Downside Up

Chapter Twenty (Olivia - One Direction)

Everyone had calmed down eventually. The fans weren't bombarding me with questions about my so called girlfriend anymore and everything was normal again - at least that's what I thought. But faith had other plans.

Troye had been hanging out with his friends for the whole week they spent in Australia. I didn't blame him for it - he never got to see them in real life and so it was only fair that he got to spend some time in their company. But I was glad when they finally flew back.

Well, only one of them went back to LA. The other one had decided to stay with us. In Perth. At our house. It would've been fine if it would've been Tyler, but surprisingly it was Connor.

Connor as in 'my brothers best friend'. Connor as in 'the overwhelmingly talented video artist'. Connor as in 'Olivia's potential boyfriend'.

He is a nice guy, though. I knew that I could talk to him whenever I needed his help or some random company, but I didn't like the bond that grew between him and my host sister. I almost felt ... jealous.

If anyone was supposed to be with her, it was me. I was the one she danced with at my party. The one that was that oblivious in love that the whole Internet noticed before he did. The one who actually cared about her, though he didn't want to.

When Connor moved into our house I felt challenged. He and I know had the same conditions and I felt like we were supposed to fight for Olivia. The whole battle was pointless because I knew that he was going to win - there were various reasons why she would prefer him over me, but still I at least wanted to try. If I would tell my friends that I had fought, but lost, they wouldn't think of me as a loser meanwhile if I would just give up, because I knew that I had no chance I would seem like an eight-year-old.

It only got worse because I always felt like he was challenging me.

For example when we had our first dinner together.

Dinner was the only meal that we spend together as a family - the girls ate breakfast early in the morning and lunch at school whilst Troye and I often ate breakfast whenever we woke up and lunch was something in between. Most of the time we ate together with our mum, but sometimes, when she was out in the town, we just ordered some pizza or a takeaway. Dad ate breakfast with the girls and lunch at work and dinner was something that brought all of us together.

I had sat down next to Olivia, to prevent him from stealing away that place and when he entered the kitchen, he greeted everyone cheerily - and sat down across from her. They talked during the whole meal and I had isolated myself from the other dinner conversations held.

Or when we drove to our favourite bay to have a cute sunset picknick. Surely Troye kept talking to him but still he and Oli seemed pretty close and sometimes I almost felt like they were holding hands. What if they were already dating and I just did not know?

It drove me insane. But the worst situation was when Oli and I tried to plan our video collaborations. I had introduced her to the idea of her own YouTube channel and she seemed quite enthusiastic about it. Though there would be probably mainly covers and a few thoughtful videos, she would still become a part of the community.

I had decided to film a "Meet My Host Sister" video and she wanted to do some sort of cover together with me, but, of course, that could not be her first video, so Troye lent her one of his old cameras and she went around and filmed some clips and then asked me, if she could use the computer in our office to edit the video.

Needless to say that both - Troye and I - agreed but I regret my decision soon afterwards when I found Connor and Olivia cuddled up in front of the computer screen. Well - they weren't exactly cuddling, they were just sitting close to each other and he gave her some instructions among some tips and tricks, but still I didn't like seeing them like this.