Friends With Benefits

Everyone finished their shopping and we all gathered back at the fountain in the mall to wait for Will and Natalie to finish up. When, after fifteen minutes, Will hadn’t shown up, Fletch called him to find out Will and Natalie had already left the mall to meet up with some of her friends to get together and get dressed before their friend’s birthday party that night. Sasha, from what Will understood, was a semi-popular sophomore like Natalie.

“Well, they’re already getting ready for that party and we’re not allowed to come,” Fletch told us once he hung up the phone.

“Will told us we shouldn’t come?” Chuck snorted.

“No, Natalie was in the background whining about how he couldn’t let his lame friends come and ruin their killer party,” Fletch rolled his eyes.

“They’re all fifteen, it’s parentally supervised, and they’re holding it at the roller rink,” Eric snorted. “How out of control could it get?”

“We should crash just to show her,” Chuck nodded.

“And not because you want some stupid sophomore tail?” Fletch snorted.

“Well, it’s too early to get supper…” Sara began.

“Doesn’t this piss anyone else off?” I grimaced. “This is probably the hundredth time Will has ditched us over the summer for her. We’re supposed to be his friends and he promised us that he would be here this time. Why aren’t you guys mad?”

“Newsflash, Iverson,” Chuck snorted. “Will always ditches his friends for girls.”

“I’m a girl!” I hissed.

“Yes, but you’re like a sister to him,” Chuck shrugged.

I cringed at the awful memory.

In eighth grade I came the closest I ever did to confessing my true feelings to Will. My parents got the pathetic idea to throw me a big birthday bash in the backyard, somehow thinking that I was popular or something. They were pretty surprised when the only people who showed up were Will, Sara, the pretty much anti-social Chuck, and Fletch who insisted he was only there because his parents made him come. Even though I knew no one would really come, I was still pretty devastated at how unpopular I was and how my parents finally realized their daughter was the school freak. I had fled to the bathroom sighting stomach cramps so I could cry in peace. When I emerged, Will was standing there waiting for me.

“You shouldn’t let all the dumb kids at school get you down, Ailee,” Will smiled. He was the only person allowed to call me that. “Personally, I think this is the coolest birthday party ever.”

“No, it’s pretty lame,” I laughed. “But I’m glad you came. And not just because your parents made you or something stupid like that.”

“I wanted to come,” Will said warmly. “You know I’ll always be there for you.”

“Yeah?” I said, my heart starting to flutter.

“Yeah, Ailee,” Will said, wrapping me in a warm hug. “You know I love you like a sister…”

My entire world just about came crashing down and I tried not to burst into tears again as Will led me back to where my parents were getting my cake ready. I sighed, coming back to reality while everyone else continued to bicker about what we should do now that Will had shot our plans to hell. Chuck announced he needed to get home to clean his room before he got grounded. There was no way Fletch would ever allow Chuck in his car, so Sara and Eric took him home before he and Sara went out to the movies that evening. I didn’t want to go home and so I found myself hitching a ride with Fletch until we could find something to do.

“This town is so lame,” I sighed after Fletch had shot down my third or fourth suggestion.

“We could go back to my place and watch a movie,” Fletch suggested. I grimaced knowing that was code for “so we can make out more.”

“Nah,” I frowned.

“Your place then?” Fletch said. I sighed, knowing that there was only one thing on Fletch’s mind at that moment in time. I decided that now was the time Fletch and I had “the talk.”

“Fletch…” I sighed. “We have to…”

“Let’s go to the lake,” Fletch suggested.

“Why would we want to go to the lake?” I scoffed.

“I dunno,” Fletch said. “It’s sort of our last chance before school starts, I guess.”

“No it isn’t,” I snorted. “Remember? We’re all supposed to be having that picnic there Saturday afternoon?”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean we can’t go now,” Fletch suggested.

“I don’t have a bathing suit with me,” I replied. “What could we possibly do other than sit around and get sunburn? People like you and me don’t tan, Fletch.”

“Fine. Let’s just go back to my place and watch a movie then,” Fletch rolled his eyes.

“Where are your parents anyway?” I grimaced.

“They’re picking Kristy up from Day Camp,” Fletch replied. “They won’t be home until late.”

Fletch’s parents both worked, so they were rarely ever home. Occasionally, his thirteen-year-old sister would burst in on the two of us kissing and she would always want to know if we were boyfriend and girlfriend yet. Fletch and I would both then pull disgusted faces and I would demand to be taken home. I grimaced, trying to think of a good way to approach having “the talk” with Fletch. Before I knew it, Fletch had parked his car in the driveway and I was following him up the pathway to his house.

