I Fell In Love With My Best Friend's Crush

Chapter 2

        "And did you see those eyes?! Ugh. He's perfect", Ashley blabbed on. At this point, I was sitting in the middle of my game room floor on my gigantic bean bag while she was constantly going on about Ben. Me, on the other hand, was focused on more important things. For example, killing people on Halo. 

        "So I've heard", I replied back with a chuckle as I turned off my game. "Now can you please help me with my problem?".

        Ashley sighed, "Just break up with him already"

        "Dang. Hit a nerve there."

        "Well, no offense, but I'm getting tired of hearing about it"

        "...Sorry"

        "We should invite Ben over", she exclaimed excitedly.

        "I don't have his number", I replied while sighing. 

        "He lives right down the road?", she answered. I was hoping she forgot about that.

        "Fine. Go", I finally agreed. 

        About ten minutes later, she came back with a tired looking Ben without a shirt on. Boy, was he ripped. All he had on was his grey, plaid pajama bottoms.

        "Like what you see, Tay?", he said with a cocky, smirk on his face. I rolled my eyes at him and laughed as I got up to go get him a shirt that my brother left when he went to college. I opened the door to his room and stared at myself in the mirror. What was I thinking? Staring at him like that. He probably thinks I like him now. I just sat there for a bit, staring at myself.

        Nobody cares about your problems. You're being pathetic. You even annoy your best friend. Just keep it in why don't you. Why do you think your parents don't ever come ba-.

        "Hey, you coming back down?", Ben said with both of his hands on the door frame. I laughed and looked down at the shirt I had in my hands.

        "Yeah...", I said barely above a whisper. I looked up and smiled at him. Chucking the shirt at his face as I walked past him and back downstairs.

        We sat there goofing around for about three or four hour. Laughing. Talking. Joking. Flirting. We'll not me of course. "I guess I should head home before my mom has a heart attack", Ashley said heading to the door, "Walk me to my car?", she said batting her eyes at Ben.

        "Sure", he said getting up from the couch, opening the door for her. I smiled to myself and got up as well. Except, I started to clean the place up. 

        Ben came back in pretty quick. He started helping me clean up, to my surprise. I was the first to break the silence, "So... you and Ash seem to be getting along pretty well", I said throwing a couple paper plates away.

        "I guess" he shrugged, "She tried to kiss me out there...". I was taken back with shock. I knew Ashley liked him, but she was never one to try to kiss someone, or make the first move in any way. He must have noticed my shocked expression because he started laughing, "I know right, I didn't expect it!"

        "Did you kiss her back?", I asked curiously.

        "I pushed her away...", he said looking down. I was even more surprised. I thought he had liked her. "I knew she liked me. But I just couldn't do it . I tried not to flirt with her. I tried not to lead her on, but I just couldn't get myself to like her", he said still looking down. I kind of felt bad. As long as I've know him, he had hated for anyone to like him because he felt like he was going to end up hurting them. He liked to take stuff slow. He tried to find a girl he could see himself staying with for a while. "Can I spend the night?", he asked. I nodded in agreement.

        When we were little, I didn't want to stay by myself while my parents were away on business, so his parents would let him stay with me. It made me feel sercure. So, having him stay here was no big deal.

        We went to bed as soon as the house was clean. I threw my hair into a messy bun on the top of my head, put on my Spongebob Squarepants pajama bottoms and a black hoodie. I grabbed my headphones off my desk and plugged them into my phone as I climbed into bed. I put them into my ears and turned on my "depressed" playlist. 

        Three songs went by and I was bawling. The room was pitch black, quiet, alone. It was just me and my thoughts. That's what had got me crying. All the thoughts inside my head were absolutely terrible. It was all about how I'm leading Justin on and how much of a terrible person I was for even thinking of doing this. 

        I suddenly felt the bed sink down behind me. I quickly wiped my eyes, and pulled my headphones out. "You okay?", I asked him. He laid down and got under the covers with me. I turned back around with my back facing him. He put an arm around my waist and pulled me to him. It felt good to be held like that when I was in this type of mood... even if he didn't know. 

        "You know, I could tell you were down earlier... Why do you even try to put up a front with me anymore?", he asked with his voice soft.

        "I don't know what you're talking about", I said back, staring at the wall as if it was the most interesting thing in the world.

        "I'm not stupid. I know you were crying earlier, Taylor", he replied as he turned me around so I had to face him. I lost it. I absolutely hated crying in front of people, but I did. I cried harder than I've ever cried before... and he just held me. Rubbing little circles on my back, holding me as tight as he could while I just sat there and cried. And that's how we ended up falling asleep.