Soft Body

17: Welp

Ben's apartment was like a sticky glue trap for girls, like it had been scientifically engineered for parties and seduction. There was a friendly amount of clutter and strategically placed photos of him with his family. It smelled like fresh laundry and his empty alcohol bottles were prominently displayed above his kitchen appliances, like every good college boy does.

"Wow, you are a stereotype, aren't you?" I asked, spotting his giant tub of protein powder.

"I have a system and it works."

"I'm sure you do," I replied. He didn't make a point of concealing that this was one big act of trying to get some from me and I stopped trying to conceal the fact that I would be open to it.

"A drink?" He asked.

"No, I'm still full, like, way too full to even think about liquor."

"Wine isn't liquor," he said, filling himself a glass of red. I shrugged and sat on his leather couch, wondering if he needed the wine to get aroused by me, or to follow through with it.

"This couch is pristine."

"Thanks," he replied, sitting close to me. He set his wine down. His knee touched my knee. It would be a lie to say that I didn't want to jump all over him in that moment, but something told me not to. Something told me to keep myself restrained.

He flipped the TV on to Food Network, a Chopped rerun playing.

"Oh my god, I love Chopped."

"Yeah, I know," he laughed and touched his thigh with my thigh. We sat in silence until the episode ended, though I noticed his giant gulps and refills during the show.

"You know, you move pretty slow for someone with a system," I said. Was this going to happen or wasn't it?

Ben exhaled and put his head on my shoulder. I could tell how buzzed he was. His eyelids were heavy and I'm sure I looked a little blurry to him. I knew the feeling. He was definitely not a wine pro.

"You make me nervous," he said. I laughed.

"Are you prone to lying when you've been drinking?" Because that, no doubt, was a lie. He took his hand and slipped it in mine, our fingers intertwined. Maybe he was more gone than I thought.

"No, you're like zero tolerance, dude."

"What?"

"You like, don't even tolerate the bullshit for a second, like you don't let me go through the motions of trying to get you to have sex with me, you just called me out on it, and I don't know what to do."

"That was really honest, Ben."

"It's so weird."

"Well, actually I came here to talk about your tattoos. We don't have to fool around if you don't want to."

"But I want to," he replied.

"I want to too, but you are more than a little wine confused and I am stone cold sober, so I'm kind of not really wanting to."

Ben lifted his head, and looked me dead in the eyes, or at least, as much as he could. He would be asleep any second now.

"Will you let me try again?"

"Yeah, sure, whatever. Drink some water and go to bed, okay?"

How did I end up babysitting him?

"Okay, I need to count you, okay, you have to count," he mumbled under his breath.

"What does that mean?" I asked. Ben leaned into the side of my face, completely missing my ear. His face was hot, his breath was hot, and he was making me sweat by being in his presence- and not in the good way.

"Shhh, I fuck everybody," he whispered, before laying back on the sofa with his eyes closed.

I laughed and left his apartment, any trace of attraction I had for him, gone.

Please don't forget to vote/comment if you liked what you read!! Thank you so much for reading!