Gotta Be Startin' Something ...
The next night was the usual Friday’s gig for Tha Boyz, and as usual, Miss Teacher, Miss Vegan and Miss Mauritius and I were there partying on. I was the designated driver because I wasn’t really in the mood to be drinking, and I still had an absolute ball. I’m so glad that I’m one of those people who can have fun without the need for alcohol - so many of my friend’s aren’t.
Late in the night, after Tha Boyz had finished, we all wandered into the smoking section to sit and have a chat. Drummer Man joined myself and Miss Teacher, while Miss Mauritius and Miss Vegan joined Djembo Man and his friends at the table right in front of us (the usual crowd of Djembo Man, Dreadlocks Jnr, Olly (who’d cut his shaggy locks and shaved his head, I think it was a number 1 or 2 - man it was weird!) and Snowboarder (one of Djembo Man’s best mates and Miss Mauritius’ love interest at the time). After a little while, Miss Teacher wandered off to get a drink and Drummer Man pounced on me with a question he had obviously been dying to ask but wasn’t going to while Miss Teacher was around. It was a fairly random question about a girl standing near us and some strange behaviour from her and those around her inside while Tha Boyz were playing, and it amused me slightly. Miss Teacher came back and he stopped talking about it lol. All the while we were talking, I could feel Olly watching me, and every time I checked out of the corner of my eye, he was looking at me. It was a bit unnerving, but I ignored it.
Drummer Man wandered off to pack up his gear, leaving Miss Teacher and I sitting on our own on the bench, but it was like 5 seconds flat before we were approached by a Pom standing nearby asking to steal a cigarette. He struck up conversation and had us in stitches pretty much straightaway. Gaz was the classic comedian, everything was a joke, and he dubbed me “Flange” because that’s what he thought I said when I introduced myself. His Pom mate soon joined us and they went to town trying to impress us. They were good fun, but it wasn’t long before I looked up and caught Olly glaring at the Pom talking to me. It amused me slightly, but I also thought “ner ner” lol. He caught my eye and I couldn’t read the expression in his face properly, but he wasn’t happy. I could feel his eyes boring into me continuously, and every time I looked up, he was staring at me. It just happened that he was sitting exactly opposite me. After a while, when he couldn’t make me break away from the Pom, I saw him put his empty glass down quite heavily and push back violently on his stool as he got up. I punctuated it with a laugh, even though I didn’t mean to. He turned to talk to someone standing up, but he kept looking in my direction, firing darts out of his eyes at Pom. His jealous tanty amused me lol.
He got a drink and sat back down, again watching Pom and I. The table around him cleared slightly as a couple of people left, leaving him an even clearer view (Snowboarder and Miss Mauritius had been bobbing in and out of the way until that point). Gaz and Miss Teacher were flirting up a storm beside us, and Pom and I were having fun. Then Olly started mouthing words to me. I can’t remember most of what he said though. He made a wanking gesture and looked at Pom, who caught him. Pom asked if me if Olly was calling him a wanker and I replied by saying that Olly was talking about himself. He kept mouthing things to me, and I remember some of them being pretty funny and making me laugh. Miss Teacher was on my case pretty quickly, telling me to ignore Olly, but I couldn’t really. Then he mouthed “F@!k you” to me. Quick as anything, I mouthed back “You wish”, got up and went to the bathroom, brushing past him on the way. The look on his face was priceless LOL - I can’t quite describe the confusion and shock as his jaw dropped hehe.
When I came back, some of them were getting ready to leave, photo’s were being taken and I didn’t go sit back down, I just stood close to the group, between Olly and Pom, who was also standing. All of a sudden, Pom grabbed me to start dancing with him, dipping me and all. Olly’s face turned to stone - the competition was on lol. Dreadlocks Jnr and Olly said they were leaving, so Olly came over to me to give me a hug. He pulled me into his embrace violently - I actually bounced off his chest - and I let him know it hurt it with an “Um, OW!” He apologised, ruffled my hair (a habit of his) and pulled me into a much softer hug. We pulled away and I patted him on the head, telling him, “That was much nicer, thank you, you’re learning”. The Poms invited us back to the Mooloolaba Backpackers where they were staying, and though Miss Teacher was keen, I was the voice of reason (as usual) and the plans were changed - Snowboarder helped by inviting us back to Djembo Man’s house (Djembo Man and Miss Vegan had already gone home). We started to say our goodbyes again, so Olly took the opportunity to give me another hug before he and Dreadlocks Jnr walked out and the two Poms, Miss Teacher and I drove off to meet Miss Mauritius and Snowboarder at the public toilets about 300m away from Friday’s. They ended up walking home, while we picked up a random guy along the road who the Poms recognised as a fellow backpacker, but didn’t actually know. He turned out to be a Kiwi doctor. Gaz was keen to come back to Djembo Man’s house with us, while Pom picked it. The three boys went upstairs so that Gaz could get some more alcohol and Miss Teacher announced that Pom really liked me, making me laugh out loud and reply with “Yeah obviously, that’s why he’s piking it on us!” She replied that he was piking because he was looking for a one night stand, he realised I was too nice for that, and he respected and liked me too much to force any more. I just laughed. Didn’t make any difference to me, as much as they were nice guys and lots of fun, I could tell from 100 paces that they were players. Gaz and Dr Kiwi came back down and we drove to Djembo Man’s, sitting outside in the patio area. It wasn’t long before Snowboarder and Miss Mauritius arrived, and not long after that, Dreadlocks Jnr and Olly arrived.
