Turn My 6's to 9's

Chapter 2: Consequence to young ladies

"What a dick!" Lydia crowed as Jane drove them home, and her laughter filled the car. The night air was blowing their hair through the open windows. Beth was laughing with Lydia, even though Will's brusque dismissal of her had hurt her feelings. It was never a great feeling to have a handsome man so resoundingly reject her. The best thing she could do now was laugh about it.

"I'm Will Darcy," Beth mocked, holding a dead-eyed stare at Lydia until they both burst out laughing again.

"Come on, you two. He's Charles' good friend. They've known each other since before high school. I know he didn't make a very good impression-"

"Jane, he's the worst." For a moment, Beth thought about telling her sister what she had overhead but decided against it. She didn't want to say it in front of Lydia, and she still wasn't sure what she had overheard. She'd have to ask Jane in private what she knew about Charles's past relationships.

"I know he was really quiet tonight, and it was a rude thing to say to you, Beth. I'm sorry he did that." Jane chewed her lip. "Charles did say it took him a while to warm up to people. He and I talked when I first got there; he seemed sweet."

"Sweet? I don't think we're talking about the same person. He's tall," Beth said, indicating with her arm the air several inches above her head. "Wavy hair..."

"Hot." Lydia suggested. "Really hot."

"He's got to be to make up for that attitude. I'm sorry Jane, but you're not going to convince me that he's sweet, of all things. Rude, yes. Socially awkward, yes. Hot...yes," she admitted, and Lydia gave her an approving nod. "Sweet, no. Capable of holding a conversation, absolutely not."

"Well, he's here for the long weekend and we promised to hang out with them tomorrow, so-"

"Jane!" Beth interjected. She hadn't promised anyone any such thing. Now it made sense why Jane was defending him. She'd been trying to set him up with Beth.

"I am busy," Lydia said immediately, smirking. "Actually I am. I promised Mom I would go shopping with her. You're on your own," she said, pointing to Beth and giggling again. "I bet you five bucks he doesn't say more than a sentence the whole time you're there."

"Yeah, one telling me to move out of the way. What did you sign me up for?" she asked Jane in resignation.

"Nothing big, I promise. Charles wanted to have people over to swim and have a barbecue. His parents will be out of town." Jane used the rear view mirror to meet Beth's eyes in the back seat. "You can ignore him as much as you want tomorrow in retaliation. Have a drink, have a burger. Take a nap."

"Fine. I guess I'll just pretend to be asleep any time he comes around. I don't think there will be much difference in the conversation whether I'm conscious or unconscious, anyway," she finished, laughing again.

She'd picked her outfit carefully. Some sort of perverse opposite reaction had happened in her brain as they'd gotten ready for Charles's barbecue. Will had insulted her, and she knew he was going to be there, so she wanted to show up looking especially nice. She didn't want his attention necessarily, but she did want to make him regret being so curt the night before.

She picked her red swimsuit. It was cut high on the hips with a scoop neck and one tiny bow just above her cleavage. The cut was fairly modest, especially in comparison to the kind of suits that Lydia wore in public, but Beth thought it made her legs look long. Navy shorts, and her favorite pair of sunglasses finished the look. Just a little waterproof mascara and some lip gloss, and Beth was feeling confident.

Of course, Will was nowhere to be seen when they arrived to the small gathering. There were a couple people she recognized from Jane's high school class, and several people she didn't know who must have been Charles' friends. Music played softly in the background, punctuated by laughter and conversation. Charles had grilling tongs in one hand and a beer in another, and he greeted them warmly, waving at Beth and kissing Jane lightly.

"You're here! Drinks are in the pool house. Hot dogs should be ready soon. Pull up a chair!" Having just interacted with the opposite personality type the previous evening, for the first time Beth really appreciated just how friendly Charles was. This was what your partner was supposed to be like: friendly, open, and kind.

The sky was overcast and significantly cooler than the day before, so most everyone was lounging in chairs. After a few minutes of pleasant chit-chat with her acquaintances, she returned to Jane and Charles. "I'm going to grab a drink; do you want one?"

"Whatever you're having. Thanks!" Jane slunk an arm around Charles' waist while he dropped a kiss on her forehead, and Beth walked the short distance to the pool house by herself. She was genuinely happy for her sister finding a such a good boyfriend. Still, there was a twinge of that loneliness again. But maybe Charles would introduce her to one of his friends later, and maybe they would hit it off...

"Oh," she said involuntarily as she walked inside the pool house, startled to see Will there by himself leaning on the counter next to the fridge.

"Hello," he said, and Beth was embarrassed to feel her face warm under his gaze. They'd made fun of him the whole way home and she'd thought about what he had said for some time after that, and now here he was in front of her. And he was handsome, everything else aside. Even in just the t-shirt and shorts he was wearing today. She could see that his arms were nicely muscled.

