olliecavalieri

[olliecavalieri]

curandcra‌:

date: in the past, indeterminately time: late evening location: the moonlight diner w/ @olliecavalieri​

She does not think of herself when she looks at him. No, that would be selfish. There are times when she wonders, of course, if she understands, given the fact that the stories about him that have gotten around town sometimes ring a little too close to home, but Elodie does not dare to presume. She was hardly the first to have left Sallybrook and to have had to come back, after all, and far from alone in having traded the brusque northeasterlies for lazy California breezes and having had it all wrenched away. It was safe to say that he wouldn’t be the last.

It was the way of the world.  Every year, the people of Sallybrook watched autumn fade into winter, watched the orange leaves shrivel up and crumble in between their fingers and turn to dust, and stood helpless in the street as the chill set in and a small voice went silent in the streets. Things were always the same, even as they changed. In Sallybrook, she had learned, there were motifs. She, Ollie, so many others— they had all stumbled into this one. Unfortunate but inevitable.

And so, when her eyes pass over him as she does a once over of the diner, she does not think of herself at all. Not one thought is spared to the way she had sat alone at the Diner every meal for a month after she had gotten a job there, because the sound of screeching tires in her ears still drowned out anyone’s attempt at conversation, because every time she closed her eyes she could not help but imagine being anywhere else. She only thinks of the weather—

And whether he’s brought a jacket or if he will be cold on the way home. It is almost closing time, she notes, and most of the diner’s patrons are finishing up. He’s trailed in a little too late for that– and he’s only just started in on his soup. A shame, she thinks to herself. It would be so terrible to be kicked out with an empty stomach, especially if it will be as cold as the weather reports are saying it will be.

“Hey, Ollie,” she finds herself saying as she brushes by him to take care of the dishes left on a neighboring seat, “heads up, the Diner will be closing pretty soon.”

She pauses, wiping down the table, “Also,  if you’re still hungry, there’s some leftovers in the kitchen that you can take with you. If you want to. I mean whatever. Just soup’s fine, but figured I’d ask. I’m pretty sure Rosaline would kill me if I let anyone leave without a full stomach.”

Even if it seemed like the movie theater was rarely busy, working a double was certainly not Ollie’s idea of a good time. The days seemed to drag on, especially when there was only a coworker or two and a stray customer every once in a while. So, once the theater was properly closed down, of course he found himself at the diner. He barely had been able to scarf down a hotdog halfway through his shift before being summoned to fix the popcorn machine again, and the warm bowl of soup sat before him made him feel a bit better about how his day had been.

Perhaps he wouldn’t have noticed the patrons slowly leaving the diner if Elodie hadn’t said something, but he looked up with an apologetic smile. He didn’t exactly want to walk out into the windy night, with nothing but a bowl of soup in his stomach, but it had taken a bit longer to close tonight. He was sure there were no leftovers waiting for him at home; the best he could do would be to scrounge together a sandwich from the cold cuts he hoped were still salvageable. He wondered if he would have to go grocery shopping again, if his mother would even think about it before his next day off. Part of him wondered what would have happened if he stayed in California for any longer, but the thought of still being in the sunny state hurt more than he wanted to admit.

“Oh, I…” he started at the offer of leftovers, knowing that Elodie in no way had to offer them. He wondered if she had gotten a dinner break, if she had eaten some of the leftovers. But if she was offering, it was rude to turn her down entirely. “I could go for some fries. Maybe a burger? If it’s not too much trouble,” he said quickly. He didn’t want to take up any of her time that could be spent closing, knowing he was already there a little too late.

[olliecavalieri]

augustmoore‌:

The one thought that crossed her mind was that she had been caught and was about to be put in jail or something. Whatever punishment they would have for people suspected to be a part of the haunt. She wouldn’t be surprised if she found out she would be burned alive or publicly hung. Too many things crossed her mind then that she was about to turn into a paranoid mess until she turned around and figured it was nothing but a white cat walking behind her. She let out a little chuckle and got down to a crouch, calling it closer. It didn’t take too long before the cat was on her lap, rubbing herself up and down her body until she found the soft spot behind her right ear which made her purr. She’d had a cat a few years ago, best company she had ever had in her life so far. 

She didn’t even register other pair of footsteps coming, like she knew she had to, because she was too damn entertained with the cat on her lap, and almost jumped when she heard another voice. “Fucking hell… you scared me there,” she said in a soft whisper. “She’s been nothing but good to me, I don’t know what you’re talking about.” The cat didn’t even acknowledge the presence of the boy. “I think she’s chosen me.”

