love came calling, twice // olly murs

22.

"So, Adam is, at this point, desperate to get drunk, no matter what the cost," Olly said, making neat, even strokes of pale green on the wall. Amelia stood next to him, doing the same, though her streaks were no where near as precise.

"How desperate?" she giggled, her lips twitching in amusement.

Olly grinned at the memory. "Really, really desperate. I mean, it was Friday night and we had nothing better to do, but we were in the middle of no where cause Jason got us freaking lost. We don't know if there's a bar or a club or a liquor store for miles, so you know what we did?"

She stared at him, waiting for the answer. "What did you do?"

"We pulled over at a Applebees and drank overpriced Heinekens until they kicked us out," he said dryly and Amelia burst into a fit of laughter.

"You're kidding me!" she exclaimed, running the roller into the tray of paint. "You went to a restaurant just to get drunk? Do they even have a bar there?"

Olly shook his head, still grinning. "Yes and yes, they do, but they expect you to drink there. Not in the dining area. The waitresses were not happy. After Adam tried to order his fifth, they threatened to call the police if we didn't leave."

"I don't blame them," Amelia said, streaking the wall with paint. "I worked as a waitress through college and obnoxious customers were the worst. Especially when they were drunk," she stepped back to inspect her work. "Did you guys at least order anything besides beer?"

Olly bit his lip. "Jeff might have ordered a round of wings, but I can't be sure," he laughed, "It's all kind of blurry."

Olly and Amelia had been painting the room for the last few hours and they were exchanging stories, memories about things like college life and their childhoods. Silly anecdotes that shouldn't have mattered, but did. Amelia now knew that Olly had studied photography at the University of Bath, was an only child and broke his wrist falling out of his treehouse when he and Adam had been playing ninjas at the age of nine. She knew that he had gotten sent to the principal's office after he had punched Tom in the eye in eighth grade for holding hands with Olly's crush and that he had cried in the first grade when Jason ripped up his drawing.

At the same time, he learned that Amelia had studied at London, had her first kiss with a boy named Greg at a birthday party when she was thirteen and wrote her first short story when she was in first school. He learned that she had hated all of her roommates throughout college and had once won a karaoke competition at a local bar.

Every story, every part of them they shared took them once step away from who they used to be to each other and propelled them in a new direction. And frankly, both were more than thankful for it.

The walls had been primed earlier in the morning and they were now applying the first coat. Much to Amelia's relief, Olly really had seemed fine with the colour and they were working on completing the second wall. Plastic tarps lined the floor as well as old sheets and paint trays. A mix CD of Olly's was spinning in the old boombox he had pulled out and Amelia was thoroughly enjoying herself. She loved projects after all, but she loved them more when they were shared.

"Why have I never heard these stories before?" Amelia asked quietly. "Tom never told me any of them."

Olly stopped his movements and turned to her, surprised. "Really? None of them?"

She nodded. "He didn't discuss you guys often," she replied, lifting the roller to move onto the spot next to it. "You guys were kind of a taboo."

He raised his eyebrows, setting the brush. "Yeah?"

"Yeah," she gave a sigh. "I didn't exactly want it to be and in the early days, I tried on more than one occasion to bring you all up. But you know Tom, avoid conflict and real discussions at any cost."