She also noticed the very quick, subtle glance his eyes had made from her face to the top of her bathing suit and back up again. He hadn't done it with Lydia the night before when she was pushing out her chest, but he'd almost certainly just checked out Beth.

"Hi," she managed, feeling both self-conscious and at least a little vindicated that she had chosen the right swimsuit. A shy half smile played around his mouth as they looked at each other in silence.

Well, that smile was unnerving. Maybe he didn't remember who she was. She'd been sweaty and in ragged cutoffs at the festival the day before, and maybe he thought she was just another new person arriving to the party. "I'm Beth. Jane's sister."

"I remember."

More silence. Beth was regretting ever coming into this pool house, ever coming to this party. Why didn't he say something?

"I'm going to grab some drinks," she said after a beat, moving toward where Will was by the fridge.

He opened the door so she could see inside, and she grabbed two cans at random, trying to leave as quickly as she could. But as she stepped back out onto the pool patio, she'd realized he had followed her out. Apparently, he was coming too. One of the party-goers she didn't know called out to Will as they passed, and Beth wondered how he knew Charles's friends.

"Are you from around here?" she asked and Will nodded.

"I went to St. Agnes around the same time as Charles, but my mom lives in Georgetown now. I'm a year ahead of him in school."

Of course, you went to St. Agnes, Beth found herself thinking. And of course, you live in one of the richest neighborhoods in the country. He was a rich kid, just like Charles. Perhaps that was the reason she hadn't been worth the effort of talking to the night before.

"I just graduated from Meryton High," Beth said. "Public school," she added with emphasis and a winning smile. If Will was truly such a snob as to care about where she went to school, she hoped knowing that she went to public school would be enough to end the conversation.

But if he cared, he didn't show it. "Congratulations," he said, his voice genuine, and he raised the can in his hand to cheer her. They'd reached Jane and Charles, and Jane had to stifle a smile at seeing the two walking up together. She telegraphed a "Be nice" message with her eyes, and Beth rolled her own in response. Aloud, Jane said, "We're just about to eat. Charles made you a veggie burger. Sides are inside; Charles said help yourself to anything."

Inside, the kitchen island was filled with potluck style dishes that everyone had brought along with some take-out sides from some of Jane's favorite restaurants. Beth mentally gave Charles points for his thoughtfulness. She started with the dish that she and Jane had brought—a curried chickpea salad that was tangy and perfect for summer picnics. Will had followed her inside and he shut the door behind him, momentarily making eye contact with her.

She was surprised when he started filling his plate with her dish, but he moved onto the next side and the next, indiscriminately sampling from everything laid out on the kitchen island.

"Hungry?" she quipped, raising an eyebrow. She couldn't help herself.

"I am a growing boy," he replied without missing a beat and Beth almost laughed—would have laughed had it been anyone else. He was a head taller than her already. She settled for a smile that she couldn't quite stifle despite herself.

Jane stared openly at the amount of food on Will's plate as they rejoined them, and Charles laughed at her expression.

"Will did sprints today, so he needs the calories," he answered for his friend.

"Are you training for something specific?" Jane asked, all polite interest.

"Just basic conditioning. I'm trying to stay ready for pre-season training for lacrosse in a few weeks."

Beth had disliked every single lacrosse player she had ever interacted with in high school. They sat in the back row in class, too cool to be there, giving the teachers a hard time or purposefully wasting time in class. Beth valued her education and any class she'd been in with them had been at least partially ruined by their attitude and lack of respect. They were also the ones who would wolf whistle at girls in the hallway or make comments about their bodies. Beth had heard even worse stories about some of the lacrosse players, although she didn't know what was true. If she had to rank the person that she least wanted to spend time with, it would have been one of the lacrosse players from her high school. The information certainly didn't help Beth's impression of Will. Add on lax bro to the list.

"Will plays lacrosse for Pemberley," Charles said proudly to the table, while Will took a bite from his burger, looking uncomfortable with the conversation.

"Wow." It popped out of her mouth before she could stop it and the tone was absolutely wrong for the context. Pemberley was not that large of a university. Not only did she have to endure Will's awkward social interactions this weekend, but there was the chance that she could see him on campus as well!

Jane looked excited, and Beth tried to nonverbally convince her to stay silent, but it was no use.

"Pemberley! Beth's going there too this fall. She'll be a freshman."

"Wow! Beth, that's great. I had no idea," Charles exclaimed. Will had blinked at the news but said nothing.

"What's your major Will?" Jane asked with interest.

"Economics. Finance concentration," was all he said, and Beth just managed to resist an eye roll. Rich, D.C., White boy, lax bro dreaming of making it big on Wall street, blissfully at the top of the patriarchy. Somehow, Will Darcy was a walking list of the all the characteristics she didn't like.