Ollie let out a chuckle as he settled in beside Gus. “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you. I’ve just been looking for her for almost an hour,” he said, his eyes falling on his cat once more. She hadn’t stirred from her seemingly comfortable position on the woman’s lap, but he wasn’t exactly shocked. Celeste had never particularly showed any love towards him, and he usually had to lure her to his side with treats or toys. Of course, it didn’t seem as if August had anything of the sort. 

“You’re not going to try and steal her from me, are you?” he asked, though he had a grin on his lips. He wasn’t threatened by Gus’ presence as many seemed to be, though he had never really had a conversation with her either. He heard the whispers, some even coming from his parents in the comfort of their home. But it wasn’t fair to pass judgement so quickly, was it?

[olliecavalieri]

alicesolak‌:

The lockdown had taken a lot out of Alice. She had found herself constantly on guard, making sure no one went missing, making sure her room was safe. This led to very little sleep. Knowing, from experience, that The Haunt would tend to attack at night or early in the morning. During the day, she took short naps, but at night she was devoted to staying up the entire time. She kept a close eye on Ollie specifically, knowing he was way beyond the age of kids that were normally taken, but not wanting to take any chances. She couldn’t lose two of her kids two years in a row. It would ruin her. She wrapped her arm around him when he came to sit beside her, pulling him in close and kissing the top of his head, looking at the book he had in hand. “Hi, love,” she said with a little smile, always too happy whenever he was around. “What are you reading? It doesn’t look familiar.” 

There was a certain sense of warmth that radiated from Alice, and Ollie couldn’t help but be thankful that he existed in her glow. As her arm wrapped around him, he relaxed and let his head fall onto her shoulder. He always felt safe around her, a safety that wasn’t always granted in his own home. Even though her signature grin came to her lips as she spoke, he knew that she was beyond exhausted. There was no stopping her, but a part of him wished he could convince her to take a break, to give herself more than a few hours to sleep each day. Instead, he would indulge her question. “It’s good! It’s about, like, aliens and stuff so I didn’t know if you’d like it,” he said with a bit of a shrug, still not pulling away from her side. He had a feeling she needed the reminder that they were both okay, that they still had each other during this mess of a two weeks. “You reading anything fun? Or still just your clipboard?” he said, a teasing tone trying to bring a lightness to the conversation even if he didn’t know it was possible. 

[olliecavalieri]

aaronazurea‌:

ATTN: @olliecavalieri​ LOCATION: witch’s manor DATE: december 11th, 2018

If Aaron had to pick one (read: one) good thing about working at the Manor: nobody dared shoplift, so it wasn’t something he ever had to worry about. In all likelihood, it was only out of fear — people were too afraid of ending up on the wrong side of a hex or something. It was a faulty assumption, based in prejudice, but hey, at least this one was useful. Their margins were really too slim to afford security cameras, or write off losses (— or face lawsuits based on claims of witchcraft causing bodily harm).

On the other side of the same coin, though — even if people weren’t committing theft, they sure did act like they were going to; that was to say that, no matter what they did, their clientele remained shifty-looking skulkers, glancing behind their backs as they moved through aisles of crystals and candles, like they had a target hanging off them. Perfectly normal, nice people started acting like weirdoes as soon as they crossed the threshold. Out of paranoia or what, Aaron didn’t know; Marti didn’t seem to care much, so long as they were spending money, but it bummed him out quite a bit. He liked… people. He liked talking to them, helping them; he wished they would make an attempt at friendliness, if nothing else.

Every once in a while, though, there would be someone Aaron could coax into conversation. He was struggling to explain just how he knew when someone was open to it — maybe it was his natural intuition. It had always been strong. He was good at sensing mood, feeling, and always had one foot into the future. That intuition told him that he’d found a potential kindred spirit, when he saw a tuft of blond hair sticking up over the top of one of the shelves.

Creeping out from behind the counter, he walked towards the aisle. Ollie… something-or-other. Admittedly, he barely knew the guy — peripherally at best, maybe. But he did know the look in his eyes. It was a nervous kind of curiosity, a desperation to be daring. Genuine, too. Not like the normal looks Aaron got, the Peeping-Tom-freakshow kind of bug-eyed stare he knew far too well.

Pulling a wax paper bag off the shelf, he made his way over until he was standing beside Ollie, soft footsteps not alerting the man of his presence. (He liked the surprise. If he was going to have a reputation as a hex-cursing freak, he might as well lean into it for a gag at times, right?) Clearing his throat, Aaron looked up at him, mustering the brightest grin he could. “Smell this,” he said, holding the bag open. It was filled with dried herbs, citrussy and bright. “Good, right? Mostly lemon peel. A bit of marshmallow root, and some other things, too. All good stuff. Cleansing, boosting, energizing, purifying. protection. Draws in good spirits.” He offered the bag to Ollie, holding it out for him. “Folks need that, this time of year. On the house. Drink it as a tea — you can add some candied lemon, if you’re not a fan of the taste.”

