31 – From Ancient Grudge

Ben dropped into his seat with a scathing look at Kurt. "Way to roll out the welcome wagon."

"Man, I'm just being honest about what I think."

"Honest and tactful aren't the same thing," Ben snapped.

Kurt made a face. "Whatever." He reached into his back pocket for his wallet, removed a few bills, and threw them on the table. "That should cover me. Eric, do you want to catch a ride home with me?"

Eric cast a doubtful look around the table. When Jason shrugged and Ben waved him off, Eric stood up. "Sure."

When they were gone, Jason pulled the pitcher closer and refilled his soda. "I don't think he realized she was standing there, dude."

"What does it matter if he realized it or not? It's obvious he's ready to hate her without even knowing her. I remember the crap he used to pull on girls like Felicity in high school. The crap he pulled on her."

Jason gave him a diplomatic look. "He never got very far, Ben."

"That's because I told him to knock it off. She never did anything to him, and she didn't deserve any of it." Ben shoved his almost-empty basket of onion rings away. "I knew he was going to be a dick about this."

Sighing, Jason hooked an onion ring from the basket. "Look, man, I'm not trying to tell you who to hang with, but Felicity always seemed like a pretty smart girl. More books than basketball, you know?" He twirled the onion ring in his fingers before dropping it in the basket again. "I was kind of wondering, myself, how you two hooked up. You've got, like, zero in common."

Ben eyed his friend. "So?"

"So, what do you two talk about? It sure as hell isn't art. You can't draw stick figures."

"Why do I have to know anything about art to like her?"

"I'm just saying, is all. She doesn't play sports, right?" Jason shrugged.

"No. Who cares?"

Jason shook his head in wry amusement. "Dude, girls like her are head cases. They like to talk about junk like Shakespeare."

Feeling defensive, Ben snarked, "Since when are you the expert?"

Jason leveled him with a wry look. "Ben, come on. You going to impress her with your sparkling knowledge of philosophy, or something?" He chuckled, and shrugged again. "Whatever. Go out with whoever you want, I don't care. It's your life." He stood up and dug his wallet from a back pocket. "I've gotta break this fifty. Be right back."

Ben stared morosely at the basket of onion rings. He barely acknowledged the waitress when she returned to clear away the dishes. He remembered thinking some of the same things Jason had just said while he and Felicity were still on their road trip. Philosophy? Shakespeare? She deserves to be with a smart guy, someone who knows about all that stuff.

His next thought made him grit his teeth. He hated it, hated that it wouldn't go away the minute he thought it. Hated it worse when it made sense.

Someone like Noel.

- - - - -

Sitting at a picnic table beside a hotdog stand, Felicity squirted mustard on her hamburger.

"I'm sorry about Kurt…that he hurt your feelings like that," Shelly murmured.

"He didn't hurt my feelings. I'm angry, not hurt," Felicity grumbled. "He's just… Why are guys such jerks?"

"It's genetic," Amy sniffed, taking a sip of cola.

"No, they get a packet during kindergarten. Jerk Training 101. It's, like, the only class they all pass without studying," Laura said.

The girls stared at her. It was the first time Laura had said more than one word at a time the whole evening. First Shelly, then Felicity, then Amy burst into laughter.

Laura smiled back at them.

"Are you sure you're okay?" asked Shelly.

Sighing, Felicity ate a French fry from the shared basket in the center of the table. "Yeah, I'm fine. I just think maybe I was wrong about things being different once you're out of high school. What a jerk."

Shelly gave her a concerned look. "We are still talking about Kurt, right?"

"Yeah. Who else would I be talking about?"

"I just want to make sure you're sticking around with Ben, in case Amy still planned on snapping him up."

Amy looked taken aback, even a little intimidated by the idea. "Me? With Ben?"

Shelly giggled. "Oh, Amy. We're just kidding." Even Laura cracked a smile.

Amy blushed. "Well, he has gotten really cute, Felicity."

"He was cute before," Shelly asserted. "Now he's drop-dead gorgeous. A shame his friends are such a bunch of cretins." She rounded on Felicity. "When were you planning to tell us Ben went to UNY and that's why you went there? All we ever heard in high school was Stanford, Stanford, Stanford."

"Now it's going to be Ben, Ben, Ben," smiled Amy.

