Title: The Course of True Love

Summary: Oliver Queen is in love with Felicity Smoak, who is roommates with Laurel Lance, who isn't sure if she is still in love with Oliver, who happens to be friends with Tommy Merlyn, who is in love with Laurel. Tommy is trying to woo Laurel after their one night together, but Oliver thinks he's into Felicity due to a misunderstanding. And poor Felicity is just trying to be a good friend and pretend she isn't in love with Oliver Queen. College is hard.

Disclaimer: No One belongs to me!

Couples: Olicity, Tommy/Laurel

Author's Note: So This is my first Olicity fic. I began watching the show and couldn't stop. I had the idea about a kind of shakespeare mixed up love story for awhile and finally I just wrote it down. Don't worry there's not much shakespeare lingo or anything it's just mostly the misunderstandings of the sitauation and the assuming because of lack of communication. It of course all comes to a heed in the finale. I hope you like it! There is swearing and the rating may change as well to M. Please review!

Enjoy!

"And yet, to say the truth, reason and love keep little company together nowadays." A Midsummer Nights Dream by William Shakespeare

Chapter 1: Shakespeare For Beginners

The first thing Oliver Queen noticed on his first day of classes at the Great Yale University – it was the second week for everyone else in the class, he just enjoyed being fashionably late – was the girl chewing on a red pen.

She was sitting in the fifth row from the top of the lecture hall right next to the aisle and she seemed to be taking notes on a notebook and a laptop.

Later, he'd wonder what drew him to her, whether it was the oddness of her note taking in two different ways, or was it the fact that seeing her lips wrapped around a red pen was the first thing to get his heart pounding in longer than he cared to admit.

The way she moved the pen in between her lips was the most sensual motion he had seen in a very long time, and that was saying something, since he usually went home with multiple girls on a weekly basis.

As he watched her suck on the end of the pen his mind wandered through every blowjob he'd ever had – or really the ones he could remember – and he knew without really being able to explain it that every one of those would dim in comparison to her's.

His mind went back to that previous weekend and how he had taken two different brunettes home – one for Friday and one for Saturday – and they both had the same come hither look, a look he'd seen on many woman. And he was willing to bet Red Pen Blondie's come hither look would be just as titillating as the mind-blowing blowjob his mind had conjured up.

He gulped when he saw her pause and look up at the teacher who seemed to have said something that probably warranted his attention.

He honestly had no idea what was going on in this class. He wasn't even sure what the class was, he kept having to look at the syllabus the girl to his left had given him with a flirty flip of her hair and batting of her fake eyelashes. He grinned managing to get out what had been going on in the class the previous week from her and then had attempted to ignore her the rest of class once his eyes landed on the blonde with the red pen.

He looked down at the syllabus and spotted ECON102: Principles of Macroeconomics. Shit, why was he taking this? He didn't even know what Macroeconomics was. He looked up from the syllabus just in time for the professor to announce their dismissal.

"Hey! You're Oliver Queen, right?" the girl who had given him the syllabus asked.

He flashed her a charming smile and let his eyes roamed her body. He'd give her a six.

"Yeah." He replied grabbing the one notebook he'd brought to class and the pen he'd stuck in the spiral part of it.

"Do you want to be in my study group? We meet Thursdays before going out." She flirted.

He frowned, "we need to be in a study group?"

"Well, yeah. The teacher told us to hook up with some people and then give him your names so that he can know who to put us with for projects and stuff. So are you in?" she asked taking a step toward him.

He blinked and looked across the aisle to see the blonde carefully packing her things up before getting out of her seat and heading toward the door. He grinned as a plan began to form in his head and instead of answering Syllabus Girl he headed toward the door to corner Red Pen Blondie.

"Hey!" Oliver called out putting a hand on the girl's shoulder.

She immediately stiffened and whirled around to face him suspicion lurking in her bright blue eyes. He felt the air leave his lungs as his eyes came to rest on her face.

He didn't generally go for the nerdy look, but she was rocking it hard. He even got a Naughty Librarian impression from her and his mind automatically went to her sitting on a desk holding a rule and threatening to spank him. He shook his head mentally chiding himself that a Naughty Librarian would definitely spank him with a large tomb-like book, like the Bible or Harry Potter Number Five or something.

