Messy Ending

Dai

“Well, as already established I’m scared of storms.” As if prove my point a loud boom of thunder resulted in me flinching. I had moved to sit across from Ben, one of his long legs between both of my slim ones. I pulled the jacket he’d loaned me closer against my body which had only been protected in a spaghetti strap shirt.

“I lived in London until I was seven-“

“London?” He grinned widely. “You lived in London?”

I chuckled softly. “Yes. Sammi says I have a slight accent, but I can’t hear it.” I twisted my mouth up thoughtfully to the side.

Ben cocked his head the side, as if listening for it in my voice. “I can hear it a tad bit.” He sent a half smile toward me.

A giggled escaped my lips only to be ruined by me flinching at a loud clap of thunder.

“Why are you scared of storms?” Ben asked softly, raking a hand through his tousled hair.

I shrugged indifferently. “I just don’t like the loud noises and I’m scared of the damage storms cause.” I toyed with the laces on Ben’s converse, untying and retying them several times before he tilted his head at me.

“What are you doing to my shoe?” He chuckled

I shrugged. “Untying it and retying it.” I retied it once more.

“I haven’t learned much about you,” he pointed out, tapping his foot against the side of my leg.

“Well, I’m not a very interesting person,” I murmured, lifting my head up to look at Ben’s facial expression.

Disbelief colored his face. “Really? Just tell me anything about yourself.”

I bit my lip, debating with myself whether or not to tell him anything further than the basics. Eventually the rational part of my brain lost. “I lived with my grandma from the time I was eight to the time I was eighteen. My mom left that year and my dad… died that same year.” I swallowed back the sob building in my throat.

I felt Ben’s fingers rest soothingly on my ankle. I gazed up at the green eyes I’d found myself looking into a lot lately. The loud melody of my phone disrupted us making us both jump in surprise.

I sighed, sliding the bar to answer the call. “Hey, Sam.” I pressed my fingers against my forehead in an attempt to alleviate the pain starting to form in my head.

“They’re trying to fix the power now and it should take from either a minute or to an hour, somewhere between then,” she informed me.

I sighed. “’Kay, thanks, Sammi.” I ended the call without another response from her. “I told Danny I’d talk to her for him… I still haven’t yet.” I giggled softly, to myself more than anything.”

“He can survive, trust me.” He paused a moment to think. “The storm died down… I haven’t heard thunder in a while.” The light of my phone omnisciently lit his features, shining off his metal piercings.

Ben’s pale skin lit up again under the lights that switched on, both of us shooting up
automatically and meeting each other’s gazes. It was as if a magnetic force pulled us to each other and our lips collided, moving in synch with one another. My hands roamed his back, moving up to tangle themselves in her hair.

Where had my senses gone in that short period of time that the kiss had happened and that I’d pushed myself back, away from him to rest my back flat against the elevator’s wall. A small ding signaled the doors sliding open to reveal the dimly lit lobby, almost vacant save for Landon and a few residents down to check their mail.

“Dai!” Landon called to me, opening his arms in a friendly gesture. “Sam was worried about you. She know how claustrophobic you are!”

I mustered my best smile up for him. “Yeah, I’m fine. I have a feeling it would have been a hundred times worse if Ben hadn’t been in the elevator with me.” I laughed slightly, motioning toward the man beside me.

Landon shifted his gaze to the tattooed, pierced, man standing taller than me at my side. “Oh, so who is this, Dai?” Landon looked over Ben, a curious expression across his features.

“This is my friend, Ben,” I told him vaguely, clasping my hands together in front of me.

Landon tilted his head at me, but left us be.

I turned to Ben, but I averted my stare toward the slick marble floor.

“Dai-“ Ben started.

“I think I’m going to bed. I’m tired,” I cut him off with a lie and a fake yawn.

“You realize you’re a terrible liar, right?” Ben inquired, causing me to glance at him, but I couldn’t deny his words. It was really a miracle Steph had believed my story of being sick.

“Yes, I realize that,” I murmured, my voice barely audible and my eyes not meeting his, even as I tucked a few strands of dark hair behind my ears.

“Why are you being so difficult, Dai?” Ben groaned and even though he was speaking to me it sounded as if he spoke to himself, but it snapped my attention to him regardless.

“What do you mean I’m being difficult?” I questioned, crossing my thin arms over my chest stubbornly.

“You told me you’d give me a chance,” he reminded me, taking a step toward me.

“Well, what do you want, Ben?” I sighed, scrubbing my hand across my face, slightly irritated.

“Do you have work tomorrow?” he questioned, brushing my hair out of my face for me.

Hesitantly, I shook my head from side to side murmuring, “No… I don’t.” I let a sigh escape my lips.

“Can I pick you up at one and you can hang out with the guys and I?” he asked, brushing his fingers along the skin of my shoulder where the jacket had slipped off of it.

I bit my lip in thought, nodding mostly to myself. “One condition,” I told him, bringing a raised eyebrow from him.

“And what’s that?” His brow furrowed.

“If I can bring Sammi. I mean I already told Danny I’d talk to her…” my voice trailed off, looking up at him.

“Oh, sure. Yeah, I’ll pick you both up at one. I mean if that’s alright with you…”

I nodded. “Yeah. I’ll see you tomorrow, Ben. Oh, and here’s your jacket.” I started removing the jacket, but Ben’s hand on my arm stopped me.

“No, keep it. It suits you,” he smiled wryly at me, connecting our lips in a sweet kiss. His arms found my waist, pulling my body closer to his, my hips touching his hips. I didn’t object to the kiss. It was even better than the kiss we shared in the elevator.

Eventually when I gasped for air I had to pull back from him, my breathing becoming shallow pants.

Ben leaned forward, his mouth centimeters from my ear. “You can’t tell me you didn’t enjoy that kiss,” he murmured in that accent that made me want to melt. And though his word were conceited… they were true.

“You’re right.” This conversation sounded a lot like the one we’d had only days before, only this time I did something I never thought I’d do. I willingly pulled Ben closer to me and collided our lips together. Ben’s hands pressed into the small of my back, pushing my body into his. My hands wreathed themselves into his hair.

Ben traced his tongue over my bottom lip, begging for entrance and I granted him that. Our tongues wrestled for dominance, eventually his winning out and in this perfect kiss everything that should have been on my side everything that should have been on my mind, like the fact that we were in the lobby of my apartment building dissolved away from my brain.

I didn’t even pulled back until a throat being cleared made me jump back from Ben and swivel toward the direction the sound had come from. I took in the smirk on Sammi’s face and the tilt of the petite girl’s head. “Having fun?” she inquired and the melodic tone of her voice suggested she had to stifle her laughter from both Ben and I.