love came calling, twice // olly murs

28.

"You need to get her out of the house for a few hours."

His words were frantic, desperate. He needed Amelia out of the house and he needed her out now. He glanced at the clock. It was already eleven o'clock. Oh, fuck, he was screwed. He was expecting them at twelve. He needed her to leave and he needed her to leave now.

Jason rolled his eyes and adjusted his viking helmet on his head. It was a Thursday and this of course meant that Jason was hung over. Jason, was like many people, a firm believer in celebrating hump day, so every Wednesday evening he went to the bars and got smashed and every Thursday he'd call in sick to work. His employer just stopped giving him shifts on Thursdays after a while, which suited Jason just fine. He wouldn't have come in anyways.

"Why don't you just tell her, man?" he asked, wincing as his head throbbed. "I mean, that way you don't have to go to all of this trouble and all this sneaking around and bullshit."

Olly was bouncing on his heels, tapping his foot anxiously. "Jason, no, I want to do this and I am going to continue doing it as I have been for the last three weeks. Now stop being an asshole and help me think of something!"

Jason leaned back in his chair and scoffed. "No, man, I don't want to think. I can't think."

"Fuck you for getting drunk all the time!" Olly exclaimed, exasperated. "You need to think, please man, I have never needed help so much in my entire life."

Rolling his eyes once again, Jason pressed his head to the table. "Olly, I am hungover. Why don't you please go bother someone else?"

"Because!" he near shouted, "No one else is home but you and Amelia! You're my last resort!"

"Thanks," Jason huffed.

"Well, look at you!" Olly said, reaching over and yanking off Jason's helmet. "You're positively useless!"

"I am not useless!" Jason said, sounding appalled. "I just like to party!"

Olly pressed a hand to his forehead. He was starting to understand how Adam felt. "That makes you useless. Seriously, you can't think of any excuse?"

"Nope," Jason said, his words muffled as he rolled over face first on the table.

"But why?" Olly asked, exasperated. "You're the king of excuses!"

"Two words," Jason said, holding out his hand. "Hung. Over. Now give me back my helmet."

Olly sighed, dropping it back on Jason's head. He was going to get no help, clearly. He glanced at the clock again, anxiously. It was already eleven fifteen. What the hell was he going to do?

Of course, he could make up same lame excuse when it all arrived, but that would be so lame and he had gotten so far without her suspecting much. This would ruin everything.

"Hey, man?" Jason's voice came and Olly broke away from staring at the clock to look at him. "You okay?"

"No!" Olly sighed. "I'm obviously not!"

Jason blinked slowly, finally fully comprehending the situation. "She's really gotten under your skin, hasn't she?"

Olly looked up at him, startled at his observation. "Normally that would go right over your head," he said, running a hand through his hair.

"Man, this is obvious, though," Jason said, sitting up fully. "You guys have been hanging out more. You're going to all of this trouble just so she won't move out. How could I not notice?"

"She can't move out, Jason," Olly said quietly. "She can't."

Furrowing his brows, the dark haired man looked at his friend, concerned. "Why?"

Olly let out another sigh. "Because if she moves out, there's no chance I'll ever really talk to her again. She'll move on, she'll meet new people. There's nothing that will hold her to us anymore."

"You mean you," Jason said bluntly. Olly's head snapped up again.

"Yeah," he swallowed. "I mean me. And I...I don't think I could handle that, not after all this time. Not after everything that's happened."

"All this time?" Jason mused. "Are you saying...do you...did you have feelings for Amelia?"

Olly looked down and didn't say anything, but his silence spoke volumes for him. Suddenly Jason understood.

"So that's why this is so important. So that's why you're so uptight about me not helping you think of an excuse."

"Yes, you idiot!" Olly said, snapping out of his thoughts. "You suck, I can't even begin to explain! You're leaving your friend in need!"

"Uh oh," a feminine voice said. "What did Jason do now?"

Amelia appeared in the kitchen, smiling brightly and dressed in a soft, yellow sundress, her hair down in waves. Olly melted.

"He's being a bad friend," he said, hoping she would just accept it for what it was and move on.

"Oh?" she said, raising her eyebrows. "How so?"

Olly and Jason looked at each other quickly. It was go time and they had nothing. Shit, shit, shit.

"Because Jeff needs help!" Jason suddenly exclaimed and Olly had to stop himself from slapping his forehead in frustration.

"Jeff needs help?" Amelia asked slowly and both the men nodded. "With what exactly?"

"Getting Annabel!" Jason proclaimed again, grasping at straws. "He needs help with a lot of things, but mostly just this!"

"Yes, this is true!" Olly stammered. "And um, they're both working today so he needs someone to go over there and casually mention how awesome he is!"

"And I can't do it because I'm hungover!" Jason filled in. "So, Olly here was going to go and pick up an ink cartridge cause he's out anyways, but he can't because he's, um..."

"Editing!" Olly picked up. "Editing, the photos we took, um I need to get them sent to a client as an example of my work! For the, uh, job I'm applying for, remember?"

She nodded slowly. "Okay..."

"So we're both being terribly friends," Jason explained. "And we really, really need someone to go there and do this for Jeff. Before twelve o'clock. Because he's desperate. Because he's Jeff."

Amelia laughed. "I can do it, I don't have anything better to do."

"You can?" Olly said, almost too excitedly. "I mean, you can?"

She glanced around the room, slightly confused. "Well, yeah. What kind of ink did you need?"

"Um," Olly tried to think of what could possibly be low on his printer. "CMYK. For my Phaser. That's the one. Um, here, let me write it down." He grabbed a piece of paper off the counter and wrote down the initials quickly before ripping it off and handing out to her. "Just incase you forget."

She took the piece of paper from him, their fingers brushing. "I think I can remember four letters."

"Yeah, well," Olly shrugged, his fingers tingling from her touch. Was it just him or had she held on a little bit longer? "Just incase."

She smiled, before turning to walk up the stairs to grab her purse. "Always so thoughtful, Murs," she gave him a wink before leaving and he stared after her, completely taken in by her brief presence.

"You are a sap, Olly," Jason declared from his spot at the kitchen table. Olly glared and whacked him in the head.

"Hey! I just helped you out and that's what I get in return!" Jason held his throbbing head. "I have a hangover!"

"And I am well aware of this fact," Olly said with a smirk as he sauntered out of the kitchen. "Saving my ass at the last minute doesn't count."

With that, he walked back upstairs to Tom's room, making sure Amelia wasn't in the vicinity. He still had so much to do.