I Choose You

Unspoken Truth

It was a long and painful process, but eventually, the house got to looking fairly decent after Cassie and the boys went around with trash bags and picked up every beer bottle and red solo cup that they could find. Things were knocked over, but thankfully not broken except for the vase Tom had destroyed.

Ben kept being a worry wart and said that his parents were going to kill him if things weren't exactly how they were before. Martin told him to ease up and that they'd get everything in order tomorrow, since it was their last full day.

The boys dropped one-by-one; James was the first to announce his departure to bed, then Adam, then Tom, and finally Martin. It was only Ben and Cassie who were finishing up the cleaning by now.

"Darling, why don't you go ahead and get some sleep," Ben told her. "I'll finish this up." Cassie continued picking up trash, as she told him, "No, I want to help. Besides, you owe me a movie night." Ben smiled at her, then set down the nearly full trash bag.

He walked up behind her and slipped one arm around her waist, while the other took the trash bag out of her hand. "Ben," she said with a smile, "let's wait. Tom could come back down here for something."

He hummed in acknowledgement, but didn't stop himself from turning her around and start to slow dance to the music that was lowly playing in the background. Cassie smiled and said, "I love the Smiths, especially this song."

They were dancing to "Asleep", which was a depressing song, but good nonetheless. Cassie put her head on Ben's shoulder and he pressed his cheek against her head. As they danced, his mind kept wandering back to the prick that was flirting heavily with her just a few hours ago.

He wanted to charge up to him and tell him to get his hands off his girl, but Martin stopped him before he could do anything and pulled him aside to explain that Tom was literally just a few feet away from Cassie which was why she was doing what she was doing.

Ben hated it, but he understood, especially when he saw how Tom was looking at Cassie. The look was full of want and need and envy. Had Ben been the one flirting with Cassie like that guy was, it would be a completely different scenario.

After that, Ben went back to talk with Olivia and got to know her a little better. She was going to audition for the winter play that was coming up and was hoping to get a lead role, even though she doesn't know what the play is yet.

Ben tried his best to listen to her, but his mind and eyes kept going to Cassie who, since Tom disappeared, got herself a good distance away from the prick she was talking with. He smiled to himself and let all his worries about her slip away for the moment, but then there was Olivia.

She was very persistent when it came to getting to know him better...in more ways than one. She kept touching his arm, getting him drinks, giving a flirtatious laugh, and anything else to weird him out. He eventually managed to escape her when he was called over by James who had Cassie's roommate clinging to him like a koala. They were wasted and wanted to use his parents bedroom since there was "more room".

That's when Ben declared the party to be over.

"James seems to be getting along with...what's your roommate's name?" Cassie giggled into his shoulder and said, "Alice. And yes, I saw them heavily making out in the corner of the room earlier. I thought they were going to have sex right then and there."

They both laughed and continued to dance in silence. Ben's eyes kept darting to the stairs in case Tom did want to come down for something, but gave up when they were halfway through the second song without any intrusions.

When the song ended, Ben pulled back from their dancing position and said, "Come on, let's go have our movie night. We can finish this mess tomorrow." He was in the mindset of getting upstairs, but then saw a few more beer bottles on the floor and started picking them up.