Chapter 9
"BEEEEEEEP. BEEEEEEEEP. BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEP." Ben's hand slammed down on his alarm clock. It was 11AM, and he did not want to get up. He rolled onto his back and opened his eyes. God, how he wanted to just slide further under his blankets and go back to sleep. He almost did, too, but instead, he sighed and got out of his bed. He walked over to his dresser and pulled out his most comfortable pair of jeans, favorite band t-shirt, which had the "Gorillaz" logo on it, and his grey-striped hoodie. Pulling all of these things on, he tried to not think about how early it was. He the shoved all of the papers he needed today into his backpack, set it on his bed, and left the room.
He brushed his hair and teeth in the bathroom, and before he left, he glanced in the mirror. He noticed that he had bags under his eyes.
'I really shouldn't have stayed up until 5 this morning,' he thought, and headed for the kitchen. He was the only one home; his parents were both at work until 6pm on weekends. He made a strawberry poptart for breakfast and glanced at the time. 11:20. He should be heading to the bus stop now. He quickly retrieved his bag from his room, and dashed out the door.
He arrived at the stop just before the bus. He hopped on and took the first empty seat he saw. Pulling out Crime and Punishment, which he had almost finished, he lost himself in the fictional world.
Before he went to find Stu, Ben needed coffee. He walked over to the Starbucks inside the library and ordered a large. He payed the cashier, took his coffee, and headed over to fiction. He saw Stu sitting at the same table yesterday, bent over some papers, writing rather frantically.
"What's up?" Ben asked as he approached, and took a sip of his coffee. Man, that felt good in the morning. Stu didn't look up.
"I got an idea for a song, so I'm writing it down." He answered.
"Lyrics, or melody?"
"'Bit of both."
"Cool. I always wished I could do stuff like that." Ben took another sip of his drink.
"What, really?" Stu looked up now, looking curious.
"Oh, uh, yeah." Ben was a little unnerved by Stu's interest. "I've always admired people who could do it, and do it well."
"Hmm. I didn't think you were that into music." Stu grinned.
"I am, though. Not hugely, or anything. I'm not someone who searches for new, good stuff to listen to, or argues about what bands are best. I just come across songs that I like, so I listen to the rest of the bands' stuff. If I like it, I buy their CDs. If I don't, I just download the songs I like with iTunes, or something." Ben explained. "I find that I often enjoy bands and songs with witty and sarcastic lyrics, or ones that make points and discuss important things."
"Like, what? Green Day?"
"That's one of them, yes."
"Interesting..." Stu looked thoughtful. "Who's your favorite band?"
"Hm? Oh, probably," Ben opened his hoodie so Stu could see the band logo.
"Gorillaz? Awesome, they're pretty cool."
"Yeah, I really enjoy them." Ben smiled.
"Well, it's good to know a bit more about you." Stu smiled now too. "Just let me finish this, and then let's read the story."
"All right." Ben sat down in the chair opposite to Stu as he continued to write. He finished about a minute later, and Ben pulled out the papers.
"I read through this part last night, and marked places that need edits. Most of them are pretty simple." Ben elaborated. "Can you hand me the part in your notebook so I can read through that, too? I'll do that, and you read the first part and mark anything you think needs to be fixed."
"Sure, sounds good," Stu pulled out another notebook and handed it to Ben, then picked up the papers Ben had handed him. Ben took the book and read.
Ben finished reading before Stu, partly because the section he was reading was much shorter, and partly because he was a fast reader.
"You almost done that?" Ben asked, setting the notebook back down.
"Uh... no. I still have, like," Stu counted the pages he had yet to read, "7 pages left."
Ben stood up and walked over to look at the books on the shelf nearby. He had finished Crime and Punishment before he got to the library, so he needed something new to read. He looked for a few minutes before selecting Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy.
"What are you doing?" Stu asked him as he sat back down.
"Well, I figured you were going to be a while, so I needed something to do. So I grabbed a book to read, as I finished my current read on the bus ride this morning."
"Oh. What did you pick, then?"
"Anna Karenina," Ben showed Stu the cover. "I really enjoyed Crime and Punishment, so I wanted to try reading another Russian author's books."
".....Okay then." Stu looked back at the papers. Ben stared a Stu for a moment; he could have swore that Stu was amused by what her had said about what he was reading. Deciding to ignore this, he opened up the book and began reading it.
Ben was several chapters in when Stu finally finished reading the whole story. He looked up at Stu.
"Well? Did you find anything we need to fix?" He asked as he finished off his coffee and set his book down.
"Nope, you had it all covered. You even edited things I wouldn't have noticed were wrong!" Stu elaborated.
"Well, good. That means I can type it up at home tonight, and we'll be finished this thing." Ben smiled a little. Stu looked worried now.
"You mean the story, right?" he asked.
"Uh, yeah. What else would I have meant?" Ben raised an eyebrow.
"I thought you meant.... Um.... Nothing, nevermind." Stu still looked a bit troubled.
"I don't think it was nothing. What did you mean?" Ben asked seriously, watching Stu with a hard stare. Stu looked down at the table.
"I, uh... I thought you meant, um, us, you know.... hanging out." Stu mumbled. Ben kept staring.
"Being friends, you mean?" He questioned, his voice giving away no emotions. Stu glanced up quickly, as though to see if Ben was mad.
"Er.... More like.... Acquaintances," Stu brought his head up to look at Ben. "Or people who don't mind each other's company?" He looked hopeful.
"That's not what I meant." Ben said, making it his turn to glance away from Stu.
"Really?" Even without looking at him, Ben could tell that Stu was smiling. Broadly. Ben sighed and looked at him.
"Yes, really."
"Awesome!" Stu exclaimed, jumping out of his chair. "Dude, bro fist me!" He pushed his fist towards Ben, wanting him to bump it with his own.
"Uh, no. I'm not going to do that." Ben said. "If you want to stay "acquaintances", don't ever do that again." Stu withdrew his fist.
"How about a hi-five, then?" He asked. Ben narrowed his eyes.
"Come on man, this is what friends-I mean acquaintances-do!" Stu now pushed his open hand forwards. Ben sighed, half-amused, and hi-fived Stu.
"All right!" Stu returned to his seat, still grinning like a moron. "Oh, shit. What time is it?"
"Uh..." Ben consulted his phone. "1:00."
"Crap, I told my mom I'd be home by 2:00. I better go." He ripped off a piece of paper from his notebook and wrote something on it. He handed it to Ben, who saw that it was a phone number. "So we can text, or whatever." Stu explained as he gathered his things.
"Okay..." Ben slipped the paper into his jeans pocket.
"I gotta go. I'll see you tomorrow morning!" Stu said, and left. Ben sat there a moment to absorb what had just happened.
'Did I really tell him I didn't want to not be friends?' he asked himself silently. 'Well, shit. I guess the idiot has grown on me."