ooc; Okay, this is a sort of introductory post to a random character that
popped into my head earlier. So, not much really happens in it, but you get an idea
about this guy's personality and such. It's nothing spectacular, but y'know. I'll probably
do a follow up drabble to it, but this is all that I managed to get for it now. Hope it's
alright.
It was Oliver’s first day of work and, oh my god, he was so nervous. He’d be anticipating this day for the past forty-eight hours after he got a telephone call from the manager to inform him that he was to be coming into work on the Monday. Oh, if only you’d seen the young lad’s reaction. Hearing it over the phone was nothing in comparison to such an amazing visual expression of joy. It wasn’t as if the job was a life-changing thing for him. It was hardly something that he could say was something he wanted to pursue and make his life revolve around. Goodness, no. It was a job at Starbucks, for crying out loud. He didn’t want to be making coffee for the rest of his life, nor did he want to be cleaning up other peoples’ messes that they left on the tables and such. But it was his first job.
That’s right. Oliver was a mere seventeen years old, having only turned this five weeks ago. He’d never managed to get a job anywhere else because they felt he was too young and, frankly, he didn’t seem the sort that would be particularly experienced with talking to customers and being of good service. No, typically he was.. well, a bit of a nervous wreck. Even when he was at home on his own, he always managed to find some way to knock over a glass full of cranberry juice or nudge a ceramic plate off a table until it met its untimely demise at the hands of the kitchen floor. And he wasn’t really the best at talking to people, either, especially people he didn’t really know. His words would fail him and he’d accidentally say something he wasn’t supposed to, sometimes even saying something that could be classed as insulting without really meaning it. There had been one than one occasion when he’d tried to compliment a woman on her appearance and then, by fault, ended up insulting her instead. The poor dear.
Wearing a pair of simple, black slacks, and a white t-shirt, the male reached out with his hand and pressed against the metal handle of the door, instantly being greeted by the overwhelming smell of coffee and food, and various chattering noises from the customers, most of which appeared to be students who were quickly getting a bit of a pick-me-up before heading off to class. Oliver glanced about nervously as he stepped slowly into the establishment, eyeing the staff wearily as he tried to figure out who might be showing him the ropes and whether or not any of them appeared to be the sort that he should generally avoid. He wasn’t really the sort to judge a book by its cover, but people that you get a bad vibe from were probably best to leave be on your first day.
Clearing his throat as he reached the counter, he eyed the girl standing behind it, looking at him as if she really didn’t want to be there. Heck, she looked like that typical grumpy teen with her eyes half-lidded as she looked him over, waiting impatiently for him to speak.
“Oh, um, I’m the.. um, new worker here..” Poor Oliver stumbled over his words as he struggled to get them past his lips, his heart racing like he’d just run a marathon. “I, um.. I’m meant to be starting today and, um..”
“Come with me.” she stated simply, her voice matching the tired monotony of her expression as she moved around from the counter, leaving her co-worker to deal with the steadily growing queue for cappuccinos and lattés. Oliver quickly followed after her, pausing every few seconds or so to allow a customer or another worker to walk passed. They steadily drew closer to a back room which was labelled with a small plaque that said ‘Staff Only’. Oliver had always thought of these rooms to be quite magical. No one but the staff knew what hid behind these doors, much like the staff room at school where every single student wanted so desperately to enter the magical world that teachers would retreat to during breaks and lunch to discuss their students and watch the football. There were always rumours floating about the school that there was a Jacuzzi in there, or that they had a pool table. And Oliver felt a certain excitement as they drew closer and closer to this room, expecting something amazing or mysterious. He may have been seventeen, but his imagination was as wild as the rest of them.
There was an almost disappointed groan as the door was opened to reveal quite a simple, small room with just a few chairs, a little television, a mini-fridge and a small table. It was nice in there, but not anything that he’d expected. He paused as he woman in front stopped directly where he was about to tread, a sort of stumbling motion ensuing as he had to quickly step to the side of her, nearly falling quite unevenly onto the side of his foot.
“Luke, get off your ass. You’ve got a new guy to train up.” And with that, the girl left the room, almost barging into poor Oliver as he stood silently, staring in front of him where he hadn’t actually noticed a person sitting before. He’d expected for this Luke to stand up, offer him a kind smile and then start guiding him around the place, but no.. he just remained sat there, gaze hidden behind a magazine which.. looked quite questionable for the distance that the younger male was standing at. His head tilted as he tried to figure out just what the magazine was, the mixture of the dimly lit room and his short-sightedness not particularly helping in this situation.