Her hair was in a tight, high ponytail, the color was like of one of the lemon squares Raisa used to make, the ones that had the browned edges and always tasted divine. The curls flowed down her back and he desired to reach out and touch the bouncy ringlets. He bet they smelled citrusy and felt like silk.

There was a flush already spreading on her cheeks and he couldn't help his body's reaction to the pleasant crimson creeping onto her face. He wondered how far down that blush went and he found himself eager to find out. Her eyes behind the square glasses were a bright cerulean that caused an odd tightening in his stomach, one he had never experienced before. He brushed the feeling away and tried not to concentrate on her ruby colored bow-shaped lips.

"May I help you?" she asked frowning when he didn't say anything.

Dear God, could she ever. There was a tightening in his pants and he seriously needed a hand – or a mouth – to help him out.

"I was wondering if you wanted to be study buddies." He said giving her the Oliver Queen Charming Grin that worked on all the girls.

"Um…why?" she asked scrunching her nose up and looking absolutely adorable. And he didn't usually use the word adorable to describe girls—hot, sexy, gorgeous, yes. Not adorable. But she really was. She had a light and innocence he hadn't seen in quite sometime, maybe even ever.

"Well, you seem like you know what's going on in the class and I'm already pretty lost." He said giving her his best innocent look.

Her frown deepened and she looked him over in unease. "I'm not doing your work for you." She blurted out.

"I don't want you to do my homework. I want to work together. You know, be partners. Or something." He said shrugging a little.

She bit her lip and he felt the sudden urge to lean forward to tug that precious lip free. If there were going to be any biting of lips they would be from his teeth on her lips.

But the affect of watching her nibble on her lip was a bigger turn-on than he'd ever thought it would be. He'd seen girls bite their lips thousands of times, but there was something distinctly naughty when she did it. It really added to the Naughty Librarian look that she had going on.

"I don't even know you! Why do you want to work with me, anyway? I mean, there are, like a hundred students in our class and I'm sure one of the girls would be honored to work with you. Especially since you look very nice. As in nice-nice. Not like attractive-nice. You look like a nice guy. The girls would be very honored to work with someone so…nice. Not that you only work with girls, I'm sure you aren't sexist. Guys work too, not that you're into guys or anything. You don't seem gay, not that there is a way to seem gay. Anyway! My point is you seem like you could get help from anyone! I mean, not like you look stupid or anything. You look very capable. In school, I mean. Not…anywhere else." She said her cheeks reddening a little more.

He smirked at her and watched as she shifted uncomfortably before him. He had never heard anyone talk so much in his life. And it was the most enduring thing he had ever heard. Between the rambling and the blushes he found himself wanting to hear her speak again.

"I'm Oliver Queen." He said holding a hand out to her.

He waited for the inevitable reaction. The fawning and swooning when girls found out his name. He waited for the gasp of shock, the little giggle, and the flirty eyes than landed on him. He waited for the inevitable hungry look that overcame their features, whether it was for money or for lust he never really cared. He usually came out the winner anyway.

He continued to wait for her reaction, but it never seemed to come. A feeling of uncertainty washed over him and he watched her carefully waiting to see recognition was over her features, but nothing came.

Instead she blinked, crinkled her brow, and tilted her head as if she were seeing straight through him to the rotten core beneath the bravado he put on.

"Huh." She responded taking a step back.

"And what's your name?" he asked taking a step forward.

"You know, you look kind of familiar…" she trailed off ignoring his request for her name.

"You've heard of me?" He tried to make it sound nonchalant and like a statement, but it came out more as a question.

She shrugged disinterestedly and turned to walk back to the way she was headed.

"Wait! What about your name?" he yelled trying to ignore the microscopic part of him that was hurt by her not caring about his name. He certainly cared about her name.

He knew he was being self-centered thinking every person he came into contact with knew him, but it had been awhile since he'd come across someone who didn't swoon over his name, or you know him in general.

She glanced back over her shoulder and gave him a playful smile. "It means intense happiness." She called back to him.

