Best Friends
Xander’s POV
I exhaled the moment the words slid past my lips. Surprisingly, after my mini outburst just now, I felt lighter. The tightening in my chest that seemed to be stuck when Oliver couldn’t keep shut about Kieran, had suddenly disappeared. My head felt lighter and my vision was tinted with red anymore. I could see the world for the colors it was in and it looked beautiful. That, and the surprised look on Oliver’s face was more than satisfactory.
Time seemed to slow to a halt as none of us moved. Oliver who was hyper active just a moment ago was as quiet as a rock. If I hadn’t seen him move his lips prior to my outburst, I would come to the conclusion that he was now mute.
“Oliver?” I called out after some seconds. It was surprising how after a moments worth of silence between us, something began to churn in the pit of my stomach. Guilt. “Oliver? Are you okay?”
“Shit.” Was all he mumbled. He looked lost as his eyes glazed over. He was looking straight at me, but I could bet a million dollars that he couldn’t see me. ” Shit, shit, shit.”
“What is it?” His attitude was scaring me. ” What’s wrong?”
“Xander!” He yelled out of the blue and I flimched. “Dude, I’m so sorry. I had no idea. At all.”
I stared at Oliver some more. His eyes were still the size of saucers, and that could only mean two things; he was still more than shocked and was definitely trying to reel all the information in.
“It’s fine.” I mumbled finally. I heard once before running a hand through my hair. “You just didn’t know.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?!” Before I could dodge, Oliver’s palm hit me square in the chest. “Why didn’t you say anything earlier?!”
“Oww!” I hissed. Oliver had caught me off guard and he knew that was the only way he had scored a blow on me. “What did you do that for?”
“You didn’t tell me anything.” Oliver frowned. “How could you keep something like this from me?”
“I didn’t.” I rolled my eyes. “I was going to tell you after you’d settled in. But you were just so impatient you couldn’t control yourself.”
“Sorry about that.” Oliver grinned sheepishly. With a small smile, he added. “But you can’t blame me, have you seen Kieran?”
“What?” The frown on my face was massive and natural. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Relax.” Oliver’s hands went up in mock surrender. ” I meant that in the purest way possible.”
“How so?” I folded my hands across my chest. “Remember, you have one trial. If you so much as hint flirtatiously towards Kieran, I’ll break your bones right this instant.”
“Wow.” Oliver guffawed. “For a moment I’d totally forgotten you had the protective nature in you. But it’s not your fault, since you were mateless for the whole of your life it’s only natural that part of you would disappear.”
“Hey!” Oliver was taunting me and the loud strings of laughs he let out was more than enough proof. “You watch your tongue…”
“Or else what?” Oliver smirked. “I didn’t say anything wrong though, I was only saying the truth.”
“What were you saying about Kieran?” I asked instead. It was surprising how I didn’t want Oliver talking about my mate, but at the same time, I wanted to know what he thought about her. “Spill, now. Before I change my mind.”
“Has no one told you that threats don’t work between best friends?” Oliver grinned. “Even if the other one is a powerful alpha.”
“I’m going back inside.” I shook my head, before spinning on my heels. “Come back in when you’re ready.”
“Hey, hey , hey.” Oliver’s exclamations had me halting in my tracks. It was a trick to get Oliver to speak, and right now, it was working perfectly fine. “Don’t you walk out yet. I’m not done with you.”
“Say what you want to say and let’s get this over with.” I nodded. “You do remember we have lunch to finish, right?”
“Right.” Oliver chorused. “I’m still starving too. Do you think Kieran would mind getting me some more food?”
“Oliver.” I let out through gritted teeth, my voice dropping by an octave. “Be careful.”
“Sorry, sorry.” Oliver didn’t look the least sorry. In fact, it the sly grin he had on his lips meant anything, he was riling me up and having too much fun about it too. “As I was saying, Kieran is beautiful. No, gorgeous.”
“And?” If Oliver had even the tiniest bit of brain mass, he would have understood I wanted him to shut up immediately. “What else?”
“Honestly, she makes the word gorgeous sound like an understatement.” Oliver whistled. “Literally. She should be called an Angel, or a goddess.”Upstodatee from Novel(D)ra/m/a.O(r)g
“And?”
“And her voice is so sweet and soft.” Oliver cooed. “They’re like music to my ears. I could listen to her talk all day long. I should ask her if she’s a good singer. I can bet my life she has an angelic voice and…”
“That’s it.” I grunted. Before Oliver could make the next move, I rushed towards him. A loud yelp slid past his lips as I grabbed his hands, before pinning them behind his back. “You never listen do you?”
“What did I do?” Oliver let out, in between small yelps of pain. ” I told you I wanted to tell you about Kieran…”
“You didn’t tell me you wanted to flirt.” I shot back. I gave the back of his knees a gentle nudge and just as I’d expected, he fell to the ground immediately, his knees coming in contact with the grass. “I’ll teach you a lesson.”
“Come on now, Xander.” Oliver’s shouts were slowly morphing into laughter. “I was only messing with you.”
“And I’m messing with you too.” I grinned, even though I wasn’t sure he could see me. ” Since your idea of messing with me is riling me up with Kieran, then you’ll just have to endure some pain.”
“Look.” Oliver’s laughter was uncontrollable now. “Look, I’m sorry. I was just joking. Have you forgotten im The joker?”
“Your jokes are lame.” I quipped. “Really dry.”
“Whatever you say.” Oliver chuckled. “Just let me go.”
“Whatever you say.” I did as I was told. The loud thud in which Oliver plunked to the ground was more than satisfying, and if I could do it again, I would pin him the way I’d just did.
“Asshole.” He spat, before we both broke out into a laugh. Our laughter hit the sky for a couple of minutes, before slowly crashing down again. In a more serious tone this time, Oliver added. “Congrats man, I’m happy for you.”
“Thanks.”
” I know how hard it was for you when you couldn’t find your mate all those years.” Oliver continued. “But now, I guess we can say it was worth the wait.”
“Yeah.” I smiled.
“Oh my God!” Oliver exclaimed. “You’re blushing!”
“No!” I pulled my lips into a tight frown immediately. “No I’m not!”
“Yes you are!” Oliver was on his feet immediately. “Just wait till I till everyone especially Kieran and…”
“No.” He froze at the sound of my voice. Slowly, I watched him turn towards me. ” No, don’t do that. You can’t tell anyone, you can’t tell anyone else Kieran and I are mates.”
“But why?” Confusion dripped from every inch of Oliver’s voice. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing really.” I sighed. ” We just want to keep it that way. For the now.”
“Are you sure?”. Oliver pressed on. “If something’s wrong you know you can tell me, right?”
“Nothing’s wrong.” I gave him a lazy grin. “Come on, let’s go finish lunch. And maybe, just maybe I might let Kieran serve you a second round.”
Oliver chuckled, but even that wasn’t enough to erase the eerie feeling that I’d just let one more person in on our little secret.