Though they were few and far between for Ollie, morning shifts at the theater were always a bright spot in a job that was getting somewhat boring. He wasn’t sure if the owner of the movie theater felt bad for him, though he was a good employee before he left for college, or a mix of the two. Whatever the case, when he returned to Sallybrook, it seemed a job was waiting for him. He had become used to night shifts, to the tedious tasks and slowly becoming a shift lead, slowly taking on more responsibility. He got used to training the new kids, to passing on the traditions and stories of spirits haunting the theaters. Even in high school, he had become accustomed to wishing the spirts goodnight, to keeping the superstitions alive as so many had before him.

A perk of morning shifts, however, was that the entire day was laid out in front of him. After 1pm, he was free of tearing tickets for seniors and giving them their free container of popcorn. The simple, mindnumbing job was over for the day, and he had an idea of what he wanted to do with the rest of his afternoon. His visits to the manor’s shop were few and far between. Spaced out with no real rhyme or reason to them, mostly to throw off any curious onlookers or parents, he found his footsteps taking him in that direction. Of course, he lived in the opposite direction. It seemed that even in their choice of houses, they wanted the Cavalieri as far away as possible from whatever witchcraft happened inside the walls.

And yet, Ollie resisted. Even if they were infrequent, his small stash of crystals and otherwise frowned upon items were growing larger month by month. It was a small comfort in the whirlwind that had become his life. He knew the siblings didn’t owe him anything, didn’t owe Sallybrook anything, but it was encouraging that they were still there. Even if he was too much of a coward to admit his genuine curiosity to most, they seemed to always be there when he needed an escape.

Like today. Looking both ways before daring to even set foot on the property, Ollie relaxes when he realizes the only living soul in the shop was Aaron. He was easier to talk to than Marti, though he knew they didn’t owe him any sort of warmth. To them, he might just look like another resident wanting to gawk at the local witches, though he hoped that wasn’t the case.

He wasn’t expecting Aaron to appear at his side, and certainly wasn’t expecting a bag of herbs to be pressed into his hand. A small smile appeared on his lips, and he stumbled over his words until he landed on a simple, “Thanks. It…it really does smell good.” What was he really looking for here? Was he looking for the safety that most of the townspeople craved this time of year, or something more? The question that left his lips, however, was much simpler. “Been busy today?” he asked, though it seemed to be an almost stupid question when one looked around the shop.

no below || aaron + ollie.

[olliecavalieri]

@augustmoore

If there was anyone more antsy than Ollie in his room, it had to be his cat. Celeste paced and paced the room, seeming ready to dart towards the door whenever anyone took a trip to the bathroom. He knew that it would happen sooner or later, but as he approached an hour of wandering the halls of the church looking for his cat, he wondered if he should just leave her be. No one was leaving the place, anyway, and she would come back when she realized her food was in the room. One more check of the chapel upstairs, and he would give up. However, there was no denying the purr emanating from the corner of the as he walked in, and he soon stumbled upon a familiar face with his cat curled up in her lap. “She likes it when you scratch behind her right ear,” Ollie said with a shrug, taking a seat in one of the empty chairs near August. “You the cat whisperer or something? She never sits that still for me,” he said, his voice still low. There was no one else in the chapel, but he figured he still had to be somewhat reverent. 

[olliecavalieri]

@alicesolak

As much time as Ollie had spent in this church in the past, he couldn’t shake the ominous cloud hanging over the residents of Sallybrook who took shelter in the basement. He never felt quite at home within the walls, not since coming back from school, but at least Alice had arranged the rooms to their advantage. His parents took shelter down the hall, close enough that he was sure they were just fine, but far enough away that he felt like he could breathe. Bringing a small library in his duffel bag was probably the only thing getting him through the lockdown that seemed to be dragging on, but there was a part of him that was worried about Alice. She always seemed so focused on others, and that was increasingly obvious as they moved through the lockdown. So, after tucking his bookmark back into his novel, he moved across the room and took a seat at her side. “Hey, Alice,” he said, a small smile on his lips as he settled by her side. “I’m bored.”

[olliecavalieri]

I'm helpless, clinging to a little bit of spine They rush me, telling me I'm running out of time They shush me, walking me across a fragile line

[olliecavalieri]

TROYE SIVAN © MAT+KAT for GQ Magazine