"Oh, yeah, and I'm sure we can all blame her. I mean, look at him."

"We did," grinned Amy and Laura together.

Shelly stood up and saluted Felicity with her soda. "To my friend, the fearless traveler." She fended off Felicity's attempts to make her sit down. "Who obviously has a lot of explaining to do where this Ben thing is concerned."

The girls giggled again, and Felicity couldn't help but join them.

- - - - -

Felicity went to the movies with the girls after they ate dinner. She didn't get home until just before midnight. Shelly dropped her off, and she went quietly up to her room without waking her parents. After the noise of the dorm all year, the house felt almost too quiet.

Her bedside lamp was on. The cordless phone sat on her vanity table with a note from her mother: Ben called. Felicity sighed and sat on the bed. She hadn't told Shelly the exact truth about her reaction to Kurt's scorn. It did hurt. It hurt just as much as it ever had in high school, and even more so because Kurt was a friend of Ben's. Floating on the afterglow of the road trip, and on every memory of Ben's kisses, she'd been totally unprepared to overhear Kurt call her names. She'd dropped her guard. That won't happen again. She reached for the pajamas folded on her pillow.

Something tapped her window. She glanced up in surprise. A moment later, something tapped again, as though a pebble had knocked against the glass. Felicity went to the window and pushed the curtains aside, shoving up the window sash.

Ben stood in her backyard looking up at the window with his hands stuffed in his jacket pockets. She could barely make him out in the darkness. "What are you doing here?" she whispered.

"I didn't want to call again and wake your parents. Can you come down?"

She hesitated, and then resented the fact that Ben's friends had any power to make her doubt Ben's interest in her. "Just give me a second." She withdrew from the window and crept downstairs again.

She opened the sliding glass door and stepped onto the patio. "Hey."

Ben came toward her. "Hey." He ran a hand through his hair. "Look, I'm sorry about Kurt today. He was just being an idiot."

"Yeah, well. He might have left high school, but high school obviously hasn't left him," Felicity frowned. "And now my friends hate your friends. This isn't exactly the way I hoped our summer would start."

"I know." Ben kicked at a stone, and it rolled across the patio. "Anyway, I just wanted to apologize…and also, I came over because I thought you might want some company."

She smiled at that.

Seeming encouraged, he added, "It's kind of weird being home by ourselves at night, when it was always the two of us on the trip, isn't it?"

Felicity felt a flutter of warmth in her belly. "Yeah."

Ben stuck his hands in his pockets again. "So, your house is nice."

"Thanks." A thought occurred to her, and she eyed him. "How did you get here?"

"I borrowed my mom's car." He grinned briefly. "Well, not so much borrowed, as took it when she wasn't awake to ask."

Her flutters multiplied as she recognized the mischievous look on his face. She missed that look already.

For a few seconds, they didn't speak. Felicity looked up. The sky sparkled with a blanket of stars. When she looked back down, Ben was staring at her. "What?"

His eyes roved over her face. "Why did you come with me on the road trip?"

"I told you. It was a chance to get to know you."

"Yeah, but you spent most of freshman year with Noel. You liked him, or at least you seemed like you liked him. Did he do something wrong? Something that pissed you off?"

"No. Noel was fine. It wasn't anything he said or did. Ben, where's this coming from?" Confused, she searched his features.

He shrugged. "I was just wondering why you wouldn't want to go with him."

"I did want to. I just…wanted to go with you, too."

"What, just because you didn't really know me?"

"Ben. What's the matter?"

"Nothing. Never mind, it's nothing."

Something was obviously bothering him, but just as obviously, he wasn't planning to tell her. Casting about for a change of subject, she asked, "What are you doing tomorrow?"

"I've got to start looking for a job. I had one lined up, but it isn't going to pay enough."

"Why not?"

"It just isn't going to cover…everything. Can we not talk about it?"

Finally frustrated into it, she snapped, "What would you like to talk about, then? Because I'm running out of ideas, here. You came to see me."

He backed away a few steps, toward the side yard. "Look, I'll just catch up with you tomorrow, or something. I've got to get the car home, anyway. I'll see you." Turning on his heel, he walked out of the backyard.

Hurt, Felicity just stood there a minute before stalking back into the house.