chapter two
florence thompson
song: chasing parties - sasha sloan

"A sugar baby?" Benjamin exclaimed, his jaw nearly on the floor as he stared at me across the counter between us.

    I nodded, pressing my lips together.

    "She thinks that you of all people could be a sugar baby?" He scoffed, a chuckle escaping his lips which he quickly covered his mouth with his hand, eyes wide.

    He was right, and in so many words he'd just said exactly what I'd told Aria only last night, but for some reason my inner wannabe badass reared her ugly head and threw up her middle finger at good ole' Ben.

    Speaking of last night, the hangover I was graced with this morning was something sent straight from hell. It's always so fun being a lightweight when four mixed drinks gives you the hangover of a grown man drinking two whole bottles of Jack Daniels.

    "Hey! I could be a sugar baby!" I gasped, pulling my attention back to our conversation, knitting my brows together. I whipped my dishtowel at him over the counter which he quickly dodged, leaning backwards with a loud, hearty laugh.

    "Yeah, and I'm the tooth fairy. Good, now that we have that out of our systems let's start speaking reality," he chuckled to himself, turning his back to me and wiping down the coffee machine and the counter below it.

    I groaned, throwing my head back dramatically before leaning my forearms onto the counter in front of me.

    "You know, you aren't the most helpful friend I've had," I grumbled, scrubbing at a small spot of whatever was stuck to the counter with my dishrag. "I could totally be a sugar baby. I mean, what do you know, huh? Are you the sugar baby police?"

    "The sugar baby police?" Ben repeated, turning to place his full attention on my reddening cheeks. I could feel the smirk on his face even though I wasn't looking at him. His gaze only made my cheeks heat up further.

    Ben isn't bad looking, with dark brown hair and rosy cheeks to match. He has green eyes that seem to twinkle in pretty much any lighting which was enough to make even me jealous. I had a crush on Ben all of middle school and halfway through high school until he got into a serious relationship with Aria.

    It stung when they'd gotten together but I couldn't be mad at Aria since she never knew I was crushing on Ben. I never told her or let any hints slip. I would've rather been eaten by alligators than for anyone to find out about my ridiculous crush on one of my best friends. Instead when they got together I set fire to any feelings I had for him.

    Not kidding about the whole fire thing, by the way.

    I literally took anything Ben had given me or that made me think of him and set fire to it in my parents fire pit. Of course it got a little out of hand because what doesn't in Florence Thompson's life, and began smoking uncontrollably. My parents rushed out and I was grounded for a week.

    To this day Ben has no idea that I ever felt so deeply about him, and honestly its for the best. The silly teenager feelings burned slowly with that hoodie he gave me in high school and a few long months after, I found myself moving on and caring less romantically for the boy I considered one of my best friends, thankfully.

    "Hello?" Ben asked, waving a large hand in front of my face to bring me back to Earth, so to speak. "Earth to Florence, anyone in there? Have the aliens possessed you and I'm witnessing the after effects? If so I have a few questions I'd like you to answer that we're all wond—,"

    "Get out of here!" I finally slipped back to the present, swatting his hand away from my face as I straightened my posture, moving away from the counter slightly as I glared at him.

    "Really? It took you that long to stop zoning out?" He asked, wiping the counter over the spot I'd just wiped down moments before, causing me to glare at him.

    "Honestly I zoned back in but I wanted to see what exactly pressing matters you had to speak to the aliens about," I joked, snatching his dishtowel out of his hands and throwing it lamely at his face.

    He caught it before it could hit him and looked at me with his brows raised, clearly astonished. I grinned innocently, batting my long eyelashes in hopes it would help the silent innocence plea.

    "Oh, you did not," he spoke, a playful gleam in his green eyes as he twirled his dish cloth in his hands.

    "What are you talking about? Me? I didn't do anything, I'm just an innocent gal." I grinned sheepishly, slowly stepping back from the counter that separated us.

    Thankfully he was behind the counter and I was on the outside, leaving me a whole empty diner to escape him since we'd closed an hour ago and it was just the two of us. But then again since it was just the two of us he could easily drown me in the pasta sauce out back and leave me for dead.

    I would be a noodle.

    A human noodle.

    Oh my god, ew. Gross. I need to shut up now.

    The things anxiety does to you, I'm telling you.

    "I believe you just started a war, Florence Thompson," Ben's smooth voice slid from his lips as he walked through the swinging half door that separated the two sides of the counter.

    I continued walking backwards towards the other side of the diner. Blue and pink washed over his features from the neon signs as he stalked towards me stealthily, a shit eating grin on his handsome face.

    "I did no such thing! I am a peace maker, not a war starter!" I spoke, my tone worried as I stumbled over my own words, my breath catching in my throat as he neared me.

    My back hit the side of a table in the booth behind me.

    Shit.

    I'm cornered.

    Ben quickly realized my dilemma as his grin doubled in size, only causing the queasy feeling in my stomach to do the same.

    "Seems you're in a predicament," Ben spoke, his tone lower than usual.

    When he was within a foot of me I spun quickly and climbed into the booth, carefully but as quickly as possible hopping over the backs of the booths and attempting to put some distance between the two of us but of course Ben's log legs quickly ate the space I'd created.

    I hopped down, my sneakers squeaking on the black and white checkered tile below me and I mentally thanked the gods I'd already switched out of my roller skates when we flipped the open sign.

    Ben reached out, his fingers grazing my apron before I twisted away from his grasp and continued hauling ass down the length of the empty diner.

    The door on the opposite side piqued my interest and I quickly formed a plan to dash out the escape. I bolted, my legs screaming from my lack of regular exercise as I came increasingly closer to the door.

    My hand gripped the handle when I was unexpectedly grasped around the waist, pulling me back against a hard chest and right when I sucked a breath in to begin my babbling plea, strong fingers found my sides and began ticking the sensitive skin.

    I let out a loud screech, throwing my head back and releasing an involuntary boisterous, painful laugh that made my chest ache.

    My cellphone began ringing in the pocket of my apron, catching both of our attention.

    "Saved by the bell," Ben mumbled next to my ear, and I found myself attempting to shoo the silly teenage butterflies out of my stomach as he released me from his grasp.

    I released a breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding as I pulled my phone out, the quiet sound of Ben's shoes squeaking on the tile as he walked away from me was a low hum as I pressed my phone against my ear without bothering to check the caller I.D.

    "Hello?" I said breathily into the phone, trying to catch my breath from the tickle attack I'd just endured.

    "You sound like you're out of breath. Like the sex kind of out of breath. Have you had sex? I thought you were at work. Oh my god! You dirty girl! You had sex at work didn't you?!" Aria's voice squealed through the phone. I scrunched my eyes closed, placing a hand to my forehead as I listened to her rant on.

    "Ari, please, for the love of god, shut up," I breathed out, knowing full well Ben had just heard her rant echo through the silent diner. The thought made me cringe.

    Ben and Aria weren't each other's biggest fans. They get along now for the sake of our friend group but it wasn't always that way. Their breakup had been pretty messy after seriously dating for two years. Ben had broken up with Aria and my dear best friend took it upon herself to tell the whole school he had a small...well, you get the picture.

    "Listen, I called to tell you that Brandon and I are going to his lake house tomorrow and I was wondering if you wanted to tag along?" She asked, mentioning her most recent sugar daddy. Her tone distant as if she was focusing on something in front of her in that moment.

    I mulled over the thought, glancing around the darkened diner.

    I do have tomorrow off.

    I could use a little break.

    "Sure, why not," I sighed, throwing all caution to the wind.

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘
and so you meet good ole' Ben.
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q: what song are you listening to right now?