live and let die

A small laugh escaped from Delilah's lips as he mentioned that he would be good arm candy while he adjusted his bow tie. Oliver was incredibly cute, from the shine in his bright eyes, to the smile that made Delilah's heart race a little faster. It was the small moments like these that made her realize just how much she cared for the boy she was dancing with, because usually she'd be insecure about herself, but Delilah never had to feel that way with Oliver.

"Best arm candy I could ever ask for." The brown eyed girl said as she smiled up at Oliver. It made her wonder what life could be like at some point. Delilah was a planner and she liked to have an idea of what she wanted and break it down into many organized lists, but at the same time she hadn't been a huge long term planner in terms of her life, but that was mostly as of late. Delilah was the girl who used to have every single day planned out to the hour and knew where she would be. Ever since parts of her world changed, she just found it difficult to be one such a strict routine, so she just let herself go with the flow.

"You wont end up there, there will be plenty other options out there, but if you do end up there, you'll still make the best arm candy that I've ever seen." But then they got onto the topic on how he was and she noticed that he was quiet for a moment, but he brushed it off and said he was fine. Delilah wasn't going to push the matter, she just wanted to know how he was after the other week. The legacy of Cupid couldn't even begin to understand what that must have been like.

"So, Oliver Garret, is your birthday everything you expected it to be or wanted it to be?"

The song changed to another slow and pleasant instrumnetal piece. As they danced, Lachlan looked around the room. He caught a sight of Delilah and Oliver who were dancing close to each other. Lachlan moved his hand around to Skye's back to be closer to her. He gestured with his head over at Oliver and Delilah.

"They're pretty cute, aren't they? They're good for each other." Lachlan said, looking at back down at Skye. She looked so pretty done up for the party. Of course, she looked pretty at midnight at his door as well. How could she manage to look perfect literally no matter what. He spun a strand of her hair around a finger of the hand on her back.

"We are too though. Maybe even cuter." He said. He believed it, too. Something just felt right standing here with Skye. She was the one who had come back. Fate had made the decision for him. He was meant to be dancing here with Skye tonight. Lachlan laughed a little bit and dipped Skye.

"Cute or cheesy?"

Oliver looked around the party. He still hadn't completely realized that this was a party for him. Oliver had grown up with amazing people who would do anything they could for him, but none of them could have pulled something like this off. Having rich friends who loved him was something truly crazy to him. The place was done up so thoroughly to the theme and everyone looked so great. He looked at the slot games as groups of friends pulled on the levers. Sure, they were having fun, but they had nothing on his friends. Oliver felt a small pang in the bottom of his chest. He felt like his mom should be here for a night like this, but he knew that wasn't a choice, and he was lucky to have the people he did have here.

"I could have never dreamed that it would be this amazing, because I couldn't have dreamed that I'd meet someone as perfect as you." Oliver kissed her and then spun her out of the kiss, dancing them closer to Skye and Lachlan.

The words had fallen out of his mouth and started to register into Delilah's brain. He liked the party and that was the biggest win in Delilah's book. She was happy she could make Oliver happy and excited about something because if anyone deserved a big celebration like this, it was Oliver. The whole time planning out Oliver's birthday all Delilah could think about is how next year she'd want to do something different. Maybe something more intimate with close friends and possibly his mom. It saddened the legacy of Jupiter that Jasmine couldn't come tonight, but she couldn't imagine what Oliver must have felt.

Then the words he mentioned about her being perfect registered in her mind as his lips pressed against hers. She could feel her heart beat in her chest and a shade of pink grow lightly on her cheeks. Delilah never considered herself perfect, but she'd accept the compliment everyone was their own worst critic after all, right?

"I'm glad you like it, I was really hoping I could do your ideas justice, but I really couldn't have done it without Lachlan and Skye."

Lachlan wanted to refute Skye, but he felt her lips on his and he couldn't bother to. Anyway, at some point the kiss would break and he could make his point. He was good at getting the last word in, or at least the second to last word. He usually found a way to convince himself that he had won. He wondered if Skye did the same thing or knew that he was always winning between them. When they pulled back he said,

"We've earned our chance to be cheesy." Lachlan felt a brush of air and he turned his head to the side to see Delilah being spun close to them and Oliver leading her. "The man of the night." He said. And suddenly, here they were. 2 couples that were very new but felt right, felt rock solid.

