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Ben is conflicted, he cares about Mackie way too much to lie to him, but what if he tells Mackie and they break up? Or worst Mackie kills Jeremy... those are his thoughts. Mackie does have a temper so he never wants to be that guy in front of Ben, he doesn't want to scare Ben but something like this might set him off.

"What are you gonna do?" Brooke asks as they're in Ben's bed

Ben shrugs "you should just keep your mouth shut, what he doesn't know won't hurt him."

"Of course you'd give some garbage advice like that"

"Then what would you do, Brooke?" Ali looks at her

"Ben if I were you I'd come clean, say that Jeremy kissed you."

"But I kissed him back, it'd be one thing if he kissed me and I immediately pulled away but I kept kissing him."

"Why?" Ali asks confused "you miss him that much?"

"No!" He stands up questioning himself "I don't know" he sighs walking back and forth trying not to panic. "I'm a shitty person, he's gonna break up with me"

"Well you better decide now,"

"Why?"

"Because he's calling" Ali picks up Ben's vibrating phone showing him, rushing to grab the phone Ben stares at the ringing screen.

"Maybe he's calling me by mistake?" He looks at them

"Yeah he's calling his boyfriend by mistake," Ali says sarcastically. "Answer it stupid!"

"No!" Running off the bed Ali yanks the phone "no stop!" But before Ben can get it back she answers handing the phone to him, "hi" he scolding Ali who smiles.

"Hey, just had a shitty time at work. Want to grab some dinner before I head home?"

"Oh um..."

"What's he saying?" Ali whispers

"He wants to get dinner" Ben move the phone away from his face whispering. Bringing the phone back, "I'm sorry work was shitty but the girls are here and we're kind of working on some homework."

"Oh ok" Ben can hear the disappointment in his voice, "I'll see you tomorrow then?" It makes him feel bad

"No you know what it's ok, come pick me up we'll get some food."

"Ok thanks."

"Sure see you soon" Ben hangs up.

"What the fuck was that?" Ali questions

"He had a bad day ok and he needs me," Ben sits and starts to put his shoes on, which proves difficult with his sling. "You know this morning he tied my shoes for me?" He frowns "no guy's ever done that for me before and I just had to go and ruin it." Getting emotional his eyes get cloudy with tears, "I'm an awful person" he cries getting up going to his closet.

"Aw, Ben it's gonna be ok" Brooke follows behind him and Ali just rolls her eyes, "I can help you."

"It's ok I can just wear these" he picks up a pair of shoes without any laces putting them on. After he wipes his face, "oh god he's gonna know I was crying."

"Why are you even crying?"

"Ali I know you don't know what having a good guy feels like, but if I lose Mackie-"

"You won't" Brooke cuts in, "just come clean, if he really cares about you he'll forgive you."

Feeling his phone vibrate Ben reads the text from Mackie, "he's outside" Ben's heart races, the girls get their bags.

Walking out of the house together, "call us" Brooke says as they walk to their cars and Ben goes to Mackie's car.

Getting takeout Mackie drives up to McLaren Point, opening a blanket they sit on it facing the city. As he's eating Ben looks over at his boyfriend who's barely touching his food, "what happened?" Mackie snaps out of his thoughts and turns to Ben "...at work today"

"Everything was going fine until Harley decided to show up,"

"Seriously, he was there?" Ben asks surprised

"I thought I got over it, moving out helped but as soon as I saw him it's like the last few weeks came rushing back. I tried so hard to ignore him but he would not stop"

"Did you fight him?"

"No" Mackie shakes his head, "I would have if my mom didn't show up and made him leave."

"Why won't he leave you alone?"

"Harley just likes to provoke me, he's the reason I got in a fight at East Shore and went to juvie. When we were kids he thought that maybe I was mom's favorite so he used to make my life hell."

"Maybe he still thinks that,"

"Maybe..." sighing Mackie decides to put his brother behind him. "Sorry I'm being so sucky, how was your first day back?"

"Oh um it was fine," he answers quickly.

"Any reason you were acting so weird today?" Avoiding eye contact Ben takes this as an opportunity to come clean, maybe it won't be that bad Mackie is very understanding, but he did have a bad day with his brother so maybe it'd be best to just avoid the confession for now. "Is it because of the sling?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know you don't have to be embarrassed with me, right? The sling changes nothing"

"No" Ben smiles "it's not the sling..."

Dropping his food Mackie reaches out waiting for Ben to take his hand. Bringing Ben closer he says, "Benjamin Quinn you don't have to be embarrassed."

"I am not" Ben is in front of him, "I just don't want you to feel like you owe me anything because I'm in the sling." Ben doesn't want Mackie to be nice to him because he knows he won't deserve it

"It's not that, I guess I just feel guilty because you wouldn't have gotten hit by a car if we weren't leaving my house."

"Oh my god, Mackie have you been blaming yourself?" Ben searches his boyfriend's eyes and Mackie doesn't answer the question, leaning closer Ben takes Mackie's lips between his, gently kissing this amazing boy he can't believe he has. "I came to your house it was my decision, and I was stupid enough to stop at an intersection to argue with some asshole. You didn't do anything so stop blaming yourself, stop feeling bad" Mackie nods. "No, you have to promise me, say I promise I won't hold this against myself your accident wasn't my fault."