“You care for anything particular or you just wanna pop something in?” Fletch asked.

I shrugged and he put in some lame movie everyone had seen a thousand times and could quote every word to. I knew this was another step on his whole get Aileen to make out with me plan so I took a seat on the chair rather than next to him on the sofa, hoping he would get the memo. He looked at me oddly when I chose to sit as far away from him as I could rather than sitting on one end of the couch so he could slowly creep over toward me.

“What?” I glared at him.

“That chair is really uncomfortable,” Fletch shrugged.

“I think its fine,” I said, not falling for his tricks. Fletch shrugged and then leaned up against the back of the couch. Within a few minutes, a coil that had sprung in the chair was digging into my back so harshly, I had no choice but to move to the couch. Fletch smirked at me.

“Told you it was a bad chair,” Fletch grinned.

“Shut up,” I hissed at him, doing my best to feign interested into the incredibly boring movie.

Fletch was quiet for a few more minutes before I noticed him gradually inching over toward me. I crossed my arms over my chest, doing my best to be standoffish and act not at all interested in him. I wasn’t remotely attracted to Fletch in theory, but when my raging teenage hormones got the best of me, I sometimes let things get out of control. It didn’t help when Fletch started to kiss me that I would close my eyes and imagine for the moment that it was Will pressing his lips against mine. I had more than once uttered out Will’s name as Fletch was running his hands over me, which didn’t seem to please Fletch at all. Still, it never stopped him from touching or kissing me.

That led me to thinking about Will and Natalie and how I wished Will would stop playing his little games and dump her already. I knew Will wasn’t exactly the best of people, dating girls based on their looks and dumping them after they’d given it up to him, but I knew I was the girl who could change that. He didn’t look at me in the same way he did all of the bimbos he dated. Any relationship between Will and I would be based on more than just the physical. We talked. We had common interests, friends, and viewpoints. Will and I were made for each other and it frustrated me that he couldn’t seem to see that. I didn’t understand what the big deal was about what this girls could give him physically anyway. My relationship with Fletch was purely physical and all of the sneaking around, complications, and the fact that I didn’t exactly feel attracted to Fletch as a person just caused a headache. I was so busy thinking about Will that it took me a few seconds before I realized Fletch had latched his lips onto my neck like a leech.

“Seriously,” I said in annoyance, shoving him away from me, “I’m trying to watch the movie!”

“You hate this movie,” Fletch pointed out. “And you’ve seen it a million times.”

“Maybe I’ve changed my mind about it,” I snorted. “Maybe I want to see it again to see if my opinion changes.”

“Bullshit,” Fletch snorted.

“You’re bullshit,” I replied. “Now, let me watch.”

“Come on,” Fletch pouted, again pressing his lips against my neck. This time, it was delicate and he placed a short kiss every few inches from my ear lobe down to my collar bone.

“Fletch,” I grimaced, shoving him away from me.

“What’s wrong into you?” Fletch muttered in frustration.

“What’s wrong with me?” I snorted. “You’re the one with the problem!”

“What problem?” Fletch hissed.

“For starters,” I said, gesturing to his pants, “you need to take a cold shower.”

“Shut up,” Fletch glowered before leaning back toward me.

“What the hell are you doing?” I scowled at him.

“What’s gotten into you?” Fletch moaned. “You’re fine before we go to the mall and then we come back and suddenly you’re the Super Ice Bitch.”

“Then maybe you should take me home so I can thaw out,” I glared.

“I think you’d thaw out faster if you walked,” Fletch shot back. It was a three block walk away, not too awful long but still further than I’d like to walk on a hot summer afternoon.

“Maybe I will,” I said. Fletch looked a little stunned, as if he had counted on me to take him up on his offer.

“You’ve got all those heavy bags of stuff you bought at the mall to carry home,” Fletch pointed out.

“I can manage,” I snorted, standing up to grab my shoes.

“Fine. I’ll take you,” Fletch growled, getting up from the couch.

“I don’t want you to take me home,” I shouted at him.

“Tough shit,” Fletch shouted back. “Because I’m doing it.”

“No you aren’t!” I glared before rushing out toward his car.

Before I could reach the car, however, Fletch had jumped in the driver’s seat and revved up the engine. He started to back the car away from me as I headed for the trunk. Fletch maneuvered the car and I gave up. I wasn’t about to let him run over me over a stupid argument. It would have been priceless to see Fletch go to jail or something for vehicular manslaughter, but I still had enough things I wanted to do in my life, I decided it wasn’t worth it. I hopped into the passenger seat and let Fletch drive, still pretty pissed at him.

