#benjamin denton

It had started as a bit of a joke - only a bit, because quite frankly any idea was a good idea when you were high as fuck with three quite fit men in your flat. It was lucky that the three of them thought you were quite fit too. Also lucky that your flatmate was over at her boyfriend’s for the night, which meant the four of you could mess around in peace.

At first, that simply meant just putting on some trashy CDs and having the volume up a bit louder as you played puff puff pass. Ollie was getting better at actually smoking, Benjamin was more relaxed than ever, and Ross had been dutifully put in charge of rolling the joint this time. You’d challenged him to make a stronger one than the one the four of you had shared down at The Dog and Dart last week, and he had most certainly delivered.

The living room was a glorious haze of grassy smoke. The fire alarm was covered up and all, so there weren’t going to be any issues except for the lingering smell for a couple of days at least. Not that your flatmate would care.

Anyway: you’d found yourself leaning on Benjamin’s shoulder with your feet in Ross’ lap, practically sprawled across the two of them on the sofa. Ollie, meanwhile, was sitting on the floor next to you all. The blunt hadn’t been quite finished yet, and the only other seat available was the armchair which was quite frankly too far away for passing it around.

You couldn’t help but think about being passed around yourself, especially after those kisses you’d given the three of them the previous week. The very thought of it made you start giggling.

As you started to giggle, Ross gently stroked your bare calf. “What’s tickled you now?”

You shook your head. “Don’t worry,” you said with a smile, taking the blunt from Ollie who was actually quite put out at being on the floor and having to watch the three of you on the sofa at this point in time. You figured he had some schoolboy crush on you. Fine by you, you had a schoolgirl crush on him too. And Ross. And Benjamin.

After a couple more puffs, you held it up to Benjamin’s lips and he gratefully took his drags on it, and you slipped down from his shoulder to rest your head in his lap. “You alright there?” he asked you with a sweet smile.

“It’s kicking in a bit,” you said. “Ross, you really do roll them strong.”

“I know. I’m surprised Ollie’s lasted this long,” the man in question responded.

“At least I can smoke better now…” the blonde man huffed, getting up and going to sit in the armchair across the room instead. “But I’m done now! The room’s spinning.”

“Of course it is, Ollie, love,” you said.

“Oh, he gets the cute nickname, does he?” Benjamin teased, passing the end of the joint back to Ross who quickly finished it off. You were surprised you could see anything through the haze that had become your living room.

“It’s Ollie,” you replied with an eyeroll. “If I don’t give him the cute nickname, he’ll get annoyed. See! Look at that face.” You’d caught the fact that he was now pouting in the chair, watching as Ross started to really snake his hand up your skirt. You then jolted as his hand reached the apex of your thighs.

“Sorry…” Ross murmured, the look of a boy in trouble about him.

“No - no, it’s…” You frowned ever so slightly. You had three hot guys in your flat and one of them was clearly going to finger you, the other clearly wanted a snog, and the third one seemed put out by the whole thing but was fixated on watching it unfold anyway. “It’s fine.” You shrugged, now pulling Benjamin down to kiss you on the lips.

What an evening and night it turned out to be, all four of you high in your living room and growing far too intimate with each other. Between snogging Benjamin and Ross pumping his fingers inside of you, you were most definitely on cloud nine.

Everything about Royston Vasey was useless, which was something that worked in your favour whenever you needed to go smoke some weed ‘round the side of The Dog and Dart. Tuesday nights were the quietest nights, so you weren’t likely to be discovered and potentially kicked off the premises. Thank god that’s the worst that could happen - nobody cared enough to call the police.

So there you were, a fat spliff in hand and you’d just lit it up from the confines of the dingy, little, side alley of The Dog and Dart. The smell of it hit you instantly. Oh yes, you’d rolled a good one. You had your first drag, held it for a bit, and exhaled. The first one always hit a little too hard for your liking but that was because you liked to jump in at the deep end. Whatever. This was your little slice of peace and quiet.

As you were about to put the spliff to your lips again, someone came storming down the alley in a huff. You stood upright and hid the offending item behind your back, although the heady smell of it wouldn’t go away. It was going to be obvious what you were doing.

The man in question was a couple of inches taller than you with bouncy blonde hair, along with a jumper and glasses both too big for him. His head may as well have been a tomato with how red it was, and he was muttering to himself some nonsense about theatre and some guys called Phil and Dave.

Whoever he was, he was clearly a safe bet.

So you stopped hiding the damn thing and took your second drag.

He came to a halt a few metres from you, sniffed the air, and cocked his head to the side.

“You can’t smoke that here!” he insisted. “This is a public walkway.”

You raised an eyebrow at him and snorted. “It’s a side alley to a shit pub, love, I don’t think anyone’s coming down here.”

