Oliver & Co.

It was all coming together. His mother and father had left for a weekend holiday to Spain. And his brother was going to be at his girlfriend’s place for the entire weekend. His sister had been on a hippie road-trip for however long now. He had forgotten.

All of this meant one thing. Without his family home for a while, Oliver had a long list of things that he would get up to.

Most people were excited for social events and going out to sleepovers, but Oliver was excited for binging TV shows, cooking his own food, and waking up whenever he liked. Even if it was only until Monday.

The Friday started late for Oliver. He woke up an hour from midday, considering that to be a normal time to wake up. He was glad that his family considered Friday to be part of the weekend, otherwise he would have one less day of fun being alone at home. He was infinitely glad that he had no school, since he graduated a few weeks back, and finally finished his exams the previous day, on Thursday. So he was completely free. Nothing holding him back from having a good time.

Oliver planned his breakfast - well more like brunch now - to a tee. He would set up his wooden chair and table outside in the backyard, where the soft grass and trees were. Then he would make jammed toast, tea, two boiled eggs, and a glass of orange juice. He had the perfect playlist for it too. Some lovely jazz to go with the lovely morning. The sun was out at the perfect temperature for Oliver. He loved 25 degrees Celsius. As he walked into the bathroom to shower, Oliver loved how perfect the day was.

A few hours later, Oliver was watching an episode of his favourite sitcom. He was very happy with how the day was turning out. His parents thought that their son wouldn’t be able to take care of himself which is why they were so hesitant to go on their little Spanish holiday, but Oliver convinced them.  

His weekend alone had started but it was bound to get a lot more interesting. A few blocks away at the local park, a certain group of friends were organizing a week long road trip that would take them from Melbourne to Sydney, stopping at several motels, beaches, national parks, and petrol stations.

“So, we’re really going to do this”, the scrawny one of the group, Jack said. He wore baggy clothes often and had a slight lisp on him. Jack didn’t enjoy the idea

“Yes! It’s gonna be fun!”, Jade said, in her bubbly, exuberant high pitched voice. Her friends often thought that a cartoon was trapped inside of her since Jade would often show her emotions less by her facial expressions and more by her body language.

“I don't think there's no reason why we wouldn't do this. We're young, slightly stupid and are we broke? Maybe? Yes? Definitely! All great reasons to go on a road trip with your friends...”, Gloria said. She was very expressive, which might be an understatement. It could be due to the fact that prior to finishing high school, she was a drama student. But then again, it wasn’t exactly common for drama students to speak in that way. That was simply Gloria.

“If there’s ever a time to go on a spontaneous trip with no real plan, this is the time guys!” Finally there was Ezra. He was an all-round good guy that smiled a lot and liked to talk to strangers. If this friend group was the Justice League, Ezra would definitely be Superman, since everyone normally agreed with what he had to say. He looked like he was the captain of a sports team but instead, he loved chess, and was the captain of that instead.

“Alright, alright.”, Jack finally conceded. Not like he had much choice however. “Yeah! It’s gonna be the best trip ever!”, Jade exclaimed, grabbing Jack by the shoulders and shaking him excitedly.

The group of four sat there and continued chatting about the trip and the various things they could do. It wasn’t until Gloria suggested something that the group went quiet. "Guys…I’ve got an idea…”, she said enthusiastically. They all went quiet and turned to her.

“My suggestion is...why don't we invite someone else to join us?”, Gloria said, meaning it to also be a question. The group all looked at each other and then at Gloria before Jack spoke. “And why exactly would we do that?”, Jack said.

“To make it more fun, Jack! Why else?”

“I think we’re plenty fun, Gloria!”, he bit back. Jack and Gloria often got into the most unnecessary arguments with each other. Jade and Ezra found out that it was best to let it run its course rather than intervene. In fact, they were times when Jade and Ezra thought they might fancy each other, since they bickered that often.

“Jackson…”, Gloria cried, not wanting to get in another bickering contest with him. She squeezed her forehead with her fingers before saying, "There’s no harm in inviting someone to tag along with us! Plus it’s only been the four of us ever since 7^th grade!”

“It’s only been the four of us ever since then because we suck at meeting anyone new!”, Jack retorted, his voice cracking halfway through the sentence. Ezra, Jade, and Gloria all stared at him for a few seconds before bursting out laughing.

“Why…are you guys laughing?”, Jack said, genuinely confused. He looked at his friends as they all giggled while looking at each other.

“Puberty hit you late, buddy…”, Ezra teased his friend, placing his hand on his Jack’s shoulder, which he coldly pushed off. They all laughed at his sassy remark. It could not be helped, Jack was too easy to tease. Even he chuckled lightly.

Once the giggles had disappeared, Ezra spoke up, “Yeah, we should totally invite someone. Who do you think, guys?”. They all looked at each other to who would speak first.

“Ooh, what about Josephine? She’s in my art class.”, Jade said, already convinced it wouldn’t be her, but Jade didn’t like awkward silence.

“The girl that wanted to use me as a model for one of her body potraits? I don’t know, Jade…”, Ezra said, still traumatized from the moment Josephine pitched the idea to him. Jade shrugged her shoulders. She couldn’t argue with Ezra. Josephine did have a habit of getting random people wrapped in one of her after-school unconventional art projects.

“Hey Gloria…”, Jack said, getting her attention. She narrowed her eyes, always suspicious of what nonsense Jack might loop her into next, ”who’s the guy that played the main character when you guys did Macbeth in front of the whole school?”

