safe haven ⇢ d. strome

vii. new years part one

Since the party-turned-movie night with Dylan, two months had passed. It was now Christmas break and I was eagerly awaiting Ben's visit that we'd planned before I'd even moved. He was due to show up at my new house at any time now. It was two in the afternoon and it was damned cold, even for the 28th of December.

Things with Jensen had smoothed out thankfully and I'd even introduced her to Connor, finally. Not surprisingly, he didn't really have much interest in her other than the fact that she was a friend of a friend. It was unheard of for seniors to even talk to sophomores around here. I considered myself extremely lucky.

Dylan spent a lot of time at my house. I think he liked spending time with my dad more than he liked spending time with me, to be honest. They were pretty much best friends. So when Ben told me to introduce him to all of my friends down here, I knew I couldn't leave Dylan out. I would have introduced him to Connor as well, but he was off at the World Juniors.

There was a knock on the door and I hooped up from the couch and smoothed down my hair. God, it'd been so long. It felt like forever since the last time I saw Ben. I skipped over to the front door and took a breath. When I pulled the door open, someone much taller than Ben stood there.

"Dylan!" I scolded, "I thought you were Ben!"

His normal giddy expression was replaced with one of worry. "Shit, are you expecting him?"

"Yes!" I whined.

Something in his face changed. "Oh well, I needed to meet the infamous boyfriend at some point," he smirked.

A car pulled into the driveway behind Dylan and I felt my face light up. Dylan turned around to see Ben and his mom, who I was super close with, step out of their car. I glared at Dylan before pushing past him to meet Ben.

Ben's face formed into a look of excitement as he ran towards me. Like they do in the movies, I jumped into his arms and he spun me around until I realized how damned cold it was without a jacket.

"I've missed you so much, baby," he said into my shoulder. I had really forgotten the sound of his voice, even though I'd been talking to him on the phone and FaceTime a lot. People sounded different in real life.

"You too," I said, opening my eyes. They rested on Dylan who was looking at us. When he noticed I was looking at him, he smiled and made a heart with his hands. I flipped him off.

"Ben, I have someone for you to meet," I said as he let me down. I looked over to the front step where Dylan stood.

"Who is that?" He said, a bit of anger in his voice. I touched his arm lightly.

"You said you wanted to meet all my friends," I said and dragged him up the steps so that the guys could meet.

"You must be Emma's boyfriend," Dylan said politely, like a dad would to his future son in law. "I'm Dylan. We've all heard so much about you."

Just like that, Ben's expression immediately changed into a softer one. "Ben Morrow," he said with a smile and shook Dylan's hand.

"I was just stopping by to drop off some Christmas gifts," Dylan said smoothly, even though he was lying. He had given me my present on the 25th, bright and early. It was a Strome shirsey, of course, and a purely rap mixtape that he begged me to listen to. He was determined to turn me into a rap fan. "I'll talk to you later, Emma."

With that, Dylan skipped down the steps and towards his car, not even bothering to send a look back. It was like a completely different person had just left. He was acting so... fake.