Messy Ending

“Dai… you okay?” Ben murmured softly into my ear once we’d parted from Parker and traipsed our way across the parking lot toward his black car. It was a nice car too, glossy and black. I’d never really been good with cars so I hadn’t ever seen the one parked in the space in front of us.

I nodded and mumbled, “Yeah, I’m fine.” I examined his facial expression and I snaked my arm around his thin waist, nearly erasing the frown that had settled into his features.

Ben pulled the passenger door open for me and motioned me into the car with a false sense of gallantness about the gesture.

I chuckled. “Such a gentleman,” I teased with a hand pressed into my chest over the spot my heart was housed pumping blood throughout my body. The beating of it increased after Ben had made the gesture.

He flashed a toothy grin at me and lifted his shoulders in a sheepish shrug. “I try.” He slammed the door closed once I had slid into the car. The dark gray interior appeared brand new though I knew it had to have been in his possession for some time.

Sammi leaned herself up between the gap that separated the two seats in the front. Her arms rested on the edge of both seats.

“Sit back, Sam,” I laughed the moment Ben slipped into the driver’s seat beside me and twisted his key into the ignition. The car came to life without a sound.

Sammi poked her small tongue out at me and leaned back against the backseat. She pulled the gray seatbelt strap across her body, clicking the silver buckle into place just as Ben had begun pulling out of our apartment’s parking lot.

Once Ben drove down the narrow right side of the road I spoke. “This is a really nice car.” I glimpsed over at Ben whose expression held a hint of a smile over his lips.

“Thanks. So, Sammi, I heard you like Danny,” Ben announced in a sing song voice he’d used to tease the petite girl. He glanced back at her, quickly, and returned his attention back toward the road.

“Hey, Ben, shut up if you would like to keep your balls,” Sam replied in the same sing song voice back to Ben.

Ben dropped his mouth open and glanced at me once I had burst into a hysterical laughter. “Dai! Don’t encourage her!” Ben cried dramatically, turning without the use of his turn signal.

I shrugged. “Ben, you might wanna use your turn signal next time, Honey,” I reminded the twenty-three year old, pointing an index finger at the turn signal switch accusingly.

“Yeah, yeah.” Ben waved my words off with a coy smile, pulling into the driveway of a medium sized house layered in brick. In my opinion the house was beautiful. Several windows had been built in adding a bright feel, as they had been framed in white wood, only offset by the bits of black used for shutters and roofing purposes. The house had been surrounded in leafy trees which had begun to drop leaves in the late November weather.

Ben pressed a button in the center of a small remote and one of the garage doors lifted, slowly, allowing Ben to pull into the narrow parking space snuggly. I’d noticed he’d passed another black car parked just outside of the garage doors.

The door to the far left of the space we’d parked in swung open, banging against the drywall forming the garage. A broadly built man whom I recognized as Danny emerged through the narrow doorway, a huge grin spread across his pink lips. Sammi’s expression, in turn of seeing Danny, brightened.

Ben twisted in his seat to look at me. “Danny and James are here at the moment-“he gripped my hand in his firm one “-Sam and Cam will be here later.”

I nodded before he’d finished the sentence completely. A slam startled me to look back at where Sammi had once been sitting. She twiddled her thumbs and made her way toward Danny, shyly.

~~~

Ben tugged on my hand, which had interlocked with his, yanking me up the cement stairs that led up through a narrow doorway. Ben caught me around the waist to prevent my fall once I tripped over the top step he’d pulled me over quickly.

He chuckled and tugged me into a room I assumed to be the kitchen. Air sucked into my lungs in a sort of breathless gasp. Ben’s house was absolutely beautiful, whether he meant it to be or not.

The kitchen tile maintained a glossy black look and my heels clicked against the floor noisily. The countertops, made of black granite, held several appliances I doubted Ben ever used or had the time to use for that matter. The walls added a bit more light to the dark room, painted a dazzling white color. The kitchen led off into a small room furnished with a long wooden table and several chairs, all pushed under the table.

It was through a door in between the dining area and the kitchen that Ben led me into the living room. Two black, cushioned chairs flanked a couch of the exact same style. James, I recognized, sat against the very end of the couch beside Danny and Sammi who had run ahead of us like little kids once we’d stepped into the house.

My heels dug into the plush, white carpet Ben dragged me across and toward the couch in the huge, spacious living area.

“Ben… there isn’t enough space for the both of us,” I pointed out, staring, intently, at the cushion on the couch only wide enough for one of us to seat ourselves. I stared at it as if it would somehow widen its gap and we’d both be able to squeeze onto the couch.

Ben smiled softly at me. “Of course there’s room, love.” I had been about to protest, only silenced once Ben startled me and yanked me down onto his lap which happened to be very bony matching with his lanky figure.

I tugged gently at his piercing with my fingers. “What makes you think that I want to sit on your lap?” I teased and shifted my fingers from his lip to his soft hair, twisting a lock of it around my index finger.

Ben trailed his fingertips down my thigh to my knee. He rested the hand there and replied, “You know you love it, Dai.” His cocky façade hadn’t completely faded away in the past few weeks he’d known me, but it made a quiet laugh bubble in my throat.

I shrugged my shoulders and moved my elbow to rest on his shoulder. “It’s just a seat… a comfortable one,” I joked, pressing my lips against his cheek softly. I had completely forgotten about Danny and James who I was sure hadn’t been notified by Ben of how close we had gotten over the past few days.