Starling City: 2012

Dinner was going as well as it could be, Oliver was still getting used to all the changes that had occurred over the period of time that he had been gone. He had missed his friends and he was glad to see them. Tommy was still the same as he remembered
him, his appearance hadn't even changedmuch maybe just a tad older. He still wore his trademark smirk. Laurel had changed a lot more, she had gone to law school and now was a lawyer for a company down in the glades called CNRI, she had always
talked about being a lawyer and he was happy that she followed her dream.

He noticed something about the two even though Tommy and Laurel tried to hide it, they were going out. He was not an idiot it was easy to tell by the way they interacted with each, the subtle glances and small touches when they though he wasn't looking.
He understood why they were trying to hide it, I guess. He just didn't think they should have bothered. He and Laurel had stopped dating a year before he disappeared. He figured out while he was dating Laurel that Tommy had a crush on her, truth be
told it was one of the main reasons why he did dumped Laurel. Not that he told her that.

He remembered the days after that,in a way theywere terrible because he felt guilty about the way he had led Laurel on and theexpression on her face afterwards made him cringe at just how much it had hurt her. They had also been good
days as well because there was also a feeling of relief for not having to lie and pretend in that timehe alsofound a person that he accidentally told his biggest secret to and they didn't judge him or hate him for it like he had expected
in fact he found out they weren't all that different and that they were both lying to the people they loved, stranger yet they were both lying for the same reason.

Sara had come knocking at his door with an aura radiating anger directed at him, demanding to know thereason for leaving her sister. He repeated the excuses he gave to his former girlfriend in a uninterested way, using his playboy attitude to cover
the real reasons and how he actually felt. Sara had just yelled at him more, and told him she wouldn't leave until he gave her the real reason, and not to try repeat the same bullshit he gave Laurel because she knew he was lying.

After hours of talking and arguing she had made cracks and chips into his dam of defensive lies and fake attitude and finally the truth spilled from him without him meaning for it to. Two little words that change everything "I'm gay." He had expected
her to look disgustedand charge out of the room to go tell Laurel the horrible truth. What happened next was not expected, because he had only ever told one other person, his father and that had turned out very, very bad.

She had sat there and openly stared at him shocked, then and air of understanding washed over her which then quickly turned to anger. "If you're gay then why did you date my sister in the first place?" Oliver just looked down at the ground, and told her
about coming out to his father, to say he was unhappy about it would have been a large understatement. He had yelled at Oliver saying that it wasn't possible,he came from a well-known family and being gay was just not an option. He had refused
Oliver's arguments telling him he would marry a girl and have children when the time came, that this nonsense was just something he thought up to annoy his father. In the end Robert had threaten to cut him off.

At first he had wanted to say that that was fine he would just go out on his own, but then logic kicked in. He hadn't finished collage, barely got through high school, never had a job and had been arrested. Without his family name to support him he was
nothing, no one. That had scared him and he caved in to his father's demands. Thinking back now he should have just followed his own path he would have survived, he proved he was quite capable of that on the island. Shēngcún.

So per his father's orders he had started dating, a lot. "But, why Laurel?" Oliver's expression was sad as he looked at her. "I thought I could be happy with her, I already loved her as a friend, so I thought maybe as time went on I would come to love
her as more." Ollie looked back up at Sara. "But as time passed, I knew I was just lying to myself and to Laurel. I dumped her because she deserves to be with someone who can truly love her. No matter how much I tried, that will never be me." Oliver
was waiting for the burst of outrage at his selfish reasons but nothing came for a long time, they just sat in the room in silence. "I think I can understand where you are coming from." Was the reply Sara gave slicing through the silence.

"How are you so relaxed about this? I just told you my biggest secret." Oliver was looking at her with disbelief, "So?" she said with a shrug. "So, I don't know I expected more of a reaction I guess." another shrug, "You probably would have got more of
a reaction if you told anyone but me." Now Oliver was just plain confused, "What's that supposed to mean?" Sara smiled as she spoke the next words, "It means that I know how you feel because you chose the one person that shares the same secret." It
took a while for Oliver's brain to process the meaning of that, when he did he let the first stupid thought slip from his mouth. "You like girls?"

After that night they became quite close as friends because finally they both had someone they didn't have to lie or hide who they were.

"Oliver? Are you listening?" He was dragged out of his thoughts by Tommy. "No, sorry what did you say?" Tommy rolled his eyes like it was typical Oliver not to be paying attention. "I said I think we should celebrate, it's not every day you come back
from the dead." Oliver contemplated that, he didn't really feel in the mood for a party, so he lightly brushed the suggestion aside saying "Maybe in a couple of days, at the moment I don't really feel up to it." Tommy nodded and clamped his hand on
his friends shoulder. "That's okay man, Now that your back we have plenty of time." he said it with a big smile. After that the conversation died down into a nice quite exchange of small talk.

They had been talking about the things he had missed while away, Until Thea asked a question everyone else had been avoiding but also extremely curious to know they answer to. "So what was is like?" Oliver held his smile in place, hoping that the question
was not leading to where he thought it was. "What was what like?" Thea just looked at him like it was obvious, "The Island." 'The smile dropped and his expression went blank, "Cold." was the only answer they got, Thea was about to ask more but, Raisa
had come through carrying a bowl of fruit. She tripped on the edge of the carpet and would have fallen and dropped the fruit if Oliver had not steadied her and caught the fruit. Everyone was surprised to hear Oliver talk to her in Russian. "I didn't
know you took Russian in collage Oliver?" Without thinking Oliver said. "I didn't know you wanted to sleep with my mother?" With that sentence Ollie realized he hadn't complete lost his childish side.

He regretted it as soon as he spoke it, but refused to apologize. So he excused himself and went back up to his room. Everyone else just sat there not knowing what to do, apart from Kyra who was oblivious to the conversation and was quite happily shoving
various foods into her mouth.