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Early Monday morning as he is eating cereal, Ben hears knocking and assumes it's Mackie. Dumping his bowl in the sink he rushes to the door opening it, Mackie's smile somehow already made his morning. "Good morning" Mackie greets

"Hey," Ben smiles back

"Ready to go?"

Letting go of the door "yes just need my bag," Ben goes back looking for his backpack.

"Quick change of plans though" Mackie starts following him in, "my little brother Ryder missed his bus and my mom was running late for work, so we have to drop him off on the way if you don't mind."

Finding his bag Ben walks back hearing everything, "totally fine" he stops in front of Mackie, "I'm ready."

"Cool" they walk out of his house and Ben shuts the door. "Fair warning about Ryder though he talks a lot, so be prepared to answer a million questions"

"Thanks for the heads up" they walk to his car, getting in the passenger seat Ben buckles up and Ryder watches his every move. When he's done Ben turns to Ryder who's eyeballing him from the back seat, "hi"

"Hi, who are you?" Ryder starts

"Hey, Ry remember I told you we had to pick up a friend who's riding to school with me? Can you introduce yourself?"

"I'm Ryder, I'm eight years old"

"I'm Ben, I'm sixteen" Ben replies.

"You have a nice house, Ben" Ryder complements as Mackie drives away.

"Thank you I'm rich,"

Gasping "are you really? Prove it!"

"No" he chuckles "I'm not but my parents do ok. Are you rich?"

"No" Ryder replies annoyed, "I have to share a room with my brother Bentley, it's the worst he farts in his sleep."

"Dude you're making Bentley look so bad," Mackie says looking at his little brother through the rearview mirror.

"I'm sorry but it's true!" Ryder continue "Ben since your house is so big, do you have a pool?"

"I do,"

"Really? That's so cool, Mackie did you know about Ben's pool?"

"No I didn't" he looks over at Ben.

"You should have a pool party and invite us, Bentley, too."

"I can't have a party but you're welcome to use it one weekend if you want, even Bentley."

"Wait seriously? Are you joking?" Ryder stares to make sure

Ben nods, "dead serious"

"That's so awesome!" Mackie pulls up to Ryder's school

"All right Ry say bye to Ben"

"Bye Ben," he says and Ben waves. Getting out of the car Ryder stops at Mackie's window "I like him more than your other friends," he says making Ben laugh.

"Yeah get out of here" Ryder runs towards his school. Mackie turns to Ben "thanks for lying to him he would've just kept asking"

"I wasn't lying. This Saturday bring them it'll be fun."

They can't help not smiling "ok." Driving to school Mackie parks and they get out, as he's grabbing his bag Mackie's phone rings. He looks at the screen "it's my brother" he says to Ben before answering, "Harley what's up? I'm about to walk into school"

"Bro I need a ride some shit went down at Carter's, and now I'm fucking stuck here bleeding!"

"Bleeding! Why are you bleeding?" Mackie panics and Ben stares at him

"Just fucking get here I'll explain everything."

Conflicted about not wanting to leave Ben, Mackie thinks but knows Harley needs him. "All right I'm on my way" he hangs up.

"Everything ok?"

He shakes his head "no Harley's in trouble I have to go, you gonna be ok?"

"Yeah I'm fine you go"

"Ok if I don't make it back before school ends I'll let you know."

Nodding "ok" Ben watches him get back in the car rushing out of the parking lot. Taking a deep breath after the car disappears Ben turns around walking toward the school alone, his friends aren't even at their usual meeting spot for their morning chat.

Hiding from everyone he knows Ben heads straight to class avoiding his locker, he's afraid of what his friends will say, well not both just Ali he trusts Brooke. Ali doesn't play and she was his number one advocate for spreading Jenny's nudes, Ben knows she'll use that against him if she has to. But then there's still- "I need to talk to you," Jeremy walks into the empty class with just Ben in it.

His heartbeat speeds up but he tries to act natural, "what?"

"You know what I don't get? You swore up and down you were done with me, yet two days before Jenny got exposed you randomly show up at my house. Then just decided it was a mistake and left"

"Your point?"

"I cheated on you" for the first time since they've been broken up, Jeremy admits that.  "So the only person that could've benefited from fucking up Jenny's life is you."

"False I know plenty of people's boyfriends she fucked not just mine, so no I'm not the only one who'd benefit. What I don't get is why you bothered with all of this bi shit anyway? If you really wanted to be with Jenny then what was the point of being with me?"

Sitting at the desk in front of Ben's Jeremy turns his body to him, "Ben I liked you all right I don't know why I kept fucking with Jenny it's just she... it doesn't matter, but I fucked up and now she thinks I exposed her."

"You didn't?"

"Fuck no! Why would I do that?"

"Why would you do that, Jeremy?"

