Ben watched as Mike left the bunker first. Then Bill had to leave, giving Ben a perfect opportunity to talk to Bev without being interrupted.

"Ar-are you c-coming with m-me, Bev?" Bill asked. Bev stood up to meet his eyes.

"No, I'm gonna stay here and talk to Eddie for a bit."

"Okay," Bill leaned over and kissed Beverly on the cheek. Bev smiled her sweet smile she always does whenever she's around Bill. That's different from the one I see when she's around me. Ben thought. He turned away ashamed he had fallen for one of his best friend's girlfriends. "I love you."

"I love you, too, dork." Bev said as she waved goodbye to her boyfriend. Ben winced at the words and noticed that Stanley did the same.

"I think I'm gonna head out, too." Ben said as he slowly got up from his seat. "You coming, Stan?"

"Sure." Stan shrugged. "Bye, guys."

"Bye." Eddie and Bev said in unison. They climbed up the ladder and grabbed their bikes. They started walking out of the forest, both silent for a while.

"You like Bev don't you." Stan said, never turning to face Ben. Ben, however, whipped his head around to see Stanley.

"I-" Ben started to protest, but saw no point in it. "How did you know?"

"I have my ways. But I know how you feel."

"What do you mean?"

Stan walked in front of him and turned around to face him. "I like Bill, Haystack."

Ben was not as surprised as he thought he would be. "Wow. So we both like people we can't have?"

"Yep. And that's what makes us losers I'm afraid." The pair laughed and walked home, pleased with how close they became to each other in that moment. Suddenly, Ben felt like he was no longer alone.

a/n: again, sorry for this being such a short chapter. the reasons were explained in the last episode :)