Numbers.

*Josh's P.O.V*

"I still don't understand why a twenty year old boy can't stay home alone." My Mum huffs from the door, arms crossed in front of her chest.

"I already told you Mum," I say, trying to hide the annoyance in my voice as I look through my dresser. "He's not stable."

"Stable?" She asks, strutting further into my room and standing on the side of me. "Is he some kind of mental patient?"

I sigh, bringing my hand up to scratch the back of my neck and look over to her. "I don't know that much about him."

She scoffs, sitting down on the bed next to my duffel bag. "What if he tries to attack you?"

What if he did try to attack me? Maybe he was actually that crazy? Ugh, no shut up Josh. What kind of fucking person am I, making assumptions on someone I've only just met? Not a very good one, for sure. Oli sure didn't seem like the type. His eyes were too soft, and his words were too put together. Like he had analyzed and figured out every possible situation to match what he was going to say. I liked that, though.

"He won't." I say in a matter-of-fact tone.

"And how can you be so sure?"

"Just am." I reply easily, picking up a few t-shirts out of a drawer. "I really don't understand why you feel the need to worry so much. I am an adult, after all."

"You're still my son, and I'm going to continue doing whatever I can to keep you safe." She replies, just as certain as I had been a few seconds ago.

"Thanks, Ma." I say, leaning over and pressing a light kiss to her cheek as I set my clothes down in the bag. "I'm only gone for five days. I'll be just fine."

"Just don't forget to call me." She giggles.

"Of course not." I smile widely back at her, and zip my bag back up.

•••

My thoughts had trailed back to two days ago. The first time I had seen Oli Sykes. Oli. The name would surely be stuck in my head all day, and possibly written all over my notebooks, as girlish as that sounds. Might as well be honest.

From the second he walked into the dingy little dinner, all I saw on his face was regret. He looked uncomfortable and awkward standing to someone like Mike; radiating confidence and not having a single problem in the world. And hell, even if he did its not like he would have given a shit about it anyway. In comparison, they couldn't have been more different.

From the way Mike talked and did as he pleased, to the way Oli spoke quietly and only saying what needed to be said. I wish he wouldn't do that. I liked his voice. It was soft, subtle even, and seemed to only be loud enough to hear. It matched his personality. I saw his tattoos as his thoughts, and he had used his skin to say what his mouth couldn't. Although, I'm sure he had millions of interesting things to say.

But shit, I hated the new Mike from the second he walked in. We hadn't even seen each other since about eighth grade when we played on the same soccer team. Reflecting on it, I still think I hated him, even back then. And that was before I even noticed the marks all over Oli's body.

He had quite a bit of bruises. One was on his temple and although it was fading, it still infuriated me. Watching him while he dove into Mike's arms, I had noticed an especially purple one on his wrist, and more faded ones on his hands.

I'm a pretty observant person, and I tend to notice the little things before taking time to analyze the larger ones. So when I looked at his arms, and found the places where the ink on his arms didn't exactly match the rest of it, I knew exactly what it was. They were scars, and it was obvious that he had done it to himself. I felt as though I needed to cry, but I obviously had to hold back so I didn't get questioned about it. But, no one could deny the fact that he was beautiful. It was easy for me to see why Mike was so in love with him, based off of everything that Vic, Tony and Jaime had told me.

-Flashback-

"You'll love him." Tony smiles next to me in the back seat. A smile like that coming from him was rare, so I decided not to question.

"And he's Mike's boyfriend?" I ask, looking up to Vic, who had his eyes intently focused on driving.

"Yep." He replies, expression not changing much. "They're an odd couple."

"How so?" I ask, trying to hide the urgency in my voice. I didn't really know, I just wanted to find out everything I could. Mike was an asshole, and I longed to meet the saint who could stand more than two hours of it.

Vic only shrugs, quickly glancing at me from the rear-view mirror. "Mike is everything Oli isn't. And vise-versa."

"Mike is loud, and wild." Jaime says from the front passenger's seat. "Oli is quiet, and probably the sweetest person I've ever met."

Vic chuckles. "That's true."

For the rest of the ride we drove in a comfortable silence until we got there. Tony immediately began talking to me.

"Just don't ask him a lot of questions, okay? Or point anything out. Bruises, cuts, whatever. Don't do it, or he sort of freaks out and it's just really bad. Oh! And don't-" He's cut off by a thump on the back of his head from Jaime.

"Fuck, he'll be fine, alright? You're acting like he's about to meet Jesus Christ." Jaime rolls his eyes and proceeds on to the restaurant, or diner? I don't know. It was hard to tell.

"Yeah, yeah." Tony grumbles from beside me, giving Jaime a death glare.

"Seriously though, he's an amazing guy. He's just introverted, that's all." Vic smiles, holding the door open for me. "Nothing to be worried about."