Noticing what Ben is doing he stands, "stop that, what would I gain from sending out her pictures? Nothing" he answers his own question.

"Why did you come in here? What are you expecting from me?"

Jeremy shrugs "we used to be able to talk to each other Ben,"

Ben chuckles "are you serious, Jeremy? You've never heard anything I said, you don't know anything about me!"

"That's not true," he shakes his head.

"What's my middle name?" Jeremy takes too long thinking "right, what's my favorite color?"

"Ben I'm not answering silly ass questions to make a point."

"Because you don't know the answer to them!"

Jeremy stares at him, "does Denver know the answer to them?"

"Don't,"

"I mean he's your boyfriend now, right? So, he must know everything about you."

"He's not my boyfriend Jeremy and even if he were, so what? You cheated that makes you the lowest of the low." Shutting Jeremy up he has nothing else to say and other people start to walk into class

"We're not done talking," Jeremy walks to the door.

"Yes, we are!" Ben says as he leaves.

The bell finally rings for lunch and Ben is still alone, he thought he was avoiding his friends but maybe they're the ones avoiding him. Sitting outside by himself he holds his phone and looks around hoping Mackie would be back by now, but he doesn't see him anywhere. Ben's never really done well alone maybe that's why he has the friends that he has, but meeting Mackie started changing his mind about the kind of person he wanted to be.

"Hey," Mackie sits down next to him and Ben turns relieved to see him.

"Hi," Ben watches him take off his jacket placing it on the table, "is your brother ok?"

"Not really but he'll survive. Sorry it took me so long to get back, I had to go home and change."

"You don't have to apologize I was fine."

They look at each other and Mackie smiles, "I knew you'd be I just don't want to leave you alone, that's all."

What he says makes Ben blush but he does his best to hide it, it's like Ben was falling for him all over again and this time even harder, but Mackie is being respectful of Ben's wishes and not trying anything. "Um, are you hungry? We can get some lunch" Ben asks

"Nope I'm good I had some candy in the car."

Ben laughs, "you eat way too much candy, you know that?"

"I do not, it's a normal amount for an 8-year-old" they laugh together, "do you want some? I can go get it"

"What kind is it?"

"I think it was like-" as they sit next to each other talking Mackie is interrupted when Brooke sits in front of them.

"Ali says you owe us an apology," she starts as soon as she sits. They look at her "she says that as your best friends we didn't deserve the disrespect."

"Brooke I love you and I'll happily apologize to you, but Ali doesn't know where lines end. So, therefore, I think it's me who's owed an apology." She gets up walking away

"What the hell was that?" Mackie looks at Ben chuckling

"Ali using Brooke as her messenger monkey, she does it all the time and poor Brooke who's not the sharpest just lets it happen."

"Well maybe you should apologize," Mackie suggests

"Why?"

"They can tell everyone about the Jenny thing, and I don't mind being there for you Ben, but I leave school a lot to do other things. So, having your friends might be what you need."

Ben stops to think about what Mackie said but before they can say anything else to each other, Brooke and Ali comes back sitting down. "Even though you were a bitch to us I refused to get replaced by that," Ali says pointing at Mackie "so apologize and we'll move on."

"Fine" Ben agrees, "after you apologize to Mackie." Mackie looks at him not expecting Ben to say that.

Ali looks at Ben stunned, "why the fuck would I do that?"

"Because we always want to set ourselves apart from everyone else here, but just like everyone we judged him, you more than anyone and yet you don't know one fucking thing about him. He knows I sent out those pictures of Jenny and did he judge me? No. I'm tired of judging people because it's fun. If you get to know him and decide you still don't like him then that's totally understandable, but for us to not know him and decide he's public enemy, I'm not doing that anymore."

"His dick must be great if you're standing up for him this much," Ali doesn't have a filter.

"Ali we're not together he's my friend, and you guys are my best friends no one can change that, but I'm tired of your attitude towards him when he doesn't deserve it."

"If he's so hurt by the things we say, then why doesn't he stand up for himself?"

"Because he doesn't like to waste his time on shit that doesn't matter" Mackie replies, "and whatever you say doesn't hurt me I just don't care, that's the difference between me and everyone else here."

"I don't trust you" Ali looks at him, "you act quiet but I know your type."

"Okay" Mackie scoffs

"But Ben seems to think you're a good person, probably better than us so... fine." She looks at Ben "we aren't his friend but you can be just don't choose him over us again."

"I won't"

With a smile "does this mean we're all friends again?" Brooke asks

"Yes B we are," Ben answers.

"This was fun" Mackie grabs his jacket, "now that you have your friends back I should head out."

"No stay," Ben gets sad watching him get his stuff

"It's ok I should go check on Harley make sure he's good, call me ok?" Ben nods "you ladies have a good day," he looks at them and Brooke smiles but Ali scolds him.

"Bye" Ben watches him leave.

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