Follow The Rules

Epilogue

"I didn't know how you'd cope with it, so I needed to keep an eye on you." B continued, and again Oliver felt the confusing mix of fear and anger at himself. After the incident, he had been hyper aware of his surroundings, on edge all the time, yet he had still failed to notice that B was there, watching him again. "I'm well aware that you didn't go back to your life. I'm well aware you quit football, and pushed away your friends and family and I'm well aware that it got a lot worse before it got better." B paused to brush a hand through his hair and exhale heavily, shaking his head. "f**k Ollie, you have no idea how hard it was not to grab you, shove you in my car and drive you straight back to your house the day that you left your home drop down drunk. But instead I settled for driving close by, a lot closer than I would have normally allowed myself and since you didn't seem to have any idea about anything that night until you got to that house, I thought it couldn't hurt."

What? He was watching that closely? He had followed him all the way to Daisy's. The whole way and he hadn't noticed. What was wrong with him?

"I saw you break down. And it wasn't until then that I realised how much I had hurt you. How much you were struggling. I knew you hadn't told anyone about what happened because I could see it eating you up from the inside out." B was talking softly, slowly, and again Oliver could see him remembering that night, which was interesting for Oliver since there were parts that he could hardly remember himself because of the alcohol. He looked genuinely sad. Guilty.

"When you pulled out that gun, Oliver, I knew immediately why you had it with you." B continued. "Your friends, your Dad, they might have been too worried that you were going to hurt someone, but I knew you wouldn't. You wouldn't hurt them no matter how mad you were. The gun was there to end your life. I couldn't let that happen." B paused for a moment and while he looked back at his daughter, Oliver's mind reeled over what B had said. "I couldn't let that happen". What did that mean? What had he done? He definitely didn't turn up and grab the gun out of his hand or try to talk him off the ledge. No matter how drunk he was, he would have remembered if B was there. No one else came, except...

"You called the police." B simply turned to him, a guilty face that showed all he needed to know. B called the police? "Why?"

"f*****g hell Oliver. Sure I wanted my daughter to live, but I didn't want you to die." B replied, like the answer was obvious, but Oliver still couldn't make sense of it.

"But you said not to tell the police. You and George, you both said not to tell anyone." Our little secret. "The police, they asked questions and I gave them answers. I told them everything, even though you said-,"

"I know what I said." B interrupted sternly, but he wasn't angry. "But you couldn't go on having all that inside you. To be honest, I didn't think you or your parents would actually follow the rule. I thought the second you got out of there the first place they'd take you was the police station. Instead, you just sat there with everything building up inside you. All of you. Your father as well."

"But you said... Weren't you afraid of getting caught?" Oliver said, still perplexed. He expected them to tell the police? Why?

"Oliver, I knew you couldn't tell them anything worth going on, and I knew you were all too nervous or scared or whatever to take any notes the day we gave you back. I took precautions. They weren't going to find me." B shrugged casually. He was so certain. Maybe that's why he seemed so confident when Oliver was with him over that weekend. Confident until he found out what had happened to him. What George had done to him. George...

"You don't have to worry, you know." B said, as though reading his mind. Or maybe it was his body language. Oliver hadn't been so great at hiding his body language after what had happened. "He's gone."

"What do you mean?"

"After that day with the gun," B clarified. "I needed to give you some peace of mind, even if you didn't know it. I guess it was kind of peace of mind for me too. I went to see him. I don't think I intended to do what I did, I hope it was just a spare of the moment thing and I hadn't planned to do it, but either way. He won't ever bother you again." Oliver didn't push it further. He thought he understood what he was saying, but he didn't really want to know for certain. For some reason he knew he'd feel guilty if he knew. Guilty. For knowing the man who'd r***d him was dead out of vengeance. He almost couldn't believe it himself.

"Listen." B said, pushing himself up off the chair and pulling out a small business card. "I know what a risk this is, and if you think it will help, I don't care if you call the police. I got what I wanted." He looked over to his daughter who was now swinging on a swing aimlessly. "But I want to give this to you and I want you to know that you can call me any time you want for any reason. Or you don't have to. You can throw it away as soon as I leave if that's what you want. Just know I want to be there for you. I owe you more than you can ever imagine." Oliver hesitated for only a moment before accepting the card. B looked relieved when he took it, and let out a content sigh, shoving his hands in the pockets of his jeans and nodding.

"Honestly, Ollie. Any time." B reiterated before calling for Katie to jump off the swing. Oliver looked down at the card in his hands and couldn't help the smile crawl up his face before looking up to the man standing in front of him, a hand held out towards him. "I hope to see you around, Ollie."

"Yeah." Oliver stood up to meet him, and he was surprised that they were almost the same height. For some reason, he wasn't as big and scary anymore. He took the hand offered to him and shook it. "See you around, Ben." He smiled. Ben smirked back and laughed a little before letting go of his hand and taking Katie's who waved goodbye to Oliver. For some reason, Oliver wanted to keep in contact with them. Both of them. He wanted to know what happened to Katie. He wanted to make sure she was alright, that they were both alright.

Oliver watched as the two left the park, oddly content after such a strange encounter. It hadn't necessarily answered all his questions, but Ben was willing to answer them if he needed. He pocketed the park and walked off in the opposite direction, headed for his friend's house.

For the first time in two years, he made it the whole journey without looking over his shoulder.