Enemies with benefits

Chapter 25: Talk to me

"I don't think your stupid." Colby replied instantly, cutting her sentence off.

She smiled gently at him. "Thanks... I see the way you look at Ezra, I have for a while. Even before the Joanna incident you had a strange obsession with him where you'd constantly go on about how cool you thought he was and how you wished the two of you were friends."

Colby cringed at the memory of his younger self. It was true though. Before he'd dated Joanna, Ezra had joined the school late into freshman year and Colby had immediately taken a liking to him. He had admired Ezra for his popularity and general coolness. But then he dated Joanna in Sophomore year and the beginning of Junior before finding out she had cheated on him with Ezra. It had broke his heart in more ways than one.

"I just didn't think you'd take your admiration for him that had become hate and channel it into sexual desire for him. You've been my friend since forever, Colby. I don't want you to throw your life away because of this fleeting want for him. My parents and counsellor have shown to me that these types of relationships never last, they can't make you happy and they'll only cause more pain and happiness." Sophie had pushed herself off the desk and slowly walked closer to Colby.

He didn't like this. He didn't like having his feelings for Ezra questioned. He didn't like the way Sophie looked at him like she was genuinely worried.

"I want to help you, Colby. Help you and Ezra like I've been helped." Her fingers brushed the silver crucifix that hung from her neck. Something about it seemed abnormally heavy, like her entire body was struggling to hold herself up with the weight of it around her neck.

"I don't need help Sophie. I like my relationship with Ezra, it makes me happy. Plus the 'help' that you're describing makes me- uncomfortable."

She looked frustrated. "Ugh, I'm not describing this very well but it works, okay? I've done it myself and now I don't feel those things anymore!"

"What type of things?" Colby asked, he took a step back as Sophie continued to advance towards him.

"You know..." her voice lowered to a whisper, "attraction to those of the same sex."

"You're gay? What's wrong with that?" Colby asked, not whispering.

She slammed her hands over his mouth to keep him quiet. "I was. But not anymore, I'm all better now. And you can be too." Her eyes were frantic and stressed, the silver crucifix still swaying around her neck.

He grabbed her wrists and took her off of him. "Are you okay, Soph?"

"Yes!" She all but yelled. "I'm trying to make you okay too because I care about you Colby. Why can't you see that you won't be happy with Ezra."

"I don't think it matters what gender the person I'm in a relationship is. It can go well or badly either way. Joanna was a girl and she ended up cheating on me. Ezra is a guy and I'm really happy with him at the moment. It's about the person themselves not anything else."

"I used to think that too but it's not true." She ripped her fingers through her hair as she looked even more frantic as she tried to think of more ways to convince him to accept her offer of help. "So you think Ezra's not going to cheat on you?"

"Of course not! I mean- we're not even anything official yet."

"But he slept with Joanna even when he knew the two of you were going out. Doesn't that show his loyalties? It's because of the nature of your relationship."

Colby didn't respond to that.

"We all make bad decisions, Colby. Let me help prevent you from making this one."

"Are you just saying this because you liked him?"

"Are you saying all this because you liked him?"

"I don't know if I liked him." She admitted. "I wanted to. I could see it from the way he acted around you, we're similar, him and I. It was silly, but I thought if we met on the common ground of our similarities then we could be happy together."

"I don't think that would've worked. Ezra's pretty sure of what he wants, especially today."

"Yeah, I guess I wanted to not be the only black sheep in the flock anymore. Actually, we're both the black sheep now."

"Don't think I'm a sheep. I think I'd be like a dumb dog or something."

She giggled a little at that. "You get my point."

She embraced him in a tight hug and the scent of her sweet perfume engulfed him. "I care about you so much, Colby. I just want to see you live the best life you can and right now, I'm worried you're going to be lead astray and have your heartbroken." She sounded so sincere that Colby actually considered her words.

"Sophie." She lifted her head of his chest to look up at him. "Why did you send me that picture of Ezra and I kissing at a party?"

"Oh that. As a warning of course. You didn't fully know what you were doing so I thought it was best to warn you about the urges you were having so you could stop early. I'm not sure if it helped or not."

Definitely not, Colby thought. After all it had been that photo that had lead to the series of events of Ezra and Colby becoming... closer. He would never had made out with Ezra in the showers that day if he hadn't been sent the picture.

"I really do care, Colby. I want to help, I'll even help Finley if he asks for it."

"Finley doesn't need help, neither do I. Maybe you do though. Maybe you need to talk to someone who isn't a part of your church and realise it's okay to like girls. I think girls are pretty cool, so it's nice that we think the same."

"I don't!" She shouted at him. "When you've realised that you need help, you can come find me." She sidestepped Colby and left the room.

He didn't know how to feel. He was annoyed that Sophie insisted he and Finley needed help but at least they were talking again. Ezra wouldn't cheat on him. Technically he couldn't as they were nothing official. Did Ezra want to be official?

He left the classroom a lot more downtrodden than he was hoping he'd be. At the very least there was a sliver of hope that he and Sophie could be friends again.

He walked into the cafeteria and sat with Finley who was quite obviously whispering naughty things into Brent's ear. Brent's face was red and he had his bag covering his lap.

He looked around for Ezra, that's when he saw him smiling and laughing with Joanna and her friends at their table. He was standing by them as one girl groped his arm and the rest all looked at him with big doe eyes.

Did Ezra even want to be official?

Hi everyone!

Thank you for the amount of reads I've suddenly been getting. In the last five days I went from 10,000 reads to 100,000. I'm not sure how you all suddenly came across my book but I'm incredible grateful that you've taken the time to read it. <3

The next book is going to be the realistic plot from last chapter as it got more votes and it's already in the works.

This chapter is dedicated to the cult forming in the comments of chapter one.