The Barefoot Violinist

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While they all piled into the house chatting and laughing, Cory pulled Bennett back.

"Are you okay? I was worried about you?" he murmured, pulling him into a hug,

"I'm fine, really." he smiled shyly at Cory in the dark, leaning into his warm hug. "Thank you for picking us up." Bennett raised his arms and placed them around Cory, giving him a quick hug, before dropping his arms again, feeling awkward. Cory immediately responded by tightening his hold.

"You shouldn't scare me like that." Cory whispered against his head. "Next time I'll drive you."

"Er, guys?" Tyler stood in the doorway looking them over with a wide grin. "Are you coming in at any point, maybe?"

Bennett almost jumped out of his skin, when he saw Tyler standing there looking at them. Cory seemed to take it in his stride and slung his arm around his shoulders, pulling him closer. The more he tried to get away from Cory, the tighter he held on.

"Well, if you're done here, maybe you can get us some beer or something?" he winked over at Bennett with a mischievous grin.

"Shut up ass hole, or I'll throw you out myself!" Cory moved toward Tyler, pushing him back into the house while pulling Bennett behind him.

"I would have thought you'd have a party going, dick head." Blue observed when they all had a beer in hand.

"Someone has to be responsible around your little group it seems." He retorted, deciding to sit at Bennett's feet, leaning against his leg.

Bennett smiled to himself as Cory got comfortable. When he looked up, he saw Blue's eyes trained on him, which made him immediately look down, suddenly very interested in the glass in his hands.

Tyler took a seat next to Blue and grinned at her. "What the fuck are you looking at?" she snapped at him, fire in her eyes.

"I'm looking at you, bitch." he replied.

"What the fuck did you just call me, ass hole?

"I called you a bitch. Are you fucking deaf?" he snapped back at her.

Everybody in the room held their breath. Cory and Mason looked at each other, slightly alarmed. They'd never heard Tyler speak like that in front of a woman, but here he was spewing this shit in front of Blue. Cory prepared himself for all the damage that was going to be done. Both to Tyler and to his house.

Blue looked at Tyler for a moment, before a slow smile spread over her face.

"You're not such an ass hole after all!" she grinned. "What did you say your name was?"

From that moment, Tyler and Blue seemed to have made peace, which had Bennett scratching his head and Hector staring open mouthed at them. Now if only she could like Cory a little bit as well, he thought as he watched Ellie jab Victor in the side to get him back to reality.

Cory, on the other hand, almost fell back on the floor after hearing their interaction. What just happened? He shook his head as if he'd just been knocked over the head to make sure he was seeing right. Blue and Tyler were animatedly talking about some nature documentary that they'd both seen. She even used his name instead of calling him by one of her many favourite and colourful nicknames.

Blue flat out ignored Cory for the rest of the evening, her attention taken up by Tyler, while Mason kept the others in stitches with his slightly off colour jokes. Cory shifted on the ground, leaning his head against the armrest. Without thinking, Bennett tangled his fingers in Cory's thick, dark hair, gently massaging his scalp.

"Hey, do you guys perhaps know who Cory's missus is?" Mason asked out of nowhere, looking round at the others, hoping for an answer.

Looking up in alarm, Bennett realised that Blue, Tyler and Ellie were all watching him intently. Furiously blushing, he looked down at Cory, holding his breath. This was an unexpected situation, really embarrassing and completely out of the blue. And what did he mean by missus, Bennett wondered with a slight frown. The way they all looked at him seemed as if they all knew.