Sour Attachments (Live.)

[Odion Martins]

Hers was a face Odion had almost forgotten. Amidst the chaos and drama, Live was but a thing of the past. Something he could take back but decided to let be. Granted Odi had made more enemies here than friends, she was just another check on the list of people he managed to piss off. Odi had gotten close to the girl, but that quickly fell apart. He had almost forgotten her.

Almost, forgotten. "Can I help you?" He asked in an irritated British voice as he looked up at the person shadowing his work. Odion was in a foul mood. It was hard enough trying to piece things back together with Lani, find out he had a twin brother, and do well in classes. Now someone else was here to haunt him. He just wanted to know how Lani felt about him, even though he didn't want to know and wanted to stop thinking about it.

And here was the girl who had fallen for him. He hadn't meant for it to happen. He had come to Hammel to find Rhett. It would seem his reputation couldn't stay behind though. In Europe he had been known as a heart breaker, a player, and here, it would seem history was repeating itself in a way. Lily had definitely warmed up to him. She had let him in, had gotten close to him, and he had lead her on for fun. It was really a rather terrible thing to do to a person, but once the ball was rolling, he just couldn't stop it.

It all started when they were made to be partners during an English assignment. Some sort of poetry collaboration. Odion didn't usually like this kind of thing, but he found writing interesting. But was even more interesting, was how Live reacted to what he wrote about love. He hadn't meant for her to think it was about her, though that's what happened.

"Lilly," he said, his voice hitching a bit. She was beautiful, he just... Didn't like her in a romantic sort of way. And now, she had grown to hate him almost as quickly as she fell for him. What a mess this was. What did she want exactly?

[Lilly Love]

Live had been such an idiot. She had promised herself she would never let anyone in again. That she would keep everyone out because they all just cause you pain in the end. And what had she gone and done? She had let someone in and she had gotten herself crushed like an ant. It made her so angry. It made her angry with the guy who had hurt her and angry with herself. Angry that she had broken her own rule. Since she was eight years old Live had been able to keep herself from more hurt. She had pushed people away and kept herself cut off. And it had worked. Until Odion showed up.

When Live had first arrived at Hammel she wasn't nearly as bitchy as she was now. She actually had been able to find a few things to smile about. Of course she wasn't an over joyous person, her past kept her from ever feeling fully happy. But she wasn't totally miserable. And when she had been partnered up with Odion for an English class assignment she was actually excited about it. He was the cute, charming boy who she had secretly had a crush on since she first saw him. And he lead her on. He would flirt with her, making Live feel like she was special, like she was wanted. And because he made her feel that way, she had even opened up to him a little. She had even told him her real name, Lilly.

It was the end of a really long summer when Live walked into the library. She was there to grab a book for class and get out. But it seemed fate had another plan. Because as soon as she walked through the door, the first thing she saw made her stomach drop. Of course, she thought to herself as she stood there. She could feel her blood boiling as she watched Odion working at the table. Live wasn't really one to continuously harass someone but she did hold a grudge. She made her way silently over to the table and stopped about a foot back.

She didn't respond to him at first. She wasn't even exactly sure why she had gone over to him, it was more the anger walking her then herself. However, when he looked up to her and called her Lilly, she felt her stomach twist. He probably didn't even realize how much it hurt. It was like a slap in the face to Live. Showing her just how much she had failed at keeping him out. Showing her just how much she had let him in.

She crossed her arms and glared down at him. Live was tall for a girl but was still shorter then most guys. She had a body that grabbed, and held, most guys attention. It was her personality that kept them away. "Miss me?" She said in a harsh voice meant to be rude. Her gray eyes narrowed and bore into him, refusing to let Odion out of their gaze.

[Odion Martins]

All that happened between them, well, that was when Odion was feeling used by Rhett. So, it only made sense to use someone else. Part of him felt bad for hurting Live, but the other part just didn’t give a damn because it felt good. It was a power trip, something to remind him that he hadn’t lost everything when he came out to America. Something to ease the pain of subliminally knowing Rhett was just another thing to him. He had simply told her he transferred here from Kocher to start again. And well, she was pretty damn gullible.

