Not a Love Story

Fifteen // Is There Something, Like, Going On

Oliver Greene

I noticed Ben start to slow down around 4, his leg bouncing and his pencil tapping against the table.

"Do you want to take a break?" I asked, eyeing him. He looked up at me, his pencil pressed against his bottom lip.

"Yes, god this is a lot of material." I nodded in agreement. "Do you have a football?" Ben suddenly asked, a smirk on his face.

"I don't know. Henry probably has one in the garage somewhere, why?" I asked.

"Sweet. We're gonna go play." he said, standing up and smirking at me.

"You know, I think I'm good. Isn't there something else we could do? That doesn't involve athleticism?" I asked. Ben chuckled and shook his head.

"C'mon, Ollie, just give it a try. If you really hate it we can come back inside and get back to work." he replied. I sighed and stood up.

It took us a little while to find the football Henry used to use when he practiced out back with his friends. Ben was able to reach the last bin on the highest shelf of the storage rack in the garage. We went out to the backyard and Ben put some space between us.

"Ready?" he asked, smiling. I sighed.

"I guess." I admitted. Ben threw the ball in a perfect spiral. I was able to jump up and catch it.

"Look at that! You're a natural." Ben said, laughing. I smiled and laughed before throwing it back. We continued throwing the ball back and forth, me only missing a few here and there.

"Go long!" Ben called towards me, running backwards.

"What?" I asked. Ben rolled his eyes and laughed.

"Run that way!" he said, pointing away from himself. I nodded and started running backwards, watching as he threw the ball in a perfect arc. I reached out to grab it, slipping and falling as the ball grazed my fingers and bounced on the grass. "Oh shit!" I heard Ben yell, followed by the sound of footsteps. I started laughing and rolled over onto my back. "Are you okay?" Ben asked. I nodded, still laughing. Ben shook his head and chuckled.

I sat up and tossed the ball to him. He offered me his hand, which I took. I pulled him down and grabbed the ball back from him, running away. I heard Ben chuckle as he stood up, chasing after me.

"Ollie! What the hell!" he called after me. I kept laughing and running, only to feel arms wrap around my waist and stop me in my tracks. "Gotcha!" Ben exclaimed, making me laugh even harder.

"Oliver?" I heard someone say from the back door. I whipped around, seeing Henry standing in the doorway. His eyes shifted to Ben, seeing his arms wrapped around me as I clutched the football to my chest. "Ben?" he asked, confused by the sight of us. Ben seemed to come to his senses and quickly unwrapped his arms, muttering an apology and clearing his throat.

"Uh, hey, Hen. How was studying?" I asked him, dropping the football from my chest and holding it in my hand at my side.

"Fine, I guess. What's going on here?" he asked, eyebrow quirked up.

"Just taking a study break." I responded, quickly looking over at Ben to see him nod in response, looking uncomfortable.

"Hmm. Okay, whatever." Henry said, closing the door as he turned to go back inside.

"We should, uh, probably get back to studying." I said, embarrassment flooding through me. Ben nodded.

"Yeah, good idea." he responded.

"You can go back to the basement. I'm going to put this away." I said, gesturing to the football. Ben nodded and we both walked back into the house. He headed down to the basement and I went to the garage door.

"So what was that all about?" Henry suddenly asked, a smirk on his face.

"Jesus, Henry. You scared me." I said, clutching my chest as I looked towards my brother leaning against the doorway.

"That didn't answer my question." he said, quirking up his eyebrow.

"We were just taking a break from studying." I said, breaking eye contact with him to try and avoid Henry seeing the blush rising in my cheeks.

"Yeah, sure." Henry said, leaning against the storage rack as I struggled to reach the bin. "Is there something, like, going on between you guys?" Henry asked, lowering his voice. My head snapped towards him.

"What? No! I'm just tutoring him so he doesn't get kicked off the team." I said, shaking my head as I looked back up at the bin.

"Okay, okay. Sorry." he said, putting his hands up in defense. Henry finally reached up and grabbed the bin for me.

"Thanks." I muttered.

"It's just, I don't know. He's not like that around any of us." Henry said, staring at me as I put the ball into the bin.

"What do you mean?" I asked, refusing to meet his eyes. Henry shrugged.

"I dunno. He's just happier. You are too, I can tell." he said, a gentle smile on his face.

"We're just good friends then I guess." I said, lifting up the bin to put it back. Henry helped me push it into place.

"Hmm. Sure." Henry responded. I sighed and rolled my eyes.

"If you're not going to believe anything I say then what's the point of asking." I replied, brushing past him to go back inside.

"Hey! I was just wondering! But if you say it's nothing, then I believe you, okay?" he said, grabbing my arm.

"Fine. I have to get back to studying." I said, gesturing for the basement door. Henry nodded and let my arm go.

"Yeah. Make sure he's gonna pass, Ol, don't forget we need him." he teased me, making me roll my eyes as I opened the basement door and headed down the stairs.

Ben was sitting at the table quietly working again. He looked up as I sat down, Henry's words still bouncing around in my head.

"You okay?" Ben asked.

"What? Oh yeah, sorry. What are you working on?" I asked, diverting attention from me and back to the worksheet in front of Ben. He gave me a look before sliding the sheet over to me. I glanced over it, handing it back to him with a smile.

"I got them all?" he asked. I nodded.

"Yep." I confirmed. He looked up at me, a toothy grin on his face that made my stomach flip.

"Okay, what next?" he asked, still smiling. I instructed him to take notes off of the worksheets he'd done the past few days and I picked up my book again, taking notes in the margins with the scratch of Ben's pencil as background noise.

Every once in a while I felt my eyes drawn away from the book and towards the boy sitting across from me. I noticed he'd tap his pencil against his lip when he was thinking, he'd write quick thoughts that came to him on the side of his paper then erase them as he worked down the page.

Suddenly, he looked up, his eyes catching mine.

"What? Am I doing it wrong?" he asked, looking back down at his notes concerned.

"No, uh, I was just checking to see how much you have done." I lied, trying to suppress the blush I felt rising in my cheeks.

"Oh, yeah. Going good." he said, giving me a thumbs up before looking back down at his paper. I looked back at my book, heart pounding, hoping the words of Shakespeare would drown out Henry's words and my own embarrassment.