Stay Close, Don't Go

"Madi!" I knew whose voice it was right away. There was currently only one person in Sheffield that called me Madi, and that was Oliver Sykes.

Upon entering the house, I had only taken a few steps before the voice reached my ears and only a few more before Oliver was next to me, smiling with a cup in his hand. To say the least, Mercy was a little jealous.

"'ow are yeh Madi?" He asked, handing the drink to me before slinging an arm around my shoulder. He leaned his face down to the right side of mine and spoke in my ear, "I saw my brother by the kitchen, yeh should 'ead over there."

Grinning, he took his arm away from me and nudged me in the direction of the kitchen. He was as bad, or worse, than Janie and Mercy about all of this.

While shaking my head, I attempted to lose myself in the crowd but Oliver was stronger. He tisked me and shook his head, grabbing my arm and tugging me into the kitchen.

Again, Oliver leaned down and began to whisper in my ear as we walked, "Just a few drinks with me and yeh won't be shy. I'm not takin' no for an answer. C'mon."

“Oliver I don’t drink often.” I warned as I allowed him to drag me into the kitchen. Bottles lined the counters and I wondered which would be my fate.

My eyes surveyed the kitchen as Oliver busied himself with making me a drink. On one of the counters sat Tom with a drink in his hand and a friend next to him. Feeling my eyes on him, he looked over at me and gave a faint smile. I returned it and looked away from him to Oli. Already in front of him were two shots full to the brim with an auburn liquid.

“‘ere Madi.” Oliver said, picking up one of the small shot glasses and handing it to me. I took it hesitantly and looked at it. Oli raised his glass up and I did the same, “Cheers.”

Pressing the glass to my lips, I tilted my head back and swallowed the bitter substance. It burned and tingled down my throat causing me to grimace. After a moment my throat had recovered and Oliver had already handed me another shot which we downed in a few seconds.

“No more.” I told Oli, trying to stop him from pouring another round for me. I was already feeling a bit tipsy; whatever he gave me was strong. Oli looked at me, a pout on his lips and he held up one finger. With a sigh I nodded and agreed, “Fine, one more. That’s it.”

I could feel Tom’s eyes on me as I downed the third shot Oliver handed me. I wanted so badly to turn around and look back at him, to talk to him, but somewhere inside me those nervous feelings still swam around in my stomach.

Only a moment after the last shot, Tom walked by Oliver and I with his friend and headed out into the living room. Oli wasted no time in pushing me in that direction. I turned around to face Oliver, protesting his sudden urge to push me into his brother.

Now, instead of using force, Oliver got that thoughtful look on his face as he grabbed my arm and pulled me into the living room. He walked towards Tom, whose eyes met mine, and set me in front of him before speaking, “I want her to dance, and yeh can dance better than me. Get to it.”

With that he turned and walked into the crowd, grabbing a very willing girl and pulling her body to his. I stopped watching Oliver and turned my gaze back to Tom’s. He was blushing badly, I almost wanted to smile at it.

“We don’t really have to dance.” I told Tom, suddenly feeling very self conscious of myself. “It’s just Oliver being weird.”

“Nah, yeh should.” Came the voice of Tom’s friend. He smile and nudged Tom’s toward me before starting to walk away, “It’ll be fun. Like Oli say’s, get to it.”

As if on cue, a slower song started to blare through the living room. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was part of Oliver’s plan. Either way, I wasn’t protesting much as tom awkwardly stepped closer, eyeing me.

I bit my lower lip and slowly looped my arms around his neck. Tom’s skin was warm and he looked just as nervous as I did when his hands found their way to my lower back. Goose bumps spread from where his hands were touching me all the way over my body. We went from hardly knowing each other to dancing a slow song, it made things a bit uncomfortable.

We were both trying to divert our eyes anywhere but at each other. My eyes were set on Oli, wanting him to look my way so I could shoot death glares at him. But instead, I got to see the player side of Oliver everyone was talking about. He was currently trying one of those three-way make outs. Grimacing, I looked away and at Tom.

Tom finally looked down at me, his eyes piercing into mine. That’s when he had me hooked. I couldn’t look away now, no matter how awkward I felt.

