Ursula had woken up this morning to her phone beeping: new message from Benedick Hobbes. Now she was sitting cross-legged on Bea's bed, along with Claudio, Meg, Hero, and Ben, wondering when Ben and Bea were planning to tell her what the hell they were doing. Not that she didn't have at least a faint idea.
Ben's message had been pretty enigmatic: meeting at Bea's after school, TELL NO ONE. But she came anyway, just out of curiosity. She'd been a little surprised to see everyone else there, but after that, it wasn't too difficult to guess what was going on. They- Bea and Ben- too had figured it out. Took them long enough.
Bea began the meeting. "So you're probably all wondering why I've called you all here today. Well, we- me and dickbag here- are starting Team Love Gods 2. And who are we setting up this time?" Bea paused for effect, then said slowly, "Judging by the missing people, Pedro and Balthazar."
Ursula prevented herself from smiling just in time. So she had been correct.
Claudio however, did not take it so easily. "Wait, who?" Claudio looked at Bea in confusion, and Ursula couldn't help noticing he was sitting right next to Hero, a little too close for her, and as she noticed, Bea's comfort.
"Pedro and Balthazar!" Meg replied. "It's perfect!"
"I think they'd be really great for each other," Hero said.
"Well, actually, now that I think about it, it does seem right..."
"Ursula!" Bea cried suddenly, "You're being awfully quiet. I mean, quieter than usual. You and Balthazar are best friends, you know him better than anyone, don't you have anything to say?"
"Um, actually... I… might've already known. Quite a while ago, actually."
"You what? You knew Balthazar was in love with Pedro, and you never told us?"
"Well... he never said I couldn't tell anyone, but I felt that he would feel uncomfortable if I shared it with everyone, especially as he wasn't sure about Pedro's feelings for him."
" Well then, I guess we're just going to subtly set them up then? No more overhearing fake conversations then, huh?"
Benedick raised his hand and nearly hit Bea in the eye. "Actually, I don't think 'subtle' is going to work. I mean, did you see Pedro's description of 'An Ode'? We need to do something drastic to get the message through that thick skull of his."
"What do you suggest then?" asked Beatrice.
"Hmm... ooh ooh! We should... get a basketball! And write, 'BALTHY LOVES YOU' on it, and then, we should throw it at Pedro's face!" Ben cried excitedly.
Bea groaned. "Let me rephrase that question. Any good suggestions?"
Claudio raised his hand. "Write 'BALTHY LOVES PEDRO' on the basketball instead, just in case Pedro thinks we chucked it at the wrong person."
Bea took a pillow and threw it at Claudio. "Okay. Let's try another line of questioning. What's the main thing that's preventing their relationship right now?"
Ursula tentatively raised her hand. "Lack of communication, I think. That, and uncertainty."
Bea furrowed her eyebrows. "Could you please expand on that?"
"Well, first, Balthazar has had a crush on Pedro for a long time already, but he's been too scared to talk to him because he's almost certain Pedro's perfectly straight and if he didn't like him back, that would pretty much be the end to their friendship. So he's been giving him a few meaningful looks, but that's basically it. 'An Ode ' was the closest thing to a full-out confession that he ever got to."
"Pedro, on the other hand, is confused. He doesn't know how to feel, because he's no longer certain about his sexuality, and nothing is certain for him anymore. Now he's made a huge mistake, and he doesn't know if Balthazar still returns his feelings, or if he ever did: maybe it's all in his head. There's no way for him to know for sure.
"The thing is, neither of them can figure out the answers to their questions unless they actually talk to each other about their feelings. But they're both too scared. If we're going to help Balthazar and Pedro, we need to find a way to get them brave enough to properly communicate."
Silence greeted Ursula's words. Finally, Ben spoke. "Wow. We should have you sort out a lot more of our problems. You really seem to know what to do." The group laughed.
"Well then, the problem now is, how do we get them brave enough to properly communicate? " Meg said.
"Why don't we talk about communication in our next vlog? Like, encourage them to talk to each other." Bea said, turning around to look at Ben.
"Oh yeah, good idea!" Ben replied. "But I still think my basketball idea was better."
Bea playfully swiped at him (which was rather difficult from her position on his lap). Ben swatted her back.
"Hey!" Bea cried.
Ursula cleared her throat. "Guys… I think we should probably go back to the issue at hand…"
"Oh. Sorry." Ben said immediately, face red.
Ursula continued. "So we're going to mention communication in the next video. That works. But we still need to make it obvious to Pedro that Balthazar still likes him, or the other way around."
"My basketball idea-" Ben started, but Bea interrupted him. "Maybe we should also mention that on our vlog? Like say we heard from Ursula that Balthazar really likes Pedro? It's not exactly a lie…"
Ben nodded. "Okay. But if we're going to flat-out state that Balthazar likes Pedro, shouldn't we ask his permission? Like you said Ursula, he'd probably feel uncomfortable. We don't want to embarrass him or anything."
"That seems like the better thing to do," agreed Hero. "Why don't we call him?"
