Love is Stupid and Great Ch. 02

~~~~~~~~~~

Oliver was walking out of Five Guys with a big bag of food for both him and April to eat later this evening. He was reading some stuff on reddit on his phone while walking down the sidewalk. But he wasn't walking back to his place, because earlier he did stumble upon something after doing a quick Google search for Lee Robertson on his phone while waiting for one of his classes to start. Lee Robertson's album 'Hometown Couple' had released today and he's doing a signing in their city at the music store he used to work at 'The Bomb'.

And... well, he's heading there right now.

It wasn't very far from Five Guys or his place at all, actually. Maybe a five to ten minute walk at best. Made him wonder how he missed April since she's been here the last year. Maybe Oliver just doesn't pay attention to stuff outside of his little bubble anymore. Maybe that's kind of sad. Whatever.

He arrived at the music store to see a line stemming from two blocks down to the front door to get a copy of his first record free. He was definitely impressed at the turnout. They must've done a good job advertising the album. Oliver's not really into alternative electronic music, but most of the market definitely is, so he'd be surprised if a lot of people weren't interested in that sort of thing.

But he knew that he wasn't getting there anytime soon, so he took a seat on a bench, took out his phone, and waited for people to come in and get out. Needless to say, that took a fucking long while. So long that his phone was nearly dead by the time the line had dissipated and the sun was down.

At that point, Oliver rushed the door before it was closed for the night and grabbed it before it closed, seeing the musician himself along with his agent and a few security guards chatting away.

"Uh...!"

Oliver interjected his voice into the room, prompting everyone there to look his way, but he froze solid. He didn't really know what to do. He didn't plan this far ahead.

Lee stepped out in front of their little group, "Uh, did you want an album signed? Cause we ran ou-"

"No," Oliver interrupted, "I um... I'm a friend of April's."

Oliver could literally feel the atmosphere in the room begin to weigh a bit heavier and darken a little. Lee looked at him, puzzled, and turned back to his security for a few moments, then walked outside to Oliver.

Oliver took a good look at him. He was a very attractive, bearded Asian-American man. He was extremely fit and he had fashionable clothing on. Sort of looked like a model, to be honest, but he probably was prettied up for the signing a bit, so that made enough sense.

"Hey. Do you want to get a coffee? It's on me." Lee asked, pointing his thumb to a diner behind him.

Oliver accepted the offer and the two made their way down to the diner, an awkward silence between them. Or maybe Oliver was the one who felt awkward in this situation. It was probably the latter.

The two were sat down by a waitress who took their order without leaving much time for them to think about it. Lee got a straight up black coffee while Oliver asked for coffee with plenty of milk and sugar. He never could stand the bitterness of plain ol' coffee. But when she left, there was a definite awkward silence between the two, felt on both sides.

"What did you want to talk to me about?" Lee eventually piped up.

"Oh. Uh. Right. Well um..."

And then Oliver explained everything to him. April staying with one of his friends, April showing up at his doorstep last night, how she told him everything, what their relationship was, and finally...

"I just... I guess I just wanted to know..." Oliver tried to think up the words he wanted to express his feeling.

"What? Am I doing okay? Have I forgiven her? What's happened with Dan and me? Blah blah blah?" Lee asked.

"...Yeah."

Lee chuckled a little, "I don't know exactly. To all of them. I'll give you a basic, quick rundown cause it's getting a bit late. It's been about a month and a bit since it happened and I've recovered. Obviously, it still hurts to talk or think about, but at least I'm not moping around my house anymore. It'll take some more time to get back on the horse again, but I'm okay as a person. Dan and I haven't spoken. And if I've forgiven her...? I guess that one I can say is a pretty big no. I put everything I had left into her and she basically ran it down the damn toilet."

"...Oh."

"Was that not satisfactory?" Lee smirked at Oliver, "Yeah, I guess not. These sort of things tend to be more spicy and exciting when you hear about them. But when you get it straight from the horse's mouth, it's usually quite dull."

