What If I Lived a Lie? [You Me at Six]

Chapter Eight: "I Opposite of Hate You."

Emma? Emma. Emma. Emma! His mind shouted her name on an impossibly endless loop—she couldn’t really be back, could she?

“You don’t sound too pleased to see me, Oliver,” she responded, laughing humorlessly; Josh knew without looking at her that her hands were probably shoved deep into the pockets of a pair of jeans.

“I’m not, not really. I thought the last time I’d have to see your face was when—”

Josh hadn’t realized he’d ran to the front of the house and yelled Oliver’s name until his friend had spun on his heels to face him, a falsely sickeningly sweet smile plastered on his face, “Yes, Joshua?”

“Please don’t be rude to her.”

“Look at you,” Emma finally spoke, her attention now totally focused on Josh, “You’ve not changed a bit, eh?”

Emmalyn Rebecca Moore. Josh could and would never, ever forget her. But the girl standing in front of him was not the same girl he met in year 10 with blonde hair and sweet blue-green eyes. The girl standing in front of him was wearing a flannel shirt, the top buttons undone to reveal push-up bra created cleavage, skin tight skinny jeans, and at least four inch platform boots that came up over her knee. He wondered if the time apart from her had made him realize that she always looked this way—at least for as long as they were together—or  if something had recently changed about her. After looking her over for a moment, he realized at this point, she’d be right around his height, if she stood next to him—which meant she would tower over Olivia; but why he’d thought about Olivia, he wasn’t sure.  

Realizing he hadn’t spoken, and the whole room was waiting for him to, he mumbled a measly, “Yeah, something like that.”

Oliver rolled his eyes so hard, Josh was positive they’d fall out of his head. The tattooed singer reached out to grab Olivia’s hand and tug her upstairs with him, muttering to her about how Josh was about to be so love sick it would be disgusting, and the last thing he wanted her to see was that.

“So, that’s her, then?” Olivia whispered to Oliver as they headed upstairs, not fully realizing her hand was trembling in his.

“That’s the bitch herself.”

“You don’t like her?”

“Not in the slightest bit.”

“Why not? She’s gorgeous and she seems nice.”

“That’s the problem.”

“What?”

“She’s gorgeous and seems nice.”

“Huh?”

“Let me rephrase,” Oliver responded, a wry chuckle leaving his lips as he closed the door to the guest bedroom behind them, leaning back against it with his arms folded over his chest, “She’s very gorgeous, and she knows it. She uses this to her advantage, i.e.: she’s a manipulative bitch. And as far as being nice, well, she’s a little too nice to the opposite sex. Hopefully you get what I mean.”

“Oh,” was all Olivia said when she finally understood. Josh was still head over heels for a seemingly classless girl who’d cheated on him, and actually wanted nothing to do with even the idea of a real relationship with her. Once more, she found herself wondering why she agreed to their deal.

Tuning back into Oliver, she heard, “… I mean, really, why would he choose some slag who cheated on him, over his stunning new girlfriend? I always suspected he wasn’t a very bright lad, but I didn’t think it was this bad.”

Before she could even stop herself, the words came tumbling past Olivia’s mouth, “I’m not really his girlfriend.”

***

“Babe?” Dan’s voice called out to Hunter from the next room of his flat, “Babe, are you ready to go?”

Hunter emerged from the bathroom, barely able to contain her smile; the Kerrang! Awards were being held in East London this year, but they were flying out a day before so that they could take a mini vacation. To say Hunter was excited was an understatement; she’d never been to London and to be going with her gorgeous new boyfriend? Even better. His hand slipped into hers and their fingers entwined automatically, all the bags on Dan’s free arm as they headed outside. Once they got out to the car and all the bags were piled up in the back, they climbed in the car, the radio cranked up to full volume and the two of them screaming the lyrics to the song that was on the radio. That was the way things always were with them; it was simple and easy, and the two of them loved it.

“Hunter?” Dan remarked as they came to a clean stop at a red light, turning down the music just a bit.

“Yeah, baby?” she asked in response, somehow sensing that he was in a more serious mood—but why, she wondered.

“I… opposite of hate you.”

“What does that mean?”

“Well, I wanna tell you that I just like you and I like being near you and I like breathing in your perfume and your shampoo when you hug me and I like pulling you into my arms and hearing you giggle in response and I like falling asleep next to you and I like waking up next to you and I like hearing you speak and I like the way you sing in the shower like no one can hear and I like the way you pig out with me and I like the way we can scream lyrics together in the car and I like spending every single second of every single day with you. But I feel like I more than like all those things; those things are the reason why I’m excited to get out of bed in the morning—and you know I’m not a morning person,” he took a pause then, his facial expression revealing total clarity, “I guess what I’m trying to say is I know exactly how I feel about you, one hundred percent, but I’m not sure if I’m ready to vocalize those words, as I’ve never said them to anyone in a romantic way. In fact, up until this point in my life, I’ve avoided saying those words to anyone outside of my family, at all costs. That’s beside the point. I… when the time is right, for us both, I am going to tell you that I love you. I just hope you are willing to wait for me, and for that point in time in our relationship, because I see us being together for a very long time.”

“Dan, I…” her brows furrowed in frustration at herself. He’d formulated a sweet and romantic response, but her mind had drawn a blank. She wanted all of those things too; she just… wasn’t able to vocalize them as well.

“I opposite of hate you, too, and for me, it means the same thing that it means to you—if that makes sense.”

“It makes perfect sense, baby girl.”

“Good, thank god.”

“So, let’s go again, yeah? I opposite of hate you, Hunter.”

“I opposite of hate you, Dan.”