The Exchange Student

I stopped short of the room, I wanted to have a moment alone with Ben. Well, as alone as you get in a high school hallway. I had my back to the group of hockey players chatting outside of Mrs. Tompson’s room. I looked up at Ben who was looking down at me. I grab the back of his neck and brought his head down towards mine. I kissed his lips and then rubbed my forehead against his for a moment. This is how I like to tell him I love him. Despite the fact that I like my personal space and don’t particularly enjoy touching, when I’m comfortable with you and trust you enough, I become very affectionate.

I feel like I should elaborate on the status of Ben and I’s relationship. We have been friends since we were kids. Both of us growing up in Denver our friendship started in Preschool. I was minding my own business, building a castle out of Mega Blocks, when a little brat by the name of Patrick Kane decides to come in and play Godzilla and knock over all my progress. Of course, I started crying like any normal four-year-old would, the teacher then came over, shooed Pat away and made sure I was okay. I was, but still distressed that he had ruined my castle. Then a five-year-old Ben comes over and offers to help me rebuild.

Ever since we’ve been inseparable. We grew and so did our relationship. We weren’t exclusive, but I think it’s safe to say, we weren’t just friends. We’ve made out before, we’ve gotten each other off occasionally, I distinctly remember him drunkenly sticking his hand down my pants for the first time in the bathroom at a party. And we've even had sex, but that was our first and only time. We don't really have a title and that’s ok. Because I don't think anyone really cares.

“Text me that Darcy took care of Semyon, okay?” He nodded against my head and I pecked his lips again before letting my hand slip from the back of his neck to his chest, then down to my side. I turned and headed to Pre-Calc, I made eye contact with Sid and I knew they had halted their conversation to watch the exchange between Ben and I. “Hey, Sid, how was second and third?” There was an awkward, pregnant pause before Sid replied.

“Uh, good. Psychology was pretty boring, but French was really interesting. I like Mr. Briere already.”

“Good, what did you do?” I asked, trying to keep the conversation on Sidney instead of the little PDA they all just witnessed.

“We just journaled in Psychology, but in French we learned a song.”

I blinked, “what song?”

“The French Alphabet.”

“Oh, fun. I thought you were going to say Frere Jacques,” I laughed.

“No, he did say we’d be learning nursery rhymes though,” Sid contemplated for a moment. “What were you talking about with Mr. Briere?” He finally asked.

“Oh, uh, I was just telling him about you. I take all the opportunities I can get to speak French, and that’s usually with Mr. Briere and sometimes with one of the goalie coaches, Fleury,” it wasn’t a total lie, I just left out the part where Mr. Briere said Sidney was terrible at French.

“Oh, ok,” Sid said shortly. I just realized I pretty much just ignored the three best friends standing near Sidney.

“Hey Nuge, Taylor, Gap Tooth,” I addressed each player with their designated nicknames. Taylor has one, but I don’t really like Hallsy, so I just call him Taylor or Tay.

“Hey, Blondie,” replied Jordan. He never did like my nickname for him, but I think it’s funny and I love his gap tooth and he knows I do. I don't call him Gap Tooth all that often, usually just upon greetings and when we're teasing each other. I usually use his name or Ebs. “So what was all that with Bish just then?”

Dammit, I was hoping we moved on from the appropriate moment to ask. He knows about how our relationship works, but we don't usually do things like that in public.

“Uh, it was nothing,” I said not looking at any of the boys standing in front of me.

Jordan raised an eyebrow, “That was very intimate for nothing.”

“Ben got in a fight in Art today.” All of the boys except for Sid looked astonished. They all knew Ben was a gentle giant, and rarely did anything like fighting.

“No, shit?” Asked Taylor.

“Shit.”

“Why?” Asked Nuge.

"Uh, this new kid, you probably know him, James Neal? Well he smacked me and Ben didn't like it, so he reacted," I shrugged.

"Yeah, I know James, I'm not really looking forward to playing with him because he looks like a bit of a hot head and takes cheap shots," said Nuge.

"He hit you?!" Sidney asked loudly.

"Not in the face, he grabbed my ass," I assured Sid. "And like, you know, Patty and Jordan do it all the time, but I've known Patrick Kane since he was shoving crayons up his nose and pulling my pigtails, and Jordan since freshman year, you know? And then James just comes up in here and does it. That's not okay. Ben doesn't even like it when Pat and Jordan do it, so you can only imagine what he felt when he saw James do it."

"What did Ben do?" Asked Taylor.

"He slugged James right in the eye," I paused. "He would've kept going until James was unrecognizable too. If Mrs. Chrest hadn't intervened."

"Did Ben get in any trouble?"

I shook my head, "no, but she sent James to the office."

Taylor nodded his curtly, "good."

"Yo, class is starting," I said changing the subject. We all moved inside and found our seats, and Sid a text book. Pre-Calc went fast for me, but that's probably just because I actually like math.