••Holland/Osterfield imagines••

I hate you too//Tom

Infuriating; Tom was infuriating. Everything he did just made me want to throw a damn brick at his head. When he spoke, all I could ever think about was how perfect he'd look with a bashed in skull. I could tell he wasn't as fond of me either by the way he looked at me with anger behind his brown, glistening orbs. My friends mistook our hatred for each other as lust, which didn't make sense to me, but almost everyone I knew, at one point thought we were a thing. Maybe I did have feelings for him that I masked with my anger, but I wasn't going to let anyone know that.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Shut up! He bought you THAT?"

I admired my best friend's sizable engagement ring as she beamed at the group of friends around the brunch table. Her eyes were sparkling and her face was flushed as she giggled like a little girl. All of us were excited for her, especially me, but I couldn't help from feeling left out.

Most of my friends had already found their lifelong soulmates and I was usually left in the dust when they went on group dates together. It had almost always been that way. I was always the single friend who couldn't ever stay committed. They would always try to set me up with their friends, but for some reason, every time I was on a date with any of the guys they set me up with, I could only imagine them as Tom.

My last relationship didn't end well. He was the man of my dreams, but I guess I wasn't the girl of his dreams. He cheated on me with the receptionist at my job. The woman I would chat with every morning. The woman I considered my friend. And when I found out about their little "relationship" I didn't know what to do. I just sat and waited in our shared apartment until he came home, and when he finally did, all I could do was look at him and cry. It was already hard enough to find someone that really understood me and when he turned around and stabbed me in the back with fucking a person I trusted, I couldn't stop thinking about how it was my fault that he did it. I blamed myself for not giving him what he wanted. I called myself a fuck up and told myself it was his last resort. But that wasn't true. I gave him everything I had and he still didn't think I was enough.

When I met Tom, it was like a breath of fresh air. Yeah, maybe he did make me want to throw myself out a window, but it felt good to be able to take out all my built up anger and frustration on someone and not have them resent me for it. Somehow, he made me feel free.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Slipping my grey heels on, I took one last glance at myself in the mirror. My friends had once again set me up on a blind date and since I didn't want to hurt their feelings, I always said yes. As I looked at myself in the mirror I examined my body, my skin, my hair. None of it was right to me. Everything about my body made me want to cover myself up for the rest of my life, but since I was a grown ass woman, I had to put on a fake smile and act like I didn't absolutely hate myself.

I arrived at the restaurant we were meeting at, parking my car and sighing.

"What the fuck am I doing?"

I mumbled, dropping my hands from the steering wheel into my lap. I stepped out of my car, the cool breeze tickling my skin as my dress twirled around my legs.

My friends didn't even give me his first name. Yes, I thought it was a little weird that they wouldn't tell me his name, but knowing my friends, they probably just wanted to test me or something.

When I walked into the restaurant, the first thing I noticed was the familiar person sitting at the bar. His perfectly sculpted fingers raked through his brown curls as he peered around the room.