After The Incident

Chapter 8

If it's in bold, it's a POV. thanks for waiting!
enjoy reading!!

lots of  ben x taylor
aiden x ashlyn  at the end !!

'Dude, don't touch my earbuds. Give it No back.' Ashlyn said sternly.
'Do you even listen to any music?' Aiden said, twirling around the earbud on his fingers that he stole from Ashlyn's ear.
'Wouldn't that be destroying the point that she needs noise canceling earbuds because her ears are sensitive to.. well, noise.' Logan said.
'I don-' Ashlyn gets cut off by the barista.
'Ice coffee for Logan!' They yelled.
Logan ran up to the counter grabbing his drink and walking back to the gang. He sat back down into his seat getting his mind ready to finish studying together.

Later on, Taylor and Ben come walking in, giving big smiles to each other.
'Hey guys! You came a bit late. We were supposed to meet at 4:00pm but it's 5pm. Also Taylor, why weren't you at school today?' Ashlyn said.
'Yea, and Ben why weren't you on the bus? You usually tell me when your going somewhere.' Aiden questioned.
'Oh, I didn't go to school cause of work. I'll be doing that a lot soon. And after school I asked Ben to come over.' Taylor said.
Ben started texting in the group chat.
'She came to school after work and we walked together to her house.' Ben smiled.
Ash, Aiden and Logan looked at each other in confusion.
'Is there anything going between you two? You came late and you came in here with big smiles.' Logan asked.
'Uhm.. There nothing going on!' Taylor stuttered.
'Oo! Oo! What did you guys do at Taylor's house to come to the cafe so late?' Aiden spoke excitedly, then winked at Ben who returned a weird face then realized what he meant and turned pink.
'I- We-' Taylor sighed and covered her face in embarrassment.
'So.. you did do something?' Ashlyn said, now curious.
Ben texted in the group chat.
'We didn't do anything special. She asked me to come over for company since no one was home and we hung out. Nothing weird.'
Taylor let out a relieved sigh.
'I see. Well, sit down. Our assignments aren't going to do themselves!' Logan spoke, hoping to be encouraging.
Ben and Taylor nodded and sat down into the chairs at the table and set up their computers. Study group was made by Logan originally, and is usually on Fridays and they were recently super unmotivated to do so, but decided to do it this week to bring everyone back up.

Thirty minutes later, Taylor at nothing on her essay that was due that Sunday. She groaned laid her head on her computer, snuggled up to take a nap, but then got a tap on her shoulder.
'Are you okay?' Ashlyn worriedly questioned.
'Oh. Yea I am. This essay is beating me up and I have nothing written down.' Taylor yawned.
'School sucks. —- Hey, Taylor. I've recently seen that after Monday, you've been more alive. You look more productive then usual.' Ashlyn told Taylor, who then gave her a warm smile.
'After Monday, I've taken more hours onto my retail job. And I might just be in a positive attitude knowing that Tyler is now awake and is  having a good recovery from the surgery. I'm happy it went well, and I have to gain more money to pay for the surgery too. They gave me until the end of next month. I guess I'm just really lucky!' Taylor smiled. She looked so relaxed.
Ashlyn chuckled and gave Taylor a pretty smile. 'Yea. Im glad your happy.'
Taylor and Ashlyn snuggled up together to take a nap, pushing aside their work. They gave each other their own warmth. Like a comfy blanket.

But Taylor couldn't sleep or focus. She had something on her mind. What happened with her and Ben? Well here's what happened.

Taylor and Ben walked to Taylor's house together after school and work. They shared laughs and soon got to Taylor's house. As soon as they walked into her house she said, 'Ben. Sit in the living room! I'll get snacks and we could watch something while we wait til it's time to go to study group.'
Ben grabbed her hand before she could slip away. He raised his phone to show his notes. 'Why don't we go upstairs anymore? You didn't let us and the gang go last time.'
'Upstairs? Into my room?' Taylor asked, shakily.
Ben nods.
'Hmm. Well when we input Tyler into the hospital that night, I didn't want to sleep without him, or even step foot into there. So once we got home from the hospital, I took most of the important things out our room. Like Tyler's clothes, my clothes, only a couple. Not many choices since me and Tyler always have matching clothes. Then my favorite stuffies, and brought them to my moms room. I sleep there. But since Tyler woke up from his coma and is having a nice recovery, I decided to go back and clean the room and-' Taylor stopped. 'You probably don't even wanna hear this crap. I'm sorry, I'm just gunna go get snacks.' She tried to walk away but Ben grabbed her hand again, turning her around to meet him again.
They held hands and Ben texted her.
'It's okay. Keep going, I like hearing you talk.'
Was he flirting with her? What is this? Taylor looked down at their hands holding each other and was too embarrassed to look back up at him.
'There's nothing to talk about. I already talked about it all. It doesn't matter.' She mumbled. Then suddenly Ben raised her chin and placed his hand on her cheek. They stared at each other then their lips were so close to touching.

