Love, Lies, and Friendship

I pulled myself from the couch groggily, rubbing my eyes as I made my way towards the door, where the person on the other side of it knocked again.
"Comin..." I mumbled, not caring that they probably couldn't hear me.

I opened the door and Josh was standing there, eyes red with dark circles under them, and pale.
"Josh? What's up?" I asked, standing aside and gesturing for him to come in. He ran a hand through his hair and walked past me.

"Hannah and I....sorta broke up. She kicked me out." I sighed and offered him a hug which he took. He hugged me round my waist like he always did and his breath was shaky on my neck, I could tell he was trying not to cry.

"I'm sorry Josh. We didn't help-"

"No, no. You guys just made me realise that even though I'm crazy about her, she was using that to control me. You know when we got back...all she did was complain, for hours on end. It was like she was making up for lost time." I chuckled gently and we sat down on the sofa. Josh sighed and leant on my shoulder.

"Can I stay here tonight?"

"You know you can." He picked up the remote and flicked through the channels before getting up to put Friends on.

"Good choice."

"Do we ever watch anything else?" I smiled and settled back to watch it.
We ended up going to bed early and Josh disappeared into the spare bedroom, not even having to ask if I still had the clothes he'd left here before. He knew they were in the wardrobe in there.

I was running as fast as I could, all I could hear was my footsteps and theirs catching up to me, along with our breath, and my rapid heartbeat.
Pain erupted in my chest and I screamed as something was ripping right through me but not killing me. It spun me over and loomed over me, red eyes boring into mine. Over it's shoulder I could see my friends, Josh was stood there watching, I screamed for help but no sound came out, nothing.
"I can't help you if you don't ask, Oli."

Josh's POV
I awoke with a start and knew immediately what was going on, I went into Oli's bedroom and he was stretched out on his bed, arching up, trying to escape from the nightmare he was in.
I climbed onto the bed, pushing aside the last of the duvet and pulled his head into my hands, I knew he was awake, his eyes were wide open and he looked absolutely petrified. I'd seen this so many times before, and it broke my heart.

Oli's POV.
"Oli? Oli?" I felt consciousness coming back to me in waves but I still couldn't move. Josh was looking at me in concern, whispering things to me softly, attempting to offer any small amount of comfort that he could. When I was finally able to move again I shot upright.

Josh's POV.

Oli suddenly bolted upright and threw his arms around my neck tightly, I hugged his shaking body gently and rocked him side to side slowly.

When this first happened, I'd found the compromising positions we found ourselves in awkward. But now it was normal, and all I ever focused on was Oli.

Tonight, he was kind of sat in my lap, I felt another bout of sympathy hit me as I felt his heart hammering against mine. We sat like that for a long time before his heart rate slowed. I tried to make him stand up but he was too shaky and exhausted so I just picked him up and took him into my room. I pulled the covers up over us and laced my arms back round his waist, he never let go of me. I fell asleep with his hot breath on my neck.

Oli's POV.

When I woke up the next morning I was still tangled up with Josh. I didn't bother moving as I was quite comfy, Josh's eyes fluttered and a smile appeared on my face as he made a sweet little noise.
He shuffled closer in his sleep and started to wake up, I turned onto my stomach and looked up at the ceiling, glancing back down at him when his eyes opened and he smiled at me lazily.
"Hey."

"Hi. Thanks, for last night-"

"Don't worry about it." I couldn't shake the feeling of unease from that dream and Josh could tell.

"It's not still bothering you is it? Just forget it mate, it was only a dream." He said, shuffling forwards and lying his head in the crook of my neck.

"Yeah I know...I just....nothing, it's fine. Let's eat."

Later on that day Josh left to pick up his things from Hannah's and I stayed home, still not feeling right about the dream. It was what Josh had said that really got to me;
'I can't help you if you don't ask, Oli.'
They say that your dreams reflect your deep thoughts. What did I need help with? Why Josh?
I ended up googling dream deciphering, and came up even worse than before, having even less of an idea what it all meant.

