Blame It on Bad Luck

I really hated keeping secrets. Not only was it relatively hard for me, but I was always a paranoid freak about doing so. I was always afraid that the wrong person would find out my secrets and then the whole world would know of them in a matter of minutes.

So why I had decided that having the set-up I had with Oliver was a good idea was beyond me. This wasn’t just a simple, “I ate the last cookie, don’t tell” secret. This wasn’t just bigger than that, but it involved me keeping a secret from Matt, not only my best friend, but Oliver’s too.

I had come to the conclusion that I had lost a few too many brain cells over the years; that was the only rational thing I could think of.

In reality, secrets weren’t that hard to keep. If you kept your mouth shut and didn’t do anything stupid, your secrets were more than likely going to stay safe.

I was stupid though; maybe I liked putting myself in sticky situations, or maybe the universe had it out for me.

Because when Abbey called me that afternoon to ask me if I wanted to go bowling, I stupidly agreed. “Yeah sure, Nat’s coming in in about ten minutes to take over the store, so I’ll come to the alley in like a half hour?” I told her as I sat at the cash register, smiling at the customer who just walked in.

“No go, babe. I got the car, so Oliver’s gonna swing by the flat and get yeh, ‘kay?”

I frowned. “And why exactly is Oliver going bowling with us?”

“Because Matt’s ‘ere, and Tom, and Oli’s comin’ too he just had some stuff ta take care of so he was gonna show up late. And yeh agreed already, so no backin’ out now. Matt’s lookin’ at me expectantleh so—” she squealed, and then there was some rustling on the other end of the line before someone else was talking to me again.

“Yeh comin’ down Fin?” It was Matt, obviously happy I was coming to hang out.

I sighed. I couldn’t back out now, just like Abbey had said. “Yeah, I’ll be there in a little bit.”

We said our goodbyes and hung up just as Natalie was walking into the store. Natalie was my age, maybe a little younger, and she was like my assistant manager. She took over the store whenever Abbey and I weren’t there, and she did a damn good job too. I trusted her with my life, which was incredibly helpful.

“Hi Nat,” I called to her as she waved and walked to the backroom.

When she came back out she was smiling. “Any fancy plans for tonight?” she asked as she shoo’d me out from behind the counter.

I shrugged. “Going bowling, maybe dinner with Abbey and Matt and the guys.”

Nat smiled. “Well have fun. I’ll lock up and put the money in the safe when I leave.”

“You’re a lifesaver!” I called to her as I walked outside. Not surprisingly, it was sprinkling when I opened the door, so I wrapped my light jacket tighter around my body and put my hood up before heading home.

After getting back to my flat and drying off slightly, I got ready and tried to ignore the fact that Oliver would be there shortly to pick me up.

After slipping on jeans and a plain black t-shirt, I tried to tame my hair and fix my minimal make-up. Just as I was applying a bit of eyeliner, there was a knock at my door. “Hold on!” I yelled out before finishing my makeup. When I was satisfied, I took my time getting to the door because I knew it was Oli and I didn’t really care how long he had to wait for me.

When I finally opened the door, he was scowling at me. “Took yeh long enough, yeah?”

I rolled my eyes before turning around to grab my jacket and purse.”Quit complaining and let’s go.”

We walked out of my flat in silence and hurried to Oliver’s car, which was sitting just in front of my building. It wasn’t a legal parking spot, but I knew that when it came to Oliver, these types of things didn’t matter.

I threw myself into the front seat and slammed the door shut so I wouldn’t get any wetter from the downpour taking place outside while Oli got in the driver side in the same fashion. “You know you aren’t in a parking space,” I commented as he was fiddling with the heat and radio and every other button he could possibly touch.

Not that I was annoyed or anything.

“No shit, cap’ain obvious,” he grumbled before pulling out into traffic.

I rolled my eyes. “You’re in a good mood,” I commented before turning my head to look out the window.

He just shrugged, which intrigued me slightly. Oliver wasn’t the type to be in a bad mood, and if he was he was quite vocal about it.

“Hey, what's wrong?” I asked, suddenly extremely curious.

He glanced at me out of the corner of his eye with a confused look. “Uh, nofhin’?”

I rolled my eyes again. “Yeah, and I’m going to have sex in this car.”

I didn’t realize my mistake in choice of words until they were out of my mouth and it was too late. I swear, I was on a roll.

When we stopped at a stoplight, Oliver turned his head to look at me, an amused expression plastered on his face. “Yeh wan’ ta?”