“Ar-are you reading porn?” the male stammered, staring at the twenty-five year old with quite wide eyes. Oliver wasn’t an innocent lad, and he had seen his fair share of magazines and such, but.. maybe not enough to not find this situation a little bit shocking. Green eyes flicked up to look at Oliver, taking in the quite small teen’s form, noting the air of nervousness and uncertainty that was enveloping him. And, at that, Luke smiled softly, a quite reassuring smile that almost surprised the teen.
“I’m guessing you’re Ollie then, right?” he inquired, head tilting a little as he closed the magazine and placed it to sit on a table beside him.
“Um, yeah. Well, Oliver, but Ollie’s okay, I guess..”
Ooc; This is a drabble in response to one that Cali wrote when Phoenix was in another country, working on a film and Oscar was forced to stay behind due to his own schedule. Oscar is mine and Phoenix is Cali's. I was listening to What If by Simple Plan and, also, Save You by Simple Plan. Hope it's good enough. :'D
He was barely concentrating on what he was doing, gaze seeming focused but a vacant feel swamping around his actions. Oscar was usually one to be exceptionally enthusiastic when it came to his work. He thrived behind the camera, enjoyed it to such an extent that it was very rare for the young man to be seen out and about without a camera bag on his shoulder or a small compact tucked into his pocket. But today was different. He didn’t seem as happy and smiley as he was usually when setting up his stranger fashion shoots, his more in-depth ideas that he managed to often come up with due to lack of sleep or spending a day on the set of one of Phee’s films and imagining all of the possibilities that films seemed to provide.
Today, Oscar wasn’t up to the usual standard that he held for himself when it came to his photography, but it took one of his regular models to bring it fully to his attention. The girl was dressed in such a flamboyant red dress, her hair fiery and make-up looking so fierce and perfect, but she so easily showed that sympathetic expression between each frame as a small sigh would pass over Oscar’s lips, the male’s gaze frequently flicking to look over to the empty door frame. All he could see through it was a small portion of the living room, not the person that he could so often look to to bring a smile to his face. Phoenix was almost like his inspiration. He helped keep him going and helped just let those ideas fit so easily into place, but without him there.. he was lost. And he looked it, clicking away with his camera but not being as directive as normal, not trying to think of weird and wonderful poses that could just add that little bit more.
“Oscar?” the girl’s voice was soft, comforting in a way but not what he needed to stop that aching feeling in his chest.
“Hmm? Yeah, Michelle?”
“Sweetie, you’ve been looking over at that wall for the past couple of minutes.. are you okay?” The wall that she spoke of was one to the side of the studio area, the one where Oscar usually sat working on editing photos on his laptop or fiddling about with his camera equipment. The original, plain white paint was littered with years’ worth of photographs, but not fashion portraits, nor truly professional images. They were all little captures from years of his life, little things that could remind him of how much he’d grown as a person and how there was one person that had always been there for him. A great portion of that wall was covered with images of a younger Oscar and a younger Phoenix, most of which were taken nearer the beginning of their relationship when they’d had all the time in the world to be together. The male’s heart would always flutter when he looked at that wall, seeing the highlights of the years he had spent with his loved one, but now it just sent a gentle pang through his system.
“Um.. yeah, I’m fine. I, um, I think we’ll just leave it at that today, Michelle. Thanks.” The twenty-seven-year old nodded softly at the model before turning and tugging his camera up over his head and then placing it down on the table in front of him. He could look through the product of his day later - now he just wanted to focus on getting Michelle cleaned up and sending her on her way. He just needed to be alone for a while.. well, no, that’s a lie. He didn’t need to be alone. He needed to be with Phoenix, he needed to be close to him. He needed to be able to curl up in his arms and go to sleep to the sound of his breathing. He needed to spend more than the limited one hour talking with him on the phone and instead be able to hear him talking face to face with him. He needed that uplifting feeling that Phee always sent rushing through his body by his mere presence. But he couldn’t have that.
