Friends With Benefits

I went to school Friday determined to talk to Fletch and convince him that we needed to patch things up. Will had his car taken from him for the day since he was in detention, though he would have it back in time for the weekend. I ended up hoping a ride with Eric, Sara, and Chuck, who was back and bragging about his new wicked cool scar. I managed to tone Chuck out while I tried to formulate a plan of how to win Fletch back and convince him of the truth. I was hoping to get to school early enough to catch him before he headed for suspension.

When we got into the parking lot, Fletch’s car was there but he wasn’t. After searching for him throughout the school building, I found out via Will and Luke Garretson that Fletch had headed to the suspension portable early to avoid talking with anyone and to especially avoid answering questions about why he had gotten into the fight with Will the day before. I was a little bummed, since I knew kids in suspension were kept in lock-down all day. The next chance I would have to speak with him would be as he was leaving school, if I could get out in time to catch him.

I was a very unresponsive student for the majority of the day since I was working hard on nailing down exactly what I needed to say to Fletch and how I would deal with whatever his reaction was. I thought about writing him a letter in the off hope he would read not only read it but that the letter would convey my thoughts more succinctly than I could out loud. I tried several times to write down exactly how I was feeling but ended up discarding six different letters before determining writing things down might not be the best way for me to handle things.

When I wasn’t thinking about what to say to Fletch, I was trying to gauge his mood, even though I hadn’t seen him at all that day. Even though I hadn’t seen him since the fight the day before, I was certain Fletch had plenty of opportunity to cool down. It had been nearly a week since the unfortunate incident and Fletch seemed to have gotten plenty of aggression out the day before when he had basically flattened Will’s nose. Will’s parents had taken him to the doctor and even though his nose wasn’t broken, his doctor told him to avoid getting any more face injuries since it was rather likely his nose would break the next time it was hit in a similar fashion.

Much to my chagrin, the truth about Will and Fletch’s fight seemed to come to light that day as well. From what I had understood, Fletch had told his side of the story to one of his in-school suspension pals who was now paroled and spreading the story throughout the school. Of course, the school rumor mill still managed to distort some of the truth. The current story everyone seemed to believe was that Will and I had been hooking up and Fletch, who had a long time crush on me, had walked in on us and become upset at the betrayal. There was no hint that Fletch and I had any sort of romantic entanglement beforehand and so most people at school seemed to believe Fletch was just overreacting to his broken heart, thinking his two friends had betrayed him when we honestly didn’t know he was in love with me.

I didn’t exactly know how to correct the rumors without making the worse and I did ask Will to see if he could sort things out. Will told me to just ignore the rumors and brush them off as if they were nothing. Being the topic of much of the school’s gossip, Will said he had learned ignoring any rumors about yourself or acting like they didn’t affect you was the quickest way to dispel said rumors if not make people forget about them completely. I tried to listen to Will’s advice, but since I wasn’t a frequent gossip target, I found it hard to entirely ignore the whispers and points in my direction throughout the day.

My stomach was in knots by the final period of the day, terrified about how I was going to convince Fletch to not only listen to what I had to say but that I was telling the truth. Will watched me curiously throughout study hall. I had only conferred with Sara about my plan to confront Fletch after school, so she was the only person who knew the source of my nervousness. I was sure for a moment Will had figured it out, but he reclined back in his chair and said nothing, continuing to work on what homework he had. Again, I implored Mrs. Kastner to allow me to leave a few minutes early, citing something important I had to do after school. Since I was a good student and didn’t cause any trouble, she had not problem letting me out of class early again. She probably figured I was joining a club or working on some sort of after school project rather than throwing myself at the mercy of the guy I still wanted to consider my boyfriend.

I again rushed to my locker and gathered up my books before going to wait for Fletch at his car. I was relieved when I exited the building to find Fletch’s car was still in it’s same place in the parking lot. Confidently, I headed out to wait in front of it. I decided I was stand in front of the driver’s side door and would refuse to move until Fletch heard me out. I knew he could possibly try to evade me by entering through another door to the car, but was just desperate enough to dive onto the hood of his car or hold on to the side mirror if that’s what it took for him to pay attention to me.

While I was going over the plan in my head, I wasn’t counting on Luke Garretson to appear out of another door in the building. I definitely wasn’t counting on Luke to decide the tense few moments before I plead my case before Fletch to be the ideal time for him to try his charm on me. Even though I glowered at him as he approached, Luke’s ego prevented him from getting the message that I was not at all interested in him or what he had to say. Lazily, Luke threw an arm around my s shoulders, which I quickly shoved off. I noticed Fletch had just entered the parking lot and prayed he hadn’t seen Luke’s attempt at affection.

