Pool Hunny // Benny Rodriguez

21.

Benny. 

I walked down the hall, I was looking for Caroline because I knew when I could meet her for out next tutoring session now. I waved her over down the hallway, "Caroline!"

She scowled when she saw me, "as if I'd want to talk to you right now." she muttered shouldering past me down the hall. Ashlyn and Emmy who were walking behind her burst out laughing. I turned to my cousin, "Em... what the hell is going on? What did I do?"

She grinned sharing a knowing look with her friend, "I'm sorry I can't tell you, she'll actually kill me. But don't worry about it, it's not that big of a deal."

Yeah-yeah and Kenny shot me confused looks, "what's going on?"

I shook my head watching as the three girls walked of down the hall, "hell if I know."

Caroline.

We sat down in the back of the library, "I have to fix this and quickly, or at least even the situation."

"Even out the situation?" Ash asked sceptially. 

I nodded twisting my hair around my finger, "exactly." 

"And how exactly are you going to do that?" Emmy asked amused. 

I shot them both a grin, "it's quite simple. All I have to do is make him like me back, because if he has a crush on me it would be just as awful for him as it is for me now..." 

"That's actually not a bad idea." Ashlyn replied surprised. 

Emmy nodded, "yeah, why the fuck do you have a good point right now? How are you going to do that though?" 

"Well, obviously that is going to take a lot of finessing, because he can't know that I like him while I'm trying to make him like me." I started, "so I'll have to be really subtle."

"That's true because if he finds out you like him then that will ruin the whole thing." Ash agreed. 

I shuddered hearing the words, "oh god, let's just stop saying that. It might just send me to an early grave."

Emmy snorted, "you are so melodramatic sometimes."

"Well when you start liking your worst enemy you can tell me how it feels Em." I muttered sourly. 

Benny. 

I have never been to a weirder tutoring session than this one, Caroline had started smiling abnormally a lot but she was being more difficult than ever. "What the hell is your problem?" I asked finally snapping. She was taking her strangeness a step too far for me. 

"What are you talking about?" She asked nonchelantly. 

"You're acting like your fucking possesed Caroline, did you get drugged again or something?" I continued. 

She glared at me, "no, thank you very much. And no I am not possesed, I'm not acting any different than I usually am!" 

I scoffed, "I beg to differ. You see normally you're insufferable, but right now you're insane."

"You know what, why don't we limit this conversation to you asking school related questions. Because the ones your asking now are getting you dangerously close to me ripping your hair out." Caroline huffed crossing her arms. 

"Only if you don't give me that creepy as fuck smile again." I shot back. 

"It was not creepy!" Caroline exlaimed angrily, "and I already stopped so stop being so fucking weird about it." 

I gaped at her, "I'm being weird? You've been acting like a different person this last hour, don't tell me I'm being weird." I defended. 

"I think it's time you left." Caroline told me hotly, "I'm done with this." 

I laughed in disbelief, "you don't have to tell me twice, I am out of here. Tell Caroline to call me for the next lesson not whoever this is."

"I am Caroline!" She shouted after me. 

"No you aren't if you were Caroline you would be normal!" I shouted back.

Caroline. 

I slammed the door after him, what an idiot. Why was this so much harder than I thought it would be? Flirting with someone without them being allowed to know you were flirting was proving considerably harder than I thought. The smiling thing had been Emmy's idea, she had heard once in a movie one friend saying to another "never forget to smile because you never know who's going to fall in love with it" which in principle would have been nice had it actually worked. Only I hadn't been able to  give him a real smile, so I'd given im the fake one I plastered on around Katherine which he'd found creepy.

I grabbed the phone dying her number, she picked up quickly, "hello?" 

"Well done Em, not only did your little tip not work, but it also set me about fifty steps backwards. You want to know why?" I asked sourly. 

"Why?" She relied probably trying not to laugh. 

"Because your cousin thinks I'm CRAZY!" I snapped at her making her start to laugh properly. 

"I'm sorry Caroline I don't know what to say, it always works for me." She replied. 

"Apparently, I just can't pull it off." I muttered, "I'm great at flirting, fantastic actually, but it gets a little harder when the fact that I'm doing it needs to be kept a secret!" 

"Okay, okay relax, why don't I scope him out a little for you, find out what he likes and then you can just do that instead." She offered, "although for the record I think Ash was right, you should try being yourself first." 

I snorted, "real funny. I think we all established that's exactly the problem Em. He hates the real me."