He was surprised at the grin that spread across his lips. It had been awhile since anyone had challenged him. It was definitely refreshing and he was definitely into the challenge. Making Red Pen Blondie his study buddy and hopefully something more would be his next mission. His mind was already thinking of other things her lips could wrap around.

Game on Red Pen Blondie.

Felicity Smoak got back to the suite apartment she shared with three other girls after her run in with the guy from her Macro class.

She had roomed with Laurel Lance the previous year when Laurel was a freshman, but the other two girls Nyssa al Ghul and Melinda Sanchez she had only lived with since they moved in two weeks ago.

Laurel and her had gotten along fine the year previously, and they figured why mess with a good thing. She and Laurel were closer than they had been the previous year, especially after Laurel had opened up to Felicity about how she had found her boyfriend fucking her sister over the summer. They had spent a whole night drinking two bottles of wine and commiserating about family letting you down. God, knew Felicity had a whole ton of experience with that when it came to her mother. And now sadly enough Laurel did too.

Nyssa was a good roommate so far. She was foreign and seemed nice enough, although Felicity found it odd that she didn't ever smile, but maybe it was a cultural thing. Nyssa was also a bit of a neat-freak and the one and only fight that had occurred –so far – was between her and Laurel about the state of the living room. Laurel wasn't the neatest person and had a tendency to throw her shoes in the middle of the room when she came home. Felicity didn't mind, since she was used to it, but Nyssa claimed to almost having broken her neck. So fighting commenced.

Melinda on the other hand was a bit of a weirdo. And that was saying something since Felicity was saying it and she tried not to call people names because of her school experience. She was known as Freaky-Felicity throughout school and calling anyone something derogatory was just something she tried not to do, unless they were being a jerk of course.

Melinda hadn't talked the entire first week they moved in, not when any of the three other girls had tried to talk to her or when they asked her opinion on decorating or furniture. Also Melinda stayed in her room most of the time. The first time she had opened her mouth was to tell them that she had taken an abnormally large dump in the bathroom and it was clogged. Laurel had insisted on calling the janitor, Nyssa had demanded Melinda clean up the mess, and Felicity had baked cupcakes to try and keep the peace.

Needless to say so far the living situation had been weird.

Add on the fact that she had been virtually harassed by some odd guy in her Macro class she was having a more than bizarre start to her third year at Yale than she'd ever had in the last two.

The guy though in his defense hadn't been harassing her. And she'd be lying if she didn't find him the tiniest bit attractive. Attractive was an understatement though. He was downright ridiculously hot. Hot couldn't even cover it. He was just gorgeous, like some kind of God. A Sex-God probably. He was one of those guys that you meet and couldn't believe they were real. Or talking to you.

In her case talking to her. And believing he was real, but mostly talking to her.

She'd seen Laurel talk to guys that looked like Odd Macro Guy. But she was Nerdy Felicity, not Gorgeous Laurel. So if a hot – mega delicious gorgeous incredibly hot – guy was talking to her then he probably wanted something. In this case a guaranteed A in Macroeconomics.

Although if today's class was any indication the class would be easy as ever and she didn't really understand how anyone could get anything below an A in the class. The only reason she was taking it was because she needed to make sure her credits were at least fourteen to guarantee her financial aid, an elective, and she figured knowing economics would be helpful. She'd taken Micro last semester so Macro was the obvious choice. Plus sometimes it was nice to use another part of her brain besides all the computer science stuff she was learning because of her major.

Anyway, the guy was hot and probably gunning to use her brain to pass the class, but the name…the name rang a bell for her and for some reason she couldn't place it.

What had surprised her the most about the encounter was how she actually got words out instead of garbling a response and babbling. Well, okay she had babbled once.

If she had met the guy – Oliver Queen – last year before losing her virginity to Cooper she probably wouldn't even have been able to form words, but Thank God for shitty cheating boyfriends. At least they were good to help talk to hot guys in her Big Girls Words, instead of rambling.

"Hey Felicity!" Laurel greeted when she came through the door.

Felicity smiled and moved toward the couch to collapse beside the brunette.

"How was Macro?" Laurel asked concentrating on some notes she was organizing in a binder.

"Good." Felicity said shortly her mind still on the guy from her class.