"Right," I smile uncertainly, following Jaime through the restaurant/diner. We sit down at a large booth, one of the huge ones that resemble a semi-circle and can fit eight or nine people.

"Have you ever been here?" Tony asks from my right, since I had decided to sit on the outside of the booth.

"Nope." I reply, lifting up the menu and examining it.

"Well this fucking food is the best thing ever." Jaime butts in, always having to give his opinion. Not like I minded, usually he was right, or we were thinking the same thing. "Hand crafted by Jesus."

"What is it with you and Jesus today?" Vic chuckles as Tony and I begin to laugh.

"Hey, bro." Vic grins, dragging out the 'o'. My laughing ceased and
I stopped to look at Mike. Then my eyes flicked to the god standing next to him.

"Hey, bro." The lanky Fuentes replies, giving his boyfriend's hand a gentle squeeze.

"Hey guys." He says lightly, smiling at everyone at the table. I practically heard the angels singing, and the room almost broke out in fire, the light coming from his smile was so bright. I glanced over to the others. Was I the only one seeing this?

I struggled to keep my jaw from falling open.

-Flashback Over-

I sighed at the memory. I wanted nothing more than to punch Mike in the face. And now him and his friends were about to pick me up. I tried to push all of the violent thoughts from my head, and gathered my things.

The only thing I heard was my feet padding against the carpet, and the drips spilling from the coffee maker in the kitchen.

"Mum?" I called out, wondering where she was. She said she would be awake.

"Living room." She calls back, and I hear the turn of a page.

"Hey." I reply, walking into our small living room. My mum is no longer in her pajamas, and is instead in a flattering black dress, heels, and her dark hair is curled to perfection. At six am, really? I notice a book by Stephanie Meyer clutched in her hands. "Twilight?"

"Eclipse, actually." She replies, not once looking up to me. Too captivated by her book, maybe?

"Didn't know you were into that." I say, tossing my bag onto the black armchair and flopping down onto the couch next to my mother.

"I didn't know you were into mental patients." She shoots back, chuckling to herself.

"Someone's in a super bitchy mood, huh?" I answer, annoyed that she would even refer to such a beautiful being as 'mental'. The thing was, he wasn't even fucking mental. He was misunderstood. It seemed as though he had quite a bit of problems, and had to deal with people who didn't understand them. He was automatically labeled as either 'crazy' or 'overreacting'. That bothered me. I hate people.

"Not bitchy," Mum sighs, setting her book down in her lap. "Nervous."

"About what?" I ask, playing with the hem of my shirt absentmindedly.

"You get awfully homesick..." She answers, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose after realizing that they had fallen down.

"What's with all...this?" I ask, motioning to elaborate change of wardrobe, and completely blowing off her question.

"I'd like to meet your friends, figured I should probably make a good impression." She shrugs, giving me a large red-lipsticked smile.

"You look more like my girlfriend than my mother." I comment, causing her to laugh.

"I'm only fourty-two, Josh." She replies. "You act like I'm some some sort of old bag."

"You look great, though." I smile, at her, taking all of it in. My mother didn't get this dressed up often, so she must really care if they liked her or not. It made me happy.

"Thanks, sweetheart." She says, putting her bookmark into her book. "So when did you meet these people?"

"Uh, ninth or tenth grade?" I answer unsurely. I don't fucking know, we'd been friends for a long time though.

"Hm." Mum hums, looking lost in thought. Then my phone starts to ring. It's Jaime, so I press the green 'Accept'.

"We're here, cunt!" The three of them yell into the phone as my cheeks go scarlet out of pure embarrassment.

"I'll be out in a sec. My mum is coming too, she wants to meet you." I chuckle and hang up, looking up to my Mum. One of her eyebrows is raised and a smirk plays at her lips.

"So you're the group bitch?" She asks cockily, giving me a knowing look.

"Fuck, no I'm not." I answer, huffily. "They're just assholes." I stand up, picking up my bag and slinging it over my shoulder.

"Help the old bitch up. I forgot my cane." Mum rolls her eyes and holds her hands out. I chuckle and push my phone into my back pocket before taking her delicate hands in mine and easily pulling her up. She takes off her glasses and sets them on the coffee table. "Good?"

"Great." I smile, taking my hands out of hers and walk towards the door. I slide my grungy old black converse on.

"You should really let me buy you a new pair," Mum says, looking at my feet with a grossed out look. "Those ones are going to hell."

"They're casual." I defend, a whiny tone taking my voice.

"There's a difference between 'casual' and looking like you've just been stomping around in shit." She says, making air-quotes around the word casual.

I laugh, and roll my eyes. "Whatever, they're comfy. Are you ready, princess?"

