Ben's House
July 31, 2000
10:55 AM
"So what are you two going to do today?" Ben's mom asked a trifle anxiously, trying and absolutely failing at a neutral expression, looking at them over the kitchen island and sliding a refilled glass of OJ to her. One Gwen didn't ask for but drank anyway - good thing it was a small glass. Ben finished the last swallow of his and rinsed out his glass at the sink before sitting on the stool next to hers.
"I don't know, Aunt Sandy. Hadn't thought about it yet. But it is a really nice day, we should do something outside for a while." Gwen said, turning to look at Ben. She glanced at the clock on the stove and grinned at the idea that popped into her head, "What if we go get lunch somewhere? I'm sure we can find something to do when we finish." Something that'll get us out of the house and alone for a while!
Their parents were ecstatic but still not a little mystified at their abrupt attitude adjustment towards each other. So much so that it didn't matter who went to who's house, there was always someone watching, somehow amazed that they could be friends again. It was starting to creep her out.
"I don't know, Dweeb, I don't want to go to the mall food court, we'll just end up shopping." Ben spit the last word out like it was the boiled cauliflower his Mom tried to pass off on him and his Dad at dinner once. "Ugh!"
"Hey! You had fun last summer!" Ben groaned and started to roll his eyes. "Don't even give me that, Doofus, you know you did! I have pictures to prove it. Or don't you remember that outfit I picked out for you?"
For a second or two she saw his eyes light up as his smile matched hers at the shared memory, only to be replaced by a look of pure horror. "You have a picture of that?!" Ben gasped. "No fair!"
Gwen laughed as much at his mom's bemused expression as the red spreading over her cousin's cheeks.
"Do I even want to know about that?" the woman asked.
"NO!" Ben shouted as he jumped off the counter stool, staring at Gwen. "You can't!"
That only made her slap her hands over her mouth to cover a giggle. Which didn't really work, earning her a toxic glare. "Geeze, Ben, freak out much? Calm down, I don't have it with me. ... Better watch yourself, though, or I may have to make a copy or two. Who knows where they may end up up?" Her giggles were replaced with her best smirk as Ben sat back down, face still burning.
"Evil, wicked witch!" he grumbled with a frown, distinctly loud enough for her to hear. And Aunt Sandy, who was still watching them with amused fascination.
"Besides, I was thinking about places closer by. There's lots of little fast food joints we can walk to." Gwen said.
Ben's eyes lit up again. "Hey, yeah! And after we eat we can go to the music store. I've needed to do that for a few weeks. Is that OK, Mom?"
She smiled and nodded her head. "Well, if you don't go much further than that. ... Yeah, go ahead! Looks like now you two have a plan! Have fun, and let me know where you are. Gwen, I'll be looking for texts from you, we both know how he is."
"Right! OK Aunt Sandy. I will." Gwen said with a smirk as they both stood up. Ben made a show of looking up at the ceiling and spreading his arms. "It just never stops!" he said in a long-suffering tone before letting his arms drop and started for the front door.
As they walked down the sidewalk away from his house, Gwen asked "So what are you in the mood for?"
"I was thinking that new BBQ place next to the music store. I've wanted to try it since May. ... Is that all right with you?" Gwen grinned at how he ducked his head with his question, and the genuine interest in her agreement or not. Even a few months ago he would have just assumed she would go along.
"Sure!" she replied happily. She reached out with her left hand to take his right, interlacing her fingers with his. Ben looked at her in surprise as she gave him a shy smile. In the few days since Grandpa's birthday they had both been cautious about any shows of affection, but they were far enough away from his house that Aunt Sandy couldn't see. And holding hands wasn't that big a deal, was it?
He looked down as he raised their hands a bit, but didn't let go. Then he let them drop and made an exaggerated arm swing for a step, and looked at her with an equally timid and adorable smile, making her want to skip along a few steps. OK, where did that girly idea come from?