Laurel nodded and continued organizing her binder full of notes when one of the pieces of paper ripped off the ring and she let out a groan.

"Dammit. Now I have to redo this whole page of notes." Laurel grumbled.

"You could just type them up." Felicity pointed out.

She shot the blonde a glare and Felicity put her hands up in surrender.

"Can you grab my loose leaf in my room? It's on my desk." Laurel asked.

Felicity sighed playfully and got up from the couch to head toward Laurel's room. She walked straight over to the desk, which was covered in various items ranging from hair ties to pictures in frames and folders of different subjects to books for pleasure. As she grabbed some spare pieces of paper her eyes landed on the pictures on Laurel's desk. There used to be three, but after the drama from the summer Laurel had ceremoniously burned the picture of her and Sara, her sister.

Now there were only two left. One was of her and Felicity at last year's the end of the year dorm party, and a picture of Laurel, Tommy, Sara, and another guy at a ski resort.

Felicity must have seen the picture a thousand times, but as she stared down at it she realized where she had heard the name Oliver Queen before. Oliver and Laurel had dated. And to Felicity's knowledge Laurel was still very much in love with Oliver Queen. Looking back through the sessions of crying and the talks over the phone during most of the summer Felicity had no idea how she could've missed such a big detail, but then again Laurel had also referred to Oliver as That Fucking Douchebag or other colorful names.

Felicity felt an odd sensation twist in her stomach and it took her a minute to realize that it was guilt. Because despite the fact that she knew Oliver probably would've just used her for her brain, she would've said yes to being study buddies. Now, she definitely couldn't. Hoes before bros and all that—or is it Bros before Hoes for girls…anyway it's all of that Girl-Power stuff.

She hurried out of Laurel's room with the loose leaf clutched in her hand her mind running a mile a minute as she recalled all of Laurel's complaints about her boyfriend.

If Felicity recalled correctly the two of them had met in high school and had dated on and off throughout that time. Then Laurel had left for Yale and Oliver had headed to Harvard and then Brown – he'd gotten kicked out of both – they had decided to get back together for the upteenth time, but at the beginning of the summer right as she came home from the east coast she had walked in on her sister and Oliver doing the nasty in the living room.

Laurel had spent a majority of the summer ignoring both Oliver and Sara and complaining about the both of them to Felicity on the phone. Felicity figured that, since she felt betrayed by the two closest people in her life she allowed her to wallow all summer, but now that they were back at Yale she hoped that Laurel could move on. Laurel deserved someone who was kind to her and didn't cheat on her. Someone like…Tommy. Tommy, who had revealed his crush to Felicity the semester before when they had gone out and drank a little too much, since then Felicity had been attempting to get Laurel and Tommy together to now avail whatsoever.

The course of True Love never did run smooth.

"What took you so long?" Laurel asked curiously.

"Nothing." Felicity said quickly.

Laurel cast her a strange look then shoved the loose-leaf paper into the binder writing a little reminder to copy her notes.

"Hey…I was just wondering…do you know if…Oliver Queen goes here?" Felicity blurted out.

Laurel blinked and looked over at her in surprise. Felicity watched in regret as a cloud of darkness drifted over her. "He does. Tommy told me." Laurel responded darkly.

"That sucks." Felicity said trying not to think of his mischievous blue eyes.

"Yeah…but…I mean, maybe it's good. Maybe I'll…have closure or something." Laurel said quietly.

"Closure is good."

"I mean, I can't hate Sara forever and Oliver and I were friends first but…I guess it's the principle of the matter. She's my sister and Oliver is, well the love of my life." Laurel said petulantly.

"Love of your life? Really Laurel? You're 20! No one meets their True Love at 15." Felicity said snorting.

Laurel through her an indignant look, "You're 18 and all last year you claimed Cooper was the one! And besides I never said he was my True Love. I said Love Of My Life. There's a difference."

Felicity frowned, "what? How? Soulmate, True Love, The One, Love Of Your Life, its all the same thing!"

"And that my friend, is why you aren't an English major." Laurel said getting off the couch and packing her bag up for her afternoon classes.

"You're a poly-sci major!" Felicity yelled after her as she disappeared out the door. She heard Laurel's echoing laugh and she huffed leaning back against the couch to think further about Oliver Queen before she had to be at work.