"That's a really selective school," Charles continued. "You must've worked hard to get in." Beth smiled, but Will spoke before she could respond.

"They've been trying to raise enrollment for the last few years. Higher education in general isn't doing so well, financially, so they're trying to fill beds. I work in the admission's office," he added as an afterthought. "We were doing non-stop tours this spring. They let in a ton of people."

Beth found herself staring at Will in astonishment. What a pointlessly mean thing to say. Will hadn't been looking at her when he said it, and even now, he was eating calmly. She wondered if he even realized how insulting it had sounded. But after all, she wasn't worth the effort of talking to... and apparently, she wasn't good enough for Pemberley either.

Ignore him, ignore him, ignore him, ignore him she thought to herself. "You certainly know how to flatter a girl's ego, Will," she said, trying to play off the comment, but it still came out much icier than she had intended.

She saw the understanding flash across his face as he realized the implications of his comment. "It's still a really good school…" he offered apologetically, and Beth gave him a polite but cold smile.

"We were just saying how much we both enjoyed the band last night," Jane said, quickly maneuvering the subject to more neutral ground.

"What a fun evening!" Charles said with energy.

She saw Will subtly raise an eyebrow, but he didn't say anything else.

"What," Charles said flatly, looking at Will.

"I didn't say anything," Will replied, but as Charles continued to stare at him, he reluctantly elaborated. "It was…not unpleasant, sure."

"A rave review coming from Will," Charles said to Jane and Beth. "You missed the point of it, Will. It wasn't supposed to be like a fancy show in D.C. It's all about the small town experience."

"Right, like getting to see the bassist puke in a trashcan by a lemonade stand 10 minutes after their set."

"Always such a pessimist," Charles said with exasperation. "You can't change my mind. I thought it was great."

"You think everything is great, Charles," Will said patiently, and they all ate quietly for a few minutes.

Beth wondered how Charles, of all people, could be good friends with someone so disagreeable. But, then again, Charles did think everything was great, even Will Darcy.

The sun briefly made an appearance, and it was enough to get almost everyone into the pool. She and Jane were joined by Jane's friends from high school in the shallow end of the pool, and she welcomed the distraction from Will's comment. She found herself laughing with spirit as they dove and played a short game of keep-away with an inflated beach ball. Sometimes her eyes would land on Will, who was with Charles in the deep end, and she tried to let the memory of his comment roll off her like the water.

By the time her fingers were pruning, she'd decided that it wasn't worth it to waste energy on someone who was so...empty. He'd been rude, yes, but he was also boring, and since there wasn't a chance of them being friends, she just wanted to let it go. She wouldn't have to put up with him for long.

She had been glad for her sunglasses because she could watch the rest of the group without anyone knowing where her eyes were. Whenever their groups interacted, she'd been paying attention to how Will treated Jane, wondering if she'd catch a hint of what he'd insinuated the evening before. But he was perfectly normal. In fact, he seemed far more normal with Jane than he'd been with her. Their conversation seemed to flow without any of the deeply awkward pauses or unintentional (or intentional) slights that had characterized her own brief interactions with Will.

He fit in easily with the group of Charles's friends, and they all laughed together, reminiscing over people they knew in school. She had never seen him really smile before, but it transformed his face. It was a lightning bolt smile. On another person, it would have been irresistible. She'd been glad that no one could tell where she was looking because she found her eyes on him more than she liked. He was lean and muscled and more than once she found herself staring without realizing it.

Beth climbed out of the pool along with Jane late in the afternoon, saying goodbye to Jane's friends. She noticed Will's steady gaze on them, self-consciously feeling like a drowned rat. Jane wrapped them both up like burritos in towels, and they sat down on a pair of reclining chairs away from the group of Charles's friends. Jane handed her another drink with a smile.

"Has Charles dated anyone else before? Or is this his first serious relationship?" Beth asked quietly, making sure her voice didn't carry.

Jane looked at her in surprise, and Beth laughed. "I'm just curious," she added. "Seeing him with his high school friends made me wonder if there'd been anyone else. He doesn't seem to have any female friends."

"I know he had another relationship," she said, even quieter than Beth, her head turned away from the group. "From what he's said, I don't think it was very happy. I got the impression that he went into it too fast and that she wasn't on the same page as him." Jane looked serious. "It's something we've talked about before, making sure that we're both feeling the same way. He told me when we first started dating that he always rushed into things. He was...nervous in the beginning."

That provided some context to what she'd overheard the day before. Perhaps Will had been trying to be a good friend. She still didn't like the assumption Will had made about Jane, even if his worry about Charles had some merit. He'd met Jane twice—what did he know about how serious their relationship was? Maybe he had good intentions, but that didn't make up for his attitude, Beth decided. He was arrogant to make assumptions about Jane, arrogant to assume that Beth wasn't worth the effort to talk to, arrogant to think he knew more about Pemberley than she did. She wouldn't expend the energy to hate him, but she didn't have to like him either.

