straight lines || ben & andy
She knew the hug was coming, but Ben was still caught off guard as Andy’s hug lifts her a few feet off the ground. Ben wants to bite off a sarcastic retort once he puts her back down, but the stupid grin plastered across his face makes her hold back despite herself.
"Hey." Andy was always easy to talk to - he never expected much and never pushed any boundaries. But Ben felt a sense of dread fill her - she had no idea what to say. The past year hadn’t been her best, and she couldn’t bear the thought of her big brother being disappointed in her. It doesn’t help when she notices Andy’s eyes checking for any signs of recent fights. Technically, she hadn’t fought anyone for what felt like a year, but that didn’t mean she was staying out of trouble. Thankfully, Andy didn’t bring it up.
Andy’s apartment is nicer than she expected. Despite his scholarships, their family never had the funds for university, and Ben was expecting his place to be a cramped dorm room, not an on-campus apartment. The interior of the apartment itself looked peculiar, a mix of expensive-looking furniture and scrappy second hand trash. She eyes a ratty blanket draped over a couch that looked like it cost more than a year’s worth of meals. “So what, you major in stealing shit, or is your roommate a klepto or something?”
Andy chuckles nervously as Ben looks around his and Jack's apartment. Here was the tricky subject he still had no idea how to bring up - the fact that Marcus was loaded and insisted on him "not living in filth, for Christ's sake". (There was also the fact that his sort-of-boyfriend was a cyberkinetic and his best friend/roommate was sometimes a dog. But that conversation would not be happening for quite a long time, if at all.)
"All of this stuff was bought legally, thank you very much. And you should be grateful for all of this nice stuff, because this couch is insanely comfortable, and you'll be the one sleeping on it." He points to a bedroom door. "There's my room - you can stash your stuff in there if you don't want it lying out in the open. Even though my roommate is not "a klepto or something", and will not bother your things."
All of the discussion revolving close to Marcus and Jack was driving Andy crazy - he wanted Ben to meet his friends, and vice versa, even if he knew that might not be exactly a smooth process. But Ben... well, Ben hated new people on principle, so they would cross that bridge when they came to it. For now, he just wanted to spend as much time with Ben as possible before she inevitably drifted away again. "So, anything you wanna do? We can go for a run around campus - I've finally found the ideal path. Not much human interaction, you'd like that."
