What We Used To Know

“So what are all these kids doin’ out here, anyways?” Oliver asked as he and Addie walked down the street his hotel was located. “Ain’t it a Monday?”

Addie nodded, shivering a bit in the cold wind that suddenly hit her. “It’s Casimir Pulaski Day. It’s just a holiday, the districts over here decide to take it off in order to ‘observe’ the holiday.”

“Oh,” he started, looking around at all of the teenaged kids running around, many of them bundled up in hoodies and sweatshirts, fighting the cold weather. “So they get a day off school just ‘cause of some guy?”

“Well, most people seem to think he’s pretty important, actually, since they give us the first Monday of every March off ‘cause of him,” Addie said, chuckling. Another gust of wind blew into her body from the side, causing her to stumble into Oliver’s side as they walked slowly. It was beginning to rain, making the sidewalk slick and the air even colder.

“’At’s not fair,” Oli exclaimed, wishing they had had holidays like that for no reason back when he was in secondary school. It had been years since he had been in an actual classroom, but it was impossible to forget the hell of what school felt like when he was young.

“You shoulda grown up in Illinois then.” It was becoming harder and harder to avoid the wind that was knocking the pair around the slick sidewalk, blowing them into each other every so often. They would laugh, straighten themselves out, and them continue on.

They smiled when they collided again, for what seemed like the tenth time since they left Addie’s apartment. For some reason, they decided that it wouldn’t be necessary to take the car, and instead opted to walk the single block back to Oliver’s hotel. It wouldn’t have been a problem in any other kind of normal weather, but the wind and rain made the walk feel like an entire journey.

The hotel was at least in sight now, the sign outside lighting up the gray sky. It was barely past noon, but the clouds overruled any color in the sky. It could have easily been dusk, if they weren’t aware of the time.

The two quickly entered the hotel lobby, shuddering now from the abrupt change of wind and cold rain to the sudden warmth that was filling them. The heater was blasting, keeping the lobby more than warm as they walked through it together, padding over the soft carpet that muffled their shoe steps. Oliver’s room was on the third floor, which meant they had to take the elevator. They approached it, slowing down while Oli pressed the up button, and waited for a moment.

“Y’know, you don’t have to come all the way up to my room with me,” he stated, turning to Addie who was standing only a few inches away from him. She liked being close to him. After only days of being with him, his presence was able to make an adjustment in her attitude, usually for the better. Being around Oli was like some sort of orb of air around him that made Addie feel good, like how she hadn’t felt in so long.

She didn’t know what to call this feeling though, for she had never experienced it.

It was called attachment.

“Oh, are you sure?” she asked, just to check. Every other time she dropped Oliver off at the hotel, she went up to his room to say goodbye, then walked back out of the hotel alone. She just thought it was good manners, to at least walk him to the door of his temporary residence. It made her feel like they were better friends, like she wanted to get every last minute of being with him that she could.

“Yeah, really,” he told her again, nodding. “You have to be at work soon, anyways. And I know my way to my room by now,” he added with a cheeky grin.

“Oh,” Addie replied, feeling a little disappointed at what felt like rejection. “Okay. I’ll see you later then.”

They exchanged a grin, slight laughter bubbling out of each of their lips as Addie turned on her heel and swiftly started making her way out of the hotel, and back into the horrid weather. Oli stepped into the elevator once it opened for him, wondering why he didn’t let Addie come up to his room with him to see him off, like she had every other day this week after they went out. He guessed it was probably because at this point, they still hadn’t shown any sign of physical affection towards each other, and he was getting ever so tempted to kiss her. Of course, right when she would leave him at the door of his hotel, he would see that it would be the perfect moment just to pull her in and finally feel what her lips tasted like. And he couldn’t have that. Not now. Not this early.

He hated feeling like a schoolboy. Like he was crushing on this girl - well, he was. She held some sort of power over his heart that no one else had been able to hold for so long. Just the way she smiled made him want to hug her, and never let go. But he hadn’t even gotten the chance to wrap his arms around her yet, and he was only too eager to do so.

And most of all, he was only too eager to figure out why he was still acting so strange. It had been over a month now that he had known Addie and been talking to her, and he still wasn’t back to his pre-House of Blues performance personality. Everything changed that night. If he was going to start taking things slow with a girl who lived thousands of miles away from him, on a whole other continent, then he was definitely not himself. The only scary part was that he wasn’t so sure he was all for changing back to who he had been.

Addie was heading out of the hotel, her stomach still full of the breakfast - er, lunch - she had just grabbed with Oliver only half an hour prior. That’s what their schedule had been since he arrived in Springfield. On the days that Addie didn’t have to work until past noon, they’d go out for brunch, eating at a different restaurant everyday, and then Addie would walk back to Oli’s hotel with him, all the way up to his room where she would then say goodbye and saunter back outside. When Addie worked mornings, Oli would show up on her lunch break and they’d head out for the half an hour she was allotted to eat. And of course, every night they would go out to dinner, or Addie would cook for them back at her apartment.