The rest of the walk to the strip mall took maybe 15 minutes, with the conversation alternating between what other restaurants were close by, and comparisons to some of the wretched messes Grandpa tried to pass off as "real home made" whatever. It didn't matter what they talked about, they were together for a normal, brilliant summer day. You could almost call it a date, she thought. And she could feel her cheeks heat up at that, even if her Doofus chattered away without noticing.
— B —
As they entered the music store, Ben led the way directly to the guitar supplies section. He'd done it enough times now that he could find his way with his eyes closed.
"What do you need to get, Ben?" Gwen asked as he stopped in front of the replacement strings, making the answer obvious. "Again?! I thought you got new strings after our parents went to that wine festival. How do you break so many?" she said, her voice a little lower.
She had that worried look on her face that Ben knew would just get worse if he tried to blow it off, the one that drove him crazy because he always did something that made her hurt. And he'd been so careful not to over the last couple of days.
"I didn't ..." He was almost shouting, loud enough that the teen boy behind the counter looked over and scowled at them.
"I didn't mean to." He continued in a softer voice. "I was trying to play a few days after we...got back. ... It wasn't fun." What an understatement that was, he thought as he shuddered. He was staring at his shoes when he felt her hands take his. "Oh." was all she said, a whole conversation in that single word.
He felt her squeeze his hands and looked up to see her green eyes, so serious and haunted. "Ben" she said softly back, and he winced at his memory and the hurt flashing over her face. "Doofus, I didn't mean to... We can't pretend last month didn't happen. And we can't walk on eggshells around each other. I'm still your Dweeb, right?" She gave him a little smile.
"You can talk to me about it. You know that, right?" She looked around. "Not right here, though. Not nearly public enough." She said with a conspiratorial tone as she let out a short laugh and squeezed his hands again.
Ben chuffed like he used to when he was Wildmutt, and felt his eyes almost overflow. "Yeah, I know." He squeezed back, then let go, blinking away some bluriness. He turned back to the strings and grabbed two packets. "Good thing these aren't very expensive, I can get a spare set."
He turned and walked down the aisle towards a wall with two dozen guitars hanging on display. He looked, but didn't dare touch the ones with four figure price tags. Gwen followed, asking "Thinking of upgrading?", then started turning red, ducked her head and looked away.
"Didn't you just say something about eggshells?" he grinned and raised an eyebrow as he turned to look at her. She gave him a sheepish smile back and shrugged her shoulders.
Ben stopped at a demo display of a mid-price guitar and amp, hooked up and ready to go with the 'Power' light glowing and thought I wonder if I can still... He looked over at the counter and caught the teen's attention. "Hey, is it OK if I give this rig a try?"
"I don't know, dude, do you know what you're doing?" the guy challenged back.
"Yeah, I do" Ben replied, confidently, "but if you think I'm not then we'll leave right away. OK?"
He watched the guy give an indifferent shrug. "That's what it's there for, kid. Let's see what you got. Keep the volume down."
Gwen was watching with a smirk, and a hint of apprehension. "I hope you know what you're doing, dork!"
"Relax, nerd brain, I got this! Just don't embarrass me by spazzing out." he snarked back as she blurted out "I don't spazz out!" He sat down and picked up the guitar, found a pick and ran his fingers over the strings, taking in the tone and adjusting it and the volume knobs. He did a couple finger warmups Paul taught him, then launched into a song. Counter Guy recognized it right away, followed by Gwen a few bars later. She gasped as the guy shook his head and called out "My Sharona?! You've got to be kidding!"
Ben just smiled as his fingers got the rhythm and adjusted to the feel of this axe. They flew over the strings on the body and neck without faltering, and he nodded in time as Counter Guy started to do the same. His confidence built, so Ben skipped over repeating the chorus and started the solo. He saw Gwen grinning ear to ear and almost dancing near him - arms and shoulders bobbing as she swayed to the beat, the sight as magical to him now as it was the first time he saw it - as his fingers did their dance on the instrument. A small crowd of customers had drifted to the display wall from where they were in the store to watch. He closed his eyes when he got to the most intricate picking to concentrate on it, throwing in a few personal licks, and felt the music he was drawing out of the guitar, like it was an extension of his arms. He opened his eyes as he finished the bridge and started the transition back to the chorus, then stopped after a few more measures. No one really liked the chorus that much, anyway, and he heard enough to know he was really ready for a more capable instrument than his.