Once she started opening up to him and trusting him, he thought she was interesting. Really, if he wasn’t interested in Rhett at the time (or men in general), she would’ve been a perfect partner. The betrayal came in when he was picking up signs that she really liked him, romantically, and he kept stringing her along. After all, he wanted to remain the master of mind games. Well, he had proven his point. Odion was just really good at breaking down walls, and getting in just deep enough to make it hurt if you ever left. Or, when you found out he was just playing with you.

Flirting happened quite easily with women, especially since it was all a game. And he didn’t feel attracted to Live, so that just made it even more fun. Shadows and stopping time, they could’ve been a good team. But Odion didn’t really trust people, and he didn’t open up about himself to others. Save Lani as of late. But unless Live had been spying on him, she wouldn’t know anything about that. Like her, Odion preferred to stay in the shadows.

It would be Live’s harsh personality that attracted Odion now, if only because it was different from everyone else’s. Her body was just that.

“Sorry,” he said, though his tone was flat, “I’ve been a bit busy lately.” Yes he was still trying to make it out to be like nothing catastrophic had happened between them. Really, he had other things to deal with, he didn’t need an emotional girl right now. But fate enjoyed torturing him. He didn’t take his eyes off hers, those deep grey pools full of nothing but wrath. He supposed his Italian homework would have to wait. He gestured towards the seat across from him. Surely she wouldn’t make a scene in the library.

And to think, he was trying so hard to make this year different...

[Lilly Love]

Live's gaze was unwavering. She wasn't one to shy away from conflict. She had lived with it her whole life and it wasn't something she feared. There honestly wasn't much she truly feared. There wasn't a ton that made her cower in fear. But there was one thing that she would never admit to, that scared her to the core; the idea that she was alone.

Of course Live didn't have any friends and spent all her time alone. She liked her space and hated it when other people got into her little bubble. However, there was part of her that despite wanting to be alone, was dying to be taken care of. It was one thing to like your own space and alone time, it was completely different thing to be alone. Even though Live was sort of a selfish person, she had spent all her life taking care of her mother. If it wasn't for Live they would have been on the streets years ago. She was the one who made sure the rent got paid, got the food, cleaned the house. She had spent all her life being there for her mother but no one had ever been there for her.

And to her, Odi was just another example of that fact. That no matter what she did she was going to end up completely and utterly alone. That the moment she opened herself up to someone, they would stab you in the back. Live wasn't one for continuing harassment though. She had more then anything come over to Odion's table to make sure he hadn't forgotten her. Hadn't forgotten how he hurt her and how much she hated him.

As he spoke, Live rolled her eyes slightly. She was considering just slapping him and then walking away, but it was to obvious. Live liked to toy with people. Never saying exactly how she felt but at the same time making it excruciatingly clear. When he motioned for her to sit, Live did so, sitting down with a plop and a bit off a huff. She leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms, not taking her eyes off Odion for a moment.

"I'm sure you have been." She said, coating her voice with fake pity. She could tell that he was pretending that they were on good terms, it sort of ticked Live off but she went with playing along. She could blow up at him later. "What did you do on your glorious summer break?" She asked making it sound like a bigger deal then it really was.

[Odion Martins]

Odion wasn’t afraid of things, he was just annoyed with all the drama. His one fear was similar to Live’s, but he didn’t know that. She may have told him a lot of things, but never that. Odion’s own gaze was quite intimidating, he simply didn’t have a concept of social rudeness as he stared at people – time didn’t allow him to.


Live and Odi were cut of the same cloth. Except, he really has lived on the streets. Ever since he was young, he’s had to fend for himself. His parents didn’t want him and now it seemed he was second best next to everyone. But that was alright, maybe he had to learn the hard way never to let people in.

Alone – it wasn’t something he wanted, but life gave him no other options. Looking at Live now, he realized he had hurt her more than he wanted to. Oh well though. Life didn’t afford him mercy, and he did the same kindness to others. She could hate him just like the rest of the student body, that didn’t really matter to him. He just wanted to graduate and be on his way.

