Notes: I've had this idea rattling around in my head for a while, but I wanted to try and write a decent amount before I uploaded the first chapter. I have about 11k written already! I don't know if anyone will actually want to read this, but i'm having a lot of fun writing it anyway.
This first chapter is quite short, and is basically just their meet-cute moment. (This whole story started as a drabble prompt for my au first meetings series.) So Oliver kinda starts out thinking Felicity will just be a fun way to make the summer more interesting, but yeah that doesn't last long. He falls for her pretty quickly, but he's 19 what can you do? Felicity's going to be the slightly more level headed one - trying not to get in too deep and all that... but more on that later!
Rating will change at some point.
Chapter 1 (We'll Be Counting Stars)
Last night I came across a girl
We met? for the first time
I finally felt alive
It was Thea who talked him into it.
The idea of spending the whole summer in a beach house with his father was not exactly compelling. But Thea had looked up at him with her eyes swimming with tears and told him all about how this would be the last time she'd get to see him before he went off to college and he'd been putty in her hands.
It was their father's way of making up for the fact that he'd decided to divorce their mother very messily and publically just a couple of months earlier. He'd already bought Oliver a car and Thea a pony, but apparently a family trip away was just what the doctor ordered. The fact that Oliver was nineteen and really would rather spend his summer with his friends in the city, was not taken into account. Nor was the fact that without Moira, it wasn't exactly a family trip, merely another one of Robert's 'side with me' tactics.
But Thea wanted it, and Oliver hadn't been able to say no to her since she was ten months old and her first word was 'Ollie'.
So that was how Oliver found himself driving out of Starling City in the holiday traffic with Thea chatting his ear off about some new TV show she'd just discovered that was, "Literally the best thing ever."
Robert was following the next day in a chauffeured car. Oliver had insisted he and Thea drive up separately; he may be forced to spend the whole summer in a house with his father, but he wasn't about to spend five hours in the back of a car with him. Besides, road tripping properly in his brand new Audi was a lot more fun than being stuck in the back of a stuffy town car.
He frowned when a bubbly pop song came on the radio, some teen singer crooning about her perfect guy and her cowboy boots, and weren't they listening to classic rock a second ago?
One glance at Thea's face and he was rolling his eyes and reaching for the stereo.
"I thought we agreed. Driver picks the music, shotgun shuts her cakehole?"
He found a station that wouldn't cause his ears to start bleeding and laughed at Thea's huffy expression.
"I should never have introduced you to that show." She grumbled. "All you ever do is memorize Dean's lines and sass me with them."
Oliver grinned. "I'm too lazy to come up with my own material."
Thea stuck her tongue out at him and kicked her shoes off, propping her feet up on the dashboard. He smacked her ankles gently.
"Hey! No messing up the car."
She rolled her eyes and sighed dramatically, but moved her feet, folding them under and sitting cross-legged on her seat.
"Jeez, PMS much?" She quipped, grinning at his sour expression.
"What the hell do you know about PMS? You're thirteen." She rolled her eyes again, it was all she seemed to do these days. "Yeah, yeah. Just keep your feet off my windscreen, and your hands off my radio and your crumbs off my seats."
"Yes sir."
The first couple of days went fairly smoothly. Oliver and Thea lounged by the pool, while Robert split his time between burying himself in work he'd brought along, and awkwardly trying to connect with his kids. Oliver had long since reached the point where he really couldn't care less what his relationship with his father was like, but Thea was appreciating the effort.
Oliver and Robert managed to go nearly a week before dissolving into one of their fights.
It started out with a passing comment about Harvard and quickly escalated into a full-blown row. Thea let them be, retiring to her room to put in headphones and try to block out the yelling. She'd been doing that for years.
Oliver could remember a time when he was afraid of his father. He would cringe away when he was angry, take his word as law, and do everything in his power to please him. But not anymore. Not for a long time.
