She Could Do Better
Title: She Could Do Better
Summary: When Justin overhears how some of the girls think he's a bad boyfriend he goes on a mission to prove them wrong. When Beth starts to get showered with love and affection she starts to wonder just what the heck is going on.
Disclaimer: I own nothing!
Pairings: Main: Beth/Justin. Side: Eva/Tyler, LeShawna/Duncan, Bridgette/Noah and Lindsey/Harold.
Warnings: The usual
Winter-Rae: So, I wrote this for NightOfAThousandDreams, mostly as a gift for helping me start up the LeDunca club over on deviant art. This will probably be a two-shot, maybe three, I don't know, we'll see how it goes. So read on and enjoy!
She Could Do Better
Chapter 1: The Consequences of Eavesdropping
If there was anything that Beth loved, it was having a girl's night with her friends. Shopping, the spa, junk food, a movie, dancing, the whole deal; it was not only a stress reliever but a great way to catch up on gossip and the love lives of her fellow Total Drama contestants. While Beth tended to keep the gossip to a minimal she did love to hear about the love lives of her friends. Not because she wanted to vicariously live through them, since she had a boyfriend of her own, but because she was always ready to lend a listening ear if one of the girls was having trouble with the men in their lives.
While complaining about their boyfriends/fiancés/husbands wasn't something they did often it was still nice to have someone to talk to, if needed. Beth was sure that while they had their girl's nights, the guys were having a boy's night and talking about them. She just hoped that Justin didn't have anything to complain about when it came to her and their relationship. Beth had yet to complain about Justin either. Sure he still was a little bit full of himself but he had been working hard on that. While he slipped up here and there he was pretty good at stopping himself from sounding like a complete ass.
Since they had only been dating for not even a year they were still in the 'honeymoon' stage as LeShawna called it, the part of the relationship where everything was all flowers and romance. Beth liked that stage, but then again, most people did.
This particular girl's night involved her, Lindsey, LeShawna, Bridgette and of all people...Eva.
Ever since the show had ended Bridgette and Eva had put aside their differences and became the best of friends. Hard to imagine as Eva had always seemed to want to destroy Bridgette, but her rage had dialled down a few points ever since she won season six.
Right now they were all sitting in Beth's living room, after a hard day of shopping, much to Eva's annoyance, and getting ready to chow down on pizza and throw on a chick flick.
"I so needed this," LeShawna said, stretching out on the sofa next to Lindsey, "Duncan has been driving me insane all week."
"Really?" Bridgette asked, handing her a Coke, "Why?"
"His editor has been breathing down his neck about his next book," the voluptuous woman replied while rolling her eyes, "I told him tons of times to stop putting it off, but he never listens to me."
"Ewww," Lindsey mused, "I hate it when people breathe on my neck, it feels like their stalking me or something."
"And you would know all about that right?" Eva pointed out to the blonde model. Lindsey laughed.
"Harold takes care of that for me; he's the best bodyguard ever."
"I'm both surprised and curious about that," Beth said with a grin, "He doesn't exactly look like bodyguard material."
"Mad skills," Lindsey reminded her best friend.
"Did they say where they were going?" LeShawna asked as Beth started to place the DVD into the player.
"Tyler has this mad idea to take them to the gym," Eva replied, "I told him that out of the five of them he's probably the only one to see the inside of one so it was a waste of time."
"Justin's been to a gym," Beth said.
"He must like the mirrors."
Beth stuck out her tongue at Eva. The others never let Justin live down his infatuation with himself. Justin took the teasing in stride since he knew he deserved most of it, and to amuse them all he would stop during the most absurd times to check his hair.
"He's not so bad anymore," she pointed out.
"How's the honeymoon?" LeShawna teased.
"I thought we were going to watch a movie?" Beth replied, avoiding the subject. As much as she enjoyed talking about her relationship, she just didn't think it relevant right now.
"Trouble in paradise?" Eva asked.
"No."
"Come on Beth," Lindsey said, "We hardly ever get to hear about you and Justin and we all have stuff we're just dying to know!"
Beth heaved a sigh.
"Okay, fine, what do you want to know?"
Had Beth known that five people who shouldn't have been listening to them, were indeed listening, she would have hit the play button and watched the movie with her friends. But since that was not the case she'd have to deal with the consequences of this conversation later.
The whole idea had been Duncan and Tyler's.
Alone, Tyler would never consider such a thing, but when combined with Duncan, the jock always was more in touch with his troublemaking side. The fact that they had become quick friends during season four did not help matters either since they had discovered they both had a love of making trouble for the others. They had both been aware of the girl's day out and had enrolled Harold, Noah and Justin's help in their scheme.
