A Pirate's Life for Me

Chapter 17: That Girl has Tangled with the Wrong Man

Oliver got to work early the next day. It was still raining from the night before, which wasn't super typical compared to the scattered showers Orlando usually got. It matched his mood.

He'd been going over his time with Nora and his conversation was Levi all through the night, trying to figure out what he was supposed to do.

It was the opposite of cool that Levi was lying to Nora. He wasn't going to stand for it. That was Edward Cullen level shit and he didn't want Nora to be his Bella Swan. She was way too awesome for that—not that any girl deserved that, level of awesomeness aside.

Then again, he wanted to be on good terms with Nora. He didn't think sabotaging their relationship was going to go well. And that's not who he wanted to be anyway. He was way more enthralled with the knight in shining armor roles. He wanted to be that sort of guy—and not just act like one on stage.

So it seemed to him that the best thing to do was going to be to confront Levi and get him to be honest for her sake. Which was going to be the last thing Levi was going to want to do. It wasn't exactly how Oliver wanted to spend his morning after a night of restless sleep, but hey, it was for Nora.

He spent the rest of his time waiting with a lopsided smile, thinking about her hand in his and the sound of her laugh.

Which of course is when Levi rounded the corner.

"Hey, Levi," Oliver called, keeping pace with him.

Levi cringed and increased his speed. "Go away."

"You look awful. Didn't you sleep last night?" Oliver tried not to think about what he could have been doing last night. It made him want to punch him. "Or maybe the simmering stink of your deceit kept you awake."

"I have to get to costuming."

Oliver grabbed his arm. "That can wait."

Levi shook out of his grip. The Cast Members in the utilidor started giving them looks. They weren't exactly being professional and most everyone knew who Oliver was, at the very least. He didn't exactly want to have this conversation where everyone could hear.

So he opened the first door they came across, not knowing what it was for, finding out that it was a pretty small custodial closet before shoving Levi inside.

"Seriously?" Levi huffed. "A closet?"

"We need to talk and I didn't want everyone hearing what we had to say."

"Because stuffing me in a closet is less questionable and not going to get anyone talking at all."

"You get used to the rumors."

Levi cringed, as if he was so much better than high school gossip.

Baby.

"I don't have time for this." Levi made for the handle. Pulled. Pulled again. Jiggled.

"Let me see it," Oliver said, swatting him away as he tried.

Locked.

"Was this part of your master plan of intimidating me?" Levi asked tiredly.

"You're right, I should have brought my angry eyes instead." God, he was being stupid. "I think we have bigger problems than worrying about why I was staking out in the hallway waiting for you."

"Right. Because why not talk about how you're showing red flags towards everyone you talk to?"

Oliver smacked the door and yelled, "Hey! We're locked in!"

"You know that's not going to work. Too much noise out there."

Oliver took out his phone. No bars, as usual. Not that he expected anything underground. "My signal's dead down here."