love came calling, twice // olly murs

37.

Ten minutes later, the entire household, minus Jason (who was out drinking) were piled in the living room. Amelia had returned to consciousness almost instantly after falling out of it, but she was clinging to Olly on the couch as she sat in his lap, shaking slightly. He looked down at her, concerned. She was like a trembling puppy.

"Are you okay?" he whispered in her ear softly. She nodded, swallowing thickly.

"Yeah," she murmured, biting her lip. "I'm fine."

Shannon, however, seemed less than fine. She was seated in the arm chair in the living room, guzzling down the beer Jeff had offered her and running her hands through her blonde hair. She had kicked off her shoes and her black make-up was smudged from where she had rubbed her eyes from crying.

"I can't believe he's dead," she sobbed, taking another drink of her beer. "I had absolutely no idea."

Adam smiled at her sadly. "It's hard. We all loved him."

Her eyes darted up and she glared at him. "Loved him?" she scoffed. "I loved him maybe once, but the past year I have hated the bastard. Loathed him. And obviously, I had good reason, too." Her eyes fell on Amelia and she squeezed them shut. "I had no idea about you. Honestly."

Amelia bit her lip. "I didn't know about you either."

Shannon laughed bitterly. "Oh, fuck this man!" she screeched, sobbing into her palms. "He wines and dines me for six fucking months, tells me I'm his world, that he loves me to pieces and that I'm everything he's ever wanted, and the whole fucking time he has a girlfriend! For three years! You were there before I even came along! I can't believe this!"

Adam was at her side in an instant. "It's not your fault," he said, rubbing her back as she cried harder. "None of us knew what he was really like."

"I still can't believe he's dead! I can't believe that I wasn't even an important enough part of his life that I would find out! He's been dead almost eight months and I had no idea. None what so ever!"

She swiped away some of her tears, hiccuping. "I can't believe all of this happened..."

Olly tightened his arms around Amelia, who was still shaking. He felt sick to his stomach. The look on her face when she saw Shannon scared him. He had never seen her look so vulnerable, so shocked and distraught. Fuck, fuck, fuck Tom for leaving them with this mess. Fuck him for not tying up his loose ends.

"I know this may be hard," Jeff said from his spot against the wall, "But is there any way you can tell us your side of the story? Maybe then we can get a better idea of what happened..."

Olly's grip on Amelia's waist tightened even further. "No, Jeff, don't, she doesn't..." he looked down at the woman in his arms. "She doesn't need to hear that."

"No," Amelia interjected firmly. "I was his fiancé, Olly, not you. I want to know."

The tone of her voice hit Olly in a way he hadn't expected. Suddenly, the full affect of what was happening came over him. Amelia was Tom's ex-fiancee. She had loved him. Maybe...maybe there was a part of her that still loved him. It would explain her trembling and it would explain why she was so eager to know. Still, he couldn't help but want to deter her off that path.

"Amelia," he said softly, "maybe we should-"

"No, Olly!" she spat, shifting in his arms. "She's here now and I have known about this for nearly four months and I want to hear what she has to say!"

Olly closed his mouth then, feeling the sting of her words, but he leaned back, loosing his grip on her ever so slightly. He glanced at Shannon who was watching them with curious, watery eyes.