Friends With Benefits

Fletch basically hogged Will the entire time the three of us were in the mall. I honestly felt like the third wheel to the little bromance they had going on. If it had been Fletch and another person or Will and another person, I might have thought the whole buddy-buddy thing was a little cute or endearing, but the fact that Fletch seemed almost bent on stealing all of Will’s attention away from me frustrated me to no end. We ended up grabbing dinner together at the food court around four that afternoon and, for the first time, I actually managed to be alone with Will while Fletch waited on his very specific sub sandwich order to be finished.

“Has Fletch been like this a lot lately?” Will asked me curiously.

“Like what?” I asked. “A total douche? Yeah.”

“No, I mean… clingy…” Will shrugged.

“He’s used to you hanging around a girlfriend constantly,” I replied. “I guess he feels like he has to make the most of his time with you before you stop being our friend in order to be someone else’s girlfriend. I mean, you do tend to abandon us when you start dating someone. And it’s not like the three of us have just hung out since… gosh, spring I guess…”

“It has been a while,” Will frowned.

“And yeah, I think he has been overly clingy lately,” I said. “What with kidnapping me this morning. Apparently, Fletch can’t stand to eat alone. Isn’t that weird?”

“He’s a pretty weird guy, Ailee,” Will smirked. “You’ve said so several times yourself before…”

“True,” I nodded. “However, I think it would be good if we left him on his own every once in a while. You know, teach him how to fend for himself…”

“He’s not a dog,” Will laughed.

“He certainly acts like one,” I scoffed.

“I was thinking about inviting him over to my place again tonight, you know, play video games and do man stuff,” Will mused.

“Man stuff? I guess I’m not invited then,” I faked pouted.

“Well, Fletch is a lot more needy than you are, Ailee,” Will shrugged. “And I was thinking about going to this college party with a few of the guys from the team, but based on how he acted last night, I’m not about to invite Fletch out again only to help him stumble home drunk…”

“I bet you didn’t even consider invited me,” I snorted.

“That would be a fun evening,” Will snorted. “Dividing up my time between stopping Fletch from drinking and helping you fight off perverts because you came dressed like jailbait again.”

“Well, maybe it’s not fun for you when people flirt with me,” I replied, sticking my chin in the air slightly.

“Come on, you know you’d never forgive me if I let some loser like Lucas Garretson molest you or something,” Will rolled his eyes.

“It’s not molestation if you want it,” I retorted. Will looked at me stunned for a moment as Fletch slammed his tray down, making sure to get between Will and I as much as possible.

“That was a long ass line,” Fletch pronounced.

“Probably made longer by the idiot up at the front who couldn’t make up his mind about what color combination of peppers he wanted on his sandwich,” I snorted.

“Bite me,” Fletch hissed.

“You’d probably like it,” I growled back.

Fletch looked at me with a suggestive smirk and I instantly regretted what I had said. Will attempted to laugh off the awkward tension between the three of us, and I hoped he would never, ever find out that Fletch did sort of like to be nibbled at during certain occasions. I definitely hoped Will never, ever found out that I was the one who helped Fletch discover this fact for himself. I knew that I had to change the subject before things got even weirder.

“I’d seriously like to go, though,” I said to Will.

“What? To the party?” Will frowned. “I dunno…”

“I never get invited to anything Will, and you always do,” I sighed. “They’d probably kick me out if I showed up alone.”

“Or molest you,” Will pointed out.

“Who’d be dumb enough to molest Lenny?” Fletch snorted. “She’d probably give them sores anyhow…”

“Fletch, that sort of crossed a line,” Will informed him sternly. Fletch rolled his eyes and launched into his sandwich.

“See what I mean?” I sighed, dramatically flopping back in my chair.

“How about you just hang out and play video games with us tonight?” Will suggested.

“We’re playing video games tonight?” Will said, confused.

“Apparently, Will never got around to inviting you,” I snorted. “And what happened to ‘man stuff’?”

“Don’t worry, Lenny,” Fletch said. “I think you’re rather manly.”

“Shut it, Fletch,” I hissed at him.

“I’m surprised you didn’t invite Lenny right off the bat,” Fletch said to Will. “She is one of the guys, after all.” I grimaced at Fletch. The last thing I wanted Will to think about me was that I was only “another one of the guys.”

“Come on, Lenny,” Will pouted at me. “You don’t want to go to some lame party with a bunch of dumb people. You know you want to help me team up on Fletch and frag him during Call of Duty. Pretty, pretty please?”

“Alright,” I surrendered, “but only because you asked so nicely.” Will positively beamed at me while Fletch gave me the most disgusted look his face could muster.

We finally left the mall after Will bought a couple new shirts, I splurged on a dress or two I was certain would make Will notice me, and Fletch bought one of those fart machines from the joke store. Poor Will had to referee the two of us since Fletch also picked up some anti-Bitch pills from the joke store, claiming he had picked up my prescription. Once Will explained the joke to the mall cop, we were free to continue walking through the parking lot. I got into Will’s car and Fletch got into his own as we all drove to meet up at Will’s house to hang out.

