Love, On Read (MxM)

Chapter 22: Going to Need More Wine

A/N: Happy New Year! It's been a while, haha. This is set a couple of days after Chapter 19 :) how fun (sarcastic), Ollie just can't catch a break. Anyways, here's a quick peek at the drama that will spiral later on 😅

Ollie's POV

I hated being late to anything, but what I hated more than that was waiting on people who were late. There were many things to hate about Benjamin now that I think about it, but back then, him being late to anything infuriated me to no end. But it wasn't just Benjamin that was late to events, his mother, Carol was just as bad, if not worse. For freshman year open house, she ended up showing up five minutes before it ended, Benjamin going to his classes with my mom trying to peep in for the classes we didn't share so she could relay the information to Carol later.

Him being late to our dinner was no surprise, but it still annoyed me, especially with how much effort and time my mom spent on making a nice dinner and everything. She rarely got to do this and it was getting cold. Carol was awkwardly fiddling with her food on the plate, as Benjamin walked through the door with his girlfriend, Lauren.

"Sorry we're late, Mrs. Sullivan," Benji held the hand entwined with Lauren's up in the air. "I already made plans with her today, so we insisted on coming together. I didn't have time to drop her off, hope you don't mind."

Lauren tilted her head, giving a sheepish wave to my mom. "Thank you so much for having me, Mrs. Sullivan. It's a lovely home."

"Thank you. Please take a seat wherever. The food's a bit cold, but feel free to heat it up if you'd like." I could see my mother's jaw clench after she said it, her pet peeve of tardiness was even worse than mine. Maybe it was due to the nature of her career, but she insisted on being early to events as well. Benji and Lauren sat across from my mother on my left, while I sat across Carol.

Time slowed as Benji turned to me, flashing a small grin—undoubtedly a fake one I assumed. It had been a while since he looked me in the eye. "Hey, Ollie."

I had to bite my bottom lip from saying anything snarky about the nickname, especially with both our mothers here, who both assumed we were still close childhood best friends. Without making eye contact, I smiled back. "Hey, Benj. It's been a while. Nice seeing you too, Lauren."

Benji rubbed the back of his neck like he always did when he was coming up with some excuse or lie. "Ha, yeah. Football season is kicking my ass. I feel like I'm always practicing nowadays."

My mother hummed. "How is the season going?"

"Great. We only lost once so far. We'll definitely reach the championships at this rate."

"That's impressive," my mom said, actually unimpressed with the sports small talk. She hated sports as much as I did, especially since it had been dad's obsession. It was one of the many things he gambled over, and one of the many reasons she divorced him.

Carol, who had been silent most of the dinner, quite enamored in my mother's cooking, had perked up at her son's accomplishments. "Yes, Anna. My boy will be the MVP for sure. Quite the star."

"Indeed."

"He might make it to the big leagues," Carol said with a laugh like it was the most brilliant thing she's said.

My mother and I shared a glance, probably thinking the same exact thing, with those grades? It was no surprise that Benji was quite awful at keeping his grades up. There were times I'd give him the answers or try and tutor him when we were on speaking terms, but even with my help, he was living on the edge with his academic career, he'd be lucky to get a football scholarship to even the smallest of public colleges. Then again, our school viewed the sports trophies with the same vigor as the Emmy's or Oscar's, they could sweep his grades under the rug if it meant Benji and the rest of the football boys landed our school a championship trophy.