hots for Ben, but I didn’t want to seem uber desperate for his attentions. But once we made it through the house and to the backyard, I saw Ben hanging out by the pool with a few friends.
I, suddenly, felt nervous. I had Ben in a few of my classes, so it’s not like we’ve never spoken. But, lately, he’s been overly familiar, giving me hope that he’s interested in a little bit more than just casual friendship. “Okay, he’s here. Let’s go over and talk to him.”
Fiona gave me a sly smile. “You go ahead. I need to find a bathroom in this place.”
I eyed her. She was saying all the right things, but I knew she had to be feeling out of sorts. Even if Damien wasn’t in the picture, we didn’t go to parties. Of course, she’d be a little anxious. “Are you sure? We can find the bathroom first and then go talk to Ben.”
She shook her head. “I’ll be fine, Vee,” she said, smacking me on my ass. “Go get your man.”
I hesitated for a few seconds, but if Fiona really wasn’t nervous about being here, well, then, I didn’t want to start making her feel nervous with my paranoia.
After finally believing her, I headed over to where Ben and his friends were and did my best to act like I wasn’t a stage-five clinger and stalking him at Ryland’s party. “Hey, Ben,” I said when I stopped right in front of him. And then remembering I was trying to ditch the stage-five clinger look, I looked over at his friends and said hello to them too. “Hey, Charles, Brett. Hi, Ellen.”
Everyone said hello back, but I wasn’t really paying attention to everyone else. My mind was too consumed with the smile that broke out on Ben’s face. The fact that the turned from his friends to face me had me convinced we were going to date, get married, and have a million little babies. “Hey, Vicky.”
Now, while Ben was cute and popular, he wasn’t in Damien’s league as far as looks went. Damien Greystone, Will Creston, Jake Everol, Earl Ming, and Darius Holmes ruled the school. They were top classmen, top athletes, and top ladies’ men. While they were all pricks, no one could deny they were a hot-looking group of pricks.
Ben, on the other hand, played soccer (a sport I still played), was in drama, and volunteered a lot for his electives. He was smart, charming, and cute. He wore his brown hair loose around his neck, but never did those awful man-bun things. His hair was always down underneath his baseball caps. He had blue eyes that made me forget how to speak sometimes. He wasn’t very tall compared to the other boys in our class, but he was taller than I was, so that was good enough for me.
“Did you just get here?” Ellen asked. She was a pretty blonde who never had a bad thing to say about anyone.
“Yeah,” I told her. “We got here just a few minutes ago.”
Charles chuckled. “I was just about to ask where Fiona was. You two are never apart.”
I smiled. He wasn’t lying. “She had to run to the restroom really quick.”
Ben bit his bottom lip. “Just so you know, Vicky, Damien and his crew are here.”
“Shit,” I mumbled.
“Shit is right,” Brett agreed. “If Damien finds out Fiona is here, it won’t be pretty.”
It’s so crazy how everyone knew how fixated Damien was on Fiona, yet no one helped her when he was torturing her. They all just stood back and let him do his thing. Some people argued that Damien was crazy in love with her, while others argued he was simply crazy. “Maybe I should-”
We all turned our heads towards the direction of the house when we heard someone scream out ‘fight’.
Fiona.
Ignoring my unchecked teenage lust for Ben, I took off running towards the house. I knew there’d be no way Fiona was actually engaging in a fistfight, but I still didn’t like the idea of something like a fight going down, and she was in the house without me. Fiona wasn’t weak, she was just cautious. Unfortunately, some people viewed that as soft. It didn’t help that everyone has seen Damien bully her at one point or another, and she’s never slapped him sideways.
I ran into the house and I noticed everyone looking upward towards the banister. I looked up, and I could make out a hunched back raining down hits