and Maeve was happy to hear them. Otis, however, was not very happy with his mom, but she knew he had probably expected something like that to happen.
Otis didn’t talk much during dinner, but instead was content to let his mom and Maeve get to know each other. He was bothered when his mom started telling embarrassing stories, but Maeve was right when she thought he probably didn’t expect anything different. He was glad that they seemed to be getting along well after hearing what had happened with Jackson’s parents. He had told his mom about Maeve’s family situation, which Maeve might not have liked, but he wanted to make things comfortable for her, so he told his mom not to mention it for tonight.

He was helping his mom clean up from dinner when Maeve came up to him. “I’ve gotta use the bathroom, meet you upstairs?”

Otis nodded. “Sure, just don’t run away on me.” He joked.

She smiled, glad that she was able to joke about things like that. “I won’t, your mum is so much better than Jackson’s parents were. But you should be careful, because I might just run away from you, dickhead.”

“Alright, I'll keep that in mind. I'll see you up there.” Maeve went up to use the bathroom, and Otis washed some dishes before he went upstairs. He also stopped by his mom’s office to talk to her. “Hey mum, I just wanted to say thank you for dinner.”

She looked up from her computer and gave him a smirk. “Your welcome darling. I wasn’t too bad, was I?”

“There were a few stories that I could have done without you telling, but overall, you did good mum.”

“I’m glad to hear that, now I think there’s someone waiting for you up there.” She said, gesturing upstairs with a wink.

“Alright mum, thanks again.” He said, leaving to go up and meet Maeve.

The bathroom door was open, meaning Maeve was done in the bathroom and would be waiting in his bedroom. He opened the door, expecting to see her on his bed, but there was nobody in there. He walked in a few steps, wondering if she had actually run away, and hoping she hadn’t. He was about to text her when suddenly he felt a force from behind him knocking him on his bed, and then she was on top of him laughing. He had screamed slightly when she tackled him, but he should have known something was going to happen, she wouldn’t actually run away.
Soon enough, she was on top of him, and he was looking up at her. “You didn’t think I would run out on you, did you?” She asked.

He shook his head. “Never, I’m doomed to be stuck with you forever.”

“Dickhead.” She said, laughing, as she leaned down to kiss him. She wished it could always be like this, she loved him so much, and she hoped he knew that. She hoped that he loved her enough so that he would be willing to forgive her if she found out about the money, but she wasn’t so sure about that.

Chapter Text

Otis didn’t want to be in the asbestos filled bathroom that Monday. In fact, he had asked Maeve to make sure she didn’t schedule anything for Monday, and he had even made plans with her to hang out at her caravan. But Maeve had either forgotten, or didn’t care about what he had asked her to do. He assumed she had just forgotten, and told himself to get over it, but he was having trouble doing so.

He was in the bathroom for his third session after school, with two more still after that. He wasn’t really giving out the best advice, just basic answers to questions that people had. He knew he should be paying attention and helping them as best as he could, but he found it hard to focus when he had made other plans for that day. He wondered once again how Maeve could have forgotten, and also why had she scheduled so many appointments? It wasn’t like people were going to die if they didn’t talk to him at that moment. Most of the appointments were just about somebody having a crush on someone else and not knowing what to do.

Maeve had completely forgotten about their plans for that night. She felt awful as she stood outside the bathroom waiting for Otis to be done. He had looked so sad when she told him she had scheduled appointments after school that day. He had assured her that it was fine, but she knew it wasn’t, and she made a mental note to make it up to him later.

She booked so many appointments because she had wanted to make a bunch of money and then close the clinic. The guilt was really starting to get to her and she told herself that she would make enough money to last a few months, and then she would shut it down again. She didn’t want to risk Otis finding out for too much longer, things were going too good for them at the moment, and she wasn’t going to ruin it.

Otis had moved on to the fifth appointment, and it had already been at least an hour since they started the appointments. He tried to motivate himself by keeping in mind that it was the last appointment of the day, but that didn’t help very much. He didn’t even pay attention to the issue that much, it was all the same anyways.

After what felt like ages, but was really only about fifteen minutes, he finished the last appointment and was finally free. He wasn’t sure if he was still in the mood to hang out with Maeve anymore though. He wasn’t mad at her, but he was feeling tired and down after all the clinic sessions that day. He wasn’t sure why, but recently, the clinic hadn’t been as much fun as it used to be. He thought that it might be because the reason he had done the clinic at first was so he could be with Maeve, and now he didn’t need the clinic for that. Maybe he didn’t enjoy being a therapist after all, or maybe he was just upset about missing out on plans because of the clinic. He really couldn’t tell, so he decided to just drop it for the moment.

He stepped out of the bathroom and saw Maeve standing next to the door. “Hey, how are you?”

She could tell he was still upset, even if he wouldn’t admit it. “I’m alright, how did the appointments go?”

He sighed. “Same old stuff, nothing too interesting.”

Maeve decided to be the one to address the plans they had made for that afternoon. “Listen, Otis, I’m so sorry I scheduled things today. I completely forgot about our plans and people kept asking me, so I kept making appointments.”

“It’s fine, I understand Maeve.” But his face told her he wasn’t fine, and she didn’t know what to do to make it better.

“We still have plenty of time do you still want to do something?” She hoped he would, despite the fact that she had forgotten about it, she had been looking forward to hanging out with him.

He shrugged. “I don’t know, I’m not really in the mood anymore, but if you want to do something, we can.”

She shook her head. “No, it’s fine, I won’t make you hang out with me, we can do it another day.”

That was probably his cue to say goodbye and go home, but he waited for a bit, still debating whether or not to go do something with Maeve. At that point, he just wanted to go home and sleep straight through until morning, hoping tomorrow would be better. On the other hand, sometimes the things you think you don’t want to do end up being really fun, and he still didn’t want to miss out on time with her.

He was about to say that he actually did want to do something when he saw their last appointment coming back towards him. He sighed, thinking that they probably wanted to talk to him more, but he just wanted to get out of there. He prepared himself to go back into the bathroom but when he got there, he was looking at Maeve instead of Otis.

“Sorry Maeve, I almost forgot to pay you.” he said, shoving a few bills in her hand, then leaving,

It didn’t take long for Otis to put all of the pieces together, and when he did, he was crushed. He couldn’t believe she would lie to him like that. He wasn’t even angry, he was just devastated. His first instinct was that he had done something wrong to make her lie to him, but that couldn’t be true, if he had messed up, he would have known by that point. Why had she done it? He felt like his chest had dropped to the floor and then fifty meters lower. Finally he managed to mutter, “So that was why you scheduled appointments for today.”

Maeve had been sitting there in shock while Otis had been contemplating what was going on, but when she heard that she suddenly came to life, trying to explain herself. “No, Otis! I really did forget, I would never cancel our plans for money.”

“I don’t know if I believe that, and I think you understand why I can’t.” His voice was barely audible.

The fact that he wasn’t getting angry made her feel even worse. She would rather him get angry and yell at her, seeing him crushed like this made her feel like she was the scum of the earth. “Please Otis, just hear me out, I can explain!”

He didn’t seem very much in the mood to listen to her excuses, and she couldn’t blame him. Instead, he began to speak, tears welling up in his eyes. “I wasn’t a good person just a month ago Maeve, and running the clinic for money was part of that. I worked so hard to change who I was, and I mostly did it for you, so that I could be good enough for you. But now, you’ve gone and put me right back where I was.”

She wasn’t sure what to say, so she just said quietly, “Otis, I’m so sorry.”

He ignored her apology and just kept talking, at this point tears were streaming down his face, but he was crying silently. “Why did you do it Maeve? You had to know that I wouldn’t be okay with it.”

She was stumbling over her words at this point. “I just- I didn’t mean- I needed the money. Please Otis, tell me you understand.”

He wanted to understand, he wanted to forgive her, but he just couldn’t, not then. “I trusted you Maeve, I told you everything, no lies. I thought you were doing the same, but now I can’t help but wonder if there are other things you’ve lied to me about.”

She could sense that she was losing him. “I didn’t lie about anything else Otis! it was just this one thing, just give me another chance, please?” At this point, she was beginning to cry as well.

“I’m sorry Maeve, I can’t do this right now.” He began walking away, unable to be there for much longer without absolutely breaking down.

“Wait Otis! Please don’t go.” She ran after him and grabbed his arm, hoping she could convince him.

