Chapter Twenty-Five – ‘The Plan’

TOM P.O.V

Tom was finding himself overly amused by Ollie’s behaviour. San Francisco was passing in a blur, Tom had little time to stop and look at it, he was far too busy with the lives of others to properly enjoy the experience. Still, the food was good.

Perhaps it was wrong of him to find the misfortune of others amusing, after all he didn’t really know Ollie that well and he’d randomly thrust himself in the middle of an ongoing drama between Lacey and Ollie. Perhaps it was his need to prove the ‘jocks’ from his schooldays wrong. They were always the sort of people to do things like this to others, perhaps Tom wanted Ollie to suffer as he had at the hands of those ‘jocks’ when he’d been younger. Or perhaps it had been the look on Lacey’s face when she looked at Ollie; perhaps the sheer amount of pain, hurt and longing that lingered in her eyes was enough to convince him that he needed to help her.

He couldn’t fault his decision to fake date Lacey, from Ollie’s expressions; it was proving to have been a good decision to make. Lacey had been a surprise friend. When he’d accepted the job offer of replacement drummer he wasn’t exactly looking for friends because he didn’t know how long he’d be with the band for, but he was at least hoping that he’d get on with everyone. Lacey was like a sunflower, even when it rained she seemed to be in bloom. She never let anything bring her down and was always becoming stronger as a person. Tom had been like a moth caught in her flame, she was fiery, humorous and just such a kind person.

The more he got to know Lacey the more angered he became about the actions of the people around her. Some would have pitied her situation but Tom recognised that she didn’t need pity, she needed support. It was true that Ollie had behaved abysmally and hurt Lacey almost beyond repair, but it was also true that despite all the pain and hurt, Lacey still had feelings for Ollie. Tom hazard a guess that she would always have feelings for Ollie, indeed Tom noticed from the behaviour of others that Lacey and Ollie belonged together and having them apart was causing all sorts of disrupt to others.

He wanted to help Lacey, that’s why he suggested the fake dating thing. He also wanted to see for himself how much Ollie cared for Lacey. He’d heard people tell him of their feelings and their rocky relationship but he wanted to see it for himself. Then he’d be safe in the knowledge that when Lacey and him did break-up, he’d be handing her over to someone that would love and care for her.

He’d been suspicious at first, Ollie had trailed around Lacey like a lost puppy when Tom first arrived on the scene, then after they announced they were dating, Ollie avoided the couple like the plague, only talking when spoken to and offering little or no kind remarks.

However, Tom could see a change in Ollie; he could see that Ollie had grown up since the scandal had been revealed. Tom knew that Ollie’s feelings for Lacey hadn’t diminished but rather were getting much stronger. Tom spent much of his time watching Ollie watch Lacey so he saw all the covert glances, all the heartfelt sighs, all the anger and hurt when Tom touched her in any way and Tom realised finally that Ollie was ready to be with Lacey. He was ready to care for her and love her and not hurt her.

If it had been anyone else they would have ended the whole thing then and there, however there was a small part of Tom that wanted to keep the pretence up for a little longer. Perhaps that says something about his behaviour that he willingly wanted to see another person suffer for a little while longer.

*--..--*

“Hey Tom” said Jack running up to him, behind Tom could see Bradley and Silas catching up but at a slower pace.

“Hey guys” he replied happily.

“Look we wanted to talk to you about Ollie” said Silas.

“Oh yeah what about him?” asked Tom.

Bradley sighed “he’s serious about Lacey Tom, like he knows what he’s done in the past has been wrong but he’s ready to man up and act as he should. He’s determined to win Lacey back”.

“I see” said Tom.

“Look we don’t want to put you out or anything, we actually think you’re good for Lacey. We just wanted to give you a heads up in case he starts causing you and Lacey trouble” said Jack.

Tom laughed.

“I’m not sure I understand your laughter” said Bradley.

“Well from what you’ve told me, Ollie is jealous of my relationship with Lacey and that is just fantastic” said Tom.

“Excuse me?” said Jack.

“You guys haven’t worked it out yet?” said Tom.

“Worked what out?” asked Silas.

“I’m gay” said Tom.

“But you’re with Lacey” said Jack “does she know?” he added.

“Of course she knows. We aren’t really dating you know, more fake-dating than anything. Lacey’s a really good friend of mine and when I first met her I could see how much she was hurting, I suggested we fake-date to make Ollie jealous, and to give Lacey some much needed revenge and closure. It actually took A LOT to convince her that it was a good idea but she said yes eventually” said Tom.

Bradley sighed “just once I would like a day that involves absolutely no drama”.

*-..-*

 “You’ve got to tell him Lacey” said Bradley.

Lacey turned to face the boys, a confused expression on her face.

“Tell who what?” she asked.

“Tell Ollie that you aren’t really dating Tom” said Jack.

“I…erh…how did you know?” she stuttered.

“We had a little talk with Tom earlier” said Jack.

“Really if you look closely it’s easier to see that Tom’s gay” said Silas.

“Though it did take us a little while to work it out” added Jack.

“The point is that what you’re doing isn’t fair to Ollie. We know he hurt you but this kind of revenge isn’t helpful for anyone. You need to let go of the past and move on or you’ll just become bitter and twisted” said Bradley.

“I just wanted him to see me happy without him” said Lacey.

“And now he has and he hates it. Just, maybe it’s time to stop everyone’s pain” said Silas.

Lacey nodded, thinking over what the boys had said. She was glad they’d had the courage to talk to her, it was refreshing to hear those words, they were right of course but she’d been blinded by her own need of revenge that she hadn’t been thinking of the others. The boy’s had obviously been suffering from the pain she’d been putting Ollie through and she knew she needed to end that soon.