It was like having an old friend in town, to Addie. She was around Oli constantly, but it wasn’t annoying her. Having him stay at the hotel just a block away was enough distance for them to keep things platonic, and prevent too many more feelings from developing. But it was nice, because now Addie had someone to share her time with, besides Deandra. Her life had been in a bit of a slump the last few months, what with how she only had less than a handful of friends. She had someone new now though, someone interesting that she never thought she would actually be spending time with.

It didn’t seem to faze her that she was spending time with someone who could be considered famous, probably because she had only learned who he truly was on the very night she met him. All of the dazzle and appeal that made Oli just the shiny new toy to everyone else didn’t apply to Addie. He was just another person, who had a rather radical lifestyle, but he was still just Oliver.

He appreciated that Addie didn’t treat him like every other girl did. Addie was upfront and didn’t care about treating him like some king, like the way half of the girls who only wanted Oliver for one thing did. In a way, it made him feel like he wasn’t sure what Addie wanted from him at all, but he was okay with it. It was better than having her throw herself at him and act like a fool, like ninety-eight percent of the other girls out there. This one was different, and he learned that within ten minutes of knowing her. But it only got better as he spent more time with her.

Oli was a friend. Nothing more, nothing less. In Addie’s mind, well, she still wasn’t sure why he was here, but she obviously didn’t mind. She wanted so badly to know why he would come all the way back to Springfield of all places just to come see her. It was nice to actually be able to put more of a face to his name now, and actually learn about him now through his body language than to be restricted to just calls and text messages. It was hard to tell herself over and over again that even if she didn’t have the reason why he came back here, it didn’t matter. Maybe he just wanted to get to know her better, like she wanted to get to know him, as well. She wasn’t special, she wasn’t flirting with him, Addie wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. So when she tried to tell herself that it wasn’t abnormal for him to be here for her all of a sudden, she couldn’t help but hate the fact that she was outright lying to herself.

Oliver was special. He was anything but ordinary, and had enough confidence in himself that it just radiated off of him. The moment he stepped closer to anyone, they could just feel his arrogance seeping out of him. He could be quiet about it, or he could shove it in your face that he was confident and cocky.

He was so unlike Addie. They shared nothing in common, yet they got along so well. In any other situation, it should have been impossible for them to get along, and to want to be around each other. They should strongly dislike each other. Their beliefs were completely opposite of each other, just like every other aspect of their lives.

The words opposites attract perfectly described them, and those were the two words that floated around in both Oliver and Addie’s heads when they thought of the other.

And they were busy praying that they wouldn’t attract any further than they had already.

It would just make things more painful for them to continue their friendship if they started developing feelings. It would only make things harder, and more complicated, and problematical. They didn’t need anymore problems than they each already had.

The only question that still burned in Oliver’s mind every time he met up with Addie each day - telling himself that he would try his best not to fall in love with her smile again - was, why the hell would he be out here if he didn’t want to develop feelings for her?

***

“So… you’re leaving tomorrow,” Addie started off, taking a sip of the ice water in front of her. Oli was over, and they were just finishing dinner, spaghetti with vegetarian sauce - for Oliver of course; Addie wasn’t a vegetarian. This was the final time he’d be eating dinner with Addie, and he didn’t know how long it would be before he got the chance to again.

“Aye,” he said, nodding, “flight leaves at what… noon? Yeah, noon I think.”

He sounded sad as he spoke, his voice dropping and his eyes shifting down to the empty plate before him. Oliver didn’t want to look at Addie. He didn’t want to see what was in her eyes when he said that he’d be gone within twelve hours. It hurt bad enough admitting to himself that he wouldn’t see her face again for God knows how long; he didn’t want to look at Addie, and possibly see that she was hurt, too.

Oli just had a feeling that maybe she might have felt the same way about him, but he wasn’t going to push it. If he tried to open up about his own feelings, and then discover that Addie had the same ones, it would only make boarding that plane tomorrow even harder. Things would get complicated if Addie even had the slightest idea of how Oli felt towards her.

The mind games that Addie and Oli played with themselves were what caused enough problems. They didn’t think that repressing their feelings would do any harm. They feared that if they actually vocalized how they felt about one another, things would only go south. But it was the lies they told themselves that made things complicated and awkward, when they had to pretend not to be staring at the other, or listening extra close when they laughed. If they had just admitted that they might actually want to be “more than friends,” they would for once have something in common.

It was his last night here now, and Oliver still hadn’t managed to complete what he told himself the reason for coming out here was. He hadn’t managed to figure Addie out. She was too all over the place for him to pin her down to a certain description. There was something about her that just seemed different almost every time he saw her, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. Something about her that just made him want more, but he couldn’t figure out a single thing about her, other than the facts she had given him. So, his task was unsuccessful, but that was only a bullshit excuse as to why he was here, anyways.

