Back home • boyxboy

Silver's

Before I left the school I opened my phone and texted milo.

"Hey, saw you weren't here today, hope you're okay :)"

I put my phone in my pocket and then got my bag out of my locker.

I felt a tap on my shoulder, I turned around to see Ben.

"Oh, hey." I said, slipping my backpack on.

He smiled.

"I just thought maybe we could go somewhere to catch up? You've changed so much, I just want to know more about the new you." He said.

I chewed my lip a little. I know I was supposed to trust him because he's not Max's friend anymore, but what if this was all a setup? What if max planted him to get information on me, and spread it around the school?

I looked back at Ben.
His thin lips pressed into a smile, waiting for a response.

No, ben wouldn't ever do that. But Issac would.

"Sure." I nodded, closing my locker.

"Do you have a place in mind?" I asked. He nodded.

"We could go to Silver's?" He asked.

Silvers is a fast food restaurant that serves like probably the best chicken strips around. It was pretty inexpensive too.

"Okay. Sounds good, do you want to go now or..?" I asked.

He shrugged.
"We can do whatever you like, I don't mind." Ben said, as we started walking out of the school.

I nodded.

"Well, if it's okay with you I think I want to grab a sweater from home first. It's getting kinda chilly." I said, looking at the goosebumps on my arms.

He laughed.
"You always were cold, guess that hasn't changed, huh?" He asked, laughing a little and unzipping his jacket.

"What are you doing?" I asked, laughing too.

He slid his jacket off of his arms.

"Oh, I was letting you use mine so you don't have to walk all the way home just for a silly jacket. If you don't want it I can put it in my ba-"

I shook my head.
"No, no it's okay. I'll wear it, thank you." I said, taking his jacket and slipping it on. He smiled.

"To Silver's we go." He said, and began to fake March.

-

When we got to Silver's,  we picked a table off into the corner of the restaurant.

He had already ordered a set of fries for us, and I ordered the strips.

"So, what all do you want to know?" I asked him.

He thought for a moment, playing with his red-toned hair as he did.

"Where did you go during the summer? One day you were here, the next you just totally disappeared." He asked, eating a fry.

"My mom woke me up one day and told me I was going to a summer camp. I didn't have any choice to it, but after I got there I realized it wasn't so bad after all." I said, smiling at the memory of us all on the lake.

He smiled too, as if he saw it as well.

"What did it look like? What type of people did you meet there?" He asked, putting his freckled face in his hands.

"It looked really modern. There were these huge buildings dedicated to hobbies the other campers were interested in. Everyone got their own cabin , which was basically like a house. Every cabin had at least two bunk mates-"

"Woah. Who was your bunk mate? Did you guys get along?" He asked

I blushed.
All too well.

"Uh, his name was jorge. We got along just fine. But the other people I met there were very interesting. I met these two guys named noen and cayman. They were best friends and the biggest dorks I knew. I had a pretty good friend named maliki. He helped me with a lot of things." I said.

He nodded.

"I also met abby, she was a pretty cool person, she loved makeup. I met this girl named Olivia, she liked maliki, and was also Jorge's best friend. There was xowie too, super cool girl, we related on a lot of things." I finished.

"Oh wow. So I'm assuming when you were there was when you figured out who you really were?" He asked.

I nodded, and took a bite of the chicken strips.

"Do you talk to any of them now?" He asked.

I stopped eating.

I shook my head slowly.

"Oh. How come? Sorry if I'm prying, you don't have to answer." He said.

I was silent for a little, studying the designs on the table we were at.

"I dated my bunkmate while I was there." I said.

"Jorge?" He asked.

God, hearing his name come out of another persons mouth hurt.

I nodded.

"He broke up with me by blocking me, off of everything. I tried to ask everybody why he did it, but no one has answered. I guess it really isn't their place to say anyway." I blurted.

And I didn't know why, but saying the full story out loud felt so good. It was like I had 200 pounds of sadness on my chest, and 10 of it just got lifted.

"Are you o-"

"I'm fine. I'm okay, yeah I'm good." I said, stammering.

He put his hand on mine.

I looked down at it. He had clean pink nail beds, and his hands were smooth to the touch. They were warm where they touched mine.

I looked up at him.

"Whatever pain you feel right now, I promise benji, you don't deserve it." He said.

And that was when my eyes weld with tears.

This is definitely none of Max's doing.

-
Hi , I have a new book called "the void-benjey" if you want to check that out tell me how you feel about it in the comments 🥺 also I hope you enjoyed