Loud. Oliver was still able to keep his eyes open as he waited for his friend to show up. He was at a bar and drinking away his sorrows. He felt that no one had a greater misfortune than him right now. He had just been forced to marry someone he didn't know and that was because he supposedly raped her.
After the forced marriage, they had arrived at this house in next city and settled down. He didn't talk to Valerie and she treated him with indifference except a few times he'd catch her looking at him with lost eyes. Those looks carried hatred and…guilt.
They tried as much as possible to stay away from each other's path and it worked well so far except that he wasn't happy. His name and reputation was ruined and he had to do something to prevent it.
He had contacted the friends he had been out with that night and asked them what had happened after he passed out. They all said that he was only out for fifteen minutes and after that he left the bar on his own despite their efforts to stop him.
This sounded illogical to Oliver. There was no way he could've left the bar on his own then return to the bar very early in the morning after raping Valerie. The more he thought about it the more he found it odd.
To calm his mind he had also called the bar owner and asked about the same thing. The man told him the same story his friends told him but only added that he had returned after 2a.m. just as he was about to close for the day.
On asking the bar owner told him that he only let him sleep there till morning when he saw how untidy and helpless he was. He said that his clothes were crumpled and messy.
That would've settled it for Oliver if not for some odd irregularities. First is that the bar usually closed by midnight and he had stayed with his friends only up to 10p.m. before he passed out because of too much drinking.
How then did the bar owner keep his bar open till 2a.m.? Why did he let him sleep over? These things very well spelt it out that there was foul play.
Then again there's the video. The time on the video showed that he was at the hotel by 1a.m. his mind could not wrap around what was happening.
He downed another glass of beer and groaned desperately. What was taking him so long?
His mind flashed back to why he had wanted to get drunk that night. It wasn't because his friends had asked him to come for a drink. No, he had been getting drunk since he became legal.
In a way he was a family disappointment and everyone saw him as a big failure with no big dreams. What dreams was he supposed to have? His life was taken from him so many years ago by the people he called family.
Where was his mother? What happened to her? His eyes became red as he remembered his mother and the tragic fate that met her. He was right there.
Another glass. That's when someone gripped his shoulder and only kept increasing the pressure. He turned to see who it was while keeping his firm grip on the bottle in case some stupid dude wanted to get into a brawl.
He would smash his head with the bottle and if he died then good. Committing murder was only second to being labelled a rapist and forced to marry someone you don't know in his books.
To his relief it was his friend, Steve. "What took you so long?"
"Why didn't you drop by?" Steve asked in return and sat beside him. "You're wasted."
"I know." Oliver looked around the bar a bit and asked, "Have you heard the news about me?"
"About you raping this cute girl so bad you had to marry her? Sure, I heard days ago." Steve grabbed the bottle of beer and took a gulp.
'So everyone has heard it huh? How bad has my non-existent reputation gone?'
"Here." Oliver passed his phone over. He played the video for Steve to watch. The other guy watched silently for a while. He replayed the video and watched to the end.
"Well?" Oliver urged.
"It looks legit to me." Steve handed the phone back.
"I know but something isn't right," he said in a lowered voice, "I think I was set up by my friends."
"What do you mean?"
Oliver then told him of the odd things and abnormalities that happened that night. Especially his return to the bar at 2 when he could barely walk the next morning.
"According to Lucas, the people who got this video threatened to use it against my family if they didn't pay. They say this is a part of it."
"You want me to try and get the full video?" Steve clicked his tongue.
"Not really. I want you to help me find out what happened at the hotel that night."
"It was a hotel then it means they shouldn't have a camera in the rooms, right unless…"
"Unless someone knew what would happen and prepared for it." Oliver completed.
"I see what you mean." Steve transferred the video into his phone. "I'll look into the hotel's cameras and see if you arrived there alone and when you arrived. Then I'll look at the inside cameras too. We'll figure this out."
"Thanks. You're my last hope."
"You will pay me though."
"How much?"
"When the time comes, pal." Steve turned to leave but stopped and turned to ask Oliver. "What if in the end you discover that it was you who really did it?"
Oliver's eyes darkened a bit. He lowered his head to the bottle of beer and sighed. "Then I don't know how I would ever look at myself in the mirror after this."
"Don't beat yourself up. We get entangled in some shit once in a while."
Oliver nodded and stood up. They walked out together without saying a word.