hate is a strong word (bxb)

15

About two weeks had passed since Braxton and Benjamin had hooked up, and Ben had tried his hardest to not put much thought into it. In the simplest way, he just didn't want to put much thought into what had happened that night.

On one hand, he surely considered it a mistake. He had been messy in his actions. By sleeping with him, Braxton somehow had an advantage. He now had the capacity to expose Ben--had he wanted to--and the thought of that was too stressful for Benjamin to think about, so he didn't.

Though, on the other hand, he didn't necessarily regret the actions that took place that night. Was it a mistake? Yes, Ben surely would consider it to be a humongous mistake. But would Benjamin do it again? Well, that was a whole other question. For one thing, the sex was good and Ben had no way of denying this. It was so much better than any of the sex he had ever had before. Though, it really sucked that the person he had sex with just so happened to be a colossal asshole. 

Every once in a while, Braxton would make an innuendo about having sex with Ben in front of other people--mostly Olivia and Scar--and that certainly wasn't Ben's favorite thing. However, it seemed as though Braxton was always making sarcastic jokes. This worked pleasantly in Ben's favor, as no one was ever able to take these jokes seriously.

It was a day in early March and Benjamin was sat on his porch after a long day of school. He needed some air, and though it was cold, the fresh air still felt exquisite against him. It nipped at his skin, but in the most refreshing way imaginable. He sat rocking back and forth on his father's chair.

Ben stared up at the clouds. The sun had only now begun to set and he found himself admiring the way the sky managed to turn from a mellow blue to a vibrant yellow. God, he loved the sunset; it was the simply things in life, really. Ben's idea of heaven would be sitting in emptiness, with nothing but the sky and the clouds. He allowed his head to free itself of worries as he watched the sun dip further down.

Things can't be simple forever, though, and this is something that Ben knows all too well. He's snapped back to reality as he hears the garage door opening from the house to the left of his—Braxton's house.

In an attempt to not be nosy, Ben averted his attention back to the sky. This time, that was harder to do. Ben heard the rattling of something against the street in front of him and it somehow manages to capture his attention as he sees Braxton fly past him on a skateboard.

It figured that Braxton would be into such a thing, or at least Ben thought so. If there was one thing that Ben knew about the other boy, it was that he had so much energy and nothing to do with all of it. He would be one to like quick skating and stupid skateboard tricks. Unfortunately, Ben would be lying to himself if he tried to tell himself that he didn't think that Braxton looked rather appealing like that—blond hair wildly blowing in the wind as the sun set in the background. He looked like he could've been the boy of someone's dreams (not Ben's, he told himself, but someone's.)

Ben was amused, to say the least. He just liked how cool the other boy looked. His eyes followed him at Braxton skated down the street and then quickly back again, pausing in between to flip around a little on his skateboard. As Braxton came back and faced Ben, he wore a dumb smirk on his face, "Enjoying the show?" he shouted out.

"I wasn't watching you," Ben claimed, and the only person he was fooling was himself.

"Yeah, sure," Braxton skated to the end of the street and quickly turned back the other way.

"Fuck you!" Ben exclaimed loudly enough for him to hear, not caring what his other neighbors would think of the ruckus.

Braxton turned his head back to shout out to Ben once more, still skateboarding in the direction opposite of their homes. Before he could even get a word out, a car quickly turned the corner, coming in his direction. The car had pulled in too quickly to see Braxton. Truly, both parties were being too careless, but the car had stopped right before it could possibly have hit Braxton, and honked loudly at him.

Ben threw his head back in laughter, watching from a distance. The laughter faded as he realized that the car had been his dad's. Had it really been that late already? He could've sworn he had more time before his dad would be home.

The car pulled into the driveway and soon enough, Ben's dad approached him.

"So, since when have you been smoking pot?"

The words had came out so quickly that Benjamin could barely even process it. 

The one thing that he prided himself on was that he was subtle when it came to smoking. He never came home when he was high enough to be noticed and he thought that he had become quite good at hiding the smell of weed. 

"Excuse me?" Ben's eyes bulged out of his head; he'd been expecting a hey, or how was your day at school?

Ben didn't know how his father possibly figured it out, as he was always so careful and he was always able to keep his cool and not show his high in the presence of his dad. He felt his heart drop all the way down to his stomach.

"You left some shit on your desk; I could smell it," his father gritted his teeth.

"That... that wasn't mine," Ben began to lie, "it's... it's..."

"Whose? Scar's?"

"No, its..." He thought carefully for a moment. He hated the idea of getting in trouble, as he knew that his father would most likely have him grounded, but he hated the idea of getting his friend in trouble far more. He wasn't going to let Scar take the fall for it, though he knew that he easily could. "It's mine. I'm sorry."

"Yeah? Well, you're grounded for two weeks."

"Two weeks?" Ben nearly whined, "you have to be joking."

He understood that his father had reason in acting the way that he did, but that was only on paper. His father truthfully wasn't very protective of him, nor did he want the best for him. All that he ever seemed to want was to boss Ben around, as if to show that he was still in control.

He knew that things could have been worse, but still, he thought that the idea of being grounded was absurd. In a few months, he was going to be eighteen, and in a few months after that, he was going to be moving out and on his own. He understood punishment for acting out, but he thought that this should have ended at having the weed taken away and perhaps having a stern talking. The idea of being forced to stay home simply seemed off-putting to him.

"That's final," he responded sternly, "and I threw away your pot, F.Y.I."

"That's expensive!" Ben found the words slipping right out of his mouth before he could even think, "I mean..."

"There are better things to do with your money than spend it on drugs. You're grounded."

"Dad!"

Though he wanted to argue things out, he knew that there was no use in trying. When his father made a decision, the decision was always final. His father was many different things, but understanding didn't have a placement on that list whatsoever.