— t h i r t y —

crackling with surprise over the line. "Taking up my offer so soon? If I recall, it was barely an hour ago that you were drowning your sorrows over Reed with shitty, lukewarm beer and telling me it was complicated."

"Fuck Reed."

He heard the smile in her voice. "Don't you wish?"

Oliver closed his eyes, coming to the distant realisation that he was more drunk than he had originally thought. All those shots and beer were catching up with him, only fuelled by the confusing tangle of emotions he couldn't make sense of. The only conclusion he had managed to come to since getting in the back of this Uber was that he was most angry at himself. Reed had broken his heart but it wasn't his fault, not entirely. He'd made it clear from the outset he wasn't sure about any of this the way Oliver was and that should have been enough of a red flag. Oliver should have known better to get involved with someone who was still questioning so hard, even if that someone was his best friend Reed, who he had liked for years.

"Oliver," Cora said, in a voice that suggested it wasn't the first time she'd said his name. He made a noncommittal sound to indicate he was still there. "Something tells me this sudden urge to call me wasn't unprovoked."

"Reed got back with his ex. Probably," Oliver said, recalling how close they'd been sitting in that utility room and Reed's blatant anger at being interrupted. "Strangely enough, I didn't ask for details. I didn't ask about anything beyond fleeing the scene. One day, maybe I'll be embarrassed about that. Not right now. Too busy hating myself."

Cora whistled under her breath. "Wow. That's probably the most you've ever revealed about your emotional state to me."

"Sorry. Not in the mood for lighthearted flirting."

"Understandable. How drunk are you?"

"Too drunk. Or not drunk enough. Can't decide." Oliver stared out of the window, the world reduced to pitch black. His Uber driver had wordlessly turned down the radio when he took his call and was hopefully getting more entertainment out of this conversation than Oliver was. "Why, worried about taking advantage of me?"

"Straight to the point for once, I see. I don't care if you want to sleep with me as a distraction, but not if you're going to regret it," Cora said. "Especially because I've decided I like you as a friend, Oliver, and I don't want to ruin it by making things unnecessarily awkward. So, will you regret it?"

The words reminded Oliver of a very different night weeks ago, sharing a hot tub with Reed and asking him an echo of Cora's question, needing to know he wouldn't regret it before things went any further. The memory was a knife to his already aching heart and the possibility that Reed might have ended up regretting everything after all was a twist of that knife. Oliver didn't want to sleep with Cora, or anyone other than Reed, for that matter. It might offer a temporary distraction but he knew it wouldn't help much with anything.

"That's what I thought," Cora said, into the silence stretching thin between them. Oliver could picture her rolling her eyes as she said it. "Honestly. Boys. You're all the same, hopeless and utterly stupid."

"Thanks," Oliver said. "That's definitely what I needed to hear right now."

"The truth hurts. Go home and drink lots of water, then sleep for twelve hours," Cora instructed, with the air of someone giving strict medical guidance rather than vague advice. "You'll thank me for it tomorrow."

She hung up on him before he could even think about responding and Oliver slowly lowered his phone to stare at it. The angry passion that had seized him when he called her, a baseless need to get revenge on Reed somehow, had abandoned him. Cora was right. He was stupid, hopeless and utterly stupid. The rest of the drive was carried out in silence, filled only by the low hum of the radio, and it was only when the Uber pulled up outside his house that his driver turned to tell him, "This Reed, if they worth it, they come back to you, yeah?"

"Yeah," Oliver said, too exhausted to care that he had clearly heard enough of the whole thing to form opinions of his own. He wished he had as much faith as his Uber driver. "I guess so."

Oliver crept up to his bedroom as quietly as possible and collapsed on his bed without even bothering to change, his head spinning enough that he fell asleep soon enough even with all the thoughts crowding in his head. He was woken up sooner than he wanted by Lexie bouncing impatiently on his bed demanding he play teacup princesses with her, feeling very hungover and sorry for himself. That was just the start to an unpleasant weekend. Oliver didn't talk to Reed for the rest of the weekend and this time, it was a two-way silent treatment. Neither of them reached out to the other and it only served to make Oliver feel like even more of a piece of shit. If Reed didn't see him as anything more than a friend, fine, that sucked in it's own sense.