Tommy Merlyn was already tired of school and it was only the second week. The only silver-lining of his schedule this year was that Laurel was in his ENG 256: Shakespeare class. He had to take it because…well he wasn't really sure, but Laurel was in it and he was one of very few straight men in the class so he didn't mind. Plus, you know, Laurel.

He had wanted this year to be the year they get together. He had been planning all summer, since their rendezvous at the end of the year dorm party last year. It was hands down one of the best nights of his life, but when he had gone to tell Laurel that he loved her she had been on the phone with Oliver – his best friend who he really couldn't hate because of that fact – who was begging her to get back together.

She relented and then low and behold the Gods were smiling down on Tommy when she called him yelling to reveal what his best friend had done. Initially he was a little nervous that Laurel would blame him for the situation, since he and Oliver were best friends, but when she called him a week later after finding her sister and Oliver together he knew he had nothing to fear.

Now, all he had to do was show Laurel he wasn't Oliver and hopefully she would realize that she was just as in love with him as he was with her.

The only problem of course was the fact his friend was now at school with them at Yale, which kind of put a damper in his plans, since generally Oliver cheated on Laurel, she lashed out, and then they got back together. It was a fucked up merry-go-round and Tommy was ready for both of them to get off of it. He loved them both, obviously in different ways, and he thought they both deserved someone better than what they were offering each other. Preferably Oliver would end up with some leggy blonde model and Laurel with him.

Now, this year he had plans and he was ready to execute them.

"Hey man." Oliver said startling Tommy out of his thoughts.

Tommy looked up from A Midsummer Night's Dream, the first Shakespeare play they were reading in class and over at Oliver who slid into the chair beside him.

Tommy had found a secluded area in the library, but he knew once Oliver sat down he wasn't going to get beyond the ten pages he'd attempted to read. Seriously, none of the words made sense. He made a mental note to pick up the movie…or maybe ask Laurel for a translation. If he was lucky he wondered if he could convince her to act it out for him or with him. Whatever.

"What's up?" Tommy asked putting the book back in his bag.

Oliver shrugged playing with the edges of his spiral notebook.

"Do you have any classes the rest of the day?" Oliver asked sounding a lot more somber than his usual upbeat self.

"I have one tonight, but that's it." Tommy said strategically leaving out the part where he had the class with Laurel, and that he really should read up to Act III, like the syllabus said. He scoffed internally wondering when he had became so studious that he followed the syllabus.

Maybe when he had decided to pursue Laurel seriously and he wanted to show her he wasn't just a rich partying playboy.

"Why are you in the library?" Oliver asked suddenly as if he just realized where they were.

Tommy smirked, "Librarian is hot."

Oliver turned to look at her and something darkened in his eyes. Tommy's smirk widened as he watched his friend take in the petite red head behind the counter. That wasn't the real reason, but Tommy didn't want Oliver to know he actually was studying and not checking the red head out, although when he got bored…let's say his eyes wandered.

"You wanna get out of here?" Oliver asked suddenly turning to him.

Tommy nodded, moved away from the table and swung his bag across his shoulder. "I know a good coffee shop." He said casually.

Oliver grunted in reply and they walked out of the library.

Tommy kept shooting him confused looks, not sure what was going on with his friend. Oliver wasn't usually a quiet guy. He was talkative, joking around, and animated, but this Oliver seemed distant and closed off. Tommy frowned wondering what had happened since that morning when they had last seen each other.

"What's wrong?" Tommy asked as they headed across campus.

"What do you mean?" Oliver asked shooting him a confused look.

"You're all…weird. Did you not get that hot blonde's number you had been talking about last night or something?" Tommy inquired.

Oliver frowned and slowed his steps down. "What hot blonde?"

"The one from the club. You said you recognized her from school or something. You said her name was Jessa or Jessica or something."

Oliver's frown deepened and he all but came to a stop. "Jessica doesn't mean intense happiness."

"What?" Tommy asked confused.

"Nothing…just. This girl in my Macro class."

Tommy laughed and clapped him on the shoulder. "There's always a girl."