“Jackson…the main character in Macbeth is Macbeth…”, she said, rolling her eyes and chuckling. Jade and Ezra both facepalmed. One thing that Gloria was quite sensitive about was theatre. And for better or worse, she was proud about it too. “Anyway, it was stupid, annoying Dean, who’s as tolerable as a buzzing bee that you just want to squash. So no, we’re not inviting him…”

Gloria’s face went from one of folded lines of annoyance to lovely ol’ Gloria again. It was such a smooth switch of expression that it even scared her friends, and they had known her for 5 years. “You guys know Oliver, right?”

They all nodded.

“Yeah totally, the guy with the cool hair twists?”, Jade said, not knowing how to describe him but relieved when Gloria nodded.

“I’m pretty sure I played chess with him once”, Ezra said, remembering the time he got defeated by Oliver in less than 10 minutes. “He was way too good…”, Ezra muttered.

“Don’t know the guy. Seems like a loner…”, Jack said.

His friends with a deadpan expression, clearly not impressed with his rude remark.

Jack threw his hands up at his friends, wondering what he had done wrong now. They ignored him , of course.

“We should invite him!”, Jade said, breaking the silence. She looked at her friends and wondered what they thought.

“Hm…yeah, sure!”

“I concur…”

“Okay, whatever,…seems like a cool dude”

Oliver could not have had a better day. Everything was right, yet something felt wrong. He sat on a bar stool set on the other side of the kitchen counter as he ate his dinner. Mashed potato with some of the beef stew that he made quickly. But Oliver couldn’t help but feel an empty, drained feeling in the pit of his stomach. It almost hurt, to think that he had a great day but his body and mind said no. Oliver wondered if he just needed someone to experience it with. Despite him wanting to be alone after a long exam season, he was almost tired of his own company. Oliver sat there, jumping around all his thoughts as the sun went down at half-past seven.

It was then that he heard a knock at the door. His heart stopped. But not in a scared manner, like when confronted with a life or death situation but purely from the fear of someone else’s company. He didn’t like this but still cautiously walked through the corridor and up to the door to see who it was. The front door didn’t have a peephole so Oliver set a baseball bat that was lying around near the door just in case of emergency. He was taking no chances today.

He opened the door slowly and it revealed someone he didn’t expect seeing in front of his house at seven-thirty in the evening. It was purely strange and unexpected for him.

“Uhh, Gloria? What are you doing here?”

“Hiii~”, Gloria said, with a deep grin on her face. She quickly wiped it away, since her friends told her it was scary when she tried to smile on purpose.

“Heh, right. Okay, how do you have my address?”, Oliver asked, not wanting to beat around the bush.

“I solemnly swear that I do not stalk. But….I found it on your Facebook”, Gloria said, raising her hands up and being completely honest.

“Ok, that’s on me, fairly enough.”, Oliver said, hoping that she would get to the point. His skeptic staring eyes made sure she would get to the chase.

“Alright, alright, here’s the deal. I’m here because my friends and I are going on a road trip to Sydney and it would be super boring if it was just us because we hang out all the time so that’s why I’m here, to invite you!”, Gloria said, speaking rapidly to get the nervousness out of her system. It was hard thing, making new friends. Gloria convinced herself that she wasn’t the only one that was so terribly bad at it.

“Wait, wait…what? Me?”, Oliver looked at Gloria, the girl that was definitely making to Broadway, in his opinion. He couldn’t comprehend that they were inviting him, heck, he couldn’t believe he was in this position right now. “Do you know who I am?”

“Yeah I do! Oliver...the dude who sits next to me in class. And who’s apparently good at chess, I don’t know…”, Gloria said, attempting to be cheeky. She couldn’t tell if it worked since Oliver looked at her with the same dumbstruck expression. “Listen, if you come with us, you’ll have fun, maybe way too much. But I guess it’s your decision...”

“Nope, no way”, was Oliver’s answer. He did not want to leave his cozy home, where everything was safe and certain. He had so many things to do before his privacy was invaded once again, come Monday.

He thought about it more and more as he said goodbye to Gloria, wishing her and her friends a safe trip. He sat on his bed, reading a book, but his mind wasn’t present. He was thinking about the pro’s and con’s if he had accepted her offer. The ‘FOMO’ that he heard so much about was grabbing hold of him, like a python squeezing its prey. That night, he went to sleep wondering what would happen if he said yes to her request.

And that morning, with the sun shining into Oliver’s grumpy morning face, he decided to make a decision on impulse. Which was very out of character but that did not matter. His mind tried but could not catch up with his actions. As he found Gloria’s Facebook and called her, his actions won the race over his mind.

“Hello? Oliver?”

“Yes…”, he could not think of what words to say.

“Um…yes what? Why are you calling me?”, Gloria chuckled.

“I’m packing right now. When are we leaving?”, Oliver said bluntly. Gloria laughed loudly, almost like a cackle.  She could not believe it actually worked.

“I can’t believe you actually went through with it!”, Jack whisper-shouted to Gloria. They were both staring at each other from the back seat of the 8 seater van. “Well would you look at that? I did!”, she whisper-shouted back.

Jade and Ezra were casually chatting away at the front of the van as Jade drove. Jack and Gloria bickered amongst each other in the back seat. Oliver was in the middle set of seats, taking in the situation. Never has he made such a rash decision. Just a few days, he was lounging at home, no plans with the outside world. Now he sat in a strange old red van with people he barely knew. With his bags packed and every road trip necessity prepared for the long day ahead, Oliver felt some slight unease. But he noticed that the feeling in the pit of his stomach replaced with something akin to excitement and anticipation.