Assurance

"You know we can just drop out of school and just become professional hobos." said Oliver's voice above me. I was currently curled up in his arms as we lied in his bed. I had come over to his place last night and ended up crashing. I couldn't believe I slept over since the last awkward encounter when he slept at my place.

"I don't want to go back!" I exclaimed into his shirt and he laughed.

"I'd love to see you at school. I can only imagine how you're like there."

"What do you think I'm like there?"

"Hmm, quiet, but not too quiet. Tons of friends you don't really give a shit about. Do all your work and shit and get good grades." He looked down at me and smiled, making me slightly blush. "Am I right?"

"Actually, you're wrong. I'm a horrible procrastinator, I get decent grades, but not really good ones."

"Hmm, do we want to talk about your college situation?"

"Never!" I laughed. "Let's talk about you in school. I think, extremely popular among a certain group of people. People think you're a dumb shit, but you're actually quite intelligent. You hate going, but you kinda actually like to learn." I looked up at him and he was smiling widely.

"You're actually quite right. It's loads better now, but I used to get bullied and shit." I couldn't help but laugh, the thought of anyone messing with Oliver just perplexed me. "Stop laughing!"

"I'm sorry, it's just hard to imagine anyone messing around with you like that."

"And why is that?"

"Cause, it's you. These tattoos alone would scare me away." I said tracing the intricate flower that decorated his throat with my fingertips.

"They didn't scare you away." he mused. I felt his arm that was around my shoulder slide down a little towards my waist.

"They intrigued me more than anything."

"It's the same with blokes. They see a guy like me who's supposed to be tough with all these tattoos and shit. Then they realize I'm scrawny as fuck and quiet and it all goes to hell." he said right before his brother Tom barged through the door. I jumped towards Oliver instinctively, slightly frightened. "Tom!" exclaimed Oliver, holding me a little bit closer.

"Aye, shut up. Mom's gonna come in here and-"

"Tom, did you find them-" said his mother's voice as she entered his room.

"Fuck." groaned Oliver, hanging his head down.

"Oliver Scott! Go with Tom to the attic and get the extra blankets down." she said with her piercing gaze towards me still wrapped in Oliver's arms.

"Be right back." he whispered in my hair before getting up and following Tom out of the room.

I felt the tension in the air thicken as Mrs.Sykes had her back turned on me, rummaging through Oliver's closet. It didn't make me feel bad, just more so curious why she was so, I guess unwelcoming towards me. I don't think I've given her a reason not so much not like me. I had never felt so awkward as I did right now, sitting against Oliver's headboard.

"I don't know why you're here." she said suddenly, still not facing me.

"Pardon?" I chirped meekly in quick response.

"With Oliver."

"Well, he kinda invited me over." I shrugged quietly. Her hostility was making goose bumps appear on my arms.

"I mean period. Oliver doesn't need you, or any other female around him right now." she said harshly. I was slightly thankful I couldn't see her face. "You all want the same thing, well I'm telling you right now, he ain't gonna give it to you. He's not stupid, and he doesn't need any distractions. He's doing remarkable right now." she huffed, before turning around and facing me. Her solid unreadable expression made me cringe. "You don't get it, at this point he'd do anything for you. Where are you going to next year? Any step you take, he'll be right behind you. He doesn't need that, you're just messing up his goals, everything he's worked for."

"I think you've got it all wrong, Oliver and I aren't like that-"

"Oh what is it then? Casual sex? Trying to get a baby out of him? Anything you've got going on, you've got him wrapped around your finger tightly. This all needs to stop. SOON." she snapped before exiting the room.

A flow of fresh tears started to come down as soon as she left. I didn't have Oliver wrapped around me. He's Oliver, his own person. He wasn't even my boyfriend, he's just my-my friend. Sure granted, we had our moments that crossed the friendship line, but at the end of the day Oliver wasn't mine. He wouldn't follow me anywhere, he had his own life. Other friends, other dreams that took up his time away from me. He didn't need me. I was just a friend. A girl he contemplated his thoughts with. I wasn't the one for him. If I was, surely things would be different between us.

But they weren't.

He was Oliver.

I was Kristiny.

We weren't Oliver and Kristiny.

We weren't Betzy and Tom.

We were separate.

I contemplated leaving, but Oliver drove me here last night. I wiped my eyes quickly before he came back,no need to make a fuss over his mother's foul words. I pulled my knees up to my chin and rocked myself back and forth to calm myself. There was no sense of just sitting here, so I got up and looked around. Last night I didn't really have a chance to look around, but now was my chance. The room was fairly clean, just all sorts of items everywhere. I walked towards his stereo and saw his vast cd collection. There were tons of random burned ones with titles such as 'dope shit' and 'best fucking cd ever' and I laughed to myself. I moved on to his mirror and instantly laughed.