The least he could was treat Oliver like a friend by telling him that he was back with Bailey, instead of ignoring him as if Oliver had been the one to do something wrong.

Oliver spent most of Saturday recovering from his hangover and tried to distract himself in a productive way on Sunday by tackling the essay he had been putting off. When that failed, and it became apparent it was going to be written in adrenaline-fuelled panic the night before it was due, he sought out Adam for better distraction only to find out he was spending the day with Clair. Which was great. Both of his best friends seemed to be getting back together with their ex-girlfriends in the space of one party and Oliver was still in love with one of them. Sunday ended up spent playing teacup princesses with Lexie, which was only ruined by her constant demands he invite Reed to play with them too.

"Lexie, if you don't shut up about Reed, I'm not playing with you anymore," Oliver said sharply, after one too many whining comments about him. "He's not coming, okay? So just drink your stupid tea."

Lexie stared at him with a trembling lip and of course, just as their mother happened to pass her room, she burst into tears. Which meant Oliver got a scolding from his parents for being rude to his sister and the only way he managed to get her to stop wailing was with a promise to take her to Juniper's to buy a cupcake. Of course she perked up in an instant at that and skipped out of the room to put her shoes on, singing at the top of her lungs about her favourite flavours of cupcake. And of course, if his weekend hadn't been shitty enough, Reed was the barista on duty when they approached Juniper's.

"You know what, never mind," Oliver said, grabbing Lexie's hand before she barrelled into the cafe. Reed hadn't seen them as he served the customer with his polite-for-work-but-don't-actually-want-to-be-here smile, very different from the smile he reserved just for him, and Oliver's heart ached at the sight of him. "Let's go somewhere else. They don't even sell cupcakes here."

"They do!" Lexie tugged on his hand impatiently. "I always have them when we come here. Big and chocolatey, full of — "

"Those aren't cupcakes," Oliver said, with a desperate glance at Reed. He still hadn't seen them, by some miracle, something that would change the longer they stood here. "They're muffins."

"Same thing!"

"They're not the same — "

"Oli, you said you would take me for cupcakes at Juniper's," Lexie said crossly. "I don't want cupcakes anywhere else. I want these cupcakes!"

Oliver risked another glance through the storefront at the exact moment Reed looked over at him and the sudden eye contact sent a spark of heat down his spine. For a moment, so many emotions flashed across Reed's face— surprise, hurt, longing, a million others that Oliver struggled to make sense of — before his eyes hardened and he turned away, so purposefully it was impossible to take it as anything more than a jab. A sense of deja vu washed over Oliver. It was just like that first day in the school dining hall, the glimpse of Reed's true feelings before he slammed his walls up and warded Oliver off with scowls. Oliver was almost too baffled to be upset.

This was more than Reed deciding he wanted to be with Bailey and not Oliver. He was actively annoyed at him and Oliver had no clue why.

"Fine," Oliver said, interrupting Lexie's strident and loud rambling for why she wanted to go to Juniper's, and Juniper's alone. The last thing he wanted to deal with was his sister busting out the waterworks to get what she wanted. "Fine, we'll go to Juniper's. You're pretty spoilt, I hope you know that, Lexie. One of these days I'm going to say no to you and you're actually going to listen."

But Lexie had already run into the cafe with a squeal of delight and didn't hear any of his attempts at disciplining her. With a sigh, Oliver followed her inside. She had already made a beeline for the counter where she had spotted Reed and was chatting excitedly to him. And by chatting, Oliver meant she was talking at full speed about anything and everything while Reed listened, amused and entertaining her with encouragement of his own. His countenance immediately grew frosty as Oliver came over and his smile slipped away in favour of a cold look. He dropped his gaze to the cash register and said, "What do you want?"

