Just A Little Different

Chapter 11

"Hey, Ben, do you know where my cellphone went? I freaking lost it somehow. I might have put it down somewhere."

"Oh yeah! I was gonna tell you, but it slipped my mind. You weren't home and my mom had a friend coming over and your phone was on the table so I put it in my room. I just didn't trust it would be there when her friend left."

I breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you, I knew I didn't bring it with me but I wanted to be sure."

We were silent for a few minutes, clicking our mouses wildly, focused intensely on our laptop screens.

"No. No. No. NO!"

"YES!" I jumped up excitedly as I destroyed him in yet another game of Super Smash Mobs on Minecraft.

He pressed his back against his chair, bringing his hands to his face. "I can't believe you beat me again!"

I grinned. "I just know my Smash Mobs, bro." I replied, stifling my laughter. He glared at me, but happiness was written all over his face. He had fun, I though happily.

"Dude, my throat hurts." he complained.

I smirked. "I could probably help with that." He have me a questioning look, then understood the joke and looked down, his face growing red. I laughed. It was a rare thing for me to see him blush. It made my mood even better.

"I'm never telling you that again." I snickered.

"Aww, I gotta have fun too, Benny." I widened my eyes at him, making a puppy face.

"Don't do that," he chuckled. "And don't call me Benny!"

"Fiiiine." I acted sad and picked up my laptop, heading for his door.

"That's not going to work."

I shrugged. "It was worth a shot.".

"School starts in like two weeks and we wasted the summer indoors." He sighed.

"I guess that's kind of my fault," I admitted. "I'm just so used to being indoors all the time. People don't like me because...well, I'm not perfect."

"Nobody is perfect, Ian. Nobody is born perfect, and nobody will die perfect. Even I'm not perfect." He smiled sweetly. "Life will hand you challenging tasks, but you have to face them less like a test and more like an opportunity. I promise you'll be much better off then."

I was speechless for a moment, staring blankly at him, then kneeled down on the floor and bowed to him. "Yes, oh great Socrates."

"I'm being serious, Ian!" He lightly kicked my arm away and laughed. "You know, you're in a rather playful mood right now."

I stood up and grinned. "I'm gonna go get my phone."

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I stared at the screen of my phone. There was a number calling that looked vaguely familiar, but I didn't know if I should answer it. Instead, I went to Ben's mom, who was in the kitchen, making breakfast.

"Good morning, Ian." She smiled.

"Morning, Ma," I replied, thoughts cloudy. I looked at everything she had cooking; eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, pancakes. The list just went on. "What's all this for?"

"It's Benjamin's birthday today. I figured we could all sit together for breakfast for once."

My eyes widened. "I completely forgot! I...I didn't even get him anything! I..." I thought for a moment. "Do you have a printer that I could hook my laptop up to?"