Hello Sheffield

Over the past few days, I’d gotten relatively used to cleaning up cat piss, going to lunch with various band people, and unpacking all my belongings.

The general day to day routine that I’d come up with was: wake up, shower, get ready, clean cat piss, go out to lunch with someone, come home, clean cat piss, unpack, watch the news, unpack, clean cat piss, unpack, watch movie, sleep, and then repeat.

I mean, it wasn’t exactly something I was complaining about. The guys were set to leave tomorrow morning, which depressed me, as I’d become close with almost everyone in the band.

Lee especially was someone I’d formed a close bond with. His energy and hilarity were part of the reason I was drawn to him. Oli tended to keep a close monitor on our relationship though.

Oliver Sykes was another story in himself. He seemed to love sleeping over my house and completely dominating my bed, leaving me with a small corner. He also seemed to love watching me like a hawk when I was near other males, sometimes even females.

At first, his antics were endearing, and made me feel warm and fuzzy inside. Now they were just annoying and completely un-liberating. He was always hovering over me and the only time he seemed to not be there was when I was with Tom.

I guess it was because his brother would never do anything to hurt him. The lack of trust on my part was irritating. When he wasn’t around and I was with one of the guys, I got a text every five minutes. I felt like the CIA was following me.

However, it was still adorable when he watched me walk across the room or poked me to hear the noise I would make. I still loved the way he would hold my hand when we went out somewhere and the vibrations of his chest when I told him a joke in bed.

It honestly surprised the hell out of me that he hadn’t tried anything with me, not even a kiss. Tom liked to bring this topic up and continually told me that Oli and I were going to get married in the long run. I highly doubted that much.

I wasn’t stupid, nor was I blind. I’d been there before. At the best of times, Oliver was wild and he would always be. That was something I embraced but something I’d always have to worry about.

This was why I hated being alone. My thoughts nearly always ran rampant and I suffocated myself with my mind.

I carried the last bag into the house from the grocery store. As a goodbye thing, I was making dinner for the guys. They were supplying the alcohol. The house was warm and music was playing.

The vegetarian lasagna was almost done in the oven. I wouldn’t have been able to make it without the phone call to my mother. The call had gone surprisingly well.

She seemed impressed that I was having a dinner with my friends. She was even more impressed that they were vegetarians. She didn’t hesitate to let me know how proud she was of me becoming an adult and actually asked me if there were any men I had my eye on.

That question had made me blush. I didn’t feel like answering with a yes and having a fight come out of it so I just said no. She seemed content with the answer and told me to have fun at my dinner party.

I didn’t think it was necessary to tell her about who would be sitting at the table or about the raucous drinking that would take place in a few short hours. She could live without knowing some things.

“Thanks for getting the bread Lee,” I said to the man sitting at my kitchen table. He grinned.

“No problem Liv. ‘M always here to help yeh,” he responded. He set to slicing the Italian bread as I went to the refrigerator and started to make a salad. We worked quietly, Josh Franceschi’s voice in the background.

I started to set the table, which had a makeshift fold up one at the other end. With my round table at the head, it ultimately resembled a penis. In any case, I set it somewhat nicely.

There was a knock on the door and I went to get it. It was always funny when everyone showed up at once, which was what happened. They all came in different cars and everything, but they somehow managed to arrive at precisely the same time.

“Lee’s already here?” Jona asked, hugging me hello.

“Yeah, he came by with a table and some food I forgot I needed,” I explained, getting squeezed by Tom. I hugged each of the guys in turn, Oli last and I brought them into the kitchen.

“It smells fuckin’ amazing in here,” Matty said.

“Look at this twat, slicin’ the bread like a little priss,” Jona roared at Lee, slamming his hands down on his shoulders. I rolled my eyes.

“Fuck off,” Lee said, swatting him away. I went over to the oven to check on the food. It looked like it was almost done, but I wanted to give it a few more minutes. In any case, I started pulling out serving spoons and drinks to put on the table.

