Chapter 2: A Totally Normal Day

Finn's POV

"Because, wise man, I want to hang out with you."

No one was even trying to hide their reactions, everyone was watching the two of us with excessive interest. At this point, I couldn't keep my poker face up after his last sentence and it was now replaced with sheer confusion.

I looked behind me before turning back to him and pointing at myself. 

"Me?" I asked.

Oliver chuckled. GOD, his chuckle was enough for the butterflies in my stomach to be active again.

"Who else has brown hair, sweet brown eyes and a cute face here besides yours?" 

Heat quickly crawled up from my neck to my cheeks. 

DAMN IT, I WAS BLUSHING. CONTROL YOURSELF, FREDERICK AUGUSTINE.

"I- Why?" I dropped my voice into a low whisper, ignoring the continuous curious chatter from the other tables around us. 

He suddenly went closer, and when his voice came out, it was deep and raspy, his British accent faint.

"Because I want to." He simply said with a smirk on his face, causing his dimple to appear.

I scoffed, rolling my eyes in annoyance as I faced my food again, picking at the potatoes that seem to have caught my interest and then after a while, I let out a silent but powerful...

"No."

The humor on his face was replaced with confusion. "Why not?"

I rolled my eyes again. "Because you are a jock. You're friends with Chad and all the other assholes here that bully me every single day, what says you won't be different?" 

"What the hell did you-"

I turned to see Chad near us, looking like his usual self, a seething demon.

"Hey, this is our conversation. Don't butt in." Oliver said calmly but for some strange reason, I could feel annoyance off of his statement.

Oliver stood up and intercepted Chad as he attempted to get any closer to me, he gave me a death glare to which I returned with matching power until he returned to his table. 

"Sorry about that." Oliver said with a disarming smile as he sat down beside me. "So about that offer-"

"What do you want." I interrupted him.

I wanted this to be over, I didn't like that the whole cafeteria was looking at us and it's solely because of him. It made me uncomfortable.

"I just want to hang out with you after school! That's all!" He said simply like it wasn't out of nowhere and totally not weird.

"Yeah, no. I'd rather die." 

"Please? I won't leave until you say yes." He said, giving me those doe eyes. 

What the hell was he? A dog? 

Deep down inside, I wanted to say yes since it's Oliver freaking Hunt. The only guy I liked in the school. He was kind to people he interacted with, he's polite to teachers and actually gave a damn about people. Even though he was flirty with every singly female he sees, he had compassion. It was a refreshing sight to see compared to my previous school and this school's students. And he doesn't bully people!

Would he be the type of person to lead me into a trap? No, of course not! This is Oliver Hunt we're talking about.

I grumbled as I rolled my eyes before muttering a low 'fine' under my breath. Oliver leaned closer, his eyebrows furrowed.

"What was that?"

"I said fiiiiineeee." I said, purposely prolonging the 'fine' in annoyance. 

His face lit up and I thought that that was the end of it but what he did next gave me the shock of my life

He grabbed my hand. His hand was so much bigger and rougher than mine, the feeling was so new because I've never had my hand held by anyone. He then let go with a smile, stood up and walked away while the rest of the cafeteria continued to give me various looks. 

I looked down at my hand and saw 'bleachers, 3:30 pm' and then his number written on a paper. I felt heat crawl up my cheeks again as I looked back at Oliver, he had already sat down again but he had his eyes on me just as I heard someone call my name. I turned to find Heather sitting in front of me, a confused look on her face.

"What happened? Everyone's staring at our table."

I shook my head as I fought the blush threatening to reappear on my cheeks. "Nothing important." I said, trying to sound like I didn't care and I continued eating. 

. . .

3:45 PM

I huffed in annoyance as I watched the football team practice. It's been fifteen minutes past the said time Oliver was gonna meet me but they're still not finished. I whipped out my sketchbook and started to sketch a random image, a drawing of a boy on a windowsill started to form but the imagination was quickly dissipated when a shadow passed over the drawing. I looked up to see Oliver, a cute smirk on his face as he wiped the perspiration dripping down his temple.

"Are you done?" I asked uninterestedly as I gave him a cold look.

He chuckled and sat down beside me, I caught a whiff of him and even though he was under the sun for so long and he's all sweaty, he still smelled good.

"Sorry for the wait. We had to do extra plays today since Coach was gonna be gone for a few days." 

I waved it away before changing the subject. "Okay, so what do you want from me?" 

He raised his eyebrows. "What? We're gonna hang out, that's all, I just think you're pretty cool." 

I let out a snort. "Sure, okay, Oliver. Just know if you ever do anything to me, you're gonna be the first one I'll be haunting."

