hate is a strong word (bxb)

45

While Ben was stuck at home coughing his head off and going in and out of sleep, Braxton was at school.

It almost felt weird going on the bus without Benjamin, and it felt even weirder being in his first-period class without him. Ever since Ben had gotten kicked out, the two had spent almost every waking moment with each other—whether at night or during the school day. There was no avoiding each other when they both lived with each other and had three periods together.

Braxton could have taken this as an opportunity to focus on his school work for once, as now he didn't have the opportunity to blow off his English work to annoy Ben. Though, he didn't use the period to focus on his work. Even without Ben being there, he somehow still felt the need to talk to him—especially since he was sick.

He pulled out his phone to text Ben, writing out a message that asked, "Are you doing ok?"

For a little while, Ben didn't text back but Braxton could have figured this much. When he left for school, Ben was drifting off to sleep so he knew that Ben was probably still napping. Braxton had brought up a drink and snack for Ben right before he went off to school and when he had done so, Ben seemed to be asleep.

Braxton found himself getting into some sort of daydream as he patiently waited for Ben to text back. He could just imagine Ben all curled up in a ball napping, and in the least creepy way possible, it brought a small smile to his face. He didn't know why but he just thought that there was something cute about it.

In the simplest form, Ben was nothing but an angry little toddler—or at least that's how Braxton saw it. He sure did seem to show all of the traits, anyways. He hated being told what to do and he could sometimes be self-centered in the way that he needed everything to go his way. Sometimes he even threw little temper-tantrums at Braxton when things didn't happen the way that he wanted them to. Yet somehow he was still just cute. Braxton noticed that Ben thought that he was a lot tougher than he really was, and he thought that this, in particular, was cute.

Deep down, Ben was sweet. He was just really fucking horrible at showing it. More than anything else in this world, Ben hated showing anything that he thought made him look vulnerable. That's why Braxton liked the way that Ben would get right before drifting off to sleep. There was always just a moment in which Braxton could visually see Ben let his guard down and peace would fill his face. In moments like that, Braxton could see who Ben really was. He was a complete sweetheart who just refused to show it.

When Ben texted back, he could hear the text being read in Ben's tone. It was just so Ben. The text said, "I just have a head cold or something. I'm not fucking dying or anything. Shouldn't you be doing your classwork right now or something?"

"Maybe" was Braxton's simple response.

Sometimes—only sometimes—Braxton would put out bait like this. After Ben would complain, he would give a simple response that was easy to ignore to see if Ben would still respond to it. He always did.

"So, what are you doing in English then?"

"Babe, can you stop texting me? I'm in class and I need to focus on my work." Braxton smiled widely at his phone as he sent this text. He knew that the text would fluster Ben just a little bit.

"Die <3"

"We're supposed to be doing a journal log right now but I have nothing to write about so I'm texting you instead. What're you doing?"

"Just woke up from a short nap. I still feel like literal hell though. I got no sleep last night."

"Well, you can sleep on my bed instead of the floor."