“Papa’s got the alcohol,” I heard Vegan call from my living room. I hadn’t noticed he’d stopped along the way. I peeked in to see the holy mother of vodka collections. There were about four gigantic bottles of straight vodka sitting on my coffee table. He grinned at me.

“I hope yeh have some cranberry juice.”

Instead of answering I just shook my head in disbelief and wandered back into the kitchen. Most of the boys had claimed seats around the table. I went over to the oven and pulled out the lasagna.

“I didn’t know yeh listened to You Me At Six,” Oli commented, leaning on the counter next to me. I took off the mitt and started to cut the lasagna into small squares. I shrugged in response.

“Yeah, they’re good,” I said. He smiled down at me.

“Maybe I could introduce yeh to Josh sometime,” he said. My head snapped up to look at him. Introduce me to a good looking guy in a band? Was he kidding?

I nodded though, throwing out a “that would be sick” and ignoring it. I turned the music off. This had something to do with Tom, I could smell it. After all, I had been complaining about Oli’s cling yesterday when I’d went around with him.

“I hope you all like lasagna. My Mom gave me her vegetarian recipe,” I said, putting it down in the middle of the table. By the time I sat down between Tom and Jona, half of it was gone. I got myself some food before it was all gone.

With food rolling in their mouths, they complimented me on the food. I decided to make note and tell my mother in a phone call tomorrow. If she was still in a good mood with me, I was officially in the Twilight Zone.

It always took me by surprise how easily conversation came. Dinner went smoothly. I was usually quiet around people but I guess that was all part of my old life now. Fuck it, I was gonna do this right, no matter what.

“I’m gonna miss yeh Liv. Yeh’re not only a funny bird but yeh’re amazing with food,” Vegan piped up. I smiled and blushed, looking down at the table. More promises of my being missed circulated around the table and I couldn’t hide the grin from spreading across my face.

“Oh, you’re all just a bunch of teddy bears really!” I exclaimed, “But I’m going to miss you all too, and not just because I’m stuck with this one.” I shoved my thumb at Tom and laughter broke out.
“Oi, shove off Liv. ‘S not like I’m excited for yeh to be up my arse for the next month either.” I laughed and wrapped an arm around him. He chuckled and shoved my arms off of him.

“Can we get completely and utterly trashed now?” Oli asked the table. There was a roar of approval and a loud noise of chairs scraping. I stood up.

“Hey!” I yelled and they all looked back at me, “Not until all this shit is cleaned up.”

*

“Oli, w-what are yeh doin’ mate?” Matty giggled, pointing at Oliver.

Through the cloudy, alcohol-induced haze in my head, I couldn’t tell either. He was huddled in the corner of my kitchen. It sounded like he was using the can opener. I clung to Matty, laughing.

“I’m gonna go see what he’s doing,” I said matter-of-factly. He snorted as I crept over to him. When I finally reached the tattooed screamer, I found that he was opening a can of black olives.

“What the fuck Oli? Why are you opening my olives?” I screeched. He turned suddenly, eyes wide.

“Shut up. I-I like olives okay?!” he exclaimed, a crazy look about him. I stared at him for cracking up. I clutched him with one hand and the counter with the other so I wouldn’t fall.

“Me too, oh my god,” I said, smacking my forehead. We stood there eating them out of the can. I felt like a chipmunk, storing them in my cheeks.

“Wha’s goin’ on?” Lee asked, skidding into the kitchen with Jona. Oli and I turned to look at them, still eating.

“Oliver and Olivia like olives!” Matty screamed. Apparently this was the funniest thing any of us had heard as we all fell over each other laughing. Oli collapsed onto the floor, repeating the phrase over and over again.

I thought I might die or that my abdomen might fall off at least. Then I heard the crash from the living room. I walked across the kitchen toward the room slowly.

Tom was giggling as apparently the armchair he was sitting in had toppled over. Vegan was holding Zeus in the air, gibbering nonsense.

“Ay a benday, babba beese be babbo. Ay undae!” he screeched. I recognized this beat from my childhood. He was obviously singing the song from the Lion King. I swatted the back of his head.

