"I assure you that you have nothing to worry about at all." said Ollie with an assuring smile.
"I did not invite you guys here without their permission. I asked them if I could invite you and they said yes." said Ollie as he could sense the feeling of discomfort surrounding the matter concerning his parent's sudden trip. He wanted to assure them that they were not in any way the reason for their trip.
"Besides, my parents have no reason to avoid you guys, last time I checked, my dad even apologized for his past actions and he seemed very sincere to me." said Ollie as Annie nodded, she had to admit that was true.
"You're right about that Ollie." she said.
"Well he may be, but you can never truly be sure." said Maddie as she shook her head and took a sip of water.
Ollie looked like he was obviously keen on defending the good faith of his parents and Maddie was unwilling to agree with his view on things, so Matt saw the need to change the subject immediately.
"Anyway, when will they be back?" he asked, turning all the attention towards him.
"Oh in a week." replied Ollie as Maddie chuckled.
"How even more convenient." she said, the mocking evident in her tone as Ollie turned to look at her and frowned.
"I don't get what's so funny." said Ollie softly.
"Of course you don't blondie, you don't get how all of a sudden your parents go on a trip and they won't return in a week, which just happens to be when we will be leaving." said Maddie as Ollie's frown deepened.
"I don't get why you think so bad of my parents." he said as Maddie was about to mention a load of reasons but one look at Annie and she bit her tongue, restraining herself.
"I don't think bad of them, far from it, it's just that they are rather suspicious don't you think?" asked Maddie with a smile.
"No they are not, if anything, they are nothing but nice, they allowed me have guests over, and I am sure that if they were here, they would have welcomed you happily." said Ollie, the disappointment evident in his tone.
He had truly thought that Maddie had moved past her dislike for him and for his parents, but it seemed that he was sorely mistaken.
"Of course a child would think that their parents are nice, they don't know any better, it's only natural. All I'm telling you is that I'm right." said Maddie with a smile as Ollie was about to say something else and both Annie and Matt could see this blowing up into a very serious argument and they only just got here.
"Alright, that's enough, stop being rude Maddie, we are guests here, and you don't always have to be right, it won't win you anything." said Matt as Annie nodded her head.
"I agree, whatever the King and Queen decide to do with their time is their business, their reasons should be accepted, there is no need for speculation." said Annie sternly as Maddie felt like rolling her eyes.
"You guys are right." said Ollie as he smiled, relieved that Annie and Matt had decided to step in, he would have surely pursued an argument with Maddie if not for that.
"Whatever." said Maddie with a scoff.
After the entire ordeal, everybody ate their meal in silence. There was really nothing else for them to talk about, and Ollie and Maddie's almost agreement caused a sour mood to linger in the air.
Ollie sighed, this was not how he wanted the first day spent with his friends to be. He did not want to argue, much more less with Maddie. If anything, he wanted her to be happy, she was his friend, and whether she liked it or not, he cared for her.
"Maddie, I'm sorry, I don't want us to argue, this is supposed to be a relaxing week for all of us, I don't want one silly argument to ruin it, so forgive me please?" asked Ollie as Maddie looked at him and scoffed.
"Well at least you admit that you were wrong... and I also don't want to argue with you blondie, I'm here to relax not prove my point, so I accept your apology." she said as Annie felt like rolling her eyes.
"Thank you." said Ollie as he smiled happily. They were done with lunch, so he was certain that now was the perfect time for him to show them to their rooms.
"Now come on, let me show you to your rooms." he said as he stood up.
"Okay." said Annie as she stood up and they all followed behind him, leaving the dining room.
"So Annie and Maddie, do you guys want to share a room?" asked Ollie as he looked at them.
"Yes." they replied in a chorus as they laughed. At this point, it was only natural that they shared a room together, it felt so normal, and they would not like it any other way.
"Okay, and do you still want the same room as last time?" asked Ollie as he laughed, he had had a feeling that they would want to share a room, he just thought that it would be nice to ask out of courtesy.
"That would be perfectly alright." replied Annie as she smiled.
"Alright then, and what about you Matt?" asked Ollie as he smiled.
"Would you like your own room, or would you like to share my room with me?" asked Ollie as he did not want to sound too pushy. However, he would not mind if Matt said that he would like to.
"Sure, I don't mind." replied Matt simply.
"Really?" asked Ollie in surprise as Ollie nodded.
"Yes I don't, as long as you don't mind sharing your space with me, I'm fine with it." said Matt with a smile.
"Of course I don't mind!" replied Ollie enthusiastically.
Matt chuckled, he had a feeling that Ollie would prefer it if they shared a room, and why not make him happy by agreeing to it? He did not mind at all.