He pulled away, knowing that if he stayed, he would just end up feeling a whole lot worse. “I can’t do this right now Maeve, I need space.” He thought for a minute, then added, “We can talk when I’m ready.” He began walking away again towards his bike, leaving Maeve behind him. She was practically sobbing at this point, which he had never seen from her before. He wanted so badly to turn around and wrap her in his embrace, to tell her that he forgave her, and that it would all be okay, but he couldn’t do that. He was on the verge of breaking down as well by the time he got to his bike.

He ended up having to walk his bike home because his eyes got too blurry for him to see well. He was glad to find the note his mom left saying she had gone shopping and would be back in a bit. If she had seen him in the state he was in now, he would be forced into a long conversation with her, and that wasn't, something he could deal with at the moment. He couldn’t deal with much at the moment, he didn’t even want to talk to Eric about it. He just went up to his room and fell face down on his bed, not wanting to get up, ever.

He still couldn’t believe she had lied to him that badly. He understood that she needed the money, but he still didn’t think that was a good enough reason to what she did. She had absolutely devastated him, and he didn’t know how much time he would need before he could trust her again. He tried to tell himself that he had betrayed her trust before, and she had forgiven her, so he should do the same, but he couldn’t bing himself to do it. He wished he had been angry instead of upset, anger was easier to get over, but he wasn’t angry, he couldn’t get angry at her, he just got sad.

He heard his mom come home, and when she came up to his room and knocked on the door, he just told her he didn’t want to talk, and that he was going to sleep. He ignored the fact that it was only around five, he didn’t plan on getting up again that night. He was laying there for hours, and it was almost eight when he got a text from Maeve.

-I’m so sorry, please just talk to me?-

He debated answering, but decided against it and turned his phone off, not wanting to talk to anybody. He wished he could just go to sleep, but he could tell that it was going to be a sleepless night. He actually began to wish that Maeve had been able to react quickly when she was handed the money. Maybe she could have made her lie believable, and he wouldn’t have ever known, but instead, he was lying in bed, wishing he never had to get up again.

After Otis left, Maeve wasn’t sure what to do. She couldn’t stop herself from crying as she started walking home. She cursed herself for ever thinking that lying to him was a good idea, he didn’t deserve that. And he was right, she had been the reason for his change, and she had been ignoring him before he realized his mistake and tried to be a better person. He was becoming a better person for her, and she had just dragged him back down into the mud.

When she got home, she sat on the couch and continued crying for a long time. How had she messed things up that bad? She hated herself for being so stupid, she hated her family for leaving her to deal with shit on her own, that’s why she had lied in the first place, because she needed to take care of herself. But mostly, she still hated herself, if she was going to do something unethical for money, she shouldn’t have dragged Otis into it.

She eventually sent him a text, but she knew he wouldn’t respond. She resolved to leave him alone for the night and get advice from Aimee first thing tomorrow morning. She went to bed wondering how Otis could ever possibly forgive her for what she had done.

Chapter Text

It was seven the next morning, and Otis didn’t think he slept a wink that night. Even if he did get some sleep, it wasn’t enough, and he was laying in bed, exhausted, but unable to sleep. It was almost time to go to school, and he probably should have been getting ready, but he couldn’t make himself get up. He had been thinking about things with Maeve all night, and he obviously wasn’t going to break up with her, but he needed time, and he couldn’t bring himself to talk to her just yet.

Otis closed his eyes for what was supposed to be just a minute, but when he opened them again it was seven thirty and his mom was standing next to him. “Otis, Eric’s here.”

“Shit.” He muttered, jumping out of bed and getting clothes ready. “Okay, tell him I’ll be out in two minutes.”

She stopped him from getting ready for a minute. “Otis, do you want to stay home today? You don’t need to talk to me about anything, but I know that you're upset about something, and you’re obviously in no condition to go to school.”

Normally, he would have told her no, that he needed to go in, he had too much work to do. This time, however, he was tempted to stay, he didn’t know if he had the courage to face Maeve that day. “Yeah, okay.”

She nodded. “I’ll go tell Eric.”

She left to go tell him, and Otis got back in bed, hoping to catch up on sleep so he could focus on how to fix things with Maeve. He may not have been the one who caused the problem, but his inner therapist told him that both he and Maeve had to be working if they wanted to fix things between them. That’s also what his mom would have told him if he asked her for advice. And he definitely would reconcile with her, but he still hadn’t completely processed what had happened yesterday.

His mom came back in. “I told Eric he could come by later, he’s worried about you, and I think you should talk to him if you don’t want to talk to me about whatever’s going on.”

Otis nodded. “Okay, thanks mum.”

She walked over and sat on the edge of his bed. “Do you want to talk about it? I promise I won’t therapize you.”

Otis shook his head. “Maybe later, I don’t feel like talking about it.”

Jean wanted to respect his boundaries, but she was also very curious about what was going on with him. “Does it have something to do with Maeve.”

She knew she was right when his mood changed and he closed himself off completely. “No, mum! I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Alright, well I’ll be downstairs if you need me, I don’t have many clients today.” She left, wondering what might have happened between him and Maeve, knowing there was a good chance she might never find out.

Maeve didn’t get much sleep that night either. However, while she was lying awake, sometimes crying, sometimes not, she managed to plan out an apology to Otis, and she knew what she had to do. She was hoping he would be able to forgive her, even though the wound was so fresh, because she didn’t think she could live without him for too long. But, if he did need time, she would be as patient as possible and try to give him every minute he needed.

She got to school as early as possible that morning, so she didn’t happen to miss him when he got there. She was mentally preparing herself for talking to him when she saw Eric, and started walking towards him, expecting Otis to be following close behind, but he wasn’t there. Eric noticed her and began walking towards her.

She questioned him before he had the chance to say anything. “Where’s Otis?”
Eric shrugged. “I’m not sure, his mom said that he was up all night, upset about something, so he wasn’t coming to school today. I’m going to go see him after school today. Do you have any idea what happened to him? I know he said he was hanging out with you last night.”

Maeve didn’t want to admit what she had done, so she didn’t tell him. “Okay thanks Eric, I’ve got to go.”

Eric yelled after her. “Maeve, wait! Do you know what happened?” But she was already gone.

Meave needed to find Aimee, she would know what to do. Otis not being at school wasn’t in her plan, and she needed somebody else’s advice, because she wasn’t thinking clearly. She wanted to go see Otis as soon as she could, but she didn’t know if it would be a good idea given the fact that he had been up all night because of it.

After texting Aimee, she made plans to meet her in the library during lunch. She looked at the time and realized that she had to get to aptitude class, so she hurried to her locker so she could get her stuff. When she got there and sat down, the full force of just how tired she was hit her. She dozed her way through class, and Miss Sands either knew that something was wrong, or didn’t notice her at all, because she let Maeve sit there half asleep all class.

It wasn’t until the end of class that Maeve realized she hadn't been paying attention, but she did hear Miss Sands remind them that their wassay was due in two days. She had completely forgotten about the essay in all the commotion, and she really wasn’t happy to have another thing on her plate at the moment. But before she could worry too much about the essay, the bell rang and it was time to meet Aimee and figure out what she needed to do.

Aimee noticed something was off the moment that she saw her. “Oh my god, Maeve, what’s wrong? You look positively awful today.”

Maeve decided not to take offense to that, realizing that she did probably look awful. She hadn’t put much effort in that morning to get ready, because she was tired and she just didn’t feel like doing it. She never felt the need to look nice for others, but she always enjoyed looking nice for herself, and more recently, looking nice for Otis. She sighed at that and thought that Otis would have told her she looked beautiful no matter what. “I know Aims, I didn’t sleep much last night.”
Aimee gave her a tight hug, which she was grateful for, but it didn’t make her feel much better. “What happened? Are you okay?”

Maeve shook her head, she was definitely not okay. “Otis isn’t talking to me.” She knew that was far from the whole truth, but she didn’t think she could tell Aimee what she had done unless she was asked.

Not knowing the whole story, Aimee’s expression became one of anger. “Where is he? I'll set him straight.”

Despite how serious the matter was, Maeve had to struggle to not laugh at Aimee’s clenched fist and her attempt at a mean face. “No, Aimee, he’s right to not be talking to me.”

Aimee shook her head. “That can’t be true, tell me what happened.”

So Maeve began telling the story of what had happened yesterday, starting with her forgetting about their plans, and ending with him leaving her, shocked and upset outside of the bathroom. She had always heard that opening up made you feel better, but after telling Aimee what had happened, she felt even worse about what she had done.

Aimee agreed that she had screwed up, but didn’t say so, because Maeve needed support and advice, not criticism. She gave Maeve another hug. “Oh Maeve, I’m so sorry.”

