Love Is Stupid and Great

So this is my newest story. I know I've been sporadic in my submissions, but you know how life can be sometimes. I will return to The Punchline, but I think I may rewrite the whole thing, as, reading over it, I felt it was very rushed and, while decent, was definitely not my best work. And I'm a writer for fuck's sake, so I should be rewriting shit cause I'm my biggest critic.

So, I've decided to wade my way back into the realm of romantic erotica and have started with the first chapter of Love is Stupid and Great. Which it is. And I'm planning on the next chapter being posted up within a day or two of this one. Will finish this story, I promise.

Hope you enjoy it! Thanks for reading.

~Sam.

*****

Coming up on his fourteenth straight hour of work, Oliver finally finished working on his newest game. Well, he had to test it and do some cleanup, but the actual bulk of the work on his part was done. Now he had to move into a different stage, but considering it's about 10:00 PM and he still Trying to make it into the video game business while also trying to get a degree doesn't leave a whole lot of free time, so on Friday nights like these, he's usually staying home.

And he's fine with that. Oliver Overton's never really been the super social or partying type. He's just an average, nerdy guy who spends way too much time getting angry over things he shouldn't. Really. It's gotten to a point where his best friend, Mark, has been suggesting anger management classes because he rarely ever seems happy unless he's doing video game-related things. And he did consider it, but he kindly told his friend to fuck off and then went back to doing video game-related things.

But tonight, he too tired to work anymore or to play games. But he knew he wouldn't be able to sleep yet. Because, you know, fuck him I guess. So, he pulled himself out of his office, slammed the door to it, drifted to the kitchen, made himself a piece of raisin bread slathered with a heavy coating of Irish butter accompanied by a tall glass of milk, sat down in his living room, and put on some shitty late night talk show. Well, it wasn't shitty, really. He was just annoyed at having to work so late.

But, he didn't feel so held down and claustrophobic after a long day at work in his own place, as his apartment was actually quite nice. It had a kitchen, a living room, a bedroom, an office, and an extra room he mainly used for storage. He had been considering making it something cool, but he's kinda lazy, so fuck it.

As the host made some kind of crappy joke about some sports company being fucked in the ass by unions, Oliver's thoughts went back to highschool. He used to play basketball for a little. Hated it. But he did meet a few of his friends through the team, so it was worth it to him.

And then, as he chomped down on raisin bread, his thoughts went to highschool in general. About how much of a lanky asshole he used to be. Like, he always thought he was a nice enough guy, but looking back on it, the amount of shit he used to think about people while smoldering by himself in Physics is shocking. He still, to this day, is kind of a quiet, shy guy around most people, but back then it was a pretty big problem. He couldn't even talk to girls without getting the feeling of bile in the back of his throat. There was only one girl he could ever talk to, but she didn't even really feel like a girl to him. Now he's better at it, but he still has enough trouble that he hasn't had a girlfriend since he's gotten into college.

Oliver's not a bad looking guy either. He has short dark brown hair, piercing green eyes, and kind of pale skin. He was in shape, he wasn't buff or anything, but he did have a pair of abs in the very least. Along with a nice smile... deep down he knew that if he really put in the effort, he could have found a long-term girlfriend by now. But he knew that most of those kinds of things end in heartbreak, anger, and in a worst-case scenario, depression.

So, best to stay away from that sort of shit.

And hell, he has more important things to deal with. Like the fact he hasn't slept in twenty-seven hours or had one decent meal other than his current slice of raisin bread and a handful of pistachios with a glass of coke earlier today. He really probably should make dinner. Really. He will. He might. We'll see.

Or sleep. Sleeping sounds a lot better. He can eat all he wants in his sleep. Hell, he could ride a ferris wheel made of pizza if he thought hard enough before he fell asleep. That sounds pretty good right now. Riding the waves of pizza love before falling into a deep slumber. Good shit-

Ding Dong!

"Motherfucker," Oliver swore as he stood up to go to bed.

The young man put down his glass of milk and began his way to the front door of his apartment. He knew who it was. This fucking door-to-door salesman fucker who always showed up late at night, despite him telling that guy to go eat a dick and calling the company to tell them to never come back to his house. He thought his name was Max or something douchey like that. Yeah. Max.

