Everything Better Plan

“Urrrrrgh,” Olivia groaned, the light creeping through the curtains disrupting her dreamless sleep and awakening her headache, “Urrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh,” she repeated, rolling onto her side and grabbing her phone from the nightstand. 3 missed calls from Derek and 15 missed calls from Samuel. She groaned once more and peeled herself from the bed, making her way into the bathroom to shower. Maybe she had been a little more tipsy than she had remembered, since her head was pounding as she stepped under the cascade of warm water. In fact, her memory of the driver home was slightly broken. She remembered being beside Alex, Jack sprawled out behind them, but not much else.

From the other room she could hear her phone ringing once more, she prayed it was just Samuel as she dumped shampoo out into her hand and lathered it between them. The thought of speaking to Derek made her feel queasy, they hadn't spoke since he'd left and honestly she didn't know what to say to him. She knew he would simply want to pretend he had done nothing wrong and like everything was fine, and if she brought it up he would probably flip it all around on her. Could she really be bothered with the hassle?
-

Meanwhile, Alex was already up and at 'em, he stood over the stove flipping pancakes, the air filled with the smell of maple syrup and the distant sound of Jack snoring from the couch in the living room. The noise made Alex glad he wasn't going to be waking up in the state his best friend was going to be, he chuckled to himself. He'd had a great night, although a little strange.
He plated up some pancakes and drizzled them with syrup, poured some coffee into a mug and took them through to the front room. Jack was lounged across the couch in a rather uncomfortable looking position. Alex had made sure he'd fell asleep on his front and so his left arm and leg were both completely off the sofa, Alex chuckled again, placing the pancakes and coffee down on the coffee table, knowing the smell would eventually wake Jack from his drunken slumber.

He returned to the kitchen to fix himself a plate and grab a cup of coffee, before taking a seat on the other sofa and flipping on the news. He watched as the news anchors recapped on whatever presidential rally had been happening the day before, but he paid no attention. His mind was elsewhere, all he could think about was how weird last night was.
-

"You're such a bitch," Samuel deadpanned. Olivia was now out of the shower and Samuel was staring at her from her Macbook as she towel dried her hair, "I can't belieeeeeeeve you," his voice overly dramatic, "How dare you, honestly?" he ranted.

"What? I was busy!" she defended, picking out a pair of pyjamas; she was planning on just staying in tonight.

Samuel shot her a sarcastic 'yeah right' look before speaking, "Just tell me your history with this Alex guy, I need to know."

"Why do you need to know?" Olivia quoted mockingly, dropping her towel and slipping into her pjs. Samuel was used to her nudity, it was nothing he hadn't seen before.

"Because I'm your best friend and it's my right to know," Samuel had a look on his face of pure shock that Olivia wasn't spilling the tea, "OMG, your nudity reminds me, you should totally do that naked modelling thing you told me about!" he gushed, his train of thought and lacking attention span changing the subject and working to Olivia's advantage, "Isn't it tonight?" Although, this subject also wasn't highly desired, she didn't know why she'd told Samuel about it, he was the type to always encourage anything that involved anyone being nude.

"They've probably got somebody by now," she laughed, sitting crossed-legged on her bed and pulling the laptop to face her, "plus I don't think I'd be good at standing there for all that time."

"What? Standing is your job! Just usually it's in front of a camera, not a bunch of people, and it's usually not nude either, but same thing, you should just give them an email and ask if it's still available," he encouraged, smirking and raising an eyebrow, "Wouldn't that be such a cool experience? I mean, a bunch of random strangers who you've never seen before and probably will never see again, seeing you nude and drawing you and-" he rambled on and on before Olivia cut him off.

"Okay, okay!" she sighed, his rambling always pushed her over the edge and he loved using it against her, "Fine, I'll email them, but I'm telling you, they'll already have somebody by now," she moaned, clicking open her inbox and quickly typing up a polite response before clicking send. She knew she'd have to do it whilst Samuel was witness or else she'd be questioned about it endlessly.
-

"Good morning, buddy," Alex chuckled as Jack finally began to stir. He grumbled an incoherent response as he peeled himself from the couch, his eyes immediately locked with cup of coffee which by now was probably lukewarm but he practically downed it regardless. “You okay?” Alex questioned, his eyebrows raised and a mocking smile on his face, “Headache?” he faked a pout. Jack flipped him the bird in response, causing Alex to laugh. Jack grabbed the pancakes and began shoveling, turning his attention to the TV. The news? Really?

“Who even are you?” Jack grumbled, his voice raspy and laced with sleep.

“What?” Alex responded before noticing what Jack was referring to, “Oh,” he quickly punched in the numbers for MTV and the channel switched and Catfish now inhabited the screen. Jack grinned, but took a look at his best friend. He seemed off and distant, he wasn't even laughing when Max was making his usual funny remarks. 'You sent him money?!' the silver haired man exclaimed on the TV. Alex's didn't even crack a smile and his eyes were glazed over.

“Dude, what's up with you?” Jack spluttered, his cheeks filled with pancake.

“Uhhh,” Alex snapped back to reality. He couldn't get out of his own head, all he kept thinking about was Olivia kissing his cheek, and then he would think about how she was engaged and how he wasn't even in a relationship and how she was so attractive and how he really felt like they had a moment but she was engaged so how could they possibly have a moment and-

“Okay, honestly, you're really creeping me out,” Jack retorted, hi eyes narrowing at Alex. “Are you nervous? Oh my God, this is about that nude painting thing you're doing tonight, isn't it?” Jack cackled, “What? You never seen a girl naked before?” he continued laughing.
Alex squinted at the taller man for a couple seconds before it clicked what Jack was talking about. Shit. He'd completely forgotten about that, but he decided to play along.

“It's not about seeing someone naked, you dork, painting a live model is just in general very nerve-racking,” he shook his head, “I wouldn't expect you to understand,” he retorted before standing to take his dirty dishes into the kitchen whilst Jack pulled mocking, childish faces at Alex's attempt at making himself look smart.

“Whatever dude, you're scared of boobs,” Jack chuckled, stuffing his face further.
-

Ding.
“What was that?” Samuel questioned the sound coming from Olivia's computer, his eyes narrow in suspicion as if she was hiding something, which made her laugh.

She pulled up her inbox and quickly skimmed through the email she had just received. Her eyes found what they were looking for.

We would be delighted to have you model for us this evening.

Olivia let out a deep sigh and looked dead into the camera with an 'are you kidding me?' expression. Samuel immediately began to cheer. “Yes! You're gonna be naked in front of people, besides me, for the first time in 6 months,” he joked, poking fun at her sex life – or lack-there-of.

“Hey!” she scolded, rolling her eyes, but trying to remain cool. Inside, she was shaking, she really had thought they'd already of booked someone to do it. But maybe it would be fun. It would definitely be new – and possibly exciting.

Notes