Maeve pulled away from her. “Don’t be sorry, I deserve it, I’m an awful person.”

Aimee grabbed Maeve firmly by the shoulders. “You are not an awful person, he’s messed up before too, remember? You guys always make up in the end.”

“Yeah, but what do I need to do to get him to forgive me?”

“You need to go talk to him, he needs to know how much you care about him. You can do this, Maeve, he’ll forgive you, I know it.” She smiled at Maeve and hugged her once more before turning and heading towards the door.

“Thanks Aimee, that’s good advice.” She would go see him that night, and hopefully he would at least be willing to talk to her. She wasn’t sure what she wanted to say to him, but she had all day to plan that out, and she was going to make up for all she had done.

When Eric got to Otis’ house after school, he was concerned, but had no idea what had happened, and didn’t think it would be very serious. But when Otis told him what had happened, he realized just how wrong he had been. He could tell that Otis was really struggling to forgive Maeve, and he was worried that after everything they had gone through, it might have all been for nothing. He wasn’t sure what to tell Otis either, on one hand, he wanted to encourage Otis to forgive her, but on the other hand, Maeve had really messed up, and he thought she had to earn his forgiveness.

Knowing that any opinion from him would largely affect Otis’ decision, Eric decided to focus on comforting his friend instead. Giving him a hug, Eric told him, “I’m so sorry that happened Otis.”

Otis shrugged, trying to play it off cool. “I’m over it, I just need some time.”

“You’re a very bad liar Otis, I know that you’re not over it.”

“Well, what do you think I should do?” Otis asked, exasperated.

Eric had absolutely no idea, but he didn’t want to tell that to Otis. “It really depends, Otis. If you think that she realizes she made a mistake, and she won't try it again, then I think you should talk to her, when you’re ready of course. But if you’re not ready, you should wait to see what she has to say to you. If she really does feel bad, which I think she does, she’ll prove it to you when she keeps trying to earn her forgiveness.” He was satisfied with that advice, it wasn’t the best, but he felt like it was good enough to help him out. “Now I’m going to leave you to figure out what you want to do then get some sleep. I’m making you go to school tomorrow no matter what, Oatcake.”

Otis smiled, feeling a bit better after his conversation with Eric.”Don’t worry Eric, I’ll be back tomorrow, thanks for the advice.”

With that, Eric left, and Otis thought about what he wanted to do after hearing what Eric had to say. He had mentioned that Maeve had seemed almost panicked when he wasn’t there, and he thought that maybe he should talk to Maeve. He decided to talk to her and give her a chance tomorrow when he was at school. Satisfied with this, he went to sleep thinking he would probably sleep all the way until tomorrow morning.

It wasn’t long after Eric left that Maeve got to Otis’ house, hoping to gain his forgiveness. As she descended the steps to his front door, she felt her heart pounding in her chest, and her nerves tried to tell her to get out of there. She almost did, but she told herself that every minute she didn’t try to talk to him increased the chance that he wouldn’t be able to forgive her.

She knocked on the door, scared shitless, but not allowing herself to run away. When the door opened, it was Jean she saw, not Otis. “Hello Maeve, what can I do for you?” She hadn't forgotten that Maeve was the source of her son’s mood, but she didn’t know what had happened, and she wasn’t going to judge Maeve.

Maeve was nervous, and when she spoke, it was barely more than a whisper. “Hi Miss Milburn, can I talk to Otis?”

Jean shook her head sadly, and Maeve was worried that Jean hated her until she explained. “He’s only just gone to sleep, and he needs his rest. He’ll be back at school tomorrow though, and I’m sure that he’ll talk to you then. Do you mind telling me what happened between you guys? Otis won’t tell me.”

Maeve definitely didn’t want to admit her guilt to her, so she came up with a different excuse. “I think I’ll leave that to Otis to tell you if he wants to it’s not my place.”

Jean nodded. “I understand.”

Maeve said goodbye and was halfway up the stairs when she heard Jean call out from behind her. “He wants to forgive you. I’m not sure what happened but I know that. He thinks he hides his emotion from me, but I can tell that he’ll forgive you.”

Maeve smiled at that, hoping she was right, and then continued walking up the stairs and then home. If all went right, she and Otis would be mending their relationship starting tomorrow, and soon this would all just be a bad dream.

Chapter Text

Otis had been correct when he assumed that he would sleep straight through to the morning, and that showed him just how tired he really had been. He still wasn’t sure what he was going to say to Maeve at school. He missed her, but he needed her to show him how much she really cared before he could forgive her. He thought that may be a selfish thought, but it was how he felt, so he just went with it.

He made sure that he got up in time to go to school that day, he wasn’t going to miss another day. He was excited to ride into school with Eric. Eric always took his mind off of whatever he happened to be worried about.

As Otis was finishing getting dressed, he heard a knock on his door. It was his mom. “Are you awake, Otis?”

“Yeah mum, I’ll be down in just a minute, is Eric here?” He questioned.

“Not yet, I was just making sure you were awake.” He heard her footsteps going back down the stairs, and continued getting ready. He was just about to head downstairs when he heard the doorbell ring, and he made his way downstairs to meet Eric.

“You’re looking much better today Otis.” Were Eric’s first words to him.

“Well I’m not feeling any better.” Otis groaned, suddenly feeling frustrated.

Eric missed when Cupcake Otis. “Okay, well you’ll feel better once you talk to Maeve.”

Otis was scared that a conversation with Maeve would only make things worse, which he knew was stupid, but he didn’t let that stop him from worrying about it. “I don’t know, Eric, what if it doesn’t work out and we end up actually breaking up?”

“Otis, do you still want to be with her?” Eric questioned him aggressively.

“Of course! I’m upset right now but I don’t want to break up with her, I just need time.”

Eric sighed and shook his head. “She obviously still wants to be with you, so you need to stop being so stupid and talk to her, if you both still like each other, you won’t break up. And if you need time, I’m sure she’ll give you every minute you need.”

Otis was still feeling unsure, but deep down, he knew Eric was right. “Okay, I’ll talk to her. But I definitely still need time.”
“Speaking of break ups, I know that you and Maeve aren’t broken up obviously, but what would you label your relationship at the moment?”

Otis smiled slightly. “Under construction?”

Eric punched him in the shoulder. “Oh so now you’re in a joking mood? And that wasn’t even a good joke Otis.”

Maeve was waiting in the same spot she had been yesterday. It wasn’t even close to the time that Otis normally got there, but she still worried that he wouldn’t show up again. Any plan she had yesterday wasn’t going to be put into effect today, she was just going to say whatever her heart told her to say at the moment. She thought that sounded incredibly corny, but it was true, you can’t plan out these things, they have to come straight from the heart.

She stood there wringing her hands in her shirt and playing with her hair. She hated that anyone had this much control over her emotions, but knew that sometimes that was just how it went when you loved someone. She wondered if Otis still loved her, she had certainly given him plenty of reasons not to. Aimee would have told her that she was being stupid, that Otis would have broken up with her if he didn’t love her anymore. Aimee wasn’t there, however, and she couldn’t help but remember Otis’ drunken speech where he claimed he only stayed with Ola to be a good boyfriend, and she wondered if he was doing the same with her.

She didn’t have too much time to dwell on these thoughts though, because soon enough, she saw him. He was walking in with Eric, and the first thing she noticed was how happy he looked joking around with his best friend. She wasn’t sure how to feel, on the one hand, she worried that if he was happy, that meant he didn’t care about what had happened the other day. But she thought that if he wasn’t upset, he wouldn’t have stayed home yesterday. That meant there was only the possibility that he was just enjoying being with his best friend and forgetting about his problems, and she was going to ruin that soon.

Sure enough, as soon as Otis noticed Maeve waiting for him just beyond the bike racks, his face fell. He wasn’t upset about seeing her, but as Maeve had suspected, he had forgotten all of his problems while joking around with Eric, and when he saw her, it all came flooding back. If he was being honest with himself, he was scared to go and talk to her, but he felt Eric’s hand on his shoulder, reassuring him. “You got this man, help her make things right.”

With that, Eric left them to talk their problems out. They approached each other, both of their hearts threatening to beat out of their chests at any moment. Neither of them noticed how nervous the other looked, they were too busy worrying about themselves. When they reached each other, they both just stood there, and then started talking at the same time.

“Otis, I-”

“Maeve, I-”

They both chuckled, neither of them really finding it funny, but instead just trying to lighten the mood. “You go first.” Otis said.

