chapter eighteen

Oliver wasn't sure what hell was like, but he figured this was it.

There was so much glitter--and he had never liked glitter. Oliver eyed it as it shone from the pink tulle curtains that hung on either side of the DJ box. Once again, he tugged on his tie uncomfortably. They had arrived late--courtesy of Celia--and it seemed as if the party was in full swing.

Carson was smiling. He leaned into Oliver, whispered, "Isn't this cool?"

"Yeah..." Oliver answered, trying to seem more enthusiastic than he actually was.

Celia came up on his left side, arm woven through Holden's. "Well this looks like a shitshow," she blurted out.

Oliver turned his head to her and glared. "What? No....this seems.... really fun," he said lamely.

Celia furrowed her eyebrows and mouthed, "What?" to him in confusion, but Oliver had turned back around.

Now what? What was he supposed to do, stand there? Watch a bunch of people dance around and make absolute jokes of themselves? It wasn't really his scene.

And who was playing that stupid fucking music? The upbeat, pop-y music that made him want to roll over and die.

"I see the guys," Carson turned to Oliver. "The swim team's over there and-wait, you should meet them."

No, he really shouldn't. There were a few million things that Oliver would rather do.

"Of course," he said instead.

***

Jackson--or was his name Charlie? Albert? Drake?--was in the middle of telling a long ass story about the time he almost got caught driving his brother's car. All of the boys ooh-ed and ahh-ed as if it was really a story worth telling.

Celia must've thought it wasn't either, judging by the little smirk crawling up her lips. "You know," she started, and Oliver rolled his eyes, "I once got arrested."

Everyone's attention turned to her, and Jackson-Charlie-Albert-Drake's pride deflated a bit.

Oliver snorted. "Barely."

"It counts!" Celia defended, "Especially on our records, Livvy."

Oliver's eyes widened and he shook his head furiously, begging her with his eyes to not tell the story.

Carson turned to him, eyebrows raised. "Our......you mean you got arrested too?" he asked, shocked.

"I- no. I didn't. Not really. I mean...I would've been, sorta? Well, what-"

"What Oliver is trying to say is that he would've been if I hadn't saved his ass," Celia interjected.

Oliver scoffed. "You got me in that mess, you should've been the one to clean it up."

"Wait, wait, wait," a boy said, "tell us the story, dude."

"How about no, dude?" Oliver mocked.

Carson elbowed him gently. "I wanna know." There were murmurs of agreement.

Oliver froze. "Yeah..." he cleared his throat and lowered his voice, "maybe I can tell you some other ti-"

"I'll tell you guys!" Celia said.

Fucking Celia.

"Cel, how about you don-" Oliver began to protest.

"Basically, we were standing in my driveway--it was kind of dark and we were kind of bored. So I go, 'Hey Oliver, bet you can't break into my dad's car without breaking the windows.' And he goes," she lowered her voice to mimic Oliver, "'No Celia, that's a bad idea.' And I go, 'Come on, it's fine, it's not like it's a stranger.' And he starts to argue, when I go, 'I dare you.' Now, back then, Olly here couldn't turn down a dare--it wasn't in his capacity. So he stands tall and starts marching to my dad's car," she laughs. "And, you could tell, when he got close to it, he was about to bail. I mean, how do you even break into a car like that? So he turns to me, and I'm totally about to call him out for being a chicken. Instead, though, he picks up this rock and starts walking away from the car, acting like he's about to throw it--he's not. So he's all like, 'Oooh I'm gonna throw it.' And I go, 'Yeah right.' And he takes a step forward like he's about to throw this fucking rock when I trip him--because I mean, it was funny. And guess what? This idiot trips over my foot and lets go of the rock, and the rock flies through the air, cracking the window. So we're panicking, and inside, my dad hears his car start chirping--because it was being broken into--and he calls the cops. Long story short, the cops come and I take the blame and they arrest me--charges were dropped though, obviously," she finished.

Oliver's eyes were shut so hard it hurt. She had to--of course she had to. She just had to make him seem like a fucking criminal in front of all these people he didn't even know. They would've thought whatever about Celia--that she's reckless, irresponsible. But Oliver was black. He wouldn't be surprised if by tomorrow at school, he was labeled a convict.

