Save Me.

“Oliver what happened to your face?” Carol Sykes almost screamed when her son entered his flat. Oliver sighed, dropping his bags at his feet making his way towards his mother who was in his living room. He wasn’t ready for this.

“Hit meself with a mic” Oliver mumbled quietly, adjusting his woolly hat atop his head and looking down at the floor so his mother wouldn’t be able to see the state his face was in. each time he moved slightly or talked his skin felt like it was on fire and his jaw ached.

“Tell ‘em the truth Ol’s” Thomas startled everyone as he joined the room. He watched his mother fuss around Oliver, trying to get his to move his hair and look at her so she could inspect his injures. “Mattie punched him”

Carol looked at her youngest son not to sure if he was being serious or not. She had never seen Matthew be anything but sweet, couldn’t picture him any differently. Either they had drank too much and got in a fight or Oliver had really done something wrong. He had always been known for his lack of great ideas.

“What’d yeh do pet?” Carol asked hesitantly as Oliver slumped down into his couch. He didn’t want to be here. Everything reminded of him of how much of an idiot he had been. He wasn’t ready to talk to anyone all he wanted to do was curl up in bed and go into hibernation. He didn’t really want to do that either as all he would be able to think about was Georgia.

Thomas stared at his older brother. The image of Oliver that he had had in his head all of these years had been destroyed. The amazing guy that he had always looked up to had died the night before leaving the empty shell of canvas skin. Thomas literary felt sick looking at him.

Oliver mumbled something neither Thomas nor Carlo could understand, before he put his head in his hands his body beginning to shake as he cried. Carol looked at Thomas confused before rushing to Oliver’s side putting her arm around him.

After a couple of minutes of Oliver heavy breath and cries being the only thing heard throughout the flat Thomas took a seat across the coffee table from him family. He watched his mother watching him back waiting to be told why Oliver was so distraught.

All Oliver could picture was Mattie’s enraged face as he came towards him. At first he wasn’t so sure about what he had done, he had drank a lot while in the bar in Italy. All he could remember was Mattie punching him over and over, yelling sentences that he couldn’t focus on. After Curtis managed to pull Mattie off him Oliver knew exactly what he had done. Breaking down into a fit of hysterics all he could say was Georgia’s name over and over.

Thomas looked away to pick up the couple of the houses small dog, not able to look his mother in the eye as he told her.

“Oliver cheated on Georgia”

*****

“Oli’s back tonight Gee” Sam smiled at his sister. Georgia rolled her eyes at him as she moved her fork around her plate of Chinese. She watched the boys around her talking away to one another while they stuffed their faces. She didn’t want this to end. She didn’t want to go home and tell her fiancé the ‘good’ news. Although she wouldn’t be able to hid it much longer. Her stomach had grown a bit.

“It’ll be good to see all the boys again” Dan smiled over at her knowing she wasn’t really in the mood for talking. She had been quiet all night. She’d been quiet since before they left for Canada. Dan wouldn’t have realised so soon unless Tom hadn’t been phoning him constantly to update him on the situation.

Eventually the evening turned into a halo competition. After losing too many times to count Sam was the first to leave claiming that he had things to do the following morning. Tim and Ali left shortly after, both eager to get home to their other half’s, leaving just Georgia and the twins. Minus one would have been Tom’s ideal scenario.

“Do you think something happened between her and Oliver?” Tom asked his brother as he watched him walk around the kitchen, cleaning up empty beer bottle and plates of uneaten food. Georgia was asleep on the couch deciding to leave going home until the morning. She just couldn’t face Oliver that night.

As horrible as it sounded Tom was praying Dan’s answered would be a ‘yes’ just so there was a slight glimmer of hope that something may happen between him and the girl of his dreams.

“I don’t know. I think their just both stressed from touring and all the fighting between Curtis and the band”

Dan had a point. All bring Me had seemed to be doing was arguing between each other. They were either on the verge of a break up or someone was leaving. Oliver seemed to be stressing out more than anyone else. He and Curtis seemed to be bashing heads at any given opportunity, just looking for an excuse to yell at each other. That and his clothing company skyrocketing in to a proper full time business seemed to just be dragging him down.

“One things for sure,” Tom looked to his brother with curious eyes not entirely sure where he was going with his point. “I’m just glad I won’t be there when she goes home tomorrow”

*****

Oliver was up the next morning at the crack of dawn. Well technically he was up a long time before that. He just couldn’t sleep. He would drift off for a couple of hours before waking up from images of the night in Italy.

The front door opening and high heels clicking along the floor filled his stomach with dread. Never before had he not wanted to see Georgia’s pretty face. Her big brown eyes that would stare longingly into his. He had never been this frightened in his life.

Taking a deep breath Oliver allowed himself to look at the girl he loved. She sat on the couch opposite him, Bear wrapped up in her arms, putting her bag on the floor that’s when he noticed her feet.

“When d’yeh get ‘em done?” Georgia looked over at him a little startled by his out burst. He looked like, for lack of a better word, shit. His eyes were sunken in to his face, his skin a little grey probably from his lack of sleep over the last week, he hadn’t even bothered to brush his hair.

Georgia looked down at her stiletto clad feet were her new tattoos were. A red and black swallow on each foot both with a banner held in their beak, ‘hope’ on the left and ‘faith’ on the right. Each was surrounded by cherry blossoms. Her eyes travelled back up Oliver’s colourful body. She always loved his tattoos.

“In Canada” Georgia said quietly. She was trying to focus all her strength into telling Oliver about the baby. His mindless chit chat about her tattoos being pretty was not helping her at all.

“Curtis left the band” Oliver blurted out. He couldn’t think of anything else to say. All his head was screaming at him was not to talk about Italy. He didn’t want to lose the one person that meant so much to him.

Georgia said nothing just nodded while cursing Oliver out in her head. Why couldn’t he just be quiet? He’d been pretty good at it since the American tour. Just sulking away to himself. Never really having a conversation with anyone, unless he was on the phone to his mother. Georgia knew that was all put on just so he wouldn’t worry her.

“Yeh know Jona?” Georgia stared at Oliver not particularly caring about what he had to say at that exact moment in time. “Yeh do pet. Jona Weinhofen? Used to play for Bleedin’ Through an’ that. Yeh tattooed ‘im” Georgia just smiled at him knowing exactly who he meant in the first place. She always liked Jona.

Oliver was so caught up in all his babbling that he never even noticed the tears slowly making their way down Georgia’s tired face. She held on to Bear a little tighter, not so she was hurting him, as if he was a safety blanket as her body shook slightly. She was petrified of Oliver’s reaction. So sure that he’d just get up and leave.

“Well he’s goin’ the play with us now. Which is good ‘cause…”

“I’m pregnant Oliver”