The past few hours had been so much fun, but so tiring. Oliver hadn't had a single minute to sit down, between hanging with his core friends, Delilah, the boys, and his underworld gang, and with getting sick he was really starting to feel it. As everyone was standing around in one big group playing games, Oliver squeezed Delilah's hand.

"I'll be right back. Bathroom." He kissed her hand lightly and then let go, heading out towards the hallway.

-

Lachlan was thankful that he had set the boys on Operation Punch Spiking. So, as the night went on, he managed to get a little tipsy. Not too tipsy where he was at risk of dancing on a table in a nice suit, but tipsy enough to have a nice, loose time. Lachlan was standing next to Skye and watching as Chad pulled the lever on one of the slot machines. He felt the material of Skye's dress brush up against his arm, and she was walking away. He guessed that he had missed her saying where she was going so he turned back to the game as Chad hit big.

Lachlan saw Oliver walked away, too, leaving Delilah standing alone. He took a sip from his cup as he walked towards her, his other hand in his pocket. He was so glad that their lives had made them friends again. Delilah was too good to not have around.

"We did a kick ass job with this. Is the boy happy?"

It had been a fun night of playing games with the big group of friends. Delilah enjoyed spending time with her old childhood friends and their other friends, but she enjoyed the moments where it was her and Oliver spending time together. The legacy of Cupid also had her friends Charlie and Kara there, so when Oliver was off with the boys she was out with them, but they always found their way back to each other, which was comforting.

Delilah may have spent time at the punch bowl, and even drinking it she could tell that there was more than punch in there. She almost half expected it to be spiked, but vodka was much better to drink than moonshine. She had some interesting flavours of moonshine in the past and she wasn't sure if she'd drink them again. One of them was this berry flavoured one, but it tasted like old dried out fruit, a flavour grandmother's would like.

Feeling the hand squeeze she heard the words Oliver mentioned and nodded. She finished off the drink that she had in her hand and as she put the cup back down she noticed Lachlan and smiled.

"We really did, thank you for all the help. He's very happy about it." She could feel something tug at her gut, she wanted to mention what had happened the other week, but Oliver was certain that he was feeling better and this wasn't the scene to really yell over the music for. "So, did you ever picture yourself to end up dating Skye Maddox?"

Lachlan was glad that Oliver was happy. That dude deserved so much more than he ever got. If there was anyone in this world that he would trust to give a lot of money to to fix the world it would be Oliver Garrett. He looked over at the gift table and was happy that so many people had brought him something. Bro was about to get spoiled.

"We made a good team for this one, but I think I might be bowing out of the party planning business. Not exactly my forte." Lachlan wasn't an amazing planner. Fortunately, Delilah had been. He was good at ideas and the actual act of doing the manual labor to get stuff ready, but nothing would have ever gotten ordered or anything without Delilah. He turned his attention back to Delilah when she asked about Skye. Honestly, no he had not. Lachlan had never really thought about anyone calling him their boyfriend. It was not a role he was born to play, but here he was playing it anyway.

"Not officially, no." Lachlan shook his head, drinking from the cup. "Who would have thought that this would all work out better than expected after..." Lachlan trailed off, thinking back to that August 9th night. He was standing at the sink, Delilah in front of him, Skye a few feet behind her, and Oliver in the doorway. They were frozen there as he thought about the words they had all said, and the words that Skye and Delilah hadn't said. It was really wild that they were all here and happy tonight.

At the almost mention of the night that Delilah was in Lachlan's guest house with Skye, Lachlan and Oliver she could feel her stomach tie in knots a bit. She never officially talked to Lachlan after all that, but she could remember clearly the words he had said and the anger instilled in him. He was  loose cannon waiting to go off from time to time, and it just so happened that Delilah was the match that set that string on fire leading to the big bang.

