The Missing O

“I swear to God, Love,” the loudest of the group cackled at me, “I’ve never seen anyone so red in my entire life!”

The guy slapped his knee animatedly, and I cringed as Charlie practically drooled on his shoulder. She was hanging off of him like a ‘please do not disturb sign’ on a sleazy hotel door. I just hoped I could force her into our taxi tonight, instead of watching her leave in his.

The guy, who by far was the most talkative of the group of boys we were now sat with, was called Matt. Matt Nicholls, he had introduced himself as. He was the first person to welcome us when Oliver slipped Charlie and I into the VIP section. Which, may I add, I had not participated with willingly. The moment Oliver said the words “free drinks” Charlie jumped to her feet and practically dragged me towards the cornered off section.

From the moment Charlie had set her sights on Matt’s large eyes and even larger personality, she’d been all over him. There were other people as well; a guy called Curtis who had prominent cheekbones and long mousy hair. There was also Lee, a small guy with pouty lips and a baby face and he didn’t really speak much, and then there was Matt Keane who had to be one of the tallest people I’d ever met, who, unsurprisingly, also had long hair. Their was definitely a pattern here. I wondered what had gotten them into such a position where they were in the VIP section of a brand new club.

There was a collection of young women hanging off of the boys, Charlie wasn’t the only one. Most of them were skinny and blond, splattered with chunks of metal and tattoos, just like the five guys we’d been tackled and taken hostage by. Both myself and Charlie received a few dirty looks from this onslaught of hair-extensions and push-up bra’s, but it lasted only a moment before we were just another whore in a haystack. I didn’t like this. Not one bit.

I sat, not even nodding or smiling at the joke that Matt Nicholls was telling us, and watched Oliver from the corner of my eye. When he had lead us over here, he had sat right next me and with a not so subtle elbow to the ribs, he shuffled an inch or so away. He hadn’t spoken to me since.

“So, Oli,” Charlie cooed. Oliver raised his eyebrows at the girl. “What made you decide to pick up my good friend, Morgan, here?”

I saw him smile beside me, and I tightened my fingers around the glass I hadn’t drank out of yet.

“Me and Morgan are old associates,” he said cockily, and I felt the leather shift under my legs as he closed those few inches I’d been sure to maintain between us. “We go way back.”

“Really?” Charlie was genuinely surprised, giving me a sharp look. “Well…she never mentions you.”

“Oh, burn!” Curtis wailed. I fought back a smirk when Oliver scratched the back of his neck awkwardly, looking into his lap.

“Looks like you haven’t laid the old Sykes Charm on her thick enough,” Matt Nicholls winked, and he smiled approvingly at Charlie when she laughed.

For the most part of the night I zoned out, staring into the murky fluid in my glass, waiting for Charlie or Matt to get bored of the other so that we could go and I wouldn’t have to feel Oliver’s arm brush against my side every time he shuffled a bit.

But once or twice I’d find myself completely aware of where I was, all because of him. Bloody bastard. I’d catch him watching me, openly in front of all his friends and all the skinny blonds’ around us. Finally, it all got too much.

“Have you got a problem?” I hissed, slamming my glass down on the table. If the music and chatter hadn’t been so loud then it would have made more of an impressive sound.

Oliver looked taken aback for all about a second, before that stupid lopsided grin made it’s grand entrance. I wanted to wipe it off of his smug face.

“Don’t you think it’s odd?” he asked.

I sighed. I couldn’t be bothered with his games right now.

“Bothered with what?” I snapped, resting my chin on my palm with a sigh. I saw him mimic me.

“That our mates met a little less than an hour ago, and they’ve made more progress than we have in almost two months.”

“What do you mean progress?”

“I hate to tell you this, Love, but unless you get swept off your feet pretty soon, it looks like you’re going home alone tonight.” He nodded towards our friends, he watched Matt as he slinked an arm over the girl. She threw some of her platinum hair over her shoulder, and batted her thick lashes at him. With just that one embrace I knew it was true. Looks like I’d nursing a hangover by myself in the morning.

“Great,” I muttered. I picked up my drink, feeling the looming cloud growing heavier over my head, and downed it.

“It’s not all that bad, trust me,” Oliver said, and I wished he would just stop talking. “I share an apartment with him.”

“And?”

“And my headphones have broken on my iPod, so it looks like I’m stuck listening to those two at it all night.”

I actually laughed. It wasn’t on purpose, I wasn’t even expecting it, but I threw my head right back and let out an opened mouthed cackle. Oliver didn’t seem nearly half as amused as me, but he smiled anyway.

I got home just after two, and I paid the babysitter and walked her to the door, before checking on Kaitlyn, kissing her forehead and pulling her blanket further over her before I went to my own room.

I stripped off my clothes, happily kicking away the heels that had been beating up my ankles all night, and curled up in the warmth of my duvet. I spent a long time laying there, listening to the sounds that the night made. I heard cars whirring outside, all the late night taxis slithering over the city. There was a hum of winter breeze, shaking the bare braches of trees and sifting through the buildings and whistling through the minute gaps in the window panes. I listened mostly, though, to the silence of the apartment, the lack of my best friend.

My mind flitted between different things, but settled for a long time on Charlie and the guy she’d gone home with. I wasn’t scared for her. Matt seemed like a fun guy, I guess, and even though I didn’t want to admit it, knowing that Oliver went in the taxi with them made me feel a little better about my friends whereabouts.

The thoughts switched again to what it would be like if it was me going home with someone else tonight. If Oliver and I had made ‘progress’ would it be us keeping Matt awake instead, and Charlie alone in a cold empty bed, wondering why it was she hadn’t brought a guy home in…well, a damn long time.

My list of relationships was pathetic, to say the least. I had my first boyfriend when I was thirteen. He was called Maxwell Tristurn and he had braces and a lazy eye.

My first kiss waited until I was fourteen, and it was in a park with the hottest guy in my year. He never asked me out again, and the last time I saw him he was begging for pennies in front of Marks and Spencer’s.

I lost my virginity when I was fifteen to the first guy I had ever fell in love with. We went out for six months, but in the end he claimed he’d gotten bored of me and started going out with a close friend who turned out to not be a friend at all. Turns out she’d lost her virginity to him too.

After that I had flings, but never any long term relationships. I hadn’t had a boyfriend in years. Charlie always had men pawing around her feet, I’d wake up and find another Ben or Luke making himself coffee in the kitchen, and most of the time I’d never see him again.

I hoped for Charlie that she would find someone that would take care of her, love her and want everything that she wanted, but most of all I wanted someone that would love Kaitlyn as well. I wanted that, so much. But the thought of them leaving the flat, leaving me, scared the shit out of me. Because then, I really would be alone.