More Than Friends

Six

Danny and Aiden were still chilling in the back, and Samantha was nowhere in sight. Things were beginning to look up for me. Aiden still didn't seem too happy to see me when Connor and I joined them, but I wasn't about to let his frowny face scare me away.

"Ben!" Danny cried out, as he saw me. "Where did you go? I was about to introduce you to some nice girls when you ran off."

"Oh, I uh... had to go to the bathroom." Technically, I had gone inside to the bathroom.

"Too bad, they were pretty hot and wanted to meet you," Danny explained, not that I really cared. "Connor, why don't you introduce Ben to someone? You talk to a lot of girls. You should hook him up."

"What?" Connor laughed, acting skeptical about Danny's statement and glancing back at me. "Yeah, I don't know what you're talking about."

"Right," Danny replied, looking over towards me. "Hey, what was he like before he moved? Was he always good with girls?"

Imagining young, dorky Connor in my head, I couldn't help, but laugh out loud, almost snorting in front of everybody.

"Shut up, Danny." Connor began to blush. "You too Ben."

I found it adorable.

"Actually, as a matter of fact, no he was not." I was more than happy to elaborate. "In fact, I still remember this one time, in sixth grade, when he tried to ask this girl out, Martha-"

Before I could finish recalling old memories though, Connor covered my mouth to keep me from embarrassing him any further. Naturally, I struggled and fought back, so he bear hugged me too to try and keep me still. It was innocent, guy friends stuff, but he was just so close to me... it was like he was taunting me too.

"Okay! Okay! Fine, I won't tell them!" I shouted, so he'd let go of me.

"You're no fun, Connor." Danny laughed, taking a sip of his drink. "So what about you Ben? Got a girlfriend or something?"

Normally, I would have bluntly said no. And if he pushed the question any further, I would have bluntly replied that I didn't because I was gay. However, with Connor right next to me, I heisted and tried to come up with something "reasonable" to say to avoid the subject entirely.

"Uh... no, I've never been good with girls." Technically, that was true.

"Ah, same old Ben." Connor sighed, placing his arm back around my shoulder.

"Well, some things never change." I replied, leaning ever so slightly towards Connor.

"Ugh, I'm out of here." Aiden suddenly blurted out of nowhere, walking back towards the house.

"Where are you going?" Danny asked, but Aiden kept walking and straight up ignored him. "Jeez, what's his problem?"

"It's me," I told them. "I don't think he likes me."

"What? No." Connor shook his head. "He's just... he's just always like that."

"Yeah, especially when he's around you, Ben." Connor punched Danny on the shoulder. "What? It's true, isn't it?"

"Figures," I grunted, embarrassed about indirectly causing such a commotion.

"Don't worry about it. I'll go talk to him," Connor assured me, ready to step in and settle things for me.

"Wait, let me go." I stopped him, ready to settle things myself. "Let me talk to him"

"Uh, are you sure?" He asked, confusedly.

"I'm sure."

Connor may have been blissfully unaware of the situation, but I had more than just a feeling that Aiden had something against me. I had a hunch about what it was about too. Since I had arrived, he had apparently begun to hate me. Since Connor had begun letting me tag along with them, he'd been rude to me. Every time Connor and I seemed to share a moment together, he seemed to get a bit pissed off about it. Call it intuition, but something told me he was jealous.