#i wish I could hit him with a pot I swear I’m so seething mad right now

[sensitivegoblin]

Lol I HATE my sisters boyfriend

[writingsofawonderer]

Rivalry — Part 2

Word Count: 2.5K

Warnings: Strong language.

Masterlist

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5

Olivia was gone long before Calum woke up the next morning. He wasn’t at all surprised, but there was a part of him that wished, just once, she would stay. He hadn’t planned on developing feelings for the twin sister of the person he hated most in the world. Sure, he’d wanted her since the very first time he saw her, but he’d thought that it was purely lust. Of course, he never thought that he’d act on it in the first place, so he shouldn’t have been surprised that things didn’t go as he planned.

He was pulling his shirt on as he came down the staircase, not caring if anyone saw the scratches on his back or the hickeys on his neck and chest. Ashton was already in the kitchen, cooking breakfast, when Calum entered. Ashton was one of Calum’s closest friends. He even knew that Calum had feelings for someone that he was sleeping with. Calum hadn’t told him that it was Olivia, though; the only person who knew that was his best friend, Luke. He wasn’t surprised that as soon as Ashton saw him, he could tell that he was in a mood. “What’d she do this time?”

“Nothing new.” Calum huffed, grabbing a mug and the coffee pot. “I just hate falling asleep with her in my arms and waking up with her gone.”

“Have you told her that yet?”

Calum gave Ashton an exasperated look. “You know I can’t. She barely wants to talk to me as things are. I swear she’s only in it for the sex.”

He heard a chuckle behind him before a new voice said, “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

“Not everyone is afraid of human connection, Mike.” Ashton defended. “Cal, I’m sure it won’t go as badly as you think it will. At least try, yeah?”

Calum nodded but didn’t reply. He could already guess what would happen if he tried to tell Olivia how he was feeling. She would probably reject him and never speak to him again, which he really didn’t want to happen. He figured being with her at all was better than scaring her away.

A few hours later, he and his teammates were at the stadium, where he knew he would see her again. As they walked onto the field to begin warming up, he couldn’t stop his eyes from flickering to the stands, right to where Olivia was sitting with her parents and younger sister. He tried not to scowl at the jersey that she was wearing the, opposing team’s colors clear for everyone to see.

He should have been used to it. After all, she’d been wearing those colors long before they started hooking up. At that point, though, he wasn’t sure that he’d ever get used to it. Sometimes he imagined looking up and seeing her wearing his colors, his last name on the back of her shirt instead of her brother’s, cheering for him instead of Oliver.

His attention shifted to the man in question. The bane of his fucking exsistence. If not for Oliver, he doubted Olivia would have a problem with being seen around Calum in public. They might even have been officially dating by then if not for fucking Oliver.

Calum honestly wasn’t even sure why they hated each other so much. Oliver had some unknown grudge against Calum, and eventually the constant jabs and cocky remarks had pissed Calum off enough that it had turned into a full on rivalry.

It was pretty clear to everyone that the tension had gotten worse between the two in the past month. Calum had been getting increasingly frustrated about his feelings for Olivia and the person who stood in his way, and he’d absolutely been taking it out on him on the field and over social media.

The game was pretty brutal. Both Calum and Oliver playing at their best, trying to outdo the other. Calum’s gaze flickered to the girl in the crowd whenever it could. Every once in a while, he would catch her already looking at him, a small smirk on her lips. When his team won, he had hoped to see her standing, cheering for him, but she wasn’t. When he looked at her, there was only a trace of a smile on her lips, and it quickly vanished as her mother turned to tell her something.

He huffed and turned back to his team. The win probably would’ve taken his mind off of her if not for the person who approached him just then. “Hood.”

He looked at Michael and rolled his eyes before turning to face Oliver. “What, Jennings?”

“I know you cheated. When I figure out how, you’re done.”

“Oh, fuck off. You lost fair and square because we’re better than you.”

“No way. I know you did something.” Oh, how Calum wanted to tell Oliver just what, exactly, he had done; what he had done to his sister, specifically. His momentary silence gave Oliver a chance to rip into him again. “And don’t think no one noticed those fucking hickeys on your neck. Honestly, I feel bad for whatever slut you convinced-”

“Shut the fuck up.” The rage in Calum’s voice was enough to silence everyone in hearing distance; which, he quickly realized, included Olivia.

