chapter five

Oliver had no idea what fucking happened, or how the events of that night escalated and he'd ended up half-naked with some girl, but this was what he made sense of:

Carson had come up to his door, along with his two friends. Holden leaned against the wall and scrolled through his phone lazily, almost as if he were bored. Nico crossed his arms over his chest protectively and looked around at the plants surrounding the porch of Oliver's house. In a way, it was like he was trying to seem nonchalant, but didn't know what to do to make his movements seem casual. Carson had both of his hands tucked into his front pockets, and his attention immediately shot to Oliver when the door swung open.

He gave Oliver a crooked smile. "Oliver! Hey! You probably know Holden by now.... Holden Acosta." He turned his head to look at his friend, who never looked up from his phone. Carson looked almost apologetic when he turned back to Oliver. Under his breath, he murmured, "Don't mind him. He's not very good at meeting new people."

"I heard that," Holden replied, still not looking up.

Carson ignored him. "You probably don't know Nico Allard though." He turned to the boy. Nico briefly met Oliver's gaze and gave him half of a smile before looking back around. Again in the same hushed tone, Carson whispered, "He's shy." If Nico heard him, he didn't say anything. Carson smiled widely and all of a sudden, loudly exclaimed, "Guys, this is Oliver Laurent."

Holden sighed. "We know, Carson. You've mentioned it." He pushed off of the wall and turned to Oliver. "Carson has a flair for the dramatic and overly friendly. You know who we are, and everyone at school is talking about you, so we clearly know who you are. No introductions necessary." He huffed. "Can we go?"

Oliver raised an eyebrow, and for the first time that night, spoke up. He couldn't help it. "Are you okay? Do you need a glass of water? A new personality?"

Holden glared at Oliver and walked towards the car. Oliver rolled his eyes and stepped out, momentarily forgetting that Carson was standing there, looking at him, a mischievous grin creeping across his face. Even Nico was smiling, the corner of his lip turned upward.

Carson slung an arm around Oliver's shoulders. He smelt fresh--like salt and lavender soap, with a hint of musk. It was calming--relaxing--and Oliver's muscles eased. "This is going to be fun," he said.

***

The car ride had been awkward, which wasn't much of a surprise.

Oliver was seated next to Nico in the back--who just looked out the window solemnly, and for a second, Oliver was worried that he had died. Carson was in the driver's seat, keeping his eyes firmly planted on the road. Holden was yet again looking at his phone. Oliver wondered who he was talking to, because he doubted that Holden had made many friends with his charm. A typical pop song filtered through the radio and Oliver was fairly sure that he had heard it twenty times on the single trip. He tried blocking out the music, but it was so loud and annoying that it didn't work.

Carson's phone was sat on the center console, and Holden shifted, propping his elbow up on it. His phone slid and fell to the floor, by Oliver's feet. Oliver moved his seatbelt over so he could pick it up, and all of a sudden, it rang. Startled, Oliver dropped it back down on the floor.

Carson laughed. "Olly--sorry, Oliver--can you answer that for me? I'm driving."

Oliver tensed at the nickname. He usually hated nicknames--he found them odd, since to him, there was no reason to give someone a name that wasn't their own--but coming from Carson, he didn't mind it. It rolled off of his tongue easily, seeming more natural and less clunky than 'Oliver'. It was special, in a way, since no one else had called him that without Oliver snapping at them.

Though, now that he thought about it, it was probably the fact that it was Carson--and Carson never made Oliver snap.

He now blinked, dazed. Carson's eyes met his in the rearview mirror. His eyebrows furrowed. "Oliver?"

Oliver snapped out of it and cleared his throat. "Right, sorry." He picked up the phone and answered it, putting it on speaker and tossing it on the center console as if it had burned him.

"Hello?" A voice said. It was distinctly female.

Carson's face broke out into a grin. "Juno, hey! When did you get back?"

"Car, mom and dad told you I was coming back today," she said, sounding a bit bored.

Carson blushed. It was the cutest thing Oliver had ever seen. "Sorry, sis."

"I've known you for all seventeen years of your life. I'm used to it," she sounded like she was smiling, but Oliver wasn't sure. "Are you guys coming soon? Did you pick up that Oliver guy yet?"

Oliver froze and looked away hastily as Carson glanced up at him quickly in the mirror. "Yeah, we did. We're almost there." He was definitely smiling.

"Cool. Hurry up, little bro, the crowd's waiting."

***

"Oliver Laurent--this is my sister, Juno Katsaros. Sister dearest--this is my friend, Oliver." Carson introduced. Oliver's eyes widened. Making friends was never this easy, and here comes Carson, acting like they knew each other well--well, besides the fact that their lips had touched. In reality, Oliver didn't know as much about Carson as he acted like he did. Sure, he knew his name, and his eye color, and his age--and probably a lot of other bullshit. But he didn't know what mattered. He didn't know what made Carson tick, what he loved the most in the world. He had no idea what his parents were like, or his dreams and aspirations.

