1.1 | daunting medleys

forty | punching

Oliver had never been this scared in his life. Again.

And somehow, Tabitha had been at the center of his fear both times that his heart had been in his mouth. Axel found her after they'd been looking for her in a rogue mission, she came to school earlier than usual and they had planned to start arranging everything for the party but they didn't find her. So he and Axel scoured through the school, asking the small clumps of people and finally found out that she had gone to the area with the cluster of trees with Aiden. Axel was the one to find her, and when he stammered in fear, his heart dropped.

She was bent over, throwing up violently while Aiden was writhing on the floor, cupping his nether regions as he also simultaneously groaned in pain. Past the proud expression that Oliver wore that she could defend herself against pricks like Aiden, the anger couldn't be dimmed, no matter how hard he tried when he had pieced together what he thought might have happened. He rushed over to Tabitha and held her hair back, while she threw up by the tree roots. Axel pulled a bottle of water from his backpack, and handed it to Oliver. He waited for her to stop retching, and washed her face slowly with the water.

"Breathe, sweetheart." Axel cooed from her other side. When Oliver had finished washing her face, Tabitha leaned into Axel's side, breathing heavily. He stalked to Aiden who had gotten on his feet. Oliver watched as he looked at Tabitha, heartbroken.

"I kissed her. All I did was kiss her. All I did was kiss her." Aiden mumbled, and Oliver could see the tears that slipped down his face. "All I did was kiss her." He moved, almost drunkenly to Tabitha. "All I did was kiss you." He knelt beside her, ignoring Axel and Oliver. "All I did was kiss you. I didn't do anything else. I just kissed you." Tabitha looked away from him, shuddering into Axel's chest as he mumbled comforting words to her.

Aiden stood up, and wanted to leave, but Oliver stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. "What? You want me to tell you how amazing her lips felt against mine. She moans, y'know, especially if you push, or touch the right buttons. Don't-" His cocky monologue was paused, when Oliver punched him square in the face. His knuckles hurt, and he cringed when he heard the sound of Aiden's nose breaking.

Aiden fell, face first into the puddle of vomit. Oliver held his hair up, his voice strained as he gritted out. "If you ever touch her, or look at her, or even think about her again. I will end you." Blood trickled down his nose, mixing in with the puddle his head was sitting in. Aiden smiled sardonically, and his eyes didn't stray from Tabitha's.

He got up slowly, swaying on his feet. "All I did was kiss you, and you kneed me, and threw up. Because I kissed you. Isn't my love enough? Why isn't it enough?" Aiden knelt before her, and the tiniest bit of light deflated when she got up and walked away from him. When Tabitha had walked to Oliver, she held his knuckles and saw that skin had split and he was bleeding.

"We really have to talk about you and punching things." She muttered, and Oliver, for the life of him, couldn't tell if it was tears or the water that clung to her lashes that had fallen into her eyes.

He grinned, and shrugged. "I like punching things."

Tabitha's giggle was fake, he knew. Her eyes were wet, and her lashes were as black as midnight, thick and clumped together. Her lips glistened, and quivered as she tried to fight back tears. Her brown eyes shone, and then he knew that they were tears that had gathered in her eyes.

Axel punched Aiden too, and he yelled in pain. He sauntered to Oliver, and Tabitha, grinning. "God, he is a dick. Thank heavens your taste has improved." A flush crawled up Tabitha's cheeks and she looked away. Oliver stepped on Axel's foot, giving him a look asking him to shut the hell up, ignoring the way his cheeks ripened.

"Can we get out of here? My vomit stinks." She asked, and Oliver nodded, carrying her bag and leading her out of the clump of trees. She paused and turned to Oliver. "The vomit. I need to clean it up..."

Oliver shook his head, and looked at it. It was a tiny puddle, and would be absorbed into the ground but just to be extra careful, he took a shovel that was conveniently by the trees, and covered it with a layer of dirt, getting some on Aiden too, but who cared? They walked out, and into the opening where the carpark was and Axel gave an excuse that was totally unbelievable before walking out, whistling like a fool. Oliver held Tabitha's hand, and led her to the garden, then as they moved to sit down, he gripped her waist and hugged her tightly.

"Never do that to me again. Please, don't do that to me again. I couldn't find you, and someone said they saw you leaving with Aiden. I didn't... I don't like that one bit. If you need anything, come to me. Don't... Don't go to Aiden. He could've hurt you. He already did, and I wanted to hurt him a lot more than I did." He confessed, his heart beating so fast, he feared it would combust. The thumping reminded him of a time bomb, set to explode any second into unknown consequences. She smelt like flowers, like lavender and roses. The scent enveloped him, and his previous scare faded. She wrapped her hands around him, and let him hug her. She sniffled, and Oliver could feel a tiny patch of wetness on his shirt. When they pulled apart, she unwrapped a single pack of gum that she pulled from her bag and chewed on it.

They sat on the grass, and she turned to him, looking him deeply in the eyes. "Are you jealous?" She asked, her voice tiny. "Of me leaving with Aiden?"

Oliver hummed affirmatively, even though he hadn't turned to her, afraid she would see the vulnerability in his eyes.

Tabitha's lips formed a silent 'O', then drew her knees to her chest. Her hair barely grazed her back as she placed her cheek on her knees so she'd be looking at him. Then as if she had remembered something, she searched her bag, she pulled out a sad looking rose. The petals were bruised, and the stalk had been bent. "This was meant for you. To apologise for yesterday. I kept pestering, and I really am sorry. I shouldn't have kept pushing you to tell me what's wrong. I'm also sorry that the rose looks so bad. I'm-"

"Thank you." Oliver held Tabitha's hand. "I don't mind it at all. It's very beautiful." Perhaps he was talking about the rose, or perhaps the way her eyes twinkled and a smile curled her lips when he took the rose from her. Her bag sat on her lap, and the sun had begun to shine. Oliver moved to the shade, which was directly beside Tabitha, so close that their shoulders were pressed together.

He brushed a curl behind her ear, and thought about it before pressing a light kiss on her nose. His breathing paused abruptly when she rose her head, and she almost locked lips with him.

With burning cheeks, Oliver explained. "I don't mind you pestering me." He ran a hand through his hair in a bid to calm himself. "My dad's son came over the other day and was spewing shit about me, and I didn't mind but then he mentioned you, and my mum. They might have been following you, but they aren't anymore, and I've made sure of it. So it wasn't you, it was things in my head, horrible, negative things. I actually liked it when you talked to me, it calmed me, and I..."

She stopped him from entering a full blown ramble by holding his hands in hers. "What did they say about me?" Tabitha asked, her eyes boring into his, glazed brown eyes filled with fear and curiosity.

"That I don't deserve you." Her hands tightened against his for a split second, then loosened.

She shook her head. "It's not you. It's me that doesn't deserve to be friends with you. Ollie, you've been amazing, and transparent with me. I've been hiding things about my life, I haven't even told Ariana because I'm scared of what she'll think of me. I-" Tabitha was slowly panicking, and he could tell by the way her eyes glazed as she was getting lost in self depreciation.

Oliver wanted to kiss her, like they did in the songs he wrote about her. He wanted to wrap his hands around her. Everything about Tabitha was alluring, from the way she smiled or how she looked when she was embarrassed, to the way she carried herself. Oliver knew he was in love with every inch of her, from her mind to her eyes to her hair, and he didn't expect them to instantly transparent with each other. He loved learning more about her, as slow as it was, he really didn't mind at all.

"It's fine, Tabitha. I'm here till when you are ready to talk about what's going on. There's no rush at all."

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happy fortieth chapter of daunting medleys ✨