He saw her eyebrows shoot up and her lips part in surprise. He hoped that she’d heard what Oliver said so that she wouldn’t think he was the one picking the fight. Luckily, Oliver wasn’t done talking. “What? Are you whipped, Hood? Does your little whore have-”

He didn’t get to finish because suddenly Calum was lunging at him fist first. He got one good hit in before he was being pulled back. He saw a few guys holding Oliver back, and suddenly Olivia was there, standing between the two seething men.

“I’m gonna fucking kill you!” Oliver yelled, struggling against his teammates.

“Don’t fucking talk about her like that!” Calum replied. He convinced Michael that he wasn’t going to attack again and shook him off.

“Ollie, why don’t we just go, okay?” Olivia said, her voice stern. “You don’t want to get in a fight right now.”

Oliver’s anger visibly lessened, but when he looked over her shoulder at Calum he scowled again. “Are you taking his side? Against your own brother?”

“Don’t know why she wouldn’t. You’re a bit of a prick, mate.” Calum cringed at Michael’s words, though he didn’t disagree.

“Of course, I’m on your side. I just don’t want you getting hurt. It’s not worth it.” Calum heard what sounded like desperation in her voice and knew that if he didn’t walk away, she would end up blaming him for the fight, if she didn’t already.

So, he huffed out a ‘whatever’ and grabbed his duffle, turning and walking off the field. He heard his team starting to follow him, and ignored Oliver’s taunts to the best of his ability.

Back in the car, his team quickly recovered from their surprise and started celebrating again. No one mentioned the fight. And they sure as hell didn’t bring up Calum’s mystery girl.

❁❁❁❁

After getting showered, Calum convinced the boys to go for celebratory drinks. He chose Rudy’s partially because he knew Oliver wouldn’t be there, and partially because he knew that it was Olivia’s favorite bar, so there was a good chance she would be there.

His eyes scanned every table and booth in the place while he waited on his beer. As they walked to join Ashton and Michael at their booth, Luke cleared his throat. “If you want… I can tell Cara we’re here. I’m sure she’ll drag Liv and Jessie along with her.”

“I think I might’ve pissed her off earlier. It was stupid to punch her brother right in front of her.”

“She’s smart, Cal. And she knows that her brother can be a dick. Trust me.” Luke said, pulling out his phone. “I’ll text Cara.”

Before Calum could protest again, Luke had already sent the message. As they settled into the booth, Michael turned to Calum. “Alright. Let’s talk about what happened earlier. I’ve never seen you that mad at Jennings.”

“You shouldn’t talk about women like that.” He answered, avoiding eye contact.

Michael scoffed. “Look, I know you’ve been hooking up with this chick for a few months now, but you can’t seriously have feelings for her. You would’ve at least told us her name if you did.”

“She doesn’t want anyone to know.”

“So she’s ashamed of you or something? You can’t be serious.”

“Knock it off, Mikey.” Luke said. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Do- do you know who it is? You told Luke?”

He hadn’t told Luke. Luke had figured it out on his own after seeing both Olivia and himself suddenly have hickeys enough times that he knew it wasn’t a coincidence. When he asked Calum about it, he didn’t hesitate to tell him the truth. He had already been considering telling him, anyway. Luke inhaled sharply and gave Calum an apologetic look.

“I didn’t tell Luke. He figured it out.” Luckily, Michael didn’t seem too offended, just a little hurt. “Trust me, Mike. If I could talk about it, I’d tell everyone.”

“The girls are here!” Luke said, sitting up straighter and waving at his girlfriend.

Calum looked up. When he saw Olivia, his mouth felt dry. She had changed out of that god awful jersey into high waisted black skinny jeans and a cropped, maroon, velvet tank top. She had straightened her hair, something he didn’t see her do often. He must’ve been gaping, because when she locked eyes with him a cocky smirk grew on her lips. Quickly, he cleared his throat and looked away, a hand moving to scratch the back of his neck.

He remembered the first time he’d seen her with her hair straightened. It was the night that they had first hooked up. They’d been around each other a few times since their best friends were dating, but they hadn’t really ever spoken to each other. He’d always had a little bit of a thing for her, but that night was different. He had come in after a loss and couldn’t take his eyes off of her. Eventually, she had confronted him about it.

