Friends With Benefits

Since Will’s birthday was going to be on a Monday, his parents were holding his party for him the following Saturday, giving me a week to wrap and prepare my present. Will wasn’t like many of the popular kids who had a huge rager with his parents staying out of his hair on his birthday. Instead, he always had a simple afternoon backyard bash with cake, hanging out in his backyard listening to music, and the occasional water balloon fight. Unlike everyone else in the popular clique, Will’s parties were also rather small. It usually consisted of me, Fletch, Eric, Sara, Chuck, and whatever girl Will was dating as well as two or three of his football teammates and their girlfriends. However, since Lee, Jason, and Keith were dating Will’s ex-girlfriends Kelly, Heather and Jean respectively, none of them had showed up. I had been terrified Will would have some new girlfriend to taunt me with at his birthday party after his break up with Natalie, but so far, it seemed he would be flying solo.

Like we had done every year, my parents and I arrived early to help Will and his parents set up for the party. Matt was home from college that weekend and we had dragged him along, though secretly I knew Matt always enjoyed these family outings. While I helped Mom and Mrs. Swain hang up decorations in the backyard, Matt and Will were given the task of setting up tables and chairs for everyone to eat on. My dad and Mr. Swain were overseeing the grill. It was an especially warm day for November, but Will had always been rather lucky and this was just another example of how everything usually worked out in Will’s favor.

The party was scheduled to start at one, but everyone showed up around twelve forty-five that afternoon. Eric brought Chuck along with him while Sara came with her parents and her sister Lola, who was also home from college for the weekend. Fletch came last with his parents and Kristy in tow. While the parents congregated on one side of the yard, the kids congregated on another. Matt was busy flirting with Lola, who seemed oblivious to him, while Kristy sat angrily in a wicker chair, annoyed she was the only person of her age there. The rest of us gathered around Will, congratulating him on turning seventeen.

Soon, his parents brought out the cake and we were all spread throughout the yard eating our cake slices and the burgers from the Swain’s grill. Will was joking with Chuck while Sara and Eric flirted with each other, feeding the other one bits of cake. I ended up sitting between Will and Fletch, trying to avoid Fletch and garner Will’s attention. Will did pay some attention to me, but he seemed to be under a directive from his parents to make sure Chuck and a good time and felt included.

Following the meal, it was time for Will to open his presents. He got a couple of CDs, clothes, and some movies he wanted from his parents while my parents had gotten him just a movie. Sara and Eric had gone in together to buy him a video game he wanted while Chuck had bought Will a new Xbox controller. I hardly thought this was fair since Chuck was the one who had broken the old controller several months beforehand. Will even politely accepted Fletch’s gift, even though the CD he had bought was from the discount rack and over a year old, not to mention the black fuzzy dice were butt-ugly and I could never see Will putting them in his car. Will saved my present for last and I tried not to seem too giddy as he opened it.

“Wow, Ailee,” Will said, sounding genuinely stunned. “This is… this is great!” He proceeded to go on and on about the features while Eric, Chuck, and even his dad stood around him, impressed at all the watch could do.

“Look! It even tells time!” Eric joked. I smiled triumphantly as everyone continued to fawn over my present while Fletch looked at me, slightly disgusted.

“Fine, so he likes it,” Fletch grimaced.

“Much more than your fuzzy dice,” I smirked. “And my gift is actually useful…”

“Whatever, Aileen, it wasn’t a contest,” Fletch snorted. He opened his mouth as if to continue, just in time for Will to break away from the crowd and approach me.

“This is seriously awesome, Ailee,” Will told me, having the watch firmly attached to his wrist. “You didn’t have to spend all of that money, though…”

“It was on sale,” I shrugged. “Besides, it was the only gift that really stood out to me and I wanted to get you something you’d really appreciate.”

“Well, you hit the nail on the head,” Will grinned. “Really, Ailee, you out did yourself this year.”

“Then you’re just going to have to get me something especially great on my birthday,” I smirked.

Will laughed before throwing his arms around me tightly, giving me a sound hug. I loved the smell of Will’s cologne and the musky scent he just naturally had just as much as I loved how our bodies were touching, brushing up against each other. It felt right being held so close to him and I could only close my eyes and imagine the day when Will affectionately swept me into his arms, kissing me deeply, and murmuring words of deep love and absolute devotion in my ear. However, my imagining was interrupted as Fletch made a noise that sounded like a part cough, part gag, part yodel from deep in his throat, causing Will and I to part and look at him in confusion.

“Did you get a hair ball or something?” Will teased him. Fletch rolled his eyes and then proceeded to make some excuse to get away from the both of us. Will looked at me quizzically, as if I knew what the reason was behind Fletch’s odd behavior.

“I think Fletch has like PMS or something,” I grimaced.

“Tell me about it,” Will nodded. “He’s been moody all day, hasn’t he?”

“He’s been moody since we met him,” I pointed out.

“Maybe you should go talk to him,” Will suggested.

“Why should I talk to him? You know Fletch and I don’t get along,” I snorted. “If anything, I’ll make him worse. You should go talk to him. Or better yet, we should ignore him until he decides to be sociable.”

“Yeah, but Fletch always seems entertained after verbally sparring with you,” Will shrugged. “It’s like getting chewed out gets him off or something…”

“That is one hundred percent disgusting, Will,” I grimaced.

“Okay, maybe saying it gets him off wasn’t the best way to phrase that…” Will began.

“So, the package said your watch had this thing called a chronograph… how does that work?” I asked him. Will proudly showed off all of the functions of his watch to me, allowing both of us to avoid Fletch for a good portion of the afternoon.