Ben's face hurt from the smile he had, and the feeling he got from the song was amazing! Yep, still awesome, he thought to himself. He looked at Counter Guy, who must have liked what he heard since he had a grin, too, and called out "Nice job, kid!" before turning back to a customer, and the rest of the crowd went back to their business. Some were even nodding appreciatively.
He almost jumped off the stool as Gwen wrapped her arms over his shoulders from behind him and crossed them over his chest, resting her chin on his right shoulder so she could whisper in his ear "That was great, Doofus! Better than the first time I heard it!" The feel of her breath sent a chill down his spine and made his heart race as he put the guitar in its stand and hugged her arms.
"Glad you liked it, Dweeb!" he answered softly, and sat there for a few seconds more before she let go and he stood up.
"I guess we should head back." Ben said as they walked to the counter to pay for the strings. Counter Guy looked up and grinned again as he handed over the two packs. "That was good, kid. How long have you been playing?" the teen asked as he rang up the sale.
"Four years, off and on" he said as he ducked his head a little and pulled out some cash. He'd heard his Dad use that phrase and thought it fit the situation.
"No shit?!" The boy looked impressed. "You made that guitar sound good! Looking to get a new one?"
"Nah, not really. Just checking out the sound. Maybe later."
"Not too soon to start giving hints for Christmas. ... Here's your strings, and the change. Come back again. And bring another tune, there'll be a different guitar on display!" Ben nodded and grinned as he turned towards the exit.
"Think your head will fit through the door after all that?" Gwen smirked as they left the counter.
"You heard that guy. He thought I did good."
"Psht! He's buttering you up for a sale!" Gwen teased as they walked along the front of the strip mall.
"Please! He just saw my awesomeness and had the good grace to recognize it! You should try it sometime."
"Think so?" Gwen said, taking a quick look around. They were in a long stretch of windowless stucco wall between store entrances, with no other foot traffic nearby. Ben was caught completely off guard as she grabbed a fistfull of his shirt and pulled him back against the wall, and kissed him firmly on the lips. His brain turned to mush and lost track of time as he tasted bubblegum before she pushed him away a little - but didn't let go - with a smile. "How's that for recognition?!"
"Oh, yeah, that's way better!" he said, collecting his wits and grinning. Then he leaned forward, tilting his head to the left and kissed her back, lingering as he wrapped his arms around her sides as hers went around him, one around his neck and the other to his head, fingers gently curling into his hair. This one lasted considerably longer, before they reluctantly pulled apart, both taking a quick look to see if anyone was staring at them.
Gwen giggled as they saw no one was close enough to pay attention to them at all. Still, Ben felt his cheeks burning. "You should see your face, Doofus! That's a good one!"
"Yeah, well, you look pretty boiled, too, lobster tail!" He grabbed her hand and pulled her along with him. "Mr Smoothie is just across the parking lot. We can stop and get one so you can cool down before we go home."
— X —
"... you poke the end through the bridge like this and pull it until it stops, then you psh it through the hole in the tuning peg up here. Bend the free end up like this, hold it here on the peg, turn the knob to tighten and make sure the string winds down the peg, like that, aaand.. That's it! That's how you fix a broken string." He grabbed the pliers off the desk and clipped of the excess wire.
"Now I just have to tune it and I'm ready to play again." Ben dropped the pliers and grabbed his phone, flipping it open with a flick of his thumb and started a tuning application. He picked up his guitar and plucked the new string, the exceptionally flat tone making him grimace and the screen on the phone flash orange. "Ugh, man, that hurts!" It was in tune soon enough, though, as the phone's screen changed colors from orange to yellow to green while he turned the tuning knob and picked the string. He looked up and strummed across all the strings with a satisfied grin.
