Cardboard Lover × HARDZELLO

7

Joe honestly felt like he was going to cry. It was already 1pm, way past his bedtime (but not Rami's), and he was still lying in bed, unable to sleep, unable to close his eyes without Ben's hurt face materializing in his mind. He covered his own face and let out a muffled scream, earning a glare from Rami who was on his computer doing god knows what. Joe threw off his covers and ran to grab Cardboard Ben. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean what I said!" He cried desperately, shaking the living daylights, or nightlights, out of poor Cardy B. The standee didn't say anything, which made Joe even more depressed. Finally, Rami had about enough of Joe. He got up and grabbed the standee out of Joe's hands, almost tearing it at the torso, and began attacking the ginger with it.

"STOP" *whack* "CRYING" *whack* "OVER" *whack* "HIM!"

"OKAY OKAY JUST DON'T DESTROY--- OH MY GOD RAMI YOU LITTLE SHIT!"

Rami put down t̶h̶e̶ ̶w̶e̶a̶p̶o̶n̶  cardboard Ben and Joe looked horrified. "You bent his legs!"              The Egyptian rolled his eyes. "You won't even need Cardy B if you go talk to Ben yourself!"

Joe stayed silent because he knew Rami was right. Again, his words from 2 nights ago replayed in his head, " I can't Rami, you should've seen the look on his face. I swear he hates me right now." Rami huffed, "Look if I print you a brand new Cardy B would you PLEASE just go set things straight?" 

"NO, and also stop calling him Cardy B!" Joe yelled as he stomped put of the door, slamming it for good measure. 

" What a kid," Rami said, but he couldn't help a small smile before tapping a contact on his phone and bringing it to his ear. "Hello? Yeah it's Rami. Listen Gwilym could you do me a solid and tell Ben---"

xxxxx

Rami may or may not have made met someone during Miami's party. And that person may or may not have been Ben's closest friend on the football team. And he may or may not have asked that friend, Gwilym, to coax Ben into talking to Joe.

" Look Gwilym, you should have heard what he said. I've never felt so fucking humiliated before." Ben buried his head in his hands. The two Brits were alone in the locker rooms, with Ben sitting dejectedly on the worn-out plastic benches and Gwilym, tall, handsome, suave Gwilym Lee, with folded arms leaning against the equally shabby lockers. Gwilym tried to reason with Ben , "Mate, I'm sure he just freaked out. Now just pleaaaase settle things with Mazzello so we can end this season well! We've got a game on Thursday and you don't wanna go to Camp feeling down about losing do you?" Ben went into deep thought. His best friend was right. He was also probably, hopefully, right about Joe freaking out---- "Hey hey hold up wait a minute, how do you even know about Joe's response? I never explicitly told you that." Ben furrowed his eyebrows. "Uh....." Gwilym's eyes widened as he immediately stood up and sprint-walked out of the locker rooms, quickly dialing a number onto his phone, "Abort mission. Abort mission..."

xxxxx

12th March, 2pm, 3 more days to the big game. 4 days to camp.

Ben was on the field. Practising of course. Tired? Yes. Sweaty? Check. Thinking about Joe? Definitely. He didn't even know why that one sentence from Joe made him so upset. Usually it was things Ben said that made girls grovel and cry: "I'm sorry, I just don't think I love you back." "We're just friends." "I'm not looking for anyone right now."  He felt absolutely dreadful. It was worse that he didn't even know how to feel about the ginger, except the need to be there for him, to be around him, to be the angel in his life, just like how Joe was to him a year ago. 

"Ben watch it!" His thoughts about Joe were interrupted when the ball flew straight at his face, knocking him over. Gwilym came running over, " Mate you full on zoned out back there. You good?" He extended his arm for Ben to grab. Ben turned his throbbing head, " Yeah just wasn't paying attention---"