"Great, now they will have even more time to gossip." said Maddie with a scoff as Annie chuckled.
"You know what's surprising, I thought that Curtis would decide to tag along." said Ollie as Annie frowned.
"I did invite him to come along, but you know him, he said that he was not in the mood." said Annie as she resisted the urge to roll her eyes.
Now that Ollie had reminded her about Curtis, she was starting to remember that she was still very much annoyed with Curtis.
"That is truly odd, I thought that he would want to come as well." said Ollie with a confused expression on his face and Maddie scoffed.
"You don't know anything blondie. This is just Curtis being Curtis, we all know that he loves disappearing for long periods of time and appearing out of nowhere when you least expect it." said Maddie with a scoff.
"Really now?" asked Ollie in intrigue as Matt nodded and Annie muttered in agreement.
"Yes, there has been several times that he just disappears and leaves us on our own and then suddenly appears when things are going terribly." said Maddie as she shook her head, reminding some rather unpleasant memories.
"That doesn't sound like the Curtis I know, he wouldn't be that irresponsible." said Ollie in surprise.
As both Maddie and Matt laughed as Ollie stopped walking and turned to look at them. It was clear that he did not know Curtis as well as they all did. To him, Curtis was calm and collected, and he would never think that he would be capable of being so erratic like that.
"There was one time in back in Sunset Village where Maddie invited us to a party at her house and on our way we were attacked by rogues, and Curtis was nowhere to be found, we had to handle them ourselves." said Matt.
"And then out of nowhere Curtis appeared after being gone for the longest time and then he gave us one silly explanation for his absence and he almost killed us in the car claiming that he could drive." said Maddie as Annie could not help but laugh.
"Wow... that's really chaotic." said Ollie as he wondered why Annie was laughing, Matt and Maddie looked very much upset with the memory.
"I remember that day, and I was seriously terrified." said Annie as she laughed.
"But you can't lie that it wasn't a little bit thrilling to be left all on our own to deal with something like that, and let's not forget how cute Curtis was, that's the first time I saw him in his human form." said Annie as she laughed and Matt laughed.
"And I remember that he was obsessed with grape punch at that party." said Matt as he and Annie laughed together.
"The two of you are crazy, that party is not a funny memory at all, are you forgetting that you literally had to escape from my bedroom window before Azazel found you?" asked Maddie, truly not seeing what was so funny.
"Oh yeah, we totally had to jump out the window." said Annie as she laughed even more. This memory had been long forgotten in her mind, now that she was reminded of it at this point in time. Looking back, they really had come so far.
"That's not funny Annie, really..." said Maddie sternly, usually she was the one who laughed at serious things, but the roles were reversed now.
"Oh but it is, we were so scared of Azazel, like literally." said Annie as she laughed and Maddie shook her head.
"That truly was funny, but not in the moment though." said Matt as he stopped laughing, he could see that Maddie was not pleased with this at all.
"Maybe you don't realize how serious the situation was because you didn't have to stay back after the party. Well I did, and I had a lot of explaining to do." said Maddie as she shook her head and they could all see the seriousness in her eyes as Annie finally stopped laughing.
"Alright, you're right, back then I couldn't even use my magic on command." said Annie as she nodded.
"Glad you can agree." said Maddie as she nodded, she did not want to continue talking about this.
"You guys have really been through a lot together." said Ollie as they all turned to look at him.
"That we have blondie, and that's why no matter how hard you try, you will never truly be a part of the team." said Maddie dubiously.
"Maddie!" called both Annie and Matt, they were both shocked by what they had just heard. They could not believe that Maddie would say something so cruel and mean to Ollie for no reason at all.
"Maddie, apologize right now!" demanded Annie as Maddie looked at her and frowned."
"What for? I only said the truth." she said as Annie was left speechless, sometimes she forgot just how insensitive Maddie could be to other people.
Annie groaned as she looked away, giving up on expecting Maddie to apologize, instead she turned to Ollie.
"Ollie, I'm so sorry, I don't know why she said that." said Annie as she apologized on Maddie's behalf. Maddie's rudeness and dislike for Ollie truly knew no bounds.
"You don't have to apologize, I am not offended at all, by now I am used to the way Maddie speaks." said Ollie as he smiled, he did not seem the slightest bit angry and to be honest, Annie found that very hard to believe.
"And yes Maddie, I know that I could never compete with all the things you guys have been through together, and I accept that. And since you still don't think that I'm part of the team yet, I'll just have to prove it." said Ollie as he smiled, not offended at all as Maddie narrowed her eyes at him, wondering what exactly he was playing at.