Maeve took a shaky breath in before beginning. “Otis, I really messed up, I know that, and I want to make it up to you. Can you please just let me try?” So much for a big, long, heartfelt speech, apparently that was all her heart had to say.

“Maeve, do you know why I haven’t broken up with you?” Otis asked her.

Maeve shook her head. “Not really, I deserve it.”

He shook his head. “No you don’t, I’ve screwed up a lot too, and you always forgave me. I want to make things work, I really do. That’s why I haven’t broken up with you.”

Maeve felt relief when he said that. “What can I do to make things right then?” She said in an almost pleading voice. She was willing to do anything for him, and she hoped he saw that. She just wanted things to go back to the way they were.

“All I need is time, Maeve. I know that you’re sorry for what happened, and you would never hurt me on purpose. I just need to have some time to heal and forgive you. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not angry at you, and even when I found out, I was only a little angry. Mostly I’ve just been upset, and I’ll get over it, but I haven’t quite yet.”

Maeve was disappointed by that, but she couldn’t say she didn’t understand where he was coming from. Whenever Otis screwed up, he always apologized, then he gave her space, she could do the same for him. “I’ll give you every minute you need, Otis.” She said seriously, repeating what Eric had said earlier word for word.

Eric wasn’t going to leave him alone when he found out he was right about Otis’ doubts, but Otis was glad that he was wrong and Eric was right. “Thank you Maeve I promise I won’t take too long.” Now that they had the conversation, he felt like he was much closer to completely forgiving her, but not quite there yet. He was close enough to give her a hug before leaving though.

She hugged him back tightly, happy with even just that after believing just a little bit ago that he might not even love her anymore. “Take all the time you need Otis, I’ll still be waiting when you’re ready.”

After a while, Otis pulled away. “Well, I’ll see you around then?”

Maeve nodded. “I’ll see you around, Otis.”

The bell rang just as they both left to go to their lockers, and they both made plans to see their best friends during lunch and tell them about what had just happened. Maeve felt as though their relationship was now trending upwards instead of downwards. Otis felt like he was much closer to forgiving Maeve than he had been earlier, and he thought that they could be back to normal as soon as next week.

Aimee and Maeve had decided to meet at their usual spot in the bathroom so Maeve could tell her how the conversation had gone. Maeve was sitting in the windowsill, smoking a cigarette, when Aimee practically came running in, skidding to a stop in front of Maeve. “So, what happened? I’ve been waiting all day to hear about it.”

Maeve laughed and shook her head. “Aimee, sometimes I think you care about these things more than I do.” She knew that wasn’t true, nobody cared about what happened with Otis more than she did, but sometimes Aimee could be so dramatic about these things.

“Yes! I absolutely do care more Maeve, now tell me what happened.” She was very impatient to find out what happened, and she wasn’t going to let Maeve drag out her response.

So Maeve told Aimee what had happened. With that morning still fresh in her mind, she could repeat their whole conversation almost word for word. She could see Aimee’s expression get happier and happier as Maeve’s story progressed, and she was smiling from ear to ear by the time it was done. “That’s so great, I told you it would be fine!”

Maeve began to smile as well. “Yeah I know, I just can’t wait until he gets over it and we can be together again.”

Aimee rolled her eyes. “Please, he’s practically over it by now, you guys will be forgetting this ever happened soon enough.”

Maeve sighed. “I won’t ever forget this Aimee, I need to remember it. I can never make this mistake again.”

Aimee gave her a hug. “You won’t do it again, and even if you do, which you won’t, you guys will always work through it. He’s great, Maeve, he’ll always forgive you.”

Maeve nodded, hoping Aimee was right. “Thanks Aimee.”

Eric was just as excited as Aimee, but he was also confused. “Wait, you’re completely fine right now, why did you say you still need time? It doesn’t really seem like you need it.”

“I still need time, trust me. I’m just happy because my future with her is still bright, and I didn’t know if it would be before this morning. I’m not upset with her very much anymore, but I need to re-establish trust with her before we can get back to relationship things.”

Eric shook his head. ;I don’t know Otis, I think that you guys are just fine without anymore time apart, but do what you think is best, I guess.”

“It won’t be long Eric, we’ll be better before you know it, then you won’t have to deal with grumpy Otis anymore.

“Good, I hate grumpy Otis.” Eric joked.

“So do I.” Otis said with a sigh.

Chapter Text

Otis hadn’t seen his dad much since the argument, and for the most part, he was okay with that. But now his dad was going to be leaving for America, and he made plans to see Otis before he left. After school that day, he was going to pick Otis up, and they were going to get something to eat, so they could visit for a bit before he had to leave. He wanted to follow up with his conversation with Otis the other say as well, when he had given him advice on how to not be an asshole.

Otis hadn’t been particularly excited when his dad had first made the plans, but as it came closer his feelings on the matter changed. After his conversation with his dad that day when he was supposed to be in school, he did want to try and establish a better connection between the two of them. That was why he agreed to have dinner with his dad. He wondered if his dad had gotten anything out of their conversation like Otis had. He certainly seemed to get emotional while they were talking, but he also didn’t trust his dad to actually change, so he didn’t expect much out of their dinner that night.

When his dad picked him up Otis already had his shoes on, wanting to leave before his parents had a chance to get into another argument. He didn’t expect them to start fighting, not after what had happened last time, but he wanted to be on the safe side. He had gotten over their last argument pretty quickly, but that didn’t mean he could handle another one. He opened the door and practically pushed his dad out of the way to get up to the car after a quick greeting.

Remi looked at Jean, who had been following close behind Otis, and she just shrugged. It was a shrug that said ‘He’s a teenager, hell if I know what’s going on with him.’ He smiled at her and asked. “How’s everything.”

“Pretty good for me.” She then sighed and added. “Otis, however, seems to be struggling.” He looked at her quizzically, in a way that told her to go on. “He won’t tell me, you know that by now, but he came home very upset the other night and he’s been kind of down ever since. I’ll leave it up to you whether or not you think you should talk to him about it, but if you do, I’d tread lightly.”

“Noted.” He said, wondering what could have Otis so down.

Jean nodded her head towards Remi’s car. “I think our son’s getting impatient, you better get going.”
“Alright, I’ll see you later.” He turned and walked to the car, debating whether or not to talk to Otis about whatever had him upset. He decided that he wouldn’t. If it was important, Otis would bring it up, just like he had for their last deep and meaningful conversation. He hoped Otis would bring it up though, he was trying to change, he had decided that when Otis had told him how hard it had been for him to grow up without a dad, and he wanted to rebuild their relationship. “Hey Otis, how are you?” He asked as he got in the car.

“I’m good, dad.” Otis replied in a voice that told Remi he was, in fact, not good. But it didn’t sound like he was very upset, it just sounded like what Jean said, he seemed ‘a little down’. If he had been more upset, Remi definitely would have asked him what was wrong, but because he didn’t sound too sad, he just left it for the moment.

“How’s Eric? I haven’t heard about him in a while.” He wondered if Eric was the source of Otis’ problems. He had heard from Jean about their fight from a while ago, and thought that something might have happened between them.

“Eric’s good. We just hung out the other night.” Otis said in a way that told him that the issue was not with Eric. But something about the way Otis had answered told him to not question any further until they got to the restaurant, so they spent the rest of the car ride with an empty silence between them.

They got to the restaurant, some pizza place neither of them had been to, not long after that, and they went in to get a table. Otis didn’t say much as they were being seated, and still didn’t talk after they had been sitting for a few minutes. Remi had wanted to give him the chance to talk, but he wasn’t going to. Remi started a conversation instead. “So, your mom told me about some sort of sex clinic thing, what’s that all about?” When Otis seemed startled, he reassured him. “I’m not going to be upset with you, I’m sure you got enough of that from you mother, I’m just interested.”

Feeling a little reassured, but not too much, Otis decided to talk to him about it. “Well, at the beginning of this year, someone was having… sex problems. So I talked them through it, and it actually really helped. Maeve was there when it happened, and she had the idea to help students with their problems, because the school wasn’t doing a very good job with it, and we could charge them for it. It’s actually how Maeve and I started hanging out.”

Remi took a moment to process that, he had heard some of this from Jean, but it was different hearing it from Otis. He wondered if Otis was withholding anything to make it seem less unethical, but didn’t question it. He had been telling the truth when he said he didn’t want to get Otis in trouble. “So you did it for the money, not so you could help?”