“Well I came down here.” He folded his arms and approached. “I needed to calm down.”

You gave him the once over. “I can tell,” you replied, a tinge of sarcasm in your voice. “What’s got your knickers in a twist?”

“Never you mind! It’s none of your business.” Even though this childish, angry man was trying to keep an air of mystery about him, he was eyeing up the spliff in the least subtle way possible.

You sighed. “Tell me your name and we can play puff puff pass.”

“Ollie. Ollie Plimsolls, writer, director, actor, and founder of Legz Akimbo Theatre Company!” he rattled off proudly, pushing his hair back only for it to flop in front of his eyes again. You had to refrain from laughing, so instead you just handed him the spliff.

He’d barely touched it to his lips when there was a second interruption.

“If you’re going to that here, be a little more subtle about it,” a calm, distinct voice came from behind you. You turned around to see another man in glasses - granted his were the right size for his face - and in a brown suit jacket and jeans. Wait! You knew him.

“Job centre boy?” you called out to him with a grin on your face. You beckoned him closer. “Oh, I bet you’ve had a hard day with Pauline.”

“Don’t get me started,” he replied quietly through gritted teeth as he approached. “And my name’s Ross. Not ‘job centre boy.’”

“Come on, Ollie, puff puff pass,” you reminded the gawking actor, who jumped into action only to cough and splutter after his first inhale. Ross squeezed past you to dutifully clap him on the back.

“Oh dear…” he sighed. “New to it?”

“I don’t partake because it’ll ruin my voice and my headspace and I won’t be able to think whilst I write my next issues based play!” Ollie was terrible at talking at a normal speed, it seemed. His second puff had him slowing down a little, thankfully, and he passed the spliff to Ross. “Can’t stop children’s theatre.”

“What a shame it would be if it did stop…” Ross murmured, cool as anything as he took his two drags with ease and passed it back to you. “So it’s you, then,” he addressed you. “You’re the one who leaves the weed smell down here every Tuesday?”

You snorted. “Didn’t think it was that noticeable.”

“Please, you roll them stronger than I do.”

“Well then…” you stepped a little closer to Ross and blew smoke gently in his face. “You’ll have to roll me one stronger than this, some other time.”

You missed Ollie rolling his eyes just to the side of you, and Ross smirked as he wafted the smoke away.

“Challenge accepted,” he then said, and you wordlessly passed back to Ollie.

“Oh for- I thought nine o’clock was my time!” A third man said from the end of the alley Ollie came in from.

“Sorry Benjamin…” you replied to the newcomer with a wince. He was a newcomer in every sense of the word: he wasn’t from Vasey, but he’d been somehow stuck here for a while and after a brief interaction last week you’d come to an agreement for who gets to use the alley at what time. You sold him the weed anyway.

“It’s fine…” he sighed. “Need the company anyway… people that aren’t my aunt and uncle…”

Almost begrudgingly he trudged over to you, and you took the time to nick the blunt off of Ollie before he could even dare smoke it once more and give it to Benjamin instead. He was much more relaxed after a couple of puffs, and you indicated it was okay to give it to Ollie (who, at this point, was really getting into it).

“No chance of you leaving yet?” you asked Benjamin, electing to lean against the wall next to Ross, feeling only a tiny bit lightheaded. You slipped a little and nudged the poor job centre boy by accident before straightening up, ignoring the fact he couldn’t stop staring at you.

“I had to sneak out the window,” Benjamin explained. “After last week trying to get to the station… yeah, I’m not trying that again.”

Ollie passed to Ross. “How can you stand to be stuck in a place like this?!” The blonde asked. His speech was definitely slowing down, thank god. He looked much more relaxed and not as high strung. His hair was still all over the place though, and you admired his little pink cherub cheeks as he elected to lean on the opposite wall of the alley right in front of you.

Lucky you, to be smoking with three attractive guys.

“I was only meant to go on a hike…” Benjamin whined, going to rest next to Ollie. “Who are you anyway?”

Ross was done with his turn and instead of passing it to you, he held it directly up to your lips so you could smoke hands free. You noticed that it was about halfway done at this point.

“That’s Ollie, he’s an actor. Don’t go into the full explanation…” Ross said, a warning glance thrown at Ollie’s way. 

You were a bit cheeky and lightly flicked your tongue against Ross’ fingers to indicate when you were done with your turn. 

You avoided looking at him as the blunt went to Benjamin again, but you felt him shift closer and you had to hold back a smirk. You caught Ollie’s eye - well, the best you could. He was a lightweight and his eyes were beginning to glaze over, but at least he was quiet. Only you, Ross, and Benjamin seemed to be holding it together well enough as the blunt kept being passed around until the bitter, final end of it.

