hate is a strong word (bxb)

49

Braxton catches Ben right after the period is over. As they exit the classroom and make their way to Ben's locker, Ben can't help but feel lightheaded.

He's silent—dead silent. He feels a million thoughts running their way through his brain and many of these thoughts he feels like angrily screaming out. The more the thoughts deepen the more he feels like he might just end up exploding if he doesn't let them out soon. There are so many things that he needs to express to Braxton, but he can't start talking now. There are just too many people around, too many people that could hear everything that he says—even if he were to say it in the quietest whisper.

Ben feels weird as he walks down the halls. He feels some people looking at them and he can't tell if they're looking at them because they know or if they're just looking. Perhaps he's just paranoid. No, he's definitely paranoid. But all he knows is that a girl named Jessica in his math class—a girl who he has never been properly acquainted with—thinks that he's dating Braxton. He knows that she learned this information from a girl named Abby Lewis and that Abby learned this from Olivia.

Ben knows Abby Lewis. Olivia and Abby had always been friends, but Olivia and Abby had never been all that close. She was more of a side-friend. They hung out every once in a while but their relationship didn't run all that deep. So, Ben concluded that if Abby Lewis knew this information, Olivia had most likely told her other friends as well and that those friends could have been telling their friends—as Abby had told Jessica—and for all Ben knew, the entire school could have known by this point.

Not to mention, Olivia had no idea what it was that Olivia was saying to all of these people. Ben was sure that Braxton didn't tell her any details of their relationship so anything that she knew, she had figured out on her own. Olivia jumping to conclusions and telling everyone his business was a dangerous game. Not only was the truth harmful, but for all he knew, she could have thought that certain things were happening that weren't happening.

The walk to the bus is awkward, as Braxton asks twice if Ben's ok, and the ride home is even quieter as Ben remains almost silent for the entire duration of the bus ride.

Once the bus stops in front of the bus stop and Braxton and Benjamin walk their way off the bus, Ben opens his mouth, finally letting all of the thoughts spill out of his head, "We have a problem. We have a massive fucking problem."

Braxton looks over at him cautiously, "Yeah?"

"What exactly did you tell Olivia?"

"I told you everything that happened," Braxton says, "Our interaction was so short. I told her that I was seeing someone else and that was really all. Why? What's going on?"

Ben frowns aggressively and his thoughts begin to quickly spew out of his mouth, "She knows; I guess that somehow 'I'm seeing someone' wasn't vague enough and she fucking knows about us now. Jesus fucking-fuck Braxton, she knows. She's been fucking telling people. Then fucking Jessica whatever the fuck her last name is fucking told me that Olivia told Abby and Abby told her."

Braxton tries to wrap his head around whatever it is that Ben's telling him. It's a lot to take in at once. For one thing, he hadn't heard anyone talking about them so it seemed weird that all of the sudden this would surface out of nowhere.

He wants to make a joke about the number of times that Ben said the f-word in a row in that sentence, perhaps something like 'if I took a shot for every time you just swore, I would have alcohol poisoning.' He holds himself back, though, as he knows that this definitely isn't the right time for him to say something mockingly.

"So now people are calling you gay? Just because Olivia thinks that you are?"

Ben answers this question as they walk into the house, "Apparently so. What are we going to do?"