Blame It on Bad Luck

“This is ridiculous,” I muttered under my breath as I stood in front of my best friend’s flat, waiting for him to open the door so we could have a day to spend together. It was ridiculous because we had to schedule time to spend together. He was my best friend, and for some crazy reason I thought this meant we could spend time together whenever we wanted. Silly me.

So maybe I was a little bitter, but so what? I was a girl; we were allowed to be bitter.

I kept knocking, getting kind of irritated when no one answered the stupid door. “Matt! Open the fucking door!” I called out. I tried to keep my voice at a reasonable level, considering he did have neighbors, but I was irritated so it was hard.

The thing was, Matt lived with Oliver, Oliver’s brother Tom, and some other guys. So I should have realized that Matt wouldn’t be the one to open the door. I should have mentally prepared myself just in the case this were to happen, but I was a naïve idiot. So when Oliver swung the door open, only in a pair of basketball shorts—his usual sleep attire—and his hair a complete mess, I shouldn’t have been surprised.

But I was.

“Oh,” I gasped when I finally got the ability to speak words again.

The smirk that took over his face snapped me out of my stupor and back to reality. This was Oliver, and despite what had happened the previous night, I hated him. In fact, just standing there in front of him was making my skin crawl. “So, yeh came back fer more?”

“Funny, jackass,” I said as I rolled my eyes and brushed by him. “And every day, I wonder why you don’t have a girlfriend who isn’t either a complete whore or just plain stupid,” I informed him sarcastically.

The smirk on his lips never faltered and he didn’t miss a beat as he brushed by me into the kitchen to get a drink and said, “Sure wasn’ yehr tune the otha nigh’ now was it?”

“Fuck off,” I growled, shutting him up momentarily as he took a drink of the bottle of orange juice straight from the fridge.

“Look, I’m just here for Matt. Where is he?” I asked Oliver, turning my head to look around the flat in search of my best friend.

Knowing Oli like I did, I should have expected what he did next. I should have known he was going to try something, to try to get under my skin, but I didn’t. Maybe I was off my game, or maybe I was just still in a daze. Regardless, I didn’t expect to turn my attention back to Oliver, who had grown unusually quiet only to find him merely inches away from my neck as he stood behind me.

I should have pushed him away, and I guess I started to. But his breath was warm on my neck and his arms were slowly encircling my waist, making my protests futile.

“’e’s not ‘ere, love. Went somewhere wiff Tom before I got up.” He was still so close to me, and his breath was so warm on my skin. I didn’t want to give in, but it was almost physically impossible for me to do otherwise.

When his lips ghosted over my neck just like I liked, I squirmed around in his embrace so I could face him. I grabbed his face with my hands forcefully and directed his lips to my own.

Of course, Oliver was a tease. He didn’t really want to make out with me like he was suggesting, he was just messing with my head; he was trying to prove a point, and it was working to his advantage quite well. Before I knew it, it was over and Oliver was pulling away, that stupid, all-knowing smirk on his face as usual. I wanted to smack the stupid look right off, but I refrained.

I stepped back too, crossing my arms in front of my chest in a huff. “You tricked me,” I hissed, my eyes narrowed in a menacing glare.

He just laughed, as if what I said was the funniest thing in the world. “Keep tellin’ yehrself tha’ love.” He shook his head as he continued to laugh, and then he turned on his heel. I watched as he walked towards the large, open living room and took a seat on the couch. For some reason, I felt the need to follow him, so I groaned as if walking a few steps towards him was the biggest put-out of my life and stood in front of him with my hands on my hips.

“Do yeh mind? Yeh’re blockin’ the telly.”

“You know Oliver, I may have had a momentary brain lapse at the party the other night, but that doesn’t mean you can kiss me whenever you want.” I tried to keep my voice firm as I spoke so Oliver would know I wasn’t kidding, but it was hard when I all I wanted to do was stare and/or kiss his lips some more.

“Yeh sure are doin’ a proper crap job at makin’ me believe yeh, Fin. First shaggin’ me right afta yeh boyfriend breaks up wiff yeh, and then kissin’ me just now? Yeh sound like yeh’re lyin’.”

I groaned and stomped my foot on the ground in frustration. “So what if I did kiss you Oli? Who cares? We’re both single, it’s not like I’m breaking any rules. I just want you to know that you can’t just kiss me whenever you want.”

