Cat Got Your Tongue?

“Oli!” I screamed running up behind him and pulling him off of Tom. “What the hell are you thinking?”

He turned around and placed his hands on my shoulders, “’e fuckin’ ‘urt you Toreh! Yeh can’t tell me that yeh not upset about all this?”

Oli was right, and if he could tell that I was upset, Tom definitely could. Because Tom knows me better than almost anyone that I know. I glanced up at Tom and my mouth dropped when I spotted the blood trickling down his face. His nose was bleeding and there was blood coming from his split lip. Then I looked up to Oli before walking away from the whole scene.

Someone tried to grab my arm as I left. I stopped and almost turned around, but was afraid of who it could be. If it’s Tom, I might start crying, but if it’s Oli, I’m afraid that I’d hit him.

“Let go,” I said before yanking my arm out of the person’s grip.

I made it to the door the venue before I finally had the nerve to looked back behind me. The girl that Tom was with was gone. But Tom and Oli were still there, arguing. I debated on weather or not I should go back to them, but that would probably just make things worse. Oli looked at me and before Tom could I walked out the door and started towards my car.

“Tori stop!” Oli said running out of the venue to me, pulling on my shoulder so that I was facing him.

“No, Oli. It’s dark and cold and it’s raining. I just want to go home,” I whined unlocking my car and getting in the drivers side.

Oli knocked on the window and I rolled it down a little bit. “Can I at least show yeh something? We can stay in a hotel tonight and I need to show yeh something tomorrow, please?” he asked and I considered for a minute before scooting over into the passenger seat.

“Thank yeh, love,” he said getting into the car and turning the lights and wipers on. “Do yeh ‘ave yeh phone on yeh by any chance? I need ta call the band an’ tell ‘em to take Tom ‘ome with ‘em and why”

“Yeah,” I mumbled then began to dig in my pockets for my phone. “Here ya go.”

He dialed the number then placed the phone up to his ear. “’ey Matt, yeah it’s Olleh…just fuckin’ listen to meh! I’ll explain when I get ‘ome! Take Tom ‘ome with you guys, I’m taking Toreh somewhere and we’ll be ‘ome tomorrow night..okay thank yeh…goodbye.”

Not long after that I feel asleep. And I dreamt of Tom, Tom and the girl he was making out with. So I guess it wasn’t really a dream, it was more of a nightmare.

A nightmare in which Oli saved me from, by waking me up. “We’re ‘ere.”

“Where exactly is here?” I asked, opening my door and getting out. I waited for Oli and the font of the car while he grabbed my bag from the seat behind his. He looked at the doors in front of us then walked to one with a number seventeen on the front of it.

He didn’t answer me until we got into the room and we were sitting on the bed. “We’re in Corby. It’s a small town outside of Birmingham. This is where we lived before we moved to Sheffield.”

“Oh, well I’m going to take a shower.”

“I’m goin’ to bed. I’m dead tired. I guess that I’ll see yeh in the morning’ then?”

I nodded, then walked into the bathroom and turned on the shower.

-_-_-_-_-

When I woke up the next morning Oli was in the bed next to mine with his phone in his hands texting away and smiling like fool. I turned over onto my back and sat up so that he would realize that I was awake.

“Who in the world are you talking to that’s got you all smiley and shit?” I asked him and he jumped and looked over to me. He looked like he didn’t know how to answer my question. So I just reached out and motioned for him to hand me his phone so I could see. I clicked on his inbox and saw that he was getting messages from someone named Nicola. “Go get dressed and I’ll take you somewhere to get something to eat and show you around.”

I nodded and grabbed my bag then walked into the bathroom. After pulling on my pants and buttoning them I grabbed my shirt but dropped it again when I heard Oli start to talk in the other room.

“What the fuck, Tom!” he yelled. “Yeh just met the bird yesterday! Now your inviting’ ‘er to our ‘ouse?” He was silent while Tom was talking then started talking again. “No, yeh don’t know tha’. Both of yeh are shy, something could ‘ave ‘appened…I ‘ope yeh know that this is gonna crush Torieh.”

