Hope dangles on a string
Like slow-spinning redemption
Winding in and winding out
The shine of it has caught my eye

"Vindicated" by Dashboard Confessional

Rose is giving Rey an appreciative nod. "I like it."

Rey glances down at her attire, trying not to shift from one foot to the other in nerves. "Yeah? You don't think it's, like, too casual?"

Rey can tell Rose is amused, but her best friend is too kind to outright laugh at her. "I mean, you two are just going to the mall. Besides, it's your second date anyway."

This is true. Jake had finally asked her out on a date the last week of school before summer vacation started, and she'd said yes so quick it'd been a little embarrassing. His dad had driven them to a nice Italian restaurant uptown, and they'd spent two hours discussing their summer plans and nervously smiling at each other. And at the end of the evening, as they waited outside the restaurant for his dad, he'd kissed her.

It had been very nice, and quick. Perhaps not magical like the movies made kisses out to be, but nice as far as first kisses go.

That had been about two weeks ago, and Jake had asked her over AIM if she'd wanted to hang out at the mall today as a second date. She'd waited a whole two minutes before sending back a "sure".

Rey flicks invisible dust from her jeans and tugs at the hem of the navy-blue peasant top that Rose had let her borrow. She chews on her bottom lip nervously. "Do you think he'll try and kiss me again?"

"I hope so!" There's a twinkle in Rose's eye now and she giggles from where she's perched on the edge of her bed. "It's been nice to live vicariously through someone other than my Sims."

Rey laughs a little. "Are you going over to Finn's while I'm gone?"

Rose nods, expression darkening a little. "Uh huh."

"Is he still acting weird?"

"Uh huh."

Finn and Rose's relationship had shifted a little after Rey had missed the 8th grade Valentine's Dance. Finn had started being…softer to Rose, somehow, and had seemed more comfortable around her as a whole. And he'd started farting around Rey again, just like he had when they'd first started being friends at the start of middle school. Rey took this as a fabulous sign.

But in the past couple of months Finn has started acting weird. And he's entirely mum about the topic whenever Rey brings it up.

Rey sits down next to Rose on her bed. "Are you going to talk to him about it today?"

Rose sighs and shrugs, pinching the bridge of her nose. "I don't know, Rey. Every time I try to ask him about what's going on, he clams up and starts getting defensive. I don't want to bring it up and him be weird for the whole time we're hanging out."

Rey wipes her sweaty palms against the legs of her jeans and glances at the clock on her bedside table. Ten minutes until Jake would be here. "Maybe you should ask his Nana."

"No."

Rey frowned. "Why not?"

Rose snorts and cracks a smile, nudging Rey lightly with her elbow. "Because, if she knows, she'll tell me exactly what's going on."

"Precisely!"

Both girls dissolve into giggles, and some of Rey's nerves are relieved.

Walking around the mall with Jake turns out to be a lot more fun then Rey had been expecting. He holds her hand whenever they're walking side by side together, and he doesn't seem to mind that Rey's palms are stupidly sweaty.

They walk into Hot Topic and Rey immediately leads him over to the wall covered in different band t-shirts. She starts pointing to all the ones she'd buy if she could afford it, and scoffing at the ones that featured what were, in her humble opinion, garbage bands.

Jake listens to her music ramblings with a pleasant smile. He runs his hand along a stack of Underoath shirts, although Rey can tell he's not actually interested. "That's cool that you're so into music," he says, taking her hand again. "Honestly, I mostly listen to Top 40."

Rey blinks at him.

Oy vey.

They make their way to the back of the store, and Rey laughs at the collection of creepy dolls that are featured on the back wall. She grabs one and turns to Jake. He shrinks back warily.

"I hate dolls," he admits.

Rey decides to spare his manhood and not giggle at him. "I'm surprised I'm not. My older brother made me watch Chucky once when I was a lot younger."

Jake raises an eyebrow. "I didn't know you had a brother."

And that's because Rey has avoided mentioning Ben at every turn. It didn't feel right to talk about him when she was on a date with someone else.

As soon as Rey thinks this, she realizes how odd that is, but crams this thought down with all the other uncomfortable realizations she's been having about Ben lately.

"Well." Her gaze flicks to the ceiling speaker blaring crappy metal. "Ben isn't technically my brother. I've just known him since I was seven."

Jake nods. "I get it. He's like your brother. My older sister has been best friends with the same girl since she was five, so I know where you're coming from."

"Y-Yeah."

A confident expression crosses her date's face and he steps very close to her. "Well, what does your brother think about you having a boyfriend?"

She can feel her face turning red. But she shrugs, trying to play it off as no big deal. "He's totally cool with it."

This is a lie.

Ben has no idea she's out on a date right now. And she hadn't told him about the first one either.

He would be completely ridiculous about it; this is something she knows intrinsically. She figures, what Ben doesn't know won't hurt him.

Jake buys her a pair of black and white spiky rubber earrings, which Rey thinks is very sweet.

They sit on a bench outside for the last half hour before Jake's dad is supposed to pick them up. It's hot, but not stiflingly so.

She lets him kiss her again, and this one is decidedly less chaste then the first one.

It soon turns into what Rey must imagine a make-out session is. Kissing like this is kind of odd, but not in a bad way. In fact, after a few minutes of fumbling, Jake's mouth lands on her neck, and Rey actually finds this new sensation quite delightful.

All the talk of "neck kisses making you tingle" that Rose had shown her in the smutty Harry Potter fanfiction she read did not let Rey down in this regard.

She swatted Jake's hand away when he tried to touch her boob, though.

The next day Rey goes over to Ben's for what has become their typical Summer Sunday Movie Night with Poe.

She sits at their itty-bitty kitchen table with a BB-8 purring in her lap, wearing one of Poe's baggy sweaters since the A/C in their apartment always makes her freeze.