"Reed," Oliver said, too bewildered to even think of an appropriate response, "what's wrong? Did something — "

"Sorry, you misunderstood." He waved a hand at the board of drinks behind him, without even looking up at Oliver. "I'm asking what drink you want. Hi, welcome to Juniper's, all that shi — " He broke off with a glance at Lexie, who was watching him with wide eyes of adoration, and cleared his throat. "And if you don't want a drink, then get out. I'm working."

"Reed — "

"Oliver," he said, finally looking at him, the weight of his pale blue gaze sending a shiver down Oliver's spine. He was angry, that much was clear, but it was more than that. "Order something or get the hell out. This job might be a joke to you, but I need it and I don't want to get fired because I'm wasting time talking to you when I should be serving other customers."

The girl in the queue behind Oliver muttered, "He has a point."

Oliver gritted his teeth. "Fine. I'll have a coffee."

"And a cupcake!" Lexie exclaimed, worming between people in the queue to tap aggressively at the glass casing covering all the pastries and sweet foods on offer. She ignored Oliver's half-hearted comment to stop pressing sticky fingers all over the glass and pointed emphatically at the large chocolate muffin. "That one, please, Reed!"

Reed wasn't swayed by Oliver's attempts at making conversation but he softened for Lexie, picking out the muffin and handing it over the counter to her. "There you go. You can have that for free, because you're my favourite in the family. Not you," Reed said, with a glare in Oliver's direction, as if he was in doubt about that. "Your coffee is five pounds fifty."

"Five pounds fifty? For a coffee?"

Reed's glare intensified. "Did I stutter?"

Oliver gritted his teeth a little harder and got his wallet out. "How ideal," he said, tapping his card for the outrageously overpriced coffee, "that my coffee jumped up in price to cover the exact amount for Lexie's muffin."

"Funny how the world works."

"It's a cupcake, Oli," Lexie said, nibbling her way through the muffin, already having managed to get chocolate all over her face and fingers.

"Sure, whatever. And I don't think your job is a joke, Reed," Oliver told him, with a frown. "I've never said that."

"You don't need to." Reed tapped his order into the machine with a little too much aggression, as if hoping to crack the screen. "You made it very clear everything about me is a complete joke to you."

"What the hell are you — "

"I have other customers," Reed snapped, and the girl behind Oliver, who had been tapping her foot impatiently against the floor for the last minute or so, made a loud hmphing sound. Oliver resisted the urge to turn around and glare at her because he knew she had every right to be annoyed, that he was holding up the queue, but he didn't want to leave until he had at least some kind of explanation for what he had done wrong. "Take your coffee and leave, or sit down somewhere, see if I care. The last thing I want to do is talk to you."

Oliver stared at him. "You're really not going to tell me why you're so pissed off at me?"

Reed stared back at him for a moment, showing the first sign that some of the chilly hostility he had built around himself in spikes might be melting, before abruptly turning to the girl behind Oliver. "Hi," he said, fighting for some semblance of composure even if his voice was a little strained. "Sorry about the delay. Had to deal with a stupid customer who was being particularly difficult. Anyway, what can I get you?"

Oliver shook his head in disbelief and continued to the other end of the counter where the other barista was putting together his drink. His disbelief quickly turned to irritation. If Reed was annoyed about something, he could at least be mature and talk to Oliver about it instead of acting like such a prick. He was the one who seemed to be getting back together with Bailey and hadn't even thought to mention it to Oliver, not even a small heads-up of hey, this thing between us is over, I'm getting back with my ex! By the time the barista slid his coffee to him, Oliver was more than a little pissed off himself.

"Fine, don't talk to me," he said, pausing by the counter on his way out. Reed was pointedly not looking at him but Oliver knew he was listening. "I just want you to know that this time, it's entirely on you for ruining our friendship. I hope you and Bailey are very happy together."

Reed's eyebrows furrowed but Oliver wasn't in the mood to hear about anything more on the huge lie had just spun. He grabbed Lexie's hand before she could even think of over to Reed and left before he could regret any of that, or worse, turn back. Reed had made his feelings abundantly clear. Oliver was going to hold onto what little self-respect he had instead of begging for him, as much as his heart might want him to.

