No One Does It Better

Oli’s P.O.V

“Wait, it needs to be sped up, 8/4 time!” Josh whined, politely taking the guitar out of Max’s hands and strumming the notes himself, everyone else chuckled.

“Okay, Mr. Perfection. Why don’t we hear what lyrics you have already?” Chris inquired, plopping down on the sofa arm next to me, and handing Josh his tattered notebook.

We had been over here for the last few hours, it was Max’s place, a huge, comfortable house stuffed outside the city. How he afforded a 3 story house was beyond me, this place was gigantic! Everyone was really nice though, which was a plus, Josh and I learned they all stayed with Max quite often, as most of them hail from London or Surrey. Josh really seemed to hit it off with the lads too, he was currently hunched over the table, surrounded by everyone else as they read over his work. I watched intently from my spot on the sofa, Josh had a huge smile on his face as he began reciting words from his notebook, which earned nods of approval from the bunch.

I had to admit, it was nice to see him so happy. Yes, a mere 3 days ago I had hated his guts, but I was starting to come around. He wasn’t half as bad as I made him out to be, in fact, he was actually a really sweet guy. He had come to my defense yesterday at the cafe, and had a great sense of humor. He was a lot more than I had chalked him up to be, to be honest, I enjoyed his company. Now, the only thing that was slightly bothering me was what he had said to me earlier tonight…he called me cute. It wasn’t offensive, but it was just odd. For starters, I was anything but, and secondly we were both men. Josh wasn’t gay was he? No, that’s absurd, there’s no way he was gay. As much as I hated to admit it, he was a solid ten out of ten, I’m sure he had ladies all over him. I get the worst kind of attention, mainly women and men I like to call “lot lizards” , people that have zero interest in you as a person, just want to have sex with you to say they did. Not exactly how I want to build up my reputation, so I always respectfully declined their advances. Not like I wasn’t lonely, because quite frankly, I was. Jona, Lee, Matty, and Matt all had lives besides our gigs, and small tours we would go on. They had families, girlfriends, other friends, they had a lot of different people in their lives; and in the end, all I had was them. They still thought I lived at home, and I guess they just never bothered to stop over there and ask for me, because even after all this time, they were unaware of my housing situation. Sure, they were as broke as I was, whenever we did travel it was a struggle for us to find money for food. Their families were nowhere near well off, times were tough and everyone’s wallets were hurting, but at least they still had a place to call home.

“Ols?”

I snapped my head up, noting everyone was starting at me, crap I zoned out. Josh had his eyebrow raised, patiently waiting for me to say something, I cleared my throat.

“Yes?” I called out, everyone laughed,

“Did you not just hear what happened?” Josh inquired, wiping stray tears from his eyes, my face heated up in embarrassment.

“No…sorry…I zoned out.” I admitted with a frown,

“They asked me to join their band!” Josh recited joyfully, his usual goofy smile making his lips twitch up.

“Congratulations!” I cheered, reaching over to pat him on the back, he beamed before looking down and winking in my direction. I ducked my head down quickly to cover the blush that I knew tinted my cheeks, why was this happening? Sure, like I said before, Josh is pretty gorgeous, but still!

“Well I think that’s enough practice today, we will have to think of a new name at some point, Josh can you meet us at six tomorrow? That’s what time we have practice. One of us can come get you so Oli doesn’t have to go out of his way,” Dan wrapped up his short speech, and I raised my head, waiting for Josh to say something.

“Well that should be fine, if he wants to come…”

“Then he is more then welcome! Both of you can come over any time!” Max exclaimed, a bright smile on his face, we both thanked him before grabbing our coats and saying our goodbyes.

“See you at six!” Chris shouted as we made our way out the door, Josh stopped halfway out, making me run into him.

“I've got a good name!” he called back, whipping his head around to face the other guys, who all nodded for him to go on.

“You said you always have practice at six, right?” Josh asked, turning around to face them, I stepped out of his way.

“Yep,” was the short chorus of replies,

“How about, You Me At Six?” he grinned as soon as he let the words escape his lips, I nodded my head, got to admit that wasn’t half bad.