"No, this one's different. She's…just…I don't know."

"Is she another girl to use to make Laurel want to get back with you?" Tommy asked unable to keep the hardness out of his tone.

"What? No! I don't…I mean, I think Laurel and I are done. For real this time. I fucked up pretty bad." Oliver muttered.

Tommy chuckled, "yeah you kinda did. She talked about you all summer though. Although not in the way you'd want to be talked about."

"What did she say?" Oliver asked curiously.

Tommy hesitated and then sighed. "Man, you don't really wanna…know. You might just want to let her cool off for awhile. Find some other girls to fill your time. Yale has a nice selection of them. Try that Jessa girl or something."

"I don't remember a Jessa."

"She's the girl—"

"I don't really care. Listen, I met this girl in my Macro class and she's just…she didn't know who I was." Oliver said indignantly.

Tommy laughed loudly amused by the disgruntled look on Oliver's face.

"It's not funny! She just…she was chewing on this red pen and—"

"Do you know what kind of red pen it was too? Was it a Bic or a really nice—"

"Shut it, Tommy!" Oliver snapped.

"I'm just saying, man. You remember the color of the pen? I don't even remember the faces of most of the girls I sleep with! How do you remember the pen color?"

"She was different."

"Because she didn't know who you were?"

"No because…just because. She rambled too and she didn't seem impressed by me at all. I asked her to be study buddies. She didn't seem too into the idea."

Tommy shrugged as they neared the coffee shop. "What's her name?"

"That's another thing she didn't even tell me."

"Then I'd just let it go. What's the point in chasing some girl when you have a bunch throwing themselves at you." Tommy said logically, but deep inside he didn't fully mean his words. After all he was already chasing Laurel and there were plenty of girls throwing themselves at him left and right. He just didn't care since none of them were the one he wanted.

"I guess, but still. I want to get to know her. She seems…I don't know, special or something. She told me the meaning of her name, like I had to work to find out what it was." Oliver said opening the door to the café.

"What is it?" Tommy asked ducking inside and looking around the place.

"It's—"

"Felicity! Hey!" Tommy said waving at someone behind the counter. There was a wet splat and Tommy tried to contain the laughter that bubbled to the surface. He watched as Felicity blushed and attempted to clean up the spill she had made.

Tommy turned to Oliver to say something, but he found him staring at Felicity a strange look on his face. He brushed off Oliver's weird behavior, just as he had done since he showed up in the library and then walked over to the counter to order his drink. He'd really need it if he was going to get through his night class with Laurel. He decided to grab a double chocolate caramel muffin for her too knowing they were her favorite.

Oliver stared at Tommy in shock at knowing Red Pen Blondie. He slowly turned to the counter to see Felicity standing and holding a jug of milk pouring it into a plastic cup. He watched as she fumbled then dropped the cup at Tommy's greeting and then she turned about fifty shades of red. He felt an odd pull in the pit of his stomach, but he ignored it in favor of watching Tommy smile at his Red Pen Blondie.

Wait, she wasn't exactly his…but he hoped that soon enough she'd be.

Where did Tommy even know her from anyway? Was she Tommy's new girl? The one he had been trying to impress the last two weeks?

Oliver knew something weird had been going on with Tommy. Since they had started school the week before he had almost done nothing except study during the week and when they went out on the weekends he barely even talked to other girls. Was Felicity Tommy's little secret? And how come Tommy hadn't told him about her?

He continued to watch Felicity and Tommy talk animatedly until he couldn't take being left out of the loop any longer.

"So how do you two know each other?" Oliver asked breaking into some ridiculous tale Tommy was telling her.

Felicity looked away from Tommy and stared at Oliver in surprise as if she hadn't even seen him standing there. He had been ignored now twice by this girl. Once, when she didn't even acknowledge his name and now for his best friend, whose hand he just noticed was resting on Felicity's forearm.

"Oh! Macro Guy, I'm sorry I didn't notice you there!" she said in such sincere shock he actually genuinely believed she had bypassed him for Tommy. Then her eyes widened as if she just realized what she had said. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to call you Macro Guy, that's just what I call you in my head…not that I think about you or anything. Because I don't. Think of you I mean. That would be weird." She blushed furiously and turned back to Tommy.

