I turned on my phone and cringed. "Oh dear," I said, my hand going to my face. "Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear."

Ben poked his head out of his closet and raised his eyebrows. "What happened?"

The bright text scrolling across my phone's screen made me gulp. I was in deep trouble. "Seventeen missed calls and twelve texts," I whispered.

He rolled his eyes. "The brunette?"

I thought it was quite funny that he and Ginny didn't really like each other, but at the same time, it disappointed me. I wanted them to get along. "Yeah, it's Ginny," I said, feeling exceptionally guilty. I'd been here for the past, what, eight hours? Ginny thought she'd be covering for me for two to three hours at most.

Ben looked at me blankly. "Aren't you going to call her back?" he asked, his tone questioning my state of mind.

I laughed in embarrassment, covering my face with both hands. "That may be something I should do, huh?" Too bad that I didn't really want to.

"Probably," he agreed, emerging from the closet, a towel draped around his neck. "At least if you want to keep your life."

I plopped onto the bed and sighed. "You're remarkably sensitive to my well being, Benny. I think you're the one who should be the motivational speaker," I said with a grin.

"Tone down the sass, Lottie," he said, but I knew he was just teasing. It was a bit hard to tell, but he definitely was. "I'm going to take a shower, and you are going to call your friend."

I laughed. "Okay, Your Majesty," I said. Ben pulled an immature face that made me laugh again, and then he disappeared into the bathroom.

I looked at my phone again and lay down on my back. I should call Ginny and stop being a scaredy-cat, but on the other hand, do I really want to go home only for her to rip out my small intestine and choke me with it?

I giggled at myself and dialled her number. "Charlie!" a deep voice that certainly was not Ginny's exclaimed.

I frowned and rolled over so that I lay on my stomach. "Yes, who is speaking?"

"It's Zach."

I pursed my lips, my brow furrowing in confusion. "Zach, what're you doing answering Ginny's phone?"

There was a pause. "Oh. Well here's the thing, Charlie..."

"If it's dirty, I'd rather you not tell me," I said. Ginny thought I wanted to hear all the details of her adventures, and I didn't want Zach to think that as well.

I heard choking on the other end. "What - oh whatever, it doesn't matter. I just thought you should know that Ginny is currently passed out on my bed."

I let out a worried groan. This was why I couldn't leave her alone! "Are you serious?" I said. "God, does she have alcohol poisoning? I hope you made her drink water before she fell asleep! Did you check and see if she was breathing? Is she lying properly?"

"Calm down, Charlie, she's fine. She was just tired."

"Then what's she doing at your place?"

"I'm not exactly sure."

I raised my eyebrows. "What so you mean, you're not sure?"

I heard a knock on the door and turned to see Archer poking his head in. I motioned for him to come in but be quiet, and he walked over, sitting next to me on the bed.

"I am speaking English, pest. I meant what I said," Zach said sassily.

I chose to ignore that. "Why'd you call me seventeen times, then? Shouldn't you be talking to her?"

"Sleeping people generally do not respond to queries given to them; I'm not sure if you go the memo, though, Charlie."

I groaned again. "Zach! Why did you call?"

"I need advice," he said. "I haven't really spoken to her since I talked to you, and that's because when I said 'hi,' she responded with, 'go suck on a dead goat.'"

"You're hopeless," I said. I looked over at Archer, and saw that he was staring at me.

'Zach?' he mouthed. 'Does Ben know about this?'

I laughed quietly and shoved him away. "Listen, Zach, you already know what Ginny's like. All you can do is pray she doesn't get violent."

"That is shit advice."

"The fact that she came to your room to crash instead of some other random person's means something, Zach. Just do whatever you did to keep her around the last time."

"But Charlie, there was more physical stuff involved-"

"No, I do not need that kind of information," I said, closing my eyes tightly. I swallowed exaggeratedly. "Don't speak anymore. Please."

I heard Zach laugh on the other end, before he quieted and became serious. "Charlie, I just want you to know that the only reason I kissed that girl in front of Ginny was because Ginny's the only girl I've ever really liked, you know?"

I didn't understand how that worked. "Then why did you do it?" I asked softly.

"It scared me," he said.

I didn't accept his excuse - in fact, I thought it was pretty stupid - but I respected that he was going to be trying to win her back. "Don't be a baby, Zach," I said. "Mature a little, okay? And take care of my best friend while I'm gone."

"Okay, pest. Wait, where are you anyway? Ginny said something about your boyfriend, but you don't have a boyfriend, do you?"

I felt my cheeks heat up at his words, and I didn't know why. "No, I don't have a boyfriend," I said slowly, avoiding the first question. Archer winked at me, which made me turn even redder. Oh my goodness.