Ticking her off had been the goal. He knew they weren’t close, quite the opposite in fact. But where was the fun in ignoring her now? He held her dark eyes with his own dark blue ones, contemplating why life had to keep throwing wrenches at him.

“Oh you know, went to Boston to visit some friends,” he said with raised eyebrows. Two could play at this game. “And you? Did you visit your mother?” He asked, trying to hold down a sinister smile. He knew. He knew.

[Lilly Love]

As soon as the word mother slipped from Odion's lip, she felt her whole body tense. Her lips curled into a snarl and her eyes narrowed automatically. She tried to regain her composure, put on her poker face but of course there was no point to it now. Odi would have seen how it affected her already and no she was just trying to hide it. She should have known he would play the mom card.

Live didn't really consider her mom a mother, she was more a burden. The woman did nothing but sit in her room, drink, sleep, crap, and make a mess. She only left the house to buy more alcohol. She was a horrible mother and Live hated her. Live never actually called her mother or mom either, she went with Helen. She had decided that the woman had done nothing to deserve being called mom, so she simply didn't call her it. Her mom didn't care either. Live wondered if she even noticed it.

The thing that also ticked Live off about what Odion had said was the word visiting. Live didn't visit Helen, she lived with the woman. Yeah, she could move into a dorm on campus but there were a few reasons that wouldn't work. One, Live had no intention of sharing a room with another person. Worst idea in the world. Two, it would be like condemning her mother to death. Yes Live hated her but at the same time, if she moved out, her mom would either drink herself to death, starve, or get kicked out of the house. Even though Live hated Helen, leaving her was something she couldn't bring herself to do.

Live leaned forward a bit, her gray eyes burning into Odi. "Of course. I live with the woman don't I?" She snapped at him. The two of them could have been friends, maybe. They were both so similar in many ways. Live blamed herself. If she hadn't done something as stupid as developing feelings for him, they might have been on fairly good terms. Maybe.

[Odion Martins]

Odion was the best poker player. It was harsh what he said, but it was true. If Live didn’t want this coming back to haunt her, she shouldn’t have given him the ammunition in the first place. It was really too bad she wasn’t friends with Mia, at least then the pink haired girl would have some kind of warning as to the type of person Odion is. The type to steal notebooks and read them before throwing them away and causing all kinds of turmoil and stress, because why not?

But Odi didn’t feel sorry for Live’s woes. If she had such a terrible mother, why didn’t she just leave then? Probably some bullshit about love, but Odion knew love was nothing but a weakness. He knew, because he’d had his heart broken a couple times now. It was hard to have sympathy for people in general, but even more difficult to sustain it when they put themselves into situations they could control. He knew that was hypocritical, but he wasn’t the only judge of himself.

His parents had taught him everything he knew, simply by abandoning him. Why bother loving someone who didn’t return the sentiment? Maybe that made him evil, or terrible, but that was all subjective and not worth putting much thought into. He liked to think he wasn’t a sap. It was so easy to pretend to be strong, he was starting to believe he was – so long as Lani wasn’t around.

“How would I know? It’s not like I know anything about you,” he said, rubbing salt further into the wound. He didn’t ask her to come bother him. If it was a tongue lashing she wanted, he would be only too happy to oblige. It wasn’t his fault she fell for him, he simply laid out the breadcrumbs and she followed. He played his fingers on the table. “But if she’s so horrible, why not just leave?” He asked with a wave of his hand, as though it were the most obvious thing. And usually, most things were obvious. Like how she still felt something for him.

[Lilly Love]

To Live Odion was just proof of her theory; that other people couldn't be trusted and in the end would just cause you pain. She couldn't believe that she had ever saw Odion as someone she would want to be with. Well, she could. She had liked him for the reasons she now hated him. She had fallen for him and even above hating him for leading her on, she hated herself for even thinking the world love about him.

It was sort of ironic that Live's last name was Love since she was probably the most unloving person alive. She thought her first name was just about as stupid. Lilly was such a girly, feminine name and Live was anything but that. She only ever wore black and hadn't worn a dress since, well, ever.