He laughed before ruffling my hair which was uncalled for since we weren't even anywhere close for him to do that and further fueled my annoyance even more. 

"Alright. Just let me change and then meet me in the parking lot." He said.

He stood up and went into the locker room while I just stared at his walking figure in confusion. Where was he taking me? I really did not want to get murdered but curiosity kept on eating on me so I just left the field and into the said parking lot.

After a few minutes, Oliver came to view. He looked so attractive, his jersey jacket looked immaculate on him and his blond hair complimented his defined features just right. He was the definition of 'dream'.

"You ready?" He asked as he fished his pocket for his keys.

"You think? You keep making me wait." 

I was expecting him to laugh and mock me but instead, he just smiled sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't know what was gonna happen today. But here we are anyway, let's take advantage of the time." He said before waving a hand towards his blue Mercedes.

"Ah, so you're rich rich." I said with a knowing smirk.

I was not ready for Oliver's cheeks to turn a faint peach.

"We're... comfortable." He said shyly.

"That's what they all say." I joked to which he laughed.

Just as I was about to open the car door, Oliver beat me to it. He opened the passenger door and gestured for my seat. I rolled my eyes playfully but damn, that was sweet. He ran around the vehicle and climbed in the driver's seat, looking at me with a smirk. I swear, if he didn't stop being so damn cute, I won't be able to hold myself back.

"Alright. Buckle up." He said as he turned on the engine. 

I was about to ask where we were going when he turned on the radio and a very familiar song came on, I immediately went quiet and so did Oliver. 

'Late at night when all the world is sleeping'

I tried digging into my brain where I've heard the song and it all came rushing back. Five year old me, looking out the window while my mother's radio was playing this. It was 3 in the afternoon, the warm wind blowing past my face as orange leaves fell to the floor one by one, the sunshine on my face. 

I remember this time of my life very vividly because it was the only few memories I'm able to look back on, everything else was either too blurry or too painful. 

I snapped out of my stupor to see Oliver staring at me while we were in the red.

I cleared my throat, raising an eyebrow. "What?" 

"Nothing, it's just... What are you thinking about?" 

I looked out the window for a moment before shaking my head.

"Nothing important. Now, are you gonna tell me where we're going?"

"You'll see." He said just as the light turned green

After a few more minutes of driving around, the car slowed down, he had pulled over. Looking out the window, the first thing that I noticed was an ice cream shop named 'The Inside Scoop" which made me physically cringe, something I didn't even know was possible. 

"Don't tell me we're going in that."

"Why? What's wrong with it?" Oliver asked innocently.

"The name of the shop alone screams 'we suck more than you can suck our popsicles!'."

He stared at me for a few seconds before bursting out of laughter, clutching his stomach in the process. It took him a long time to control his laughter before wiping the tear that have formed in his eye.

"I promise you, they make really good ice cream." He said before getting out the car. I did the same, being careful not to slam the car door too much. I mean, it's a Mercedes. 

We entered the shop and inside was a more colder and homey environment. Warm lights hung on the walls along with plants in pots. We lined up to order and there was a girl in the front that was taking orders, probably around our age. 

As we got up to the front. The woman perked up suddenly when she saw Oliver, immediately pulling her shirt down, revealing more skin on her chest and fixing her hair which is pretty useless since it's in a net. It was painful to watch how obvious she is.

"H-Hello! Welcome to 'The Inside Scoop', Oliver. What can I get for you?" She asked with too much enthusiasm. She then noticed me beside him. "Who's this?"

Wow, they have very great customer service here.

"Oh, this is my very good friend, Finn." He said before wrapping an arm around my shoulder, causing heat to climb up to my cheeks. 

"Interesting, what can I get for you two?"

The bitch was still obvious with her attempt at flirting so I just wanted to annoy her a little bit. I wrapped my arm around Oliver's back and laid my head on his shoulder.

"I want whatever my boyfriend's having." I said with a sweet smile which caused the girl's smile to strain as her eye twitched.

I felt Oliver tense for a bit and I thought he was uncomfortable with what I was doing so I started to pull away when he pulled me closer against him. I didn't know where I got my confidence from for me to do that.

"I will have a cookies n cream. Please and thank you." Oliver said. 

"Coming right up." She said with a forced smile before preparing the ice cream.

Once we got our ice cream, we sat down on a table and I just noticed something that irked me. 

"Did she just put a whole Oreo and a shit ton amount of chocolate on yours while literally a drizzle on mine and no Oreos?" 

Oliver's brows furrowed as he looked over at mine. He shook his head with a disappointed grunt before swapping our cups.

"Wait, what are you doing?" 

"I don't like chocolate syrup anyway. So, you can have mine." He said.