"After the other night." Delilah finished for him, she hated fighting with Lachlan, it wasn't often that they did fight, and honestly there were a lot of things that she regretted about that night. She remembered the sound of the key clear as day. It was funny that in a month and a bit everything could work itself out and people could resolve their problems, but Delilah still felt as though she owed Lachlan an apology.

"I'm really sorry about that night. I know we have all just moved on from it, but I realize I wasn't being fair. I also hate when you're mad at me, I much prefer when we watch Mamma Mia together or 21 Jump Street." As she neared the end of her sentence she smiled at Lachlan remembering all the times they would sit and movie night with Augustine and Jules or just have movie night together. Lachlan had been in her corner for so long, and that night back in August had just made her feel guilty and feel as though she betrayed him in some way even though initially she felt as though she had been betrayed.

"Did you like the birthday present I left at your door? I would have come in, but the last time I did that, it didn't go very well."

Lachlan had assumed that Delilah would just follow the trend that they had all laid down and not actually say anything about that night. If anything, just a casual wrap-around reference and nothing more. As Delilah talked about that night, apologizing for it, Lachlan's eyes grew a little bit, feeling a bit frazzled. If anyone had acted out of hand that day, it would be him. He thought that they were all in the right to say the things that they did. It was much better than just letting it all sit inside and boil over later. Throwing a key into the garbage disposal and a frog into a pool was a bit out of hand, though. He still hadn't checked on the garbage disposal after that. It seemed like it still worked, anyway.

"You don't really have anything to be sorry for. I'm not saying that I do either, but I think that that stuff needed to be said, and it only would have been worse later if it hadn't been. Anyway, I think we are all in a good place now and who knows how any of that would have happened without that night." Lachlan said, a bit tipsy but still managing to put his whole focus on the serious conversation.

Lachlan let out a big laugh when Delilah brought up the birthday present. "Yes, I did. Thank you, by the way. It was a very apt gift and now Sir Croaksalot has a little friend." Lachlan said, referencing the silly name they had given the ceramic frogs when they were a kid, when it guarded the clubhouse before it was even Lachlan's.

"I know I didn't have to apologize, I just wanted to. I just like things to have an obvious and clear resolution. In truth I haven't really thought about that night since you mentioned it, but the ringing from the garbage disposal will always stay in my ears." Delilah said with a laugh. It was good to make a point of making a joke about situations that were resolved, it was good in moving on from subjects and letting the pieces fall where they had fallen, but hearing Lachlan's laugh only carried on her own.

They were now talking about the gift she had given him, which was a ceramic elephant. She remembered them naming the ceramic frog and she couldn't help herself from commenting on it, "We have to name the ceramic elephant too!" Delilah said excitedly as she tried to come up with some names she took her cup over to the punch bowl again and got more to drink. Delilah could feel the alcohol seeping into her system and slowly she felt as though she was vibrating on a different frequency level.

"His name could be Mr. Tusky. I'm not the most creative with naming inanimate objects. I mean I'm hardly good at naming actual live things too, I named my dog, Bear." The brunette said laughing at her own comment, "Who names their dog by another animal name? That'd be me, Would you ever get a dog given the choice, Lanny?"

Lachlan shook his head. "I probably gave all of us tinnitus, if I'm being honest." There was a twinge of embarrassment in his voice. He wasn't proud of the way that he was sometimes, but he also didn't really have much willpower to change it. That was something that he wasn't proud of, for example. For the most part, he didn't regret doing that with the key, he just kind of wished he hadn't done it in front of them.

Being with Delilah was the closest to being like his childhood that Lachlan had anymore. He could just remember when things were easy and the biggest thing they had to worry about was avoiding having to hang out with Tieghlur or making sure Tieghlur didn't throw a spear through Delilah's skull. Now there were so many things to worry about and to spend their time doing. This silly conversation was just the right amount of distraction from life.

"Mr. Tusky is perfect. Him and Sir Croaksalot are lovers, of course." Lachlan said. He liked feeding into Delilah's goofiness. It was like a different version of him. The version that deserved to be called Lanny, like Delilah had just called him. They were really okay.

"I haven't really been an animal person since Scrabble ran away, but I could be persuaded."

