recognize / b.simmons

28

"slow down, big dawg!" tobias exclaims as ben takes his third shot to the neck. ben ignores him and slams the shot glass onto the counter and take a deep breath.

"i'm good," he says, and he was. three shots weren't going to do shit to his big body ass. six might, though.

tobias scoffs and shakes his head, a smile on his face. "ay, man. whatever you say," he says, raising his hands in surrender. he could tell something was up with his friend; ben wasn't acting like himself, but that's understandable. he just had his his night ruined by the one girl he saw a future with. he wasn't so sure about that last one.

ben scans the crowd and wipes his mouth with his hand. nobody in here was worth risking it, not sober or tipsy. drunk: yes. he didn't plan on getting drunk, just a little loose. he wanted to drink enough to where the events that took place only thirty minutes ago didn't cloud his mind.

"cmon, lets go back," tobia says, clapping a hand on bens shoulder. his plans of getting loose were over; he was going to make it his duty to make sure his friend was responsible tonight and didn't do anything stupid.

tobias leads ben back to the table and sits him down in his chair once they reach the table. "baby sitting?" anthony asks tobias, an eyebrow raised. tobias sighs and laughs.

"something like that," he says and takes his respective seat next to joel and in between josh. how 9 over 6'4 men fit at this table, we'll never know.

"ay, you good bro?" jimmy asks ben, whose eyes are focused on nothing in front of him. jimmy waves a hand in front of his face, glancing at lebron like 'help me, mfer'. "yo!" jimmy says louder, making bens head snap up.

"huh? i'm fine," he mutters, taking a big drink of water. fuck getting drunk, it wasn't going to solve anything for him. it'd only create more problems.

"you lie worse than you hit jumpers. whats wrong with you?" joel asks, earning a collective laugh from the table and ben himself. he debates whether he should tell them his mess with amari, or keep it quiet. they all know, but he's not sure if he should disclose any information.

ben gestures at nothing. "i don't know, just shit is going on," he says vaguely, letting them all fill in the blanks for themselves.

"uh oh, trouble in paradise?" tristan asks through a chuckle. he's the one to talk; constantly in the news for some bullshit with khloe.

ben shrugs and takes a big drink of his water. "amari?" lebron asks, and ben nods as he sets the glass down, instantly filling with sadness. "man, what now?" he asks, and ben shakes his head.

"same old shit, you know how that goes," ben states and he earns a couple of 'true!' and 'heard that''s from the table. they all heard about amari and kyle, half of them are friends with the dude himself.

"you need to stop fucking with thots," tristan says, and the table laughs, though it's not at ben. it's ironic that he out of all people would say something like that. "what happened to kendall?" tristan asks, cutting into his steak and taking a bite.

ben sighs and leans back in his chair while the others lean forward with interest, everyone but lebron. he knows how ben truly feels about amari. "yo, you hit that?" josh asks, a look of pure shock on his face.

"nah," ben says honestly. there's no reason to lie about bagging a bitch that he didn't even want.

"are you crazy? i get in that, there's no stopping me," anthony says, making the table make sounds of agreement. this was going south very quickly.

"you wasnt feeling her?" tristan asks, disappointed in his friend for being a pussy.

"not at all," ben says, rubbing his eyes, already tired of the conversation. he wanted to go home and sleep, maybe call amari.