Chapter 8

*

"Good morning." I lifted my eyes from my notes to give Nicole a smile.

"Morning," Ben replied without a smile as he slid a plate of eggs over to her, or gave it a light shove. "You from Northridge?" He added. He was acting quite hostile towards her. Was it because she kept Stan from him until now?

"Yes, we took a bus..." she said. I didn't really believe it but I brushed it off.

Northridge was where Ben and I had moved from, it was about a day away when driving non-stop, pretty far.

"Where's the kid?" I frowned at him and he sighed. "Is Stan awake?"

"Yes, he's gone for a run."

"A run? But he doesn't know the neighbourhood." I said.

"It's a safe neighbourhood though," Ben chuckled patting my head. We had not even heard him leave and we had been up for a couple of hours already. "What time did he leave?" Ben seemed to have the same thought I had.

"Six."

"Six?!" Ben asked. It had been three hours.

"Yes, he –" Nicole stopped as we heard the front door and motioned with a smile.

We were all silent as Stanley walked into the hall passing by the kitchen. He stopped and looked at us. He was sweaty and clutching an almost empty water bottle. He stepped towards his room to leave but Ben spoke.

"Where have you been?" Ben asked.

Stanley's eyebrows rose before he gave a scoff of disbelieving laughter and left without a word. I grabbed Ben's wrist seeing his fist clench. He got angry easily.

"Nicole, I need you to get a DNA sample from him." He said pulling a zip lock bag with a cotton swab in it from his pocket.

"Of course." She replied getting up as she took it before she walked out of the kitchen. Ben and I turned to each other.

"She's weird." I whispered. She was acting so sweet. Maybe she was being careful because she needed a place to live?

"I told you, I should pay for her bus ticket to take her back wherever they had come from." He said.

"Stan..."

"Have you spoken to him? I haven't, but he seems like he as a shit attitude already." I decided to keep my very short conversation with Stanley to myself so Ben didn't have any more evidence of Stanley's attitude, "Look, Jordan. I know you get all soft for kids but we can have our own –"

"He might be your own."

"What do we know about raising a teenager?"

I grit my teeth stepping close to him. "Nothing, but if he's yours and you are half the reason he was made, you figure it out. You have fifteen years to make up for Ben. I don't care if it's new, get used to it." I hissed.

"Jordan –" he began.

"I'm getting bread." I replied grabbing my car keys as I walked out.

I shook my head annoyed as I walked into our garage and climbed into my car. I got that this was a shock for him and that he didn't like children, but just by looking at Nicole's current situation, I could understand Stanley's attitude. I mean, it was the middle of the third school term and somehow he ended up in his alleged father's house across the country.

I bought the bread before I decided to head towards the ocean for a while. The fun thing about living here was always having somewhere to just walk around.

Ben and I came here often, because I knew most of the people I spotted opening stalls by name. I ended up staying for an hour to have a conversation with one of the new bar waiters.

When I left, I walked back into my house and spotted Ben on his phone in the dining room. He gave me a smile and I couldn't stop myself from returning one. He smirked as I frowned at myself before we laughed. I made my way back into the kitchen to store the bread but I stopped when I saw movement in the backyard. I walked over slowly and relaxed recognising the person.

I leaned against the doorframe seeing Nicole outside and watched as her hand shook while she spoke on the phone desperately. I bit my lip tilting my head as I focused on her hand. Her fingers were yellow stained, and I had previously noticed she didn't have the best teeth. Ben stood behind me wrapping his arm over my shoulder and pulling me against his chest. I didn't fight it because I liked it and my anger had pretty much diminished at the beach.

"Stop staring, Jordan. It's rude. Watch a movie with me." He mumbled into my ear. He never actually watched movies when we went and he always tried to distract me as well.

"Do you think she's on drugs?" I asked carefully. I didn't want to accuse her of anything but... the way she was behaving... it made her look like she was having some withdrawal issues.

"Undoubtedly." Ben replied, "Don't worry about it; it's not your problem. Come on, before Stan gets back here." I laughed buckling out from under his arm as his teeth brushed against the skin bellow my ear, tickling me and I turned to face him.

"Fine, I'm guessing it's just us?" He gave me a flat look I laughed as I kissed him but broke away before he could respond and smirked. He grabbed my waist to pull me back against him.

"Hey – Hey, guys. I have to meet someone. I might be back late." Ben let me go as Nicole spoke. She was fidgeting with her phone and scratching her wrist lightly. I wasn't sure what to do...

"Alright... do you need a ride?" I asked.

"No, thank you, Jordan." Nicole smiled before she left. I felt Ben grab my neck and pull me into a rough kiss as soon as the front door shut.

"Let's go now." He said.

"We don't know what time Stan will be back, what if he needs the keys?"

Ben sighed. "We'll watch it here." He shook his head seemingly annoyed as he turned to the cupboard to look for snacks.

We ended up watching a bunch of movies, but only really paying attention to two when we weren't kissing or joking around. I didn't mind, I loved doing nothing with him all day.

"The beach would look amazing right now." He said suddenly.

I looked outside seeing that the sun was beginning to set. "Yeah. We should go when Stan comes back." I said.

"Where does he go anyway? He can't possibly have friends around here yet." Ben said, "Maybe he's on drugs too." He suggested teasingly.

"That's not funny." I frowned.

"Right, but –" He stopped when we heard the front door and we both sat up to look over the couch to see who it was.

Stanley shut the door before he turned to us and frowned.

"What?" He asked.

"We're going to the beach. You wanna come?" Ben asked as we got up.