"You do realize that when we're caught, and we will be caught," Harold pointed out, "That I am going to blame this all on you two, right?"
"That is a chance I'm willing to take," Duncan said, waving him off, "I can handle LeShawna's wrath, I've been on the receiving end of it a few times."
"Yes well I doubt Tyler could stop the force of nature that is Eva," Noah pointed out.
"There's no turning back now," Duncan declared, "What do you think Justin?"
The male model, turned firefighter, shook his head.
"I still think this is a bad idea," he said.
"You're telling me that you've never wanted to hear what Beth has to say about you?" Tyler asked him seriously.
"Of course I have, but putting a wire in the living room and a mini-camera in our TV speakers seems a little too much for me, don't you think."
"Hey, Harold had the gadgets," Duncan said, "We'll just say that we were testing them out and accidentally heard them."
"Right, cause they'll believe that," Noah muttered sarcastically.
The five of them were currently in the living room of Lindsey and Harold's house, which was across the street from Beth and Justin's. The two best friends had been adamant that they live close to each other since they both wanted their children to grow up together. And since Harold's job as a Private Investigator and Justin's firefighting job were in the same town, it was easy to make it work. While Justin and Harold weren't best friends they had a common hobby; video games.
As odd as it sounded, Justin was a video game fanatic, for him it was a relaxing way to end the day after fighting fires and rescuing cats from trees. Both of which were very exhausting, especially when the cat was an evil little bastard who tried to claw up your face while you were trying to rescue it.
However, that was neither here nor there. Right now, they were 'testing' Harold's equipment and were surprised to see that the small camera and wire was working perfectly. They could hear the girls and see them all as they started to gather around to watch a movie.
"I feel dirty," Harold said.
"Check your conscious at the door my friend," Duncan said, "Don't you do stuff like this for a living?"
"Spy on my friend's significant others?" Harold pointed out, "No. But if you like I can start charging you. Three hundred dollars an hour."
Tyler let out a whistle.
"I couldn't afford you," Duncan mused.
"Writers often can't," Noah pointed out. Duncan glared at him.
"Shut it, like teachers do any better?"
"Ah touché."
"Shh," Tyler said, "They're talking."
"Girls? Talking?" Noah gasped mockingly, "Say it isn't so!"
Tyler grabbed him and preceded to noogie the bookworm's head. Justin rolled his eyes.
"Some people never grow up," he mused, then turning to Duncan he added, "What makes you think they are even going to talk about us anyway?"
"Oh please, all women do that on their girl's days," he said.
"And what if we hear something we shouldn't?" Harold asked, "Like what if LeShawna's having an affair with Trent."
"Scandalous," Noah said, shoving Tyler off of him. Duncan glared at them.
"LeShawna wouldn't do that...would she?"
Harold scoffed.
"Of course not, idiot, I'm just trying to get you to see how stupid of an idea this is."
"Then why did you agree to it?" Justin asked. Harold frowned.
"Okay, so maybe I'm a little curious, but this is like reading a girl's diary, this is trespassing onto dangerous grounds and I still think it's a bad idea."
The five young men exchanged looks, their little voices all telling them to turn off the listening device, along with the camera and maybe go bowling. Harold was about to listen to his when...
"So, Beth," Bridgette's voice sounded out, "What's it like living with Justin?"
Justin stopped Harold from turning the device off. He was surprised but not disappointed that the girls were talking about him first.
"Yeah, what's it like?" LeShawna inquired, her voice filled with curiosity
Justin was a bit taken aback. Certainly he wasn't just a regular guy, what with his looks and all that, but his and Beth's relationship was like most he had seen, only more special due to the fact that Beth was so sweet and kind. But what could be so different about living with any other man?
While he was never one to eavesdrop...okay maybe he was, but not on Beth's conversations. However he just couldn't resist hearing what Beth was going to say. So, he grinned at the others, and at the opportunity that fate presented him, and began listening intently. Harold and Noah shook their heads, while Duncan and Tyler were happy to see they had won someone else over.
Beth looked at her friends, wondering exactly what they thought would be so interesting about her life with Justin.
"Why are you so interested anyway?"
"He's a womanizer, well former womanizer," LeShawna pointed out, "He can't be very pleasant to live with considering he was the most eligible man in the world until you two got together."
"That's the polite way of asking if he's messed up yet," Eva said. She was looking through her purchases of the day, and looking extremely uninterested in the conversation.
