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Chapter 4: Into the Mall

Finn's POV

"Please turn that off." I groaned in annoyance as 'Shape of You' by Ed Sheeran started to play on the radio.

"Why? It's a bop." He said very innocently as he did a little dance in his seat.

I groaned again, crossing my arms on my chest as I looked out the window, trees and houses blurred by. After the atrocious song came to an end, 'Feeling Myself' by Nicki Minaj and Beyoncé came on.

I perked up but I didn't want to make it obvious that I was excited. Oliver and I locked eyes and then he smirked.

"What?" I asked as I pretended to look away.

"It's okay, you can dance to it, it's a good song too."

I rolled my eyes which made him laugh and I had to painfully stay still throughout the whole song, muttering a few words here and there. A few minutes later, we were in the mall, shopping for what's in style.

"Are you sure you can do this? Your head just got injured, I won't force you." Oliver asked.

I nodded wordlessly to his question as I browsed the men's area.

"Alright. But if you get dizzy or anything. Just tell me." He said with a smile, enough for my face to heat in embarrassment.

Oliver Hunt is gonna be the death of me.

As I continued to browse, I noticed two guys holding hands and being all cuddly. It caught me off guard because I wasn't used to seeing it. 

It reminded me of my own unfortunate faith. I wish I was confident like them to do that in public, or be at least likeable to have a person to do that with in public. Romance is something I secretly liked and even though I'm always sarcastic and pretty closed off, I still wished I had that kind of thing. That person to share my life and secrets with. It's pretty cheesy thing to hope for but it's genuine. I wanna be out, I wanna be free, I wanna be me.

That sounded like a lyric. Someone write that down.

Stuck in my thoughts, I didn't see where I was going and someone turned around in front of me, causing their shoulder to hit me. I suddenly lost balance and have started to fall backwards when a pair of arms caught me.

"Sorry dude, I didn't see you there." The girl who I bumped into said with an apologetic smile.

I returned the smile in a way of letting her know it was fine. 

Once I've attained my balance back. I looked up at the person who have caught me and was met with beautiful hazel eyes.

"You doing fine there?"

I pushed him off of me in panic, in fear of him getting suspicious. I don't think I ever want him to know I'm gay or else, I would just ruin everything.

"S-Sorry. I'm just... Sorry." I fumbled embarrassingly with my words.

He shook his head. At that moment, I had thought of the worst and thought that he started getting suspicious but the thought quickly dissipated when he gently touched my elbow which made me flinch way harder than I intended too.

"Are you okay? Do you need to sit down?" He asked, worry still on his face.

"No. Can we just continue?" 

He nodded and I brushed past him. I was suddenly shivering, I wrapped an arm around myself and started to rub my biceps to at least reduce the shivering.

After a few minutes, I had already forgotten the situation before as I looked through the racks of soft sweatshirts, feeling the fabric of each one.

"Think you can rock this?" I said to Oliver as I raised a light blue sweater off the rack.

"We'll see." He said before taking it and entering a fitting room.

Once he came back, he flashed a pose and I was immediately captivated. The sweater made him look taller and nicer. He didn't look like a jock, he looked like a nice, polite guy.

"That is definitely your style." I said with a smile as I rested my chin on my palm.

"So, sweatshirts are the one?"

"Yeah but I think loose shirts and a few hoodies are definitely the ones along with that. I was also thinking of..."

I started rambling about other styles that might work on him and as the day went on, we filled two carts full of clothing consisting of jeans, sweaters, sweatshirts, hoodies, shirts and accessories. We checked out and when I saw the overall price, my eyes almost bulged out of my sockets. I had forgotten that we were in a Designer store so I just picked and piled and put whatever good thing I could find.

But to my surprise, Oliver paid for it like it was nothing. We left the store with six bags full of clothes.

"What the hell. I didn't realize it'd be that expensive." I said in disbelief but Oliver just chuckled.

"It's nothing. If it's gonna impress Heather then so be it."

My face fell at that, the fact that he was willing to spend an insane amount of money for Heather is... admirable. But why was I hurt? I didn't have the right to be hurt, yeah, that's correct, I have no right. So I just plastered on a forced smile even though my heart was beating insanely fast and my chest throbbed.

We went to McDonalds for a quick break before going home. Oliver insisted on paying, which I was getting embarrassed of. He's just that rich and courteous.

I only realized how cold it was and I started shivering, and the cold sprite that was going down my throat didn't help either.

