opulent whispers

chapter 2

Oliver

School was looming closer and Oliver felt every bit as anxious as expected. His mom made constant reminders that the classes would be harder this year and she doesn't want to see any slip in his grades. But that's not what caused his inability to rest or the nauseating feeling that crawled up his spine. It was knowing that he had wasted his summer, just like he had with every other summer, but there was more to the feeling. It was the unavoidable fact that he was going to waste another school year as well. Never doing anything more than what his parents wanted or what was expected. Constantly telling himself how much his parents are paying for his education.

Oliver had known he was not poor, in fact he was very fortunate, but his family did not have thousands to throw around. Which made it all the more jarring when his friends did in fact throw thousands around. It made his head hurt when he thought about how much money they had, and all the extravagant trips and accessories. There was a twinge of jealousy when his friends would talk about their wealth without even realizing their fortune, but it was something he had learned to be amazed by. Letting himself get lost in blissful ignorance as if the wealth was his. But when he wasn't at school that twinge of jealousy fostered into bitterness.

His friends from St. Eves never reached out over the summer. He knew they didn't reach out to each other either, but it still made him feel odd. With them being so far away and taking the reminder of their humanity with them, they turned into these still images of  ignorance tied with filthy amounts of money. When he saw them post their vacations on exclusive jets and boats, something nasty would twist in his stomach.

So, here Oliver had been, lounging around his house bitter and anxious, waiting for summer to end, to be set free from one prison and to enter another (A change in scenery was always nice.) He was in such a haze that when he saw a message from Christopher it took him a while to think it was real.

The message lacked anything out of the mundan, it was, of course, sent to the entire group chat, and all it said was

Im stuck at school early. Send help pls.

It surprised him because usually the group chat is completely dead until the day they all get back. There was no reason to reach out until you're on campus looking to meet up with someone. Which seemed to be exactly Christopher's predicament.

isnt ethan there? John sent first.

Yes but he sucks.

and i swallow
youll be fine

Not helpful.

Oliver had decided the moment he got that text, he was not going to reply. He rarely replied during the academic year, and to add to that, he had never been overly close with Christopher. He only considered him a friend through exposure. If you hang around anyone long enough you'll start to consider them a friend regardless of any actual closeness– or lack thereof.

Chris was nice enough, there was just an air to him that made Oliver keep him at arm's length, or perhaps Christopher was the one keeping the distance. Oliver was never sure with him, he came off so friendly but that was something so ineffably out-of-touch about him. He was easily the richest of the group which was almost definitely the most ignorant, but it was hard to fault him at all. He was just a boy, a conventional all-american boy.

So that's how Oliver had spent the last week of summer, shuffling through his friends' lives in his mind. Comparing them to what he knows as truth, and unmistakingly wallowing in something akin to self pity and most likely just a smudge of pretentiousness.

— — — —

Walking on the grounds of St Eves made it easy to shed those sickening summer thoughts and embrace this part of him. To find enjoyment in his friends while accepting the endless assignments that never gave him a chance to catch his breath. Wasting what everyone tells him are "the best years' ', making him hope for some miracle that will either drastically change how he lives his life, or give him something more to do than just busy work.