Numbers.

*Oli's P.O.V*

My eyes flickered to everyone at the table. Tony and Jaime looked perplexed. Vic looked nervous. Mike looked annoyed.

"What?" My boyfriend asks, finally breaking the silence and struggling to keep the calm tone in his voice.

"I think its a good idea." Vic states, staring at his brother angrily once again. "He can't be left alone. This is our only option."

"I...I guess." Mike's expression softens, and he looks to me. "Would that be alright?"

Would that be alright? I didn't know. Its not like Mike would have to worry about Josh making any sexual advances towards me, considering
the fact that I'm hideous. For all Josh knew, Mike and I were the perfect pair. Nothing could separate us. Or what was left of us, anyway. This would be okay, right? I barely knew Josh, he barely knew me. It could be the start of a friendship...I needed friends. I instantly made my decision.

"T-that'd be okay." I reply, not wanting to sound too enthusiastic. I figured that Mike would see that as a threat. I wasn't willing to risk anything.

"Great." Vic smiles, before his brother could answer. "What time should we bring him over?"

"Uh," Mike shifts uncomfortably next to me. "When does the flight leave?"

Vic opens his mouth, but quickly closes it and turns to Jaime. "We're picking you up at 7am," He states, finally speaking again. "Well pick Josh up first and then swap you two out, okay?"

Mike lets out a heavy sigh. "Alright, sounds good."

"You can leave if you'd like," Tony says quietly with a smirk. "I'm paying."

"Like hell you are!" Vic laughs, giving his shoulder a gentle nudge. Then, the four of them, (Vic, Tony, Jaime, and...Josh.) all began to argue over who was going to pay the bill. Mike, being the shifty bastard he is, stole the receipt.

"Come on." He whispers in my ear, and takes my hand as we slide out of the booth, being unnoticed due to all of the commotion and bickering.

After Mike had paid the bill, we got into the car and proceeded back to our apartment. I don't know about him, but I was intent on spending all night together.

•••

When we had finally gotten home, mere seconds after the door shut, questions began spilling out of Mike's mouth.

"Do you think he's cute? What do you plan on doing? Will you text me? Be careful, okay?"

"Babe," I say softly, walking over to him and wrapping my arms around his neck. "Everything is going to be just fine, alright? Don't you trust me?"

He lets out a sigh, and allows his arms to snake around my waist. "Of course I do. Josh is the one that I don't trust."

I raise my eyebrows in question. "Why not? He seems decent."

"That's the thing. He's too decent."

"I don't think there's such a thing, sweetheart." I answer, giving him a quick peck to the lips. "I'm sure that everything will go smoothly."

He sighs once more, and leads me over to the couch, sitting me down on his lap. "He's better looking than me, I know. I just...I-"

I cut him off by pressing a kiss to his lips. "Hey," I say gently, giving a small smile. "Nobody is better looking than you. I love every single fucking inch of you, and there's no way I'm gonna let some random guy get in the way of that, understood?"

"Oli," He says quietly, his face heating up with a bright red blush. I love seeing that on him. "I understand."

"Good," I respond happily. "I think we should watch movies the rest of the day, sound good?"

He nods rapidly, a huge grin stretched across his face.

"Alright," I say, standing up and pulling him easily onto his feet. "Go change into your pajamas."

He nods once more, and scurries off into our bedroom as I dig through the TV stand for the movies.

"Fuck, where are they?" I mumble impatiently, getting tired of searching already. Ah! Finally I found all of them, all fucking eight of them.

"What were you planning on watching?" Mike asks from behind me, causing me to jump. I didn't even hear the bedroom door squeak open.

I turn around and hold up the movies. "These are okay, right?" I ask, already knowing the answer. I carefully observe as his eyes light up and his smile grows wider.

"Aw babe!" He squeals, practically bouncing off the walls in anticipation. "I can't believe you actually want to watch Harry Potter with me!"

"What's that supposed to mean?" I pout, turning to face the DVD player and putting the first movie in.

"You usually don't want to watch them with me." He pouts back, mocking my tone. I try to stifle a giggle at his expression, and I fail.

"That's because you compare their accents to mine!" I reply, as I stand up, unbuckling my pants and tugging them off. This time its Mike's turn to laugh as he looks at my legs. "What?"

"I will never understand why you decided to get a penis tattooed on your thigh."

"Me either." I sigh, tossing my pants onto an armchair. "Drunken mistake, maybe?"

"Who knows." He shrugs, fighting another giggle as he flops down lazily onto the couch.

I decide that I'd better take my shirt off, regardless of how chilly the room had gotten while we were gone. I knew that we had left the air-conditioning on, but I didn't expect the temperature to drop this low.

I ignored the goosebumps that had formed on my skin, and crawled onto the couch next to him as the movie began to play.

I knew that five days without him was going to be too much for me to handle. No cuddles, no kisses, and no hugs for five days. One-hundred and twenty hours was far too long to go without any sort of affection. Especially Mike's. His was an addiction, a fucking drug. I was entirely hooked on him, every moral of my being dying, thirsting for him. Did I know if this was love for sure? Of course I didn't. How do you measure love? You don't. Fuck, I'm not even sure if I believe in it or not. But it was a risk I had been willing to take for him, ignoring all the signs that had told me to stay away.

I had ignored the fact that his ex-boyfriend used to come to school with a new bruise everyday. Shit, that boy didn't care. He wore them like a fucking decoration, so why shouldn't I? I should be ecstatic about the fact that Mike would even think to touch me, let alone let everyone know that he was protective over me. The thing was,
I didn't mind. I needed to be a better boyfriend, I knew that. Mike was just giving me reminders. And leaving them all over my body.