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Language:
English
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Published:
2022-10-15
Completed:
2022-10-23
Words:
859
Chapters:
2/2
Comments:
11
Kudos:
145
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10
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1,989

It's not easy being Oliver Spring

Summary:

I have good friends, and that helps, but they’re all gigantic dysfunctional messes, and my family are all gigantic dysfunctional messes, and I feel like I can’t go to them when I’m a mess because I don’t want to add to their mess with my mess. 
Charlie’s door shuts, and I can hear him crying from upstairs. Case in point.

Olly Spring, age 13, is tired of Charlie and Nick's relationship drama, and decides to do a bit of meddling for their own good. After all, what else are meddling little siblings for?


Little drabble from Oliver Spring's perspective. Might eventually incorporate it into "My Best Friend" as an interlude.

Notes:

CW: mentions of anxiety

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Chapter 1

Chapter Text

It’s not easy being Oliver Spring. 

Everyone tells me how I’m the happy Spring sibling. Charlie and Tori marvel at how I can be so cheerful when they’re, in Tori’s words, “such miserable fucks.” I’m the one who was obsessed with tractors and who cheers everyone up and brightens everyone’s day when they're feeling down. 

I kind of hate it. I should be allowed to be a miserable fuck, too, sometimes. Every time I say what’s on my mind it’s always “Oh, Olly. What ever happened to that cheerful little boy?” 

Life. Life happened. I’m in Year 8 now, and everything’s way more complicated than it was. Like the other day, when I had an essay that I hadn’t started, and my brain was screaming at me that I needed to start it, but every time I thought about doing it I felt like I was going to throw up, so I just lay on my bed scrolling on my phone until Mum took it away. I think I have anxiety. I haven’t told anyone. 

I have good friends, and that helps, but they’re all gigantic dysfunctional messes, and my family are all gigantic dysfunctional messes, and I feel like I can’t go to them when I’m a mess because I don’t want to add to their mess with my mess. 

Charlie’s door shuts, and I can hear him crying from upstairs. Case in point. 

Last night Charlie and Nick had a huge fight at a New Year's Eve party. They’re in their last years at university, and three years of long distance between here and Leeds or between London and Leeds is hard, and Nick is thinking of staying in Leeds after he finishes which would make it even harder still. Charlie says they broke up. I’m not so sure - they've done this once before, right after Nick left school, and they’re both huge idiots when it comes to emotions. Charlie tried to break the news gently to me, because he thinks I’m still seven and not thirteen and don’t know what total queer disasters my brothers are. Believe me, I’m used to it - all my friends are queer disasters, and then there me, the token cis (I know for sure ) het (I’m like 90% sure) friend. But I'm also a disaster, I'm just better at hiding it.

Then Charlie started crying. He’s in his room now, but he left his phone on the coffee table. I stare at it, wondering if my idea is a good one. I decide that it is. 

His password is “412010.” It’s the date he and Nick met. Idiot. I love him, and Nick, and Tori, and Michael, but they can all be pretty thick sometimes.

Then again, what do I know? I’m the one who plasters on a smile because everyone expects me to be “the happy one,” and I don’t want to disappoint them. 

Charlie walks in and sees me holding his phone. 

“What are you doing?” he asks. 

I smirk. “It’s for your own good,” I tell him, showing him the screen. 

 

11:07 AM

You

Hey Nick I’m really sorry about last night. I was  a complete idiot. Can we talk?

 

“Olly!” Charlie says aghast, “That’s a huge invasion of privacy! You had no right to -”

His phone chimes. Then it chimes again. Then three more times. I look up at him unrepentantly.  Then I glance down and read the text aloud. 

 

11:21 AM

Rugby Lad

what have we said about the s word?

im sorry too

we were both idiots

yeah we can talk

i love you



Charlie opens his mouth. Then he closes it. He repeats this a couple of times, like his brain and his mouth have short-circuited. 

“You’re welcome,” I say. I hop off the couch. “I’ll be in my room. Try not to do unspeakable things while I’m here - I have delicate eyes, and we don’t want a repeat of last time.” Especially not me. I saw things I was not meant to see, and I think I still have nightmares. 

“Olly,” Charlie calls after me. I turn around. 

“Thanks,” Charlie says. 

“No problem,” I say, “Let’s be honest - without me and Tori you both would’ve pined to death ages ago.” Although to be fair, it took me and Charlie over a year to convince Tori that she and Michael were a couple. My siblings are pretty thick when it comes to relationships.

God. Am I gonna be that thick, too? 

Oh God, I will be, won’t I? Ugh. It’ll be so humiliating. 

With that terrifying thought, I flop down face-first on my bed and decide to drown my sorrows in Animal Crossing on my Switch. I glance out the window and see a strawberry blonde figure walking up to our house. I’m pretty sure he didn’t even wait for Charlie to respond. I listen for the door to open, then a "Hi" followed by a "Hi." I smirk again, but this time I've earned it.

It’s not easy being Oliver Spring. It’s not easy being any Spring. But sometimes it’s pretty cool.  After all, what else are meddling little siblings for?

Chapter 2: Just for giggles

Summary:

Whipped this up using an app I found on the Google Play store. Just for shits and giggles.

Chapter Text

Notes:

In my head even though he looks so much like Charlie, personality-wise Olly ends up taking after Tori, so his internal monologue would sound a bit like hers in Solitaire. At this point Olly hasn't accepted the fact that Charlie and Tori's mental health issues were sources of trauma for him, too, because he feels like saying that makes it sound like they did something to hurt him. He feels like everyone expects him to be "the happy Spring sibling," so he doesn't ask for help when he needs it.