Otis shook his head. “It was never about the money for me, but I also didn’t do it to help people. I just did it so I could hang out with Maeve, even if I didn’t know it back then. I didn’t like her like I do know, but I didn’t have many friends, and she seemed pretty cool.” Even though they had all but made up, it hurt to talk about Maeve, and he wondered if he made a mistake when he said he needed more time earlier that day. But it did feel good to talk about the clinic with someone who wasn’t upset with him about it.

“You’re not still doing it, are you?” Remi questioned, knowing it wouldn’t have been the first time Otis hadn’t listened to his mom.

Otis clamped up and got uncomfortable. “Well, we were doing it again just last week, but I thought we weren’t doing it for money, that we were just helping people.”

Remi raised an eyebrow. “You thought?”

Otis sighed. “It’s complicated. Maeve needed the money, so she told me we would be doing it for free, but she was secretly taking money. I only found out when someone forgot to pay her, and they came back to pay her while I was right there.”

Suddenly, Remi understood why Otis had been so upset. He didn’t understand how important the fact that they weren’t charging had been to Otis though, so he didn’t know how upset Otis had been. “So, what’s happening between you and Maeve now?”

“We talked it out, and I’ve pretty much forgiven her, I just told her I need a little more time.”

Remi was still confused. “Otis, as a therapist, I understand that time is one of the most important things when healing a relationship, but why do you need time? You said that you had forgiven her for the most part, so what’s going on?”

Otis found himself unable to answer that question. He had told Eric it was because he had forgiven her, but he still needed to rebuild the trust between them, but he realized that wasn’t true either. If something awful had happened that day, the first person he would have gone to for comfort would have been Maeve. He did still trust her, and he found himself wondering the real reason why he said he needed time. “I’m… really not sure dad.”

“Do you remember the conversation we had a few weeks ago? Well as part of not letting people go, if nothing is really wrong, you should probably go and fix things before something actually does go wrong.” Remi thought that would be pretty obvious but then again, he didn’t follow that advice himself, so he couldn’t really judge Otis.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

This certainly wasn’t the conversation Remi had been imagining when he thought he wanted to reconnect with his son, but he knew that this conversation was just as valuable as any other one that they could have had. He didn’t like to admit it, but he had really loved Jean when they had been together, and he didn’t want Otis to mess up his relationship like he had messed up his own. “Otis, how much do you like Maeve?”

Otis didn’t notice that he had smiled, but Remi did. ‘I love her, dad. She’s the reason I had that conversation with you a few weeks ago. I almost lost her.”

“And you don’t want to lose her do you?” He questioned.

“Of course not!” Otis exclaimed, thinking that was pretty obvious.

“Then I’ll tell you what, when we’re done eating, I’m going to drive you to Maeve’s, and you’re going to talk things through with her, and we’re not leaving until you do.”

Maeve sat at her table working on her essay. The subject of trust had been a pretty broad subject for it, and she was having trouble writing it. She had planned on writing about how her family had broken her trust over and over, but for some reason, that just didn’t feel right, and she didn’t think her essay was going to be good at all.

She picked up her phone to procrastinate, something she rarely did, and she thought about texting Otis. She almost did before she decided that she should probably listen to what he had told her, and give him his space. She wished he would hurry up and talk to her again. She understood why he needed time, though, she had broken his trust, and she was lucky he had forgiven her for what she had done.

At that moment, an idea popped into her head. She could write the essay about how she had betrayed Otis’ trust. She didn’t like the idea of admitting her own faults in her essay, but she felt like it was the right thing to do, and she also felt like it would help her to remember this and not make the same mistake twice, like she had been telling Aimee earlier that day.

She put her phone down and began to write. It felt almost freeing to write about what had happened, and the words came easily. She thought writing it might make her feel bad, but she found that the opposite was true. She finished her essay within an hour and a half, and she was about to go to bed early when she heard a knock on her door. She went to answer the door and saw Otis standing there looking nervous.

Otis hated how even though Maeve was his girlfriend, she still had the ability to make him incredibly nervous and tongue tied. He didn’t really know what he planned on saying when he got there, but he knew his dad was right. Unless things were really bad, he needed to work through things with Maeve, not just on his own. Maeve looked at him questioningly without saying anything. Otis decided to get straight to the point. “I don’t need time, Maeve, I need you.”

Maeve had been floored, she would have been ecstatic if he had forgiven her by the end of the week, and yet he was there the night after they had talked about it. She wasn’t sure what to say, so all she said was, “Okay.”

It was only one word, but that was all she had to say before he was kissing her, and she was kissing him back. When they pulled away from each other, she asked him, “Do you want to come inside?”

He nodded. “Sure, but only for a bit. And I know we say that all the time, but I mean it, I’ve got to be home tonight.”

“That’s fine, you can stay however long you want.”

He took out his phone to text his dad to let him know he was staying for a while, and would walk home when he was done. His dad offered to wait, but Otis told him it was fine, he didn’t mind walking home, and thanked him for the advice that night.

Almost right away after he finished texting his dad, Maeve took his hand and led him back to her bedroom. She practically threw him down on the bed and got on top of him before she started kissing him. After doing that for a while, she began to unbutton his shirt, then his pants. She stopped herself a moment. “Are you okay with this?” She asked.

Otis nodded, not saying anything. He was perfectly okay with it.

Chapter Text

"Yeah mum, I'll be home soon." Otis sighed, turning to Maeve and shrugging his shoulders.

"Bye mum." he said after a moment, sounding irritated. He hung up the phone. "Sorry, my mom told me I have to get home."

"That's fine, the weekend is coming up, we can see each other more then, right?" Maeve said, trying to cheer him up.

"Yeah, I guess that's true." He said, seeming a little happier. "I just don't want to be the guy who has sex then just leaves."

She chuckled, shaking her head. "I know you're not that guy, Otis. I'd say know you pretty well, and I can say that out of all the dickhead moves you could pull, that would never be one of them."

"Okay, I still feel bad though."

"Would it help you if I walked you home so you felt like you hung around with me for a little while after." Maeve said sarcastically.

"No, that's okay, I won't make you do that." 

Maeve continued with her sarcasm. "You can't make me do anything, dickhead. I was offering."

Otis smiled at her, finally picking up on her sarcasm. "Fine then, I didn't want you to anyways."

She got up out of the bed and walked to the door with him. She smiled at how concerned he was about leaving her, and how badly he tried to be a good boyfriend, even though he had already succeeded at that. How is he so perfect? She asked herself, And why the hell did he fall in love with me? Aimee had asked her the other day about why she had been so quick to forgive him after what had happened at the party, and the only reason she could come up with was that he was so sweet, and as much as she hadn't wanted to admit it, for every time he had been an asshole, there seemed to be at least ten more times where he was perfect. He had been the one who taught her that even though love hurt sometimes, you had to take the pain, because the result was always worth it. 

He noticed the way she was looking at him from the doorway to her caravan while she was lost in her thoughts about him. "What are you smiling about?"

"Just thinking about you, muppet." She said, descending the stairs to meet him outside and kiss him. 

When they pulled away, Otis grinned mischievously. "Oh, is scary Maeve going soft?"

She punched him in the shoulder. "Careful, I could still take you down in an instant, dickhead."

Otis out both of his hands up, mocking surrender. "Okay, point taken." Then, suddenly serious, he said. "I should probably get going home, my mum's going to call me again soon if I don't."

She nodded, leaning in for another kiss. "Okay, I'll see you tomorrow at school then?"

"Yeah see you then." He started walking away, but he turned around and before she could close the door all the way, he called out. "Hey, Maeve?"

She opened the door all the way again. "Yeah?"

"I love you."

He couldn't see her expression from where he stood, but when she responded, she sounded slightly choked up. "I love you too, dickhead."

"So, how was dinner with your dad?" Eric asked as they rode their bikes towards the school.

Otis had been waiting fro Eric to ask him about the night before. He hadn't mentioned anything about going to see Maeve, and wondered if Eric was going to be able to contain himself when he found out. "It went well, we had a really good conversation, then I went somewhere else after."

Eric's interest was piqued. "Where did you go next?"

"I went to go see Maeve." Otis told him as they walked their bikes towards the bike racks.

"Really? So you guys are okay now then?"

"Yeah, and also, something else happened." Otis looked at Eric, wondering if he was going to be able to guess what he was talking about.

Eric's jaw dropped and his whole body seemed to go still. He definitely knew what Otis was talking about. "No way. You're kidding me right?"

Otis smirked at his friend's reaction. "I'm serious, Eric."

Suddenly, he was on Otis' back, screaming. "Oh my god Otis! You dirty pig!"