Phee had been away for a good few weeks now, working on a film that he had been unable to film within range of their home, a film that the younger male had seemed so excited about before. Their telephone conversations had been so light-hearted at the beginning, but seemed to so quickly melt into something quite heart-wrenching, something that made Oscar miss Phoenix even more to the point where he felt almost ill. He couldn’t tell Phee enough just how much he was missing him, nor could he express it in any other way. The phone limited their contact so much, alongside the difference in time zones. When it was lunchtime for Phee, it would be time for Oscar to go to sleep so they were truly limited to that one hour a day.
The moment that Michelle left, he got changed into his pyjamas and settled down on the sofa in the living room, a small pot of ice cream held in his hand. It was becoming a sort of three ‘o’ clock in the afternoon tradition for him now, to sit in his pyjamas with some mint ice cream in the silence of the apartment, only able to hear the occasional car outside the open window. If he had the choice, he would have happily called Phoenix there and then and just begged him to come home, but he knew he couldn’t. Phee would probably be in the middle of shooting now, and he didn’t want to interrupt anything, no matter how desperately he wanted to just hear his love’s voice. It was always Phoenix that called, because the brunette would always worry about disrupting a scene by calling. He knew that they could sometimes overrun with filming, as had been experienced the other night when he had nearly fallen asleep before Phee’s call, and so he didn’t call him, even when he felt so desperate like now.
Gently touching his feet against the carpeted floor, Oscar slipped himself from the sofa, leaving the tub of ice cream and its spoon on the table. Padding softly into his studio once more, the male’s gaze fell back upon the various printed images upon his wall, the smallest of smiles twitching onto his lips as he gazed at the various faces that the red-head pulled in each photo. His goofy grins and wonderful expressions that could just so easily make Oscar giggle like a school-girl. The male reached out and touched against the glossy paper that each image was inked upon, the tips of his fingers oh-so gently stroking against the curly locks permanently printed upon the page. It wasn’t the same, but it brought comfort.. managed to drag a smile onto his lips as he thought just how soft Phee’s hair felt between his fingers and how tender his touch was. He just missed him so much and there was so much around him that reminded him of the man he loved, but nothing could amount to the real thing.
Two hours later, Oscar lay curled up beneath the covers on their bed, his soft breaths sounding so content, his expression sharing a sense of ease that sleep seemed to cast over him. His dreams may not have been real, but they felt it and it was almost as if Phee were there with him, curled up beside him and snuggling close. The disappointment of waking up alone would surely follow, but for now his features told how he was thinking of so much more comfortable moments than lying by himself in a rather cold bed, the corners of his lips curved partly. The wall in his studio was no longer as full as it had been, various photographs having been taken down over the course of an hour. Now, there was barely a gap left upon the pale wall at the head of the bed. Each space covered with one image or another; from the photographs taken when they had first moved into the apartment to their occasional trips to the shops in search of rubber ducks. It made such a difference for Oscar because, now, even though Phee wasn’t there to curl up with, it was almost like he was in the room, looking after him by simply watching over him with those caring eyes.
A steady stream of water poured from the faucet, trickling quite strongly out into the open air and down into a cool, clear glass. The sound was soothing as liquids pushed through pipes beneath the metal sink, creating that pressurised fizz like the elongated sound of a bottle of soft drink being opened for the first time.. that almost pleasurable sound that always seemed to remind the young girl stood, a majority of her body covered in cotton pyjamas and a pair of soft slippers, at the sink of the beach or hanging out with a small group of friends. There were always little things that made Taylor smile; like how little baby James’ confused expression managed to mimic his father’s perfectly, or the little gurgling noises that Danny made whenever he saw his Uncle Louis [who seemed to have softened to the idea of his brother being a dad].
But, for some reason, today was one of those days where she couldn’t really keep that smile of hers going. Taylor’s eyes gazed dreamily at the water as it steadily began to fill the glass, hand extended, waiting for the right moment to turn the tap and cease that cascade of liquid from flowing into the sink. She’d felt like this for the past few weeks now, a sort of.. reluctance in how she used to act and the things she used to do before she got pregnant. It was no secret to most that Taylor enjoyed sex. She relished in the feeling of being that close to someone, having such a power over them but then being at the mercy of their ideas and desires. She enjoyed sharing someone else’s body heat, hearing breathy moans in her ear, and getting entirely lost in the moment. But, ever since the twins were born.. it wasn’t the same in her mind. Well, not entirely.
