hate is a strong word (bxb)

43

Seeing as how it had been quite some time since they had hung out outside of school, Benjamin, Olivia, Braxton, and Scar had all decided that on Monday, right after school, they were all going to walk to the shitty run-down pizza place that was near the high school and hang out for a little while. Braxton asked if he could bring Marianna along as well—who seemed to be his new girlfriend, or whatever they were calling themselves for the time being—and everyone said that would be fine. So, the group would consist of Benjamin, Braxton, Scar, Olivia and their new addition Marianna. Or at least that would have been the group if things didn't get a little bit skewed after class had ended.

They had all agreed that they were going to meet up right near the playhouse exit, which was closer to the senior division of the school. As Benjamin had exited the building, he saw Scar and Marianna standing side by side against the wall.

Ben thought that Marianna seemed to have a nice energy to her, a calm energy, almost. He could see it by the way that she was standing. It was as if there was no tenseness in the way she stood. She was the kind of girl that radiated confidence. It figured that Scar would like a girl like that. After all, with how nervous and paranoid Scar always seemed to get, it was only fitting that he would need someone in his life that was filled with confidence to eradicate some of that paranoia.

She was fairly pretty as well. It was obvious that she had naturally dark hair, but she had highlights in her hair. Normally, Ben didn't like how that kind of thing looked on people, as he tended to prefer natural hair, but he thought it looked nice on her.

"Looks like the two love-birds got here first," Ben notes, and before Scar has time to say anything, he adds onto what he said, "Figures that Braxton wouldn't be here yet. Knowing him he's probably going to take his good old time getting here."

"Yeah, but what about Liv?"

And then, as if the timing had been perfect, the doors open to reveal Olivia. There's a great deal of discomfort on her face and her eyes were watery as if she were about to start crying at any moment.

"I can't go out to eat with you guys," she says as she starts walking towards everyone, "I'm just going home. I'm sorry."

She had started to walk off without waiting for anyone to react but Ben stops her, grabbing her shoulder, "Liv, what's going on? You look like you've been crying."

"I can't talk about it," she claims, not even allowing herself to make eye contact with anyone, "I'm sure that Braxton is going to tell you guys all about it, but I don't want to talk about it."

"What did he do?" Ben asked with widened eyes.

Ben was well aware of the fact that Braxton sometimes made incredibly bad decisions, especially when other people weren't around the stop him from doing those things. So, it certainly wouldn't have been surprising if Olivia had been upset by something that Braxton had done.

Right off the bat, Ben thought that Braxton must have accidentally said something rude to her or done something to embarrass her in front of other people. That's what Braxton always did to Ben, anyways.

"I just don't want to talk about it," She says, "I'm sorry, I have to go before... I'm sorry."

And like that, she's off.

It was another minute or so until Braxton came walking out those same doors. Everyone gives him an awkward glance, almost a cautious one. Though, Braxton doesn't really seem that bothered, unlike how Olivia had. It seemed as though nothing had even happened with Braxton.

Ben rushes into the interrogation immediately, "What did you do to Olivia?"

"No hi? No hello? No how was your day? Hm, that's kind of rude," Braxton responds before turning to Marianna, "Hey, so I guess you're Marianna then?"