Love Addict's RPG Ch. 53

This part is fairly different from the outline in a few ways. Some jokes were cut because they didn't make sense with the flow of things and I needed to keep things dialed back since there's seven characters in this scene. Not going to do that often if I can help it.

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Juan and Julio entered the lobby, both dressed similarly to Oliver, even though only one would enter the ring. The first thing they saw was Oliver holding a girl who wasn't their sister in his arms, inches away from kissing her. Standing close at hand was the hottest blonde the twins had ever seen. Unforgivable on multiple accounts.

"You seeing this shit, hermano?" Juan growled, fists clenched in rage.

"Seeing it," Julio confirmed, clicking his tongue. "And with one of Mimi's only friends, too... thought you were better than that, Becca."

"I-I'm sorry!!" Rebecca yelped at the sudden entrance of the two big muscle men. It didn't matter if she'd seen the twins dozens of times when hanging out at Mia's place back in high school; they still scared her to this day, and it definitely didn't help that they were slinging accusations at her. She leaped out of Oliver's arms of her own volition and made for the potted plant.

"Here we fucking go," Mia mumbled to herself, pinching the bridge of her nose in frustration. Bradley embraced his role as an artificially created support character, staying out of the limelight and offering a conciliatory pat on her shoulder.

Oliver was annoyed by the dramatic timing but knew that he shouldn't have expected anything else, what with the current lack of luck in his life. He wasn't going to do them the honors of getting embarrassed. He simply sighed, saying, "Nice to see you guys, too, but we really need to stop having these misunderstandings whenever we meet. Rebecca was about to fall, and I stepped in to catch her. Right, Stacy?"

Having gotten a bad vibe from the twins, Stacy looked at him in a way that screamed 'don't drag me into this' before ultimately shrugging and going along with it, "Yeah, she got a little too worked up or whatever and he swooped in. Not a big deal."

Rebecca mumbled something that might've been agreement from behind her potted plant.

"Sure, sure, a likely story. Ain't that right, Julio?"

To his credit, Julio briefly paused to consider how consistent that would be given how well he knew Rebecca. "Might be, might not," he stated dismissively, then shot a look at Stacy. "Doesn't explain the blonde, though. You work fast, don't you, hermanito?"

Oliver cursed his compulsive invitation earlier in the day, lamenting Bradley's accurate prediction. "Stacy is-"

"A coworker," Stacy interrupted with a disbelieving laugh. "Look. I've got no idea what any of this is about- I just invited myself because I thought it sounded fun- but if you're, like, insinuating that Oliver and I have some kind of side thing going on, then I'm gonna have to ask you to get fucking real. We're just friends."

Oliver was a little taken aback by how quick Stacy was to establish that. For reasons he was well aware of but was desperate to suppress, hearing her say those accursed words hurt more than it should've, and it caused a momentary expression of mild disappointment on his face. Juan missed this as his attention was captivated by Stacy's boob window, but Julio picked up the subtle facial tic.

"Just friends? Harsh. Think you hurt his feelings." Julio shook his head out of mock sympathy.

"Yeah, right. He's fine. Oliver isn't even remotely interested in me, anyway." Stacy crossed her arms to cut off Juan's eyes, then laughed again and looked at Oliver to see his reaction to this ridiculous claim.

It wasn't the reaction she expected, but it wasn't enough of a deviation to make her suspicious, either. She only found it somewhat odd that the concept didn't outright revolt him and figured it had something to do with the progress they'd made as of late.

"As I've already said, Mia is enough for me," Oliver reiterated, shaking off the disappointment and glaring down Julio.

"Speaking of Mia," Mia cut in front of her boyfriend to stare her brothers down alone. "She happens to be here and can speak for herself. Any chance you two idiotas will listen to me for half a goddamn minute so I can explain why this is all completely unnecessary, or did you forget the brain cell at home again?"

"We didn't forget shit!" Juan snapped at her. "We gotta do this, Mimi. You don't understand because you're in love or whatever, but you gotta trust us on this one! White boy over there is bad news, hermana. Ain't that right, Julio?"

"That's right," Julio confirmed. "He cares for you, but he's empty inside. Someone broke him. Hard-" Stacy's sweatband came in handy right about now, absorbing a bead of sweat as she briefly averted her eyes- "and sooner or later, he's gonna make it everyone else's problem."

"And what if I want to make it my problem, hm? What then, pendejo?" Mia stepped forward and shoved her older brother, her temper flaring hotter than anyone in the room could handle. "I can fix him!"

"He doesn't have a heart," Julio replied.

"Smashed and broken into too many pieces!" Juan agreed.

"Can't fix what isn't there,"

"Fuck do either of you failures know about fixing shit? Or having hearts, for that matter? Huh? Huh?!"

Oliver was astounded as he watched Julio step back and lose a shred of composure. He'd thought the older twin to be an immovable force until now, only to see a comparatively little girl put him in his place to the point where he was cracking under pressure. Meanwhile, Juan looked like a dog with its tail tucked between its legs, sweating as his remaining eye looked far into the middle distance. Neither of them liked to see Mia so disappointed, much less so when that disappointment was directed at them.

