𝑊𝑒 𝐷𝑖𝑑𝑛'𝑡 𝑆𝑡𝑎𝑟𝑡 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐹𝑖𝑟𝑒

𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚗𝚌𝚎𝚜

TATE'S POV

The days went by and nothing out of the ordinary happened, well I was still skeptical about Ben but nothing one of those talks about our childhood could fix. We both were on our way to the roof, after a few jumps and the dumbass almost falling to his death we got there and sat.

I took from my jacket a pack of cigarettes and pulled one out. I extended the pack. "Want one?" I offered Ben.

He looked at me in amusement and pulled one out. "Since when do you smoke?" He asked.

I took out a lighter. "Since you went away, anxiety you know? Also, the world is already a big-ass dumpster so this wouldn't hurt at this point," I said. Then I squinted my eyes. "Since when do you smoke?" I asked.

He chuckled. "You know being stuck in jail for two years, being interrogated constantly about you, you kinda pick on the habit," he said, you know, after him clearly forgiving me I still felt guilty. He then noticed my probably serious face and hit me in the back. I winced, it burned and God the bastard had a strong hand. "One does grow into nasty habits when forced to talk about your giraffe ass," he joked.

I scoffed. "I get it I'm tall, get over it," I put my hands in the level of my shoulders and turned to the ground.

"Hey, I forgive you okay? For real, we were kids Tate, I would've done the same thing so don't worry about it," he said in a reassuring tone.

I nodded and finally lit my cigarette, I then lit Ben's. "It's just pretty stressful you know? Especially with Katherine here, I'm worried we might screw up the timeline," I admitted.

"Yeah, what's all that whole holiday about anyway?" He asked.

"What holiday? What does it even have to do with what I just told you?" I shrugged, he always did that, changed the subject whenever he wanted.

He gave me a look. "For real? Don't think I don't know about you watching Mean Girls three times straight," he said and then laughed, smoke coming out of his mouth.

"Who told you that bullshit?" I asked.

"Audrey saw you and told everyone," he laughed.

Oh so that's the noise I heard in the middle of the night. "Why change the way we always did it? You know the classic tribal thing? It was so fun, why go teen movies this time?" He asked.

"I just thought since Katherine is from that time it would make her more comfortable, she's pretty shy," I explained.

He widened his eyes and leaned back, putting out his cigarette and throwing it at the gray sea. "So you have a thing for her huh?"

I closed my eyes for a moment and furrowed my eyebrows. "I don't have a thing for her!" I exclaimed.

"Yeah keep telling that yourself until you believe it buddy," he patted my back, trust me Ben I've tried doing that but it didn't work.

"Seriously, I don't," I do.

"You're right, you've had a thing for others as well and the feeling always went away in a day or two; you love her," he spit.

"I don't love her; it's just that I don't want anyone to feel awkward," I defended, it was obviously a lie.

"Okay, whatever you say, just please think about what I said, I know you Tate and you've never been this way," he pointed out.

I took one more blow of my cigarette before throwing it to the sea. We then just sat there, I didn't know or cared about what he was thinking because I had my mind stuck on the burning question.