Right Turn

((Okay, overzealous reviewers aside, glad you all enjoyed! And as a side note, just because I know that people review to both a.) prompt the writer to write more and b.) give the writer a happy fuzzy feeling - please be aware that goofy reviews are great. But threats of realistic harm really freak ME out, personally. I realize that this is all said in fun. And I also know myself enough to know that it turns me off from any process I'm in fairly quickly. Call it a strange personality quirk.

Yue: *ggl* Moo! I suddenly feel an intense desire to go and chew cud. But no! Must resist! Ack! I shall WRITE MORE! *falls over into a heap, not unlike a cow tipped over - considers saying something like falling and not able to get up but suddenly afraid to date herself and so remains silent and stuck... silently suffering... unable to write, finally gasps out* Good bye cruel, unjust world! Good bye Jack whom I'd have loved to have jumped on! Goodbye Kyler who makes those of us with bully complexes go happy nutty! Good bye... err... sock collection! Good by- Anyway... ;) Hope this one helps with the "Get a MOVE ON, JACK!" *g*
Xtreme/Ashlee: Eek! Oh dear. I will do my utmost best to make sure it's.. it's... Errr.. who again? I kinda like Jack. He's cute. *w*
Penguin: Hee hee.. cute name! And thank heavens you're just kidding! I wouldn't be able to write any more if you did that!
LordTal: My hero! *swoon* Thank you for reading! You're awesome which you already know. But you're still always and forever awesome! (Couran agrees with me - but he says you come in a close second with a long haired cutie we both know)
Kikvws: :) I hope Jack continues to be a sweetie. I'm starting to become rather fond of him. Yes! And honesty is always such a wonderful thing! I know it's not very "smut"like, but I sure love the romance of it. Glad someone else does too!

And now for more of... ))

Right Turn

"So what is up with Mr. Sunshine, today?" Claire asked while she put a french fry in her mouth. Claire, being the perfect cheerleader paradox that she was, could pack it away with the best of them and she made no effort to hide the fact.

Jen, on the other side of her, laughed into her smoothie. Unlike Claire, Jen was a powerhouse who seemed to need her food in the form of liquids. Or so she showed signs of.

"Not much," Ben answered nonchalantly as he slid in beside Kyler, stole a packet of ranch off of the basketball player's tray, and opened it up over his pizza, pouring it onto the top of the cheese. "Why do you ask?"

"Oh I don't know..." Claire simpered. "Just you have this stupid grin on your face. Not that you're stupid, Ben. But you usually look like you've got the newest remedy for the world's problems in your head so it's a nice change. What happened?"

Ben shifted in his seat, finding it's his turn to blush. "I took your advice. And Band is coming up soon. Shit, I'm going to hyperventilate."

"Advice?" Kyler arched a brow at everyone.

"Oh, just Ben here's always wanting to jump a certain boy and so I -"

Ben interrupted Claire before she could create any more havoc. "So she isn't going to say any more. Claire, don't you know that this shit is hard enough for poor Ky-ky without you being all PG 13 about it?"

Ky flushed, "Fuck off Ben, I might not be as homophobic as you think."

"Since when? Gaypride week is like an annual excuse for guys like you to beat the shit out of anyone who's wearing the wrong fucking color, Ky," Ben snarled. He was feeling protective. It was people like Kyler who screwed with Jack until the other boy couldn't even come half way out of the fucking closet.

"Bull shit! You're such a judgmental prick sometimes, Ben!" Ky rose in his seat, looming over the brown haired boy. "You think that if someone doesn't pass your fucking tests, then they must be a bigotted asshole."

"Oh no, Ky," Ben interjected smoothly, "I don't think you're an asshole. That would intimate you were human. Albeit, a section of humanity most have pity on. No - I think you're an asswipe."

"Ben, truce or not truce, I'm gonna fuckin' make you think twice if you don't shut the fuck up," Kyler bristled. It was obvious that he was on the verge.

