Disease

Oliver stood in front of the mirror at his parent’s house. He had both hands holding either side of his bowtie, something that Afton had requested he wear. It was a red bowtie over his black suit. It was a classic black tuxedo with the white undershirt and he had to admit—he looked good. He smiled at himself and turned to the side to examine his hair. He wanted to look nice today, to look the best today, because he wanted to be the best for Afton. He walked out to the living room where his mum was fitting the boys for their tux’s. She turned around to look at Oliver and a sad smile crossed her face.

“Aye Oli, yeh look so wonderful.”

Matt agreed, nodding his head. “Yeah, yeh look real ace.”

“At least yeh don’t look like us wankers.” Jona laughed.

“Aye!” Oli’s mum slapped his leg, “If yeh weren’t movin’ round while I was tryin’ teh fit yeh, yeh might not be lookin’ like such a moron.”

A nervous chuckle came from Oliver’s mouth and he walked across the living room, to the balcony outside. The wind was blowing just slightly and it was rather chilly. He could see his father setting up the arch for the wedding, but he didn’t say anything to him. He reached over and pulled out the half empty package of cigarettes from under the wicker chair. He’d taken them from Afton months ago, when the doctor had told her smoking would increase her chances of her disease worsening. He pulled her purple lighter out of the pack and stuck one of the cigarettes in his mouth, sucking on it.

He’d never been a smoker and still wasn’t, but when he was nervous he seemed to think that smoking a cigarette would calm his nerves. His long skinny fingers trembled with the weight of the cigarette. The door slid open and Matt came outside, standing beside him.

“So yer really doin’ it mate, yer gonna marry ‘er.”

Oliver nodded, exhaling. “Yep.”

“Yer tux is gonna smell like smoke, put that out.”

He looked over at Matt momentarily before nodding and putting the cigarette out. Matt was right, if he kept smoking before the wedding, he was going to smell like a god damn ashtray.

“I’m so nervous.”

“Why? Yeh and Af ‘ave been through everythin’ together, I can’t see marryin’ her makin’ yeh nervous. It’s not like yeh just met and yeh shagged ‘er and now she’s pregnant and yeh ‘ave teh marry ‘er.”

Oli laughed slightly. “I know. It’s just nerve wrackin’.”

“Yeh lot are gonna freeze yer asses off. Why in the hell are yeh havin’ yer weddin’ at night? Don’t yeh know that it’s supposed teh be like forty degrees tonight?”

“Af wanted the weddin’ teh be at night.”

“Where is she at?”

“At the flat.”

“By herself?”

Oliver nodded. “She said she wanted to be alone before the weddin’ for a while. Meh mum and I offered teh get ‘er hair done at a salon, get ‘er make up done. And she didn’t want to. Just said she wanted to be alone and that she’d call when she wanted teh be picked up fer the weddin.’”

“Maybe she’s preparin’ herself for yeh teh ravage her frail little body tonight.” Matt grinned, raising his eyebrows.

Oliver laughed, punching him in the shoulder. “Yer such a bloke.”

“She got ‘er dress over there and everythin’?”

“Yeah.” Oli said. “She’s got it.”

Matt saying that reminded him of how upset Afton had been when he’d shown her the dress. Oliver and his mum couldn’t get the stain out so Oli just used that as an excuse to buy Afton the big green one she’d wanted. She was so upset that she wouldn’t even look at it. She merely stuffed it in the closet and ignored the dress entirely. It had made Oliver feel terrible, but he had to deal with it. It’d been a long time since he and Afton had a fight and he wasn’t about to argue with her over the dress. He’d explained what happened and that had saved him just slightly. Sure, Afton argued that he could have gotten a different dress, but he told her liked that one, he liked the green one and it would look brilliant on her. So she gave up arguing with him and they sat down for tea.

“Mate.” Matt tapped Oli on the shoulder for the second time. “Yeh all right mate?”

“Think so.” Oliver nodded. “I’m just gonna go sit down for a while.”

Matt nodded. “Okay.”

Oliver turned around before he opened the door. “Afton will call yeh when she needs teh be picked up. Left meh phone at the flat. Can yeh pick ‘er up?”

“Sure thing mate.”

“Thanks.”

