Straight Shot ➳ Oliver Queen

07. The Key

We dropped off Oliver at the district attorney's office and I slid into the passenger seat of the car and pulled the seatbelt across my chest, clicking it into place.

"Lunch?" Tommy suggested and I nodded with a smile. "Little Corner Deli?" Tommy questioned, knowing it would cause me to smile even more.

"How'd you know?" I responded sarcastically. Little Corner Deli was a small restaurant that my father used to take me and my sister to every Tuesday afternoon. He would sign us out of school for an hour or so and we'd get lunch and sit outside the deli under the red and white umbrellas of the round porch tables to eat and talk about what we were doing in school. My sister was two years ahead of me, so her stories were always so fascinating to me. She was practically a celebrity to me, just because she was my sister and she was in fifth grade.

Tommy and I got our lunches and walked out of the restaurant. Tommy took my hand in his as we strolled along down the boardwalk, which was empty, most likely because the grey clouds lingering after last night's storm were yet to pass. The sea looked unsettled, like it was angry. Hungry, even. We sat on the edge of the dock and dangled our feet over the salty water. I looked up at the clouds hovering over the city with a certain wonder. They weren't a dull, blase grey, but a haunting silver.

"What?" I asked Tommy after hearing him chuckle quietly from beside me. I looked at him and he shook his head.

"Nothing, it's just..." His eyes met mine, his eyes the same grey as the clouds above our heads, "I love you." He finished and a surprise flooded my body, instantly reaching every nerve in my body. I felt my heart rate begin to elevate as a certain panic clouded my senses.

Coming from him, the words were foreign. I scanned his face before he turned his gaze to the water beneath his feet. I could tell he wasn't expecting me to say it back, but I felt a compulsory need to.

I turned his head to face me and I stroked his cheek with my hand before kissing him. "I love you, too." I told him, sending him a warm smile.

"Really?" He asked, as if he doubted my sincerity in the statement. That, or he was still processing the statement as much as I was.

"Of course, you idiot." I said and intertwined my hand with his. I stared back out into the ocean and I couldn't help but think of Oliver stranded on that desolated island. I imagined the ocean being the only view I ever had, dreary clouds hovering above the cerulean pool. I imagined being eerily alone, staring out into nothingness.

"I'm glad you say that," Tommy said, pulling me away from my thoughts of Oliver. He grabbed my hand and helped me to my feet. "Or else this would have been really awkward." He slipped a small black box out of his jacket pocket. "I know we're still trying to keep, you know, us on the down low, but we've been together for a while now and–" I tried to keep my breathing steady, but my heart suddenly felt as though it was going to rip through my ribcage. "I wanted to get you something." Tommy opened the box and I tried to suppress the breath of relief that arose in my lungs as I spotted the silver necklace in the box. The necklace had a very fine chain with a tiny charm shaped like a key.

"I've made a lot of... questionable decisions in my life, and for a while, I felt like everything was kind of falling apart. But then we started dating and it's like everything was falling into place." He picked up the necklace from the box and unclasped the fastening and brought it to my neck. "It was like you were the key." I gently touched the charm and looked down at the necklace around my neck. "And now my best friend is back and I have you, everything's just perfect."

"Perfect," I repeated quietly. "Tommy, I don't– I don't know what to say."

"Then don't say anything." He replied with a smile and put his hands on my cheeks. He brought his lips to mine and I closed my eyes as he kissed me.

"We should probably go find Oliver." I told him after our lips separated and Tommy rested his forehead against mine. My hand floated to the necklace and I pinched the key charm between my fingers. The jewelry felt strange and foreign, like it was tightening around my throat.

We pulled up in Tommy's car across the street from the DA's office building just in time to watch Laurel Lance, an old friend, pace angrily away from Oliver, leaving him with a hurt look. He averted his eyes to the concrete sidewalk rather than watch her stomp away.

"Looks like it went exactly like we thought it would." Tommy said to me as he unlocked his seatbelt and the strap retracted back into the fancy car's interior.

"Poor guy." I sympathized as Oliver spotted Tommy's car. I, too, released the lock of my seatbelt and we both stepped out of the car. I tucked my necklace under the high neckline of my sweater and closed the car door. We waited for an opening in traffic to cross the street and join Oliver.

"Well, at least that's over with." Tommy tried to offer. "Now we can make up for some lost time. Karter and I found this frozen yogurt place around the corner and–" Tommy was interrupted by the sound of a van coming to a screeching halt behind us after we had turned to walk down an alley shortcut to the next street over. I heard the sound of a bullet shot from a gun with a silencer and Tommy winced as he grasped at his shoulder. A dart protruded from his jacket and his eyes rolled back into his head and he collapsed.

"Tommy!" I called just as a group of men had suddenly surrounded us, dressed in black clothes and red Halloween masks. I wasn't given opportunity to react before two more shots rang out, one jabbing at me, the other targeting Oliver.

I felt the dart create a sharp pain in my upper arm, followed by a sudden overwhelming drowsiness like an exhausted narcoleptic. Oliver and I followed Tommy's lead, collapsing and crashing down to the cold, wet concrete. Before I could blink the blurry drowsiness away, my vision went black.