"That's Queen to you, Joshua." She answers, straightening out a few hems of her dress and nodding. "Yep."

"Alright," I reply, a brief pang of nervousness flooding through me. I ignore it though, and make my over to the gray Chevy Impala. All of them are leaning against the car, a cigarette hanging from Tony's lips.

"Hey assholes." I smile, trying not to laugh as Vic practically jumps a foot in the air.

"H-hey." Vic says, still recovering from shock. "I thought you were gay?"

"I am, this is my mother." I reply, rolling my eyes as my mother steps forwards, shaking each one of their hands.

"I'm Anne." She smiles, tilting her head to one side. "So, how did you meet my precious little twink bottom?"

"Forward today, aren't we?" I roll my eyes at my Mum and she delivers a swift kick to my shin. "Ouch, fuck! Why the hell would you do that?!"

"Don't be a cunt." She sighs, looking over to my giggling friends, waiting for an answer.

"Fourth period chemistry." Jaime says though giggles, holding his stomach.

"All of you?" She asks, raising her perfectly trimmed eyebrows. God, my Mum was perfect.

"Yes, actually." Vic chuckles nervously, not taking his eyes off of her once. Great, this isn't the first time one of my friends has had a thing for my Mum.

"Interesting." She inquires, before looking to me. "Well, it was nice meeting all of you, but I think that Joshua here would like to go and drool over someone else's boyfriend now."

"Mum!" I say, wide-eyed and watching in awe as she grins evilly at me.

"I'm only teasing, dear." She comes over and wraps me in a hug...and presses a kiss to my cheek. I wonder how bright the lip marks are.

"Godammit." I groan, throwing my arms around her and hugging back until she pulls away.

"Don't you fucking dare forget to call, or I swear to God." She threatens before smiling sweetly. "Bye boys! It was lovely meeting you." She turns on her heel and walks easily back to the house, and safely makes it inside.

I roll my eyes again and walk over to the car. I slide into the front seat, and set my bag onto my lap, waiting for the others to get in.

"Your Mom is the best thing ever." Jaime beams, staring at the spot where she had just been standing.

"Yeah, I know." I smile.

•••

Finally arriving at the Fuentes/Sykes residence my heart begins to pound in my chest as Vic dials Mike's number.

"Hey, we're here." Vic says into the receiver. "Okay...yeah...see you in a few." He hangs up. "They'll be down in a few." He gets out of the car, and so do the rest of us.

Tony, of course, lights up a cigarette.

"That'll kill you, y'know." I say, pointing to it.

He rolls his eyes and smiles. "Yeah, I know."

"Its a gross habit." I say again, smiling as he nods.

"Disgusting." He agrees, as we both jump hearing the door squeak open. Coming out of the doorway is Mike, holding a suitcase, and the other hand is, of course, wrapped around Oli's.

"Hey guys." Mike smiles. Oli remains silent, and pulls the sleeves of his jumper down.

"Hey, little bro." Vic smiles, taking his suitcase out of his hand. "I'm gonna put this in the back."

Mike only nods, says another hello to Tony and Jaime, and looks to Oli. I can't help but watch as he captures Oli in a deep kiss. His arms were wrapped tightly around his waist, holding him like the wind could blow him away. He looked light enough, and the wind was pretty wild this morning.

Mike pulls his lips away from Oli's, and gives him a grin. "Five days, alright?"

Oli nods once in confirmation. "I know." He says softly, eyes showing nothing but sadness.

Is he really going out with him? Godammit, this wasn't fair. Mike was a total dick, and he had gotten rewarded by being blessed with the most lovely creature I'd ever seen. Was this possibly life's greatest mystery?

"Mike," Vic says quietly. "We've got to go."

"Right, right." Mike mumbles. He presses one last kiss to Oli's lips, and gives him a smile. "Don't forget to text me, okay?"

"Okay." Oli gives him a weak smile and watches as his boyfriend gets into the front seat.

"Bye Josh." Tony smiles, getting into the back. I only nod and smile, Jaime and Vic do the same. Before I know it, they're gone.

"This way." Oli says fainting, motioning for me to follow him over to the large blue duplex. He walks down a short hallway, and pushes open a door marked with a large number one. "Come on in."

I walk in first, and take everything in. The air smelled like lilac, with a faint trace of cigarettes and weed. It was nice, comforting.

"We only have one bed, and the couch is shit, so you can sleep with me if you'd like. Don't tell Mike though, he gets jealous." His words are rushed, and he seems to notice as he quickly looks down to his hands. "Sorry."

"Don't be," I smile, setting my bag down and walking over to the couch and sitting. He copies my action, and smiles at me, sending shivers down my spine. I choose to ignore the butterflies that had formed in my stomach and speak.

"So, what do you do around here?"