These days he gave as good as he got, because any fear or respect he'd ever had for Robert had long since melted away.
"Every Queen man goes Harvard. That's what we do. We go to Harvard, we study law or economics or classics and then we step into the family business just as our fathers did before us. And you will be no different. You will honor your legacy Oliver." Robert yelled, starting the age-old argument they'd had many times before.
Oliver gritted his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut, his hands bunching into fists at his sides.
"So that's just it then? I get no say in where I go to school? No say in what I study? No say in the rest of my fucking life?" He spat, bitterness coloring his tone.
"Watch your language boy."
Oliver snorted. The man who cheated, lied and embezzled, to name a few of his crimes, berating him for cursing was more than slightly ironic.
"I am not a boy. Not anymore. You can't intimidate me and bully me into doing what you want any more Robert." He drew himself up to his full height, which was a clear two inches taller than his father.
"I've tried to do this the easy way Oliver. I've tried not to be your enemy but you continue to give me no choice. So I won't give you one. You will go to Harvard and study whatever the hell I tell you to study, or you can kiss your trust fund good bye." His tone was brittle and final and his eyes were empty as he delivered his ultimatum.
Oliver's eyes widened in surprise.
"What?"
"Give up the fight now son. Enjoy the rest of your summer, and in the autumn you'll take your rightful place at my alma mater."
Oliver felt like he was suffocating as he stared at the cold expression on Robert's face. He didn't want his whole life mapped out already. He wanted to live, he wanted to explore, discover what he really wanted to do.
Not just follow in his father's footsteps; a company that took up ninety percent of his time, a soon to be ex-wife he couldn't stand, and children he barely knew. That wasn't what Oliver wanted.
As he pictured the future he was being forced into, his chest grew tight as his lungs burned with the onset of a panic attack. He turned and strode out of the room before Robert could object. He needed to get away. He needed to breathe.
He stormed out of the house and slammed the front door behind him, gratified when it crashed loudly against the frame. His anger was quickly being replaced with pure panic and he took off down the beach before he could really think through what he was doing. He just had to get away. Away from his father and his games and his threats and away from Thea and her confusion and her hurt and just away from it all.
He ran across the sand, letting the exercise burn off some of his anger. He knew it had been a bad idea to come on this trip, he and his father hadn't seen eye to eye for years. It wasn't that he'd ever done anything particularly terrible, he hadn't. Well not to his kids at least. He'd never been faithful to Moira and had done little to hide that fact from Oliver and Thea. He'd spent most of Oliver's childhood in the office or away on business trips, popping in every now and then to voice his disappointment in everything Oliver ever did. As a result, he'd reacted by acting out even more, purposefully failing classes and starting fights just to see the reaction he'd get.
As he got older he stopped caring what his father thought at all, and started just living for himself. Well, Thea too. He could never bring himself to do anything that would hurt his sister.
At the end of the summer he'd be going to Harvard, in the wake of a very generous donation. And the simple thought of it made him want to be sick.
He'd only been allowed to take his year out to travel with Tommy after he threatened to run away to Vegas, marry the first stripper he saw and go to a community college within walking distance of The Strip. Robert had decided not to call his bluff on that one.
But clearly he'd had enough. Because he knew he'd won. Oliver could never turn his back on his money, he wouldn't know what to do with himself. He'd grown up rich, and he'd lived rich his whole life.
He ran until his feet began to hurt.
He sat down in the sand and fell back, lying down so all he could see was the vast expanse of starry sky above him.
He closed his eyes and let the soft sound of the waves calm him. Letting himself, for a short while, allow the suffocating feeling that clawed at his throat to dissipate. The air tasted salty and fresh and the night was balmy and warm, it was a small, rare moment of peace.
He wasn't sure how long he lay there before he felt the air shift above him and he had the sudden sense of being watched.
He snapped his eyes open and blinked in surprise when all he could see was a girl's face peering down at him. She gave a small shriek when his eyes opened and quickly stumbled backwards.