Written in what appeared to be blue Sharpie read "Ol, straightening your hair is for faggots ya wanker." You could hardly see out the mirror, so many papers and pictures were sticking out of the creases. Pictures of what guessed were his band mates, playing in a garage, him and his dad lighting something on fire, him and his brother holding up a beer, and the last struck me.

It was a picture of Oliver and I at the wedding we first met at, I'm guessing one that Tom had taken. I was laughing and looking down while he smiled widely. We looked so, I guess happy. There was one under it that I remember being taken at the party a while ago. I was laughing as Oliver licked my cheek, making a goofy face. I guess I felt special that I was included in the little shrine of his life. I looked around and figured I mind as well change, no sense of staying in my pajamas all morning. I found a pair of jeans on his closet door that actually smelled quite nice and thanked the heavens that they actually fit me as I slipped them over his boxers I took last night. I slipped my shirt off and opened his closet and laughed to myself at the sea of black t-shirts. I grabbed one out and tried to read what it said, before throwing it over my head as well.

"Did she give you the speech too?" said Tom from the entryway, making me jump. He came in and shut the door behind him and sitting down.

"What do you mean?" I asked, sitting next to him. He ran his fingers through his hair and sighed.

"She said something to you, didn't she? About Oliver."

"Yeah, she-she did."

"She gave you the whole, 'get out of the way, you're in the way of the 'dream' speech right?" he said looking down.

"Yeah, how'd you know?"

"She gives it to anyone who gets remotely close to Oliver or I. Betzy got it more than once. I could see she was cold to you the other night at the party."

"But why? I haven't done anything."

"Mum just wants Ol' and I to make it. She hates the fact of a bird getting so close and turning our heads."

"What do you mean make it?"

"Well, be successful and shit. She doesn't want us hanging around here forever."

"Like with the band? And the clothing line? Does she expect you to be millionaires?" I asked skeptically. It seemed to me that Oliver at least anything but off goal of anything.

"Well, yeah. That's Oliver's stuff but I'm pretty involved too. Since mom's put so much into everything too, she's just afraid of it all falling apart."

"But that gives her no right to make assumptions about me. That was horrible!" I snapped. "I didn't deserve her harshness when I've done nothing wrong!" I said giving Tom his mother's heat.

"Well, you gotta look at it right now. Betzy got it too! Distractions are distractions! The way you and Oliver are at this rate-"

"What do you mean at this rate? You and Betzy are a different situation!" I yelled and stood in anger.

"Oh, so just because we're engaged it's a different situation!?" he challenged also rising. "At this rate you and Oli aren't too far behind us!"

"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? WE'RE NOT EVEN TOGETHER!" I snapped, looking him dead in the eye. His facial expression faltered as he stumbled back onto sitting on the bed. There was a thick silence and I could tell I laid it on him.

He probably had no clue what went on with Oliver and I.

I sat down next to him and he sighed.

"You're-you're not together?" He stuttered.

"No. We're not. Never have been." I said lightly.

"So it's just like sex?" he said and I laughed.

Just like his mother.

"No, I've never given Oliver anything more that a quick peck on the cheek. It's nothing like that."

"Forgive me for asking, but you guys sleep together and all." he said turning a bright shade of pink. He was so cute, a smaller version of Oliver.

"Exactly, we sleep together. Nothing more."

"But- you guys are so close and always together."

"We're friends. Sometimes things get weird, but at the end of the day we're separate. Oliver is not mine." I said quietly.

"I'm sorry. It's just we all naturally figured. I can see why you got so upset."

"It would seem like it, but no. Oliver's never even mentioned anything of the sort to me, or me to him." I admitted to Tom. "He didn't say anything to you about it?"

"No, he talks about you so we all kinda figured. Now that I think about it, he never actually said anything to deep about you and him. Just always about you."

"All good I hope." I smiled and he laughed.

"Of course. It's always about something you did or said. You seem to amuse him quite a lot."

"That's good to know. He's quite the character himself." I laughed. The atmosphere was light, rather than me ready to hit him a minute ago.

"I'm sorry I got all personal. Just Betzy and I seems to be a sensitive topic still."

"Why? I think something as huge as being engaged is amazing-" I started before Oliver burst through the door.

"Aye, mom wants you in there. She's mental about the basement right now." he said in a tired manner. Tom gave me a quick wink before exiting and Oliver pulled me down into a laying position with him. "My mom is proper crazy right now, I dunno what's up her rear but it needs to come out quick. She didn't bother you, did she?"

"No. She didn't say anything to me."