I pulled my attention from their conversation and put my shirt on before zipping up my bag and turning to the mirror. My hair wasn’t that bad so I just ran my fingers through it and put it up in a bun. The eyeliner from the night before was speared on my cheek and I splashed some water on my face to get it off.

Oli’s eyes darted over to me when I walked out of the room and he probably cut Tom off in what he was saying, “I gotta go. See yeh at ‘ome.”

“You didn’t have to go, I know that you were talking to Tom, it’s no big deal.”

He didn’t respond, he just looked down guiltily.

We checked out of the hotel then put the bags into the car and Oli began out drive through the town. The first place we went was the house that they used to live in, then Tom’s old school. After that we drove over a couple of towns and went to the skate park that Tom used to spend a ton of time at. Oli pointed out some of their old friends and waved at a few of his.

All of these were places that meant a lot to Tom. I felt even closer to him now than I had before.

Tom’s POV

I could say that I was completely sorry and felt really bad about what happened the night before at the show. But that would be an understatement. I felt horrible for doing that to Tori, and just after I told her my feelings. I tried to think of ways to fix it, but none came to mind.

I knew how I could fix myself though, if only for a little bit. It wouldn’t do anything to help the situation, it would probably only make it worse, but it would help me for the time being.

The girl that Tori saw me with last night had slipped her number into my back pocket before she wandered off. My parents had been gone since before I had even woken up so I knew that there was no chance that the pants had been washed yet.

A smile formed on my face when I walked into the laundry room and saw my clothes still on the top of the hamper. I dug through the pockets and found the small piece of paper.

I had the house to myself today, which was a good thing. And my parents were due to be home until late tonight. I had no idea when Oli was going to be home but Corby was at least a two or three hour drive from here and I had just talked to Oli and they were still at the hotel.

So I called her, and told her to come over, even though I wasn’t sure if I really wanted her to. But it was too late now.

She arrived a good twenty minutes later. Her hair was down and she was dressed in a pair of jeans and a simple t-shirt. Even though she looked completely different from last night, she was still stunning.

We got through about as much of a conversation as we did last night. We said hello, then we were kissing. And I thought of Tori. After that we walked, more like stumbled to my bedroom, and I was still thinking of Tori. Wishing that it was her that I was kissing.

Then, as she shoved me down on my bed, I thought of how Tori wouldn’t be that rough. And as she climbed on top of me, I thought of Tori doing it.

As we undressed each other I tried not to look her in the face, because that would ruin my mental image of it being Tori, not her.

I felt her hand slowly trailing down my stomach, and it pulled my head out of the clouds. “Stop…”

She looked startled. I would have been too. “I’m sorry. I can’t do this,” I choked out.

Her jaw dropped and she just scoffed and pulled her clothes on before rolling her eyes and flipping me off as she left. I can’t believe that I almost did that. When I heard the door slam shut I stood up and pulled on my boxers and a shirt. My cell phone was still sitting on the table in the living room, I grabbed it and dialed a number that I hadn’t in a while.

“Hello?” he answered.

“Hey, Lucas. It’s Tom, I need to talk man. It’s important,” I answered.

Lucas was my best friend from Corby. He knew everything that someone could ever know about me and I knew that he was the only one that I could get this advice from.

So I told him everything. I told him about how we met Tori. I told him about her parents and how she didn’t talk because of it. I explained the whole night at the party that she was almost raped at, how I saved her, and how she saved me. Then I told him about what I did last night.

“Yeh need to tell ’er all that. Tell ‘er how yeh feel about ‘er and that yeh know that yeh fucked up majorly. Then ask ‘er to be yeh bird. She must like yeh if she’s stuck around through all of that.”

“Thank you, I gotta go. I need to think about how I’m going to do all that. Talk to yeh later, man. Bye,” I said then hung up.

I knew that there was a chance that she would just laugh in my face and point out what I had done to her last night. It would be a long shot if she actually believed my sincerity and said yes to the question I had for her.