Blame It on Bad Luck

I don’t know what I was thinking. I guess I was just determined to have some sort of plan when it came to Oliver and I. I mean, I knew where we stood--sort of--but I needed something a little more definite. Something with a few more rules.

I guess that’s why I felt the need to go over to his place and figure things out. I hated being left up in the air, and the only way I’d get some answers was if I went directly to the source.

It was a little odd how nervous I felt as I banged on the door of Oliver’s flat. I knew Matt and Tom were out and about, which was the only reason I was there in the first place. If either of them had been there, I wouldn’t have thought twice about running in the opposite direction. But I knew it was safe.

I banged on the door for several minutes, one hand on my hip while my fist was raised to the door. “Come on,” I muttered under my breath. “I know you’re in there!” I said, louder this time. “Open the door Oliver.”

I heard footsteps then and then before I could move my fist, the door was swinging open. “Yeh ‘ave a ‘abit of wakin’ me up, love.”

I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms in front of my chest. “I need to talk to you, Oliver.”

He gestured for me to come inside and once I was, he shut the door. We made our way into the kitchen, where I took a seat at the counter and Oliver stood across from me. “Wha’s up, Fin?” he asked finally.

“So I’m all for this friends with benefits thing. It’s nice to not have any strings attached and to just have some fun for once. But I’m so not used to this whole casual thing, so I need some--”

He stopped me quickly, putting his hands up in surrender. “Whoa, Fin. Yeh betta not be suggestin’ wha’ I fhink yeh are. I fhought we talked ‘bout this already.”

I quirked my eyebrows in question. “Excuse me?”

“Yeh said it yourself, love, yeh don’t wan’ a relationship. I fhought we agreed on tha’. I mean, I fhought that was the whole point of what we’re doin’.”

I rolled my eyes. “Shut up for a minute, Oliver. I don’t mean a relationship. Quite the opposite, actually. I just think we need a few rules, I mean if we really are going to do this.”

He stopped short and watched me carefully for a minute. “So yeh arent changin’ yeh mind? Yeh still just want sex?” he asked bluntly, making me roll my eyes again.

“Degrading way to put it, but correct.”

He nodded slowly. “Alrigh’, wha’ rules then?”

“Here’s the deal. We have fun. We mess around. But it never gets serious. We aren’t tied down to each other. If we happen to find someone we want to be with, then so be it. The moment that happens, we can be done.”

He was nodding again, a smile slowly spreading across his face. “‘m not seein’ any problems so far.”

I smirked. “Big surprise. But there’s a catch. Only one rule I guess you could say.”

“And wha’s that?”

“We can’t fall for each other. Because if we do, we lose, and this isn’t a game you want to lose, Oliver. Trust me.”

***

Of course, after my proposition that Oliver gladly accepted, he wanted to try and test my limits. He tried to get me to stay, but I wasn’t having it. I swatted him away, knowing I had things to do, and told him another day before I headed out of his flat.

I knew if I didn’t get out of there then, I never would. I couldn’t help it. Oliver was very... persuasive.

As I was headed back to my flat, my phone went off in my pocket. I was half expecting it to be Oliver, asking for more, but it wasn’t. Thank God for caller ID, I thought to myself as I answered the phone. “Hi Matty. What are you up to?”

“Out wiff Tommy righ’ now. Where are yeh? Wanna get lunch or somefhin’? I’m propa starved.”

I laughed and shook my head. I knew where this was going. Matt wanted me to buy him lunch, something he often did to me when he got back from tour. He figured since I was his best friend, I owed him a nice meal whenever he was in town. I always obliged of course, because he was my best friend, it was just ridiculous how predictable he was.

“Where and when?” I asked simply, knowing it’d please him. Oliver crossed my mind briefly, and thinking of the secret I was keeping from Matt made me realize I really did owe him.

“Tommeh’s pickin’ up some film shit, so do yeh wan’ ta meet us at our flat? I left meh wallet there anyways.”

I rolled my eyes because we both knew he wouldn’t be needing his wallet, but agreed anyways. It was like he knew I was just leaving there. We hung up then after agreeing on a time and I turned on my heel to head back to Oliver’s place.

It was like the universe was out to get me.

