Chapter Text
Two weeks after that encounter, Ben found himself rummaging through the cupboards for liquor at a random high school party Rodrick persuaded him into going on. On the bright side, he found some pretty fancy whiskey, on the bad side? Rodrick was nowhere to be found.
He thought about bailing– but he couldn't really leave. His best friend would shit on him for leaving without saying anything,
"This sucks.” He thought to himself.
Scrambling around to find a cup, he bumped on something– or someone.
“Fuck– sorry.” Ben muttered, his voice sounding hushed.
“Ben?”
“Sorry, what?” He replied, only now noticing that the person was Rodrick's younger brother, Greg.
“Wait, what are you doing here? This isn't a place for middle schoolers.”
Greg only shrugged in response, he looked up at the blonde, raising an eyebrow.
“Why aren't you with Rodrick?”
He sighed, rolling his eyes, he has not seen Rodrick for about an hour now.
“None of your business, Greggy.”
Ben replied, taking a huge gulp of his drink and grimacing at the burn. He playfully messed with Greg’s hair before he started to walk the opposite direction,
“I'm gonna go get some air, could you let me know if you see your brother?” He looked over his shoulder to see Greg crossing his arms and huffing.
“I'm not your messenger.”
(Right, I wasn't getting my hopes up anyway.) He quietly made his way to the backyard, his thoughts were still mostly clouded by Rodrick.
“You come ‘round here often?”
Silence, then the girl walked off from him. How great.
Rodrick had been mostly sober since he got to the party, because he can't handle his alcohol well.
Humming to himself as he watched the amber coloured liquid swish around his cup, he let out a sigh. (Man, this party blows.)
Looking around the room, he spotted a familiar figure. Heather Hills. Rodrick felt his face heat up at the sight of her, they haven't talked since what happened at her birthday. For a moment, Heather looked at him and he foolishly smiled– offering her a small wave. She ignored him and looked away, probably still pissed off about the events that occurred that day. He frowned slightly and took a sip of his drink out of utter embarrassment, Ben was right. He should move on, plus, he didn't even have that much of a chance to begin with.
Feeling defeated, he finished the rest of his drink, his face scrunching up in disgust at the aftertaste, before deciding to get up and look for his friend. He felt bad for ditching the guy as soon as they arrived earlier.
“Hey…”
Rodrick started, sitting next to Ben besides the pool, their shoulders bumping with each other.
“How's the party?”
Said the shorter boy, sparing his friend a short glance before looking away. Rodrick didn't answer for a few seconds,
“Heather was here.”
The name slipped out of his tongue so smoothly, Ben only nodded in acknowledgement and took a gulp from his cup, letting out a soft ah as he felt the warm feeling of the liquid run down his throat.
“Sorry again, for last time,” Ben muttered quietly, “didn't mean to seem– I dunno, weird.”
Rodrick looked at the water in front of them, then at his friend.
“Already told ‘ya not to worry about it.”
The other only chuckled, shaking his head, and that's when Rodrick noticed he was drunk. Ben only does that weird eye crinkle thing when they're in private, or he's drunk and they're definitely not in private right now.
“You're really dumb, y'know Rod?”
Ben murmured, nudging him playfully.
“You have it bad for her.” Rodrick's cheeks started to have a slight shade of red on them.
“Anyway,” He trailed off for a brief moment, turning to look at Rodrick. “you totally still should move on.” Rodrick looked at Ben before scoffing,
“As if.”
Ben let out a soft laugh, a bitter one at that. “Pfft– whatever, dude.”
“Wanna ditch this party?” Rodrick blurted out, before sheepishly scratching the back of his neck. “Honestly, it kind of sucks.” He added. Ben only shrugged before snickering, “I don’t see why not.”
The pair got up, but not without Rodrick needing to help his friend who was definitely way more than just buzzed.
Ben took his hand and let himself get pulled up, his lips twitching up into a small grin. (Must be the whiskey.) He thought to himself, their hands lingered for a second before Rodrick let go and chuckled awkwardly to himself.
“Alright well, let's get outta here.”
The moment Ben tried to take a step, his knees failed him and before he knew it, he was falling towards the pool. He grabbed onto Rodrick's arm with a yelp, and both of them plummeted into the cold water.
“Ngk– cold–” He shivered while Rodrick struggled to get himself out of the pool. When he did, he offered Ben a hand; the other gladly took it. Now out of the near freezing cold, the pair awkwardly tried to dry themselves.
“This was not how I expected this night to go…”
Ben barked out a laugh, still shivering slightly.
“Let's go to my van, dude. I do not want to get a cold.”
“Right behind ‘ya.”
The pair left a trail of water droplets on the floor as they walked, once they got in the van, Rodrick let out a dramatic sigh.
“Damn, the seats are gonna be ruined.”
“Yeah, and we're going to get sick.”
Rodrick rolled his eyes as he put the key in, starting the van. He tapped his fingers on the wheel as the quiet hum of the vehicle took over the silence and began their drive back home, or more like dropping Ben off at his place before going home to his house.
As the drive went on, Ben absentmindedly rested his head on the window as he watched the houses and stores that they passed. He didn't even notice that he had dozed off until he felt a nudge on his shoulder, it was Rodrick.
“Wake up, we're outside your apartment.”
He yawned, feeling the uncomfortable feeling of the wet clothes sticking to his skin. “M'kay, see you tomorrow.”
Ben got out of the van, waving at Rodrick as he walked to his front door. Smiling a bit, he unlocked the door as he heard his friend drive off. He went inside and threw his damp clothes into a hamper. (damn, that pool was fucking cold.) He walked to his room and grabbed a pair of shorts, a shirt, and underwear.
He had just finished putting on fresh clothes when his phone went off.
Ding.
Lazily picking it up, Ben saw a text from none other than–
ricky: dude im sniffling already
ricky: js got home btw
He chuckled, typing out a reply as he flopped down on his bed.
bendover: L immune system
bendover: but seriously mb for pulling you into the pool bro
ricky: you owe me!!!!!!
ricky: >:(
bendover: u just want me to buy you a slurpee again
ricky: right
bendover: srsly?
ricky: shut up
ricky: if i get sick its totally ur fault asshole
bendover: lol
bendover: go get changed idiot
ricky: I AM
He laughed a bit at Rodrick's reply, picturing his friend struggling on taking off his clothes while continuing to text on his phone, like an idiot. (He's so stupid…)
A few minutes passed without a reply, Ben figured he got off the phone to properly change his clothes. He hummed quietly and opened up his notes app, deciding to put on another journal entry because he hasn't done that in a while.
New note
I fell into a pool today, accidentally pulled R with me. I hope he doesn't get sick or anything but he did tell me he's sniffling, (hopefully he's being dramatic as usual) Anyway, the party earlier was pretty boring. Nothing interesting happened, I ran into R’s brother which was pretty weird, middle schoolers don't usually appear in high school parties. I might ask R about it,
unless I forget, of course. That's it for a life update, I guess.
-Ben.
He felt a bit silly for signing the end, this was on a notes app after all. He put his phone down and sat up on the bed, (I should do my piled up schoolwork…)
Ben reluctantly got up and walked over to his desk, and began writing an essay he was supposed to turn in almost a week ago.