Otis tried to get him off his back and act serious, but he couldn't stop himself from laughing. "Get off, I swear your happier than I am."

Eric got off and grabbed him by the shoulders, shaking him. "Of course I'm happy, I've been waiting forever for this."

Otis gave him a skeptical look. "Why have you been waiting forever for this?"

"Because, I've been watching you're relationship with Maeve like a TV show, and now I'm so invested." Eric said, like it should have been obvious.

"It's not like I was a virgin anyways, so I still don't get why you're so excited.;

Eric scoffed at him. "Do you remember what it was like with Ruby?" And then when Otis shook his head, he said, "There you go, you may not have been a virgin, but it was pretty much like you were one."

"I don't think that's how it works." Otis said, but he knew Eric was sort of right. Thinking about what Eric had said combined with his lack of experience, he began to question whether or not he had actually been any good. His experience with Ola and the clock technique had taught him not to assume he was good at anything. He supposed that in a way, it had been a humbling experience, but on the other hand, after that, ever since, he sometimes found himself questioning whether he was even any good at kissing, let alone anything else. 

He tried not to let the stress get to him, but he was concerned, and Eric could tell. "What's up, you're face went all weird there."

Otis shook his head and told himself he was being stupid. "Nothing, I've got to get to class, but I'll see you later."

"Okay, goodbye dirty pig!" Eric yelled after him.

He was almost to class when he got a text.

Maeve: Hey, I didn't see you this morning, meet me at lunch?

Otis: Yeah, I'll see you then.

He suddenly felt very sweaty and nervous. Would she tell him if he had done something wrong? He was sure that Maeve wouldn't be one to hid that from him to spare his feelings, she was almost always very direct. But then again, Ola was almost always direct as well, but she hadn't told him when he fingered her really badly. He wondered if that was what she was going to tell him when they met up, but thought that she wouldn't do that to him at school, she might be direct, but she would still let him down easy. At least that was what he hoped.

Otis saw Maeve leaning against the wall during lunch, and he was about to say hi to her, but he found himself unable to talk. He hadn't been able to stop himself from thinking about the night before, he kept replaying it in his mind, trying to remember if she had said anything afterwards that might suggest whether or not he had been any good. He told himself to take a deep breath, then forced himself to speak. "Hey Maeve."

She turned and smiled when she saw him. "Hey muppet, how are you?"

He swallowed nervously, then answered. "I'm doing good, how are you?"

She instantly saw that something was up with him. "What's wrong, you look worried."

Otis shook his head. "What? There's nothing wrong, I'm fine."

She shrugged, knowing that wasn't the truth, but also knowing that he trusted her enough to talk to her about it if there really was something wrong. "Okay then. Hey, do you want to hang at mine later?" She winked suggestively, hoping he understood what she meant by that.

He nodded. "Sure, I told Eric I would hang out with him after school, but we can hang out after if you want. Is that okay?"

"Yeah, that works fine for me."  

They sat and ate their lunch for a while, talking about anything and everything. Maeve told Otis about how Aimee was complaining because Steve was always busy with studying, even though the quiz heads weren't a thing until the competition started again next year. Otis told her about how Eric was so invested in their relationship, but he didn't tell her about their conversation that morning. He didn't think she would mind him telling Eric, but eh decided not to say anything about it anyways.

After a while, Maeve stood up. "Well, I've got to get going. I don't want to be late for my aptitude class."

Otis stood up as well. "Alright, I'll see you later then?"

"Yeah, I'll see you later." She said, kissing him and beginning to walk away.

Before she could get too far away, however, Otis called after her. "Maeve, wait!"

She stopped and turned around. "Yeah?"

He decided to just ask her. "Was I ummm... was I any good? You know, last night? I just... I'm not very experienced, and I'm kind of worried that I was bad. And if I was, I want to know, because I want t-"

Knowing that he was probably going to go off into a nervous rant if she didn't stop him, Maeve walked back up to him and kissed him. When she pulled away, he was quiet. "If weren't any good, dickhead, do you think I would have winked at you that way when I invited you over tonight? You were good, so stop worrying, alright muppet?"

He nodded. "Okay, I think I can accept that."

"I don't know why you get so down on yourself Otis, you're a great guy. We can talk more later, but I have to get to class, are you going to be okay?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine."

She kissed him goodbye again and walked off, leaving him to stand there, still slightly insecure, now worried about the night ahead of him instead of the night before.

Chapter Text

"So, how was it? Tell me everything!"

Otis had just closed his door and Eric was already all over him about last night. He had been excited to talk to Eric, but now his uncertainty made him reluctant to talk about it. Maeve had reassured him, and he knew he should trust her, but had also thought the same thing with Ola, and she had ended up lying to him just so he wouldn't feel bad. He basically ignored the fact that Maeve had all but outright told him she wanted to do it again that night, his mind saying that she didn't really mean it and she was just trying to make him feel better. He would have to figure out how to be better, sooner rather than later, but how could he do that? He was the therapist, he wasn't supposed to be the one who needed help, yet there he was wishing he had an Otis of his own.

"Otis?"

Otis snapped back to reality, Eric was waving his hand in front of his face, and was looking at him expectantly. "Sorry, what did you ask?"

"How was it? You haven't told me anything about it."

Otis shook his head. "I'm not going to give you details if that's what you mean, Eric. That would be weird."

Eric scoffed and punched Otis' shoulder. "I'm not asking to know the dirty details, Otis, I'm gay, remember? I don't care about that, but you haven't  told me anything about it, was it good?"

Otis hesitated. "Yeah, it was good." He wouldn't meet Eric's eyes.

"I can tell when you're lying, I've been your friend for years. So it wasn't good? I find that hard to believe."

"No, it was great, I just..." He trailed off, not sure if he wanted to talk to Eric about it. He hadn't been very helpful during the whole fingering thing, but then again, he had been busy worrying about Rahim, so maybe he could actually be helpful this time.

Eric put his hand on Otis' shoulder, suddenly concerned. "What's wrong Otis? You know you can tell me right?"

Might as well tell him, I guess. Otis thought. "Well, you see, I had a great time, but this morning I was thinking that maybe Maeve didn't. I think that I might have been really bad and that I was too caught up in the moment to notice it. And I asked her and she told me I was good but I don't know if that's the truth or if she was trying to spare my feelings and now I'm all nervous and I don't know what to do." By the end he was talking about as fast as an auctioneer.

Eric started laughing hysterically. "Otis man, you're too funny sometimes."

Otis got frustrated. "Eric, this is serious, I don't know what to do."

When he finally stopped laughing and was able to contain himself, he put his hand back on Otis' shoulder. "Listen man, I think that Maeve wouldn't be one to spare your feelings, she's gonna give it to you straight, alright?"

Otis shook his head. "I'm still not sure."

Eric sighed. "Well then, let's think about it logically, because you certainly aren't. Now, you said Ruby told you that you weren't amazing but you also weren't that bad, right?" Otis nodded, and Eric continued. "So, we know that you were at least decent with Ruby, and you were drunk then. I'm pretty sure all logic points to the fact that you're skills can only improve when you're sober, so you were at least decent, if not even better, make sense?"

Otis still felt uneasy. "Kind of, but what if the only reason I was any good with Ruby was because I was drunk. What if the fact that I was sober made me nervous, and that affected it."

Eric let out a groan. "Listen, Otis, I don't have time for your games, just think about what I said, and lets play Smash Bros or something."

Feeling more comfortable now that they were going to be playing video games instead of talking about Maeve, Otis grabbed the controllers and began setting up the game. He was about to ask Eric about how Adam was, just to make conversation, when he heard footsteps walking away from his room, then the sound of someone tripping and quietly swearing. Eric heard it too, and he looked towards Otis questioningly. He seemed to know exactly 

Otis groaned. "Jesus, my mum can't leave me alone for five minutes!" He grabbed a pillow to throw, then decided against it, opting to let out a cry of frustration instead.

"Ah, that's what that was." Eric said, realizing that Jean would be the only other person in the house, so that had to be it. "Whatever man, don't worry about it for now, let's just play Smash Bros."

Otis sighed. "Alright, but I can already tell you I'm not looking forward to the conversation she's going to make me have later."

However, he did end up forgetting his troubles while he and Eric played. It wasn't a long time, but he was happy to be able to relax for a while, and hanging out with your friend you told everything was a good way to do that. But good things can't last forever, and soon enough Eric was leaving to go see Adam and Otis was left to worry about seeing Maeve later. He had taken what Eric said into consideration, but how could he trust what Ruby had told him. She had been almost as drunk as him, that was evident in the fact that she hadn't been able to remember if they had used a condom or not. 