When he walked in, Olly looked around for Pom, then saw he wasn’t there and I was on my own. He sat down on the railing behind me to the left, moving closer after a few minutes. He started ruffling my hair at that point, and I could see Miss Teacher watching him from the corner of her eye lol. He then moved and sat a few seats away from me and started throwing bottle caps at me and kicking me under the table. We were amusing ourselves because I was throwing the bottle caps back, but Miss Teacher was telling us to behave. After a while, Olly asked if I could drive him to the Nightowl because he needed cigarettes. Gaz also needed cigarettes, so we took off. Miss Teacher offered to come along when she saw that it was just going to be Olly and I, but the fact that Gaz wasn’t going made her stay. On the way to the Nightowl, Olly grabbed my hand started nibbling lightly on the skin on the top my hand, I have no idea why. We grabbed the cigarettes and drove back, Olly being silly and falling out of the car (on purpose) onto grass when we pulled up out the front of the house. He’s such random guy! We wandered back to the group and we sat there for quite a while telling stories and jokes. Dreadlocks Jnr went to bed, Dr Kiwi left, Snowboarder and Miss Mauritius disappeared inside, leaving just the four of us to our own devices.
Miss Teacher was sitting on Gaz’ lap, I was sitting on Gaz’ right and Olly moved to sit in the seat next to me. He was plastered. All three were actually. Olly kept stealing my bag and hiding it, or my phone and hiding it in rather inappropriate places, but I surprised him by going searching for it lol. Gaz and Miss Teacher were getting cosier and cosier, Olly was making his interest fairly obvious, too. After a little while, we discussed ages for some reason, and it dawned on Olly (very slowly, mind you) that I am seven years older than him. I’m not sure who freaked out more - me or him! Then Gaz asked Olly what was taking him so long to make a proper move on me. I willed him to shut up. He didn’t. He continued on to say that the two of us obviously liked each other, Olly should just wise up and make a move before I get bored. We somehow moved on from that subject, moving on to Olly asking me if I could drive him home in his car. I asked where he lived. “Buderim”. “And how am I going to get home, Olly?” “Taxi”. “You’re dreaming, Olly. I’ll drive you home in my car and you can find a way to get back down here in the morning to pick up your car.” Conversation moved on again and after a little while, Olly got up and announced he was going inside. He stood in the doorway for longer than he needed to, saying a couple of times that he was going inside. I just kept smiling and saying “ok”. He closed the glass door, then stood against and pressed his face into it. I laughed despite knowing I shouldn’t encourage him. Miss Teacher turned to me and said, “He wants you to go in there”. I knew that, but that would only encourage it. But it was obvious that Gaz and Miss Teacher wanted to be left alone. Ugh. Olly had turned on the TV, so I said I’d go in and watch TV with Olly. I walked in and had barely sat on the other couch when Olly asked me what I was doing. “Watching TV”. “Why are you sitting over there?” “Where else should I be sitting?” He looked at me and patted the couch next to him. Against my better judgement, I went over and sat with him, leaning back into him because he was half laying on the couch. He put his left arm around me and started playing with my left hand, while his right hand played with my hair. Abruptly, he sat up and asked if I could drive him home, he needed to go to bed. Somewhat startled, I blinked and said ok, and that’s when he kissed me again. It was as quick as the first kiss we shared and he stood up. He said goodbye to Miss Teacher and Gaz, while I said that I would go drop Olly home then come back and get them to drive them home - they weren’t quite ready to go yet. It was after sunrise, though because it was quite overcast and rainy, it was a missable sunrise.
We pulled up out the front of his block of units, he turned, ruffled my hair, said thanks, then “See ya when I see ya” and got out. Erm, sure. He watched me drive away, though I’m not sure he noticed the look of “what the?” on my face. How odd. I drove back to Djembo Man’s house wondering what on earth had just happened. But it hardened my resolve to not let it get any further with Olly - there was no way I could entertain the idea that we could work and I needed to make sure that he realised that. I drove Gaz back to the backpacker’s and Miss Teacher home before making my own way home for a lazy Sunday. But my thoughts always returned to Olly’s odd behaviour. I was trying to figure it out, then stopped, realising I was just chasing my own tail.