"No, he hasn't, messed up as you put it," Beth said, while rolling her eyes.
"So no arguments yet?" Bridgette questioned.
"All couples argue," Beth pointed out.
"Aww come on Beth," Lindsey said, "You aren't telling us anything interesting."
Beth looked at her best friend and laughed.
"Not you too," she said, "There's nothing to tell. I never let you all know about my personal life before. What makes you think that it will change now that I live with Justin?"
"I for one don't know why they want to hear about your lapse in judgment anyway," Eva said. Beth frowned and narrowed her eyes at her.
"What do you mean lapse in judgment?" Bridgette asked before Beth could say anything to the tough woman.
"I'm sure when Beth's sanity returns one day, she'll leave him for a much more handsome and nicer man," Eva mused.
Justin made a fist when she spoke those words. If she weren't a woman, he would have already punched her, resulting in his death since this was Eva after all. Of course, to do that he'd have to reveal that he and the others were listening and that would certainly piss them all off. The last thing he wanted was to face their wrath, especially Eva's. Obviously, Harold had been right, this was a bad idea.
"Justin's handsome already," Lindsey pointed out, "Why would Beth leave him?"
"Better be careful girl," LeShawna teased, "Beth might not want you talking about her man like that."
Lindsey's hands flew to her mouth as if she had just uttered a horrible swear word. Beth chuckled.
"It's okay Lindsey," she said, "Anyone who has eyes can see that Justin is handsome, and for the record I think Harold is too."
Lindsey smiled.
"Isn't he though?" she gushed, "I'm so lucky."
"In any case," Beth went on, "Justin means more to me than what he looks like anyway."
"Okay, moving on then," Bridgette mused, "What's the cutest thing he's ever done for you?"
Beth sighed. While she didn't really want to answer the inquiries, she realized that most of the girls had wanted Justin and she had gotten him. What harm did it do to answer a few questions to sate their curiosity, even if those questions annoyed her? If they asked about the sex, then she would put her foot down. The cutest thing he ever did for her wasn't a bad question, but there was a problem. She didn't know anything he'd done that would possibly fit in the category of cuteness.
"The cutest thing? Nothing really comes to mind. I mean he does cute things but I can't single one out."
Justin smiled at that answer, a typical Beth answer, but it wasn't really up to the standards their friends had expected.
"Well that's no fun," Bridgette said.
"What about material things?" LeShawna asked, "What's the nicest thing he ever bought you?"
Beth thought for a moment and then shook her head.
"I don't think he's ever bought me anything before."
"WHAT!" all of the girls, including Eva, exclaimed.
"You mean he's never bought you anything?" Bridgette asked.
"Not that I can remember," Beth replied.
"You're serious?" LeShawna demanded, "Valentine's Day! He must have gotten you stuff on the big V day!"
"We just started dating this year, a bit after Valentine's Day," Beth replied.
"Well you've known each other for a few years now," Lindsey pointed out, "How about on Christmas, or your birthday?"
"No, not that I can recall," Beth mused, "It doesn't matter to me though."
"Doesn't matter!" the other four cried out.
"I like being with Justin," the former farm girl replied, "We're happy; I don't need him to buy me things."
Just then, Beth's phone started to ring. She picked it up and glanced at the number.
"Oh shoot, it's my boss, I have to take this."
She then hurried into the other room and closed the door, leaving her four friends to exchange shocked looks.
Justin felt the eyes of his friends on him and he lifted his hand to his chin, thinking about what Beth had said. Was it really true that he never bought her anything? He ran through the list of gifts he bought in the past that he stored in his brain so that he wouldn't repeat any of them. His mother's name came up, and his sister, but no matter how far he dug in his mind, he didn't see Beth's name anywhere. He was never around her during Christmas thanks to his work hours and, pathetically, shamefully, he didn't know when her birthday was.
"Dude, bad form," Tyler said.
"Hey, back off," Justin snapped.
"I write down all of the important dates," Harold offered, "Birthday, Valentine's Day, Wedding Anniversary, first date Anniversary, first...umm, never mind."
"You get Lindsey gifts for all of those?" Noah asked.
"No, but I like her to know that I remember them, it's just the big ones I get her gifts for."
"Poor Beth," Lindsey's voice suddenly rang out, bringing their attention back to the screen.
"No kidding," LeShawna agreed, "Oh that conceited jerk makes me so mad! All the stuff he put her through and he's never even gotten her anything!"
"You have to understand what Beth is like," Bridgette said, "She doesn't really place much value on material things. Still… Justin is such a jerk!"