And so commenced the Cold War between the two of them. Oliver had been giving Reed lifts to and from school since he got his car but Adam returned to being his chosen chauffeur. Oliver avoided Juniper's if he knew Reed was working a shift and there was no more hanging out together after school. They ignored each other during swim practice and Oliver found himself dreading those hours after school, having to pretend it didn't feel like a knife to the gut being near Reed, having to pretend it didn't kill him not to be able to touch him. Lunch turned into a game of whoever got their first. If Oliver got to their usual table first, Reed sat with Charlie and the others, and vice versa.

It was so much worse than when he had first returned to Woodway and Reed had done much of the same thing, because Oliver had had a taste of something more with Reed and missed it more than he expected.

Sometimes, Oliver would look over at him from across the dining hall or from the other end of the poolside, from where they were supposed to be ignoring each other, to find Reed already watching him. Sometimes they both looked away immediately and sometimes they held each other's gaze, a challenge neither of them were willing to back down from. It was moments like those that Oliver was most tempted to just go over to him and end this stupid silent treatment. In those moments, he knew Reed missed him too, and it would be too easy to put an end to both their suffering.

It was only Oliver's pride that stopped him from doing any such thing. He had been the one to reach out when he had first returned from London, the one to needle and wear Reed down until he forgave him. He had been the one to push and prod at Reed to give in to the obvious attraction between them, the one to keep making the first move. If Reed wanted to give him shit for something Oliver wasn't even aware of having done, he could bloody well come over and apologise for it first. He just hoped he didn't end up waiting so long their friendship really did end up ruined for good.

"This is ridiculous," Adam said, setting his fork down with an exasperated look. It took Oliver a moment to realise he was talking to him; he had been playing that game with Reed, the one where they pretended they weren't stealing glances at each other across the dining hall. Oliver couldn't tell whether that flicker of heat he felt when their eyes met was triumph or something else entirely. "Whatever the hell is going on between the two of you, it's been going on for too long. Can you get over yourselves and make up already?"

It was the fourth day of their Cold War and unfortunately for Adam, he was caught in the middle of it all. The two of them refusing to be around each other meant he was stretched between them, spending a free with Oliver and then going to spend a lunch with Reed, having to choose which of them he would go over to when he walked into the room. Oliver had no idea what Reed said to him about it but he hadn't said anything about it beyond a vague explanation that they'd had an argument. So much for telling Adam about the two of them. At least in putting it off for so long, they'd avoided the need to have ever such an uncomfortable conversation. There wasn't much to tell Adam about anything now.

"I'm happy to make up with him," Oliver said, with a poke at his pasta, "when he comes up to me and apologises."

"For what?" Adam asked, not for the first time.

But Oliver just shook his head. The only downfall to not having told Adam about the two of them was that they couldn't go into the details of anything without raising a lot of questions and confusion. That, and he wasn't entirely sure for what himself. He got the distinct sense Reed was waiting for him to apologise about something.

"Look, you're obviously going to make up eventually," Adam said, trying a different tack. "So why not just skip the unnecessary beefing and do it now?"

"Is it obvious? That we're going to make up?"

"Yes," Clair said, looking up from her phone to insert herself into the conversation. That was a new, unsurprising addition to their lunch table; now that Adam and Clair was dating again, as if all the bickering arguments of Val Thorens had never happened, she sat with sometimes again. "Even if you didn't spend most of your time staring at each other — "

"We do not — "

"You do," Adam said, bored.

"Even if you didn't," Clair said, with a lazy flick of her fingers, "which you do, you're clearly miserable without each other. One easy way to end that misery."

Oliver said nothing, even though he wanted to ask if Reed was really miserable, whether he'd said that to them. He gave his pasta another unenthusiastic poke. At Charlie's party, Clair had made it clear she suspected there was something going on between Reed and Oliver, an opinion was most likely only confirmed by Reed's defensive response. Oliver wondered whether she had mentioned any of it to Adam. Seeing as neither of them had brought it up to him, Oliver was willing to leave it at that and pretended not to notice the significant look Adam and Clair exchanged at his silence.