"I promise I won't hold this against myself, your accident wasn't my fault" he repeats Ben's word verbatim.

"Thank you." They continue to kiss, pulling Ben on top of him Mackie lays back. Their kissing gets pretty heavy and Ben has to force himself off, "we're not having sex on this cliff" he sits back.

"I didn't expect us to" Mackie replies

"Yeah tell that to your pants" Ben signals.

Looking down at his crotch "Ben says no cliff sex little guy, sorry" Mackie looks over at Ben who's laughing and he joins in. "Ready to go home?"

"Yeah," Ben nods and they stand packing up.

Getting to Ben's house Mackie walks him to the door, "call you tonight?"

"Ok" they kiss before Ben walks in. Going into his house Ben sees his mom in the kitchen, "hey" he greets her

"Hi, where you been?"

"Just getting dinner" he replies walking to her in the kitchen,

"With the boyfriend you don't want us to meet?"

"You met him already, mom"

"Yeah because you lied and ended up in the hospital."

His dad walks in the kitchen, "what are we talking about?"

"Ben not wanting us to meet this boy he's been dating behind our backs."

"Yeah what's that about?" His parents turn to him

"It's not that I don't want you to meet him, I really like Mackie but if you guys don't like him, I don't know how that'll work."

"You're not even giving us a chance Ben, if you like him then there's obviously something about him. We believe in your judge of character"

"You can trust us Ben" his dad adds.

"Ok I'll invite him over after school tomorrow, and you guys can meet him then."

"Thank you."

Next day as he sits beside Mackie during the drive to school, "so how do you feel about coming over today after school to meet my parents officially?"

"They want to meet me?" Not much makes Makie Denver nervous but impressing Ben's parents is on the list. "I mean yeah I will, but are you sure?"

"No" Ben chuckled nervously, "they'll probably grill you, but I realized I've been keeping you from them and that's not fair because I've never done that before. So, I want you to meet them"

"Ok. Should I come by after work or when I'm dropping you off?"

"After work will probably be best they'll want to take their time interrogating you,"

"Sounds good" Mackie smiles reassuring Ben it'll all be ok. When they get to school Mackie leans on the hood of his car holding Ben close, "should I bring anything tonight?"

"Yes bring your will to live," Ben answers making Mackie laugh.

"It won't be that bad, your dad was cool at the hospital"

"Yeah they're not that bad, I just want them to like you as much as I do." Ben's afraid his parents are going to judge Mackie like he did. Not a lot of people give Mackie a chance but when Ben decided to, he found so much more than he was looking for. The boyfriends are against Mackie's car kissing and when the first bell goes off they pull away, "mmm ignore that" Ben says moving back in to keep kissing Mackie.

"We're gonna be late,"

"You're a rebel you don't care about that stuff,"

Smiling "thanks for the reminder" they kiss as they're talking.

School goes on and as he's shutting his locker between classes, Mackie is instantly annoyed when he sees Jeremy just standing there. Ignoring him Mackie walks away but Jeremy walks next to him, "get away from me"

"Yeah sure but I just wanted to compliment you,"

"For what?"

"For taking care of our boyfriend" Jeremy smiles, and Mackie stops walking and turns to him.

"What the fuck are you talking about?" He asks confused

Stirring the pot with a sneaky grin Jeremy answers, "oh... nothing forget it" walking away leaving Mackie glaring at him.

During lunch, Ben sits at his table in the courtyard with his friends talking when Mackie walks up to them, "hey" Ben smiles looking up at his boyfriend who doesn't look amused. "You ok?"

"Can I talk to you?"

"Yeah, what's up?"

"Alone..."

"What's up your butt?" Ali asks trying to lighten the mood

Standing up Ben walks away with Mackie, stopping when they get far enough, "what's wrong?"

"Jeremy was being an ass just now,"

"Oh god I'm sorry" Ben sighs, "what'd he say?"

"He called you our boyfriend, as in mine and his. Why would he do that?"

Getting nervous Ben's eyes move from Mackie's to the ground, "I don't know" he lies shrugging.

"Ben one thing you should know about me is I hate looking stupid. Every little shit said about me in this school I know about and I don't care, but if there's something Jeremy knows about me that I don't, if I have to find out from somewhere else it'll really piss me off."

Realizing he's caught Ben still finds it hard to come clean, "I don't know what you want me to say, Mackie"

"If there's nothing to say then fine I'll believe you, but-"

"We kissed!" He blurts out "me and Jeremy" watching Mackie's face Ben sees a rush of emotions, from sadness to anger. Pissed off Mackie walks away, "where are you going?" Ben follows knowing the look he has in his eyes too well. Walking around Mackie scans everywhere until his eyes land on Jeremy who's talking to people. "Mackie stop!"

Continuing to ignore the scared boy chasing him, Mackie rushes up to Jeremy. With no warning, he taps Jeremy to turn and when he does Mackie balls his fist aiming right for Jeremy's eye. After punching Jeremy shocking everyone around him, Mackie turns to walk away and Ben goes after him, but Mackie stops him "no stay with him."

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