It's a Hard life | Hardzello♡

6. Pushed me away

Ben doesn't say anything and just keeps lying on the floor, staring at the ceiling in confusion. 
Joe jumps down the stairs and kneels next to the boy. "Are you okay?" He asks concerned.
Ben grimaces for a moment when he sits up. "Auwie, my shoulder." He mumbles.
"Do you think you can get up?" Joe asks.
Ben nods.
The ginger sticks his hand out for Ben to take, which the latter gratefully does. "How much does it hurt?" Joe asks worried.
Ben smiles weakly at Joe's concern, and tries to act like he is okay. "I'm fineee Joey." He shrugs, but immediately grimaces again, letting out a soft whimper.
Joe shakes his head. "You're obviously not fine. We should go home. Tomorrow I'm taking you to a doctor." He says firmly.
Ben nods obediently, and looks at Joe with innocent puppy eyes.
Joe smiles a little, feeling his heart warm while the alcohol is still flowing through his blood. "Let's go buddy." He says. He himself is also still pretty wasted, but he tries to think as clear as possible, because Ben obviously needs his help.

With a lot of trouble and effort, the two arrive at their house.
Joe guides Ben to the couch, and orders him to stay seated. The boy still can't move his shoulder, which worries Joe.
The ginger walks into the bathroom to find some painkillers for the two of them to get through the night. He looks at himself in the mirror.
What a night.
He really has to do his best not to panic. Because what if Ben wakes up tomorrow and knows that Joe kissed him back? Deep down, Joe hopes that the boy kissed him because he likes him. Joe can't deny that kissing Ben felt good. Like things were meant to happen that way. But does this mean that he has developed feelings for his best friend? When he thinks about it, it scares him. This has never happened to him before. Of course he has dated one or two boys in the past, but most of his relationships didn't last long. What he feels when he's around Ben is different.
He snaps back to reality, and walks back into the living room with a strip of painkillers. He can't help but smile when he sees that Ben is fighting to stay awake.
The blond closes his eyes, but Joe stops him. "Try to stay awake for a few more minutes. After you took these painkillers and you've put some other clothes on, you can go to sleep." Joe hands Ben a glass of water and the strip of painkillers.
Ben smiles at him sheepishly, and just nods. 
Joe doesn't know why, but he gives Ben a quick kiss on the forehead. With the alcohol in his blood he doesn't even think about doing it. But after, Joe immediately starts to panic. He shouldn't have done that. But he only sees Ben's smile grow, which reassures him a bit.

After Joe got Ben to his bedroom with a lot of effort, the ginger decides to eat something, hoping he will sober up a bit. But after two small bites of some cheese on toast, he feels like he is gonna puke if he continues eating.
He takes a deep breath, and makes his way to his bedroom. He can't help but stop in front of Ben's room. He opens the door as quietly as possible, and smiles when he sees Ben.
The blond boy is laying curled up on his bed, but hasn't changed in some other clothes like Joe told him.
Joe is about to walk on to his room, when he notices that Ben is shivering with cold. He tiptoes over to the bed, and grabs a blanket to cover Ben with.
"Goodnight blondie." He whispers to the sleeping boy while running his hand through the boy's blond strands of hair. He smiles when Ben crawls a little closer to him. He tucks Ben in before leaving the room.

****

When Joe wakes up the next morning, he is hangover like never before. He groans loudly in discomfort when he starts to feel dizzy. He decides he should try to eat something, before he passes out. He walks towards the living room to see if Ben is already awake.
No one there.
Well, that gives Joe some time to wake up and prepare his answer to the question he fears Ben will ask him.

'Why did you kiss me back last night?'

That question keeps echoing in Joe's mind.
After he made himself some tea and some dry toast, he sits down on the couch. He turns on the tv, but doesn't really pay attention to the show that is on. He secretly hopes that the sound of the TV will wake Ben.
But after what felt like an hour, Ben still isn't awake. Joe starts to panic a bit. What if Ben doesn't wanna see him? What if he made thing awkward between them by melting into the kiss? Did he ruin their friendship last night? 
His thoughts are interrupted by the sound of a door opening. Joe's heart is pounding in his throat. He just stares at the tv in front of him, to avoid awkward eye contact or anything. He hears some footsteps, followed by Ben's voice.
"Morning." The blond's voice sounds low and husky from just waking up.
"Good morning. I left you some toast, if you feel like it." Joe says, trying to act as normal as possible.
Ben's lips curl into a smile, and he nods. "Thanks."
A long, and according to Joe quite awkward silence falls.
"Well that was quite the night, wasn't it?" Joe says with a nervous chuckle. He immediately slaps himself mentally for saying this.
Ben lets out a sleepy giggle. "I gotta be honest with you mate, I don't remember much."
Joe didn't know that one sentence could ever reassure him so much as it does now. Ben doesn't remember much, so maybe he has forgotten about the kiss.
"I only remember we went to the roof terrace to play a game, and that I pretty sucked at it. Which is probably why my hangover is so huge. I don't even know how I got home." Ben says with a big smile.
Joe chuckles softly. "I bassically dragged you home. You were really wasted."
Ben raises his eyebrow when he sees the big smile on Joe's face. "Oh god, did I do something weird?" He asks.
And even though Joe knows this is probably the last thing he should say right now, he can't help but wonder what Ben would say if he knows that they kissed. "Well, you tried to kiss me, but otherwise, not really." Joe says with a slight smirk.
Ben's eyes widen and he starts to blush. "Oh my gosh... I- I'm so sorry." He says.
It stays silent for a minute.
"But you must've pushed me away pretty hard then, because my shoulder hurts like hell." Ben mumbles, breaking the silence. 

Pushed me away... 

Those words keep echoing through Joe's head. Ben thinks that he pushed him away. A rush of disappointment runs through Joe's body, followed by a rush of nausea. He jumps up from the couch and runs as fast as he can to the bathroom.
He drops himself onto the floor in front of the toilet before spewing into it. He can hear Ben laughing behind him.
"T-this is so unfair." Joe stutters in between throwing up. "You were the one drinking the most and I'm the one puking now." He mumbles.
Making Ben laugh even harder. "Here, you should brush your teeth." He says when Joe is done. He is about to hand Joe his toothbrush, but hisses in pain as soon as he moves his arm a bit.
"Oh right, I forgot about your shoulder. I'm gonna take you to the doctor." Joe says.
Ben looks at him in surprise. "Wait, you didn't get angry with me because my drunken self tried to kiss you, right? Is that why my shoulder hurts this badly?" He asks in a slight panic.
Joe giggles and shakes his head. "No idiot, I didn't fight with you. After you tried to kiss me and... I pushed you away, we went downstairs to go home. But you were so drunk that you fell down the stairs." He explains, hoping the part about him pushing Ben away sounds believable.  
Ben's eyes widen slightly. Then he lets out a soft chuckle. "Well that explains all those bruises on my arms."
Joe rolls his eyes with a smile and giggles softly. "Maybe we should go right away." He says with a concerned undertone.
Ben nods, and gathers his stuff to go the doctor's office.

________________
Wassup people♡ how's life?

An upload for you because I have a free period which I'm supposed to use for studying, but I don't have anything to study. So I thought let's upload another chapter🙃

How's the story so far? Please let me know
Have a nice day everyone💕