When it finally came time to leave, he felt like he was sweating profusely, and he couldn't get his nerves under control. This was how he felt when he talked to Maeve before they were together, it wasn't supposed to be like that now, he was supposed to be more confident. He didn't like feeling as out of control as he did at the moment. 

He waited until the last minute to leave, hoping he could avoid conversation with his mom. He quickly went down the stairs, and practically ran all the way to the front door. He thought he made it, but he heard his mom call his name right as he was leaving. He considered going anyways and pretending he didn't hear her, but he knew she was apt to follow him out if he didn't go talk to her, so he walked back in and went to the living room where his mom was waiting for him.

"Where are you going darling?" She asked him.

"I'm going to Maeve's, I told you that earlier." He responded, trying not to let the frustration creep into his voice.

"Yes, that's right, now I remember." Otis tried to turn around and leave, but she called out to him again. "Hold on, I want to talk to you before you go."

"Mum, I have to get going, I'm gonna be late."

"It'll be quick, I promise, just please sit down."

Otis reluctantly walked over and sat down on the couch next to his mom. He tried to think of something he could say to get this mom to get her off his back without saying anything that might cause an argument. He was frustrated with her, but he had promised himself to try and get into less arguments with her, so if he had to sit there for a few minutes and pretend to listen to what she was telling him he could try to do that. 

She seemed to consider what she was about to say, "Otis, it's come to my understanding that you may be experiencing some performance anxiety, and I would like to help you, so could you please tell me what's going on?"

"I don't know what you're talking about mum, I'm fine." He said, trying to avoid conflict while also not allowing her to therapize him.

"Otis, please talk to me, I only want to help."

He was starting to get frustrated, but he did his best to hold it in. "I would take your help if there was something I needed help with, but there isn't." Just leave me alone! he thought.

"I know that's not true Otis, and I don't think you should hold anything in."

He wasn't sure why he suddenly snapped, but he did, and he took her advice about not holding anything in. "Mum! If I have a problem, I can handle it on my own. And on the rare occasion that I would ever come to you for help, I would do it on my own, not with you forcing me against my will!"

"I don't like that tone, I'm your mother and I want to know what's going on with you." 

Otis stood up. "I think you found out what was going on when you had your ear pressed up against my door, listening to my private conversations!" He turned and walked towards the door.

Jean was shocked by his sudden outburst, and didn't say anything for a minute. By the time she had recovered enough to call out to him, he had already left, slamming the door on his way out.

Chapter Text

Otis wondered whether or not he should go back and talk to his mom. On one hand, she was just looking out for him, and she only wanted to help. But on the other hand, it had been completely inappropriate for her to eavesdrop on his conversation like she had done. Plus, even though he was anxious about going to see Maeve, he didn't want to be late, so he decided to go, and he would try to sort things out with him mom later. He didn't think going back would do much of anything anyway, he was still angry at her, and he was bound to just storm off again if she said anything that would upset him.

As soon as he decided not to go back and talk things out with his mom, his mind turned to his other issue: he still had absolutely no confidence in his preformance capabilites, and Maeve wanted to have sex again that night. He was able to convince himself that Maeve was okay with it, because she wanted to do it again. However, he couldn't help but think he still wasn't very good, and she was just fine with that. But even if she was fine with that, he wasn't. He wanted to be better, because he thought she deserved it, she shouldn't have to settle for his inadequacies. He didn't know what to do to fix it, either, because he definitely couldn't count on the internet for answers, that had just screwed him over before. In his worry, he didn't even think about what he learned with Ola, which was to just ask her what she liked, that could change everything, but he completely forgot that. 

Before he could think of a solution, he found himself standing in front of Maeve's caravan, and there was no time left for thinking. He decided that he would just do his best to get through that night, and he could think of a solution over the weekend. With his mind made up, Otis knocked on the door, and it opened instantly. "That was quick." he said to Maeve.

"Well I saw you standing there like a dickhead for at least thirty seconds, so I was already about to open the door when you knocked. What were you thinking about, muppet?" She asked him.

"Just my annoying mum." He lied, not wanting to tell her about his insecurities. 

She didn't seem to notice he was lying. "What happened?"

He shook his head. "It's nothing, she just can't seem to go two minutes without inserting herself into my life, it'll be fine."

She had heard him complain about his mom being nosy before, and she wanted to ask what it was about this time, but she decided against it. "Alright, well come on in."

He stepped inside and they made their way over to the couch, he sat down, and she sat next to him, leaning her head on his shoulder. "So what do you want to do?"

"I don't know" He responded. "Do you have any good movies we could watch?"

"I've probably got something, do you care what it is?" 

He shook his head. "No, I'll watch anything."

"Alright, well I guess I'll just pick any one of these." She said, picking a movie up and putting it in the DVD player before returning to the couch, leaning on Otis again. "This might not be any good, I've never seen it, it was my mum's." Then she sat up and whispered in his ear, "I don't think we'll be paying much attention to the movie anyways."

Otis audibly swallowed, then nodded and smiled at her, trying not to show how nervous he really was. She didn't notice his reaction, and so she leaned in to kiss him. Otis' entire body went stiff and instead of kissing back, he just sat there while she kissed him. It didn't take her long to realize that something was wrong, so she pulled back and looked at him questioningly.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing, I'm perfectly fine." He tried to sound convincing, but he knew that she would see right through it the second it came out of his mouth.

"I know that's not true." She took his hand. "You can talk to me about anything, you know that right? Is it about your mum?"

He shook his head. "No, that's not it, I'm used to her by now."

"Then what's wrong? I need you to talk to me."

He sighed, then decided there was no way out of it, so he decided to just go for it. "I'm worried that I was bad when we had sex, and that you just didn't want to hurt my feelings, so you told me I was good. And I'm stressing out about it because you deserve better and I don't want you to settle for me."

She took in what he had just told her, then she chuckled a little bit. "You worry way too much Otis. You were perfectly fine last night, no complaints from me. And also, I hope you realize that I value our emotional relationship much more than I value our physical relationship. I fell in love with you because you're an amazing person, not because I heard that you were great in bed."

Otis nodded, but he still looked unsure. "How do I know that you're not just trying to make me feel better?"

Now it was Maeve's turn to sigh. "Otis, you're really not fair to yourself. I feel like you don't ever realize how amazing you really are, and that's really frustrating to me. I used to feel like I would never be good enough, but then I met you, and you helped me to believe that I wasn't worthless. Did you know you're the reason I joined the aptitude scheme? I wish you could help yourself in the same way you can help other people."

"What do you mean? I feel like I'm good enough, I don't have a confidence issue." Yet when he said that, he didn't even believe himself.

"Maybe you're confident with some things, but when you're unsure about something, you just lock up, and you tell yourself that you're not good enough. I want you to see yourself the way I see you." Then she had an idea. "I know you're obviously not doing the clinic anymore, but what would you tell someone if they came to you with the same issue that you have."

Otis thought for a moment, then he remembered Aimee's house party, when he had helped someone else with their confidence issue. "Well, I did have someone like that ask me for help a long time ago."

"What did you tell them?"

"First I told their boyfriend they needed to help her to feel more secure, which you've already been doing. And then I did this thing where I made her list five things she liked about herself, and that seemed to help."

"Alright, so what are five things you like about yourself?" She asked him.

He thought for a moment. "Well, obviously I'm pretty good at helping other people."

"Definitely, but you've still got four more." Maeve responded.

"I'm smart, not aptitude scheme smart, but smart enough to be able to have a good life. I'm pretty good at video games, and I think I have great taste in music." Otis smiled at that one, remembering how many times he alphabetized his music collection in the past.

"Alright, one more"

He couldn't think of another thing to sat though, so Maeve jumped in again. "I'll help you out with this one. I think that you're a really good kisser." She said, leaning in to kiss him. "Better?" She asked him when they pulled away from each other. 

He nodded. "Yeah, but I think it'll take some time before I really become confident in myself."

"That's fine."

Otis smiled. "But I am confident enough to do this." He leaned in to kiss her once again.

This kiss lasted longer than the first one, and when they finished, she grabbed his hand and began leading him back to her bedroom. This time, he left all his worries behind.

Chapter Text

The good thing about getting home around eleven that night was that Otis’ mom had already gone to sleep, meaning he wouldn’t have to deal with her wanting to talk to him about what had happened earlier. She had texted him to check in before she went to sleep, but she didn’t mention anything about their argument.