He watched her ramble and something in him warmed at the idea of her thinking about him. He felt torn between wanting to call her out on thinking about him and wanting to divert her attention away from Tommy. He had always hated being ignored.

He shook his head slightly mentally chiding himself to play it cool and when he tuned back into the conversation he heard her ask Tommy to continue his story. He got two more words out before Oliver spoke again.

"I figured out your name." Oliver said interrupting Tommy who looked between them in barely concealed amusement.

"Did Tommy tell you?" she asked raising an eyebrow at him.

Oliver leaned against the counter and stared her right in the eye. "No he didn't, Felicity. I looked it up all on my own."

She smirked and glanced over at Tommy. "Do you want a gold star?" she asked playfully.

Oliver scowled and opened his mouth to ask again how they knew each other when Felicity began to speak.

"Tommy and I met in Microeconomics last semester. I helped him pass." She said answering his first question.

"She more than helped me. She saved my ass." Tommy said smiling over at her.

She smiled back bashfully and shrugged her shoulders. "I couldn't resist that smile."

Tommy laughed and the rapidly growing tightening in Oliver's stomach washed over him in an emotion he had never felt before. The tightening had quadrupled until he felt an odd queasiness in his stomach. He frowned and tried to swallow the feeling down, but as Tommy and Felicity continued to talk he realized that the feeling was just gaining momentum, like a snowball rolling down Mount Everest. He gritted his teeth and tried to calm the twisted feeling in his gut, but all he could concentrate on was Tommy's hand on Felicity's arm and the inside jokes and laughter the two were sharing.

Suddenly Tommy pulled away and announced he had to leave. He watched his best friend take a white take out bag with some treat in it from Felicity.

Oliver tried to ignore the blood rushing in his ears as their fingers touched briefly when she handed the bag over. The twisted feeling in his stomach was at an all time high and their brief encounter seemed to heighten it even more. It was like a monster struggling to free itself from the confines of his chest.

Tommy said 'goodbye' to Felicity and then Oliver before heading out of the café. As Tommy left so did the odd feeling in his gut and suddenly he found himself alone with Felicity. He breathed a long sigh and the feeling inside him seemed to evaporate until he was left with a warm fuzziness in his stomach. It was strange, like fluttering butterflies mixed with nerves he only got when he was faced with some situation he wasn't familiar with. But that was ridiculous because all he was doing was talking to some girl – some girl who didn't seem to care about his social status at all or the fact that he was Oliver Queen – and that was pretty normal.

She stared at him for a moment before moving down the counter to go fumble with some containers.

"So you never answered my question from earlier about being study buddies." He said moving down the counter to stand in front of her.

She glanced up at him and sighed.

"You're ex-girlfriend is my roommate." She said giving him a hard look.

His heart sank at that declaration and he wondered whether she would overlook that or side with whatever girlfriend she knew. He had no idea who it could be he had heard a few of them were in New Haven.

"Who?"

"Laurel."

His heart hit rock bottom and he tried to fight off the guilty and regretful feeling he associated with Laurel.

"You know Laurel." He commented nodding slowly and trying to figure out some way to talk her out of whatever Girl-Power morals she had.

"Yeah, so…I don't think being study buddies would go over well with her." She said giving him compassionless look. He found he wasn't very fond of the expression even if it was on her. He didn't like the hardness in her eyes. She should be sunny and light, not prickly and dark.

"Well…" he said trailing off and trying to come up with some reason she should still have him as a study buddy.

Her hard look changed to one of disappointment and she sighed heavily, "look, I know what you did. She spent most of the summer crying to me about it. She still loves you and I don't…I don't want to get in between whatever True Love bullshit you two have together."

"True Love bullshit?" he asked smirking.

Although inside he felt sudden anguish at the fact she knew about what he had done. Yes, after it happened he felt guilty, mildly guilty really, but still guilty. He couldn't erase that stunned look on Laurel's face when she came home from the east coast, but he didn't necessarily regret his tryst with Sara. Sara was fun. And flexible. How could he regret it?

