#but i *can* imagine an oliver who poisoned felix on accident

[spacecasehobbit]

Consider, if you will, an Oliver Quick who goes back to the maze to save Felix not because he changed his mind, but because he never meant to kill Felix in the first place.

An Oliver who had planned to confess his True Love to Felix and then die dramatically in his arms (hopefully with a bit of sobbing from Felix, or at least a few appropriately devastated tears and maybe even an apology for being unable to love Oliver back the way he deserved), and who changed his mind at Felix's very thorough rejection to, "I'm going to live, I'm going to leave, and I'm never going to think about Felix Catton or his terrible family ever again."

An Oliver who wanders around Saltburn after his confrontation with Felix, wading through the fading dregs of his party and all the people who were supposedly there for him but didn't even know his name, because he was trying to take in Saltburn one last time before locking the memories of this summer away somewhere deep enough to avoid for the rest of his life.

An Oliver who has no idea that Felix drank something he'd been handed by his ex-bestie who he hated now, his ex-bestie who apparently "makes his fucking blood run cold," because really? Honestly, Oliver was kinda surprised that Felix even took the bottle from Oliver and didn't immediately chuck it at Oliver's head.

Why would he drink from it??

Except, at some point in his aimless wandering, he realizes that the bottle is emptier than it should be. Except, there's only one way he can see for the bottle to be emptier than it should be.

He'd be already running by the time he finishes registering the understanding that Felix drank from Oliver's poisoned suicide bottle.

And maybe in this universe, Oliver gets to Felix in time to make him throw up, but not quickly enough for Felix to shrug off the effects or be coherent without a trip to the hospital and some serious bed rest. So by the time Felix wakes up, Oliver is already gone.

Though this is still Oliver, of course, who can use any situation to his advantage, even horrifically traumatizing situations where he almost killed his ex-bestie/crush/One True Love. Honestly, Felix "overdosing" at Ollie's birthday party is the perfect excuse for Oliver to leave Saltburn without looking bad to Felix's family!

And the perfect excuse to still get screw over Farleigh, in the bargain.

After all, how could poor little Ollie with his druggie mum and dead druggie dad be expected to stay in a house where his best mate nearly OD'd on drugs at Oliver's party? Drugs brought into the house by said best mate's own cousin, moreover? It'd just be too traumatizing for him!

Of course, it would also be terribly traumatizing for him to go back to his mum's drug den of a home, too... and he did save the life of Sir James Catton's only son, from said only son's own stupid choices... gee what will he do?

Probably accept some hush money from Sir James Catton that could be used to rent himself a nice little flat near Oxford for the rest of summer. Only because James and Elspeth were so insistent that he let them help him, though, if he was truly set on leaving Saltburn with like half the summer left. Let them help him, and also agree not to go talking about Felix's unfortunate little overdose with other people, that is.

(Maybe this Oliver even gently nudges the conversation towards the idea of Sir James Catton using his connections to help Oliver change schools, so as to really lock himself into the "Getting Over Felix" plan. Nothing like nearly murdering your best mate after he finds out you've been lying to him for months and then brutally rejects your love confession to motivate some personal change, right?)

And then consider Felix: Felix whose last fuzzy memories are of Oliver going all crazy at him in the maze only to throw up a bunch and then finally leave Felix alone; Felix who wakes up in a hospital a day or two later to learn that Oliver did in fact leave Saltburn... but only after he saved Felix's life and then brutally threw Felix under the bus to his parents, first. Felix who learns that, oh yeah, also Farleigh's been kicked out again, possibly for good this time, what with his bringing drugs to the party Felix nearly accidentally offed himself at.

That Felix would have gone crazier than Oliver Quick, waking up to all that.