Live's gaze didn't falter as he spoke. She was ready for whatever he had to throw at her. She had known that by coming over here she was asking for this. For Odi to just lash out against her. If she were to be honest, she wanted him to. If only to prove to herself that trusting people was stupid.

She couldn't explain really the whole situation with her mother. She hated the woman through and through, yet leaving her was Live somehow couldn't bring herself to do. Probably the major reason she stayed around was because if she left her mother, then she truly would be all alone. Of course she had no intention of telling Odion that. "None of your business." She snapped at him. Live was slowly starting to lose her cool. School was starting up again and that meant the holidays were quickly approaching. That meant hell for Live.

[Odion Martins]

Good, Odion wanted to prove that humanity wasn’t as good as it pretended to be. People got hurt and betrayed and that’s just how it was. It was hard to believe in anything good after what he’d been through, and honestly, not a lot of people had been through worse. Odion was everyone’s worst nightmare in human form, and he wanted to remain that way. Friends were fickle, and lumped together, but foes were memorable if only because of the horrors they instilled.

But Odion was good at pretending. He was a regular charmer and con artist when he wanted to be. He knew Live had fallen for him, he didn’t think she loved him. After all, all he had done was given her some attention, spent a little time with her, maybe flirted with her and asked about her life, and led her to believe that yes, he was quite interested in her. People were only as pathetic as they wanted to be. Live was a strong girl, and he had broken through. He could do anything.

Trusting people was stupid. But even Odion could learn that lesson.

Making a ‘hmm’ face, he nodded a couple times at the explanation. “It’s because you don’t want to be a terrible person for leaving your mother,” he said for her. He didn’t know anything about familial love. How could he? “Or maybe,” he said, leaning closer to her, his blue eyes bright, “you don’t want to be alone.” She got some sick high for taking care of her mother and despising her at the same time. People liked to feel high and mighty and at the centre of their own worlds.

[Lilly Love]

"It's because you don't want to be a terrible person for leaving your mother." Live couldn't help but smirk at this statement. That was slightly part of it but not much. That didn't matter to her and she was about to let Odion know that when he spoke again.

As soon as the words left his mouth, Live felt like the whole room just stopped. It felt like all the sudden she had Odion's ability and time had come to a stand still. She knew the words were true and had thought the same thing to herself sometimes, but hearing them out loud, from his mouth none the less, was completely different.

Live's plan in going over to Odion in first place was to try and make him feel like an ass. To come and rub in his face the pain he had caused her. She had wanted to feel like the predator and feel in control of all of this. Instead, she felt like the pray. She felt like he had pined her down, ripped out her heart, and was now taking it apart. Live hadn't felt this vulnerable since she had discovered her power.

She hide how she was feeling on the inside, but her eyes betrayed her. A look of fear and anger flew across her features. Her lips parted to try and deny what Odion had just said but nothing came out. Their faces at this point were about a foot apart and suddenly Live was all to aware of the proximity but she couldn't seem to move. "Asshole." Was all the managed to slip out. Live hated Odion and she was going to make sure that stayed very, very clear.

[Odion Martins]

Fortunately, Odion hadn’t used his powers. Her silence was enough to know that he was getting to her. She was a bright girl, and if she had any sort of good comeback, she would’ve said it by now. But she didn’t have anything on him, couldn’t say anything to make it stick where it hurt. And what did he have to stop time for? That only happened for things he truly wanted to remember, things that were difficult or particularly hard to steal. Live was chump change.

Many had tried to make Odion feel bad, stupid, regretful, remorseful, but especially like an ass. The truth was, Odi hadn’t felt any of those things except for a couple of people he had respect for. Those people he could count on one hand. Live was almost one of those people, up until she proved how pathetic she was. He didn’t need pretend friends, he apparently had enough of those. But Odion was always in control, he made sure of that. He was the master of mind games. And he knew he was winning, he could tell by the look in her eyes.

He raised his eyebrows as she struggled for words, just daring her to speak. But she choked, just like he knew she would. She could hate him all she wanted, but the single word only made him bark out a laugh. “Anything else you’d like to point out?”

