just dive in [reed bishop spin-off] ✔️

one

— o n e —

OLIVER NEVER THOUGHT HE'D come back to this place, and it felt like more of a nightmare than the dream his parents thought it would be for him.

"Isn't this nice?" his mother asked, dumping a armful of cardboard boxes in the hallway and smiling around the bare white walls that had once been filled with family photos. "I was worried we wouldn't be able to get the same house back, but luckily, it happened to be on the market just as we were looking!"

Oliver made a noncommittal sound of agreement and let his parents discuss the supposed luck behind getting his childhood home back. It felt a lot more like unfortunate coincidence to Oliver, that he was moving back into the house only down the street from one of his ex-bestfriends Adam Montgomery, and he didn't believe in coincidences. He didn't want to think about what that said about this move. He paused in the doorway of the house, down the wide hallway that branched out into countless rooms and the wide spiral staircase leading up to his old bedroom. It was a big house, but it never felt too big to Oliver. It had always felt like home but not now, not knowing what it meant.

He glanced back outside, to the street lined with tall trees and even taller buildings, and marvelled at how little things had changed. He knew it had only been gone for five years but it felt like so many more when Oliver had changed so much in that time. Or maybe not. Maybe he was just trying to find excuses for why he shouldn't be here, when life here would have moved on without him and wanted nothing to do with him. He knew the people certainly wanted nothing to do with him and he didn't blame them.

"Oli!" He looked down at the impatient tugging on his sleeve to see his Lexie hanging off his arm. "Show me your room! I wanna see your room!"

Oliver rolled his eyes. "You don't want to see your own room first?"

"I want to see your room," she said bossily. "Take me to your room, Oli!"

Oliver sighed and knew he wouldn't get any peace until he complied to the little princess's demands. He loved his little sister, he really did, but he missed her younger years when she did little more than toddle about on fat legs and sleep. Now she was six and she'd turned into quite the bossy little brat, ordering him around and using a nickname she knew he hated. If she was like this now, he was not looking forward to her moody teenage years.

He let her grab his hand and led her upstairs, across the landing to the room he'd been given when he was four years old. It had nothing on the master bedroom his parents had gotten, on the top floor to themselves, but it had a window seat and an ensuite so he'd take what he could get. There was even a narrow balcony, although it didn't look over anything particularly exciting — just the front of the house and the front garden. That didn't stop Lexie from tugging aggressively on the doors to the balcony, right after she'd stomped all over the plush velvet covering of the window seat with her dirty little shoes.

"Open," she demanded, with an impatient look towards Oliver. "Why won't it open, Oli?"

"Because it's locked."

"Then unlock it!"

"No," Oliver said, turning her around by the shoulders and practically pushing her out of his room before she could start destroying things. "I'm not unlocking it because you'll end up falling off the balcony somehow, and then it'll be my fault."

"But — "

"Look," Oliver said randomly, pointing at her room opposite his. "Don't you want to go see your room?"

Her green eyes lit up and she skipped off towards the room without another word, exclaiming happily at the pink walls and fluffy carpet the last owners of this house hadn't changed. Lexie might be annoying sometimes, but it too easy to distract her with something else and he knew her weakness when he needed her to leave him alone: ice cream. She'd do anything he said if he bribed her with ice cream. He shook his head with a smile and headed downstairs to help his parents begging unpacking all boxes that they'd just finished piling up in the house.