Before long, I was walking back into Oliver’s flat. He had a smirk on his face, as if he was the reason I was back. “I’m not here for you,” I stated simply, brushing by him and heading towards the fridge. I was dying of thirst and I needed something to distract myself from the way Oliver managed to look so damn good when his hair was disheveled first thing in the morning.

“Sure yeh aren’t love. Yeh were gone for no more than ten minutes and yeh’re alreadeh back again? Somefhin’s not addin’ up,” he smirked as I heard his voice follow me into the kitchen.

I grabbed a water bottle out of the fridge and scoffed. “If you must know, Matt just called and wants to get lunch, but the twat left his wallet here so we agreed to just meet here.”

I watched as his eyes widened for only a moment before he returned to his cool exterior. “Yeh told ‘im where yeh were?”

I let out a cackle. “Yeah, that’s what I did.” I rolled my eyes and shook my head before taking a swig of the water. “No, he jut volunteered we meet here. Not like you aren’t a fifteen minute walk away or anything.” I smirked then and took a step closer to him, tracing a finger over the bright ink covering his shirtless chest. “Why? You worried I ruined our arrangement already?”

He rolled his eyes dramatically and gripped my wrist with his hand, stopping me in my tracks. “‘aven’t I told yeh alreadeh that yeh don’t worreh meh, Finley?”

My smirk turned into an evil grin remembering our car ride from the other day. “No, you said I don’t make you nervous. Or rather, you protested weakly and then I got you to give in,” I spoke, my voice dangerously low as I took a step so I was even closer to him. “Remember?” I asked as I looked up at him through my eyelashes.

I couldn’t help it. It was just so much fun.

“Yeh didn’t get meh ta do anyfhin’ love, but yeh sure did put up a fight,” he spoke, his voice matching my low and seductive grin.

If there was one thing I knew, it was that Oliver liked to play games just as much as I did. That was why we were so good at this... thing that we were doing. We used each other to play the other’s games, but it worked somehow. Maybe that made us masochists. Maybe we didn’t care.

“Oh yeah? How far can you go than, Mr. Sykes?” I grinned mischievously as I continued to trail my long fingernails all over his chest, tracing the patterns that I could find and making my own. I watched as his eyes shut and his head fell back as he got lost in my touch.

It was almost too much for even me to handle, but I managed.

After a particularly rough scrape near his collarbone, he snapped out of it and decided to take some form of control. He grabbed my wrist again and backed me against the counter roughly. “I can go as far as yeh’d like, love. Tell meh when,” he smirked before he brought his lips down to my neck.

I let my head fall to the side, figuring I might as well try and enjoy what he thought was torture. He nipped the skin on my neck, trailing down to my collarbones and getting me there as well. He didn’t stop until he went back up to my ear and just briefly bit the skin there. That was all it took though. Before I could stop myself, a moan escaped my lips.

“Fuck,” I hissed, pushing him away. “Why do you always go for that one goddamn spot?” I pouted, crossing my arms tightly in front of my chest.

Oli just barked out a laugh before he fell back against the island, a satisfied grin on his lips. “‘cause I know yeh, love. If yeh’d stop bein’ so transparent, I wouldn’t know what drove yeh crazeh.”

I rolled my eyes and crossed the kitchen. “Fuck off. So you won this time, so what? I still...” I trailed off as I watched the door to the flat open and Matt appeared.

He grinned when he spotted me. “Finleh!” he exclaimed, crossed the short distance between us to sweep me up in a big hug. I laughed. He was overdramatic with his greetings sometimes, especially when he had been gone for a long time, but it was okay. That was why he was my best friend.

“Ready to go?” I asked when he set me down.

He nodded enthusiastically. “Let meh grab meh wallet,’ he said before he brushed by me into the kitchen. I followed.

“Sure yeh don’t want ta come?” Matt was asking both of the Sykes brothers when I reached him, and they shook their head. Oliver’s excuse was he just woke up, which was true, and Tom said he was going to see Abby.

“Rain check?” I asked, mainly Tom, and he nodded, his eyes smiling at me.

“Alrigh’, let’s go then, yeah?” Matt asked me. I nodded, and then we were saying our goodbyes to Tom and Oli before walking out of the flat.