I was glad for again being alone in the car with Will since it gave us some time to be together without Fletch’s constant interruptions. I had been friends with Will the longest so I undoubtedly was closer to him that Fletch was regarding most things, something I was certain Fletch was a little jealous of. I know he didn’t like it that I was mostly likely the better friend to Will since I had known Will longer and that Will and I forever would have intimate secrets of memories we shared during childhood, things Fletch could never understand. Even though it was a pleasant ride back to Will’s place, reality soon struck in the form of Fletch. Will and I headed into the house to find Fletch already waiting for us. It didn’t help that, right after we settled in, Will’s mother called for him, leaving Fletch and I alone in Will’s room.

“Did you have fun watching Will run around all sweaty? How many other girls did you have to push through before you got a moment alone with him?” Fletch asked me in rapid-fire succession as soon as Will left the two of us alone. “Does he realize you two are soulmates now or does he still need more time?”

“Can it,” I hissed at him.

“What? Upset that things with Will aren’t instantly falling together now that he’s broken up with another bimbo?” Fletch snorted.

“You know, things like this are why I hate your guts,” I snorted.

“You didn’t hate my guts so much yesterday night,” Fletch shot back.

“What part of shoving you away from me and telling you to leave me alone even remotely suggests I didn’t mind you basically assaulting me?” I snorted.

“So, when you’re all sprawled out and moaning on my couch or in the backset of my car or on my bed, I’m assaulting you?” Fletch scoffed.

“I am warning you Fletcher Murphy,” I hissed at him.

“Warning me of what?” Fletch demanded to know, standing up and getting right in my face. “That you get all hot and bothered when I kiss you or that you love it when I run my hands up and down your side, underneath your shirt, or that I know the right way to tug on your bottom lip to make you crazy?”

“So help me…” I began.

“It’s a good thing you’re only in this for the experience,” Fletch informed me. “You know, trying to get in some practice so you don’t flop like a cold fish all over Will if he ever ‘comes to his senses’ or whatever it is you think he needs to do. Of course, if there were anything to notice about you, don’t you think he would have noticed it by now? I mean, you said so yourself, no one notices you. Maybe they’re not as dumb as you think they are…”

“What are you getting at Fletch?” I hissed at him, furiously.

Instead of responding, Fletch leaned forward and did everything he had just been talking about. He tugged on my lip with his own in just the right way and slid his hands up under my shirt and against the bare skin of my side to make my spine tingle and my hair stand on edge. He dove his tongue into my mouth and massaged it until my skin prickled with goosebumps. I almost didn’t care that we were in the middle of Will’s room and he could walk in on us at any second. Before I could shove him away and curtly remind him it was Will I would always love, Fletch shoved me away. I glared at him angrily. I was always the one to end things. Fletch never, ever had shoved me off of him before.

“You know, Aileen,” Fletch said, looking away from me and then slowly turning his face so his eyes met my own, “there really is a reason why Will isn’t interested in you. I mean, I don’t even have to put up with you like I do. In truth, being with you is a poor substitute for all the tail I can get just hanging around Will…”

I wasn’t sure why what Fletch said set me off, other than he basically called me sloppy seconds and a bad kisser, but he infuriated me deep down to a core, creating a fury I didn’t even know was inside myself. I reared back and punched him as hard as I could in the face. The impact sent him stumbling backward onto the couch in Will’s room. Will himself opened the door, returning to this room, just in time to see Fletch holding his mouth and nose. My fist had hit at such an impact I had not only started a nosebleed but made Fletch’s teeth cut the inside of his mouth. Blood was slowly trickling out of his mouth and nose and between the cracks in his fingers as he clutched his face.

“Dude, what did you do to Ailee?” Will demanded to know.

Fletch remained silently, seemingly surprised that I could hit with such force.

Mortified and upset, I rushed past Will, out of his room, out of his house, and didn’t stop until I was safely cocooned in the covers of my own bed across the street. A part of me was upset that I had hurt Fletch while most of me was just generally upset in the way Fletch had hurt me. Though I knew it was most likely Fletch’s own warped way of teasing, it bothered me that what he said might be true. I had been stomaching the pain of Will’s disinterest in me for years and had built up walls to protect me from any and all rejection he offered. However, I hadn’t had time to build up those protective walls, let alone contemplate, how I would react upon finding out the male species in general was disinterred in me.

For months now, I thought I had some sort of power over Fletch. It was like I was some almighty love goddess and Fletch was my devoted supplicant, bending, kneeling, and doing whatever I ordered him, despite my cold, unforgiving, temperamental and often fickle ways. It made me feel good to have some sort of power over him, knowing I could turn a guy on and off so quickly, that he sought me out as some sort of release for all of his hormonal tensions. Unlike the situation with Will, I felt in control of how things were between Fletch and I, capable of reeling in my emotions and keeping myself in check. It was a controlled situation within my generally uncontrollable, unmanageable love life.

But things were wrong now. Fletch had hurt me in such a way that ruined that sense of power I had over him. He had single-handedly turned me from a goddess into a mortal. Knocking me off my pedestal had been his aim. I wasn’t sure if Fletch was trying to level the playing field, bring me down to earth, or just cause me to have the same level of torture and pain with him I already experienced after years of seeing Will with other girls. I wanted to crawl up into a ball and die, and this time it wasn’t because of something Will had done.

This time, it was all because of Fletcher Murphy.