Temptation ➳

Twenty Four ➳

For added emotional damage, listen to the piano or cello version of hometown :')

It had been an entire week since Oliver had received Daniel's letter. He still had yet to open it, but everyday it sat, still crumpled on his bedside table. It was basically taunting him, daring him to finally read it.

With every day, Oliver began to realize more and more that he couldn't just avoid the piece of paper forever. He was going to have to open it at some point, much to the sandy-haired boy's dismay.

Oliver's parents had gone out for a few hours to run some errands and talk to an old friend. Oliver had declined upon their request to have him go, saying that he wasn't feeling well.

It wasn't exactly a lie. Oliver really wasn't feeling all too great. He hadn't felt good in a really long time admittedly, which he supposed should be at least upsetting to some degree. However, for Oliver, he couldn't find it in him to care. He was already so overwhelmed by everything else, and he'd rather not make himself stress over one more thing. Especially if it was regarding something he felt he didn't even deserve in the first place.

Oliver hadn't cried since the day that he had received the letter. He even shocked himself a little when he realized how long he had held it together. His defense against the tears was simple; all he had to do was bite his cheek really hard and then he wouldn't have any sort of breakdown. It had worked fairly well, aside from some pain in his mouth when he ate or spoke.

Oliver was in the midst of playing a game on his phone to distract himself, when he received a text from an unknown number.

Oliver,

Daniel wanted you to have these.

/image attached/

/image attached/

/image attached/

/image attached/

//received//

Oliver swallowed, looking over the pictures he had been sent. He recognized one of them as the photo Daniel had shown him just a few weeks ago. The image where the church was painted in a bad light.

Oliver figured he should respond, but because he was still hurt, he chose not to, setting his phone down on his bed and rolling away from it.

Letting his eyes go to the letter sitting next to his bed, Oliver began to wonder if Daniel had mentioned any pictures in his letter. Oliver still didn't really want to open it, but he knew that he couldn't avoid Daniel for the rest of his life. He was going to come up at some point or another, and with Oliver acting like he was, he wasn't going to be able to cope whenever his friend was mentioned.

Oliver made a decision that was probably bad in regards to the short-term, and reached his arm over to grab the last remaining piece of Daniel that he had, aside from the texts. He would be lying if he said he wasn't at least a tiny bit curious, as to what Daniel had written.

Besides, at any moment his parents could walk in and see the letter. He wasn't exactly hiding it or anything. And with the way he had rolled it up, his mom or dad might mistake it for trash and throw it away. He should probably read it before they got to it, just in case.

With fumbling fingers and an erratic heartbeat, Oliver pried open the paper that had been crumpled into a ball from when he last had it. With one more breath to reassure himself, Oliver willed himself to begin reading.