by Dell, T. J.
“What’s really up?” He asked as he grabbed his plate and what was left of the chips and salsa. Marilyn followed him to the dining room table where he sat down and unceremoniously began shoveling his food down his throat. He had to hurry if he was going to make nine o’clock.
“Oh, I just wanted to… you know… well, I shouldn’t have asked you that earlier. It wasn’t fair of me. I don’t know what I was thinking.” She squirmed a little in her chair and tried to peek into the living room. Benjamin enjoyed the novelty of making Marilyn Danning nervous. Usually that happened the other way around. And as odd as her reasoning was, it was also a relief that she wasn’t going to pitch him another plan to fix her grade. Mythology wasn’t that hard of a class, geez.
“She can’t hear you.”
“Huh?”
“My mom. I’m sure she is upstairs right now doing some strange happy dance.” Benjamin sneaked a peek at his cell phone. He was definitely not going to have time to shower.
“A happy dance?” Marilyn laughed a little. It was a cute laugh. “Because of me?”
“Yeah well, not a lot of beautiful girls stop by looking for me.”
Marilyn’s eyes went kind of wide and round. “Did you just call me beautiful?”
“I guess.” He carried the remnants of his meal back into the kitchen. It was a shame that he’d worked so late—and that the guys were waiting for him. This had the potential to be very interesting. “So—apology accepted. No big deal.” He dumped his plate and stuff into the sink and turned back to face her.
“Are you kicking me out?”
Why did this have to happen today? Benjamin would have loved to think up some excuse for her to stay. “No. I mean, I do have something I have to do. But if there is something else you wanted…”
“You’re kicking me out!” She looked insulted or at the very least shocked. She had this air of entitlement about her that really got on his nerves. Seriously— she did show up unannounced.
“You don’t have to leave, but I’m meeting some people so we have to move upstairs.” He couldn’t have been more surprised to hear her following behind him.
“You’re meeting people in your house?”
“No. Not exactly.” Since he didn’t have time for a shower and it was a safe bet that he smelled like the shop (in a bad way), Benjamin unbuttoned his Mike’s Customs uniform shirt and tossed it into his bedroom as they walked past the open doorway. The plain white tee-shirt he wore underneath of it wasn’t at the top of the list of clothes he’d have chosen if he’d known Marilyn was coming over, but at least he smelled better—he hoped he smelled better.
In the game room, Benjamin switched on his computer and television and signed into his World of Warcraft account. “I’m in.” He spoke into a headset. As soon as Alec acknowledged him, he switched the headset off and relied on the chat window. If she was going to mock him, he’d rather half the internet not be witness to it. “Umm… It’s a game. We’ve been planning this raid for awhile, and they can’t do it without my character.” He explained to her.
“Those are other real people? People you know?” She actually sounded interested. When he turned to face her again, she was curled up with her legs beneath her in on old easy chair. Her shoes were propped against the leg of the chair on the floor. The sight of her making herself so comfortable in his house went a long way to resurrect old day dreams from when he was twelve and before he’d decided she wasn’t worth it. This really was crazy. He didn’t even like Marilyn and she definitely didn’t like him. What was she doing there?
“Yes, they are real people. Some of them I know in real life. That one is actually Alec O’Connell. He goes to school with us.” Marilyn nodded at that. She must know who Alec is. Benjamin made a mental note to pass that onto him. It would probably make his year. “Some I just know through WOW.”
“Wow?”
“That’s the name of the game… World of Warcraft.” They were still waiting for a few characters to log in, so he explained to her a little about the virtual world of Azeroth and how to build characters. He was surprised again that she listened attentively and even asked a couple of questions.
“So which one is you again?”
“That’s me—I’m a paladin.” Then he explained what a paladin was versus the other character classes. And his role in the group’s attack plan. It was over an hour before he could sign off. Even so—Alec got pissed at him for bailing early. But they weren’t getting anywhere anyway. Benjamin was reasonably sure that Alec would be more understanding if he knew why he’d signed off early… but he was definitely not having that conversation in front of Marilyn... and half the population of Azeroth.
“Well, it’s getting late. I have a curfew; I should go.” Marilyn put her shoes back on, and Benjamin suddenly realized it was almost eleven o’clock.
He was a little surprised to find out that hanging with Marilyn had the same effect on his time management skills as working in the shop. “Okay, well, thanks.” What?!?! What was he thanking her for? It wasn’t as though he never talked to girls. Normally he wasn’t the tongue tied sort of guy, but he was still a bit confused about what she was doing at his house in the first place.
They walked downstairs together, but it wasn’t until he opened the front door that he noticed a problem. “Where’s your car?”
“Oh. I only live a couple streets over. I walked.”
“It’s raining.” He leaned out of the doorway and pointed at the sky. It wasn’t coming down too hard, and she must not have noticed because she still stepped out onto the porch.
“It’s alright. I won’t melt.”
Well that was just dumb. She could ask him to cheat for her, but she wouldn’t ask for a lift home? Why were girls so weird? “Just wait a second. I’ll get my mom’s keys and drive you.”
His mom’s minivan had a pile of random crap on the passenger seat so it took him a minute to clear it off for her. When Benjamin pulled out of the garage Marilyn was giving him a strange look.
“I thought you had a car? I mean you drove home from work right?”
“It wasn’t raining then and I ride a bike.” Marilyn nodded and directed him towards her house. He hadn’t realized they lived so close. Come to think of it, how had she known where his house was? “How did you know where I lived?”
“Oh. We used to ride the same school bus… I remembered it.”
Well, well. Marilyn Danning noticed him. Wow. He even felt a little chastised for not remembering her house.
When they pulled up in front of her driveway, she hesitated before opening the car door. “This was fun, Benjamin. I’m glad your mom let me stay and wait for you.”
Oh, crap. “How long were you waiting?” This could be bad. His mom had no mental filter to keep in any embarrassing childhood moments.
Marilyn snickered a little. “Long enough to know about Bobo Bobkins.”
He moaned and dropped his head onto the steering wheel. It made a soft thudding noise. Bobo was an invisible talking giraffe he used to hang out with when he was a kid. There was going to be a long discussion concerning that filter when he got home.
Marilyn reached out and touched his arm. “Don’t worry about it. My mom’s got some pretty good dirt on me too.” She looked both ways and lowered her voice to a secretive whisper. “I used to take ice dancing lessons.”
“Why is that dirt?” He played along with an equally whispery voice.
“You haven’t seen the home videos—I sucked.”
Her voice returned to normal and she winked at him before sliding out of the van and running to the dry safety of her front porch. He got a little finger wiggle of a ‘good night’ just as she disappeared inside. This had been the most bizarre day of his life. And considering that he didn’t even like Marilyn very much—it had strangely also been one of the best days of his life.
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