This isn't weird.

Ben, Ben, Ben

It was early on a Monday, and Tess was surprised to see Millie already at the kitchen table, sipping a cup of coffee and smiling at her phone. 

"Wow, you're up! Are you finally going to join me on a run?" Tess asked optimistically. It had been a tentatively-definitely-next -week sort of plan between the two of them for about six years at this point.

"Oh, fuck, is that today?" Millie looked up. "Sorry, I can't. I'm just about to meet up with Ben to get coffee."

"Millie, you're literally drinking coffee right now," Tess pointed out.

"Well, I'm meeting up with Ben to get more coffee," Millie replied. "You could join us, if you want."

"You keep your bad habits away from me. I'm going for a run."

It was late afternoon on a Wednesday, and Tess was relaxing on the couch when Millie came home from work.

"Millie!" Tess greeted her. "Guess what?"

Millie looked up, though it seemed to pain her to tear her eyes away from her phone. "What?"

"A new season just dropped of that stupid show you love to hate. The one with Josh Dallas. Wanna binge a few episodes and take shots every time he dramatically takes off his glasses?"

"What, are you trying to give me alcohol poisoning?"

"Come on, it'll be fun!"

"Sorry, we'll have to do it another time. I already promised Ben I'd go bowling with him tonight. You should come with!"

"Ugh, no thanks. I don't feel like going out," Tess sighed. "You have fun."

It was early evening on a Saturday, and Tess poked her head into Millie's room. Millie sat on her bed, theoretically folding laundry, but she had become distracted by her phone, and the pile of clean clothes sitting next to her was no closer to being put away than it had been an hour ago.

"Hey, Mills!" Tess said brightly. "One of the guys from the gym invited me to check out his band tonight. You wanna come with?"

"Aw, I wish I could," Millie replied. "I'm going to game night with—"

"Ben."

"Well, yeah, and the others. You really should come out and meet them, they're super fun."

Tess rolled her eyes. "Dungeons and Dragons with a bunch of neckbeards? Yeah, no thanks."

"It's just board games—although, I bet Isaac and Miguel would be super down to play DND. Oh my god, Ben would make the best dungeon master—"

"Okay, unless you're talking about something kinky, I never want to hear you say those words again."

It was a Sunday.

"Hey, do you wanna get some brunch?"

"I can't, I'm helping Ben go shopping for a new desk."

It was a Tuesday.

"Let's get some fancy groceries and cook something tonight."

"Totally! Ben's coming over to play some Mario Kart, we can all finally hang out together—"

"Oh, fuck, I forgot I agreed to fill in for the night class tonight. Nevermind."

Thursday.

"Wanna catch a movie tonight?"

"I'm actually going to Ben's to watch a movie. He's furious that I've never seen Back to the Future. You wanna join?"

"I'll pass."

Friday.

"Hey! You wanna come with me to a party?"

"I would, but Ben invited me to this Star Wars trivia night—"

Saturday.

"Hey, it's your off week from that stupid game night, right? Let's hang out!"

"What? Sorry, Tess, just a second, I'm on the phone with B—"

"Oh my fucking god!" Tess grabbed Millie's phone out of her hand and unceremoniously ended the call before throwing it down on the couch. "For fuck's sake, Millie! Would you just fucking fuck him already?"

Millie stared at her, dumbfounded. "What the fuck—Tess, I told you, he's gay."

"Then stop fucking following him around like a fucking lovesick puppy every fucking minute of every day!" Tess shouted. "It's fucking weird!"

"It's not weird, Tess. We're friends."

"You spend all your fucking free free time with that guy. And if you can't, you're constantly texting, or on the phone. All you ever fucking talk about is Ben, Ben, Ben—I swear to god, if I hear that fucking name one more time I'm gonna scream. You two are fucking obsessed with each other. Seriously! Just fuck already."

"Again—gay. I promise you, if he had any interest in fucking me, he would have tried by now. I've literally slept in his bed with him—"

"That's weird!"

"It's not that fucking weird! I've slept in your bed a bunch of times."

"That's different—"

"How?"

"Because he's a guy!"

"A gay guy. And I'm bisexual—shouldn't that make it weirder for you to sleep next to me?"

"No—fuck, I didn't mean—"

"He's not interested in me like that, Tess. It's just fun to have a friend who actually wants to do nerd stuff with me. And you know I'm dating Genevieve."

"When? When do you possibly find time to fucking date someone else when you're always with him?"

"Well, she's busy a lot. She only ever wants to hang out late at night."

"So you just hang out with her when Ben is sleeping?"

"It's not like I want it to be that way!" Millie's voice had suddenly risen to a shout. "I like her, I really, really fucking like her, but she never makes any fucking time for me, and when she says she will she always fucking flakes, and it fucking sucks, but it's nice to finally have a friend I can actually talk to about it who can actually listen without trying to fucking steamroll me with their opinions and judgmental bullshit—"

Millie's phone began to ring.

"... Fuck, Millie. I'm sorry," Tess said quietly. "I didn't realize—"

"Just forget about it, okay? I don't want to talk about it anymore." Millie picked up her phone. "Hey, Ben, I'm so sorry about that—yeah, I'll head over right now. Awesome. See you soon." She hung up the phone, and looked back to Tess. "We can hang out tomorrow, okay? Sorry I've been blowing you off. I'll try to do better."

"Me too," Tess sighed. "Have fun."