hate is a strong word (bxb)

46

It was no surprise when Braxton ended up sick as well. Before he even knew that he was sick, he had made the assumption that he was going to get sick and didn't even bother to set his alarm for the next day. Just like on the first day that he was sick, Ben had presented his case on how he wanted to go to school despite being sick but just like that first day, Braxton was once again able to convince him to stay home.

By Thursday, both of them felt well enough to return to school, where Scar wasn't all too pleased.

Somehow, Braxton had assumed that in his day of absence, things would go back to normal at lunch. He thought that by the time he returned to school, Olivia would come back to sit at the table and the awkward atmosphere would dissolve into nothing.

However, when he returned to school, he quickly learned that things would not unfold in such a simple way. At their small circular lunch table, the only people sitting down were himself, Benjamin, and Scar.

Braxton sighed as he looked over to where Olivia was sitting. Despite the fact that everyone at the table all seemed to be happy, Olivia still seemed misplaced in some way. Braxton supposed that there was nothing that made her looked too out of place, but after seeing Olivia at his own table, it didn't feel right to see her at another table.

"Well, boys, it looks like our foursome is down to a threesome," Braxton said.

Scar deadpanned as Braxton told his joke, "You asshole you can just call us a trio."

"Why can't I call us a threesome?"

"You know exactly why you can't call us a threesome," Scar answered defensively.

"I'll second what Scar said," Ben joined in, not seeming too amused either.

"You know, you guys are sort of assholes for not showing up to school yesterday," Scar said, and for a second, neither of the boys understood what he was attempting to say, but as the explanation continued on, Braxton felt an anger fester within him, "I looked like such an idiot at lunch sitting all alone."

It took a second for it to make sense to Braxton. He was almost sure that Olivia had gone back to sitting with Scar yesterday—even if she wasn't sitting at the table today. If Olivia only had an issue with Braxton, it made sense that she would resume sitting at the table if Braxton weren't there.

The idea that she could continue to ignore everyone even when Braxton wasn't there didn't sit right with Braxton whatsoever.

For a moment, Braxton let go of whatever amount of a filter he previously had, "That's a real bitch move," he said darkly.

Considering the fact that Braxton was always so bold in his words, Ben figured that he shouldn't have been caught that off guard but for some reason he couldn't help but feel shocked at the words. 

Even though Braxton typically spoke his mind, he was usually more obnoxious than he was rude. Ben wasn't even sure that he had ever heard Braxton shit talk anyone else before. He was always so positive in the way that he was bold. Even if he was annoying in the way he would act, he was never mean. 

"Braxton..." Ben drew out. He wasn't sure exactly what he was supposed to say to that, but Ben knew that it usually wasn't a good idea to let Braxton's mouth roam freely.

Even though she was technically ditching them, Scar still considered Olivia to be one of his dearest friends, as did Benjamin. So, he thought that it was only fair to speak up for her, "It's not completely her fault. She doesn't mean any harm by it."

"I don't care what you say about it," Braxton shrugged as his words grew ruder, "You have to admit that deep down it doesn't sit right with you that she didn't talk to you yesterday even though I wasn't here. If she has a problem with me, she has a problem with me—and that's ok. I mean, I rejected her, she's probably hurt. But our problem is our problem. She shouldn't avoid talking to you guys just because of something that happened between us—which wasn't even my fault, by the way."

"I guess she just didn't want to ditch the people at her table," Scar reasoned.

"Bullshit," Braxton called out, "You see the irony in that right? You say that she didn't want to ditch the people at her table? This was her table before. This was her table for the entire year and she had no problem getting up and moving tables even when you were sitting completely alone."

Ben scrunched his face a little as he listened to the words coming from Braxton's mouth. Admittedly, it made sense to him. He wished that Braxton would be less harsh about it, but in his core, he knew that everything he was saying was correct.

The more he thought about it, the weirder the situation really was. Olivia had not only been avoiding Braxton, but she didn't sit with Scar yesterday and left him all by himself and she hadn't texted him or talked to him at all in the passing days. It felt weird that she had been avoiding everyone in the group.

"Well, I do wish that she would have talked to me yesterday," Scar told him, "She just needs time though."

"See? See?" Braxton questioned smugly.

"Don't get too cocky," Scar narrowed his eyes, "Maybe it is shitty what she's doing," Scar admitted, "But I get her perspective. It's embarrassing. She thinks that you just rejected her because of the fact that you're not willing to give her a chance. She has no clue that you rejected her because you're in a relationship."

Braxton thought hard on that for a moment, "You're right," he told him as he let go of some of the tension that had previously been flowing through his body. From there, he let his mind wander a little bit. He knew that he had to confront Olivia, and he knew exactly what he had to say, "I'll tell her that I couldn't go out with her because I'm already dating someone. It's the truth, so that should do it, right?"

Braxton was almost sure that Ben was going to have something bad to say about his proposition so he was rather surprised when Ben simply replied, "Yeah, you should probably do that. Just tell her that you're in a relationship and just make it clear that it's more of a secretive relationship."

Unlike Benjamin, Scar didn't seem to be too fond of that idea, "Are you sure that confronting her is really the best idea?"

"Why wouldn't it be?" Braxton asked.

"I just think that maybe if you confront her she'll just blow up more."

"Scar, I think that it'll be fine," Ben cut in.

From the bottom of his heart, he just wanted things to go back to how they were before. He liked the dynamic of the table before Olivia freaked out and Ben wanted nothing more but to have the problem fixed. 

So, Ben was willing to go along with whatever it would take to get things back to normal. 

"Whatever you say," Scar muttered.

Despite what Scar had to say about it, Braxton was almost positive that nothing bad could possibly come from this.