"I understand that a hell of a lot better than you'd think," Oliver replied, "As a guy who works in an industry that's pretty fuckin' hard to break into nowadays, people expect it's always this artistic, uphill battle, but it's really just a lot of work day in and day out."

"Amen to that, brother," Lee kept his smile going as he finished his coffee, "But listen, I gotta get going. It's late and I need to shower and sleep. But you said you worked in the video game business a lot of times, right? Here's my card. Keep in touch. I've always wanted to make music for a game, so, if you need something like that, give me a call. I'm a hot commodity now."

Lee stood up and wiped his mouth with his napkin, "And Oliver? Take care of her, okay? She's a good girl, just... very confused."

Lee walked off, leaving Oliver to think. That all felt very... quick. Concise. Maybe that's how Lee was as a person. He didn't really get any of the feelings he had resolved, but he at least was able to meet the guy who was at the center of all of this. And he got a cup of free coffee, so, there's that.

Oliver eventually decided to go home for the night, thinking it'd be best to not tell April about where he's been for the last several hours. And as he opened the door back to his place and she sprung up from the couch, he gave her a little smirk and held up the bag of food he'd been keeping and was still surprisingly warm.

"Food's here. Could you get plates?"

The two assembled their dinners, which just consisted of burgers and fries, on plates, pouring glasses of coke to accompany the measly meal. They set it all up on the coffee table, switching the channel to an episode of 'It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia' to lighten the mood, which was still quite tense from this morning. This whole day had been tense for Oliver. So his strategy was to come out of the gate, attempting to start an intellectual conversation.

"Did you know that Charlie's the goddamn best in this show? Of course you did, it's-"

"Hey Ollie?"

"...Yeah?"

April pat his arm lightly, "Thanks for... this morning. It meant a lot to me, you know. You didn't judge me, you didn't yell at me... you just listened. I needed that. What you said before you left... I'm not sure if I believe that you really think that or not, but the fact you even thought of it made me pretty happy. Thanks again."

Oliver smiled back, "Of course I mean it, April. I've never lied to you in my life, there's really no point in starting now."

April didn't say anything for a little while, but softly replied, "Thanks so much Ollie. For everything."

And then she laid her head down on his shoulder while they watched The Gang Gets Racist episode. He nearly froze up at the sudden contact, but relaxed, knowing it was just April and there was nothing to worry about. Even if she had changed... a lot. She was still her. And as much as he probably shouldn't... he still loved her.

The two watched a few more episodes before Oliver began to nod off slightly, "Uh... April?"

"Mmm?"

He pushed her off of his shoulder, "It's time for bed. Well, it's time for you to get off my bed. I'm going to sleep."

Oliver thought he saw the shadow of a pout spread across her face, but if it happened, it was too fast for him to notice.

"Okay, Ollie," She stood up and stretched out, "You wanna come into your room and tell me about your day under the blankets with the laptop like we used to? You said we would today."

Oliver laughed a bit, "Maybe tomorrow, April. A tempting offer, but I'm dog tired. So you can sleep tight, Springy."

"Fair enough. But I'm holding you on that offer. We need to make up for not spending time together for a long ass time. I'll see you in the morning, Ollie," And then she leaned down and pecked him on the cheek.

"Whuh...?" Oliver touched his fingertips to where her lips just were.

April began walking to the room, "Just another thank you for today. Don't think too much of it."

And as the door clicked behind her, indicating she was going to bed for the night, Oliver just sat there, his fingertips gently moving over the surface of where she kissed. He leaned back in his chair, thinking about how his heart belonged to a girl who had cheated on her fiancée less than two months ago with his best friend and who had bullied him through highschool, despite being his best friend when he was a kid. And even after hearing her story today and having his feelings split into two, her touch still made butterflies fly around in his stomach. It made him want to laugh a little. He was never a simple guy, he could admit that much.

"Jesus... love's just fuckin' stupid..." but as he got himself situated for the night, pulling a spare blanket over himself and laying his head down on a couch pillow, he smiled, "But it's so fuckin' great too."

To Be Continued...