hate is a strong word (bxb)

32

A/N: HELLO GUYS I AM VERY HIGH RIGHT NOW. THIS IS GOING TO BE FULL OF MISTAKES. PLEASE DONT COME @ ME FOR ALL OF THE MISTAKES, I SWEAR I'LL FIX THEM TOMORROW BUT I JUST WANTED TO POST THIS. THIS CHAPTER IS A FREAKING MESS IM SO SORRY.

ANYWAYS I LOVE YALL

"Today is Wednesday, April 15. Book club will meet immediately after school in the IMC, Student Council will meet..."

During homeroom every morning, they would broadcast the morning announcements over the speaker. They would announce what clubs were happening when and give some insight into what was going on within the school. They were short, usually, and they were mostly just unimportant so no one really tuned into them.

Benjamin had been half-tuned into them, but most of his attention was on his phone. After all, he wasn't that involved with any of the clubs at school and all of the other things that they announced seemed inapplicable to him.

The speaker continued to speak, saying, "And now for our birthdays. Today we are wishing a happy birthday to freshmen Charlette and Amelia Dorazio, sophomore Andrew Woodward, and senior Braxton Janson."

The last word rang weird in Benjamin's ears. It hit him with some shock to hear Braxton.

It must've been a mistake, he thought. There was no way that it could've been Braxton's birthday. He was sure that if today were Braxton's birthday, he would've said something about it yesterday. Braxton's inability to keep his mouth shut made it incredibly difficult to believe that he would've failed to mention that it was his birthday.

He decided that it wasn't Braxton's birthday—no, it couldn't have been. After all, sometimes the people on the announcements made mistakes.

But truth be told, Benjamin didn't know when Braxton's birthday actually was. It was incredibly possible that his birthday could have been today, as Ben didn't have any proof that it wasn't. But how would it be today?

. . .

"It's your birthday today?" Ben questioned in outrage as he plopped down beside his boyfriend.

Braxton chuckled, "yeah, April 15. I'm an Aries—they say that I'm passionate and have a cheerful disposition with relentless determination. But I don't really see it."

"Yeah, and I'm a Leo but fuck you, why didn't you tell me it was your birthday?"

If Benjamin were expecting today to be the one day of the year that Braxton didn't play around and would just answer his questions, he was in for a rude awakening, "you know, I think that they say that Aries and Leo's are pretty compatible."

"Brax," Benjamin sighed, "I think that I'm going to bash your head into a nearby sidewalk if you don't stop playing around."

"Someone's a little snappy today," Braxton laughed lightheartedly, "and Brax? What's that? A nickname?"

Ben didn't even mean to call him that name, so he didn't bother to give him any satisfaction and simply ignored the question. "I'm snappy because I feel like an idiot for not knowing that today was your birthday, asshole," Benjamin admitted, "I mean, how are you just not going to tell me that today's your birthday?"

If Ben had known that today was Braxton's birthday, he would have prepared himself for that. He would've gotten him a gift. Though, he wasn't sure exactly what he would have gotten him as a birthday gift. After all, what gift says "we've been hooking up for a while and just recently started dating?" Benjamin thought that the gift must've been something small but with a touch of sentimental; something that says "we're dating, but we're not too serious about it." Maybe a joke gift would've been good for this occasion. It suited Braxton, Ben thought.