The play of muscles underneath skin, the sweat gathering as motions strengthen, the tight sensation of hands grasping at her form.. all of these things still played in her head, made her feel so god damn horny that it was almost unbearable. But then, other things would slip into her head; her stretch marks, the slight bit of baby weight that she still had to lose, the more tired droop to her eyes. They weren’t sexy. They weren’t nice to look at. They weren’t something you’d see and think, “Ho’damn, that is hot.” These little things almost always made her want to cry out in frustration as she stared at herself in the mirror, staring at these faults that she wished so badly would have disappeared by the next time that she woke up. But, every time that she went to the bathroom to get dressed, there they were again.. staring back at her almost the exact same as they had been for the past three months.
There was a soft squeak as the tap finally came to a stop, her hand guiding the simple glass to her lips as she took a couple of sips from it, eyes closing themselves briefly. It was pretty early in the morning, though not early enough so that there was no possibility of someone wandering around the household. Taylor still lived with Luke and Felicity, though since the end of school and the birth of the twins, Thad had also joined them. It was only meant to be for a while whilst the pair got used to parenthood, and it was a comfy arrangement with two babysitters on standby if either of the teens needed to get away for a little while. Of course, this always brought up the possibility of one not being as alone as one thought.
Luke had been awake for the past half an hour as he had work pretty soon, his natural body clock, for once, allowing him to be awake at about the right time. Despite the television being on, the twenty-six year old heard the soft, gentle shuffling of slippers against the light wooden floor of the kitchen, his interest perking up as he contemplated just who this mystery person was that was lurking about downstairs when most of the household remained asleep. And that was when Taylor crossed his vision as the young male padded over towards the cooking area of the house, eyes wandering over the quite baggy blue pyjamas that the girl was wearing.
“What’re you still wearing your maternity PJs for?” It was a simple inquiry that the lad made, only to be followed by a quirky little jump from the girl in front of him, her back more-so in his vision than anything else. “I’d have thought you’d have gotten yourself into that fitted nightdress of your’s by now.” His smile was friendly, and as much as she wanted to return that curling of the lips, she felt almost as if she couldn’t, like it was nothing short of a lie.
“I guess..” For a moment or two, the girl faltered as she began to turn around to face him, wondering whether or not to continue her blatant lie of an excuse.. or tell the older male just why it was that she felt the need to hide her body underneath a large amount of material. “I guess I, um.. I just don’t.. I mean..” It was a strange thing to hear Taylor Harts uncertain of what she was saying. It was quite rare for her not to say what was on her mind, what was bothering her, what she felt needed to be said. But, over the period of months, these little insecurities had welled up inside her chest, hitting her now at a pace that she couldn’t quite retaliate to.
Her eyes closed shut once more as her hand held the glass of water close to her chest, the other arm folded across her torso as if holding something close to her heart. Which, in a way, she was. She didn’t want to tell Luke about how she didn’t feel that sexy any more, or how she felt bad about the fact that she’d suddenly run cold on the subject of sex. It wasn’t as if Thad had really brought it up, nor had he really tried to instigate much with her, which she had known would happen anyway. He cared about her, worried over her.. oh, and those adorable little faces that he’d make when he started panicking over the tiniest of things. There had been, really, only one instance where the elder teen had attempted to start things up again.. but he was left with a million and one excuses, and a girl who was just content laying curled up against him under the covers.
Luke’s head tilted a little to the side as he watched the eighteen-year-old stumble over her own words, an almost brotherly concern written across his features. He had a vague idea what was working over in her mind as he’d briefly spoken to Felicity about the things that’d happen after the pregnancy, outside of the more in-depth details that Luke wasn’t entirely certain he wanted to know about. And he was beginning to understand why that more fragile form of Taylor was standing before him, fingers fiddling with the cotton of her pyjamas. After living with both Felicity and Frankie for a majority of his life, and then having Taylor move in a year ago, Luke knew certain signs for things, like when to back off or when to sit and talk. Fairly confident that he knew what was bothering her, he had a small idea of what to say. Taking a small step towards her, the male smiled.
“You know, a couple of years ago, I had this sort of thing with this guy. It was a bit of a surprise at first because it all happened so quickly and it was one of those things that you really don’t expect to happen, you know?” Luke paused briefly as the girl before him listened quite intently to his words, nodding softly in recognition to his question before he started to speak once more. “Over the time that we had this thing, I started to fall in love with him in a way that I really never had done before. He was.. just so perfect to me, and special. It became way more than I thought it would in my little world. I mean, we only had sex the one time before I had to leave, but there were so many things that pulled us together.”