"Finn... You're shaking." Oliver pointed out, mid sip of his drink. He had a worried look on his face which made my chest warm immensely. But despite that, it wasn't enough to actually keep me warm.

"Yeah, it's... It's a little cold here." I said with a sheepish smile but it was soon replaced with confusion when he suddenly stood up, took off his jersey jacket and handed it to me. "What..." I trailed off as I grabbed it slowly.

"Wear it, it's pretty warm and comfy." He said with a little, cute smirk.

I wore it and it smelled like Oliver's cologne, very sweet but still a masculine scent.

"Thank you." I muttered to which he just smiled and continued eating.

After a few seconds of silence, he sighed. "Finn. We don't know each other much but I can tell you have a problem. What is it?"

I gave him a reassuring smile which disappeared quickly as it came. "It's fine."

"You can tell me anything. You might not believe it but you can trust me. But if you're not comfortable, it's alright." He stated with a smile that seemed to have calm me down a bit.

"Thank you. I'll keep that in mind."

He sighed again. "Alright. I won't force you." He said before continuing to eat.

I felt like I was annoying him so I just kept quiet. 

After that delightfully awkward meal, we finally went back to his car.

"Thank you, Finn, for doing this. It's too big of a favor with Heather and this, I promise I'll do something to make it up to you."

I shook my head. "No need to do that. I'm happy to help anytime."

Heh, no I wasn't.

"But I want to, though. Anyway, I'll take you home now." He said before opening the car door for me.

I muttered a quiet but appreciative 'thank you' before hopping inside.

After a few minutes of driving I realized the sun was setting and that we were near the cliff my family and I used to go to.

"Hey. Turn to the right." I said as we came to a familiar crossroad.

"Huh? Why?" He asked in confusion but he still turned right.

"Trust me on this one." I said with a smirk.

Oliver looked at me for a brief moment, his own smirk on his lips before turning back on the road. After a few minutes of directing Oliver where to go, he pulled over at a random spot. I got out and the sound of birds chirping immediately filled the air, just the quiet and relaxing sound of leaves rustling with one another joined it.

"Whoa... It's beautiful here." He gawked in awe as he looked around. 

There wasn't much houses here but there were some that I have became familiar with. And the best part of this place was that the sunset is right in front of us while the rest of the town was down where you can see them. It wasn't a high cliff or anything but it was definitely high enough to tower over the town and have a clear view to the sunset.

"I know right." I said, breathing in the fresh air wistfully.

Oliver looked at me for a moment, a smirk making its way unto his lips.

"You didn't bring us here to murder me, didn't you?" He joked.

I laughed slightly as I sat down on the grass. "Of course not, I'm a perfect little angel." I said, smiling innocently at him.

He sat down right beside me, just enough closeness for our knees to touch. Silence fell over us as the sun slowly set, casting a warm orange glow in our surroundings. 

Ever since Oliver confessed to me that he liked Heather back in the ice-cream shop, I've had one question that's been bothering my mind.

"Hey. What do you like about Heather?" I asked him out of the blue.

He sighed, a smile forming on his lips as he looked out the view in contentment.

"Well, she has those beautiful ocean blue eyes and when I saw her profile on Instagram, I was immediately enticed by her looks, if I'm just being honest. I read all of her post captions, all of her comments and that's how I knew you were associated with her because you were mainly the one I see in her comment section.

I nodded in understanding. "Ah, okay. So, you stalked her because you thought she was pretty."

Oliver laughed wholeheartedly. "Who doesn't? I thought she had a good personality and she was kind." He said, sighing wistfully. "And she was so protective of you so I knew she was a good person. That's something not a lot of people in the school have."

I nodded again and although I had a smile on my face, I felt a slight pang on my chest, because of it, I couldn't hold the smile on my face longer. Oliver noticed my face fall.

"Hey. You okay?" He said in a quiet, caring voice which caught me off guard.

"Yeah, it's just I'm worried. No offense to you since you seem like a nice guy but what if Heather gets hurt in the middle of this. What if she gets bullied if you two date? What if you hurt her?" I lied, but partially, I was telling the truth since I am worried for Heather.

Instead of being angry over my baseless accusations towards, he gave me a reassuring smile. "I can already tell you I won't hurt her. I'm not the kind of guy who sleeps with everyone and dumps them after. And as for the bullying part, you know I can protect Heather."