"I mean tinnitus is the least of our worries, it could be much worse. Tieghlur could have put a spear through my head" Delilah said, remembering the day that he had the spear and then Delilah almost had it. "Who gives a kid a spear anyways?" Delilah questioned as she thought about the situation, oddly enough that moment never really created that much trauma, if it had been anyone else it probably would have, but Thighhighlur was just such an idiot that you could almost excuse him. It really made Delilah wonder how Karen raised him if not at all. It was like gorillas had raised him, but saying that would be an insult to gorillas.

"Ah, yes, lovers they are. Mr.Tusky will eventually have a top hat on. I'll find one for him. He'll be the best dressed 'phant around." Delilah was getting carried away with her words, but it was all tied into the childish nature she could have sometimes, that and the influence of alcohol probably didn't help out that much. "Mr.Tusky is a suit collect and a cider connoisseur. Confirmed." The brunette couldn't help, but laugh and at this point she was leaning on Lachlan a little bit.

"They'll be cute. Speaking of cute things, I'm a little worried about Oliver..." Delilah said trailing off in her thoughts as her mind went into thought land about Oliver. Where was he even? He said he was in the bathroom, but maybe there was a lineup or something. She wasn't sure if she should worry yet, because maybe she worried just a little bit too much.

"If you ever get a dog again, you have to show me first. Pinky promise?" Delilah said holding up her pinky finger.

Lachlan could not stop laughing as him and Delilah personified these ceramic animals. He was just the right amount of tipsy for this to be perfect. In his head he had a little animated show running of these two animals who guard a house having their own little lives a la Toy Story. Honestly, he'd watch that show.

"Sir Croaksalot is a preacher at a very very liberal church. He's one of the guys that reminds us how bullshit it is that people don't just love their neighbors no matter who they are." Lachlan said with a laugh. "Who marries a preacher anyway? He can't marry himself." For someone with major commitment ideas, Lachlan liked weddings, and he sometimes thought about his own. Maybe he really liked them for open bars, though.

When Delilah mentioned thinking about Oliver because she said cute, he mimicked a fake vomit over how sweet it was. He secretly loved how happy they made each other, but he wasn't one for admitting how much he liked the cotton candy aspect of being in a relationship. What was cute, was when Delilah requested to see the dog. "You'll get final veto and voting on the dog. Promise."

Lachlan looked around for Skye. "I don't actually know where Skye went. I kind of missed when she said it. I assume she's in the bathroom or something." Lachlan said with a small shrug. What was the worst thing that could happen, anyway?

Talking about these ceramic animals as if they were real and had real lives had made Delilah's night even better than what it had been before. It reminded her of all the ridiculous conversations that the two of them had in the past. It reminded her of all the good times where they'd just do the most idiotic things. It reminded her of the time that Lachlan wanted to teach her how to defend herself if people ever picked on her, but she decided she couldn't defend herself so he'd do it for her.

All of the talk reminded her of the Reid-Lockwood family dinners they'd have and both Delilah and Lachlan had their own plans to get our of eating their peas or something ludicrous like that. It made Delilah miss the old days, the days that were simple, but this was nice. Laughs kept erupting from her chest, "At the end of the day Mr. Tusky and Sir Croaksalot love each other very much. They bring flowers for each other every morning before they begin their duties of guarding the building. The perfect duo, the most aspiring couple, and lastly just the most iconic OTP." Delilah said in a matter of fact tone.

"Yeah, Oliver said he was just going to the bathroom, he hasn't come back yet." She said mumbling a little bit as she stopped leaning on Lachlan and looked around in the crowd to see if she could spot either one of them. Nothing.

"We should go check." Delilah said and then grabbed Lachlan's hand with her free hand so they wouldn't lose each other in the crowd as they walked up to the door.

Meanwhile,

Oliver pushed through the big double doors into the hallway. The hallway ran perpendicular to the lobby and the actual theater at the Apollo and was mostly just a more secluded sitting area and gave access to the bathrooms. Oliver didn’t actually need to use the bathroom, and if he had he probably would have used the very fancy one upstairs in the green room, just to say that he had. As Oliver turned to the right, he loosened the tie around his neck a little bit. He was sweating, probably more than he should have been. Sure, it was warm inside, but not like beads-of-sweat-on-the-forehead warm.