"Are you sure?" 

He gave me a warm smile which caused butterflies in my stomach. "Yes. Now, go eat it before it melts." 

We ate our ice cream in silence and as I was taking the spoon to my mouth, he spoke.

"So, boyfriend, huh?" 

I almost choked, fortunately, I was able to swallow before my own saliva did any damage. "W-Well, you see, I mean, we are, ya know, friends and we are, uh, boys." God, the amount of stuttering in that sentence was enough for a lifetime. "She was being so obvious!"

Oliver laughed. "You got me there. But whenever I come here, it's always like that, I'm used to it." 

I gave him a funny look. "Duh, I mean, girls flirt with you at school all the time, I'd be surprised if you weren't used to it by now."

He laughed and as it faded, he looked up from his cup. "Speaking of school. How come in the two years we've been in the same school, we've never spoken?" 

"I mean, I feel like I should be asking you that. But for my part, I guess, I never approached you because you were this popular and heartthrob jock and everyone loved you while I'm a nobody. If people saw we were talking, I'd just get bullied more."

And while I explained all of that, he listened intently. His hazel eyes held pity but I could tell he didn't want to pity me.

"Damn... I'm so sorry for how you're treated in school. It's not fair." 

I waved it away before it was my turn to ask him a question. "Well, since you're kind and actually cares about people's feelings. Why are you friends with Chad and all the other people who bullies other students?"

He looked out the window for a moment and I've only realized that the sky were getting darker and people were taking their umbrellas out. 

"It's complicated, really. They've done a lot for me in two years, some even longer. And I've been trying to stop them from bullying other people and... I thought they did... but it turns out, they're just doing it behind my back." 

I nodded in understanding. "Good thing you didn't turn out like they did." 

He smiled appreciatively. "Thank you." 

After that, we just ate our ice cream, falling into companionable silence. The bell that was on the door of the shop continuously rang as people continued to enter, for shelter, for ice cream, I don't know what. The full vibe of the moment was still traceable in my mind. The bright lights of the shop, the white walls, and outside was dark and raining, filled with umbrellas of people just going about their day. I finished my ice cream just as he did. We stayed silent for a while as I looked out the window, noticing that from the light drizzle that was present minutes earlier had turned into full on rain.

"I'm gonna be quite frank with you, Finn. I did have an ulterior motive as to why I wanted to hang out with you." 

I looked away from the window to look at him and I raised a brow in curiosity. I expected it but I was still surprised he said it. Hopefully I don't have to sell my soul to him or have sex with him...

"Your friend at school." 

I only had one friend at school and that was Heather.

"Heather?" 

"Yeah... Is she single?" 

And then I realized why he had invited me here to 'hang out' with him, it's because he liked my best friend, Heather. All along, I actually thought that Oliver just wanted to hang out with me, that he wanted to get to know me. No, that was too simple, that was far too ambitious. Any of the popular kids at school never liked me, never wanted to be my friend, so why would they start now? 

I sighed, looking out the window for a few moments before looking at Oliver again. This time, his eyes held concern. Concerned for his ego if he finds out Heather's not single.

"Yeah, she's... she's single."

Oliver beamed, obviously elated to find out my best friend is single. So, what's he gonna do? Seduce her into his bed? Break her heart? Embarrass her? Date her? I couldn't let any of those happen but I obviously wasn't thinking at the time.

"Finn, help me with Heather, please. I will do anything you want as long as you help me with her."

I rolled my eyes, all the conversations we had where he seemed like he cared vanishing in my mind as I gave him a cold, bored look.

"Fine." 

He suddenly stood up and gave me a bone crushing hug. 

"Thank you, thank you, thank you! You're seriously an angel." He said enthusiastically.

All I could do was roll my eyes, I gently removed his arms around me and crossed my arms across my chest, avoiding his gaze.

He plastered a smile on his face. "Well, since we're done anyway. I'll pay for the ice cream then I can drive you home. Seriously, Finn, thank you, this means a lot to me."

I forced a smile on my face. "Yeah, sure... Just as long as you don't hurt my best friend, we won't have any problems." 

"I won't! I'll treasure your trust." He said before going to the counter to pay for the ice cream. 

I stood up and approached the trash bin, laughing bitterly as I threw the used tissue in it violently. "Hang out." I mocked in a deep voice. 

I then fell silent as my thoughts raced one another. I may have thought that I didn't care but truthfully, my hopes were crushed. I mean, it was my damn crush inviting me to hang out with him, obviously nothing else was in my mind other than spending time with him. But what did I expect to happen. For Oliver to ask me to be his friend, that's it? Hah, stupid Finn, he actually thought someone cared about him for once.

Stupid hope.