I Have Been Chosen

Oliver 2

Saturday 3rd January

There was a knock on the door. Oliver didn't know why she always bothered to knock beforehand, as she had a key, but he still appreciated the politeness. He called out, "come in," and his best friend Kara entered his apartment.

He saw her carrying two shopping bags full of snacks and drinks. "You didn't need to do that," he sighed but smiled appreciatively as she placed them on the kitchen counter.

"Yeah, well, from what I saw on social media, Arden's way of breaking up is pretty shitty. Also, you helped me through Peggie," she added quietly. Kara flumped onto the sofa next to Oliver, passing him a bottle of Creme de Menthe. "Your favourite."

Oliver smirked. "What, we just drinking straight out of the bottle?"

Kara shrugged. "Depends. Can you be bothered to get up from the sofa?" She slumped, sighing. "I certainly can't; your elevator wasn't working, so I had to walk up all those stairs."

"Aw." Oliver patted her head in mock sympathy. "Poor Kara."

Eventually, Oliver willed himself to get up and retrieve two glasses from a cupboard.

"I'll have some of the whiskey," said Kara, motioning to one of the shopping bags.

Oliver found a half-drunken bottle of scotch inside and looked at her questioningly. "Drunk some on the way, huh?" he joked.

"No! Of course not!" Kara laughed. "I already had some in the house." She paused. "Shit, I forgot to bring ice cream. That's what you always have to have after a breakup."

"It's okay; I've got some." Oliver retrieved two tubs of ice cream from his freezer, one mint and the other pistachio."

Kara made a sound of exaggerated repulsion. "Why can't you be normal and like the standard flavours? Like chocolate? There are other foods outside of mint, you know?"

"Hey, I branched out and tried pistachio."

Kara shook her head violently. "I'll just have some crisps."

Oliver poured a glass of scotch and a glass of Creme de Menthe; he then scooped several mint choc chip ice cream into a bowl. Kara searched for a movie to watch, settling on Legally Blonde. Much to Kara's horror, Oliver poured his glass of Creme de Menthe onto his bowl of mint ice cream.

"That's too much mint," said Kara as she quickly munched through an entire family-sharing bag of cheese and onion crisps.

"At least my breath won't stink." Oliver eyed the crisps.

They continued watching the movie. When it got to the part when Elle realised that Warren won't ever take her back, that she won't ever be good enough for him, Oliver glanced over to Kara, seeing her eyes fixed on the screen, her brow furrowed.

"Heard anything from Peggie?" he asked quietly.

Kara's body tensed up for a moment. "She came to my work today and refused to leave until I listened to her."

"What did she want?"

"She was saying how much she regretted cheating on me; it was a one-time mistake, blah blah blah." Kara shovelled a large number of crisps into her mouth. "And then she asked if I could forgive her and take her back."

Oliver listened patiently, waiting for Kara to aggressively eat another absurd mouthful of crisps before continuing.

"Of course, I fucking didn't take her back!" Kara spat. "And once I said that, she started having a go at me about how it was my fault that they lost their New Year's Eve gig. They didn't have enough time to find a replacement drummer and missed out on a big payout. My fault! My fucking fault, apparently! What was she expecting? That I would endure playing with her after she cheated on me?"

Oliver shook his head in disbelief.

There was a long pause as they continued to watch the movie.

"My new band is great, though," said Kara.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, all the members are good people."

"Sorry, I missed your first performance with them."

"Nah, don't worry about it; you got dragged to that New Year's party with Arden." She winced. "How are you holding up?"

Oliver shrugged. "Don't really think I feel anything, to be honest. Not sure why I was in that relationship in the first place." He paused, then said flatly, "I thought he understood me, but he didn't."

"I never liked how he used you for social media, anyway," said Kara. "I told Ray off for sending you those screenshots, by the way. You didn't need to see those."

"Meh." Oliver sighed. "Actually, that somehow made me feel better. Don't know why." He paused. "Maybe it's because I know for sure he didn't care about me."

"Surely that would sting more?"

"I dunno how to explain it." He paused. "I had already booked a reservation on Valentine's Day at his favourite steakhouse."

"You still going to go? Try and find another date for it?"

"I tried cancelling it, but I would lose the deposit, which was expensive, what with it being a Saturday. So yeah, still going to go. Want to be my date? We could pretend to be a straight couple?"

Kara stared at him blankly. "You do remember I'm vegan, right?"

"Ah, shit, yeah."

"How many vegan options would there be at a steakhouse?"

Oliver slumped in his seat.

"Tell you what, I'll go with you if you can't find a meat eater to go with you."

"They do cocktails there."

"Ooh." Kara perked up. "Okay, I'll drink cocktails whilst you eat a nice steak."

Oliver chuckled slightly. "It's a date."

Kara rested her head on his shoulder. "I suppose I'd be spending Valentine's this year alone anyway, may as well spend it with my bestie. What do they call it? Galentine's Day?" She then jolted up. "Oh yeah! Are you free this Friday?"

"Yep," said Oliver. "I'm free whenever. The perks of being single and having time off between starting a new job."

"Would you be able to be our sound guy? Our usual one just had a kid and is too busy parenting now."

Oliver shrugged. "Sure, though I haven't done it in years."

"You'll be fine! Really you're just a glorified roadie."

"I did want to see you perform with your new band anyway." He paused, frowning. "How did you get a gig in January?"

"Our lead singer and guitarist is best buds with the pub manager; I think he also used to work there too. Nowhere else will likely have live music, so anyone around will be drawn there. We'll pay you too."

"Nah, just pay me in drinks."

The two continued to watch the movie, shouting and cheering when Elle rejected Warren, swearing at the screen, then stopped when Oliver's neighbours shouted at them to be quiet. Neither of them could be bothered to move and so slept on the sofa, cosy underneath a blanket.

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I'll Stand by You by Pretenders

[To start off with, there are no drums in the song, and then finally, Kara gets to play the slow and simple beat in the lead-up to the chorus. Despite such an effortless part to play, Kara keeps everyone in time, and mimes along to the lyrics, trying to get Oliver to laugh with her exaggerated expressions.]