Oliver swung open the door, "Damn it, dickhead, I told you-"

But it wasn't Max the Douchey Dickhead. No, it was a short girl with neck-length, blondish-brown hair. And she was standing there, looking kind of nervous. So he stood there, looking kind of regretful.

"Do I-" -know you? Yeah. He remembered her. A girl he once was really good friends with from the time he was about seven until the time he left for college, "Oh."

"Yeah. It's me. April. I'm sort of surprised you remember me," The girl said, chuckling a little bit.

Oliver shrugged and moved to the wall, "Would you like to come in?"

April nodded and walked into his place, "That'd be nice."

Oliver shut the door and stayed there for a moment, thinking over this. He walked over to the living room where she was looking around and made sure to stay a decent distance away from her, kind of surprised by her presence.

"Uh so... Let's start off with the most obvious question, which is why are you here?"

April turned to him and set her two bags down on the couch, "I uh... well, that's sort of a long story."

Oliver mulled over this slowly, "Well... I got all night, so do you want to talk about it?"

April gave a thin smile and nodded, and after he gestured towards the couch, she took a seat.

"Do you have anything to drink? I haven't really drunken anything for a while."

"Yeah. Water? Juice? Soda? Beer? Or... I guess you can't have it yet, huh-" Oliver asked as he made his way to the kitchen.

"Beer."

Oliver shrugged, too tired to argue with her about it, "Fair 'nuff."

Hell, Oliver wasn't old enough to drink it yet. He was only twenty. But his friends were and they came over enough that they thought it necessary to keep a supply there. So he always had it on hand, and since no official from the university or his family ever came by, it never really was that much of a problem to deal with.

So he grabbed a beer from the fridge, popped it open, sat on the couch next to her and her bags, and handed her a drink. She was rubbing her eyes when he did, but when her head turned up to take a sip, he took a good long look at her. And he realized she looked as tired, if not more than he did. Sunken eyes, pale face, and a crinkled brow. She might even be sick. Hopefully not. Oliver can't really afford to get sick himself. Because of that, when she offered him a sip, he declined immediately. But, he doubted it, as her eyes also seemed sort of red.

"This is a nice couch. Really soft," April murmured.

Oliver smirked at it, patting the cushions a little bit, "Yeah. Can you believe this thing was going to be thrown away? Snatched this thing up soon as I saw it."

"Heh. Just like you, Ollie," April took another snip.

Ollie. A little pet name he hadn't heard since he visited his family last. All his friends here called him 'Double O' or just 'Double' since his name was, in fact, Oliver Overton. He felt a weird stirring at the name. It didn't really make him feel uncomfortable, but it didn't feel that natural to him now. But when it came from her, he didn't complain.

"So. I gotta assume dropping in on me at 10:00 PM after not having spoken in two years means something big went down."

April raised an eyebrow at him, "So I can't just visit my oldest friend if I want to?"

Oliver held up his hands in defense, "Don't get me wrong, it's not that it isn't good to see you, but... not to be rude, you look like hell and you're giving off an air of 'shit sucks, man'."

April set down the drink on the coffee table and rubbed her eyes again. Then she leaned back on the couch, letting off a big sigh, "Yeah. Shit does suck. And something did go down. And... well, I just kinda need a place to stay for a little while. If that's cool."

"What?"

"I just... I had a falling out with my roommate. And he kicked me out. I don't really want to get into how and why or whatever. But... I was just looking around at some places I could go to while I figured out what to do, then I saw online that you lived a couple blocks away."

Oliver furrowed his brow, "You live around here?"

"We go to the same college, Ollie," April pulled off a weak smile.

Now, suddenly, Oliver felt like the worst friend in the world. When he left his hometown, he didn't talk to anyone but his family on occasion. He even remembered that he promised to keep in touch with April. And now she has been going to the same university for, most likely, the past year and he hadn't even known about it. Jesus.

"Fuck, April... sorry," Oliver scratched the back of his head a little, "I just... Fuck, man."