"How does your phone do that?" Gwen asked, eyes wide with surprise.
"Sooo, there's this thing called the Internet, see, and people use it to be helpful by posting all kinds of useful stuff. I found a program for tuning guitars, and, well, there it is." Ben said with his best innocent look, in the same ultra-patient and patronizing tone of voice they used when explaining high tech to their parents. The one she often used on him. He rarely had the opportunity to reverse the situation, so he took full advantage of it now.
"I'm surprised a nerd like you doesn't know about it."
"Ha ha, knucklehead! I'm just shocked you figured it out. I knew you didn't write the program yourself!" Gwen answered back with as much sarcasm as she could, trying hard to contain a giggle through her mock glare. She got up from the desk and started arranging pillows on his bed so she could sit back, but Ben saw her shoulders shake a few times as he stared at her back.
"Now why would I bother with that when there are geeks like you giving stuff away?" He grinned back. "Instead of learning all that programming crap I focused on being creative."
"Is that what you call it? Sounds more like five monkeys randomly making noise to me!" She turned around and flopped back into the pillows and smirked back. They would be sorting out this more-than-friends thing for a while, but she was still Gwen, with all the smartass snark that was an essential part of her.
"And you love it! So now that I fixed the string and tuned it, got any requests?"
Gwen smiled at him and his heart stuttered. "We know you haven't completely forgotten how to play that thing. And I've listened to your recordings so much I started to think what came out of the dinky phone speaker sounded good!" She huffed out a disgusted snort.
"Remind me what it's supposed to sound like! Your pick."
"Gotcha covered!" he grinned back, standing a few feet from his desk facing her and slung the guitar over his shoulder. He tapped out a moderate tempo for six beats and started, picking out two measures of a familiar tune, waiting for her reaction. He got what he expected, sort of.
Gwen shrieked out "Not that one, you doofus!", grabbed a pillow and chucked it at him. Ben ducked from it with a cackle as he stopped playing the song.
"What? You don't like R.E.M.?"
She snorted. "No, not really. They're way too pretentious. And especially not Everybody Hurts! I think we've done more than enough of that!" She shuddered as her face fell for a second, then she shook her head and looked back up at him with an evil smirk.
"If you do something like that again, I'll..." Ben was on the verge of cracking up as he watched her think up a suitably awful retaliation to threaten him with, her eyes sweeping his room and stopping at an unstable pile of comics spilling off a bookcase shelf. "I'll make all your comic books disappear to a place you won't find for three months!" Can't really destroy books, even his stash of brain rot, she thought. The idea made her snicker, though.
"You will not!" Ben gasped in mock horror.
He knew the song she wanted to hear, and his fingers itched to play it. His right hand tapped out the beat and started the alternating notes of the intro to their song, and almost laughed when Gwen clapped her hands twice and couldn't hold back her delighted squeal as he hit the first two power chords. Despite successfully pulling off the solo riff at the music store, the misery from his attempt to play after they got back from Aunt Vera's had made him afraid of his guitar. But hearing that sound and watching her sway her body and move her arms where she sat, and seeing that smile on her face was like magic, sweeping the pain and doubt from the past month away. He played like he did that night last fall, and he couldn't stop a short laugh as she caved in and jumped off his bed to dance the way she did then, too. He couldn't keep his eyes off her, including staring with appreciation when she twitched her hips and butt as she spun around. His fingers flew with confidence on the strings, and he mirrored her enthusiastic dancing by copying the stage theatrics his musical heroes used when he got to the solo of Detroit Rock City. He rocked his upper body back and forth in time with the music, dramatically sweeping his arm across the guitar's body on the downbeat of the power chords. Gwen stopped dancing to watch him with a surprised smile as he preened for her, then started back up when the solo ended and he was back to the chorus. She spun and jumped with the grace and power of a mountain lion and kicked her feet as the song approached the end, and she threw her hands in the air with the same excitement he did on the final note!