Taylor's POV:
WHAT?! Seriously, what is he doing? Is he gunna kiss me? No way. My heart is pounding right now. I didn't know he was into me. Or is he teasing me? Am I the only one who fell for the other person? God. Oh my god, oh my god I'm freaking out.

Then they both snapped back into reality and pulled away from each other. They both freaked out and they turned red.

Bens POV:
What am I doing? I got ahead of myself. She is definitely uncomfortable now, I made a move on her without thinking. Ugh, I'm so stupid.

'I'm just going to get the— yea.' Taylor stuttered then ran into the kitchen, then placed both her hands on the kitchen island, stood there frozen. Ben sat in the living room. Scratching his head, sighing.

Later on when things weren't awkward, they went into Taylor's room and watched a movie. They didn't realize the time and ran to the cafe with their backpacks.

               
                               .           .           .

Taylor suddenly woke up from her 30 minutes of daydreaming and looked next to her to see Ashlyn knocked out. She looked up and saw Aiden and Logan taking pictures of the two of them, while Ben was watching a video on his computer.
Aiden got startled by her awaken. 'Oh hey Taylor!! Totally didn't know you weren't sleeping and wasn't taking pictures!' He grinned and she just dug her face into her arms.

(new edited part)
Taylor felt her face turn warm in her arms while she thought about what happened just a few hours earlier, now realizing she might have something with Ben. She never though about Ben that way, but she slowly thought to herself why didn't she? Without thinking, she waited for her face to stop turning red and grew the the courage to turn her face in her arms and look toward Ben.
Taylor pressed the space-bar on Bens computer that stopped the video he was viewing and she caught his eye. He turned his head to look at her and patiently waited for her response as he laid his head on hand. She took her earbuds out from the case and handed it him, gesturing that she wanted him to listen with her. He took the opportunity put the left earbud in his ear. He switched the tab on his computer to start typing for his work and they both listened to Taylor's sleeping playlist. Taylor dug her face into her arms again, staring at the table in pitch black because her arms blocked out all the light. She then scooted over a little next to Ben. Even though there was no conversation, she understood why gestures meant so much to Ben. They took a place in her heart.

Ashlyn realizing that she had no cuddle buddy, she groaned thinking about she actually had to do her work, she continued to fall asleep but it didn't feel as comfortable as it was with Taylor. She kept moving her positions to make her feel comfortable enough to sleep again but it wouldn't work. Half asleep, she grabbed the nearest thing around her and placed her head on top of it, finding the best position for her head to rest and then fall asleep. Turns out it was Aidens arm and he totally freaked out in his head. Logan's jaw dropped to find two cute soon to be couples were right in front of his eyes! Where was his girlfriend?
'Logan, we'll stay here. You should go home it's starting to get dark. Or you could visit half-wit. Bet he's missing his cuddle buddy too..' Aiden said softly, not to wake the others up.
'I guess I should, I'm literally third wheeling. Wait, I'm not Tyler's cuddle buddy? Where did you get that from?' Logan spoke confused and kinda happy someone thought of him and Tyler way.
'Just go see your man S-M-H. We'll probably all meet again this weekend.' Aiden said.
Logan nodded and he packed his stuff and headed out. He walked a short way home, since this was close to the garden and thought about those words.

Soon Ashlyn rose her head to see she was laying on someone's arm. She then saw the smiley faces that Aiden had requested earlier from Taylor who drew special things on each persons arm who represented that person them.
'Aiden?' Ashlyn called.
'Yeah?' He answered softly.
'Shit.' She wiped her drool off his sleeve and immediately took her head off his arm. 'Sorry, that's gross. I didn't mean to.' Ashlyn used her hand to cover the side of her face and used her other hand to wipe her drool off her face.
'It's okay. Just some stupid drool. —— You look nice when you sleep.' Aiden said, not realizing that was super weird. 'Man, that was creepy. Sorry.' He used her hand to cover his face too.
They both slammed their heads onto the table.
'Aiden?' Ashlyn mumbled.
'Hmm?' Aiden answered.
'Can I sleep on your arm again?' She said.
Aiden stood up straight. Without thinking, he moved her head toward his chest and made her head lay on his arm. Feeling the warmness from Ashlyn's face after his bold move, he felt his face turn red as well and they never said a word but.
'Thanks Aiden.' Ashlyn mumbled.
'No problem Ash.' Aiden replied

(end of edit 😊)