Chapter 3

The Breakup Blues and The Friends that Get You Through

"Hey man. What's goin on?" Andy asked.

Ben had wandered into the living room on Saturday night. April and Andy were watching tv on the couch and Ben had come in the room and sat at the chair to their right.

"Nothing. Just thought I'd hang out here for a bit. It's common space so…..yeah," Ben stumbled with his words and April raised an eyebrow.

Ben usually didn't spend much time in the common areas of the house as April and Andy would often start acting disgusting when he walked into the room or the room looked disgusting because April and Andy were messy and disgusting.

"Dude, why aren't you at Leslie's like you usually are on Saturday nights?" Andy asked causing April to jab him in the side with her elbow.

"Ow, honey why did you jab me in the elbow?" Andy proclaimed to which April looked at him pointedly and let out a sigh. She had her suspicions that the two nerds had ended things but she didn't know for sure and hadn't shared it with Andy yet. Both seemed mopey. There had been no lunches, no nerdy handshakes, no longing side glances. Only a few awkward smiles and a few stuttered sentences strung together. Ann had been around more than usual and had been bringing Leslie lots of desserts and waffles, seemingly to cheer her up. Ben seemed to be taking, what April coined, sadness baths, which made her late for stuff. Ben also hadn't left the house except to go to work. It was really cramping April and Andy's style.

"Oh, well, um, that's you know, that's uh….That's like um…..We, uh…decided….Uh we're not seeing each other… like that…..anymore…..so," Ben confessed for he may not have been a sharer but he wasn't a liar. Well, except for lying about his secret forbidden relationship.

"You're not seeing each other anymore? What? Have you both gone blind or are you always gonna be wearing sunglasses?" Andy asked.

"We're not dating anymore," Ben clarified looking baffled. Andy's special brand of cluelessness, while never surprising, always amazed him.

"Oh, dude that sucks. Did you ask her to make you sandwiches too often or crash her car, or did you "borrow" money from her and not pay her back? Or did she do any of that stuff?" Andy asked.

"No. Nothing like that," Ben answered as his mind pondered the reasons that were now clear to him why Andy has been dumped in the past.

"Did you not have enough time to devote to Star Trek and also be in a relationship?" April smirked and said in a teasing tone.

Ben smirked back at her with a small smile.

"It's just with the relationship being prohibited and Leslie running for office now it was just best to end things now," Ben told them as he ran his hand through his hair.

Ben turned his attention to the movie the couple was watching, it appeared to be about a monster in a lake, and heard Andy whisper to April asking her what prohibited meant.

"Well, now that you're back to following the rules that means you're back to boring. Have you considered wearing an eye patch, Ben? It would make you less boring," April asked. Ben couldn't help but roll his eyes in amusement.

April got up from the couch and returned with a beer for everyone and some cookies.

Ordinarily if April had offered Ben food or a drink he would've been a fool to accept it but this time he could actually tell that the offer was genuine and he was touched. It looked like a free meatball sub wasn't his only reason to stay in Pawnee. Also later that night Andy almost started a fire in the kitchen when he left a plastic container on a still warm stove burner.

"Andy and April may die if I left," Ben thought to himself, "Though I might die here with them."