"YES!" Gwen exclaimed, then let her arms fall to rest on her knees as she bent over, looking up at him with a radiant smile between deep breaths.
Ben stared into her green eyes, totally lost in the joy they sparkled with. It was awesome! So much so that he didn't see her glomp coming, knocking him back a step into his desk, his hands finding the edge to keep from falling down as the guitar hung from the strap over his shoulder. Gwen didn't seem to mind it digging into her middle as she threw her arms around his neck and held her head against his.
"I've been dying to hear that for weeks! That was amazing, hero!" she said softly in his ear, sending a shiver down his back again. She was getting really good at that!
Her last word caught up with him, and he pulled his head away and stared across the room. "I don't think I'm that any more." he said quietly. Gwen slid her hands from his neck to his cheeks and turned his head to face her again.
"Of course you are! You'll always be my hero, Doofus! Never doubt that!" she replied, then kissed him softly.
She pulled back with a smile that lit up his world. "That doesn't mean you're done, though! Come on, you can do more. You know you want to!" She said in a playful tone as she stepped back and sat on the edge of his bed, kicking her feet and waiting expectantly.
He really did, now that the guitar was becoming a way to have fun again, instead of a source of pain. The two songs he'd done so far were ones he absolutely knew from plenty of practice, and as fun as they were they weren't the most challenging ones on his playlist. Ben had a nagging feeling that he couldn't play the songs he learned the day he spent as Fourarms with Gwen, and he needed to find out. Her smile steeled his resolve, so he smiled back as he took up the guitar again and mumbled "Let's see if I remember anything from Fourarms", knowing full well she heard it.
Pushing his fears aside, he started on the most challenging and rambunctious tune, the metal version of the William Tell Overture that he only played as the big red guy. The intro started a bit iffy as he split his concentration between his hands before recalling how Fourarms stopped doing that and just let the notes flow from his fingers. He closed his eyes like he did then, not sure if it was going to work, and was happily surprised to hear the lead guitar line wailing from the amp as his fingers flashed over the strings. With only one guitar it wasn't as full and complex as his alien form did it, and he stumbled in places when the right notes and chords just weren't there. His enthusiastic playing and the fast tempo smoothed over the rough spots though, just like Paul taught him, and he grinned and opened his eyes to see what she thought.
Gwen must have liked it at least a little, based on what Ben saw. She was nodding along with the beat and had a little smile, but definitely not the excited reaction she had that afternoon. Ben wasn't surprised about that, since it was too fast to dance to and really a spur of the moment thing at the time, but now he knew at least some of what he did in the alien form would stay with him. He wrapped up the song and launched straight off into one he knew she liked, and was glad to see her get up and dance some more, smiling and sometimes laughing when he pulled off a tricky bit of improvising.
She was breathing harder than usual when he finished but still managed to tell him she liked it. "That's more like it! You know I'm not a big fan of heavy metal!"
"Pfft! That wasn't exactly heavy metal" he scoffed, "but I get your point. I just wanted to see if I could do as me what I did as Fourarms." He shook out his hands to relieve some cramping. "Here's one I did as both of me that you said you liked. Not really a dance tune, though, I think you need a rest - you look pretty ragged!" he snarked.
"As if! I can do this all day! You know how hard Sensei makes us work." Gwen ducked her head as soon as she said it, but he laughed and shot back "Uh huh. Except I'm the one running five or six miles a week during soccer practice!"
He ran the pick over the strings as she sat back into the pillows, and turned the volume down a notch. Even his Mom said she liked the tune, and they really didn't want her coming in to comment on it.