"Oh thank God! I thought you were dead." She exclaimed, righting herself just before she fell onto the sand. She frowned and looked at him quizzically. "You are alive right? That wasn't just a post-mortem spasm or something? Although I've never read about those causing the eyes to open. That would be pretty cool though! Talk about zombie horror…" She stopped herself and looked down, counting backwards from three under her breath. "Sorry." She mumbled, heat rising to her cheeks.
Oliver sat up and took in the sight in front of him. She was beautiful, this babbling creature before him, she had long blonde hair that curled prettily over her bare shoulders, and blue eyes that stood out even in the moonlight. Her skin seemed almost luminescent in the dusk and her jean shorts did nothing to hide the fact that her legs seemed to go on for miles.
He realized after a second that he still hadn't said anything and was probably freaking her out, ogling her like that. He cleared his throat and smiled quickly.
"Well I'm definitely alive!" He said, cringing at his lameness a second later. She didn't seem to mind though, returning his smile with a bright flash of perfect white teeth.
"That's a relief! There was a murder on this very beach in 1987. People still talk about it to this day. Some kids found the body. Plastic bag over the head… It was awful." She trailed off again and pressed her lips together. "Well since you're not dead… Are you okay?" She asked, her voice soft and sweet as her brows pulled together in concern.
She was adorable. Oliver didn't think he'd ever used that word to describe a girl, even in his head. But as he watched her wring her hands together and chew on her lower lip he couldn't help the smile that crept across his face, because she really was adorable.
"I'm fine. Sorry if I scared you." He said finally.
She shrugged slightly, folding her legs under her and joining him where he was seated on the sand.
"It's okay. This is a great place to come and think. I think I've made all of my big life choices on this beach."
He quirked an eyebrow at her.
"All your life choices? Aren't you a little young to be making those?" He asked, a teasing lilt to his voice. He felt comfortable with her, a complete stranger who'd so trustingly started chatting to him on a dark beach at night.
She rolled her eyes.
"I'm seventeen. I have all sorts of big decisions to make, thank you very much." She grinned. "What about you? What's got you exiling yourself to the sand?"
"Exiling myself to the sand?"
She lifted an eyebrow as though daring him to challenge it.
He wasn't sure why he told her. Maybe it was because he didn't know her. Or maybe it was because the second he'd opened his eyes to see her beautiful face staring down at his, he'd felt at ease. Peaceful. Like he could spill his guts and make a complete fool of himself and it wouldn't even matter. Which was ridiculous because he literally just met this girl and for all he knew she could be the last person in the world he should be telling his secrets to.
So really, when he opened his mouth and the words just fell out, he was almost as surprised as she looked.
"Everything just got to be too much, you know? My dad's got my whole future planned out for me. College, career… I don't get any input in any of it. I just felt like I was suffocating… I had to get out of there and just… breathe for a bit, I guess."
She nodded, her eyes wide and understanding. But she didn't pry for more details.
"That sucks." She said simply, giving him a soft smile.
He returned it easily, a weight lifting from his chest.
"Yeah."
She lay back on the sand, resting her hands on her stomach and staring up at the starry sky above. He joined her, lying down beside her and looking up at the vast expanse of space above them.
"My mom used to bring me out here whenever I was sad about anything. She'd say that there was nothing more humbling than looking up at the stars. It puts everything in perspective for a moment, giving you a break from whatever worldly problem is wearing you down, even if only for a minute." She whispered.
He focused on the billions of tiny pinpricks of light, marveling at their abundance. It was beautiful, now that he was really looking. The whole scene was beautiful. The beach, empty of all but them, the sky, inky blue decorated with millions of twinkling stars and the moon shedding it's milky light over the calm sea, illuminating the face of the beautiful girl beside him. He turned his head to look at her, noting the slightly rapturous look she had on as she gazed up into the night.
He stretched his hand across his body until it hovered beside her, palm open.