But seeing and hearing those words off Felicity's tongue…well he felt the unfamiliar feelings of regret and a wave of despair crash over him at the look of disappointment in her eyes at his actions. Not even the stunned look on Laurel's face had haunted him, but he knew without a doubt the look in Felicity's eyes definitely would.

It wasn't even that she was judging him; it was the fact that she looked personally offended by his actions, like she saw enough good in him that him hurting anyone so monumentally was…impossible. Or maybe it was the disbelief that someone could do that to another human being that really tugged at him.

His stomach flipped at the look in her eyes and he genuinely and deeply regretted sex with Sara and hurting Laurel. It was weird and he wanted to wipe the feelings away, but they were there even if he crushed them down deep inside.

Suddenly she rolled her eyes and gave him a wooden look as if she could sense his avoidance of his feelings.

"Laurel deserves…what you did…" she trailed off and shook her head.

"Listen, I just need to make sure I pass Macro and since you helped Tommy out…maybe you could help me too." He said deciding that he might as well be point blank about the issue. He had previously wanted to get into her pants, but he knew that if she knew what had happened over the summer between the three of them then she was probably not going to want to get down and dirty with him. Although he really wanted to, especially after having another daydream about her when he saw the librarian when he went to find Tommy.

He might as well just become study buddies with her so he could at least get his grades up enough to stay at Yale for more than a semester. If he couldn't bang her, he might as well use her for something good.

She frowned and looked away from him down at the containers she was still holding.

"I don't know…" she said chewing on her lip.

The same spasm of desire when she tugged her lip with her teeth ripped through him and he clenched his hands so as not to move forward and press a kiss to those bright plump lips.

"Maybe." She said finally giving him a small smile.

His eyebrows raised in surprise and he actually smiled for what felt like the first time in days.

"Really?" he asked surprised.

She shrugged trying to act nonchalant, but he could see through the forced façade. "I need to ask Laurel first." She admitted and again his heart sank.

He knew without a doubt that Laurel would most definitely tell her to tell him to go fuck himself. He winced inwardly at the fact that he would probably have to end up joining Syllabus Girl's group and risking getting kicked out of Yale too.

He watched as she shifted uncomfortable before him and then looked toward the cash register where a girl was looking at her in annoyance.

"I have to go." She said nodding at the customer.

He resisted telling the customer to fuck off and nodded giving her one last charming grin before heading toward the door. Except he couldn't go without knowing one last thing.

"Are you into Tommy?" he asked trying to divert her attention back to him as she attempted to make a Chai latte.

She glanced over at him distractedly, "Yes, of course. He's my friend."

Oliver felt his stomach drop at her assertion and he for a split second wanted to tell her all of the awful things Tommy had done—although to be far he had done some pretty bad things too. Laurel and Sara case and point.

He opened his mouth to respond, but instead turned away, his mind working a mile a minute to understand how a sweet girl like Felicity could see anything in his playboy best friend. He scowled as an unwanted image of them getting sweaty and naked on a desk filled his thoughts.

The desk he was supposed to get her sweaty and naked on, but now…She seemed to like Tommy. For whatever reason. Even though Tommy was his best friend Oliver knew he wasn't the best boyfriend. It wasn't like Tommy would stay loyal anyway…Tommy was just like him and he had never been loyal to any girlfriend. Like ever. He was definitely not someone Felicity deserved, although he didn't know her as well as he wished he did so how would he know what she did and didn't deserve. He didn't even know why he cared. He had only just met her literally, like six hours earlier. She was just some nerdy blonde he was hoping to utilize so he could pass Macro and stay at a school for longer than a semester.

His scowled deepened as the image of Felicity's disapproving look infiltrated his mind when she mentioned what he had done to Laurel. He tried to shake it away, but it was still there and then the image of her and Tommy played again in his mind he decided that he seriously needed to get laid.

Like he needed to get laid yesterday.

And drunk.

He needed to get drunk too.

So he could wash away the unwanted images of Tommy and Felicity and ignore the weird sensations in the pit of his stomach. He didn't know why he cared about Felicity anyway or why he had these weird feelings about seeing her and Tommy together. But if there was one thing he had learned today it was that he didn't like the idea of Tommy and Felicity together. Not one bit.

(A/n: So what do you think? SHould I continue?)