Chapter Text
Ben watched Callum retreat from their lunch table, long legs being pulled out awkwardly from under the table and over the uncomfortable bench. He smiled. He was doing that a lot lately. His boyfriend (boyfriend!!) hooked his gym back over his shoulder as he headed towards basket ball practice that started at 1:00pm on a Wednesday. Over his shoulder, Callum through Ben a wave and a grin before weaving his way through the crowd, his head and neck sticking up at least a few inches higher than the rest of the school population. If Ben hadn’t been to busy staring, lips parted as he watched his boyfriend (boyfriend?!) walk away looking so very handsome, he might have waved back instead of looking like the definition of a simp.
It was a pointy elbow under his ribs that brought his eyes back from the spot Ben had last seen Callum’s retreating figure before he left through the double doors of the canteen. He turned, begrudgingly -Callum might have come back, Ben might have missed something- to face the owner of said pointy elbow. Lola smiled giddily back, the blue of her hair now giving way to blonde again.
“You have got it SO bad, Ben.”
Another time Ben might have denied it, but now he just dipped his head and tried to hide from the burning blush taking over his nose and under his eyes. “Eat your food Lo,” was what he eventually came up with, only to regret it as he looked down at his untouched sandwich. It’s pretty hard to eat when you are staring at the boy opposite you for half an hour straight gay.
“We’ve all finished ours mate, we’re waitin’ on you.” Jay said, shooting Lola a grin, and Ben found it hard not to smile at how invested his friends were in his relationship. How happy they were for him.
He lifted his bag onto the table and put the unopened and untouched sandwich into the large compartment, “I’ll er- eat that later,” after his bag was zipped up, he slung it over his shoulder and got ready to make a not so swift exit in the direction of the-
“Where are you going, Ben?”
“Where do you think, Lola?”
Lola looked once between jay and Ben and then tried to suppress a giggle, she failed. “Oh, ohhh, you’re going to watch your boyfriend at practice aren’t you?”
He didn’t even want to acknowledge since when he had become the type of guy who watched his boyfriend throw a ball around, so instead flipped both Lo and Jay off as he walked away, “yep.”
Had he turned around he might have seen his mates grinning wildly with happiness for their friend. They were always glad when Ben was happy, it didn’t happen much.
The corridors had died down since Callum had left, all of the younger kids now outside, voices raised to unhealthy screams. Ben grimaced, and for once thanked his non-perfect hearing. Every cloud. As he headed down to the gym block, he stopped for just a second at the spot where Leo had halted him not long ago. He hadn’t seen him since, which was no surprise of course, both not unfamiliar with the concept of taking spontaneous days off when it suited them. Since he had last seen leo, he hadn’t been able to completely relax, there was something off about his tone that Ben just couldn’t settle for. He was stolen from his reverie by Mr Montgomery who must have been heading from the staff room located in the block just before the one classified as the gym block.
“Everything okay Ben?”
Ben nodded, “yeah, s’fine.”
His English teacher gave a small smile, clearly satisfied with that answer and not wanting to delve into it anymore during his lunch break, and then continued in the opposite direction of where Ben was heading.
Leo was just a dick. He always had been. Ben nodded once more, this time to himself, before continuing his walk, following the sounds of whistles being blown and trainers squeaking against the wood floor of the gym.
Callum was surprised to see Ben sitting down on one of the chairs in the corner of the gym hall, although he wasn't sure why. This was happening more and more often now. He shot him a grin, along with a goofy wave which earned him a chuckle and a head shake from Ben as he reached his phone from his back pocket and pretended to scroll through it. God, since when was this them? Since when did Ben Mitchell come and sit in the gym hall and pretend he isn't watching the game. The Ben Mitchell that dodged just about every PE lesson that was ever offered to him. The Ben Mitchell who had never been anything but an arse to Callum. The older boy couldn't help but smirk to himself at the fact this was his life at the moment, earning himself a few funny looks from his teammates. They al turned to face the boy sat in corner and then back at Callum. "You and you're perfect relationship is making me feel sick, Highway." Jake threw that ball at him with a laugh.
He smiled at the acceptance he received from this group of people he would never have considered friends before. It was only year nine that he dated Whitney as a way to convince everyone he was in fact straight and now he was on the basket ball team with four other guys who treated him like he belonged and had a gorgeous boyfriend sat not very subtly pretending to read his phone while he was definitely watching him play.
Seeing an opportunity, he managed to stop himself being quite so distracted by Ben for just a moment as Isaac hurled the ball towards him, Callum leaped, his long legs surging off the floor as he plummeted the orange sphere into the net.
His team members slapped him on the back as the ball bounced across the court and he tried to get his breath back from the jump. He turned around, spotting Ben smiling up at him, no longer pretending to be invested in his phone. He gave a small nod and Callum released a breathy laugh at his boyfriends efforts to be cool.
This time, he was first out of the changing rooms, his shower lasting a literal 2 minutes and his hair dripping down onto the front of his clean t-shirt. He rounded the corner to find Ben stood, a foot against the wall and phone in his hand. Callum took the opportunity to sneak up on him, not learning his lesson from when the both of them had ended up on the changing room floor, but oh well. Once he reached his side, he placed a kiss on his cheek and then laughed loudly as Ben pulled away as if he had just been shot. "Cal! Wet hair! Seriously...?"
"What're you lookin' at so intently on your phone?"
"Oh, just all these messages from guys asking me out."
Callum rasied his brow high on his head, an oh really? communicated without the need to open his mouth. "Fine, fine. Just a picture that's all."
"Of...?"
The smaller boy rolled his eyes, bringing a hand up to his face to wipe the water drops still there from Callum's hair against his forehead during the kiss. With a look or defeat across his face, he turned the phone to face Callum.
The older boy's eyes danced over the screen, a picture of himself mid-jump with a basket ball in his hands was presented in front of him. He looked from the picture to Ben, then to the picture and back to a now blushing Ben. "You took this?"
"No, I got a year 8 from the photography club to do it when you weren't lookin'. Who do you fucking think took it Cal."
He laughed at Ben's wit. "It's really good."
"Had an alright model I guess." A warm finger hooked under Callum's chin, drawing it down to meet Ben's face. Warm lips were planted on his, the boy leaning in awkwardly in order to avoid a shower from Callum's dripping fringe. Callum shook his head quickly, mid kiss, and water rained down over Ben's cheeks and forehead. He reeled back quickly, whacking Callum's chest as he glared, "Asshole!"
"Just and alright model?"
Ben scoffed, contradicting himself as his fingers came down to intertwine with Callum's own and started dragging him away from the gym block so they could walk themselves to his mums, "alright was bein' generous babe."
"So rude."
As they both strolled leisurely through the corridors, neither in any rush, their hands swung in between them in tandem with their steps. The two boys shared the occasional shy smile as some fellow sixth formers walked past them, bafflement clear on their faces as to why on earth they keep on seeing Ben Mitchell and Callum Highway holding hands. It didn't matter that they didn't understand, for both Ben and Callum did.
"There's a party on Friday, up for it?"
Ben turned his head to the right, liftin his chin so he could look his boyfriend in his eyes, "Oooh, I don't know Callum. Will I be carrying you home again?"
"You might find that I was actually scared of asking in case I ended up carrying you out of the building." Callum placed emphasis on the 'you' making Ben giggle, subsequently causing Callum to laugh with him.
"How about we both carry each other then?"
The taller boy brought his free hand up to his chin and scraped an index finger over his jaw as to mimic the act of thinking causing Ben to eyeroll and jerk his hand that he was holding, "I suppose that works for me."
They walked the rest of the way in silence then, but their smiles spoke more than words ever could.