Between Friends and Lovers

(06) Oliver

Fitting in was something most people wanted but rarely pointed out that they were trying or striving to get. For as far as I’ve seen, it was almost as if people were ashamed to point out that they wanted to be accepted, to fit in with the masses and that in some cases, if not most, they didn’t want to be the odd one out.

I’m not in any way insulting people who try their best to fit in. Day by day, I tried so hard to fit in with the kids from New Bridgeley. Coming from a broken family, where my parents argued even in public, had made it challenging to fit in with the other kids from New Bridgeley.

Ever since the day it became public knowledge that my parents were failing to make their marriage work, I’d been trying my damn best to fit in. But I had to admit that being the one on the sideline helped me notice some things. Like that, most of these kids I wanted to fit in with came from broken homes. The difference was that their parents managed to hide it.

It always amazed me how they pretended to be these enviable families, while in reality, they were anything but. They might appear as perfect families, but what they wanted—no, needed—the most was validation. They might wear the most expensive clothes, drive the best cars and look like they had everything they could ever want but I’ve spent enough time with them to know that that wasn’t the case.

That was what the majority of the people in New Bridgeley were. Counterfeits. They weren’t the real thing but just a bunch of fakes masquerading as the real thing. However, I didn’t blame them. Middleworth was an old university town to most, but to the rest who have lived here for years, they knew that it was more than that.

Middleworth was a town of status, even though it paled in comparison to Shadowfall. It was a very close second when compared to the other towns in the Richbrough province. And the proof was in the pudding, as they say.

I had been back for two days, but I’ve already been reminded of why I had been content with living away from this town. My mother had received more than five visitors, not because they wanted to check up on her, but because they wanted the gossip surrounding my return. This was what annoyed me the most about living in New Bridgeley. It may be the fancy side of Middleworth, but the gossip made it the side I didn’t like the most.

It reminded me of the time my parents’ divorce became public news. Almost all the women of New Bridgeley—married or divorced—came over to see my mother. At first I thought it was because they cared about her, only later did I learn that only a handful cared, the rest just wanted some gossip or a chance to rub their ‘perfect’ marriages in my mother’s face.

“Remind me again why we are in your pool instead of going to the beach?” Zack asked for the umpteenth time since they got here.

I used to love going to the beach, but now that people were still wondering why I was back, I wasn’t sure I wanted to go there knowing that it might be full.

“I think here is fine,” Cooper answered before taking a sip of his lemonade. “Why go to a beach filled with people when we can have some peace here.”

I also agreed with Cooper. Of course, one of the reasons why I agreed with him was because my mother renovated the backyard, and I couldn’t get enough of it. There were blue pool line tiles accenting the swimming pool, which was positioned in front of a row of white pool loungers paired with white stool tables.

“Okay, that’s it.” Zack sat up from his lounger. “You two need to stop being antisocial. It’s summer, people are going to the beach, and that’s what we also need to do.” 

I wasn’t amazed by that. Zack loved to be around people, which made me wonder how he became friends with me and Cooper. Especially since the two of us were more introverted—well, Cooper was. I was more of an ambivert, but as of late, I seemed to be more on the introverted side, feeling tired every time I went out.