"Mimi-" Julio raised his hand in what was meant to be a calming gesture.

She punched him in the face. "Don't you fucking 'Mimi' me, you-"

At that point, Oliver could no longer follow the plot as the siblings began speaking exclusively in Spanish. He wasn't sure if Mia was actually arguing her point or explaining like she'd wanted to, but if he had to guess, the answer was 'probably not'. It looked more like she was airing years and years of grievances out against them while they sat there uncomfortably and took it.

As for the rest of the audience, Rebecca was too terrified to leave her hideout, Bradley was watching the discourse with an almost unsettling degree of interest, his mouth open with fascinated glee, and Stacy stood by Oliver's side with her arms crossed and an uncomfortable look on her face.

"I had no idea I had such a big role in this telenovela..." she remarked.

Oliver looked away from his feisty girlfriend long enough to answer, "What?"

"They think you're fucked up because somebody hurt you real bad a long time ago, or at least that's what they've been telling her on repeat for the last couple minutes. They also think you're going to grow into a womanizer because of it, which is a bit of a leap and sounds more like they're projecting their own bullshit onto you, personally, but... still..."

"Ah, yeah," his eyes found the floor. "I'm not really sure what you expect me to say here. They're somewhat more insightful than they look and aren't entirely wrong about me. I'd go so far as to say that even the stupid shit has some merit to it."

"...Seriously?"

"Only a little. It's okay, though, because apparently Mia's gonna fix me. I'll let you know if she ends up pulling it off or not before I snap and go full gigolo."

"Please do," Stacy gave him a cheap laugh. They watched the conversation develop for a few seconds together in silence. No one seemed to be making any headway; Mia just kept yelling while the twins took her ire and occasionally offered a meager rebuttal, which she promptly ignored in favor of continuing to yell.

"I'm sorry, Oliver."

Oliver looked over at Stacy, unsure what he'd just heard over his angry girlfriend's voice. "Did you just...?"

"Yeah. I know it doesn't mean shit to you and that you probably didn't want to hear me say it anyway, but whatever. It's how I actually feel, so... yeah..." Stacy looked off into the distance as she spoke, maintaining a distant expression throughout her declaration. "I'm sorry that I bullied you in high school and that it hurt you a lot more than I'd realized. You didn't deserve to be treated like that."

Oliver zoned out a little in response to her out-of-pocket apology. Stacy was right in that he hadn't wanted her to apologize because he never thought it would mean anything to him. They'd just be words regardless of whether she meant them or not.

He'd changed recently, though, and he'd gotten to know Stacy a lot better this last week. He was close enough to tell her apology was one thousand percent sincere, which taught Oliver something he hadn't known until now.

His chest felt light as he looked away from her, contemplating his feelings. He never would've guessed, but it turned out that he did want Stacy to apologize to him. It wasn't a meaningless gesture, and it did make a difference. Oliver would've rolled his eyes at any attempt she could've made to make things right not even a week ago. Her words would've fallen flat on ears that weren't ready to hear the truth behind them.

She didn't make excuses, she didn't try to justify her actions, it was just a straightforward apology, and that made all the difference in the world.

Whoa, what? Why would she gain affection just for apologizing? Oliver wondered. It's not as if I said or did anything to suddenly change her opinion of me. If anything, it's the... ah.

Oliver finally understood the contradiction of Stacy's affection score. Like most of his revelations as of late, he felt like a dumbass for not figuring it out sooner. Affection was a two-way street, and Oliver should've guessed his feelings had something to do with it. It was more likely that she'd started off at zero and that he was the one who brought it down so low.

By that logic, Oliver could also intuit that whatever was up with Tessa was clearly on her side of the equation. Supposing Stacy started off at negative fifty because of his personal distaste for her, there was no way he disliked Tessa four times that amount. She scared him a little and had a habit of taking out her frustrations on him occasionally, sure, but he didn't hate her like he hated Stacy.

The apology went a long way, but Oliver still had a lot of ground to cover regarding his old bully. He didn't currently know what to say. At the very least, he felt she deserved some sort of acknowledgment that her apology didn't mean nothing to him.

"I still don't forgive you," he said, looking straight ahead. "But I'm no longer convinced that it's impossible that I eventually might. Thank you, Stacy. That meant a lot to me to hear you say that."

Stacy smiled at his response, saying nothing. She'd already stolen enough of the spotlight for one day and was content to leave it at that for now. Besides, the real star of the show was just finishing up with her impromptu vocal cord exercise.

"This ain't going anywhere, mi amor," she said, her quiet voice scratchy from all the uncharacteristic yelling. "Spanish? English? Forget about it. The only language they'll understand is a punch to the teeth, so let's get this over with already."

Oliver looked over her shoulder at the dejected twins recovering from Mia's verbal lashing. Whatever she'd said, it looked like Mia's words dealt more damage to them than his fists could ever hope to. It was as if she'd won the fight for him in advance.

"...Can Juan even still fight like that?"

"Not a matter of can or can't," Julio sighed, raising his cast to rub his forehead out of stress only to narrowly remember his injury and avoid doing so. "We have to."

