Flash of Violet

It'd been about a week since Oli's Halloween party and he'd managed to be in an even more sour mood after being caught treating Tom like shit by someone other than Matt or his parents. He wasn't so much angry that she'd listened in on their conversation as he was embarrassed. It made him realize what an asshole he was being, and that just made him feel even worse.

"So," Matt said, continuing his conversation about Casey, "What do yeh think?"

"I think yeh shoulda just boned 'er."

"I don't know 'er that well. I'd be embarrassed teh talk teh 'er again after fuckin' 'er so soon."

"Who said yeh 'ad teh talk teh her afterwards?"

"I want teh talk teh 'er. Yeh don't understand, Ols. I wanna get teh know this bird."

"It's a waste of yer time." Oli muttered, taking another drink from the can of beer sitting on his counter.

"Oh, 'ello Tom!" Matt waved as Tom came around the corner with a sweatshirt and shoes on, "Where yeh goin'?"

Tom held three rolls of film in the air, "'m gettin' these developed." He paused and pulled the back of his shoe over his heel, "Aye, Ols, can I borrow the car?"

"What? Yeh can't take the bus?"

"I don't 'ave enough money."

"It's 'cause yer wastin' all yer money on them stupid pictures."

Matt cut in before Oli decided to get too ugly, "I can give yeh some money fer the bus Tom."

"No," Oli snarled, grabbing the keys from the counter, tossing them towards Tom, "'Ere."

"Thanks."

"Aye, wait a minute. Let meh get yeh some money."

"Fer what?"

Oli pulled a couple of crunched up bills from his wallet sitting on the counter and tossed them across the room, "Get meh some Captain Morgan, alright?"

Matt rolled his eyes as Tom looked at Oli in disgust. Tom wanted so badly to march across the room and shove Oli's money up his arse, telling him to buy his own fucking booze. But, he didn't have much a say in the conversation. He needed to borrow the car, and that meant he had to be nice to Oli. So, Tom picked up both the keys and the money and was out the door before Oli could change his mind.

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Tom walked through the door a couple hours later, his developed film in a plastic bag with Oliver's alcohol bouncing around as well. He closed the door behind him and was ambushed by loud gun shots coming from the living room, where Oli was sitting on the edge of the coffee table with the XBOX controller clutched in his tattooed hands. Tom looked on the couch for Matt, noticing he was missing.

"Aye, Ols. Where's Matt?"

"I dunno, 'e left a little while after yeh did." Oli shrugged.

Tom rolled his eyes at Oli, keeping his comments to himself, knowing full well that anything he said could and most definitely, without a fucking doubt would be held against him. He did his best not to let the Captain Morgan make too much noise as he placed it carefully on the counter. Oli must've forgotten about it by now, or he'd have mentioned it first thing when Tom walked in. Tom figured if he didn't see it, he wouldn't want it until morning and keeping Oli from drinking, even if it was only a few hours, was always the better thing to do.

He sighed loudly and shuffled his way into his bedroom, where he pulled the envelopes out of the plastic bag from the photo shop.

Carefully, he lay out each picture on the cold tile of his floor and looked at them all. He hadn't taken as many as he'd have liked. Half of them were post-show pictures, just of Oli with sweaty hair sticking to his face, his eyes glazed over with alcohol, while the rest of the band stood around him, half laughing at him, half being completely disgusted by him. He put all of those pictures in a pile and grouped them into his "Shows" folder. He took the others in his hands and spread them further apart, grinning like mad about the pictures of Oli dressed as a nerd and Matt wearing his mouse suit. Tom shuffled through the remaining photos, which consisted mainly of some guy that had showed up, wearing extremely convincing zombie make up and his girlfriend, who had a bite taken from her face. There were random pictures of a girl wearing a pumpkin costume, and a dude dressed up in a Bugs Bunny costume. A lot of the pictures were of feet as well. Pictures of bare feet, socked feet, and shoes. Then, there were the pictures of Violet.

Violet. Tom remembered hearing Oli greet her as he walked to his room. Violet. It seemed to fit her so perfectly. It was an airy kind of name and she was an airy type of person. Just light and so quiet, hardly there. Airy. The fact that she had that soft purple hidden in her hair just added to her persona. She held such confidence, she knew Tom was taking pictures of her, she saw him. But, she wasn't snooty or cocky about it. She just let him go on about his business.

Tom kept his eyes focused on one picture in particular. It was the one where she'd caught his eye, but he didn't need the picture to remember the grin on her face. It was happy and curious. Flattered, almost embarrassed. She held her cigarette tightly between her fingers, and her lips were twitched upwards in a grin, the bottom of her vampire fangs making small indents on her bottom lip. Tom ran his finger over the picture and bit his lip. Suddenly, a loud crash sounded and Tom heard Oli's cursing through his bedroom door.

He jumped off his floor, running out into the hallway, scattering the glossy pictures all over the place. He made it out to the living room in just enough time to see Oli pulling himself off the floor and rubbing the side of his face.

"Are yeh alright Ols?" Tom asked, surveying the situation.

Oli. The coffee table with a sharp edge. A half empty bottle of Captain Morgan. Bad situation.

"Piss off!" Oli hollered, his voice shaking.

He refused to turn his face towards Tom, but that didn't matter much. Oli never looked at anyone when he was on the verge of tears, which is how everyone knew when Oli was upset. Tom looked at his older brother. He was so pathetic, so fucking lame. He drank until he couldn't move and then he'd just fall over and wait for someone to help him to bed. He'd never been this pathetic in his entire life. Oli was always the first person to laugh, the first person to be on his own, he'd learned a long time ago he couldn't count on anyone to make him happy, so it was a complete mystery why he chose Amanda to keep him happy. Oli knew better than that.

Oli also knew better than to drink himself sick every night, but that didn't stop him from doing it.

"Come on Olleh, 'ts 'bout time fer bed, don't yeh think?"

"Thank yeh Tom," Oli said, his mood changing like a chameleon, "That's a good idea."

Tom merely smiled at Oli, he wanted to hate him, but he couldn't. He knew he was hurt, and he knew that it took a lot to hurt Oli. Oli was emotionally damaged, he had been for months now, and Tom wanted so badly to do something about it, but he wasn't sure how.

The only time Oliver ever treated Tom like a little brother anymore was when he was too drunk to know any better.