Sugar

2

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—,"