Ben and Poe are arguing back and forth on the best way to brown meat for tacos, and Rey watches them with amusement. There's white paint smeared in Ben's hair. He must've gotten paint on his fingers and then run his hand through his hair. Rey smiles, feeling a little warm. It's…endearing. Yeah, endearing.

Poe wins the argument, and Ben throws his hands up in sheer irritation before walking away and sitting in the chair opposite of Rey.

"How did your meeting with Luke go?" Rey asks, running a hand along BB-8's spine. The cat arches his back happily.

Ben sighs, holding his head up with his hand. He looks tired. "Alright, I guess."

That means it had gone poorly. Ben had mentioned to her last week that Luke had come to him and asked if he'd like to collaborate on a project, one professional artist with another. Ben had agreed, even though he knew better then anyone how different he and Luke's approach to art is.

"That bad, huh?" Rey gives him an empathetic smile and Ben's lips quirk a little in return.

There's a loud sizzling noise from the kitchen and Poe shouts in pain. BB-8 leaps out of Rey's lap and trots over to Poe, bushy tail held high. Rey rubs at the spot on her leg where he'd accidentally clawed her, and feels the baggy sweater slip a little down her shoulder in the process.

Rey can feel the bare skin of her neck and elbow as soon as it's exposed, and her first instinct is to wonder if Ben is looking at it or not. She glances over at him and feels her heartrate spike when she realizes with a jolt that he is looking.

Except his expression is growing darker and darker with each passing second.

"Rey." His voice is eerily calm. "What is that?"

Her hand immediately goes to her neck and she feels her eyes go wide.

She'd forgotten about the hickey Jake had given her yesterday.

"Um."

"Is that a hickey?"

She lets her hand fall away and she shrugs, feeling defensive. "Maybe. So what?"

Ben looks like he has no idea where to begin. "What do you mean 'so what?' Who the fuck are you letting give you hickeys?! When did this even happen?" His brown eyes narrow. "What's his name?"

Rey gets to her feet and so does Ben. "it's just a boy from school! It's no big deal. We were just on a date. Honestly, you're getting upset over nothing."

"It's not nothing, kid!" Ben slams a fist down against the table, causing it to rattle. Rey bristles and crosses her arms over her chest, feeling her own rage beginning to rise to the surface. Ben gestures to her flippantly. "Since when do you go out on dates and shit and not fucking tell me?! I don't know anything about this guy!"

She opens her mouth to shout back and Ben turns his body sharply to face Poe. "You," he growls, pointing an accusatory finger at his roommate, "are too quiet. Did you know?"

Poe looks horrified at having been called out because of course Rey had told him. He holds his hands up and shakes his head. "Look, I'm not getting involved in this."

Ben stares at him for a long moment, and Rey can feel the waves of fury rolling off of him. It's almost suffocating. Then he slowly turns back to her. "I'm the only one you didn't tell." He states it, doesn't ask it.

There's hurt there. But Rey is too caught up in her own emotions to feel anything other than indignant anger. She feels her mouth curl down into a snarl. "Yeah, because I knew you'd be—" she gestures to him mockingly "—like this."

Ben takes a small step toward her. "What if this guy turned out to be a piece of shit? Turns out to be a piece of shit? What if he touched you and you didn't like it, or what if he hurt you?" He snarls that. "You're still really young, you don't—"

Rey pokes a finger into his solid chest. "I am perfectly capable of judging the character of my dates for myself, thank you very much!"

"Listen, kid, you're only fifteen and I'm just trying to—"

"Well, you don't have to!"

"Yes, Rey, I do!"

"No, you don't! You're not my brother, Ben!"

It pops out of her mouth before she can really give it considerable thought. Out of the corner of her eye she sees Poe wince in the kitchen. She shifts a little and takes a tiny step back, all the rage that had been boiling through her moments ago cooling rapidly.

Ben, to his credit, doesn't react right away. He stares down at her for a long moment, eyes unblinking. He reminds Rey of a thunder cloud that hasn't unleashed its storm. Yet.

Rey braces herself for more yelling.

He finally exhales, long and slow. "Guess I'm not."

Ben turns and walks out of the living room and disappears into the hallway. Rey continues to stand there, and finally she looks over at Poe. He's dumping burned taco meat into the trash, but catches her eye as he straightens.

Poe doesn't have to say anything for Rey to know exactly what's going through his mind.

"I didn't take it too far," she snaps. "He was the one overreacting."

Poe opens his mouth to say something when loud music coming from Ben's room makes them both turn their heads toward the hallway. Except it's not angry, pounding music like Rey assumed he'd probably play. It's something a little softer, and she recognizes the band as one he only listens to when he's particularly upset.

Sighing, Rey drags herself over to the hallway and into the open doorway of Ben's bedroom. He's sitting at his computer, worn paperback in hand.

He dutifully ignores her presence until she clears her throat. He looks up sharply at that.

"I know it's uh, a little early for me to go home, but I don't know. You can let me drive, maybe." She shrugs, refusing to meet his eye and feeling distinctly guilty. She's still annoyed by this whole situation, and Ben is being an overprotective idiot about everything, but at least they can talk during the car ride. They'll probably be fine by the time he drops her off at the home.

He nods and sets the paperback down on his desk before standing up and walking over to her. Rey expects him to reach for his car keys, but he reaches for the doorknob instead.

"Get Poe to drive you home." Then Ben slams the door in her face.

A/N:

Oh, Rey. I think you hurt Ben's feelwings. I had a ton of those spiky rubber earrings from Hot Topic. Might still have some somewhere, actually.

As always, thank you all for reading and commenting on this fic! I love reading what you guys have to say about everything! Some of you are on point and very insightful! You guys continue to be the best!

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