Friends With Benefits

With money from the insurance settlement and some of the money Fletch had saved up, he and his parents bought him a newer used model car, which was a little bigger, a lot nicer, and had a lot more backseat make out room than the car utterly destroyed in his accident. Like he promised, Fletch took me out for a nice dinner the first weekend he was in possession of his new wheels, only a short time before he got his cast off. Fletch got his cast off in time for the weather to warm up enough we could go swimming at the lake.

I rode along with Fletch while Eric carted Sara, Chuck, and Chuck’s new girlfriend, Mara. She went to Westmoreland and somehow, Mara found all of Chuck’s annoying qualities endearing. The two of them were really into the whole PDA thing, so while the rest of us played around in the water. While the two of them went off into the woods to possibly get to third base, Fletch and Eric had teamed up on Sara and I, each guy attempting to snag his girlfriend and then dunk her under the water. It was a pretty fun game, except for when Eric and Fletch started winning.

Will didn’t come out with us to the lake that day since spring training for football had started up again. It was going to be our senior year and Will was determined to make the most of his football career. Scouts would soon be coming out and Will was really hoping to get a decent football scholarship. Channeling his energy into football left him hardly any time to date, which was actually a good thing for Will. Not having girls clinging to him constantly helped him return to the fun-loving, humorous guy we all knew and loved.

It wasn’t just Will who was affected by the prospect of being seniors. We all matured somewhat at the thought and our time was spent less talking about parties on the weekends and hanging out and more on SATs, college applications, and what sort of essay ideas we were contemplating for various scholarships. Still, we knew we had to make the most of our senior year, which could very well be the last year we were all together. Will had his eye on several big name, out of state schools with good football programs, though his parents were urging him to get a decent major just in case he didn’t end up being the next Tom Brady.

Sara and Eric had their first fight in what seemed like forever one of the last weeks of our junior year when Eric announced he was looking into a college different than Sara’s dream school. Sara had it in her head they would both go to the same university, get engaged their junior year and get married after graduation, but Eric’s desire to major in a field Sara’s favorite school didn’t offer seemed to dash those plans. Fletch and I talked about college of an on, but agreed we had a full year before things started to get drastic.

Junior year ended up in pretty much the same place it started for me: at Chuck Fink’s lame birthday party. This year, Chuck was going to be seventeen and even though he had a pretty girlfriend and a nice group of friends, his parents still slipped away so he could hold a rock-the-house beer-induced party. Instead of drowning our sorrows in alcohol and sneaking off for the first of many drunken make out sessions, Fletch and I found ourselves sipping sodas and cuddled up together on the same couch in the same den where our original mess of a relationship had begun. This time, however, I wasn’t ashamed whenever Fletch placed a gentle kiss on my lips or let his hands roam downward for a subtle squeeze of my ass. In fact, I giggled and leaned forward to suck on his neck in the place I knew drove him crazy.

“You’re too good to be true, you know,” Fletch informed me.

“I was about to say the same thing about you,” I replied. Fletch leaned over to kiss me and I laughed as we pulled away from each other. “We are so cheesy, you know?”

“Totally,” Fletch grinned. “So, we only have a few days before school is out. What are our summer plans, Lenny?”

“Well, I know you’ll have to work so you can afford more of those fabulous outings to the movies and stuff,” I said, “and my parents want me to get involved in some volunteer work or something for my college applications… I think there should be a lot of hanging out with friends… Most of all, I think there are going to be quite a bit of particularly intimate moments between the two of us…”

“I particularly like that last part,” Fletch smirked.

I laughed myself, knowing that Fletch was rather excited about the fact that the two of us had finally gotten back to that point in our relationship where we were both comfortable with sex. The fact that we were head over heels in love and we both knew the other person was serious about the relationship made our transition into making love much quicker and much more meaningful than it had been the first time around. With a sigh, I thought back on what we had been able to do the previous evening while my parents were out at the couples pottery-making class my mother had talked my dad into taking. It was safe to say Fletch had my house to ourselves every Tuesday night.

“So, girlfriend,” Fletch said with a raise of his eyebrows, “Chuck said his parents are out for the evening, the music is loud, and I have a good idea that no one will be able to come down into the basement once I lock the door…”

“I like your train of thought,” I smirked.

A few minutes later, Fletch had me teetering on the edge. Afterwards, I found myself curled up with him and a very thick fleece blanket on the grungy couch in Chuck’s basement. However, I didn’t really care where we were or the fact that fifty odd people were jumping around to an annoying rap-techno beat upstairs. I was in Fletch’s arms and, for as long as he would have me, I knew it was the only place I ever wanted to be.