When Josh got back he wasn't as sad as I thought he'd be, he collapsed on the couch next to me.
"You keep picking these awful women that kick you out all the time...."

"I know. Good thing I agreed for us to go out with the lads tonight then." I sighed.

"What?"

"Neither of us are in a relationship. We're both single and ready to mingle...." He wiggled his eyebrows and I sighed again.

"Come on!!! Please!! It won't be the same without you..." He whined until I punched him gently and agreed to go.

That night I showered begrudgingly, Josh shouted from outside that he was coming in and I pulled the shower curtain across quickly. For some reason I felt a bit uncomfortable, me and Josh always walked into the bathroom when the other was showering if we needed to do something, it was the norm for us. But tonight I felt weird about it.
"You do wanna come, don't you?"

"I guess." Josh left and I towelled off hurriedly. As I got dressed I felt more and more nervous about how I looked, and wether I was doing the right thing. When Josh walked in I was sat on my bed surrounded by shirts that I'd tried on and abruptly thrown off.

"What's wrong?"

"Just can't find anything that looks good." I mumbled through my fingers, Josh picked up one and held it out to me.

"This one's my favourite." I didn't even question it, just pulled it on and prayed that tonight would be fun.

We walked to the first bar and the boys were waiting outside. They all cheered and started talking over one another loudly. I couldn't shake this feeling of unease still and I stayed quiet, not able to join in fully with their festivities.

We all stood and sat around the bar as we ordered our drinks. One by one, each of the guys found people to dance with and left, I was left with Max.
"What's up with you tonight, Oli? You seem a bit upset to be honest."

"No I'm fine. I just didn't really wanna come out is all."

"Well go find yourself a beautiful girl to dance with, just enjoy yourself mate."

"Why don't you do that then?"

"Maybe he doesn't have to." We both turned to see a gorgeous girl smiling softly at Max. He quickly smooth talked her into dancing and I was sat alone. I swivelled round and looked towards the dance floor. I couldn't help but laugh at Matty as he messed about, embarrassing himself but making everyone laugh.

"Hi." I turned and there was another girl standing there. She was quite tall, with long brown hair and dark green eyes. I smiled and nodded.

"Hey, can I buy you a drink?" She smiled and nodded, asking the bartender for a cocktail I'd never heard of. She giggled when it came and I tried it, only to cringe at the sickly sweet taste filling my mouth.

The more we drank, the better everything seemed. The less sober we became, the more heated things got as we danced amongst the other hot bodies on the dance floor, eventually leaving for my apartment.

We got in, kissing hungrily and heading for my bedroom, clothes quickly being shed. Something wasn't quite right, I just put it down to the alcohol. I didn't usually drink. That must be it.
She lied down, pulling off her panties and I took in her flawless body and satin skin, I threw off my boxers and crawled on top of her, kissing her again.

As what usually happened when I was having sex, mental images started popping up in me head, helping me get more into it, then all of a sudden Josh popped up. I pulled back, ignoring my hard on, and she giggled.

"Good idea, get a rubber." I nodded, shaking the image out of my head and getting something. As I pulled it on, and she started kissing me again, I started to go soft. I cursed myself mentally and she pushed me onto my back.

"Let me help with that." She started to go down on me and I focused on the feeling, but nothing. It was like my dick had decided to hibernate for the winter. I cursed and she sat back on her heels.

"What's wrong?"

"I don't know. I don't...usually drink this much..." She rolled her eyes but giggled and left me her number.

"If he changes his mind." She winked and left as she got dressed. I swore loudly, pulling my boxers back on. About an hour later, the front door closed and a few second after, Josh poked his head round my door.

"Hey. So you left with that girl huh?" I groaned and kept my eyes covered with my arm as he sat on the chair at my desk. Embarrassment started to flood me and Josh, being completely oblivious to it, kept asking questions.

"So how'd it go?"