"...Do we, Julio?" The now timid Juan asked.

"We do," Julio replied, ice cold. "So snap out of it."

Julio slapped his brother upside the head, triggering an impassioned response out of him. "Fuck you think you're doing, hermano?! Think you can just slap me around, and I'll-"

Julio pointed at Oliver, helping Juan understand what his brother was going for. The message was clear after the idiot spent a few seconds thinking about it- get mad and save that anger for him, not me.

"Ah, sí, sí..." he agreed, then ate another slap, and then another. In no time at all, Juan was successfully worked back up to his previous level of piss and vinegar thanks to this masochistic display.

The twins moved in, looking down at their opponent as if they hadn't just been emasculated by their little sister for the last five minutes. Oliver didn't feel threatened as he did the other night, and the brothers noticed the difference now that they were up close and personal.

"Bro, you seeing this shit?"

"I'm seeing it,"

"Something's different..."

"Something is," Julio agreed. "Taking this seriously, aren't you, hermanito?"

"I am. I trained all day yesterday with my personal coach," Oliver pointed over his shoulder at Bradley, who was happy to feel briefly included. "And now I'm ready to kick your ass, Juan."

"Hah! Dumbass! There's no kicking in boxing!" Juan pointed and laughed, vastly overestimating the size of his slam dunk. "What are you, stupid?"

Oliver let out a very long and drawn-out sigh. Now that he was significantly stronger, he felt less inclined to stand here and suffer this fool. "Let's just take this into the ring before I get any more tempted to punch you out right here and now than I already am..."

"Heh," Julio laughed as his brother predictably lost his shit and shouted Spanish insults. "I respect the grind. Really, I do. Still not gonna give Mimi over to a bastard, but-"

"Again, not a fucking prize to be won," Mia cut in. "Gonna keep dating whoever the fuck I want regardless of who wins or loses. Like to see you stop me."

"Stop you?" Juan barked like a dog. "We know we can't stop you!"

"But we can be really annoying about it," Julio clarified.

Juan flashed the couple a sharp and wicked grin. "Fuck yes, we can! Guess who's gonna show up every time you two try and sneak out on a date, huh?"

Mia closed her fists so tight her nails threatened to pierce the skin of her palms. "Dios mio, I hate you two so fucking much..." she sighed, knowing full well that her brothers were obnoxious enough to follow up on that threat.

The goodwill Oliver held towards Juan and Julio was burning up fast. He'd previously respected their motive, but it was hard to keep that up when he saw how badly they got under Mia's skin.

"Anything else you wanna say to me before we settle this, hermanito?" Juan cracked his knuckles, forcing another groan out of his sister's mouth.

For whatever reason, that harmless taunt ended up as the last straw for Oliver. A wild impulse took hold of his senses now that he was through with their shit, an impulse telling him to give the twins a taste of their own medicine.

"Not really anything I want to say, no, but there's something I'd like to do," liquid confidence surged through his veins as he took Mia by the hips and pulled her close. "Need to fill up on good luck real quick because I feel like I'm running on empty."

"...Ollie?" Mia blinked curiously, her glasses getting foggy from his breath.

"Don't worry about them anymore," Oliver said, steeling his resolve. "Just cheer me on and think of all the fun we're gonna have tonight after I win, okay?"

Her eyes opened wide for a split second before she caught on to his game and gave him a catlike grin. "Mn... love where you're going with this, mi amor," Mia said, bracing herself for his power move. "Go ahead. Get your fill."

Oliver was undeterred regardless of the persistent anxieties he was suffocating beneath a veneer of bravado. Everyone knew what was coming, and the twins could do nothing to stop it. He went in for the kiss and didn't hold back.

Stacy raised a brow and smirked, Rebecca overheated as she poked her head out of cover, and Bradley watched the [Human Drama] unfold like he'd paid good money for front-row tickets.

Mia was quite pleased by the sudden affection and was predictably drawn in by Oliver's display of dominance, kissing him back twice as hard. It got a little out of hand once they started venting all their pent-up feelings from the night before. This was what both of them wanted from the second they first saw each other today, and now they were finally getting it in all its hot and heavy glory.

Yeah, she was definitely into the 'kiss me in front of my asshole brothers to show them you're a badass' thing, not that he expected anything less.

Oliver didn't draw out the kiss for long despite his desire to. He was trying to keep his cool in front of the crowd, but it was much more difficult than he was letting on. He pulled away, smiled briefly at Mia, and assessed the damage.

Juan looked like a dog with rabies on the verge of foaming at the mouth, and even Julio's icy exterior betrayed a few visible cracks. He'd successfully riled them up, hopefully making Juan easier to fight. Even if it didn't, giving back some of the endless irritation they'd put Mia through over the years was worth it.

For the finishing touch, he gave the twins an innocent smirk and pointed with his thumb at the door to the gym's interior. "So do I have to pay to get in for the day, or what?"

"...You seeing this shit, Julio?" Juan asked, his voice seething.

"Fraid so,"

"The FUCK did we say about cojones, huh?!"

"They got too damn big," Julio clicked his tongue. "And now he's tripping all over them..."

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