He knew that they would still need to talk eventually, but that would be easier now that there wasn’t much of a problem anymore. He would just apologize for yelling at her and then tell her that he had already solved the problem. His confidence hadn’t magically healed after talking to Maeve, but he could now say he was heading in the right direction and he definitely didn’t need his mom to help him.

He made sure to be quiet going up the stairs in order to keep from waking up his mom. The last thing he wanted was for her to force him to have the conversation right then. He was pretty tired and he wanted to get a good night's rest for once. He hadn’t gotten much sleep that week because of all the stress he had been dealing with.

Before going to bed, he saw he had a message from Maeve:

Maeve: Hey, I had a great time tonight, I hope you're feeling better now.

Otis: I had a great time. I’m definitely feeling better, thanks for being patient with me. 

Maeve: No problem, I didn't mind.

Otis: Do you want to come over for dinner tomorrow? My mom's going out to dinner with Jakob so it would just be us.

Maeve: Yeah, that would be nice.

Otis: Okay, does 6 work for you?

Maeve: Yeah, that  works. I'll see you then.

Otis: Okay, I love you. Goodnight.

Maeve: I love you too.

  With that, he laid down in bed. His mind wasn’t racing as it had been earlier that day, so he found it pretty easy to drift off, and before he knew it he was asleep.

Maeve wasn't able to fall asleep as easily as Otis that night. She found herself thinking about how she had hurt Otis earlier that week, and she felt really bad every time she did. She knew that he had forgiven her by that point and that things would be okay between them, but that didn't make her feel any better about herself. She wanted to make it  up to him, but she wasn't sure how she could do that. 

She hated that he always seemed to know what to do when it came to romantic gestures with things like the trophy and the voicemail, but she had no clue what to do for him. She knew that in a few days it would be one month since they had started dating, She would use that as the reasoning for whatever it was that she did, because she was sure he wouldn't accept whatever she tried to give him if she said it was to make up for hurting him, but he would accept it as an anniversary gift. She knew that one month wasn't a long time compared to how long she hoped they would be together, but it was still special to her, so that would be when she gave him whatever surprise she decided on.

She felt better having a plan in place, but she still had no idea what she was going to do for him, and that really bothered her. She decided to text Aimee to see if she had any ideas.

Maeve: Hey Aims, are you awake?

Aimee: Yeah, what's up?

Maeve: Can you help me plan a romantic surprise for Otis? It's our one month anniversary soon.

Aimee: Absolutely! What do you want to do?

Maeve: I'm not sure, that's why I asked you.

Aimee: Can you come over tomorrow to talk about it?

Maeve: I'm going to Otis' for dinner, but I can do it before then.

Aimee: Alright, I'll see you then.

She still didn't have a plan, but she felt like she was in good hands with Aimee helping her, and she found it much easier to fall asleep.

Otis was surprised that his mom hadn't said anything to him about their argument yet that day, but he still suspected it was coming. She was getting ready to go out to dinner though, so he thought she probably wouldn't bring it up until tomorrow. If she didn't talk to him about it then, he would let his guard down, but for now he was still ready for her to start asking him questions that he really didn't want to answer.

His guess that she wouldn't mention it that night was proven wrong however when she came in and sat down on the couch next to him before leaving. He could tell what she was going to say from the look on her face, so he prepared himself in the hopes of not getting angry at her this time.

She took a breath, then began to speak. "Otis, about our fight last night, I wanted to apologize."

Otis never knew exactly what was going to come out of his mom's mouth, but that was the last thing he would have expected to hear. "What?"

She put a hand on his shoulder. "I never should have listened to your private conversation, and I'm sorry. I hope you know that I did it purely out of concern for you, and while that's not an excuse for what I did, it is an explanation."

This was completely uncharted territory for Otis, and he wasn't quite sure what to say. "Umm... Thank you mum. I understand why you did it, I just wish I could have some more privacy sometimes.

She nodded. "I completely understand, and I will try better to respect your privacy from now on." She looked at the clock. "Oh, I've got to get going, we can talk more later if you want, but we don't have to. Dinner for you and Maeve is in the fridge." She got up and walked towards the door.

"Wait mom, I need to tell you something really quick." Otis said before she could leave. "I'm sorry too. You may have invaded my privacy, but that was no excuse for me to yell at you the way I did, so I'm sorry."

She smiled at him. "Thank you darling, I love you."

"I love you too mum." 

With that, she left for dinner, leaving Otis to think about how weird that conversation was, but he was happy that it went the way it did.

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

Maeve wasn’t quite sure why she was so nervous, and she was cursing herself for it. For as long as she had known him, if there was one thing Otis wasn’t, it was judgemental. Still, she couldn’t help but feel like what she had come up with for him was lame. Besides, it was only their one month anniversary, it’s not like it was actually that long. What if he thought she was making a big deal of nothing?

Aimee had told her she was being stupid, but it didn’t help at all with how she was feeling. She found herself thinking the same things she had thought since she had met Otis, that she hated how he actually made her care. Still, after all he had done for her, he deserved something in return, so even if everything she ever stood for went against it, she was going to make a romantic gesture.

On the morning of the big day, she texted Otis that he should come to hers that evening. He had agreed without hesitation, which was the first thing that made her second-guess her plans. She had thought there would be more resistance from his end, maybe due to a surprise that he had planned for her. Maybe she was right, and this anniversary wasn’t actually that important to him. What if she had screwed it all up? She picked up the phone and dialed Aimee’s number.

“Hi babes!” Aimee said excitedly through the phone.

“Hi Aimee, I need your help again.” Maeve said, her frown was almost audible through the phone.

“Oh, don’t tell me you’re thinking about backing out again?” Aimee asked, disappointed. “We talked about this, Maeve. I know you’re not a romantic person, but I think it’ll be really nice, and Otis will too.”

“What if he doesn’t though?” Maeve asked.

“He will.” Aimee said. “Besides, in what world would Otis be upset with you for doing something nice? You’re being irrational.”

“Yeah, maybe.”

“You’ve got this Maeve. Alright?”

“Yeah, okay. Thanks Aimee.” Maeve said before hanging up.

Putting her phone back in her pocket, Maeve looked at the wrapped present that sat on her table. It had taken her forever to figure out what to get for Otis, but she thought that it was something he would really enjoy. She had even managed to get Eric’s input on the subject, so she had someone to blame if it flopped.

Looking in her fridge, she took stock of what she already had and what she still needed for the night. She had never been much of a cook, but she at least knew how to follow a recipe, and as was evident, being with Otis made her try lots of things she hadn’t before.

After making a list of what she needed, she slipped on her shoes and jacket, heading out the door to the shops. It was a bit of a walk, but she didn’t mind. It gave her time to think, and the more she thought, the more she realized how much Otis deserved the night she had planned, and even more. Without him, she would probably still be the social pariah of Moordale, with only Aimee as her secret friend. He had changed her, though, and even if she hated it sometimes, it was for the better.

Walking into the store, she began in the first aisle, picking up everything she thought she might need. She decided not to shoplift anything this time, not willing to put her plans at risk over a few dollars. Of course, it might hurt her wallet in the long run, but it was worth it in her eyes.

“Wiley.” She heard a deep voice say.

Turning, she saw Adam standing there, a few feet away. They hadn’t talked at all since that day in the bathroom, but from what Maeve knew, he had changed a lot since then. Obviously, he was dating Eric, but she had also heard that he was making more of an effort in class, and he didn’t have his dad breathing down his neck anymore.

“Adam, what are you doing here?” She asked.

“My mum sent me shopping.” Adam said. “You?”

“I’m trying to surprise Otis tonight, it’s our one month anniversary.” Maeve said.

“Oh, alright.” Adam said. “How is New Kid? You two made up alright?”

“Yeah. He told you about that?”

“He told Eric, I was there.” Adam said. “For what it’s worth, I don’t think he was mad, even then. Seemed like what he cared about most was how he could make things work out.”

“Yeah, he’s good like that.” Maeve agreed. “That’s why I’m trying to surprise him.”
“I’m sure he’ll like it no matter what. Good luck.” Adam said before walking off.

Maeve finished her shopping, thinking about what Adam had said. She was the one to hurt Otis, yet he was the one who wanted to work things out afterwards. Maybe it wasn’t worth dwelling on, the past is in the past, but still, sometimes she felt like she didn’t deserve him.

She thought about it the whole way home, and once she was there with the groceries put away, she sat down at her table, taking out a pen and paper. She started with just his name, then just let herself write, saying everything she had to say to him.