I groaned, smacking my hand to my forehead in disgust, both in myself and Oliver. “Shut the fuck up.”

He just laughed. “I’m glad my idiocy made you laugh,” I grumbled, crossing my arms in front of my chest in a huff. “But I will never stoop as low as having sex with you in this car, Oliver Sykes, so don’t even think about it.”

He just chuckled from beside me and pulled through the intersection as the light turned green. “Yeh’re sexy when yeh use meh full name.”

“Just because we have our stupid little deal, does not mean that I’ll have sex with you whenever you want, Oli. I told you that already. So if you’re horny right now, you better fucking forget it because it’s not happening.”

I looked at him as I said this because I wanted to see his reaction, so imagine my surprise when I look at him and he’s just rolling his eyes at me.

“Yeh need ta lighten up, Finley. Yeh act like the only time I’m gonna ‘ave yeh around is for sex. We were friends before this deal, were we not?”

I scoffed. “More like semi-acquaintances, but yeah I guess so.”

I was suddenly feeling devilish. Maybe it was my pent up anger from my break-up with Dylan, or maybe I just liked to push Oliver’s buttons. If I was being honest, it was probably the latter. Regardless, I wanted to test Oliver’s theory that he wasn’t having me around just for sex. I wanted to prove him wrong, because for me, that’s all the deal was. He was just there and there wasn’t really anything else I could say to describe it any differently.

Maybe that’s why I leaned over the middle console and decided to test Oliver as much as I could.

I laid my hand on his knee at first, not wanting to be too brave or daring in the first few seconds of my taunting. I well his muscles tense under me, but he didn’t make me stop so I kept going. I brought my other hand up to his hair, running my fingers through it while simultaneously bringing my hand on his knee further and further North. I leaned closer to his ear and whispered, “Nervous yet?”

He just cleared his throat, and I noticed his hands tightened their grip on the steering wheel. “Yeh don’ make meh nervous, Fin.”

I giggled—yes, I actually giggled—and brought out extra reinforcements.

My lips found their way to the very edge of the rose on Oliver’s neck, kissing a path back up to his ear to make him squirm. My hand, meanwhile, was still working its magic and venturing ever so slowly to the danger zone. Just as I reached his inner thigh and I started to nip at his ear, I whispered it again: “Nervous yet, Oliver?”

I don’t know what made him snap, whether it was my hand or my lips on him. Whatever it was, before I even knew what was happening, Oliver was pulling off to the side of the road. It alarmed me, the sudden force of him stopping the car, so I pulled back quickly.

“Oh no yeh don’,” he said lowly. He wasn’t angry, but there was something in his voice that freaked me out.

He leaned over and grabbed my wrist, firmly but not enough to hurt me, and pulled me towards him. His lips were on mine before I could figure out what was happening, and by then I was already melting into him like no tomorrow.

I climbed over the center console and situated myself on Oliver’s lap before our lips went back to attacking each other.

His hands roamed up my shirt and my fingers ran through his hair, tugging it slightly, making him moan. It was driving me crazy.

Then, just as quickly as it had started, it was over.

If anything, Oliver kept me on my feet.

“What the hell?” I said as he pulled back, shoving me off to the side. “You’re like a walking cockblock, but to yourself, which makes no sense,” I rambled. Now I was the nervous one.

“Yeh don’ want ta ‘ave sex in the car aye?” he said, rolling his eyes. Now he was angry.

I gave him my best Are you fucking stupid? look. “You lost your fucking mind,” I muttered.

“Look Fin, we can do the whole friends wiff benefits fhing as much as yeh want, but don’ fuckin’ tease meh wiff it, alrigh’? Yeh eifher want it, or yeh don’, ‘s simple as that,” he said fiercely before pulling back onto the road and continuing on our way to the bowling alley.

“What, you want a relationship or something?”

He scoffed this time. “No Finley, I don’, but I’m not gonna let a bird fhink she’s in control of meh, ‘cause she’s not.”

I rolled my eyes. “You don’t have to worry about that Oliver. And plus, I can hardly control myself, let alone you of all people. So chill out.”

“I’m perfectly fine, love. Yeh’re the one all ova the place wiff wha’ yeh want.”

I didn’t answer him as he drove down the road into town. I couldn’t answer him, because he was right. I was all over the place, and I had no idea what I wanted. I couldn’t help thinking though that I had just completely changed the terms of our arrangement with my stunt in the car. I couldn’t tell if I was okay with that or not, but an annoying voice in the back of my mind was making me think I was perfectly fine with it.

That was the worst part.