Justin winced.
"But, how could he never buy her anything?" Lindsey asked, "Even something simple like flowers or a card. How hurt would you be if Noah forgot your birthday? Maybe Justin isn't the good boyfriend we all know Beth deservers."
"I object to that!" Eva said.
Justin's jaw dropped open when he heard Eva defend him.
"I never once thought he was a good boyfriend, this just proves it," the tough girl finished.
This time, Justin nearly fell over due to the stupid thought that Eva, of all people, would say anything positive about him.
"Oh my gosh! You guys, I bet deep down that Beth is really hurt that Justin never thought much of her," Lindsey said, "Especially on the holidays! We all know how much she loves him."
The other three nodded in agreement but stopped the conversation short when Beth returned. The issue of Justin's abilities as a good boyfriend were not pressed any further as Beth hit the play button for the movie. Harold took that as a sign to turn off his own equipment.
"A bad idea," he muttered, "I told you."
"Am I really that bad?" Justin asked, "Do you all know their birthdays?"
"April 17th," Duncan said.
"July 16th," Noah added.
"November 20th," Tyler rhymed off.
"September 23rd," Harold finished.
"Not helping you guys," Justin muttered. Was he really a horrible boyfriend just for not buying Beth something? He thought about the typical boyfriend's that he saw around when he walked down the street. He remembered the men he often saw buying gifts for their girls, whether it be flowers, candy, or some other gift. Hell, even the gay men he saw bought things for each other. He heaved a huge sigh. Not only was he a bad boyfriend, he was a bad friend to not have given her anything even on Christmas and for not knowing her birthday.
"I'm such an ass," Justin muttered.
"No you're not," Tyler said, clapping him on the shoulder, "Beth just said she doesn't care about stuff like that. I mean, I get Eva gifts sure, but she usually tells me not too."
"Why?" Justin asked.
"Eva is a little like Beth I guess, she doesn't place a lot of value on gifts...unless it's a new set of weights or something. But I buy her things because I like doing it and I can tell she likes getting them. You know that when she's surprised with one she actually smiles? That's what I like to see on her."
Justin had no idea that Tyler could be such a romantic. But then again, he also had no idea that Eva was even capable of smiling.
"I made LeShawna cry once with one of my gifts," Duncan mused.
"That bad eh?" Justin asked. Duncan flipped him off.
"No you loser, I found a copy of this older cartoon she used to watch every Christmas," the former punk smiled slightly at the memory, "I remembered her mentioning it to me once and the name stuck with me. I was actually pretty surprised myself when I found it. Finding that perfect gift can be hard but it's usually worth it in the end."
"There's usually a simple, obvious solution for problems regarding relationships," Noah pointed out, "However, as men, we're too dense to look at the easy ones. I'm sure you'll think of something to get her Justin."
Justin looked confused for a moment but then he grinned. Noah actually had a point. Instead of thinking about the difficult things, he went back to the basics. What was the simplest, most obvious solution to the fact he never got Beth anything? Suddenly, it hit him like a brick and he felt incredibly dumb for not thinking of it sooner. It was simple. He'd go out and buy Beth the best present that he could find. One that would make up for everything he had forgotten.
Not only that but...
"Do any of you know when Beth's birthday is?"
Harold chuckled.
"October 4th."
Justin grabbed a piece of paper and wrote it down so he wouldn't forget.
"Okay, now I have to find the perfect gift for Beth," he said, "And you four are going to help me."
"What!" Duncan said, "No way."
"You and Tyler got me into this," the model pointed out, "You're obligated now, Noah and Harold don't have to though."
"Oh I'm tagging along," Noah said, "the possibility that you might fail in this is huge and I want to be there to witness it."
"As always your vote of encouragement is appreciated," Justin said to him while rolling his eyes.
"I'm in too," Harold said.
"Let's do it!" Tyler added, "Come on Justin, we'll find that perfect gift and help you find your inner best boyfriend mojo!"
"Great, and then we can all sit around and talk about our feelings!" Noah chimed in with obvious fake enthusiasm.
"We could always we toss you in the trunk," Duncan pointed out.
"Okay, fine, no feelings," the bookworm said, "I'll just be the silent, scrutinizing observer."
"Oh I feel so much better now," Justin sighed.
Winter-Rae: Holy crap, it's been a long time eh? Needless to say I am in a rut of sorts when it comes to Total Drama Island. After this little fic, I have two more I want to do; a gift fic and a trade fic. After that we shall see what happens. Thanks for reading everyone, cheers!