"I swear to god, Oliver Hunt. You better be sure or else. I can't see Heather be hurt since she's had a hard life already." I said, trying to sound threatening but worry was too evident on my voice.

He gave me another one of his rare, genuine smiles. "Yes... I promise."

. . .

Oliver pulled over to the side of the road. I got out and to my surprise, he also got out.

"...Did you need anything else?" I asked him.

He opened his mouth to answer when I suddenly heard my name being called from the house.

"Frederick Augustine." My father's voice called sternly just as I saw him in the doorway.

"Dad!" I said, running up towards him and he did not look happy. There were those very rare times he got mad and I was wondering why.

"Who is that boy with you?" He asked with a humorless face, locking Oliver on his position. "Is that your boyfriend?" 

"Dad, no--"

"Boyfriend? Finn, you're attracted to guys--"

"It doesn't matter what he identifies as. Who are you to my son?" My dad did not let Oliver finish his sentence and went straight to the point.

And there it was, my cover blown. Dad had outed me to Oliver and I'm sure he'll hate me forever now.

"Sir. Finn and I are just friends, I can assure you." He said, his hands raised in a defensive manner.

He squinted his eyes, as if trying to scan Oliver for any holes in what he just said. My dad took a deep breath before giving me the 'we're gonna talk later' look. 

"What is happening here?" My mom came out of the house, still dressed in an apron and holding a spatula.

"Your son brought home a boy." My dad said in irritation like I wasn't there, in front of them, listening to whatever they had to say.

The two of them started talking about whether or not it was a big deal or not. They made it a big deal, it shouldn't have. My eyes started to heat up and I was not about to cry in front of my dad and Oliver. God, everything was so fucking embarrassing. My mom and dad arguing while Oliver stood there, mortified, not knowing what to do.

While I was panicking, my eyes landed on Oliver who had already been looking at me all this time. At the time, I couldn't process what he looked like, what his face read, because of the blur that my tears have applied onto my vision. So instead, I grabbed my dad's hand to get his attention.

"Dad, please." I pleaded.

He finally only noticed that I was on the verge of crying, his eyes softened. He didn't like to see me crying but he shouldn't have embarrassed me. I know this is his overprotective side and he likes to bring it out whenever he sees a male creature even just six meters from me, same reason why I don't have male friends.

He sighed before looking at Oliver. "I'm sorry, whoever you are. I didn't mean to snap at you." My dad said calmly this time.

I didn't catch whatever what was happening because I had already ran inside and up into my room.

After around a few minutes of me just crying and soaking my pillows, I heard a knock at my door and I immediately stopped sobbing.

"Finn, I know you're crying. Let me in, let me apologize."

"Go away." I said sternly before a sudden sob escaped me.

My dad sighed through the door before it opened.

"What the hell?" I said as my dad crossed his arms at the door way.

"Finn, this is my house. I have keys to every single room here." He said with a sigh before approaching me and sitting on my bed.

"That should be illegal." I glared at him through tears.

He sighed and sat on the edge of my bed, adjusting his glasses in the process. "Finn. I'm so sorry for what I did there. It was uncalled for and I overreacted. I didn't mean to snap at your friend." He said with a remorse frown. I could practically read the guilt off of his face.

"Dad, I would forgive you but you didn't only embarrass me back there, you also outed me to Oliver. What would he think now?"

He scoffed and crossed his arms. "If he can't accept you for who you are, you shouldn't be with him then."

He was right, of course he was right. But it was so difficult to accept. If Oliver really doesn't accept me for being gay... then I don't know him like I thought I did.

I looked up at my dad, my glare replaced by teary eyes and he looked at me like he use to look at me, like I was his little, five year old son that scraped his knee running around the backyard.

"Come here, kiddo." He said before pulling me into a fatherly embrace that he hasn't given me in a long time. "I'm so sorry for that thing earlier. You know I get so overprotective of you, right? You're my only child."

I laid my head on his shoulder as he rubbed a hand up and down my back in order to soothe me.

It was just like when I was young. I'd cry over someone bullying me for being feminine and my dad would make me dinner and sing me songs and dance with me until I'd forget about everything. My dad was my lifeline and he was the man I know will never hurt me. A man I know I can trust. And a man I know loves me unconditionally despite his terrible jokes.

But a hug wasn't gonna distract me from overthinking about what was gonna happen tomorrow once I see Oliver again.

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