“Terrible idea, but the pub’s still open for another hour or so,” you said. “Shall we?”

Benjamin shrugged. “I’m game.”

“I need water,” Ollie murmured, leading the charge out of the alley.

You purposely lingered at the back with Ross as you both followed the other two, where he slipped an arm around your waist and pulled you close to him.

“What was that you did earlier?” he muttered in your ear. “Licking my finger?”

“Stop looking at me like that and I won’t think you think I’m fit,” you responded, sliding out of his grip, chucking him a wink and skipping after the other two, feeling blissfully airy and heady.

By the time you got into the half filled pub, the low lighting added a dream like effect to how you already felt. As if the environment around you wasn’t quite real enough to properly exist. Everything felt a little slow in terms of movement, but you at least observed Benjamin already at the bar ordering a round, and Ollie had grabbed a booth where he was resting his head in his hands, glasses on the table and all. You bounded over to him, slid onto the seat next to him and wrapped an arm around him, pecking him on the temple.

“Oh, Ollie, first time?”

“I could sleep forever,” he said, his voice muffled by his palms. He sat up straight and put his glasses back on. “Dave and Phil won’t be happy about this… I’m not happy about this.”

Now that he was sitting upright, you elected to link your elbow with his and rest your head on his shoulder. “Enjoy yourself,” you told him. “You’ll sleep it off later. Trust me, you’re gonna have the best sleep ever tonight.”

“Yeah?” his voice was so tiny now.

“Yeah!”

“She’s right,” Ross said as he slipped into the booth opposite you two, clearly trying not to glare at you all cosied up with Ollie. “You’ll sleep great. Once you get over how the room’s gonna spin - it’s fine. Out like a light.”

“If you don’t believe me, listen to Ross. It’s clear he’s a seasoned expert on matters like this.”

Ross merely shrugged and hummed, drumming his fingers on the table as he watched Benjamin bring over a tray of pints. The more casually dressed boy sank happily into the seat next to Ross, grabbing a pint from the tray and having a hefty chug of it without so much as a “cheers.” Not that you blamed him.

You let go of Ollie and went for your own pint, as did he and Ross. The four of you drank in companionable silence, enjoying the high that the weed had brought to you all. All troubles were forgotten and quiet finally existed. Conversation in the pub was muttered and slow, but you couldn’t help but notice how eyes of the three men were constantly on you.

Addled brains, that was for certain.

The bell went for last orders and you insisted on buying the round. As you were about to take the tray of empty glasses away, Benjamin then insisted on helping and he took the tray as he accompanied you back up to the bar. Three pints and a glass of water were ordered, and as you waited he drew very close to you.

“If I’m still here next week, can I join you again?” he asked, his cheeks turning pink as he gently rested his hand on the small of your back.

Benjamin was a sweetheart, that much you knew from the fleeting encounter. You smiled at him and nodded: “Sure.”

When you returned to the table, even Ollie was scowling at Benjamin who merely ignored him in favour of his final drink for the night. Ollie chugged away at the water, and Ross’ gaze kept darting between the three of you.

If anything, the most shocking thing about this whole ordeal was the fact that Ollie hadn’t whitied after the pint he’d had before. To be fair, you were surprised you were keeping it together this well, too. You knew it was going to be a rough walk home.

You had three men to guide you, though.

Eventually when it was time to head home from The Dog and Dart, you had your arms linked with Ross and Ollie whilst Benjamin walked a few paces ahead, the four of you shuffling and stumbling and giggling through Royston Vasey in an effort to see you safely off back home.

It took about fifteen minutes longer than necessary, but soon enough you were outside the building where your flat was.

“Well, gentlemen…” you batted your eyelashes at the three of them. “Thank you for a most wonderful evening.” To add to the fact you’d made your voice go a bit more posh, you gave them a little curtsey, which had them chuckling.

“Thank you for letting us join,” Benjamin said.

Ross gave you a curt nod and a little smirk.

“Right! Yes. Thanks. Won’t be doing that again…” Ollie was despairing, and it was because he was despairing you decided he could be the first recipient of a friendly kiss on the lips. You pulled him by the jumper towards you, smushed your lips against him so hard he flailed, and it was all over within a second.

Benjamin you were more gentle with, cupping his face between your palms as you pulled him in for one. He went to cup your face too, but you’d already finished with him.

Finally Ross, where he was the one to pull you in, hands on your waist and hips pressed far too hard against you as you properly snogged him. Perhaps you snogged him for too long, because Ollie gagged and muttered something about ‘getting a room’ before heading off up the street.

When you and Ross broke apart, Benjamin laughed and wished you a good night before running off to sneak back into his aunt and uncle’s place. Ross wiped his mouth of the saliva from your kiss, pressed one to your nose for good measure, and didn’t utter another word as he left.