“Okay, what’s your problem?” She raised both of her eyebrows. “You’ve been staring at me for the past two hours.”

He took a few seconds to respond, deciding if he should say what he was thinking or not. “Can’t help it. You look good.”

“Thanks.” She blinked in surprise. “You’re not too bad yourself, Hood. Black’s a good color on you.”

“Thanks, doll.”

She bit her bottom lip, drawing his attention. They looked very soft; he found himself imagining what kissing her would feel like. “No problem.”

“You wouldn’t want to get out of here, would you?” Normally, he wouldn’t have been so bold, but the alcohol buzzing through him and the way she was looking at him had Calum convinced that she was going to say yes.

To his dismay, she giggled. “Does that line normally work for you?”

“Normally, I don’t need any lines.” He winked.

“I’ll tell you what.” She said, a sinful smile on her red painted lips. “Tell me exactly what you want to do to me if I let you take me home. If I like your pitch, I’m all yours.”

A hushed silence fell over them as the girls arrived at their table. Cara slid in next to Luke. “What are you boys talking about?”

Michael immediately piped up. “Cal’s mystery girl.”

To her credit, she didn’t even flinch. Olivia raised an eyebrow, a curious look on her face, but Calum knew that she was probably freaking out inside. Jessie gasped, “Really? I saw the fight on facebook earlier. Who is she? Do you love her?”

Olivia looked amused as she leaned over the back of the booth. “Yeah, Cal. Do you? I mean, you must like her to have punched Ollie like that.”

“I didn’t like what he was saying about her.”

“Well, don’t keep us in the dark. Who is it?” Cara asked.

“Doesn’t matter.” Calum said. “Let’s move on.”

“Actually, Calum, can I talk to you? About earlier.” Olivia spoke up.

He nodded and slid out of his end of the booth to follow Olivia outside. Once they were away from prying ears, she stopped and turned to him with her arms crossed to protect herself from the slight chill in the air. “I’m sorry about Oliver. He was a dick today.”

“You don’t have to apologize to me, doll. You’re the one he was attacking.”

She nodded, sighing. “It was very sweet of you to punch him for me.”

“Someone had to.” She nodded, stepping towards him as someone walked past. One of his hands instinctively reached out to rest on her hip. “You look really good tonight, by the way.”

She smirked and leaned in closer to whisper in his ear. “I chose this outfit for you.”

He groaned, leaning his head to rest on the brick wall. “Don’t do this to me when we have to go back in there.”

He desperately wanted to kiss her. He wanted her to let her guard down enough to be seen with him like that in public; his hand on her hip, her’s resting on his chest. Noticing the shift in his attitude, she frowned. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” At her disillusioned look, he conceded. “I want to kiss you.”

“Cal-”

“I know. We can’t.” He cringed at the hostility in his voice.

“Are you- are you mad at me?” She said, incredulously. “If we get caught-”

“So what if we do?”

“Calum, I like being with you; and if Oliver finds out, we can’t do this anymore.”

Sometimes it really annoyed him that she was so loyal to her brother. “Why not?”

“What are you talking about? I’m not going to ruin my relationship with my brother over who I’m having sex with.”

“What if it wasn’t just sex? What if it was more?”

“What?” She took a small step back, as if his statement had been a strong gust of wind.

“I want more, Liv. I want to be with you.”

“Calum…”

“We don’t need to tell anyone. Not until we know if it’ll go anywhere. Let me take you out. We can get dinner or coffee or something.” His heart was beating out of his chest. He couldn’t believe that he was really asking her out in the middle of a fight.

“If Oliver-“

“Stop thinking about your fucking brother! What do you want, Olivia? Or is it just about sex for you?” Calum knew he was close to losing his temper. He was glad that she didn’t seem afraid, but wished it hadn’t come to that in the first place.

She met his eyes, hers full of uncertainty. The anger in her voice melted at the sound of the pain in his. “I… I don’t know. Let me think about it, okay?”

“Whatever.” He scoffed and went back inside, not waiting to see if she would follow him. He really hadn’t expected to get in a fight with both of the twins that day.