Flower in the Flame (The Scattered Series - Book #1)

Chapter Eleven

11 | Nadia Spencer

"So you two are- what? Fucking?" Ben walked in on us, and quickly decided we need an intervention. So, the three of us are sat at the table. Billie's head is buried in his hands, he hasn't looked at me since we were caught. I can't help the flush of colour to my cheeks at Ben's question. "No, Ben, I'm not fucking my boyfriend's dad." I say it as though my friend has just asked the most unreasonable of questions, but he caught us mouth-to-mouth, his question is a valid one.

Ben props his elbows on the table, leans forward and rests his chin on his hands. He's staring at me. "Look at me in the eyes and tell me you're not fucking him, Spencer."

"This is ridiculous." I scoff but do as he says anyway, meeting his blue-grey stare. "I am not fucking my boyfriend's dad." I don't once smile. "Do you want to fuck him?" Now Billie looks up. Folding my arms over my chest, I stick my tongue out at Ben. He leans forwards as though to grab it, so I retract the rude gesture. "Like hell am I going to answer that." The habit of saying hell is a bad one, and I entirely blame Ben. 

Ben watches me for a moment, his thick black brows set and the wicked gleam in his eyes is the only indication that he's having fun. He ruffles out his hair and turns to Billie. "What about you, huh? You wanna fuck my best friend?"

Armstrong purses his lips and shakes his head. "Look at me." Grover is relentless, Billie looks like he wants to punch him. And so, with clear reluctance, he looks Benjamin in the eyes. "No, I don't want to fuck Nadia."

"Nadia Spencer." Ben corrects, "Again."

"I don't want to fuck Nadia Spencer."

"Aha!" Ben jumps up, Billie startles. "You smiled. So, you do want to fuck Nadia." Billie's face has turned scarlet. He gets up, lifts down his liquor from the top of the cupboard, but today he doesn't bother getting himself a glass. His face is almost as red as his cherry brandy. He grimaces as he sits back down. "My smile meant nothing. What are you doing here anyway?"

"I'm here to see Nadia, obviously. But that's not relevant. What's relevant is you want to fuck my best friend." If he says 'fuck' one more time I'm going to lose my mind. Benjamin sits again, looking between me and Billie. His black hair is more or less parted in the middle and hangs in a mess, but not as messy as Billie's. "So... let me get my head around this. You two were having some makeout session when I arrived."

Before he can say more, I get up. "I need to pee." Grover looks to Billie, smirks, before turning his attention back to me. "But I'm not thirsty right now. Can it wait?" Asshole. Billie chokes on the mouthful of brandy he just took from the bottle. I don't know if he's shocked or amused. "Shut up, Grover." I mutter.

I can still hear his barked laughter as I make my way upstairs. The bathroom, if you couldn't guess, is massive. Standing before the sink, I look in the mirror, trace the line of my lips. The lips Billie kissed. Of course, I can't spend long in the bathroom, Ben Grover can't be trusted alone with the man who he caught me kissing.

"No no no, like this." When I walk back in the kitchen, Ben is sat on the floor with a bottle of tequila. He licks from the base of his thumb to below the nail, dips it in salt. Billie is sat with his elbows propped on his knees and his head in his hands, watching Ben with careful concentration.

Abruptly, Ben licks the salt from his hand, takes a mouthful of tequila and then shoves the lime into his mouth and sucks. My own mouth pools with saliva at the sight. Billie cringes, but Ben doesn't react at all. "Years of practice that took. Now you go." He gets up and dumps the salt, a wedge of lime and the bottle of spirit on the table.

"I've been around for years, Benny, I'm sure I can do it without making a face."

Turns out Billie Joe can't do it without sticking out his tongue and rubbing it with his sleeve. Ben doubles over with laughter and I can't help but grin. Sitting back down, I look between the two boys. Ben is grinning as always. "If you two wanna fuck..." he begins, "make sure to invite me."

Billie looks towards me with a smirk. "But if we invited you, there'd be no point in Nadia being there." Jeez, why does Armstrong have to egg him on? "True. My presence does demand a lot of attention." Ben is not far wrong there. He struggles to muffle his laughter when he glances over at me and sees the tight cringe drawn on my features.

All of a sudden, Ben switches up, propping his chin on his hand and studying me. He never fails to impress me with the way he can change so fast. "You need your roots dying again."

"What?" Billie is on his feet immediately. He stands before me and brushes back my hair. "You're naturally blonde? But you're so... brunette."

"See? I tell her that all the time!" Grover is clearly loving having someone finally agree with him. "It doesn't make sense; how can someone be 'so brunette'?"

Ben shrugs the most barest of shrugs. "Easy. You look like a brunette, act like one too. Look." He prods my cheek. "Only white girls with fake tan are this colour and have blonde hair." It's weird to be reviewed like this, but I welcome Billie's stare of intense consideration.

"Where do you come from?" Billie's interest makes me blush. "My mother is Spanish." The reply answers his question better than me saying 'America', because though that's where I was born and raised, everything about me points to something Ben describes as exotic. As for my father, I know little about him, my mom was a lady who knew her needs and had quite a few one night stands. I'm the product of one of those.

He nods slowly in response, and for a minute, it feels like we're alone and I'm held by the stare of his bottle-green eyes. Then Ben opens his mouth. "I'm 5 seconds away from you. I'm just letting you know that."

I wave a dismissive hand in Ben's direction, breaking from Billie's eyes to look at him. "Please, Grover, I'm not going to jump on him in front of you."

Billie turns pink to his ears, his neck crimson with blush. Ben laughs so loud that I can't stop the smile creeping onto my face.