Chapter 4: 2 ♢ Privilege

Plz make sure you read the author's note at the end ;)

Oliver's eyes flickered open before quickly clamping shut as the fluorescent light overhead stung his eyes.

He slowly sat up trying to make sense of his surroundings. He was in a hospital. He could tell from the white walls surrounding him as well as the IV connected to his arm. There was a hand clasped around his. He traced it up to find Charlie, who was fast asleep. His hand was warm and soft and Oliver really didn't mind it being there. Charlie's head was leaned against the bed and a string of drool trailed from his mouth to the cotton bedsheet.

He slowly took the IV out of his arm and sat up properly. The sudden movement woke Charlie up.

"Why am I in the hospital?" Oliver rasped.

Charlie slowly stretched. "Oh good. You're awake."

"Yeah but my head is killing me."

"No surprise there." Charlie dryly said before standing up and dusting himself off. "I can't believe how reckless you were yesterday. I thought you were dead!"

"I only passed out-"

"After OD-ing! The alcohol amplified the xanax you took."

"Oh....bummer." Oliver swung his legs off the bed, ignoring the throbbing pain all over his body. He felt nauseous and tired and ready to go home. "I'm okay now!"

"The doctors want to keep you here for a few days. I think a therapist is coming later to speak to you."

Oliver smirked. "No thank you."

"Oliver-"

"I shouldn't even be here. My father knows the president of this hospital-"

"You don't even know which hospital we're in!"

Oliver chuckled, staggering to the opposite end of the room to grab his clothes. "He knows all of them. If he finds out what happened, he'll kill me. So I need to get out of here. Did you give them my details?"

"Just your name and age..."

"Good. Now come here and help me. I can barely stand straight."

Charlie nervously gnawed on his bottom lip. "I really think you should stay..."

Oliver whipped his head around to face Charlie in irritation. "I don't care what you think! Just help me get out of here before anyone recognises me."

Charlie huffed but relented, letting Oliver lean on him as he slipped on his sneakers. He stumbled but thankfully Charlie's arm shot out just in time to stop him from falling, tightly curling around his torso.

"Thanks," Oliver muttered, almost inaudibly.

"Whatever..."

♢ ♢ ♢

To say Oliver had a headache was an understatement. What Oliver had wasn't just a headache. It was thunderous and blaring and almost crippling. But he refused to show Charlie how sick he was so instead he played it off. However, whenever he winced, Charlie would peer suspiciously at him.

After the hospital, Oliver's chauffeur drove them to Charlie's place. Oliver would have gone to his place but Charlie insisted. He was afraid Oliver would die alone in his apartment. Frankly, Oliver was quite glad about Charlie's offer because he couldn't enter his apartment without being suffocated by memories of her.

He wondered what Nora was doing now. Was she mourning like him? Or was she delighted about breaking his heart? Before the breakup, Nora was much more predictable but after pulling such an abrupt stunt, Oliver couldn't anticipate anything. He didn't know who she was anymore.

Charlie's apartment was nothing like Oliver had imagined it. Then again, Oliver's imagination had admittedly run wild with images of his place. He imagined Escobar-esque bricks of cocaine everywhere and piles and piles of money scattered around the place. But Charlie's 'bachelor pad' was surprisingly normal. His penthouse was located quite high up so the view was stunning.

Charlie shrugged off his jacket and released a long breath as soon as they entered. "I'm going to take a shower. Uh...make yourself at home."

Oliver nodded and made a beeline to the sofa. If he didn't lie down within the next minute, Oliver was certain he would faint. His head was spinning like crazy. He shut his eyes for what seemed like a fraction of a second but opened them up to the sound of Charlie's voice. He turned around and found Charlie angrily talking on the phone. It looked like he could barely finish his shower as soap suds slithered down his bare back from his hair. A towel was wrapped around very haphazardly around his waist and if it were any other day, Oliver would have made a joke about the towel falling or something. But he just didn't have the energy.

Charlie kicked a chair in frustration before hanging up. He didn't realise Oliver had woken up yet and leaned back against the wall staring into the distance. Oliver liked watching him when he was deep in thought. His thick eyebrows would furrow together, his bottom lip would jut out slightly and his jaw would clench tightly.