Matt nodded as he watched Oliver walk inside. Oli went through the kitchen to his old bedroom so that he didn’t have to talk to his mum or any of the guys. He turned the handle to his bedroom door and pushed it open lightly. His room still had the slight odor of marijuana and cigarette smoke stuck to his curtains. His mum had always yelled at him when he was younger and he did his best to air it out, but had never done a really good job. The bed was made nicely; probably the only time it had ever been made. He sat down on the edge of it and rubbed his face, looking around the room. Some of his things were still in the room, but most of the closet was just storage. On the top shelf were yearbooks and photo albums. He stood up from the bed and pulled out two of the yearbooks, looking through them with ease. He saw all of his old classmates, never necessarily being friends with them. He got to the autograph section of his yearbook and there weren’t many signatures, just a few.

Hey mate, we’re gonna fuck around this summer, yeah? Get some ass maybe. Don’t know why I’m signing this, cause I’m staying at your house tonight! –Matt N.

There were some swirly pink letters that Oliver had guessed to be SJ’s writing. And as he read the words, he realized that they were indeed from SJ. He’d gotten grounded that summer for a couple of weeks after his mom had read it.

And in little green letters was Afton’s message. Oliver, I feel kind of weird writing in here since I don’t know you well, but you asked me too :D I can’t promise to leave a brilliant message. You seem real ace. We should hang out over break? Have a nice summer.

And just underneath that, she’d scrawled her phone number. Granted, SJ was more than upset when she’d read it, but now as Oliver compared the words of SJ’s pink scrawl and Afton’s ugly green letters, he realized how much more sincere Afton has always been.

It wasn’t so much the sincerity that it was the complete honesty. She’d always been quiet, but if she was provoked, there was no getting her to shut up. Afton was loud and she didn’t care if no one wanted to listen to what she had to say, she’d say it anyway. When SJ and Oliver had finally split up and SJ realized that Oliver was going after Afton, she was more than upset. Not because she wanted Oliver, but because she didn’t want Afton to have him. She did everything she could to get them to break up.

And she’d almost succeeded quite a few times. Afton wasn’t one to take shit from anyone and when she found out that SJ and Oliver had gone at it a few times while they were together, she immediately moved herself out of Oliver’s house. Granted, she had nowhere to live, no friends, no money and nothing to her name, but she wouldn’t stay in the flat with Oliver after what he’d done to her. Only a few days later, she showed up over at Oliver’s mum’s house with dirty hair and dirty clothes. She’d slept in a bus one night, managed to bunk at an old high school acquaintance’s house, and found herself trying to sleep inside a bathroom stall at the grocery store. Once she was kicked out of there, the last place she could think to go was Oliver’s mum’s. Once Carol had the girl washed up and in bed, she called Oliver and let him have it.
It was this point in Oli’s life where he had to choose. His mother had chosen Afton over him and he had to choose between Afton and SJ.

He spent almost a week drunk out of his skull, letting his phone go dead and the door go unanswered. It was the seventh day of that week that Afton came over. She found her way inside the apartment and tried talking to Oliver. Upon realizing just how sick he’d gotten since she’d last talked to him, she got him in the bath and made him some dinner. He slept for hours and he finally sobered up. They talked. And talked. And talked. They talked for so long, Oliver’s mum called to make sure they were both all right. And they were. They were more than all right.

They had managed to fall in love in those hours they’d spent together. Before, they’d loved each other and they’d tolerated the bullshit. Although when Oliver realized that Afton wasn’t going to deal with his shit anymore, he really poured his heart out to her. He said everything he’d ever thought in those few hours. In those few hours, he’d told her literally everything.

Ever since then, they’d been in love. And now they were here on this day, getting ready to get married, to really profess their love, to have proof of their love. Like a marriage certificate was the only thing that would show they really loved one another.

Both of them were a mess. Oliver was a nervous wreck amongst many people that were so happy for him and his fiancé. Afton was alone in their flat, crying over not having anyone there for her at the wedding. Sure, Oliver’s parents loved her just as much as Oliver and Tom, and Oli’s mates were amazing guys, but they weren’t there for her. They were there to support Oliver. She thought she’d given up on her family, she thought that all she needed was Oliver. He was her life and her love, but things got upsetting when she could only talk to him about him.

She stood in the kitchen with a cup of tea raised to her mouth. In two hours, she was supposed to call Matt’s cell and have him come over to pick her up, but she hadn’t even showered yet. The only thing that was concerning her at the moment was getting something to eat before she passed out from being so famished.