“I love it!” Matt squealed, vaguely reminding me of the scary fan-girl from earlier today, so help me god if I ever run into another one of those.

“Hell yeah, I think its great!” Chris agreed, the others nodding their heads vigorously,

“What do you think Oli?” Josh turned to look at me, a hopeful glimmer in his eyes.

“Perfect.” I responded, shooting him the best smile I could muster,

“Great, see you lads tomorrow, You Me At Six is going to be great! Cheers!” Josh threw in, motioning for me to walk out the door, before closing it behind him. We walked quietly to the van, I hopped in the drivers seat as he slid in next to me, shuddering as the warmth left our skin.

“Just so you know Josh, your more then welcome to stay with me. I know its not much, and we will have to make arrangements to stop by someone’s house to bathe, and all that…but I wanna try to find a job, and start saving money.” I pulled onto a small back road, driving the back way to the park we had gone to the other night.

“Thank you so much Oli, you are a life saver…literally. I will look for work too, so I will try to be out of your hair as soon as possible.” He muttered under his breathe, I glanced over at him.

“Your hardly in my hair, in fact, I don’t mind having you around. It gets a bit lonely by myself, and Josh…I want to apologize for being such an arse to you. You really don’t deserve it,” I assured him, I swear I could see him blush out of the corner of my eye.

“No, I did. Thank you for everything Oli, you really have changed my life, and honestly…I couldn’t be happier.”

My stomach did flip flops as he rested his head on my shoulder, giving me an awkward hug, I giggled, earning a small one in return. We eventually pulled up to our destination, both of us hopping out of the car, and piling in the back.

“It’s freezing tonight, 8 degrees according to the monitor upfront.” His teeth were chattering as he desperately hugged onto himself for warmth, I frowned.

“Your right, it’s dreadful. Tomorrow we can try to go to Matt’s and shower, and all that, I hope he doesn’t get suspicious.” I covered my mouth after the last part, should I be telling him that I’m lying to my friends? Probably not.

“What do you mean?” he inclined, slipping under the covers on the air mattress, I shrugged my jacket off, grabbing a hoodie and slipping it over my head.

“Look…they don’t know that I don’t have a place to stay…so please don’t say anything.” I all but begged him, giving him the best puppy dog eyes I could muster.

“Awh Oli, I wont say anything…but don’t you think you should tell them at some point?” he propped himself up on his elbows, looking at me questioningly, I shrugged.

“No, they have their own issues to pan out.” I sighed, slipping a pair of black sweats over my jeans, trying to keep the chill out of my body. We sat in an awkward silence for a few minutes before Josh finally piped up,

“Ols?” he asked quietly, I could still hear his teeth chattering, and I could feel mine doing the same.

“Yes, Joshy?” I answered, wrapping my arms around myself as I reclined back into the wall of the van,

“Uhm, would you care to lay down with me? Just for warmth…and yeah…” his voice trailed off, and I could feel the blood raise to my cheeks. He wanted me to cuddle with him? I mean he’s just cold, right? Dammit Oli, stop doing this to yourself! He isn’t interested in you and vise-versa! I chanted that over and over again as I slipped in bed next to him, he looked up to with a small smile, before snuggling into my side, resting his head on my chest.

“G’night Ols, If you have another issues with that paralysis thing in the morning, I will try my best to wake up so I can be there for you.” He yawned; and I felt my heart flutter faster. He was actually kind enough to try to help me get past the sleep paralysis? That’s just a friendly act, right?

“Josh, I…thank you.” I gave up on trying to find words, and focused on his heartbeat that was reverberating through my skin, he squeezed onto my tighter.

“What are friends for? G’night Oli.”

I felt my heart sink for some unknown reason, it vaguely reminded me of the feeling when someone punches you in the gut.

“G’night Josh…” I whispered quietly, I felt…disappointed? No, that’s not right. Why would I be disappointed? I had just changed my mind about hating him, so there was no way I had a crush on him too! No, he was straight, and way to perfect for someone like me. It would never happen. Not in a million years. I needed to stop myself while I was ahead, needed to stop getting my hopes up anytime someone interesting came into my life, and It was moments like these that I wished that I still hated him.