nothing to hide.

nothing to hide. - benvi one shot

It had already been one week since Devi decided that she and Ben were to date in secret. Which meant it had also been one week since Ben said he was okay with it.

You didn't have to be the smartest person alive to notice that he wasn't.

Ben was used to liking things in secret. Hell, his mother didn't know what he was a "fan of these days", even if he spent most of his time on his Rick & Morty Reddit account. Not talking about things that made him happy wasn't new. He chose to do that every day. What he wasn't used to was having to keep it to himself. It just ended up happening with the one person he couldn't stop thinking about and the only thing he had ever wanted to talk about.

His interest in Devi had started only one month ago when he stayed over for dinner at her house. It was the first time in his whole life that he saw Devi out of the "protection" facade she puts on at school. It added something more to her, something he didn't know they had in common: just wanting to fit in.

That small feeling was enough for Ben to try and kiss her twice at his birthday party.  He let her move in with him to distract her from how awkward that must've been. And, when she kissed him in Malibu, well... Of course, it was amazing. Ben wasn't gonna pretend that the sole memory of it didn't make him smile automatically.

So now, he and Devi were a thing. But for everyone else in the locker room Ben was standing in, he was just a lonely fool smiling to himself for absolutely no reason.

He was brought out of his thoughts when one of his classmates' phone started ringing. Ben turned around, shut his locker, and bent down to tie his shoes.

"Hi, beautiful." His classmate said as he picked up the call. "Yeah, of course I'm free tonight."

One of his friends nudged the guy's shoulder. He whispered. "Dude, is it finally happening?"

As an answer, the guy slapped his friend's hand and walked away. The group of prepubescent teenage boys started cheering.

"It's getting down for Marcus tonight!"

Ben rolled his eyes and slowly got up. All eyes turned to him. He looked around, confused.

"Anything going down for you, Gross?" One of them asked.

Ben smiled. "Well..."

He remembered the smile Devi had on her face when she suggested to keep their relationship a secret. Ben wasn't an expert on relationships, but he knew that the smile she gave him had to be more important than proving himself to a bunch of random guys in his PE class.

Even if, right that second, it didn't feel that way.

Ben's smile disappeared as fast as it had started. He sighed. "No, nothing's going down for me."

One of the guys snorted. He gave them a confident smile and walked away, hoping they didn't realize how fake that one was.

_____________

The next day, Ben walked into his history class and sat down at his spot. When he turned to Devi, she raised her head and sent him a smile.

"I can't wait to be done with today's test," she said, "I'm tired of studying for it."

"Really? I haven't studied for it since I beat you last night."

Devi laughed. They had spent all night studying for the test at Ben's house. Well, studying was a big word. Fighting over who knew more facts than the other was a better way to describe it. And, well, other things too. (No, not that. If you thought otherwise, you need Jesus.)