31 – Opposites

Ben walked into the house and closed the door as quietly as possible. He went up the staircase, stepping over the third step, which he knew from long experience creaked loud enough to wake the dead.

"Where have you been with my car, Benjamin?"

Halfway up the steps, he winced and turned around. His mother stood down by the door with her arms crossed, arching her eyebrows at him. "You think I don't hear you when you leave, young man. Come down here."

Ben sighed and trudged down the steps. "I was out seeing Felicity."

His mother smiled and shook her head. She reached up and laid a hand on his cheek. "You could have asked."

He smiled back. "Sorry."

"Well, you got me up, so now I'm up. Make me some tea, and I'll forgive you for the car." She ushered him into the kitchen.

In spite of his mood, he didn't argue. He rarely argued with his mother. Ben put the tea kettle on and got the canister of teabags from the cupboard over the stove. While the kettle heated, he took a bottle of water from the refrigerator for himself and sat down.

"How did your classes end?"

"Okay," he shrugged.

"Did you have a good time on your trip?"

He smiled. "Yeah. It was a lot of fun. Yellowstone was cool."

"I'll bet. How did Felicity like it?"

Ben studied the woodgrain of the kitchen tabletop. "She seemed to like it."

His mother crossed her arms on the table. "Okay. What's wrong?"

"What do you mean?"

"I know that miserable look when I see it. Did you two have a fight?"

"No." He unscrewed the cap of his water bottle, then screwed it on again. "Sort of. Kurt said some stuff about her that wasn't very nice, and she overheard it."

"Well, what does he know? You've been at school with her all year."

"It's not about her. Felicity's great. Kurt's just being a—"

She gave him a warning look.

With a brief, amused glance, Ben shrugged again and fell back into moodiness. "He doesn't like her because she's not on his who's who list."

"Well, that's a ridiculous reason not to like someone."

"I know, Mom, but what am I supposed to do? I've been friends with Kurt since we were in grade school."

"Maybe you should reevaluate your friendships."

Ben flopped back in the chair. "It isn't even just that. I mean, some of the stuff the guys said is true. Felicity and I have nothing in common."

"Neither did your father and I, when we first met."

Ben looked up with his jaw clenched.

She sighed and gave a conciliatory nod. "All right, bad example. But people don't have to have a lot in common to like being together. Opposites attract."

"So if Felicity is smart and hard-working and ambitious, what does that make me?" he growled.

His mother canted her head. "Benjamin. Just because she's smart, doesn't mean you aren't. You do all right in school."

"I squeak by. Other people there have twice the course load and make it look half as hard."

"You did really well this year, honey. With everything that's happened to you…" She reached across the table to lay a hand on his. "To us… You dealt with all that, and passed your classes, too. And you're going back next year. I'm very proud of you. I'm sure Felicity is, too."

The tea kettle whistled, and she got up to take it off the burner. Ben hunched into his chair and stared at his untouched bottle of water.

- - - - -

The next morning, Felicity and Shelly got together and drove to the mall so that Felicity could look for a job. After that, the girls did some shopping. "Well, at least he came over and apologized," Shelly said, flipping through a rack of bathing suits.

"Yeah, that part was fine. It was the part about having an actual conversation with him that was the trouble. He started talking about Noel, and he made no sense—"

"Who's Noel?"

"Wow, I really haven't talked to you all year," Felicity mused. "Noel's one of my friends at UNY. He and I went out this year. He was my floor R.A."

"I thought you weren't supposed to date your R.A."

"You're not."

"Wow. Look at you, you rebel. First your R.A., and now Ben. I think I'm transferring to your school in the fall. Maybe some of your luck will rub off on me," snickered Shelly. She held up a red one-piece bathing suit. "What do you think of this?"

"I love it. Is there one in purple?"

Shelly poked through the rack and handed Felicity one of the purple bathing suits.

"Thanks. It's been so much fun at UNY," smiled Felicity. "New York is everything they say it is. Just amazing! But I lived with this total freak show named Meghan, who, I swear, didn't own a single piece of clothing with any color in it. Her entire wardrobe was black. And mostly leather."

"Ewww."

"Yeah. Definite mutual dislike. But the weirdest part about it is, I almost think she is the reason Ben and I got together."

"What?"

Felicity tossed a hand in the air. "Well, first, you have to understand Meghan. I mean, as much as anyone could understand Meghan. She's this crazy Goth person who thinks she can do witchcraft."

"Are you kidding?"

"No. But here's the weird part. She almost got me thinking she could, too."

Shelly raised an eyebrow.

"No, really. She did these spells. Or what were supposed to be these spells. She said they were supposed to make me clumsy and forget things."

"She really didn't like you."

"—But then, she did this love spell, and that's when Ben started noticing me."

Shelly shook her head in amusement. "You're telling me a spell got you two together?"

"I'm just saying it's an interesting coincidence."

Folding the bathing suit over her arm, Shelly pursed her lips in thought. She hooked an arm around Felicity's shoulders. "Tell you what. Let's call her and tell her to make a spell that gives Kurt Angiolillo the worst case of hives ever."

- - - - -

"Chicken! Get in there, you loser! Come on, show some hustle!"

Shirtless and sweating, Ben dodged around Jason and dribbled the basketball toward the net. Jason scrambled to catch up with him, but Ben sprang into a layup and dropped the ball in before he even got close. "Show some hustle, huh?" he grinned to Eric, who was halfway down the court. "Where were you when I was getting blocked?" He grabbed the basketball as it bounced off the pavement.

"All right, girls. Half time," Kurt laughed. The boys moved as one like moths to flame toward the cooler on the end of the bench at courtside. Kurt opened the lid and fished around for a fresh water bottle. He laid it against his forehead. "Tell me again why we picked today to play ball?"

Jason rubbed the back of his neck with a towel. "Because you can't stand that Ben still holds the three-pointer record."

"Yeah, yeah," Kurt rumbled. "So, Covington. See your girlfriend today?"

Ben took a long drink of water. "When are you going to lay off?"

"When you tell me why, when in all of high school you didn't talk to her, you're suddenly palling around with Felicity Never-Got-A-Date Porter?" sneered Kurt. "Two weeks on the road, all that scenery. How long did it take to get in her pants?"

Curling his lip, Ben hurled the basketball at Kurt's midsection. "None of your business."

Kurt caught the ball just as it punched him in the gut. He wheezed, and then started laughing. "Jeez, man, relax. I'm just dying to know how she did it. Or you did it. Or both of you did it."

"All right, I've had enough of this," Ben growled, grabbing his shirt from where it hung, stuffed through one of the holes in the chain link fence.

"Kurt, just cool it," Jason said, coming forward to lay a hand on Ben's shoulder. "Come on, let's keep playing ball."

"No, man, I gotta get home, anyway. My mom needs the car." Ben chucked him in the shoulder and turned to leave the basketball court.

"Don't forget to call your sweetie, lover boy," Kurt called after him.