"I'm Oliver." He said quietly.
She turned to look at him, her eyes shiny and full of life, her cheeks tinged pink and her lips pulling up at the corners.
"Felicity." She replied, fitting her small hand against his much larger one.
He squeezed it gently, his thumb absently brushing against her knuckles before he let go.
"Nice to meet you." He murmured, barely above a whisper, trying to ignore the way his hand was tingling where her skin had touched his.
"Nice to meet you too." She smiled, before turning her eyes back to the stars.
He wasn't sure how long they lay there, sharing the night in a comfortable, companionable silence, but by the time the slight chill began to get to him and his eyes began to feel heavy, the stress and panic he'd felt before had all but disappeared.
He felt calm and relaxed, like that feeling you get after a massage or a really good night's sleep.
He didn't want to move. He wanted to stay there, lying on the beach beside this beautiful enigma he'd managed to stumble across, or vice versa as the case my be. But Thea would be worried about him and he knew that it was time to go home. Back to reality.
He sat up slowly, stretching his arms above his head. He looked back down at felicity to see her watching him with a unreadable look in her eyes, she quickly averted her gaze before joining suit and pulling herself up off the sand.
"I should head home." She said quietly, gesturing vaguely behind her.
He nodded, standing up as well. He hadn't noticed their height difference when they were seated, but he had nearly a foot on her now, and it seemed to make her all the more precious.
He found himself not wanting to say goodbye, and stalled, searching for a reason to prolong his time with her.
"I'll walk you home." He decided, hoping she'd agree.
She hesitated for a second, turning to look over her shoulder back the way he assumed she'd come.
"I just want to make sure you get back safe, it's late." He explained, watching her silent debate.
She nodded finally and gestured with her head for him to follow. He quickly fell into step beside her as they walked up the beach.
"Do you live here full time then? You don't seem like a holiday-maker."
She snorted.
"And I thought we were the ones who could spot the townies a mile off. It turns out it works both ways." She said lightly.
He chuckled, enjoying her easy banter.
"Born and raised." She gestured around them. "This has been my backyard since I was old enough to walk."
He smiled at the thought, wondering what life would be like growing up out here in the middle of nowhere with nothing but the sand and the sea, the small town and the seasonal tourists. It sounded peaceful, comfortable.
"Sounds nice."
"It is. But I can't wait to get out of here to be honest. I mean, it's beautiful and I love it, of course. But I want to go… see the world I guess." She shrugged, her flip-flops scuffing the sand as she walked.
He nodded in understanding. "I'm sure you will someday." He replied gently.
She nodded and smiled brightly. "We'll see."
It didn't take long before a lone house set back in the dunes drew into sight. It was small and old, but beautiful in it's own way. Almost idyllic. There was a veranda and a porch swing, screen doors and big windows. The pale mint green paint was peeling but the windows shone a cozy orange through the gauzy curtains and the place emanated a sense of safety and warmth.
"Home sweet home." She announced, echoing his thoughts.
He walked her to the front steps, where they stood facing each other, neither saying anything for a second, just taking in the sight before them.
Oliver finally broke the silence, clearing his throat and trying to ignore the slight nervousness that had settled in his stomach.
"Will I ever see you again?" He asked, surprised to find just how much he wanted to.
Her eyes met his, blue on blue, her gaze steady and strong, wide and innocent and all together captivating.
She twisted her lips into what could only be described as a coy smile before replying softly.
"I don't know. Will you?"
He bit back the grin that threatened to spread across his face and his eyes twinkled as he looked down at her.
"I think I will." He whispered.
She nodded, giving him one last smile before turning to walk up the steps. She paused at the door and turned to look at him once again before finally disappearing inside.
He walked slowly back along the beach, a smile on his face at the idea that perhaps, the summer could be better than he'd thought.
Please do let me know what you think! It's been a while since I tackled a proper multi-chapter fic!