And these were Carson's friends. His teammates. People that Oliver was supposed to try to win over.

Not like he'd been doing a good job at it, though.

"It was freshman year," Oliver said weakly, as if that would do anything.

The guys sipped on their beverages awkwardly and Oliver felt heat start to rush up to his face, felt his collar start to tighten. He almost hadn't felt the tug on his hand.

"Hey," Carson whispered, pulling his hand down so that he could whisper in Oliver's ear, though it wasn't like the height difference between them was a lot, anyway. "It's fine," he said, "it wasn't even your fault."

It was, though. He shouldn't have accepted that stupid dare--maybe if he hadn't, Mr. Orlov wouldn't have had to pay a few thousand dollars to repair his stupidly expensive car. Maybe if he hadn't, her family wouldn't have hated him like they do now.

Oliver cleared his throat. "I'll be right back," he said aloud, though he wasn't sure if anyone was listening.

He walked away, planning to hide in the bathroom when an arm grabbed his bicep. Oliver didn't even have to turn around--he already knew who it was. Carson.

He spun around, tried not to smile softly at the boy in front of him that wore a worried expression on his face. So beautiful.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"Bathroom."

Carson bit his lip. Oliver narrowed his eyes at the movement. It had been awhile since they had last kissed.

"Are you okay?" Carson asked.

Oliver shrugged. "Yeah."

Carson licked his lips. "Olly-"

"Carson, I'm fine. I don't socialize with people easily--that's how it's always been. I'm not affected when people don't like me. Trust me." At least, he didn't use to be affected. Oliver wasn't quite sure what was happening with him lately.

His eyes began to jump around the room, until they landed on Carson's lips. He felt himself drawing in closer.

"Can I?" Carson murmured.

But Oliver didn't hear him, instead leaning in until their lips touched. They worked against each other softly--warm lips against warm lips. Oliver leaned into him further, body warmth bleeding through his uncomfortable tuxedo. The music blurred into white noise and Oliver kissed him harder, wan-

Carson drew back, panting lightly. His forehead was leaning against Oliver's. "You didn't tell me."

It took Oliver a second to clear his head, for the fuzzy feeling to go away. "What?" he breathed.

"You didn't tell me," Carson repeated, "about Kale or the car or anything."

Oliver sobered up, took a step away. "Does it matter?"

"That you have a half-brother? Sort of, yeah." Carson looked down. "What else haven't you told me?"

"I-" Oliver stopped. He looked around, feeling eyes on him. Some people were still dancing, but most of them were eying the space between Oliver and Carson, looking at him up and down curiously.

They must be thinking: what is a guy like that doing with a guy like Carson Katsaros?

Oliver knew he certainly was.

"I should go," Oliver said, and left before Carson had a chance to run after him once again.

***

Oliver ignored Kale as he entered his house, immediately storming up the stairs to his room. He opened the door, turned on the lights and launched himself into bed. He was burying his face into his pillow when the door creaked open.

"Dommy?" a voice said, small and innocent.

Oliver couldn't help but smile sadly, sitting up and wordlessly holding his arms out. Ellie walked into his embrace, wrapping her little arms tightly around his torso.

"Did something bad happen, Dommy?" she asked. Her voice was muffled by his shirt.

Oliver sighed. He was tired. "Yeah, Ellie," he responded, "something bad did."

- - -

A/N: Hello hello hello! I've discovered that I'm really bad at updating and at author's notes so I'm just going to try to not apologize for either of those things because I'm probably annoying you guys. Sorry.

But yes, I'm back with a new update! What did you guys think? D-R-A-M-A!! It's great. For me. I'm probably ruining Oliver's life right now though. Oops.

What are your opinions, emotions, thoughts, and feelings about this chapter? What do you think will happen next? What do you want to happen? The end is in sight guys, it's coming!

Thank you for reading this update, I really appreciate it and I hoped you enjoyed!

Xoxo,

A Shadowhunter Wannabe,

herondaledevices <3