Sit on Top by Stephanie Perry Moore

Author:Stephanie Perry Moore
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lerner Publishing Group

CHAPTER NINE

Deepest (Octavia’s Middle)

On the ride back from Warner Robbins, all the girls were somber. Octavia knew everyone felt bad hearing how Leah was tormented at her school in such a bad way that made her take her own life. That in and of itself was depressing.

Adding to the heavyheartedness for Octavia was the fact that she had an extra piece of anxiety weighing on her. She had no idea how she was going to break the truth to the girls she’d grown to love so deeply. Pretending she wasn’t holding anything back from them was no longer an option.

“We can’t just stay out, y’all,” Olive said. “I wanted us to come down here and find out all we could about Leah.”

“We didn’t find out anything,” Willow said.

“Yeah, we found out a lot,” Olive defended.

“We found out it could be almost anybody in the school,” Sanaa uttered. “Pia, what you think?”

Pia said, “I agree with y’all. I mean, Olive, it’s good we went down there, we found out it was truly a girl who went through so much, but we don’t know any more than we did before.”

“Yes we do. We know that all she went through hurt her so bad that we would never want to be that cruel to anybody, ya know? Aren’t we all different from hearing her story? Octavia, what about you?” Olive asked.

The last thing Octavia wanted to do was talk. It was becoming harder and harder for her to live with her own lie. The only thing she wanted to say to any of them were words she knew would make them never speak to her again. However, how could she say those words when they would make her end up just how she started ... alone?

“What’s wrong with you?” Willow looked back and asked Octavia.

Octavia shrugged her shoulders, and that made Olive say, “Yeah, you’ve been real quiet.”

“Everybody’s been quiet,” Octavia snapped.

“Okay, I’m sorry!” Olive said. “Dang, excuse me.”

“I’m hungry,” Pia uttered, diminishing the tension.

Thinking she needed to find a way to work things out, Octavia said, “Why don’t you guys come over to my house? I can fix us some spaghetti.”

“What? You’re Italian now?” Willow joked.

“Ha, ha, ha. You hungry or not?” Octavia asked with a little sass.

She knew she was going to need it because if they agreed, she had made up in her mind that she was not going to let them leave without being transparent. Her moment of truth was here. She would not let the sun set without them knowing.

About an hour later, they were all sitting around Octavia’s dinner table. There were only four chairs, but she was happy to play hostess and let them all be comfortable. She knew what she was going to share would be anything but comfortable.

“You can sit down with me,” Sanaa said, being so caring.

“Girl, maybe you are a little Italian,” Willow messed with her. “This spaghetti is the bomb.”

“You’re just hungry,” Olive said as Pia laughed.

Pia clutched her heart and stopped laughing.

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