Miss Cleopatra: In Love I Fall

3

Fuck.

"What?!" Oliver's eyes practically bulged out of his head. Oh my god, I said that out loud.

"Nothing! Nothing!" A nervous laugh bubbled up from my throat, and I couldn't stop it from escaping. But one look at Drew's face shut me up pretty quick. He was fixing me with a knowing smile--like he knew me.

"You haven't changed at all." He laughed, and my eyes darkened. He was being so friendly and just... normal. Like nothing ever happened between us. And that pissed me off.

"Sorry, do you two know each other?" Oliver drawled, pointing between Drew and I.

"Yeah, we've known each other since high school." Drew replied, throwing me a wink when Oliver turned his head. On the inside, I was panicking. But I couldn't let that show on the outside. Oliver knew the story of Emblem3 and how Drew left the band, but he didn't know anything about our relationship. I had always planned on telling him, but I wasn't going to take that leap now. Especially not with Drew in punching range.

"Oliver, this is Drew." I gestured for the two of them to shake hands, "Drew Chadwick, Oliver Talbot." As soon as I made the introduction a wave of realization crashed over Oliver's face. That's one thing I really liked about Oli, he was very observant and therefore quick to put things together. We made a good pair in that way.

"Oh, hey man. I knew you looked familiar." Oliver grinned. "I recognize you from all the X Factor footage and you've been in the tabloids a few times recently. You're working on a new album, right?" Now that was surprising news.

"Yeah, I am." Drew was smiling now too, "Everything's going pretty well. I wanted to do something special for this album and head back to my roots." Oliver gave a respectable nod, and I just stood silently by his side, clinging onto his arm. I couldn't help myself from looking over at Drew every couple minutes. There were times where I just wanted to reach out and touch him, just to make sure he was really there. It was like I was looking at a ghost that was standing right in front of me.

"Well, I'm looking forward to hearing what you've got." Oliver said genuinely. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go deliver this to the bride." He held a wrapped gift up to the two of us. "Why don't you two catch up a bit?" No, no, no!  "See you later, love." Oliver leaned down to place a quick kiss on my lips. Despite the awkwardness that was dripping in the air around me, I smiled regardless. I mean, I couldn't help it: Oliver just made me happy.

"So..." I rocked back and forth on my feet. There really was no way to make this situation not awkward.

"So is he your boyfriend?" Drew asked, straight and to the point.

"You already know the answer to that question." Now he was just trying to get to me.

"How long have you been dating?"

"About two years- not that it's any of your business." I replied in a bored tone. From the outside, it probably just looked like I was angry. But on the inside, I could slowly feel myself deteriorating. If I kept dwelling on the past, I was going to end up in tears. And Drew Chadwick was not going to see me cry.

"Seriously Anna, I'm just trying to talk to you." Drew sighed, and I could tell he was getting a little bit frustrated with me.

"You don't have the right to talk to me! Three years, Drew. Three mother-fuckin' years and you haven't reached out to me once."

"I know, and-"

"No. You don't know. You left. You left me; you left the damn country." I threw my hands up in the air, way past the point of anger. I was actually laughing now, at how ridiculous this all was.