When the evening rolled around, all of us went off to treat Will to a birthday movie, an action flick he had wanted to see for a while. Chuck piled into the car with Eric and Sara while I got in the passenger seat of Will’s car with Fletch grumbling and wiggling around in the backseat the entire ride there. When we got to the theater, we made Chuck sit in an aisle seat so no one besides Eric would have to sit next to him. Sara took the next seat, followed by Will, followed by Fletch, followed by me. I was rather engrossed in the movie, particularly the handsome lead actor, until I felt something brushing up against me during the midway part of the movie.

I looked around, finding Chuck was trying to flirt with the totally uninterested girls in the row in front of us, Sara and Eric were having an oddly-gropey cuddly time, and Will was focused on the flickering screen before us. I looked down at my lap to find a hand slowly siding up my thigh and I didn’t even have to look over to my right to know who the adventurous fingers belonged to. However, when I did glance to the side, I found Fletch acting thoroughly engrossed in the movie as his hands kept on with their ministrations, sliding further and further up the outline of my thigh. Just right when a huge explosion happened in the movie, I gave Fletch’s hand a hard and furious slap that was luckily covered up by the surround sound.

Fletch seemed to get the message and refrained from feeling me up through the rest of the movie, and I tried to act like nothing had happened so I wouldn’t get another lecture from Sara about either ending things with Fletch or setting up an official relationship with him. After the movie, Eric took Chuck home so he and Sara could get in some more quality make-out time, leaving Will, Fletch, and I standing in the parking lot of the movie theater. As if there wasn’t already a serious amount of tension between Fletch and myself, he had to go and make it worse.

“So, none of your football buddies are throwing you an all-night rager?” Fletch asked him curiously.

“They offered, but I didn’t want that,” Will shrugged. “I mean, you guys are here to celebrate my birthday, not because you want to get drunk. That means more.”

“I’m surprised,” Fletch admitted. “Even Chuck had a big blow out.” Fletch threw me a surreptitious glance, as if trying to remind me of what important event had happened during that ill-fated birthday party.

“No offense to Chuck, but having alcohol at his party was the only reason anyone went,” Will pointed out. Fletch shrugged and I really wanted to get out of the uncomfortable situation as quickly as I possibly could.

“You wanna head back and play video games or something?” I suggested to them.

“Actually, I’m pretty tired,” Will admitted, “and even though I’m the birthday boy today, my parents still want me to clean out the gutters tomorrow, so I need all the rest I can get…”

“I’ve got plenty of time,” Fletch said. “You can drop Lenny off at my place and I can take her home after that…”

“That’s okay,” I intervened quickly. “I’d probably have to tell my parents before heading too far from home after this, and I know they want me to spend time with Matt while he’s home…”

“Matt’s probably trying to spend time with Sara’s sister, so I doubt he’ll even be there,” Fletch pointed out.

“You can just call your parents, Ailee,” Will agreed. I’m sure they’ll be fine…”

“I forgot my phone,” I lied.

“You can use mine, then,” Will said, digging his phone out of his pocket and presenting it to me.

I sighed, taking Will’s phone and calling my mother. For the duration of the call, I had my fingers crossed, silently begging she would just say no. Unfortunately, Fletch was right about Matt trying to get with Sara’s sister and, as a result, my parents thought the were going to have a nice quiet evening at home. My mother went so far to encourage me to spend time out with my friends and kept incessantly jabbering on about how “nice and sweet” Fletch is. Ready to throw up, I finally said goodbye and then begrudgingly admitted to Will and Fletch that my parents had nothing against me continuing to hang out with Fletch after Will went home.

With the planned agreed upon, Will dropped Fletch and I off at his house and then headed home. Once Fletch and I were alone, I felt extremely uncomfortable. We had been going a lot further with our physical relationship than I had anticipated when things first started out between us and I had every indication that Fletch only wanted to push things further between us. However, I wasn’t willingly to fully and entirely give myself up to a guy I most definitely wasn’t in love with. Fletch didn’t make my insides gooey like the sight of Will did, though my body did naturally seem to respond when Fletch stimulated it physically.

Since we had just been to the movies, Fletch couldn’t set up the usual guise of the two of us watching a movie together in his family’s TV room. Instead, he cleverly crafted the excuse of plyaing video games together as the reason why he and I needed to be left completely unattended and alone in his room. I was in a state of panic, trying to figure out a way to get myself out of the awkward situation I had gotten myself into, when Fletch’s sister unexpectedly afforded me an out.

“You never want to play anything with me,” Kristy pouted.

“I wonder why that is,” Fletch snorted, rolling his eyes.

“Kristy,” Fletch’s mother cautioned her, “Your brother has a friend over. You need to be polite because Aileen is our guest.”

“She can play with us,” I blurted out. “It’s not like we’ll be playing anything violent anyway. Besides, I know what it’s like to be the little sister and not feel included…”

“Look, Lenny, just because she’s going to throw a temper tantrum…” Fletch began.

“I get the red controller!” Kristy whooped before rushing up to Fletch’s room. Fletch looked at me, positively annoyed that I’d given his sister free access to his room.

“You need to be nicer to your little sister,” I said to Fletch triumphantly. “After all, I always felt hurt when Matt didn’t want to include me.”

“Like Matt had friends,” Fletch scoffed before trudging up the stairs behind me.

I ended up having a great time with Kristy and the two of us teamed up against Fletch, who was positively furious. I wasn’t sure if he was more mad that he was getting beaten up by a pair of girls or if it was because Kristy and I had worked together to foil his plans of making out with me. Either way, I was able to seamlessly suggest it was time to take me home when Kristy was ordered to ready for bed around nine o’clock. Annoyed, Fletch drove me home in relative silence and, even though things were completely awkward and tense, I was proud for not letting things between us spin out of hand.