“Put Zeus down!” I said, pouting. He put him on the floor, looking like an abashed child. The rest of the guys stumbled in and sat in various places while I struggled to help Tom up. Once him and the armchair were upright, I sat on the floor between his legs.

“Let’s play truth or dare!” someone shouted. I wasn’t really paying attention, just trying to stop the room from spinning. My kitten crawled into my lap and I pet him slowly. I grinned at the feeling.

When someone finally realized I was in the room, I was nearly scared out of my mind at what dare I might receive. So far we’d had Lee flush his head in a toilet and Matty run around my front yard naked. My neighbors would hate me. Tom had slid down my staircase on only a couch pillow and was still bleeding a bit.

So when Lee asked the ominous, “Truth or dare?” I balked.

“Truth!” I squeaked. They all groaned and snorted, alerting me to how much of a wimp I was. I was already aware.
“Alrigh’ is it true that yeh and Oli will probably end up having sex sometime in the next three to six months?” Lee shouted at me. I smirked.

“Yeah, I could say that’s true.” They all looked at each other in surprise and started howling with laughter. Oliver looked like it was his birthday come early. I grabbed the bottle from Jona’s hand and took a long drink from it.

God knows I wouldn’t want to remember that in the morning.

*

I woke up to people walking around and talking in whispers. When I cracked open my eyes, it was still dark and various men were whispering and holding their heads.

“Are we wakin’ Liv and Tom up or should we let them sleep?” a voice asked. I threw the blanket off of me and sat up. My head pounded and a wave of nausea rolled over me.

“Don’t bother I’m already up and Tom’s about to be miserable with me,” I groaned. I pushed myself to my feet, grumbling the whole way. I stumbled toward the armchair where Tom was sleeping.

“Tom, get the fuck up,” I yelled in his ear. I was a bitch in the wee hours of the morning while also a combination of drunk and hungover. He woke with a start.

“Olives?” he asked, looking around. When it finally settled on him, he groaned. He sat up and rubbed his eyes. He looked around.

“What’d yeh wake me up for?” he croaked.

“If I have to be up to say good bye to these idiots, so do you. We can sleep in my room once they’re gone. Better than sleeping in a chair I think,” I said, pulling him up by his hand.

“God help me,” he muttered, leaning his head on my shoulder. I patted his head gently. He’d drunk considerably more than I had. We stood there as the guys gathered their things and folded some of their blankets.

“Alright, we better get a move on,” Matty whispered to the group. I hugged each and every one of them, mumbling my goodbyes, as pathetic as they were.

Oli was the last one. I was stricken with the remembrance of our game the night before. I looked at my feet, blushing. He didn’t say anything, just wrapped his arms around me in a tight hug.

“I’m gonna miss you Liv,” he said into my hair. I buried my face into his chest. I was going to miss him more than he would miss me. He’d be busy with shows and interviews while I sat around doing nothing.

“I’ll miss you too,” I mumbled. I looked up at him. He ran a hand through my hair and smiled down at me. I wrapped my arms around his neck and held him tightly. He was, without a doubt, my best friend here.

“Take care of yourself,” I said when he pulled away. He nodded. He leaned down and left a soft kiss on my forehead. My heart nearly stopped beating. I leaned in the doorway with Tom and we waved goodbye as each car drove away.

We trudged into the kitchen for medication to dull our pounding heads. The clock over the oven read 6:30, which made me want to cry. I shouldn’t be up this early. It made sense though, since the boys still needed to go home and shower and collect their things.

I dropped a pill in Tom’s hand and then used a half full bottle of vodka to wash my own down. He followed my move. I rubbed my eyes and he patted my shoulder.

“We’re in this together mate.”

As we went upstairs I was sure one of us was either going to fall or throw up. As it turns out, neither one of us did but we both collapsed onto my bed. I pushed myself under the covers, groaning.

I shoved my head into the pillow. I wanted to shut out the throbbing of my head and the fact that when I woke up, I’d be alone.