"It's okay, Ollie. I get it. But um... is it okay if I crash here for a little bit? Just until I can get one of my friends to take me in?"

"Yeah. Yeah that's fine. The bedroom's right over there," Oliver pointed, "You seem like you need to sleep for a while."

"I'm good with the couch-"

Oliver shook his head immediately, "Nope. Bed. Please don't push the issue or I'll change my mind."

April took a deep breath and let it out, feeling the stress leave her body, "You look tired."

"I'm good, really," Oliver said that as much to convince her as to convince himself, "I just had a really long ass day."

April gave him a stern look and gave him a once over. He's always been a good liar, but he's always been able to see through his lies. Ever since they were eight years old and he lied about taking her stuffed hulk doll away from her. But he did his best to change his body language to 'virile and energetic' without being obvious about it.

"You should go sleep, Springy," Oliver felt a little good when a grin appeared on her face at his old pet name for her.

"I wanna talk to you, Ollie. We haven't talked at all for two years. I don't want to just walk in here and crash on your bed, I'd like to catch up."

"Don't be stubborn about it, even if I told you what's happened for the past two years, you wouldn't remember any of it. Rather sleep then when you wake up, we can talk about what's happened for a while," Oliver gave her a pat on the knee and stood up.

"Are you going to sleep too?" April grabbed her bags and got to her feet.

"Yeah."

"Oh. I feel bad now," April nervously laughed.

Oliver gave her a look over as well. April hadn't changed a whole lot since he'd seen her last. Still the short girl with blondish-brown hair he knew. Hell, her usual choice of kind of tight clothing still persisted. But she did seem... older. And maybe it's just because of how tired she was and what's happened to her recently, but she was never really this soft-spoken. She was always loud and cheerful to a point of being obnoxious, but everyone grew to love that about her. But now she just seemed beaten down by life. And he knew the feeling.

"Go sleep, April. We'll talk in the morning. We'll share stories and shit under the blanket with the laptop like we used to," Oliver gave her the best smile he possibly could and April reciprocated.

April nodded at him, "That sounds fun, Ollie. It really does. Thanks, by the way. You've always been there for me when I've needed you, you know. I'll see you tomorrow morning."

April opened the door to his bedroom and quietly closed it. But during so, Oliver's heart skipped a beat. The young man plopped himself down on the couch, his gaze turning up to his ceiling. He didn't want to see her. He didn't want her here. And it's not because he didn't like her or anything... quite the opposite, really.

Oliver has always been in love with April. And he thinks she might know it.

Oliver and April met when they were kids on the playground. Oliver's never been that manly, even when he was a kid. He was the biggest crybaby at the neighborhood playground. If anyone ever did anything that somehow inconvenienced him, he started sobbing his little eyes out. His parents always thought it was the cutest thing in the world, but it was an emotional hell for him up until he was nine. And even then, he still cried about most things that made him sad up until he was about twelve.

And one day, when he was seven, a girl kicked his Gameboy out of his hand. Obviously, tears were shed. But instead of the kids either laughing at him or running away, this girl, by the name of April Eastham, started telling him how much of a baby he was. So, naturally, they became friends after that. He wasn't exactly sure how A led to B, but he was pretty sure she said something like 'I'll take you under my wing' or the kid version of that, despite being a year younger than him.

From then on, they were hanging out pretty much every day. They did everything from drawing to exploring outside. April was always a tomboy when she was a kid and she was always yelling. When she learned how to swear, she had the dirtiest mouth Oliver had ever seen. She never wore skirts, dresses, or blouses. Just t-shirts, jeans/shorts, and sneakers. It was pretty charming, really.

And they always had a great family life too. From the time they met to the time they left, both of their families loved them to pieces and would give their lives for them. Because of their friendship, they basically all became great friends with each other and consistently spent the holidays together every year.

Somewhere along the way, Oliver fell in love with her even as a child. And he realized it when he was eleven, when she dressed up for a formal dinner during Christmas Eve, and saw how beautiful she actually was and how much he felt for her. And that just stuck ever since.