He started the intro, right hand flying over the pickups while his left danced over the guitar's neck from the body up to the tuning pegs and back down before smoothly transitioning into the chorus of Cliffs of Dover. Between what Paul taught him and his experience playing it as Fourarms and his regular self, he nailed it, and knew he could shred the bridge! The thought made him smile, like hers when he looked up at her. That smile, the one that made him feel like he did when Sensei awarded him the green belt after all the help and encouragement she gave him.
The complex notes and rhythm came effortlessly to him as he ripped through the bridge, as happy memories of previous times with her in the same spot on his bed flashed in his thoughts. Times he was sure would never happen again, and now here they were! His vision got a little blurry as he improvised some new runs and trills to the tune, all the while thinking how awesome it was to have his best friend back! He had to blink a few times to clear up his vision, looking down so she wouldn't notice. He played through the rest of the song, finishing with one last dramatic sweep of his arm on the final chord.
When he looked up he was a little surprised that Gwen was beaming at him. He knew he played the hell out of that tune, but he didn't think it was a particular favorite of hers. He was even more amazed when she got up and took the few steps to stand in front of him.
"That was a sweet thing to say, Doofus! That's how I think of you, too!" Gwen said with a shy smile, then leaned in with a lingering kiss on his cheek. "Thank you!" she whispered softly before she pulled back.
Ben was gobsmacked. He knew he didn't say anything, but he also knew he better not blurt that out. He felt his cheeks burn, and instead said "Um, you're welcome... ?"
"You did say I was your best friend?" she asked, red creeping over her face at his uncertain reply.
"You are, you definitely are! But I didn't think I said it out loud." he tried to explain. "I was thinking it though!" He added hastily at her falling expression. And tasted cinnamon roll when he played that improvised riff, now that he thought about it. He sucked in a sharp breath as she turned away from him with a look of confused embarrassment, and played it again. You are the best friend I ever had! He really loved that taste!
"I know I heard it, Ben - you just said it again! If you don't mean it, why do you..." she said with growing irritation. She whirled around to look back at him to see his grin and hear the fading note from the amp as he pointed to his closed mouth with his left index finger. Then he held up his right hand and flicked his wrist back and forth, light flashing off the reflective pick he was holding. He knew what she was tasting, and his grin expanded into a smile while he watched it click into place in her thoughts.
"Is that... marshmallows?" Gwen mumbled, then gasped with the realization. "Oh my god, the bugs! The brain bugs are learning how to translate music as a language!"
"Took ya long enough! ... Yeah, Grandpa said they would for new languages, remember?"
Gwen nodded her head with her mouth open in astonishment, closed it and searched his eyes with hers. "Do you mean it, Doofus?" she asked quietly.
He looked away and rubbed the back of his head with his left hand as he stared off nervously for ten seconds. Screw it, he thought, don't mess this up! Just say it out loud, visibly swallowed hard and looked directly into her eyes with a shy smile.
"Well, the bugs haven't screwed up before, have they?"
Gwen nodded again and smiled back, thinking, then reached out to grab the strap holding the guitar and slipped it over his head, and set his axe next to the desk. Then she pushed him firmly with both hands on his chest, turning him and making him step back until his legs ran into the edge of his bed. She gave him a good shove as a shocked look covered his face, along with an intense burn. He fell back into the pillow pile she made, squirming back towards the foot of the bed so he wasn't completely flat on his back, frantically trying to figure out what she was up to as Gwen took a quick glance at the closed door to the hall. Then she followed him, crawling on her hands and knees up his outstretched legs and over his body until she loomed down at him like a cat that just caught a mouse with an adorably sly grin; and since when did words like adorable become a part of his vocabulary?
Her face was inches away from his, equally flushed, as another shiver ran down his back. "This seems familiar..." she purred.
Ben's tense surprise lasted another second, then he relaxed and grinned back. "Think we can get it right this time, Dweeb?" he said softly, and wrapped his arms around her back.
Her grin spread into a full smile before she whispered back "Happy New Year, Doofus!". Then she met him halfway as he was leaning up, pressing his lips gently against hers, and kissed him back like she should have all those months ago.
/