“But yeh can kiss meh wheneva it suits yeh?” He laughed at this, a bitter, vacant laugh, and shook his head. “Not ‘ow it works Finley.”

“Well how does it work then?” This time I was the one doing the smirking as I popped my hip out and stuck my hands on my hips.

“We’re boff single, yeah?” I nodded. “So, we ‘elp each ofher out occasionally.” The smirk that took over his lips clued me in on what he was saying. Or rather, what he wasn’t saying, but what he was implying.

“Oh come on Oliver!” I exclaimed, throwing my hands up in disgust as I walked away from him.

“Wha’?” he asked, sounding genuinely confused. “’s what we did at tha parteh, just… more official.”

I walked to the counter and laid my hands on it, leaning over to look at Oliver. He seemed genuine, but how genuine could you be when making arrangements to have a friend with benefits? The whole deal seemed sketchy, and I told him so outright.

He chuckled. “’s not sketchy, Fin. ‘s just life, yeah? Yeh don’ want a boyfriend right now, and I don’t want a bird crawlin’ all over meh all the time. ‘s the perfect setup, especially for the two of us.”

I stared at him for a few minutes, weighing the options in my head quickly. Oli was right; I didn’t want a boyfriend right now, especially after what happened with my previous relationship. And I sure as hell didn’t want Oliver as a boyfriend. But the idea of having someone to kiss, cuddle, and a warm body to sleep with when I didn’t feel like sleeping alone was nice.

Then I felt like a complete and total whore for ever considering it. What was I thinking? I couldn’t agree to this, when all Oliver wanted was a fuck buddy, a warm body to come home to after a long tour. Did I really want to do that to myself?

“I’m not a whore who will come to you at your every call,” I growled lowly, glaring at him all the while. “I will not be degraded in such a way.”

He rolled his eyes.”I don’t need yehr feminist crap, Finley. It was just a suggestion and—”

I held my finger up to silence him. “But. If I happened to make out with you every once and awhile and maybe have you sleep at my place when I was lonely, I guess that’d be okay.”

His smirk grew. “Yeah?”

I swallowed and nodded. “Yeah, I guess.” Then I remembered the whole reason I was even standing in front of Oliver in the first place: Matt. I let out a gasp. “But Matt can’t find out. No one can, okay Oliver?

He shrugged, his colorful shoulders going up and down. “Whateva yeh want, Fin.”

I sighed. “I’m leaving before I agree to something else stupid. I’ll see you later.”

He just laughed as I saw myself out of the flat. When I got out in the hall, I leaned against the door behind me and sighed, closing my eyes.

What had I just gotten myself into?

***

“Abbey!” I called out as I stepped into the bookstore. I had to find someone to tell about my new arrangements with Oliver. And even though Abbey was probably a bad choice, she was my only choice at the moment.

I quickly found her in the back of the store, stocking one of the shelves with a new shipment of Young Adult books. I hurried over to her and grabbed the book she was about to put on the shelf out of her hands, slammed it down, and grabbed her by the shoulders so she would face me. “I did something bad,” I admitted in a hurry.

She quirked an eyebrow and looked at my like I had grown an extra head. “Did that somefhin’ involve drugs? Cos yeh’re actin’ proper mental. And can yeh let go of me? Yeh mental case.”

I rolled my eyes at her and dropped my hands from her shoulders at her request. I took a deep breath and opened my mouth to tell her my news, but nothing came out.

“Well?” she snapped.

This snapped my out of my trance. “Quit being so bitchy, first of all. Second, I may have agreed to an arrangement that is both going to make me sound a little skanky, and will make you gag when I tell you who it’s with.”

Abbey just gave me this look, as if to say Well get on with it, so I did.

“I sort of kind of told Oliver we could continue the whole making out thing with no strings attached.” I closed my eyes and took a step back, prepared to hear what she was about to yell at me. I waited, and waited, and waited a little longer, but the yelling never came. When I finally opened my eyes, she was just staring at me, her mouth open wide in shock. “Say something!” I demanded finally.

She snapped her jaw shut and laughed. “Remember how I called it and said this was goin’ ta get messy? Well I was right. I just hope yeh know what yeh’re doin’,” she told me with a shake of her head as she turned her body to continue stocking the shelves.

I sighed. I hoped to all that was good and holy that I knew what I was doing, too.