“What’s going on, Iverson?” Luke smiled at me. It was his famous thousand-kilowatt smile that was enough to knot the panties of any girl in a ten mile radius. Unfortunately for him, I was immune to his charms.

“Get lost, Luke,” I hissed at him. “I’m kind of busy right now…”

“What? With Murphy?” Luke said. “You know, you could really do better than him…”

I kept my eyes on Fletch, who was scowling at the sight of Luke and me. I knew I had to get as far away from Luke as possible before Fletch had even more reason to think I was a slut who was just toying with his feelings. Luke wasn’t able to sense my discomfort and, even though all I wanted him to do was leave me alone, he kept right at his unfortunate attempt at flirting with me.

“You could really do with a real man, you know. Someone like me,” Luke grinned at me. “I think I know just what you like…” I was about to jab Luke in the eye. He had probably heard some of the rumors going on around school and decided that I must be easy or something.

“I am not in the mood for this now, Luke,” I glowered at him. “Just leave me alone, okay?”

“I can put you in the mood, baby,” Luke winked.

“Garretson, you get the fuck out of my way,” I hissed at him. “I have had a tough enough week as it is and I am in no mood to put up with your bullshit.”

“Whoa… what’s wrong with you?” Luke asked, shocked by my language and over all tone.

“You’re the problem,” I said. “So, make like a crab and crawl back to that dark place you came from.”

“Jeez, Iverson,” Luke shook his head. “You’re a real bitch, you know?”

“Better a bitch than a ball of slime,” I shot back. I evaded Luke and rushed to Fletch’s car, hoping it wasn’t too late to execute my plan.

I managed to reach Fletch’s car before he did, though it didn’t help me that Fletch was scowling at me after seeing me walking with Luke. I knew, even if he had been in a better mood earlier, seeing Luke walking with me had instantly taken any hint of a good mood away from him. I mentally cursed Luke and his giant ego for getting in the way and ruining things. If Fletch never forgave me, I determined I would have to somehow have Luke secretly murdered. Fletch seemed annoyed as he approached me and I sucked in a deep breath, hoping he would hear me out.

“So, you’re done with Will and moving on to the rest of the football team?” Fletch snorted. I frowned, wishing those hadn’t been the first words he said to me.

“No. God no. Luke is creepy and was following me…” I began. “Look, Fletch, I…”

“What do you want?” Fletch sneered at me.

“I need to talk to you,” I said to him, sounding a lot more desperate than I wanted to. “We have to fix this rift between us…”

“Maybe I don’t want things to get ‘fixed’ between us,” he said, using air quotes. “Maybe I like things the way they are.”

“You can’t honestly mean that,” I said in a near whisper. He continued to glower at me. I had no other option. I decided to swallow my pride and beg. “Please, Fletch. You know I love you. I know you’re just as upset as I am right now… I just want things to go back to the way they were… the way they should be…”

“And I want you to stay the hell away from me,” Fletch snorted.

He roughly shoved me away from him and jumped into his car. I was about to do something completely stupid in desperate in the form of jumping in front of his car to stop him from driving away, but I was pulled backwards. I struggled against my captor – most likely Sara or Eric on Sara’s bidding – as his car backed up and sped away. He was driving dangerously fast and I sucked in a breath as he took a curve, his car going so fast it looked as though it was ready to flip over. I knew Fletch had a penchant for letting his emotions get the better of his driving and right then, all signs pointed to him being completely pissed off. I turned around to berate Sara for stopping me from jumping on Fletch’s car, only to find it wasn’t Sara or Eric holding me.

“Matt? What are you doing here?” I gaped at him.

“Mom said you were having a rough week and since I came home from school earlier today, I thought I’d do you the favor of taking you home,” Matt shrugged.

“Oh,” I frowned.

“We can get ice cream if that will make you feel better,” Matt suggested. I shivered, knowing ice cream would definitely not make things better. It would just remind me of the last time I went out for ice cream, with Fletch.

“No,” I said quietly, “that’s okay…”

“You know, Len, you never struck me as the desperate type. Never thought I’d have to pull you off some guy’s car…” Matt muttered.

“He is not some guy!” I screamed at him shrilly. Matt looked taken aback by my change in behavior.

“Wow, Mom was right. You really fell hard for this guy,” Matt said, surprised. He directed me to his car and paused for a moment as we got in. Once he had started the engine up, he resumed the conversation. “Honestly, Len, I never thought you’d ever come around to Fletcher Murphy. The dude is sort of a mutant dork-jerkface hybrid. It’s even weirder that he suddenly acts like you’ve got the plague. I thought all the kid ever wanted was for you to just make out with him.”

