OXRO: ACTIVATION

Chapter 25

          "You always do this!" Ethan preached walking back and forth in the trashed dorm room. "You love to piss him off. Don't you?" He stopped to look at the boy sitting on the bed with disheveled sheets.

        "No." Oliver croaked. He stopped examining his fist, watching his olive knuckles turn a rusty red. "I'm trying to help him."

          Eric sat the desk chair upright, "By screwing his girlfriend?" He kicked the chair under the desk. "You've been doing this shit since we were kids."

        "And I've been trying to help him since we were kids!" Oliver looked away from his fist and up at Ethan, towering over him like a disapproving father. "He always does what people want him to do." He balled his fist feeling the pain rushing up his arms hoping it'll distract him from the quake in his heart. "He doesn't want to play football. He does it 'cause his dad the Marine did. And Emily..." He watched Eric pick the scattered notebooks, textbooks, and papers off the floor. "You know he doesn't like her. We all know who he's been in love with." Ethan looked away from the window. "She's with him now, I bet."

          "Denver's not in love with Asia." Ethan looked back out the window that gave a full view of the parking lot.

         "Pfft." Oliver rose to his feet to look out the window growing interested at what grabbed Ethan's attention. "See!" He pulled apart the blinds with one hand. "She's with him right now." The blinds snapped as he released them. "She always takes his side."

       "You were wrong!" Eric dropped the pile of books on the desk to the far right. "You're always fucking up and we have to pick up the pieces." He grabbed a hoodie off the floor and threw it into Oliver's chest. "We're tired of your shit! All of us!" Eric slammed his fist against the wall before storming out the room.

       Ethan sniffed still looking out the door out into the hallway. A few coeds walked by still whispering about the brawl that went down in the room moments ago. "Asia and Denver aren't a thing.... and you know that." He shut the door and rested his back against it. "We all know what the real problem is."

       Oliver stopped stretching the blue sheets on the twin mattress to peer up at Ethan, "Don't start that shit, again." He pushed the mattress back against the wall. "What am I jealous of...his lean disposition?"

       "His money." Ethan's biceps bulged underneath the t-shirt as he crossed his arms.

      "We grew up in the same neighborhood." Oliver stuffed the pillows back in the pillowcases wondering how the got out of them in the first place. "Went to the same schools."

        "He lived in the million dollar house while you lived in the ratty, old cabin in the woods." Ethan pushed himself off the door. "His dad bought him a motorcycle just for breathing air while you have to bartend nights at Omega's for your Camaro."

       Oliver twisted the pillow in his hands, "My dad...."

       "...Is a drunk." Ethan added. "I can smell the whiskey on him from a mile away."

        "War will do that to you." Oliver tossed the pillow on his bed.

      "It will." Ethan yanked open the door. "And so will jealousy." He held the doorknob in his hand staring down the hall. Without looking at Oliver he ordered, "We've all been friends for far too long." His Adam's apple bobbed up and down as he swallowed. "Don't be the reason we fall apart."

         A couple of minutes after Ethan left him; Oliver went back to the window. He let the moon's glow wash over his face watching them sit in the bed of the pick-up. Oliver knew Ethan was right. He was jealous of Denver. Denver had Asia. They were next-door neighbors. Their brothers were friends and so were their parents. But there was a time when she was his best friend. He was the one climbing in her bedroom at night or waiting for her to climb out of her window so they could escape to the woods. They'd spent hours upon the grass talking about their wildest dreams as the stars hung in the vast sky. She had been his best friend until their brothers died and then Denver stole his place.

       Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!

      The words boomed in Oliver's ears as his chest shook. Slippery wetness slid across this face.

         Move, just slap 'em. Trust me it works!

        The voices were vaguely familiar but he couldn't place them with fog that clung to his mind. A thrash across the face peeled Oliver's eyelids open. He a gasped in a deep pine filled breath then coughed up a puddle of water as his throat burned.

      Oliver blinked as the sun seared his eyes, "Where am I?" He asked using his wrinkled hand to shield his eyes. He peeked through the cracks of his fingers, "Ethan is that you?"

      "Yeah!" Ethan pulled Oliver up with a grunt.

       "We have to go!" Eric proclaimed leering across the river. Eric dropped to his knees letting the soaring arrow fly over his head.

      Oliver's eyelids stopped rapidly blinking as he focused his orbs on the troop of men leaping into the surging river. A pulled to his shirt brought his attention back to the side he was on.

       "We have to go!" Ethan shoved Oliver along to hasten his steps. "Now!"

        Oliver stumbled over Shaka. He blinked at the wolf wondering why it was there and where was his owner.  "What the fuck is going on!" Oliver yelled as he followed his friends into the forest.