The Struggle For Love ✔

Chapter 8 - St. Helena's institution

And to my surprise, it's actually Oliver that calls me and breaks my bubble of concentration, noticing Sam is suddenly seated on the other side of the table, working behind his laptop too.

"Oli? Hi! I tried to contact you..."

"Cris, I found something I think you might want to know." He sounds dead-serious and I frown. "Can you come over to my place? Because I need to look further into this."

"What's it about?"

"Mister Sydney James Lund."

"You found him?"

"No, I don't know his current whereabouts, but I did find out his past."

"Ooh, well... I'm coming over, okay? I'm still in school so I'll be there in about 20 minutes."

"Be careful, okay? I don't like the idea of you out on your own."

"Maybe you should've considered that before skipping school?" I chuckle to tell him I'm joking.

"You're not the only one who has bad days, Cristian." He grumbles a bit angry, causing me to swallow. The smile I had on my face instantly drops, because I simply feel shitty he started acting grumpy to me again. It's as if we went back in time half a year and the only reason he talks to me is Finnley. It's as if we didn't spend the past months together nearly every day, sharing a bed, hugging, crying on each others' shoulders.

Maybe sleeping together does bother him more then I thought it did, since it changed right after that happened. And since it's still eating me alive, I need to consider talking about it to Oliver to make sure that stupid little mistake won't screw up our friendship.

"I was kidding, Oliver," I tell him, knowing I sound a bit sad. "Sam came over so I wouldn't be alone."

"I'm not really in the mood for jokes..." Oliver sighs. "Just come over, okay? I want to see you anyway, cause I haven't seen you since soccer and I barged out on you and I' sorry, but I'm just in the wrong state of mind at the moment and... we need to talk."

"Right." I nod, though he can't see me nod, and share a look with a worried Sam. "I'm coming over, okay?"

"Thanks." The line goes dead without a proper goodbye and I sigh, dropping my head onto the table.

"What's wrong?"

"Oliver and me... ever since we slept together it's like he hates my guts all over again. I screwed up, I already feel shitty for cheating... well... you know what I mean. And I think Oliver is pissed because I did that, because he still cares about Finn and you know how protective he was of Finn. He always threatened to beat me up beyond repair if I would be to break Finnley's heart and I might have done exactly that, with Oliver. So he might also hate himself for allowing it to happen..."

Sam's frown keeps increasing the longer my ranting goes on, but I'm not nearly finished.

"And he drank again and he hates himself for doing that too, and I'm worried he's still drinking because Noah told me Oliver always sneaked Vodka to school, pretending it was water and he wouldn't let me take a sip of water from his bottle after soccer so what if he's drinking again since Friday? Just because he ran into his former bullies and I can't figure out for the life of me what happened to him that made him start drinking the way he did."

"Isn't that because of what happened to Maxie?"

"No, he drank with Maxie in school. He started drinking during the day even beforeMaxie killed himself. I think it just got worse after that."

"Just go over there, talk to him, don't force him to stop, but just let him know you're there for him whenever he needs you to be. And tell him he has my number too and he knows where to find me. I've been thinking about going out with you, Oli and Alex some time anyway because I think Oliver and Alex start to become friends and Alex is one that isn't allowed to drink either, because he's an addict too. So maybe they can confine in each other."