[Lilly Love]

Live was rude, uncaring, harsh, an ass, a bitch, and a whole lot more but she was broken. Probably more broken then many people alive. The only reason she really was so mean and terrible was to try and protect what sanity she had left. She was still picking up all the pieces that were left shattered by her mother, her father, and her brother. She had started to recover from Odion to and now had gone and destroyed that to. He probably didn't even know he was doing it but he had taken Live apart and exposed her greatest weakness; her fear of being alone.

As soon as the words spilled from his mouth, Live was on her feet. She grabbed the table and shoved, throwing it to the side. She stepped forward and grabbed the collar of Odion's shirt, jerking hard to pull him to his feet so she could look him in the eyes.

"Actually there is." Then she pulled her hand back and aimed for his eye. Live was having a break down. The holidays were coming and that meant being alone and that meant the memories of when her dad left were all to strong. There were to many things running ramped in Live's head. Maybe today was just an especially bad day but for whatever reason she had lost it. This had happened only once before and it was the reason she failed her freshman year. Live was on a crash course and the brakes were broken.

[Odion Martins]

Everyone was broken. Everyone had a piece of them that was a heart, no matter how small, and it was different for each person. Odion had been called every name under the sun, but he didn’t let it affect him, especially when it came from someone he didn’t care about. Even when Lani called him things, it barely took it to heart. Perhaps because Odi’s heart was in such disrepair, it barely felt like he had one at all. Better to have everyone hate you than know the real you and be stepped on. No, he wasn’t willing to do that again. Ever.

And probably the most irredeemable part of Odion, was that he knew exactly what he did to others.

Odion could’ve stopped her, could’ve just left her there to look stupid. He could’ve fought back, but the blank look on his face was proof enough of his indifference. She wound up her fist and Odion held his breath, but it didn’t come. He stared at her, cold and hard. He had been in plenty of street fights, but usually he tried to get away. Something, had flipped a switch in him and he had a backbone. Sometimes this was a good thing, in times like these, he was just that much worse.

“Go on then,” he said, pointing at his eye, “right there.” He spat in her face. He didn’t want to hit a girl, but he wasn’t opposed to fighting dirty.

[Lilly Love]

Live wasn't sure why she hesitated. There were so many different things just flying through her head at the moment she honestly couldn't really give reasons for anything that was going on. She just was doing. Acting before thinking but then again that was how she usually did things.

It was his words that brought her fist into his face, and the spit was a great motivator to. Live wasn't extremely strong but she was definitely a lot stronger then most girls. Her fist connected first with his left eye and then across his nose. She hit hard and made sure to put her whole body into it so it wasn't just a hard hit, but a forcefully hit. She hoped the blow would knock him to the ground. "Go die, bastard." She barked taking a step back to glare at him.

At that point, everyone in the library had their eyes on them and one kid had already ran for a teacher or security guard or something. Live didn't care. She had already failed a grade and gotten detention a good handful of times. Another mark on her record wouldn't mean a thing and her mother probably wouldn't even know about it.

Live stood there staring at Odion. The first thing she felt was anger. Pure, strong hatred. She hated him for leading her on, for toying with her, for letting her trust him. She hated him for being himself. The second thing she felt was empty. Even after getting in a great punch, it didn't make her feel any better like she had hoped. It just made her feel worthless, pointless, and stupid. She, of course, couldn't tell you why though.

[Odion Martins]

The adrenaline Live was feeling, probably also helped her make her decision. Odi fell backwards and onto the floor, clutching at his face with both hands. As if he didn’t have enough bleeding noses. Actually, over the past couple of months, Odion had bled a lot. His head snapped around as people either watched, or ran away. Attention was the last thing he wanted, and though he was a troublemaker, he preferred not getting credit for what he did.

Odion stood up to face her. He didn’t hate her, not really. She wasn’t worth it. One look told him her actions didn’t make her feel any better. So what was the point of all this. A cocky half-grin graced his bloody face as he snatched her hand and pressed a kiss to her knuckles.

“It’ll take a lot more than that to get rid of me, love,” he said, slipping away from her and making towards the library’s exit. He was the cockroach everyone detested, but just kept on living.