Oliver looked up and say Skye sitting on one of those old couches that you saw in antique stores and looked so uncomfortable, and then managed to be even more uncomfortable when you actually sat on that. Oliver forced a smile and walked towards her. Of the group of them, Skye was the one Oliver was the least close to, but he could feel the tides changing on that. Oliver had always loved being friends with girls and as nice as his friendship was with Lachlan, him and Delilah were dating now and he had a big fat opening in that GBFF role.

Oliver sat down on the bench, taking a few slow, deep breaths before smiling at Skye, shakily. He was really hoping that he’d be able to keep this sickness under control longer. They still had the after party and he was looking forward to just cuddling with Delilah after it all. He didn’t want to get her sick, too. But, he felt his chest tightening up. He was going to ignore it, though. Oliver put on a good face for Skye.

”Having fun?” Oliver asked Skye, his voice a little shaky.

Okay, so under normal circumstances, Oliver would have been the first to notice that something was up with Skye. Right now, he was kind of in his own head. He felt a little swirl starting to form in the base of his chest and he was starting to wonder if this was more than just a little bit of the flu bug. This could not happen here and now. Oliver wanted to get up and find Delilah, but he had to play out this conversation with Skye. She knew about what happened to him back in June, but nothing since then. He couldn’t ruin today for her.

”Yeah, it’s an amazing party. Y’all did an amazing job.” Oliver said, nodding up and down, maybe a little too quickly. He felt his mouth getting dry and could feel his mind pulling more and more inside of him and focusing on everything that was wrong. Even that day with Delilah it didn’t feel like this. He wasn’t even sure if it was like this in June, since he didn’t remember a whole lot of it. For the most part, he remembered that day through people telling him what happened. Oliver knew that he couldn’t focus on this. So, he focused on Skye.

Oliver forced his hazel eyes to really look at Skye’s face for the first time since sitting down. She had been crying. There were little red dots around her eyes, and the front of her hair was a mess, like her hands and been in it. How had he missed that? That wasn’t like him.

”Skye, are you okay?” Had she been doing the same thing that he had?

Oliver wasn’t sure what to do when Skye said that she wasn’t okay. Usually he was good at stuff like this. He was the kind of person that people came and talked to when something was going wrong. He'd tell them what they needed to hear, and give amazing advice that he'd always be crap at following himself. Right now it was hard.

Oliver felt like something was squeezing his brain. He could hear ringing in his ears and his vision was starting to tunnel, blackening around the edges as he tried to focus on Skye's face as she talked. His breathing was starting to get a little bit heavy, but he was controlling it. Skye needed him right now and he needed to be there for her.

"What kind of memories? And why haven't you talked about this in therapy? We are all there for you. Anyway, Dr. Burke would eat that shit right up." Oliver tried to joke, but his voice was flat. It was almost as if his voice was miles away.  He could even hear it himself. He just didn't know what to do. The squeezing on his brain was tightening, and it was like his brain was trying to fight back, trying to wage war on an outside force.

It was absolutely emotionally destroying for Oliver to know that Skye was carrying this weight alone. In his head, Skye would never have her memory. When he really met her, she didn't have it and that was just how it had always been. It was weird to even think that there was a version of Skye that remembered that year, that had any chance of knowing what had happened to Caroline and Dominic.

Oliver was trying to follow that train of thought as he opened his mouth to reply to Skye, but it felt like a light switch had flipped inside of him. The fire lit in his stomach and instantly spread through his whole body. He wanted to scream out, but he couldn't.

The dark haired boys head turned to the door that he had come out of. Above it was a sign that read Happy Birthday, Oliver. He chuckled and said, "Happy Birthday, Oliver." The voice that came out of Oliver was not at all his. It was deep and suave and had an accent that couldn't quite be pinned down to any one place.

He stood up, with a kind of grace and fluidness that Oliver never had. It was like he had instantly learned how to control his body. He turned and looked down at Skye, smiling in a weird way.

"It's been a while, Skye Maddox"