Page 87 of Something Like Summer

“Benjamin!”

“Who’s here?” Ben growled,feeling like an over-possessive husband.

“Just someone fromschool,” Tim said.

Ben pushed past him andstepped over Chinchilla, whose whole butt wagged in greeting. Hestomped into the living room to discover a mousey girl pouring overmultiple spiral notebooks.

“Is that your caroutside?” Ben asked, suddenly feeling stupid.

“Huh?” the girl replied,finally noticing him. “Yeah. Do I need to move it?”

“No. Sorry.”

“Actually,” Tim said,entering the room, “we’re going to have to do this tomorrow.Something’s come up.”

“There’s only two daysleft!” the girl complained.

“I know. We’ll really nailit tomorrow, promise,” Tim said.

The girl didn’t lookconvinced, but she gathered up her things and left.

Ben sat on a couch, headspinning. Chinchilla yapped at his feet before piddling inexcitement. Tim was there almost instantly with paper towels. Heeyed Ben with concern as he cleaned it up.

“You didn’t leave a noteon Jace’s door, did you?” Ben asked. “Or have someone else doit?”

“No. Why? Whathappened?”

Ben started to explain,getting worked up again in the process. Tim interrupted him to runto the kitchen. He came back with a couple bottles of beer. Ben’swords poured out, some angry and others confused. Tim didn’t offerany advice; he only made sympathetic noises and occasionally askeda question.

Once Ben’s demons wereexpelled, another round of beers was fetched and they began talkingabout their end-of-studies stress. Both of them were underpressure, but Tim was taking it much easier than Ben. Consideringthat he was already independently wealthy, he had little need for adegree.

“Why are you evenbothering?” Ben asked him. “I’d drop it all in a second if I werein your shoes.”

“I promisedEric.”

They heated up a couple offrozen pizzas and downed them with another round of beers. Thelight had left the day now, along with Ben’s sobriety. He rarelydrank, so three bottles of beer was his version of a binge. Whentheir buzzes began to wear off, leaving them tired, Ben followedTim upstairs and made a clumsy pass at him. Tim gently pushed himaway and redirected him to one of the guest rooms. If Ben neededany more proof that Tim was innocent in the recent scandal, thiswas more than enough.

Ben slogged through thenext two days of classes with his brain to the grindstone-- not thetraditional saying, but exactly how he felt. For once Tim wasn’t onhis mind. The rift between him and Jace drove him to distractionuntil Ben finally gave in and called.

“Where areyou?”

“Chicago.”

“Are you flying backtonight?”

“No. Not for a couple ofdays.”

“Oh.”

“Look, Ben, I think weboth said things we didn’t mean, but I think we should take abreak.”

Ben couldn’trespond.

“You have a lot going onright now with school,” Jace continued. “I understand how muchpressure you are under. I remember. Focus on your finals and yourthesis and make sure you graduate. Once that is out of the way,then we can talk, okay?”

“I guess.”

“Good. I loveyou.”