Whatever it was Tone was up to in London, it kept him out of the flat for most of the afternoons and evenings. He didn’t talk to Stan about much, though not in a malicious way. Stan was still trying to figure out whether Tone was wary around Stan now, or if he just didn’t want Ben to overhear their conversations. Tone had always been slightly mysterious about what he got up to. He’d never stayed still for very long, so Stan wasn’t too worried about him. It wouldn’t surprise Stan at all if Tone had gone and got a job pulling pints somewhere.
When Ben padded through to the kitchen, Stan looked up from his laptop.
“Morning,” he said.
“Morning.” Ben went and turned the kettle on, then turned to Stan and held up a hand. “Look, before you say anything, I want to say something.”
“Okay.”
“I’m sorry. I know I’ve been a dick the past couple of days. I was having what Summer calls a moment.”
“You’re allowed to have a moment,” Stan said. “Or several, for that matter.”
Ben snorted. “Thanks.”
“There’s breakfast in the fridge if you want it. And you don’t need to apologise, Ben.”
“I do,” Ben said. He went to the fridge and took the bowl of fruit out. “I’m living in your fucking flat and treating it like a fucking hotel.”
“No, you’re not.” Stan laughed. “Trust me, I’ve had worse housemates.”
“Me too.”
Ben made his tea, then came to sit at the table with Stan to eat his breakfast.
“Are you feeling better now?” Stan asked cautiously.
“Yeah.”
Stan didn’t want to push him. He’d already learned that Ben would share in his own time, if he wanted to, and if he didn’t there wasn’t much anyone could get him to do to open up.
When he was finished eating, Ben took Stan’s empty dishes with his own and put the dishwasher on, then stood in the kitchen and fidgeted.
“Stan?”
“Yeah?”
“I need to go out. To get a phone. I broke mine.”
“Okay. Do you want me to come with you?”
“Yes, please.” Ben sounded relieved. At least part of that was likely because he didn’t have to ask. Stan had offered.
“I don’t know how this works,” Stan admitted. “Do you want to try and recover your old phone number and all your stuff?”
“No,” Ben said immediately. “No, there’s people on my contacts list that….”
He trailed off, and Stan got it.
“Starting over, then.”
“Yeah. That would be good.”
“Give me maybe half an hour, and I’ll be ready,” Stan said. Ben nodded and disappeared back to his room to put proper clothes on.
Stan had dressed that morning in skinny jeans, rolled up at the ankle, and a loose T-shirt that cut off at his midriff. All the rest of his clothes were in Tone’s room, and he wasn’t about to disturb Tone while he was sleeping, so it would have to do. This had become something of his standard summer outfit over the past few weeks, uninspired as it was. He definitely needed more clothes if he was going to start meeting with fashion publications in London.
Stan brushed his hair and found his huge, bug-eyed sunglasses, and left them perched on his head while he quickly researched phone shops in the area. Ideally he wanted somewhere they could get in and out quickly, without people paying them much attention. Even better would be somewhere that would close for an hour while Ben got what he needed, but Stan had no idea how to even set that up.
Dealing with Ben now was definitely different to dealing with Ben before.
Despite the warmth of the day outside, Ben came out of his room wearing a black hoodie with the hood up, to go with his black jeans and black trainers. He looked like a moody goth teenager. Stan decided not to tell him that.
“Any idea on where you want to go?” Stan asked as he let them out of the flat and locked the door behind them. He’d left a note on the kitchen counter telling Tone what was going on.
“Doesn’t matter. We don’t have to go to the Apple store or anything.”
“There’s a phone shop on the high street, but it’s going to be crowded out there,” Stan said. “I thought we could get a car and go somewhere that’s probably going to be quieter.”
“Like where?”
Stan shrugged. “We can ask the driver.”
“Yeah. Alright.”
He sounded like a moody teenager too, and Stan actually did want to pass that message on. Instead of winding Ben up, like he would have done before, he pulled up the app on his phone and flagged a car.
It had pulled up outside by the time they got downstairs. Getting a cab in London now was a hell of a lot easier than it used to be.
Stan explained what they wanted, and the driver didn’t seem to think their request strange at all. That, or he didn’t care, as he took them north out of Camden and into a much quieter high street in a mostly residential area.
“Thank you,” Stan said gratefully as he ushered Ben out of the cab.
They were the only people in the shop, apart from two guys who looked immensely bored. Of the two, one’s eyes widened when they caught sight of Ben. Stan walked up to the other.
“We need to buy a phone,” he said frankly.
“Sure. What do you want?”
Stan looked over at Ben. “What do you want?”
“Just… give me the latest iPhone. Or whatever.”
“Sure. You want to get that on a payment plan?”
“No. I’ll pay cash.”
“What colour do you want?”
Stan gently ushered Ben into a seat before he could explode. “It doesn’t matter,” he said to the phone shop guy, offering him a winning smile.
Stan could see the other guy furiously texting on his own phone, and stared him down when it became clear he was trying to take a photo of Ben without them noticing. Stan could glare daggers with the best of them. The guy looked suitably cowed.
It didn’t take long to get the phone, and Ben wanted them to set it all up so he didn’t have to bother, so Stan played the part of bored girlfriend while all that was happening. He was good at that. He’d had plenty of practice.
Thankfully, a much, much older man came into the shop to ask a question about his frankly ancient phone, which distracted the guy who did know who Ben was for long enough that Stan was sure they weren’t going to walk outside to hoards that had gathered because of a tweet.
Ben was shaking a little when they got outside, his phone tucked safely in the pocket of his jeans. Stan had put all the packaging and stuff in his bag, for safe keeping, because he was pretty sure Ben was going to leave it behind otherwise.
“Do you want to go for a walk?” he asked. “We’re not far from Hampstead Heath.”
“Can we get something to eat on the way? I’m fucking starving.”
“Of course.”
Stan followed the map on his phone, and they stumbled across a little deli selling sandwiches and pasties and sausage rolls. Ben ordered one of each. Stan just got a sandwich.
Ben’s appetite had come back full-force, and he wasn’t eating just vegan food anymore. Stan had ordered him some protein shakes off the internet, because he was still looking incredibly unhealthy even though he was starting to put weight on again. That, and it was hard to keep up with the amount of food he and Tone could put away.