Oliver's idyllic life did not last forever, sadly. The day before his birthday, Oliver got the news that his older sister, Marie, was leaving for Harvard and he threw a fit, begging for his sister not to go. When he couldn't get anywhere with that argument, he ran away to go to the playground where he could rest and think.

His sister went after him... but she didn't return. She was ambushed by a mugger and was shot in the head. The man who was caught, named Joe, was quoted in prison for saying that she wasn't attractive enough to have any fun with and she had nothing he wanted, so he put her out of her misery. Oliver returned during the night to find the police at his house.

At that time... Oliver changed as a person. The entire Overton family changed. His older brother, David, was the rock of the family at the time. He tried to keep everyone in high spirits, but failed miserably. Even Oliver noticed that David would look at pictures of Marie and cry when he thought no one was around or no one could hear him. His mother, Anne, went through a depression, to a point where she could no longer take care of her children. And his father took a turn for the worse, becoming an extremely bitter and angry alcoholic that had to raise his kids full time and work his job as a teacher.

Oliver's father began to beat David and him on a near daily basis while his mother was most likely sleeping or trying not to pay attention. At one point he started beating her too. It became increasingly violent and then one day, he just stopped. And the next... Oliver and David found a letter from Dad and all of his stuff was gone. To this day, that letter has not been opened by anyone other than his mother.

David really stepped up then as a brother and began to take care of both Anne and Oliver. And their mother began to recover, seeing the two brothers trying to make it work in a world that seemed hell-bent on making their life worse. The three became a strong family that depended on each other and ended up being better and more loving people for it.

However, Oliver didn't come out of the ordeal the same. As was mentioned, he became an extremely introverted child and became very angry. Angry at the world, himself, his family, and everything else he could think of. To this day, that anger has persisted. And he became overweight, as eating is an easy thing to do when you're faced with hardship. It was during this time he found video games as a source of solace and fun when there was nothing else in the world for him to care about. He ended up deciding to devote his life to making video games because of this very fact.

As for April, she tried coming around to help comfort Oliver after his sister's death, so did the whole Eastham family. But after being turned away a couple times, they stopped coming altogether. The families didn't spend any holidays together or even see each other pretty much at all during this two year period of recovery. This was another sore point for Oliver, who felt abandoned by his best friend.

But when Oliver got into highschool, he began seeing April again. But April had changed herself. She became much more girly and popular. She was this extremely beautiful girl who had more friends than anyone could count. When Oliver tried to approach her, she acted like she didn't know him, because everyone in the school knew him as the depressed, creepy kid that just wrote in his notebook in the corner of every classroom.

But despite having been left by her during his time of need and being admonished as a person, Oliver still loved April and was so pissed that he did, because he knew she didn't deserve it.

Oliver's family was closer than ever now, but he had no friends whatsoever. He basically went from school to home every single day. Meanwhile, April stole glances of him when she could to make sure he was okay, but only found him alone and sad.

Eventually, Oliver noticed there was a contest being held in his school that gave a grand prize and promise of publication to anyone who made the best all-around game. So he began to actually work with sprites to try and make his own game during his sophomore year. Every single day in his notebook, he was writing something down about the game he wanted to make. He seemed more content as a person and when he got home, he was all smiles. His brother also had a big passion for video games and was looking to become a concept artist and/or a voice actor. So they worked together eventually to make a game.

And then, Oliver went up in front of his class and a board of faculty to present his game... but he had talent making video games, he had no talent in presentations. To make a long story short, he screwed up the presentation. He was fumbling around with papers, he was fidgety, and his voice caught in his throat too many times not to notice. All in all, after he became an introvert, he became very shy in front of people and girls too. April watched as he presented and she realized how his sister's death really affected him as a person. She remembered feeling abandoned by him, but she felt terrible just brushing him off when he tried to talk to her.

During summer break, April came over to talk with their mother, who was working as a successful businesswoman after recovering from her depression and was back to her cheery, loving self. They caught up and she found out about how terrible their lives had been for the last few years. She stayed over for dinner a few nights to try and catch Oliver to talk with him, but he would always stay up in his room when she came over.