"Hey," Oliver said, his voice still gruff from sleep.

Charlie jumped slightly at his voice. "Oh. Hey."

Oliver sat up at stretched his stiff body. The terrible nausea he had felt was thankfully gone but he still had an agonising headache. He turned to face Charlie and his eyes lingered on him longer that they should have before he snapped out of whatever overcame him. He didn't know whether he noticed or not but Charlie did quietly chuckle to himself before wordlessly making his way back to his room.

Oliver trudged into the kitchen and cracked open the fridge, suddenly overcome with a fiery hunger. However, Charlie's fridge was surprisingly empty, apart from a few bottles of wine and some milk.

"Charlie," He called out. "You need to go shopping!"

Charlie trekked into the kitchen, fully clothed this time, and rolled his eyes at Oliver. "I've been staying with my mom so I haven't been here for a while."

Oliver grabbed the bottle of milk, ready to gulp it down, but Charlie snatched it away from him.

"That milk has been in there for two weeks. Don't drink it. I'm not really in the mood to take care of you again..."

"Take care of me? When did you ever have to take care of me?"

Charlie scoffed dramatically. "Are you serious? I wasted my entire night taking care of you!"

Oliver compressed his lips into a thin line, unable to come up with a comeback.

Charlie rolled his eyes for the umpteenth time in their short conversation. "Anyway, I'm going out to buy some things but stay here."

"Why? Because you love my company so much?"

Charlie smiled. "No. Because you're the one that's going to pay for our takeout later for dinner."

"Aw, is Charlie Kingsley too broke to pay?"

"No, Charlie Kingsley just feels like he should be compensated. You know. For the whole 'saving your life thing'."

"Debatable."

"Not really."

♢ ♢ ♢

When Charlie returned, Oliver couldn't even spare him a glance from how busy he was. His father's secretary, Annalise, had called wondering where he was. After explaining that he had 'caught a stomach bug', Annalise emailed him realms of paperwork to look through. It wasn't exactly easy to read anything through the small screen of his phone but unfortunately he had to make do.

He was halfway down clause two-hundred and six of some contract he was reading when Charlie cleared his throat in front of him.

"Yes?" He muttered, still scanning the words on the screen.

"What are you doing?"

"Working."

"On what?"

"Stuff."

Charlie let out a soft 'hm' before taking a seat beside him on the sofa and swinging his legs up so that they rested behind Oliver's back.

"What are you doing?" Oliver asked this time.

"Looking for a movie on Netflix..."

"And you couldn't sit anywhere else?"

"This sofa is so perfectly angled, giving a perfect view of the TV as well as blocking out any blinding rays of light that would come from outside. It's the best seat in the room. You're welcome to move to another chair though."

Oliver finally looked up but only to roll his eyes at Charlie. "Do you have a laptop I can use? I need to do some work."

Charlie nodded. "I do... but can we eat dinner first?"

"Uh, yeah. I mean, I can multitask..."

"Oh..."

"But I guess it wouldn't hurt to take a break. I can resume later."

Charlie grinned. "Excellent."

Half an hour later, Charlie and Oliver were still in the same position. The only difference was that they each had a slice of cheesy pizza in their hands and a movie was playing on the huge TV screen in front of them.

Charlie yawned and Oliver eyes subtly watched as the bottom of his t-shirt rose up slightly.

"This movie sucks," Charlie groaned with a mouth full of gourmet pizza.

Oliver tore his eyes away from the thin strip of skin under Charlie's crinkled t-shirt and turned to focus on the movie. He didn't know why he was struggling so much to concentrate on the cliché, trope-filled plot. His brain was preoccupied with mental scans of work emails and Nora and Charlie's abs. Wait, what? No. Just work emails and his ex-fiancée. Nothing about Charlie up there.

"Should we...uh...change?" Oliver coughed out.

Charlie shrugged and reached for another slice of pizza. "Nah."