Lacey decided that what she was doing was wrong; she couldn’t keep Ollie without knowledge of what was really happening. Her fake relationship with Tom was as bad as his time with Monica, by pursuing this relationship she was no better than Ollie, in fact some might consider her revenge worse than what Monica had done to Ollie and herself.

The boys were overly happy that she’d decided that she must come clean. The girls and Tom however had other ideas. Yes they agreed that she needed to come clean but they decided to do it in a more extravagant way. They’d decided to announce the ‘break-up’ of Tom and Lacey at a large party in LA. The couple in question would stage an epic fight, which the girls then revealed would show the extent of Ollie’s feelings.

It all seemed a bit complicated to Lacey and she should have stood up for herself and decided how it should be done but her friend’s looked so happy at the prospect of planning a party and she felt guilty for depriving them of happiness without drama for so long that she caved and let them have their own way. No doubt she’d come back to regret that decision soon.

*-..-*

“Today ladies and gentlemen we have a surprise for you. Fresh off tonight’s concert we have Ollie Smith, lead singer of the amazing band Locked Door” shouted the interviewer to the screams of the audience.

It was a rare thing indeed to score an interview with just one of the famous band; they usually came as a packaged deal.

“So Ollie, what do the audience and I owe this pleasure?” asked the interviewer.

This time it wasn’t an attractive young woman doing the interview but rather an overly flamboyant man. It had been a stipulation of Ollie’s, he didn’t want another woman outrageously flirting with him while he tried to answer questions.

“Well with all that’s been happening I wanted to tell my story” said Ollie.

“You mean your management team wanted you to sort things out?” inquired the interviewer.

“No, management had nothing to do with this interview. I felt that it was high time to tell people what really happened. I know I have been quiet on the subject and avoided all interviews and press conferences, I decided enough was enough” said Ollie.

“So tell us, for we’re all dying to know everything that happened. From Monica to the arrival of Lacey, to the big secret to the departure of Lacey, to the reveal and now to the normalcy that has been restored” said the interviewer.

Ollie smiled grimly “when I started seeing Monica I was younger than I am now and the band had only just started up. She seemed like a ray of sunshine in my otherwise hectic life. She seemed kind and loving and was beautiful. Despite what other people told me of her, I couldn’t see the negativity that they saw. I wasn’t in love but I was deeply infatuated. As our relationship grew the strength did not follow and I began to see what others saw, I noticed the bitterness and the nastiness that lay underneath the beauty and I shied away from it. However we were moving at a pace too fast for me to catch up to. We’d been dating on and off but couldn’t seem to end it or commit to it for good”.

“Then Lacey Edwards came along” said the interviewer.

“Yes then Lacey came along and everything changed. I saw true beauty and true passion and she began to be the only one I thought about. I wasn’t really attached to Monica anymore but enough to have to end it with her again. Yet I was a horrible jerk towards Lacey, instead of treating her kindly I resorted to school boy errors and was a bit of a bully towards her. I was trying to stay away and ignore my feelings for her but evidently it didn’t work. When we were in Dublin I became horribly jealous of Lacey and a man she had met. I acted irrationally and ended up horribly drunk waking up to Monica” he paused for breath.

“I didn’t tell Lacey of that night with Monica but I could tell that she knew. We never really spoke of it, we just got on with things and I finally got my chance to be with Lacey. I tell you it was like walking on air, never have I found someone that made me as happy as she did and when Monica walked back into our lives, guns blazing and announced that she was having my child, it was not my life that I was concerned about but the life of Lacey. I saw the light leave her eyes and her world crumble and I crumbled knowing that I was the cause of her pain. However I knew that I could not abandon Monica, I should have stepped away from the situation and thought about it before committing but I didn’t because I was panicking so I just accepted Monica’s claim with any real proof. Monica had our management team backing her and if management believed her then who was I to contest it” he said.

“Are you saying that you didn’t contest your management team or fight for Lacey at all?” asked the interviewer, a shocked expression on his face.

“At first I did but parenthood was looming and I was a coward. I phoned the management team and spoke to them in anger, they gave me an ultimatum, one that I haven’t told anyone else and one that a lot of people are going to hate me for” said Ollie.

The interviewer sat on the edge of his chair “the suspense is killing me, what did they say to you?”

“That I had a choice, choose Lacey or be kicked from the band. So I chose my career over Lacey and lost the one thing I discovered I couldn’t live without. I played nice with Monica and let her spend money on lots of baby things, though mostly she actually spent money on herself and all the while I watched as Lacey retreated into herself until she finally left us. She took off with Jenny – our stylist – and Elena – Bradley’s girlfriend – and we didn’t see her for several months. When she returned it was like she was a different person, she wasn’t the person we had all come to know but I knew from her expression that she’d changed for good. It was hard for all of us to see her so out of sorts. Then the scandal with Monica came out and I felt so stupid for believing her lies and I felt so stupid for all the people I’d hurt. It wasn’t just Lacey that had suffered but the band, my family, the record label, I was so frustrated about everything” said Ollie.

“And now?” prompted the interviewer.

“And now she’s dating our replacement drummer Tom” said Ollie.

“You don’t seem happy about that” said the interviewer.

“As long as she is happy I can survive but I will never stop trying to win her back, I will wait as long as it takes but I will not love another person the way that I love her” he said.

The red light turned off signalling the end of the recording, the audience clapped and the interviewer handed Ollie a glass of water. It was not a live interview and would be broadcasted on Monday evening. It was only Friday so there would be a wait before anyone would see it. Ollie hoped that he’d be beside Lacey when the interview was broadcasted for he wanted to see her reaction.