He stared back at me and I got the feeling he was really annoyed that Ben had even spoken to him before he shook his head. I think he wanted to be left alone.

"Too bad, because you're coming." Ben said.

"Then why the hell did you ask if I wanted to come?" Stanley replied clearly frustrated.

"Don't fucking speak to –" I grabbed Ben's arm when he began to make his way past me, his fist were clenched but so were Stanley's and he looked ready to defend himself if Ben actually struck at him.

"Go to your room." I said. Stanley rolled his eyes before he opened the front door to leave again. "Stan, it's late –"

"Don't tell me what to do." He replied. I heard him mutter a 'who even are you?' as the door shut behind him.

I didn't have time to think about stopping Ben as he ripped his arm from my grip and walked out after Stanley. I shut my eyes annoyed at both of them before I followed and walked out just in time to see Ben grab Stanley's collar and pull the teenager back to him.

"Listen, kid. If you're going to be staying here you're going to learn some fucking respect and –" My eyes widened as he shoved Ben hard to fight out of his grip, Ben didn't seem to be expecting it and let him go.

"Fuck you. I didn't agree to anything. Nicole asked you to live here. I'm not going to kiss either of your asses. You think I need this?" Stanley gave a sour laugh.

"Well, if you don't, be my guest." Ben motioned to the street. What?! I looked at Ben shocked as the boy turned and began walking away.

"Stanley –" I began to follow him but Ben grabbed my hand.

"Relax, he'll be back before dark. His mother's here, his bags are as well and he has nowhere else to go." he said.

"Still, that was uncalled for." I said.

"He's fucking rude, Jordan."

"You're an adult, Ben. You should be able to control your temper better than he does." I said. He frowned before he sighed.

"You're right." I held my breath and felt Ben's hands take cup my face gently. "Hey, relax. He'll be back." He said. I gave a nod resting my head on his shoulder. "Come on, I'll call Nicole and make something he likes." I chuckled.

"Alright." He rolled his eyes before we made our way back inside.

Ben had ended up making Lasagne, not because it was Stanley's favourite but because he figured it was something everyone liked and Nicole had no idea what Stanley's favourite food was. It was almost twelve and Nicole had gone to sleep as soon as she came in two hours ago while Stanley had yet to show up. Ben and I were back on the couch we spent the afternoon on, but now we were just sitting in silence.

"Go to bed, Babe. I'll wait up." Well, I did have school in seven hours...

"Fine. Just – don't yell at him." I said.

"I'll be pretty pissed at him if you stay up all night." I shook my head and Ben chuckled as he kissed my temple before I stumbled into our room.

Even as I lay in bed, I couldn't sleep. I was too worried. So I tossed and turned until it was three in the morning and I gave up climbing back out of bed and throwing on a pair of track pants. I found Ben in the living room, texting. I was proud and happy that he had actually waited up.

"You look terrible." He frowned.

"Let's look for him." I said. Ben opened his mouth, I think to argue, but just shook his head.

"I'll look, you sleep."

"I can't sleep. We have to find him." I said. Ben began to speak again but I lifted my hand to silence him before I grabbed my car keys. This wasn't something we could negotiate on. He gave an annoyed sigh.

"Next time he does this, we're not staying up. I'm driving." He took the keys from my hand.

We drove around town, Ben seemed to think he would be near a club or in an alleyway.

"I see him." Ben muttered finally and I followed his eyes to a bench in the second park we had come across. There was a person lying on it, wearing the same t-shirt and jeans Stanley had been earlier. Ben swayed the car over to the side of the road.

"Stay." I told Ben sternly once the car had stopped. I climbed out and jogged over to the bench Stanley was laying on. "St –"

He shot up and something glinting in his hand caught my eye. A knife?

"Oh." he mumbled putting the knife away. "What do you want?" his voice was cold and harsh, nothing new.

I sat down beside him with a sigh. "Well, looks like neither of us got any sleep." I joked. "You alright? Are you cold?" I asked, it was a little windy. I got no response from him, but I had not been expecting one. "Come on, sleep at our house. We'll leave you alone – just for today, I promise."

"What about Ben?" He asked. I was happy he seemed to be too tired to argue about coming back home.

"I'll deal with him, but you have to eat. He cooked for you."

He shrugged in response. I got up and he followed me all the way to the car before he sat in the back. They didn't say a word to each other and knowing that Ben was still angry, I was rather glad. I wasn't awake enough to deal with another fight.

"Jordan." I heard a chuckle, "Babe, we're home. Wake up." I groaned and Ben laughed as I frowned opening my eyes. "You're not going to work, right?" He asked looking concerned.

"Where's Stan?"

"Is this going to happen when we have a child? Suddenly only the kid exists and not me?" He asked teasingly, I looked to the back of the car and then towards the house.

"Ben." I mumbled.

"I told him to go to his room. Shockingly, he listened." He said, "So, skipping work?" He added.

I looked at my phone. It was ten minutes after six. I had gotten about ten minutes of sleep riding back from the park.

"No." I replied getting out of the car. He followed me and locked it as he waited for me to join him.

"Jordan, how are you going to teach when you can't even stay awake?"

"Energy drinks." My tone implied that I thought he had asked a really stupid question. I laughed as I received a shove before he pulled me into a hug.

"Fine, but when you're about to pass out, just remember: I told you so." He said.

"I'm not going to pass out. Make me breakfast." I said as he began to walk towards the door. "Ben?" I called but he ignored me walking into the house as he stretched.

"Don't wake me." He called back.

I rolled my eyes before following him inside to get ready for work.

*