Oliver wondered why neither of them moved seat. The sofa was uncomfortably unaccommodating for the position they were in with both of them lying down and their heads at opposite ends. Despite Charlie's claim that the sofa was the best seat in the room, right beside it was an appealing suede recliner. They probably just didn't have the energy to move. That was why.... probably.

A sudden bang came from the TV, attracting their attention. It came from some showdown between a cop (the good guy) and a thug (who was unsurprisingly black because Hollywood is predictable and biased).

"What was it like when you got arrested?" Oliver asked suddenly.

The night was a blur in Oliver's memory even though it had only taken place less than month previous. But he could never forget Charlie and Spencer's arrest. The looks on their faces...

"Uh... disappointing."

"Who were you disappointed with?"

Charlie put down his bottle and rubbed the back of his neck. "Everyone."

Oliver felt bad. The fight was his fault. He threw the first punch.

"I'm sorry I started the fight..."

"Only because I was too much of a coward to do anything to those homophobic assholes."

Only Oliver and Charlie knew why the fight started. Spencer just hopped in to defend them, oblivious to what actually sparked the brawl. Both Charlie and Oliver agreed not to tell him because Spencer could be very overprotective, even though he was younger that both of them.

They all went out to cheer Spencer up after he found out about Madeline Lockhart's upcoming wedding. Charlie had met a guy in the club. An ex-flame that was perfect for a no-strings-attached rendezvous. They left the club and started making out as they waited for the driver.

Then a group of Wall Street Douchebags walked past them on their way into the club. Oliver had been outside too, waiting for his own chauffeured car when he heard the commotion. The WSD's were shouting all sorts of derogatory explicits at them. His ex ran inside to call Spencer and security just as Oliver ran towards them. Just as he began to angrily berate the douchebags for insulting Charlie, one of them suddenly punched him. Charlie shouted at Oliver not to hit him back. He could see they were outnumbered and wouldn't last in the fight. But, as soon as Oliver's fist landed with a sickening crunch against one of the guys' cheeks, it was too late. All hell broke loose and Charlie had to fight back.

"It just hurts how Spencer and I were the only ones arrested. I'm not saying I wanted you to be arrested but... it's obvious why we were arrested and not you."

"Maybe the cops didn't see anyone else in the fight?"

Charlie smiled sadly. "You're right. They didn't see anyone else but it wasn't because of bad luck. They saw us because we were the only black guys. We didn't belong in such an expensive place. They have tunnel vision for this sort of thing. We're targeted. You see, there's this little thing called 'white privilege' that will shield you from so many hardships in this terrible world."

"Hey, my life isn't easy either..." Oliver pointed out.

"I'm not saying it's easy. I'm just saying guys who look like me will always have it harder. I am targeted when I go out dressed in a hoodie. I am stalked in expensive shops by security guards. I couldn't even buy this apartment without a ton of references even though none of the other tenants needed anything like that. I'm automatically the bad guy in every situation just because of the colour of my skin."

"I..I had no idea," Oliver confessed. "I mean I know there is obviously racism in the world but I just never understood the magnitude of the problem. I didn't think it would affect you because of your money."

"Cops don't see your money. They only see skin colour."

Oliver placed his hand on Charlie's shoulder. "I'm sorry you have to go through all that."

Charlie returned his attention to the TV and leaned back, picking up his slice of pizza again.

"I'm used to it," He muttered, disturbingly too casually.

♢ ♢ ♢

Author's Note;

This may be a hard chapter for some people (it was pretty difficult for me) but it's also very necessary. I love you all and I hope everyone is safe.

Also, unrelated BUT my readers continue to defy my expectations and MAN I LOVE YOU GUYS SO MUCH!! The star natxliie made a WHOLE SPOTIFY PLAYLIST for 'The Opulence Series' which is available on Spotify and yes I listened to it and it changed my LIFE! The playlist is so *chef's kiss* PERFECT!!!! Check it out and comment your favourite songs!

My ones are Jamelia-Superstar and Britney Spears- Break the Ice! Omg and Ashley Tisdale- He Said She Said. GUYS IT'S SO GOOD.

It's called 'opulence is not copious'.

Early update because this playlist made me happy and I wanted to make y'all happy too.

Love,

-hexed