Crucible: The Accomplice

That morning – I assumed it was morning – I woke up to the sound of hushed arguing. I could tell it was arguing because it occasionally got louder and then softer again, like they were keeping themselves in check.

I just sighed and got my clothes back on before jumping out of the bunk. At the "thud" sound my feet made, they all got quiet. I followed the voices back into a lounge.

Oliver was was sitting next to the guy from yesterday and another guy that hadn't said anything before. I just kind of stood there.

"Oh, g'morning Dahlia" Oliver said casually. I rolled my eyes at him.

"I heard you arguing, you know. I'm not deaf" I told them, "Do we have a problem here?

Before Oliver could answer, the guy next to him did.

"Yeah we have a fuckin' problem" The guy spat at me, "Who the fuck are you and why are you here?"

I just stared at him blankly.

"I'm Dahlia, and I'm here because Oliver wants me here" I told him simply. That seemed to only make me angrier.

"Oli, why is she here?" He said, standing up.

Oliver glanced at me. I could almost see the gears turning in his head, trying to come up with an excuse. He seemed to be at a loss.

"My parents kicked me out of the house because I went to your concert last night" I said, faking a bit of sadness. I needed to sell the story, right?

I mean, I honestly couldn't tell him "Oh, I'm a serial killer and Oliver wants me to take him under my wing, so he's giving me a place to stay." You can just guess how THAT will go over.

The guy stared at me, before looking to Oli again. "Is that true?"

He just nodded, "I found her sitting outside the venue. I asked why she wasn't home, and she told me that. I felt bad, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to take her along. I mean, she did give up her home to see us play."

I finally saw the guy's face soften. He turned to me. "I'm sorry for getting crazy, I just needed to know" He told me, before extending his hand to me, "I'm Matt."

I nodded, taking his hand and shaking it a little.

Then the other guy, who I had completely forgotten about until this point, stood up and walked over. He also stretched out his hand.

"I'm Jona" He told me. He had a Australian accent, I noticed.

After I met those two, Oliver ushered me out of the room. As we walked away, he leaned down to my ear and whispered, "Great story."

I just barked a little laugh, but moved to the front. I then realized, the bus wasn't moving.

"Want to go shopping?" He asked. Although, before I could protest, he grabbed me and pulled me off the bus. Guess I wasn't getting around this one.

I assumed the venue was pretty close into the city, because all we had to do was walk down the road and we found a huge mall complex. Oli just dragged me inside.

People were staring at him as we walked in. Some of them, I could tell, just knew who he was. And some of them were giving him dirty looks because of his tattoos.

As more and more girls stared at him, he nervously tugged his beanie down some, and rolled down the sleeves of his long sleeved shirt. I guess this was his way of trying to be disguised, but it obviously wasn't working.

He pulled me into some clothing store I had never seen before and just told me to look around and grab anything I liked.

"But there's so much here that looks nice" I murmured. He shushed me.

"I said anything" He told me. I just groaned and walked over to where some tops were.

I was trying to be careful with how many I got, but just as I was putting a few back, Oli came up behind me and grabbed them back off the rack.

"Oh no you don't, you're getting them" He told me before pushing me over to some pants and shorts. I only got one pair of pants, but quite a few pairs of shorts.

When Oli took it up to be paid for, all I saw was him pull out a card and hand it to the man. The cashier looked doubtful of it, but when he ran it through and it went through with no problem, he seemed kind of surprised.

Next, he dragged me to some other store. It was a bit darker and had a lot of band merchandise all around. I didn't even recognize any of the bands, so I just looked at designs. I came across one that reminded me of what I did for a living. Oli noticed me looking at it and walked up beside me.

"You like that one?" He asked, a little smile playing at his lips. I nodded, "It looks cool, too bad I have no idea who the band is."

He watched me and seemed to be thinking about his words. Then he just grabbed it off the shelf. "It's my band's shirt" He told me.

"Really?" I asked. He just nodded and started pointing out a few others that were apparently his designs, as well.

"Bring Me The Horizon" I mumbled. He nodded before looking at some of the other shirts. A few of them, you could tell, he didn't like. Then some he seemed to find decent. Then he started pointing out different band names and told me some about each of them. It was amusing to see him talk about other bands, even though I had no idea who they were.

"And that's Black Veil Brides. My mates and I don't really care for them, honestly" He said, dismissing the subject right after. I picked out a few more I liked and gave them to him.

He just nodded approvingly at my choices.

Lastly, he took me to just a regular department store. Then he stopped at the entrance. I turned and looked at him, confused.

“Ah, um, go and get your p-personal items and whatever. Just come back here when you’re done” He told me, trying his best to not blush. Yet, the blush was what told me exactly what he meant.

Underwear.

I grinned at him and walked on, following little signs hanging from the ceiling until I found that department. I picked out my size of about a dozen pairs of underwear and two bras, one black and one with lacy stuff.

Hey, sometimes I want to feel sexy for my invisible boyfriend too, y’know.

I also picked up some socks as I just happened to pass some I thought were cute.

When I found him again, he blatantly kept his eyes away from me as to not look at the things I was holding. Even when he paid for it, he wouldn’t look. The cashier was a lady, and she was trying not to laugh at his embarrassment.

He finally looked at me when all the clothes were in the bag. Now I was carrying like four.

“What about your shoes?” He asked as we walked back through the complex.

“What about them?” I asked, looking down at my very worn out pair of Vans.

He rolled his eyes, “I mean, do you want new ones? Those are really dirty and old.”

I shrugged, “You’ve already spent a lot on me.”

He laughed before throwing an arm over my shoulder, “Fine, we’ll wait until the next mall to get new shoes. But for now, lets get some food, yeah?”

I just nodded and he pulled me along to the food court.

So far, I had a feeling that going with him, might have been one of the best things I've ever done.