And it was very disconcerting to keep making eye contact with him from across the pool. She didn't know what he meant by looking at her so much.

"I'm thinking that I want another drink," Jane said with a mischievous smile. Neither she nor Beth were really into the drinking scene, but it was a holiday weekend. Neither had anything to do the next day, and Beth loved to see her normally reserved sister in the mood for fun.

But it meant that they would have to stay the night. Will would be there too, but she hadn't had to interact with him the entire afternoon and was already feeling better about his comment, seeing the humor in it.

Dusk fell, and only the four of them remained. Charles had graciously risen to the occasion when Jane had told him her plan.

"Of course, you can stay! None of us should be driving anyway. Won't this be nice," he said a moment later, pulling Jane in for a hug and nuzzling her neck. She giggled and then swatted him away, and Beth sincerely hoped this wasn't the way the rest of the evening was going to go.

"I was surprised Sam wasn't here," Will said to Charles after a lull in the conversation. His hair had dried into unruly curls, and he sat at the edge of the pool, feet in the water.

"He never got back to me after I texted him," Charles said with a puzzled frown.

"Sam has terrible judgement, obviously." Beth joked. "Missing such a fun party. And he could have at least made up an excuse not to come. You might have known it was a lie, but it's better than saying nothing."

"I've always heard that lying was a characteristic to avoid in friends," Will replied thoughtfully.

"Meaning…friends should always tell each other the absolute truth?" she asked with some skepticism, and he nodded, turning away from the pool to face where she and the others were lounging in the chairs.

"Always? The absolute truth?" she repeated again, and he laughed.

"Yes."

"No, you're crazy."

"Am I?" he asked with interest, and Beth replied with an emphatic yes.

"Imagine this scenario," she clarified. "Your friend is having a bad day and they look terrible. If they asked you how they looked, you'd say "sorry pal, you look like dog shit"?"

"He sure would," Charles replied before Will could say anything.

"It's not doing them a favor to lie about it," Will said, pragmatically. "And if they're asking about it, they must already know the truth. Anyway, being honest and being cruel aren't the same thing. I don't think I've ever told anyone they look like dog shit," he mused. "There are hard truths, but they're usually kinder than lies in the long run."

Beth tried a different angle, trying to get him to change his answer. "Let's say your parents don't approve of a girlfriend you bring home, and they act strangely around her. She can't understand the dynamic, so she asks you why and what they think of her."

He gave her an acknowledging nod. "That one is harder. But yes, I'd tell her. Honesty is the foundation of any friendship or relationship. If it's not there, what's the point?"

She gave a low whistle, trying to imagine what it would be like to hear that from a boyfriend. "You'd really tell her? I just think that sometimes the truth can be needlessly hurtful. An omission or a little fib that prevents pain can be better than the absolute truth."

Beth's gaze landed on Charles and Jane, and she was reminded of the previous evening.

"What if-" she continued before Will could say anything else. "What if you don't approve of your friend's choice in a romantic partner?" She said each word distinctly, watching his expression carefully. "You'd be completely honest with them about that? Knowing that they'd probably pick the partner over your friendship?"

Will's expression didn't change. "It would come out eventually anyway. Better sooner than later."

Beth leaned back in her chair. "Wow, what a frightening friend you make. I can see why Charles has only had you visit once."

Charles had been watching the two debate like it was a tennis match, looking from one to the other with unease, uncomfortable with any kind of debate, even one that was mostly friendly in nature.

"I've been trying to have him visit all summer. And I can tell you, Beth, that yes, he's totally honest each and every time he blows me off."

Will shook his head at that, and Charles smiled. "Like most things, I'm sure the answer is somewhere in the middle. There are many ways to be a good friend—I'm just glad I've got all my good friends around today." He pulled Jane close and dropped a kiss on her head, making her smile foolishly.

It was neatly done, Beth had to admit. She could tell that Charles wanted her and Will to agree to disagree, otherwise she would have pressed Will on the issue more. But the conversation did add an interesting dimension to her understanding of him, what she'd overheard him say the night before, and what he'd said to her about Pemberley. Perhaps in all those situations he hadn't been trying to be an asshole on purpose. Still, it was lazy and arrogant to use honesty as the excuse for not making the effort to be tactful in conversations.

Jane and Charles stood up from their lounge chairs, unsteady on their feet. Both of them were obviously tipsy, probably owing to the fact that they hadn't eaten anything since the afternoon. On cue, Beth's stomach gave a loud growl.

"Sorry," she apologized, placing a hand over her stomach and feeling mortified, but Charles just laughed.

"You're right, Beth. It's time for pizza. This is perfect," he added a moment later with a significant look at all of them. "Because I have fireworks."