WORD COUNT: 1,480 CHARACTER(S) INCLUDED: Harley Mayhew, Oliver Stanton SUMMARY: Amelia loves Harley. Oliver hates Harley. Amelia hates Oliver. Harley gets cockblocked. TRIGGERS: None. There’s some suggestive material, but it’s pretty PG-13. NOTES: Was intended to be my audition para. Never finished it, never will.
The perfect life is unachievable and mythical, but that’s never stopped Amelia from believing she could acquire it for herself. Her life might not always work out the way she hopes, or go along with her script, but there are times that are just so ethereal, so enchanting, that it makes everything else seem insignificant. It’s these moments, when she’s straddled in Harley’s lap and his mouth tastes like heaven and stars are exploding behind her eyelids, that are simply, purely, undeniably flawless. These vibrant spots of color are what she lives for in her grayscale life, intimate memories she tucks away into the confines of her heart for safekeeping in order to sift through them later when she’s overburdened with her insecurities. This is proof that she is someone worth loving and lusting after, a beautiful girl deserving of a happy ending entirely her own.
And God is she happy. Doesn’t matter where they are or what they’re doing; every second spent with Harley is euphoric. Amelia knows that she’s young and her world only goes as far as Chester’s city limits, but this combination of bliss and passion and intense ardor can only be described as true, immaculate love. She finally understands why people have died and gone to war to hold onto this feeling, why they’ve given up every part of their souls to a single person and devoted centuries to writing and singing about this one incomparable emotion.
Amelia wishes she could bring these sappy sentiments out into the real world and show Harley just how he makes her feel, but none of the right words come to mind. She can’t think about what to say, too preoccupied with the softness of his lips and the way her skin shivers under his touch and how her body just perfectly molds against his, as though the two of them were made to be pressed up against each other. Amelia’s unable to form complete sentences, but she knows that there plenty of other ways to convey her adoration and appreciation for him. Shakespeare wrote sonnets and Taylor Swift sang ballads, but Harley will just as easily be able to understand the meaning behind her hands wandering up his shirt and the way she shifts her hips. Judging by his strained moan and the new placement of his hands, he fully reciprocates.
The first thing that comes to her mind is that this is so right. Amelia never put too much weight on her virginity; sex would happen whenever it happened, but it seemed so poetic for her first time to be with her first love. For her, it made no difference if it happened on a bed of rose petals or in the back of her car; the only important thing was that it was with him. She wanted it all with Harley; a cliché, all-encompassing Nicholas Sparks-esque romance that she could wistfully tell her grandkids about one day. For him, rob the galaxy and hand deliver the sun, the moon, and the stars just to have him smile at her, and it’d be more than enough. She would do anything for him, because his happiness was her happiness.
But as she’s waxing poetic about their teenage love affair and gathering the courage to reach for his belt buckle, the mood suddenly turns sour and everything goes south. Without any warning, Harley pulled away hastily, and was actually attempting to push her off of him. Hurt and confused, Amelia scrambled off his lap before he had the chance to touch her again, turning away from Harley as he covered the empty space she left with one of her pillows. Awkwardness settled heavily in the air, and the suffocating silence did little to appease the uncertainty and doubts occupying her brain. Had she read the signals all wrong? Was he not ready to take that next step in their relationship?
Did he not love her as much as she loved him?
Before she could even compose a proper question or figure out what she did wrong, the uncomfortable absence of sound was broken by a man forcefully clearing his throat. The newfound realization that someone else had been the cause for ending their steamy make out session both relieved and mortified her. This meant that Harley didn’t stop out ofchoice. He noticed that they weren’t alone before she did, and if the situation was reversed she would’ve done the same. However, she was so screwed if her father had walked in on her about to have sex with her boyfriend. Amelia jumped off her bed in record time, rehearsed apologies already on the tip of her tongue, only to have them all die down once she saw who was actually standing in her doorway.
It wasn’t her father like she thought – like she hoped, but rather her brother, who was the last person on Earth she wanted involved with any portion of her life. For the past seventeen years without fail, Oliver had managed to influence every part of her life. He has been a constant presence in all her relationships, intentionally or not. She should’ve anticipated him swooping in to foil this one at some point, but she wished that it wasn’t when Harley’s hands were fumbling with the clasp of her bra. Oliver wasn’t even looking at her, but instead completely focused on her boyfriend, and Amelia could feel the intensity of his harsh glare even from afar. The steely look in his eyes could turn any man to stone, and Amelia had to hand it to Harley for not cowering. It was as though her brother had just witnessed her burning down an orphanage right before kicking a litter of puppies, but Amelia figured that catching his “mortal enemy” about to “deflower his baby sister” was probably right up there on the list as well.
While he was attempting to maim Harley with a single look, Amelia gave her brother a cold glower of her own. Her cheeks had flushed into a deep scarlet hue, but it was less out of embarrassment and more out of irritation. “Did you want something?” she snapped, her icy tone effectively drawing Oliver’s attention. Amelia didn’t bother to hide her fury, and instead made sure he understood that he wasn’t welcome. All she ever wanted was something untainted by his influence, something she could purely call her own, but it was as though the universe was determined to foil all her attempts to branch away from him.
Instead of responding to her sass, Oliver merely delivered a look that Amelia couldn’t read. She suspected that he must’ve been mentally preparing to lecture her on having a boy in her room, or figure out the cleverest way talk down to her about the choices she made. In a few months she’d be a legal adult and on her way to college, yet Oliver still insisted on babying her and taking every chance he could get to subtly remind her of his superiority. He was only five years her senior, and he definitely wasn’t a Saint at her age, but it wouldn’t have made a difference if she brought all that up; nothing she said or did made any real impact.
Maybe he’s finally realized that none of his arguments will go through to her, because she’s spared any condescending remark for the time being.“Your car’s blocking mine. I need your keys,” he explains curtly, and she’s surprised that he doesn’t go further on the offensive about Harley. Amelia wasn’t ignorant of the boys’ little “rivalry”; for whatever reason the two of them could not play nice whenever their paths crossed, but now both boys had become uncharacteristically quiet. Amelia wasn’t the complaining, though; the sooner Oliver left, the better, and she wasted no time grabbing her keys off the dresser and tossing them to her brother. He swiftly caught them in his left hand and turned to leave, much to Amelia’s relief. But the second she thought she was in the clear, he had to go and ruin things the fragile peace by saying, “I better not see him here when I get back.”
If you don’t want to see him, then don’t come into my room, she thought petulantly, wishing she was an only child. From the corner of her eye, she saw Harley visibly flinch, but Amelia wasn’t having any of it. With her brother finally gone, she quickly hurried back to Harley’s side on the bed, only to discover that he was a lot more distant than she realized. The awkward tension in the room didn’t leave with Oliver, unfortunately, and Amelia figured that they weren’t going to continue from where they left off anytime soon. Biting her lip, she sifted through her brain, trying and failing to think of the right thing to say. Luckily, Harley was ther