"Whatever," Zach said, losing interest. "See ya later."

"Bye, Zach. Take care of Ginny, remember!"

"Okay, bye Charlie."

I hung up and pointedly looked at Archer. "What did I do?" he asked, laughing. "I'm not the one who got caught talking to Zaaach while my...masculine friend showers in the bathroom."

I pointed my finger at him. "You better hope you never get caught with any 'masculine' friends," I said.

"I am not gay!" Archer protested. "And even if I was, then that would still be okay, right?"

I smiled at him and ruffled his hair. "Yes, of course it would be, Archibald," I said, laughing. He pushed my fluttering hands away and leapt off the bed to go sit in the office chair.

Ben found us like that a few minutes later, with me lying on his bed telling off Archer who was spinning nauseatingly fast in the chair.

"You are going to be sick!" I said. I should've gotten off the bed to stop him, but Ben's bed was just too comfortable.

Suddenly, the door to the bathroom opened and Ben walked out, but I didn't glance up at him. I stayed in my position on the bed. "What the hell are you doing, punk?" I heard him say.

I chose to believe he said that to Archer, because out of the stupid people in the room, he was being stupider. "You know," I told Ben, "you take a long time to shower."

"First of all, who cares," he said, and I heard him stride across the room and over to Archer, where he put a stop to the whole chair-spinning thing.

"Please tell me this is my head being fucked up and not just you, you know...not wearing clothes," Archer said groggily.

I choked on nothing and immediately covered my eyes with my hands, my face turning three shades of red. I heard the thump of Ben's hand whacking Archer, and had to bite back my laugh. "Get out, Archer," he growled.

"Sir, yes sir!" I heard the door slam closed but kept my eyes covered. I really hoped Archer was joking when he said Ben didn't have any clothes on.

There was a pause. "Lottie?" Ben said curiously. "What are you doing?"

"Please put on some clothes!" I squeaked. I wasn't sure if I could keep from embarrassing myself if I saw him...without clothes on.

Ben scoffed. "I'm wearing sweatpants. Don't listen to Archer."

I slowly removed my hands from my eyes and peeked at Ben, who was staring at me in exasperation. My cheeks reddened slightly when I saw that he only wore sweatpants. There was a white towel around his neck and his hair was dripping water onto his chest.

I cleared my throat awkwardly. Focus, Lottie. Focus. I blinked hard and coughed.

"You are so weird," Ben said, rubbing at his hair with the towel. I took in a sharp breath of air and force myself to look away.

Get your mind out of the gutter, woman. I laughed slightly and tried to get over myself. "I know. What time is it?"

"It's almost nine. Do you want to take a shower and then maybe watch another movie?"

I smiled delightedly at the awkward way he spoke, like he was unsure of himself. It was so cute! "Okay!" I agreed. "Can I have a towel?"

His worry lines melted off his face and he nodded, grabbing a clean towel and his shirt from his closet. "Here. The shirt is kinda big for me, so it should be decent for you to wear without...er..."

"Trousers?" I said cheekily.

His cheeks tinged pink and he swallowed. "That's right. Trousers."

I smiled and took the towel and shirt from him before heading over to the bathroom. It was warm and steamy from his shower, and it smelt like soap. It was a clean, strong smell. A Ben smell.

The only soap was his manly brand, so I ended up washing my hair with his cologne-scented shampoo and scrubbing my body with a bar of soap that smelt like lemon.

I dried and pulled on Ben's shirt, which was slightly wrinkled, but was still clean. He was right - because it had been slightly loose on him, it fell down my body unflatteringly, and reached as far as my dress had, which was good. The fabric was soft and worn, and I stood there grinning like an idiot for three minutes before exiting the bathroom.

Ben glanced at me while I wrapped my hair in the towel to dry it off, and then immediately looked back at his laptop. I folded my dress and placed it on the floor, then padded over to him. He sat on his bed with his back against the wall, the pillows strewn around him.

I paused when I reached the edge of the bed. "Can I sit next to you?" I asked.

Ben coughed again and cleared his throat. "Oh...er, yeah. Sure."

I grinned and jumped on the mattress, pulling a soft pillow with me and placing it on my lap. My shoulder touched Ben's, and my knee knocked his thigh when I crossed my legs. "What are we watching?"

"What do you want to watch?" he asked, not looking at me.

"I don't know. Oh, hey, is that Lilo and Stitch?" I beamed when I saw the little icon - I loved that film.

"Lilo and Stitch it is ," Ben muttered, pressing play.

I scooted closer to him to better see the screen and then leant forward. I heard Ben's breath catch, and that made my heart beat faster. Just watch the film, okay? I told myself.

"Just watch the film, okay?" I heard Ben whisper to himself.

The grin barely left my face the rest of the night.