Felicity was at the pizzeria again. She couldn't get Oliver Queen out of her mind. She hated men like him. Men that were rich and handsome, but had trashy personalities. Its such a waste of wealth, such a waste of such a perfect body. Over the past couple of weeks, Oliver had popped by Felicity' classes, her internship at Microsoft, her night shifts at the library, and everywhere in between. If she didn't know any better, she'd be convinced the man was quite literally stalking her. When she finally mustered up the courage to mention he-who-must-not-be-named to Sara, she was surprised to learn that Sara had met the Queens and adored them all - despite Oliver being Oliver. Felicity was confused. On the one hand, she felt that Oliver deserved all the backlash he was getting from the video. However, hearing Sara talk about Robert Queen, she couldn't help but feel bad for the man for getting caught in the crosshairs of his idiot son's antics. Felicity angrily picked at pizza roll. What a dilemma?
"Hey! If you're not going to eat those, at least try not to mutilate them too much" Oliver slid into the booth across from her. Seeing the man sitting across from her in another $3000 suit, she couldn't help the sense of déjà vu she got. She knew they were going to talk about the video again. But this time she had a plan. She decided to help take down the video – But for the whole Queen family's sake, not just for this man. And this man, Felicity promised herself, would pay dearly.
"You're like a cockroach, aren't you? Just can't seem to take a hint. With cockroaches people try to kill them, with you they try to ditch you. Wow, I guess cockroaches really are a more extreme version of you. This would actually be hilarious if you were hiding extra arms and maybe some antennas in that suit. Oh shoot, that sounds like I'm curious about what's under the suit, but deflate that ego, because I swear I'm not. Its – Just – I – You know what? Your devil's horns are like the cockroaches' antennae. Simile fully explained now …" Felicity snapped her mouth shut, chastising herself for even opening it in the first place. Now she'd gone and lost that cool, calm exterior that was supposed to give her the upper hand in this conversation.
"You wouldn't be the first girl to want to know what's under this suit." Oliver smirked, "In fact, why don't we go back to my place so I can show – OW! Did you just throw a spoon at me? What are you? Five?"
"Why are you here, Oliver? Get to the point?" Felicity sighed. She was doing that a lot lately. But now she was about to take back her upper hand. Oliver was going to ask for her help, and she'd be the one in charge again. She could feel the edges of her lips turning upwards and struggled to keep her mouth in a straight line.
"Okay you're smirking" He pointed out, "You obviously know why I'm here … Are you really going to make me ask again? I've been practically begging you for the past 2 weeks." He paused, waiting for a response. When none came he continued, albeit not as confidently as before. "Could you please take down the video and help me undo this mess?"
"Hmm" Felicity considered drawing out her response but decided she'd tortured the man enough. "Alright", she conceded. "But there are going to be a few conditions. One, you're going to post a public apology saying that the video was a misunderstanding. Two, you're going to go out of your way to be nicer to disabled people. Help an old lady cross a street; Read to a blind man; Help a dyslexic child with his homework; Help transport people who have trouble getting around on their own. Literally any Good Samaritan act that can be caught on camera and will help your image. Three, don't try to hit on anyone in front me. Honestly that grosses me out. OH! And if I'm with Sara, that doesn't mean you can come up us and start bothering her. She would literally kill me. And then I would come back and haunt you. Because really, it would be your fault that she killed me. Got all of that?"
"Wow, you need my signature on all of that or something?" Oliver chuckled
"I'm not done yet. Four, stop trying to joke with me. I despise you. I am only doing this for your family and Queen Consolidated. We are only going to talk for this issue and about this issue. Nothing less – well actually less would be wonderful – but nothing more. Not only are you reckless, irresponsible and disrespectful to women in general, you've also screwed up the Lance family and publically insulted anyone with a disability, which, in case you haven't noticed, includes me. I'm in a freaking wheelchair. Or have you not noticed since you have yet to actually apologize to me for the video. I'm not trying to be pretentious. But really Oliver, it's the elephant in the room and it's starting to squash me." Realizing she was creating a scene, Felicity settled for one last glare as she rolled away. It wasn't until she had left the pizzeria that she realized she'd left Oliver with her bill.
Oliver sat frozen in his seat at the pizzeria. On one hand he was ecstatic that Felicity was willing to finally help him. However some of what she said had actually gotten to him. Was he really that irresponsible and disrespectful? Did he really need to apologize to Felicity for the video? He grabbed his phone and pulled up the video on YouTube. In it, Oliver and Tommy were seen walking up to a teenage boy who was talking to a girl his own age. The men had overheard the boy stuttering a few tables down and, having had a few drinks, walked up to the boy to have some fun. They had begun by simply taunting the boy, repeating what he was saying to make him nervous, asking him questions, generally trying to fluster him. But the boy had some pride and when he tried to stand up for himself, Oliver made a comment about disabled people being a burden on society. Oliver paused the video. Surely this wasn't as bad as it seemed. He was clearly kidding around. Felicity was just over reacting.
However, he needed Felicity's help. This video scandal was getting him disgusted looks from many hot girls; His father and his family were also very upset with him. He would definitely prefer more choices over dinner than an awkward silence or talks about how his selfishness was ruining the family legacy. Oliver was grateful that Laurel hadn't seen the video. She would probably be more upset than Felicity was. Felicity being disappointed in him didn't mean much to Oliver. Sure, she was hot in a nerdy way, but she seemed to already hate him too much for anything to ever happen there. Laurel, however, would definitely cut him off. And while Oliver was not closed off to cheating on his girlfriend, he knew that anyone who didn't live under a rock was disgusted by him at the moment. Resigning himself to the fact that he would be making an apologetic video to replace the original, offensive one, Oliver stuffed a last pizza roll into his mouth and slid out of his booth. He would also have to apologize to Felicity the next time he saw her.
Oliver didn't realize that he still had to pay the bill until he heard a commotion and turned around to notice the waiter waving a receipt at him. Well. Just one more humiliation to add to the family name, Oliver thought wryly as he noticed all the people staring. His mother was definitely going to cry again tonight.