Long Away

Chapter 32

"Brian?"
Ben had picked up his phone and was looking for his next opportunity to pull over. It was still a bit of a distance, but he drove as slowly as he could without being a hindrance to the other cars on the road. On the other end of the line, Brian cleared his throat. It sounded almost as if he was fighting back tears.
"Hey, Ben..." The older man's words were hardly more than an exhausted sigh. It concerned Ben quite a bit.

"Brian? Is everything alright?"
"Not at all, I am afraid," Brian said.
"It's about Roger."
Ben's heart skipped a beat.
"Is he...?"
"Oh, no. No, he's not dead," Brian hastily clarified.
"Oh, thank god," Ben exhaled relieved. Brian, however, made an ominous pause.
"What is it then?", Ben asked carefully.
"He was just with me earlier," Brian said slowly, "and he didn't bring good news. Ben, Roger is..."

"I need to see him!", Gwilym shouted behind the door.
"Sir, I already explained to you that we are doing all we can. But right now, he needs to be left alone to rest," a stranger explained, calmly but sternly.
"No, you don't understand. I need to see him right now. It is important-"
"Sir, I am going to need you to cooperate, or leave this hospital. It's your call."
Ben squirmed.
"Please," he managed to get out. The pain in his throat was almost unbearable as he spoke up.
"Let him."
The nurse who was tending to him hesitated for a moment, but then she nodded and headed for the door.

Ben forced his eyes open. Blood on the road, too much to be washed away by the rain pouring down. Shards of glass and metal scattered everywhere. Somewhere next to him another person groaned in pain. Ben gasped for air. A sharp sting in his throat brought tears to his eyes. He couldn't see his left leg in this position, but it did not feel like it was bent the right way. It was the worst pain he had ever felt. He was struggling for air. Then, darkness came over him.

Ben did not feel well rested when he woke up the next morning. His sleep got hijacked by obscure nightmares, but he didn't remember what they were about. Roger kissed the back of his hand when he realized that Ben was awake.
"Good morning and happy birthday, my gorgeous boy."
Smiling, Ben rolled over to wrap his arms around him.
"Thank you, honey. Good morning to you too."

They shared a long and sweet kiss. After pulling back, Roger gazed lovingly into Ben's eyes.
"So, are you going to tell me now how old you are turning today?"
Luckily, Ben had remembered to check the date that was on his ID after getting home yesterday.
"Twenty-one," he said.
Roger seemed surprised.
"Really? I thought you were older than me."

The irony of his statement made Ben chuckle.
"Nope."
"Well, anyway," Roger changed the subject, "I was able to negotiate with Freddie. He agreed to not throw you a party you don't want. So, it's up to you what you want to do today. But if I may offer a suggestion, I would take you out on a date."
"I would lo-ike that a lot," Ben said.
Roger sighed dramatically, rolling away from Ben.
"You are not going to stop with that, are you?"
Ben smirked.
"I wasn't planning to, no."

Their conversation was interrupted by a knock on the door.
"Yes?", Ben answered.
Freddie and Clare peaked inside.
"Happy birthday, Ben!", they congratulated him in unison. Ben smiled.
"Thank you, guys."
"We made breakfast," Freddie said.
Roger pouted.
"I wanted to do that!"
"Well, then you should have gotten your ass out of bed sooner," Clare snarkily replied.

In the kitchen, Ben found that they had made pancakes with colorful sprinkles mixed into the dough.
"Does everything need sprinkles in this household?", he chuckled amused.
"Yes," Freddie said.
"And you are lucky you didn't have to whiteness our food coloring phase."
"Yeah, half the time the colors didn't mix well with the actual color of the food we made and it just looked awful," Roger added.
"We had waffles in the variations 'radioactive' and 'moldy'", Freddie remembered.
"That sounds just great," Ben said.

The four of them sat down at the table. The flowers Roger had gotten for Ben the previous day were standing in a vase in the middle of it.
While they ate their pancakes, Roger and Ben made plans for their date.
"We could go see a movie," Roger suggested.
Ben nodded excitedly.
"I would-"
Roger glared at him, an unspoken warning in his eyes.
"- like that in a normal way," Ben finished his sentence.
"Should I understand what this means?", Clare asked.
"I don't either," Freddie said.
Ben smirked.
"Oh, it's just because a while ago Rog-"
"Nobody needs to hear this story," a flustered Roger interrupted him.

In the late afternoon, the two boyfriends went to a movie theater that Roger liked a lot.
"It's very small, but that also means not many people go there," he explained on the way.
"I was there with Freddie and Brian a few times and we always had the whole room to ourselves."
"That sounds perfect," Ben said.

Inside the small building, they looked at the promotional posters to pick a movie. After a bit of thinking, they chose a romantic comedy musical.
"Two tickets for Santa Claus is going to Highschool, please," Roger told the teen at the register, before turning to Ben.
"What snacks do you want?"
"I think I'll have salty popcorn."
While the teen was occupied with his order, he quietly added:
"Because I already have something sweet."

Even though he was trying to hide his reaction, the corners of Roger's mouth pushed up ever so slightly.
"Can I get you anything else?", the employee asked as he handed them the tickets and a bag of popcorn.
"One large coke," Roger added.
"Okay." The boy filled the soda into a cup, and reached for the straws. He hesitated, and looked helplessly from the soda to Ben, to Roger.
"Uhm." His voice cracked from nervousness as he spoke.
"Do you want one straw or two?"

Ben and Roger looked at each other in surprise.
"I guess two?", Roger said.
"Okay. That'll be £27.50."
Roger gave him the money and he and Ben took their tickets and snacks.
"The movie is in room three. Have fun," the teen told them.
"Thanks!"

Like Roger had expected, there was nobody else watching the movie. About ten minutes in, Ben was starting to get a feeling that the size of the theater wasn't the only reason for that.
"Um... What the fuck are we watching?", he whispered to Roger.
"I don't know."
This movie was easily one of the weirdest Ben had ever watched. As it progressed, he and Roger began to joke that the only good thing about it was the hot actor playing Santa. They started paying less and less attention, and instead carved something into the seats in front of them, threw popcorn at each other, and eventually got into a steamy make out session.
"You know what?", Ben asked between kisses, as he was pinning down his boyfriend into his seat. Roger gasped for air.
"What?"
"This is the best movie ever."