Laurel Lance's Life is a Country Song

by Nicolette134

I wrote some of Laurel's finer, and some of her less than finer, moments into country songs. Laurel Lance was my favorite character on Arrow, besides Thea, and I actually started this little project pre- "Eleven Fifty Nine", so things have obviously gone a little sideways since then, which I've tried to incorporate into the story. Let me know in the comments if I missed anything!

7. I Could Handle This Pain

My head is poundin'
Too much red wine
I wish I didn't love it like I do
It gets to me every time

She may have a drinking problem, but he had a sleeping-with-her-sister problem, so it's all pretty relevant, isn't it? And maybe she was being petty, and maybe he'd changed, but, hell, she wasn't necessarily in a forgiving mood, and she didn't think he deserved her forgiveness any time soon, either.
Her father tried to talk to her, her mother too, in her rare appearances in Laurel's life, even Thea had tried to talk her down. But it wasn't how much she hated Ollie that was the problem- it was how much she missed him despite it all.

I've never been held the way you held me
I've never been hurt the way you hurt me
I could handle this pain, forget your name
If you hadn't loved me like you had
Why'd you have to be as good as you were bad

When they were good they'd been so good. You wouldn't've imagined it, based off of the number of times they broke up or the number of times he'd cheated on her, but she wasn't crazy, they had had their good times too. Oliver, Ollie then, had been scared of commitment, immature, and a thousand other terrible things, but he had loved her. There'd been times when they he'd been so sweet to her, so caring. He'd wanted to marry her, after all, hadn't he? And he'd carried that damn picture of her around for five years, so clearly he felt something from her, and Lord knows she'd felt something for him.

They say you remember the past
Better than it really was
But there was a time when it really was
So good

She was good at playing the role of the scorned woman. She'd never make her peace with Oliver's role in Sara's death. Maybe an essential part of moving on was actually getting away from the person; not making their barely-legal sister your new full-time ward and seeing them all over town. But, then again she and Ollie'd never had a typical relationship with one another, and now they certainly didn't now.

I could handle this pain, forget your name
If you hadn't loved me like you had
Why'd you have to be as good as you were bad