Ever so slightly, I stepped a bit closer to him, now able to feel his body heat. With his eyes still on me, we moved to the music. Though we felt awkward, our bodies seemed to know what we were doing. In my case, I think the alcohol knew what it was doing. Somehow, we managed to successfully match the rhythm of the slow music to our dance, becoming slightly closer with each movement.

I was just starting to get comfortable with Tom when the song changed, going from a nice slow song to an upbeat rap song. In synch, we both unraveled our arms from each other and stepped back. Dancing to this song was out of the question unless we wanted to drive ourselves mad with the uncomfortable feelings.

Tom opened his mouth to say something to me when his friend came back, slinging his arm drunkenly around Tom’s shoulder and handing him a drink. I too was approached by someone else; Oliver.

“Well if yeh aren’t goin’ to dance with her, maybe I will.” Oliver said and grabbed my hand, his palm against mine.

I started to shake my head, my face becoming red with a blush but Oli wouldn’t hear it. He soon dragged me further into the crowd before turning me around, my back into his chest.

Dancing with Oliver caused a lot of attention to be on me, mostly negative. What people couldn’t tell by watching, was that Oliver wasn’t whispering random, flirty nothings into my ear. Instead, he was whispering random pieces of advice.

Ignoring the faces of several people around me, I let my eyes survey the room looking for Tom. When I finally found him, he was talking to a few other people, his eyes glancing over at me now and then. He looked, for a lack of better words, slightly upset.

It only took me a moment to understand why. As Oliver stood behind me, with his hands on my waist and his lips next to me ear, I remembered Mercy telling me about girls that used Tom to get to Oliver. I suddenly felt no better than any of them.

Quickly, I pulled my body away from Oliver’s and turned around, leaning up so I could talk in his ear, “I’m going outside. Might leave too. See you tomorrow.”

With that I turned back around and pushed my way through the crowded people, past Tom - who averted his eyes away from me-, and out the front door. It wasn’t too long after when Janie and Mercy walked out of the house as well.

We were getting inside Janie’s car when Mercy suddenly got mad at me, her temper hitting the roof. “What’re yeh playin’ at Madison?”

I slid into the backseat, confused at her words. “What are you talking about?”

“Oh, don’t yeh dare play dumb. Yeh put on that whole act of likin’ Tom and then yeh go an’ start dirty dancin’ with Oli. What’s your problem?”

“Yeh can hardly call what she was doin’ dirty dancin’.” Janie said, coming to my defense. At least one person was on my side. Mercy shot her a glare before turning her head around to look into the back seat.

“Liking Tom isn’t an act,” I said angrily. The car was moving now and Janie was driving fast, obviously not wanting to put up with his. “Oliver is just my friend, if anything he’s helping me try to get closer to Tom.”

“Bullshit, I didn’t know yeh were a liar.” Mercy retorted. If she could, her eyes would have turned red by now. “First yeh were all over Oli in the kitchen with those shots, then yeh were dacnin’ with Tom, and then yeh were grindin’ with Oliver. Will yeh make up your mind?”

“I’m not a liar. Go ask Oliver what we were talking about when we were supposedly dirty dancing. He’s trying to get me with Tom. Stop acting like a jealous bitch.” I suddenly felt bad for calling Mercy a bitch, but she started this whole thing and my tempter tended to get out of hand. Before Mercy could respond, I turned my attention to Janie, “Hey, pull over. I’m going to walk.”

Janie looked over he shoulder quickly, surprised at my words. “What? No I’m drivin’ yeh home.”

“Just let her out.” Mercy hissed, shooting me a glare before turning to face the front of the car.

“Janie, please?” I asked. She shook her head no. As an attempt to get her to let me out, I reached for the door handle. She saw and slowed down, pulling to the side of the road. We were only a few blocks from my house anyways.

“See you Monday,” I said quietly, exiting the car and slamming the door. I didn’t look back as I walked away.

I hadn’t been this angry in a long time. Mercy pushed all the right buttons to make me explode. I also hadn’t cried in a long time, but that didn’t stop hot tears from brimming in my eyes.

Wrapping my arms around myself, I walked silently through the cold air. Another fifteen minutes passed before my house came into view. Slowly, I walked into my house and up the stairs, careful not to make too much noise before collapsing on my bed. My mind was too confused to understand how things became so shitty so fast.