The one thing Oliver did know, however, was that he sure as hell wanted to find out.

Juno held out her hand. She was pretty--so much so that Oliver might have had feelings for her if he was straight--and that wasn't an honor bestowed upon every pretty girl he saw. Her dirty blonde hair was the same color as Carson's, yet her eyes were a bright, stunning blue. Her bangs brushed against the arch of her neat brows, and her hair skimmed her collarbones. A beauty mark was dotted right above her lip, and her light eyelashes were coated in mascara, making them flutter delicately. Her heart-shaped lips were a pale shade of pink. Oliver was quickly becoming jealous of their genetics. It took him a second to realize that she wasn't wearing any makeup besides her mascara. She was naturally gorgeous.

Even worse.

She looked mature, and Oliver wondered how old she was. Her lips twisted up into a smirk. "So, you're the boy that my brother saved," she said, after shaking his hand. "I have to admit, you're cuter in real life."

Oliver blushed and wracked his brain for a thought. "Your name is weird," he blurted out, before widening his eyes in horror. "Not that it isn't pretty--because it is. I just mean, you're Greek, yet your first name, Juno, is the Roman equivalent for the Greek Goddess Hera. She's the ruler of Olympus, by the way. Alongside Zeus. But...you... probably knew that." His voice trailed off into an awkward whisper.

Juno laughed, light and melodic. "I did. You wouldn't even believe the number of times that my history teachers have blabbed about it. Are you a fan of history?"

"No," Oliver stated. "Not at all."

He didn't notice that Carson was silently laughing until he couldn't hold back anymore, his laugh loud and jovial. As he quieted down to soft chuckle, Holden, who Oliver didn't notice was lurking nearby, came up to Carson and slung an arm around him, swaying slightly.

Great. He was drunk.

With a goofy grin, Holden asked, "I don't get it, how is her name funny?"

Oliver did a double-take for a second, surprised that Holden Acosta was a friendly drunk. He then rolled his eyes. He had a strong feeling that Holden wouldn't have understood if he was sober, either. Slowly, he said, "The Romans and the Greeks were enemies. And the Romans were dicks."

Carson's eyebrows shot up. "Now, now. Wait a second--I am most definitely on the side of the Greeks, but you have to admit, the Romans were badasses. They were warriors. You have to appreciate the work that went into that."

Oliver scoffed mockingly as if he was offended. Usually, he'd be intimidated out of his mind by now because of Carson. But there was something about what he said that was infinitely wrong. He pursed his lips. "You're kidding, right? The Rom-"

"Don't even argue with him," Juno cut in. "Carson, shut up, or I'm telling mom and dad that you're defending the Romans again."

Carson's eyes widened in mock horror. "No, don't, they'll disown me."

Everyone laughed except Holden, whose head was cocked to the side. "I still don't get it."

Under his breath, Oliver murmured, "What a surprise."

Holden's sour look was his only response.

***

Were most people drunk?

Oliver thought so, but he wasn't sure if they normally acted this stupid.

He didn't know who most of these people were, but he figured it didn't matter since he wasn't talking to them anyways. He was currently sitting on a blanket by the fire, while everybody else roasted marshmallows and played in the freezing ocean. But that wasn't the worst part, no--not by far.

The worst part was that Carson hadn't left him alone all night. It wasn't like there was anything perpetually annoying about his presence. He was nothing but friendly and constantly tried to get Oliver involved in conversations. The bad part was that Oliver couldn't think straight throughout it all. He had made a complete fool of himself the entire time, not being able to make a coherent thought. He was so focused on not embarrassing himself, and that's exactly what he did. His words fumbled over themselves while he felt Carson's gaze on him. It was bad.

Oliver was not a nervous person at all, and the fact that this was so, completely, out of his character made him more flustered.

Carson was sitting next to him now, and Oliver tried his very hardest to keep his limbs close to his body so that they wouldn't touch.

"You haven't drinken anything but water all night," Carson noted.

"Neither have you," Oliver replied.

Carson shrugged. "I took this psychology course once--I know how it affects people and stuff, especially people our age. It's best if I don't dip into that realm of possibility. Plus, my parents would murder me if they found out--I have too much at risk to ruin my life."

Oliver's lips twitched up into a small smile, before falling back into indifference. "I just find it stupid when people put themselves at risk just because they're feeling rebellious."

Carson pursed his lips, cocking his head to the side. "Didn't you light Mr. Kumar's plants on fire last year?"

Oliver's small smile bloomed into a grin. "Yeah, but we pulled the fire alarm and threw the plants out the window! Nothing would've happened."

"That's...really not true, wow."

Oliver shrugged, still grinning.

