Not-Friends With Benefits (BxB)

Chapter 10

AIDEN'S POV

"That was diabolical" Fai claps his hands together, sitting up on the bed.

"You've seriously never watched 'Impractical Jokers' before?" I ask, surprised.

"Never" he shakes his head, laughing like an idiot. I guess distracting him with something funny really worked. We only watched one episode, but he already seemed much more relaxed.

"It's so fucking stupid" he chuckles. "But that's what makes the show so brilliant."

"True" I comment. "Sometimes, it's best to keep things simple and organic."

"Right?" He smiles. "Although, ironic, coming from you."

"Excuse me?" I raise my eyebrows at him. "I'm nothing, if not organic."

"Your homemade açaí bowls are, but you're not" he quips. "You've clearly been using this show to curate tortures for me."

"How dare you accuse me of that!" I say, feigning offense. "Name one instance."

"How about, when you hacked into my computer when I was giving my presentation on 'Workplace Boundaries'?" He turns to face me. "You swapped out one of the slides, replacing it with a morphed picture of Jeff Bezos and I making out."

I remember that, I made it look like Fai was sitting on his lap, as they engaged in a sloppy French kiss. The icing on the cake though, was the fact that Fai's crush was also in that classroom, she never spoke to him since.

"That's called taking inspiration" I grin. "Although, you have to agree, my editing skills are unmatched."

"I'm not done, saboteur" he continues. "You also hacked into my phone, changed my wallpaper to Hello Kitty, replaced my outgoing voicemail to someone farting, and went live on my fucking Instagram to play granny on granny porn!!!"

"I love that last one" I say, reminiscing.

"Fuck you, Romano. My mom saw that!" he hurls a pillow at me, but I catch it, saving my beautiful face from impact.

"For someone who's baked, you have fantastic memory" I jest.

"Only because you've pulled this crap so many times" he scowls. "This is just the tip of the iceberg."

"You're no saint either" I scoff.

"At least, I'm authentic" he argues.

"Just shut up" I say. "I don't feel like watching it anymore" I complain, getting off the bed. "I have a better idea."

***

"Come in" I say.

Fai cautiously steps into the dark room, his movements imitating that of someone navigating a minefield. His eyes frantically dart from one thing to another, as if he landed on a weird new planet or something.

What's so interesting? You've already scoped out my entire bedroom, you creepy lurker.

"Why'd you bring me here?" he questions, his paranoia seemingly sneaking back.

"So we can watch a movie" I explain, flicking on my projector. "...on a bigger screen."

The soft, white light washes over us, calming Fai as he takes a few steps forward, closing the door behind him.

"That's a cool projector" he says, inspecting it.

"Thanks" I smile. "So, what do you want to watch?" I ask, skimming through Netflix. Fai doesn't respond, engrossed in scanning my room with his googly little eyes instead.