“Dammit Aileen,” Fletch growled as he backed the car out of the driveway.

“What?” I snarled.

“What the hell is wrong with you? Running out in front of a moving car like that?” Fletch grumbled. “I could have hit you!”

“Good. Maybe they would have thrown you in jail for it,” I hissed at him.

“I’m sure you would have had fun explaining to people what you were doing over at my place,” Fletch snorted.

“Oh, don’t act like you’re A-Okay with being seen with me either,” I snorted. “You jumped into a rose bush so all of your nimrod senior friends wouldn’t see the two of us together.”

“To be fair, I didn’t realize it had thorns,” Fletch snorted.

“You’re an idiot if you don’t think that rose bushes have thorns,” I replied.

“I thought people only grew thornless varieties now,” Fletch rolled his eyes. “Only idiots grow flowers that have razor blades growing out of them!”

“You’re an idiot,” I glared as he rolled to a stop in front of my house.

“Whatever,” Fletch snorted.

I hopped out of the car and went around to the trunk to get my stuff. I glowered as Fletch hopped out as well to help me, even though he had popped the trunk and I could have just grabbed my stuff and headed inside. Fletch made a big production of hanging me each and every bag out of the back until I elbowed him in the solar plexus, grabbing my bags and rushing into the house. I threw my bags on the floor and hid behind the blinds in my bedroom until I heard the engine rev up and Fletch speed away. With a sigh, I leaned back against my bed, relieved Fletch was finally gone. Of course, I couldn’t be alone for long as my brother entered the room. College didn’t start for Matt for another three weeks and, since he had just woken up, he decided to stumble into my room as bother me.

“Did you have another fight with your boyfriend?” Matt smirked.

“Fletch isn’t my boyfriend,” I hissed. “He’s a slimy, disgusting bottom-feeding soul sucker who will hopefully choke to death during supper tonight.”

“If you hate this guy, why do you spend so much time with him?” Matt pointed out.

“Because Will is always hanging out with his girlfriend, Sara is always hanging out with her boyfriend, and Fletch is, unfortunately, the lesser of two evils,” I snorted.

“Who’s the other evil?” Matt asked.

“Chuck Fink,” I grimaced.

“That little weasel’s still running around?” Matt said, surprised. “He must have gotten better at avoiding bullies since you guys were freshmen.”

“Guess so,” I sighed.

“Anyway,” Matt said, “Mom wants you to know we’re going out to eat tonight so you need to be ready by five.”

“Thanks,” I grimaced before Matt slammed my door and muddled is way downstairs. I started to put away the things I had bought at the mall earlier only for my phone to ring and distract me. It was Sara and I flipped the phone open, hoping she had heard gossip that Will and Natalie had broken up.

“Did you talk to him?” Sara asked immediately.

“Talk to who?” I said, confused.

“Fletch,” she replied, annoyed.

“Uh… no… I mean, it’s not like I didn’t try…” I began.

“You didn’t end up making out with him again, did you?” Sara groaned.

“No!” I said, frustrated. “I tried to talk to him. I really did. He started to try and kiss me and I told him to stop, but before I could talk to him, we got into this huge fight and then he basically forced me into his car and took me home. Honestly, I don’t really care if I ever see that asshole again.”

“You’ve got to talk with him, Lenny,” Sara said. “You can’t let things keep going on like this.

“I know,” I sighed, “but there’s never a good moment…”

“It’s not a happy subject to bring up, so of course there isn’t going to be a good moment,” Sara replied. “You need to do this before school starts.”

“Fletch is my ride to school,” I grimaced.

“Eric can take you,” Sara shrugged.

“So I can ride to school next to Chuck Fink? I don’t think so,” I snorted. “And don’t suggest Will either because I can’t deal with him and Natalie putting their hands all over each other while I sit alone in the backseat.”

“You can’t keep using Fletcher as your means of escaping from your problems,” Sara insisted. “It’s just going to get you in trouble.”

“I know,” I sighed. “You for once, just once, I wish a guy would notice me who isn’t a jerk like Fletch or Chuck Fink. It doesn’t even have to be Will. Just someone who isn’t a complete tool.”

“It’ll work out,” Sara replied. I nodded and said goodbye to Sara, though I seriously doubted things would be fine like she seemed to think.