Carson looked at him--really looked at him. "You're weird, you know that?" He was smiling too, now.

"Not really, I'm just a hypocrite."

***

Admittedly, up until that point, things weren't so bad.

Now, however, Oliver knew two things. One--girls could get manipulative, very quickly. Two--he fucking hated sheds.

He should've known that things would go south fast, though, because, with a group where almost everyone was drunk, things always went south fast.

However, as much as it pained him to remember, this was what went down:

Oliver was talking with Carson and Juno Katsaros, sitting on a blanket and munching on a roasted marshmallow. He vaguely registered loud giggling, but nothing mattered. He was happy. Everyone was celebrating Carson's swim team promotion--just as Oliver had said, he'd been named the team captain.

Then, the giggling became louder, and he turned his head to find two girls laughing, their eyes flickering to Oliver. A deep irritation stewed in his gut as he rolled his eyes and turned back around, head thrumming with thoughts. It was too late, though. The two girls were approaching.

One of them took a blanket out of her bag and sat by Oliver on his left. The other wedged herself in between Oliver and Carson, sitting between them on their blanket.

It was then when Carson noticed her.

***

"Carson Katsaros! I've heard so much about you," she smiled at him.

Carson awkwardly shuffled away. He hated when people acted like he was some sort of celebrity--when everybody already knew his name. He wasn't anything special. He tried his best to smile politely. "Have you?"

She tossed her hair behind her shoulder. Carson spared a look at Oliver, who was looking uncomfortable in his own right. The girl by him was coming on more strongly, trailing her finger down his arm.

"So, are you single?"

Carson's attention snapped back to the girl in front of him. He was tempted to lie. "Yes," he said instead.

"Well, that's great! How about-"

Carson turned to her. He really hated this part. "Listen, thank you, but I'm not interested." He kept his tone light and apologetic.

The girl's face fell a bit, but she backed away. "Oh, sorry."

Carson let out a sigh of relief and felt a twinge of gratitude that she'd stood down. The girl looked back to where her friend was supposed to be, and Carson followed her gaze. Only when he did, shock coursed through his veins.

Oliver was gone. And so was the girl.

***

Halfway to a shed, a random girl's hand clasped around his wrist, Oliver realized that she definitely did not need help finding her beach ball.

Also, he realized that he was an idiot.

She dragged Oliver into a shed and closed the door behind him. Oliver's heart pounded in his chest, his fingertips tingling with nerves. He wrung his hands together while the girl advanced on him, grinning like a predator--as if Oliver was her prey.

Oliver backed away uncomfortably. "Why'd you shut the door?"

The girl smiled wider, but it wasn't as beautiful as when Carson did it. She laughed daintily. "You can stop joking around now. You know why you're here."

"I'm here because you said you needed help. This is manipulation--let me out."

The girl's smile dropped a millimeter, before shining again, the corner of her mouth tilted up. She took another step forward, and Oliver took another step back. His back met the wall. Perhaps it was the shed, or perhaps it was his nervousness, but Oliver started sweating. He would rather be anywhere but here.

"Let me out," he repeated, "Now." He crossed his arms over his chest.

The girl sighed as if she was irritated. "What, are you gay or something?"

Oliver froze. His muscles locked in place. He looked just like a statue, right before it was about to shatter. "W-what?" he stuttered.

She raised an eyebrow. "Are you not straight?" she said slowly, "I mean come on, there's no reason why you would deny-"

"Maybe I really don't fucking like you, ever thought of that?"

She laughed again. It was cold.

"So you are gay."

Oliver's grit his teeth. "I'm not gay."

Lie.

Lie, lie, lie. It was a lie and he knew it. It was a lie, and he had no idea why he had said it. He had no reason to lie--it's not like he cared what anyone thought. It's not like it mattered to him what this one girl thought of him. It didn't matter at all.

Right?

The girl's voice dropped down an octave, seductive and smooth. "Prove it."

Oliver proved it.

---

A/N: Sorry this is slightly late! Prior to this chapter, I had everything pre-written, so I had to finish this haha. Idk how I feel about this chapter... I was deciding whether to post it or not but then teddyistrash told me to. So, if you think this is shit, blame her (don't actually.)

As for the overwhelming amount of mythology in this, I AM SORRY I COULDN'T CONTROL MYSELF. In case you couldn't tell by the amount of mythology in this chapter and the fact that one of my characters is named Nico, then I like Percy Jackson. Also mythology.

Anyway, about my updating schedule. I guess I won't have a schedule now? I'll try to keep to it but from now on, I have to write my chapters (like, I don't have any pre-written ones anymore) not to mention that school is starting. I will try. Who knows if I will succeed. I'm very lazy.

I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, regardless of my iffy feelings on it. I will try my best to update soon!

Xoxo,

A Shadowhunter Wannabe,

herondaledevices <3