naive | ben tyler cook

✦ fifteen ✦

( present day )

•

rylee and taylor shuffled into rylee's small, studio apartment. they kicked off their shoes and hung up their coats.

"you hungry? thirsty?" rylee asked as she swung open the fridge door and cracked open a water bottle.

taylor slumped down into the couch and nodded. "do you have any chocolate?"

"no, sorry," rylee stuck out her bottom lip and closed the fridge. "we can run to the grocery store across the street and get some, if ya want?"

"no, that's okay. i don't need it anyways," taylor laugher, moving over so that rylee could sit down.

they switched on the tv and scrolled through a few channels before settling on a rerun episode of friends. they chatted quietly for a half-hour until rylee yawned and stood up.

she motioned towards her bed that was adjacently places across the room from them, "you cna have my bed. i'll sleep on the couch, okay?"

"thanks, ry." taylor smiled at the younger girl and squeezed her wrist as she passed her. "hey, do you think i can get a shower before i go to bed?"

"sure! do you have towels and stuff?" rylee stood back up from the couch and led taylor to the only separate room of her apartment.

taylor nodded and held up her bag. "i come prepared," she giggled.

rylee snickered at taylor's joke and left her to shower. rylee quickly changed into a pair of pajama shorts and a random hoodie. it wasn't until she was settling into her couch with a blanket and the tv shut off did she smell the cologne on the collar of the sweatshirt.

she smiled lightly and shut her eyes.

•

ben intertwined his hand with rylee's and kissed the top of her head lightly. she twisted around, feeling the soft sheets of his bed on the bare of her back. rylee grinned at him, running a hand through the messy curls situated on his forehead. he jokingly bit her arm and she giggled. he kissed the skin he had taken between his teeth and pulled her hand out of his hair. ben kissed her knuckles and all the way up her arm. he puckered his lips and leaned down to reach her—

•

"hey!"

rylee flinched as a pillow was thrown onto her. she woke up quickly, her cheeks tinted red and her body buzzing.

"what? what's happening?" she tossed the blankets off of her body and reached for taylor.

taylor, who was all the way across the room, laughed uncontrollably. rylee finally realized where she was and what was happening. she reached for the pillow and threw it back at taylor. they laughed for another minute or so until rylee was able to ask why she awakened so suddenly.

"because you were freaking me out!" taylor exclaimed as rylee climbed up onto the bed next to her.

rylee shoved her legs into the blankets and lay back on one of her pillows. "how do?"

"well," taylor clutched the throw pillow they had been rising back and forth, "you were just mumbling a bunch of stuff."

rylee titled her head in confusion, "what?"

"i think it was ben's name." taylor smirked.

rylee's face heated up once again and she sat up. "what?" she became anxious that taylor knew she was dreaming about kissing ben cook.

"oh, my god!" taylor's face contorted from humor to shock. "were you actually? i couldn't hear you, so i made it up. but were you?"

rylee shrugged, moving her hands around the blanket nervously. "no, of course i wasn't! why would i have been? that's so weird, oh, my god!"

taylor laughed awkwardly and nodded. "okay."

rylee pushes the blankets off, once again, and went to the bathroom. she washed her face with a couple of products and rubbed a pile of moisturizer on top. she grabbed a quick shower and blow dried her hair. finally, she brushed her teeth and flicked off the light to rejoin taylor in the main room.

"so," taylor said as rylee sat down beside her, "do ya want to go grab some breakfast somewhere?"

"we can do that. there's a starbucks around the block. i could go for a bagel." rylee shrugged.

taylor agreed, "let me get dressed and we'll go."

rylee did do herself, with a pair of jeans rolled to just above her ankle and a white t-shirt knotted at her hip. she pulled on a pair of converse and put everything that she needed for the show into her purse. taylor met her at the front door and they left.

rylee snagged them a two-person table in the center of the room. taylor ordered their drinks and bagels and met her there. rylee's phone buzzed when she was in the middle of a sentence and she excused herself.

"who is it?" taylor asked, breaking off a piece of her bagel and tossing it into her mouth.

rylee's eyes rolled across the text message from ben, 'good morning :) wanna get breakfast?' she shrugged and set her phone face down on the table. "wrong number. some guy asking about a barb."

taylor laughed, "weird. anyways..."

rylee finished off what she was saying and her phone rang again. taylor leaned back in her chair with a sigh, "barb must be very important."

"yeah," rylee nonchalantly replied.

'ryleeeeee,' 'breakfast?' 'why aren't you replying?' 'you're making me sad!!' 'babygirl??' 'nevermind. sorry for bothering you. im going to breakfast with gianna. we're going to starbucks, if ya wanna join us. see ya later.'

rylee shut off her phone's ringer after the fourth message rolled through. taylor could see the reflection of the text messages through rylee's sunglasses, which were sat in front of her on the table.

"rylee?" taylor grabbed the girl's attention as she set her phone down.

"yeah?" rylee huffed.

"you okay?" she reached for rylee's hand across the table, but she flinched and pulled away.

"sorry. yeah, i'm fine." rylee brushes her hair behind her hair, glancing at the door rapidly. "i think- uh, i think we should go now. i'm done. are you done? we should get to the theater for that thing that they wanted us to do? you know?"

taylor followed rylee's eyes to the door. it opened and a crowd of customers flooded in. she processed the text messages that she had struggled to read through rylee's glasses processed. and rylee seemed to want to avoid ben at all costs.

•

i wanted to show more of a connection between taylor + rylee, so i'm sorry that this was kinda boring? and i also hope that you kinda got the whole vibes from the second half of this chapter. drama is ensuing.