"Anyway, let's continue." said Ollie as he smiled and started walking again as Matt shook his head at Maddie.
"You went too far Maddie, too far, even for you." said Matt as he whispered and Maddie scoffed.
"I don't care, I said what needed to be said." said Maddie as Annie frowned at her.
"You're lucky that Ollie is such a nice guy or else he could have thrown you out of here, we are in his house after all." said Annie as she shook her head.
"Well the blondie won't do that." said Maddie in assurance.
"Yes, he won't, and that's why you take him for granted." said Annie as she shook her head and walked ahead.
Maddie pursed her lips, alright, maybe she should not have said that, but who cares? She said it already and nothing about that could change.
"Here we are." said Ollie as he stopped in front of a door.
"This is your room." he said and he turned to look at Annie and Maddie.
"You can get settled in and we'll see each other later for dinner, Matt come with me." said Ollie as he smiled.
"Alright, thanks Ollie." said Annie as she smiled.
"No need to thank me." said Ollie as he smiled and left as Matt followed after him.
"Do you see how sad he was? You need to apologize to him Maddie." said Annie, she turned to look at Maddie who did not look pleased at all.
"He seems perfectly fine to me." replied Maddie casually causing Annie to plead internally for the strength to deal with Maddie right now.
...
"Dude are you really not upset with what Maddie said?" asked Matt as he and Ollie were walking to his room.
"Not at all, I meant it when I said that it didn't bother me." replied Ollie as he smiled at Matt.
"But what she said was really mean and unnecessary." said Matt.
"That may be true, but if by now I haven't gotten used to Maddie's way of expressing herself, then she's right, I will never be a part of the team." said Ollie simply as he smiled.
"But just because you want her to accept you doesn't mean that you overlook all the unfair things she says and does to you." said Matt.
"Believe you me, Maddie doesn't know when to stop, sometimes she needs you to be vocal and set up boundaries for her." said Matt seriously.
"I'm not accepting her unfairness because I want to be part of the team." said Ollie casually.
"I'm already part of the team." he said happily.
"If I didn't argue with her that's because I know Maddie rarely says she's sorry, and I don't want us to end up fighting." said Ollie.
"It's not that I'm being lenient with her, it's just that I understand her, and she does not sugarcoat her words, she's always honest about her feelings." said Ollie.
"If she hates you, she will say to your face that she hates you, and same with if she likes you." said Ollie.
"And that's what I admire about her most, the ability to remain herself regardless of the situation, she's always honest to herself and other people." said Ollie as he smiled.
"That is true, but this little obsession she has with insulting you is getting out of hand." said Matt seriously.
"Don't worry Matt, it's all in good fun." said Ollie as he smiled.
"We both know that if Maddie was being serious, she would not have chosen such a simple topic to jab at me, she would have brought up something way worse." he said as he laughed.
"You know, I dislike the way we've normalised Maddie's mean treatment of you." said Matt.
"I know it looks that way, and I do get fed up sometimes, but I do understand that believe it or not, it's her little of way telling me that we are close enough for her to insult me to my face." said Ollie with a smile.
"Whatever you say dude, just don't tell anyone else what you're telling me or else they might think that you've gone looney in the head." said Matt as Ollie laughed.
"Don't worry about it, I'm sure that Maddie will grow out of her mean insults stage soon." said Ollie.
"If only I could be as hopeful as you." said Matt as he laughed and Ollie laughed.
"I do try." he replied.
"Now come on, let's walk faster, I can't wait to show you my room." said Ollie as he quickened his pace and Matt laughed.
"Okay." replied Matt as he followed faster after him.
"Here we are, welcome to my humble room." said Ollie as he smiled and opened the door as he and Matt walked in.
"It looks really nice and cozy. It's nothing like what I expected." said Matt while Ollie closed the door behind them.
"What do you mean? What did you expect?" asked Ollie in genuine curiosity.
"I don't know, maybe I thought that it would be a bit dark and full of books like a mini library since you like to read a lot." said Matt.
"Oh yes... I can see that, but no, I like to make sure that my most secure place is void of anything distracting. I love books yes, but most of what I read are old texts, and I would rather that I read in the library other than my room." said Ollie.
"My room is my safe space. It is the one place where I can dictate what I want and no one can change that. Here I'm not a prince, I'm not the heir of the Witch Realm, I'm just Ollie. So welcome." said Ollie happily.
"Thanks for having me." replied Matt sincerely as he smiled.
"I see that everything is white... is white your favourite colour?" asked Matt as he looked around. The walls were white, the windows were wight, the marble floor was white. The sheets of his bed was white, the towel that was on it was white. It was white mania in here.