“Oh, well, that’s not too early,” Addie replied dryly, the fact that she’d be eating alone again starting tomorrow not sitting well with her. She’d gotten used to sharing her time with someone else now, enjoying what it felt like to have the rush of feelings that went along with someone new. The way her heart would beat just a little bit faster when she was with Oli told her that she needed him to leave, so that she would be back to normal, and that she wouldn’t want anything more from him. But she wanted everything with him. She didn’t want him to leave. She wanted him to stay in Springfield - like the ludicrous idea it was - and stay with her and make her smile, and laugh, and make her happy.

“Yeah, but then I have to get to the airport at around ten, which means I ‘ave to leave the hotel at nine something. So I’ll still be up early,” he said, a small smile creeping onto his lips by the end of the sentence.

Addie smiled back, standing up from her spot at the small kitchen table, grabbing her plate as well as Oliver’s as she slid them into the sink, to deal with later.

Oli sat at the table, looking around Addie’s apartment as if he hadn’t done the same exact thing for five nights in a row now, mindlessly sucking on his lip ring. Addie watched him, standing there in the middle of the kitchen with her hands clasped together. She was holding her breath, not even knowing why as she watched the way Oliver’s eyes flitted from the corners of the room. He looked over to her finally, and she gasped a little before coughing in an effort to cover up the fact she’d just been caught staring.

“Do you wanna go out to the living room?” she asked quietly, her eyes fixed on Oli’s as he was leaning back in the chair, staring back at her.

“Sure.”

They shuffled over the hard wood floors, to the soft couch that was clearly worn in. It was comfy to sit on, already molded to Addie’s body from the hours she had spent on it.

“Wanna watch a movie?” Addie asked, peering at Oli as they collapsed onto the couch, sinking into the plush material.

Oli scrunched up his nose for a second, before opening his mouth. “How ‘bout we just talk?”

“Talk?” Addie repeated, furrowing her eyebrows and making it seem like the
proposal was something completely out of the ordinary.

“Yeah,” he started off slowly, dragging out the word. “Y’know, like how friends talk. We’re friends, ain’t we?” He smirked, his eyes twinkling as he teased.

“Yeah, well, of course,” Addie quickly replied, nodding her head a few times too quickly. “Okay then.”

There was a brief moment of silence before Addie came up with anything to say. “Tell me about your childhood.”

“My childhood?” Oli questioned, laughing as he curled his legs up onto the couch.

“That’s talking, isn’t it?” Addie teased, smiling as she chuckled.

“Fine. You’re right. Okay… where to begin.” He sighed, trying to pick out some key details that he thought would be interesting to share. “Well, were born in England, but my family moved to Australia for a bit, ‘fore comin’ back to Sheffield. Got a little brother, Tom, he’s a couple years younger than me. Not much of an interesting childhood, I guess. Just all the normal stuff.”

“Tell me about your friends. A boy like you was bound to have lots of friends,” Addie commented, trying to picture what Oli would have looked like as a kid, not very successfully.

“Yeah, actually. Lots of friends. Just the blokes, who I knew from primary, were most of my friends through secondary, too. Great group o’ guys. But we all just grew apart, eventually.”

“Any girlfriends?” Addie questioned, teasing him as she drew out the word, smiling with a twinkle in her eye.

He chuckled, and a slight pink tinge rose from his neck to his cheeks as he looked down at his hands. “Yeah,” he admitted, blushing a little more. “Not till the last few years of secondary though. I wasn’t really ‘good’ around the lasses until year nine, when I was fourteen. Before that I never even talked t’any, really. Were this one girl though, my old best mate from way back when. She-she moved, I think. Never told me why, ‘cause she never said goodbye. But, the neighbors were talkin’ about why ‘er family left. Said her dad got shot by her brother. An’ her brother committed suicide. All I remember is how much she loved ‘er brother, even though he was a bit wonky in the head, obviously. That’s what ‘s about though. I miss her so much, an’ I don’t even know her anymore.”

Oli was suddenly blushing ferociously, looking down at his hands like they were the most interesting things in the world. He couldn’t believe he had just said all of that. All of that personal information about his once best friend, to a friend he had only known for a month. He’d never spoken any of those words aloud though, only keeping the past feelings of missing his best friend ever so terribly, memories of dealing with one day suddenly not having a best friend rushing back to him.

Addie was wide eyed and breathing heavily through her nose, her eyes fixated on nothing at all. She clutched the pillow in her lap to the point where the stuffing was protesting on bursting through the seams.

“How do you know what happened to me?” she asked, breathless. Her heart was racing so fast it could have popped out of her chest. “That-that’s my past, Oli. That happened to me. That’s my life.”