I frowned and Matt sensed there was a lot more to the story than what I was letting on. With a heavy-hearted sigh, I broke down and told Matt the whole story – with exception of the whole Fletch and I have sex thing. Matt was, as most big brothers would be, a little incensed that I had been randomly hooking up with a boy for the better part of a year with no real thought as to the emotional consequences. He was even more furious that Fletch didn’t believe in my innocence and that I was heartbroken over a guy who Matt described as a “weasely, snot-nosed sister-molester.” I didn’t dare to point out to Matt that I was too much of a willing participant for Fletch to be considered a “sister-molester.”

When we arrived home, Matt attempted to give me a lecture on how all boys are stupid and how I shouldn’t consider dating until I was at least forty. I tuned him out, wondering if maybe Fletch would come around soon. I kept my phone charged and within arms reach, hoping it would suddenly go off with a text or call from Fletch, wanting the two of us to get back together. Our parents were going out together that night and left pizza money for Matt and I. I let Matt order whatever he wanted and he seemed pretty worried, knowing I usually fight him tooth and nail when it comes to pizza toppings.

While we waited for the pizza to arrive, Matt played video games while I flopped around like a very depressed fish on his bed. I hated how I was feeling and the way I was acting, but I couldn’t shake the pain in my chest. No matter what I did, I couldn’t make myself feel better or distract myself from my thoughts of Fletch. I sighed as Matt got up to get the pizza from the deliveryman outside and then returned to his room for us to eat. Matt and I had each eaten one slice of our pizza when my phone began to vibrate. I jumped up to get it hopefully, begging that it would be Fletch. I was excited to find his home number flashing on my screen and answered the call.

“Hello?” I said hopefully.

“Aileen? This is Sherri… Fletch’s mother?” she said.

“Yes, Mrs. Murphy?” I breathed.

“Sweetie, Fletch has been in a car accident…” she began.

“What?” I screamed. “What happened? What’s going on?”

“I don’t know,” Mrs. Murphy said. “We just got a visit from a police officer… Kristy and I are leaving for the hospital right now. I just got off the phone with Fletcher’s father… The officer said the crash seemed pretty severe, but he didn’t know the details. I thought you might want to know since the two of you are so close…”

“I can be right there,” I assured her.

“Alright,” Mrs. Murphy nodded. “I’m going to call Will and I suppose I’ll see the two of you at the hospital soon…”

“Okay,” I said. “And if you know something before you get there, feel free to call me.”

“Of course, sweetie,” Mrs. Murphy said. She hung up and I felt a giant lump in my throat as the sobs tried to force their way out. The words I had said to Fletch regarding his maniacal driving the day we had gone birthday shopping for Will kept ringing in my ears.

“You’re going to get us both killed. Seriously, you shouldn’t be driving if you’re going to be a complete maniac,” I glowered at him.

“Sorry,” Fletch muttered.

“One day, someone is going to really piss you off, and you’re going to get into a bad car crash,” I glowered. “And then what will you do, huh?”

“I said sorry, Aileen,” Fletch rolled his eyes. “Why do you have to be such a damn broken record?”

“Because I’m in the car, dumbass,” I snorted. “And believe me, I don’t want some story in the newspaper or on TV about how I died will riding in Fletcher Murphy’s car. The last thing I want is your name mentioned anywhere near my obituary.”

“Oh, so if I was by myself, you wouldn’t care if I drove myself off a cliff or anything?” Fletch questioned with a snort.

“If you drove yourself off a cliff, all it would prove to me is how completely asinine you are,” I snorted. “If you did something like that, I’d tell everyone at your funeral that you had it coming.”

It was my fault.

It was all my fault he’d gotten into that wreck. He had probably been speeding to work after school, so angry with me he couldn’t see. And now he was in the hospital, possibly dying. There was no telling how long he had been in a ditch somewhere bleeding. And Fletch and I didn’t even have the same blood type. Perhaps I hadn’t murdered him or anything, but I certainly felt I was responsible if he died. I swallowed, tears filling my eyes, and looked over to Matt, surprised to see he already had his jacket on.

“Come on,” Matt said to me softly. “I’ll take you there…”

“Mom and Dad…” I began.

“They’ll understand…”

“What if he’s…?” I asked.

“It’ll be okay,” Matt assured me. “I’m sure when we get to the hospital, he’ll be fine…”

“I have to call…” I said, not able to finish my sentence…” I have to…”

“Let’s get out in the car,” Matt suggested. “You can call anyone you need to there.”

I nodded and followed Matt outside, praying to every entity I could think of that Fletch would be okay.

One day, someone is going to really piss you off, and you’re going to get into a bad car crash. And then what will you do, huh?

The ride to the hospital should have only taken fifteen minutes, but it felt like the longest ride of my life.