The male knew where he was going with his story, his soft smile extending a little the more he thought of how well it fit into the situation, his body moving over towards a stool by the island countertop in the centre of the kitchen.
“There was one little problem though..” Taylor’s glass was placed down upon the counter as she herself sat down opposite her friend’s brother, eyes remaining entirely focused on his as she listened, not wanting to miss any of what it was that he was trying to tell her. “He couldn’t understand the fact that he was perfect to me.”
“He was always debating about whether or not what we were doing was right, he had his own insecurities within himself about so much of the stuff that we did and his own feelings towards himself. No matter what I said or did, they kept creeping back.”
“What happened?” the teen inquired, her voice quite soft as if she were a child trying to ask a question at the end of a book, an innocent taste to her words.
“There’s a lot to it, but.. after a while, those insecurities about who he was, how he was different to what he thought was normal, and everything.. he started to accept them. He accepted that he had a few different things about him, and that he wasn’t fitting into everyone’s specific model for a person. He started to open up and, after a while, started to understand that he was perfect to me in so many ways, despite these little flaws he felt he had.” Luke’s smile, once more, softened as Taylor was staring down now into her glass of water, her index finger running smoothly down the side before reaching the cool countertop beneath. Her mind whirred as she tried to take in the story that he’d just told her, a slight glisten attempting to cast over her eyes as her teeth softly bit into her lower lip.
“Tay, to Thad, you are.. perfect. He loves you and probably always will, despite the little flaws that you think you have. I mean, the guy near enough stalked you before you started dating. Something horrible to you can be something amazing to someone else. You shouldn’t close yourself up because you’re worried about how he’ll take the changes. Trust me. Accepting yourself as you are is so much better than trying to hide yourself away.” The smile that had remained upon Luke’s features as he spoke was still curled upon his lips whilst he looked over to the girl that had been drawn to look down at the counter in an attempt to hide the tears that were trying to force themselves down her cheeks, a deep mixture of happiness and sad raging around in her emotions.
She didn’t really know what she was feeling, but she felt an uplifting sensation in her chest as she thought about what the twenty-six year old was saying. It was true that everyone had their flaws, and that there were so many people out there that accepted them. He was right in saying that it was probably better for everyone to accept the way that they are instead of just dragging themselves down with it. And he was right that Thad loved her, which was true despite the amount of trouble she’d put him through since they’d first staRted dating very little over a year ago. He might have been a bit oblivious, at times, but.. she didn’t love anyone else more than she loved him and her two little boys. She might have changed a good deal now that she was a mother, but there were some things that she needed to get back and some things that she needed to accept, and some things that well and truly needed to get sorted out.
Her smile steadily extended to a grin as the young girl stood from her chair and walked around the counter, her arms wrapping around Luke’s neck in a thankful hug, her eyes squeezing shut briefly before she drew back from him. And then, she took off, her legs carrying her out of the kitchen and away from the male she’d just hugged, leaving him with his own little grin and an overwhelming temptation to speak out loud to the contents of the kitchen about how fucking amazing he was.
It took less than a minute for her to get upstairs, stepping on tip-toes in an attempt to not wake anyone else in the house up. She stepped even more carefully as she passed the room that the twins were now asleep in, and drew closer to her own room. Slowly, she began to open the door, cringing as the softest of squeaks sounded from the hinges, her eyes darting over to the young man asleep in her bed. Thad didn’t so much as stir, which Taylor couldn’t help but find rather adorable as she stared over at her boyfriend, seeing his body half stretched out over her side of the bed, quite a large majority of the duvet cover now lying across the floor. Smiling, she wandered over towards their bed, taking a hold of the duvet and pulling it up so that it was back over the sleeping male. It took her just a few moments before she crawled onto the bed beside him, slipping beneath the covers and resting quietly by his side.
The girl paused for a moment as her eyes glanced over the plain grey t-shirt Thad was wearing, flitting softly over his form as she softly bit into her lower lip, that smile of her’s extending once more before she turned a little more onto her side to press a gentle kiss against his shoulder. And then another.. and then another. Slowly, one of her legs slide over Thad’s torso, her kisses trailing from his shoulder and to his neck, then finally his lips as she now lay with legs either side of him, her front pressing softly to his, fingers gently toying with the collar of his shirt.
“Thad, sweetie.. it’s time to wake up.”