"Hey! Guys! Shit!" Claire's hand on Ben's arm silenced him for a moment. "Ky.. sit the fuck down. Shit, you guys are like kids. Can't you keep off of one another's throats for once?"

Kyler, looking shamed by the outburst of his crush slowly settled back into his chair, staring down at his food plate and ignoring the glares Ben was trying to shoot at him Frustrated at how he was being kept from eliminating one more prejudiced prick-ass from the world, Ben didn't think twice when he leaned in and hissed, "What would you do to me Ky, that you hadn't already done? You know what they say about homophobes.."

"Ben, please," Claire warned, her hand tightening on his arm.

"...how they just want someone to stick it in their ass."

"Ben! For fuck's sake!"

"Want me to stick it in your ass, Ky? Shit, you're such a pansy assed prick, you wouldn't even know how to take it withou-"

The shove across his mouth shoved his head back and surprised even him. Ben knew Kyler was on the verge of losing his temper but he'd hoped for an all out attack. But the hand over his mouth seemed an almost restrained, intimate action. It was too nice for a prick like Kyler.

His chair fell backwards, but the hand kept over his mouth and with a loud scrape of chair legs on the linoleum, Ben found himself pushed backwards, his chair balanced on two legs, with one large hand over his mouth and another holding him up by the grip on the back of his chair. Ben, too surprised to struggle, found himself staring up into a pair of eyes that were both piercingly cold and at the same time, a maelstrom of unidentifiable emotions. Shame perhaps? Fear? The thought ran through him then that perhaps he'd hit a little closer to the target than he ever had before.

"We had a truce, Benjamin," Kyler said softly. The softness of his voice was more frightening because it countered the anger in his eyes.

Ben mumbled "Ben" against the hand clamped across his mouth but it served as a knee jerk reaction rather than his knowledge that it was the right thing to say.

When the chair was righted again and Kyler was across the table, wiping his hand on his trouser leg before picking up his tray, Ben still couldn't think of a thing to say. His own mind ran in a million directions and he couldn't seem to settle on an appropriate response to what had just happened.

"I'm not hungry. See you guys later," Ky grunted and turned away.

After watching him go, Claire turned and smacked Ben hard in the shoulder. "You ass," she said in anger. "Can't you think of someone else than yourself for once?"

Ben blinked out of his daze. "Think of someone else? What the fuck, Claire? I have been thinking a lot about other people. Don't you start trying to dictate to me who I should be nice to. It's not my fault that Mr. Stick Up My Fucking Ass is your new best friend. You know what? I..." he stared at her.

Claire stood up as well, leaving her tray on the table. Her small form drawn up in wrath, she looked sort of like a ferocious evil make up puff. Still, her voice was iron hard. "Ben, you have no right to judge someone until you get to know them. Kyler has stood up for you, he's put himself on the line for you. He's been nice to you and tried like hell to get to know you. If you want to insist on being a fuckhead about this, then maybe you're right. Maybe I do need a new best friend. Because no best friend of mine would be so fucking dense." She gazed over at Jen then huffed, "I've lost my appetite too. You coming, Jen?"

Jennifer cast a worried look at them both, yet it was plain she'd side with her almost girlfriend. She gave Ben a slight shrug and a worried look before she got up and left behind Claire.

Ben threw his fork onto his tray and watched as it skittered across the table to tip precariously at the edge on the other side. Then he breathed softly. "Fuck."

He was still trying to get his breath when a hand appeared in his tunneled sight, caught up the fork, and moved it back over to him. "You okay?"

Looking up, Ben wasn't sure that it was the best of times, but it was sure a nice shift from how things had gone until now. Gazing down on him, Jack was a welcome sight. His green eyes were soft and worried and he tapped the back of a chair.

"Mind if I sit?"

Ben waved a hand. "Go ahead. But I'm not the best of company. Claire's bailed on me. I can't believe she's siding with that fucking jerk." He watched Jack settle uncertainly into the chair. "But that's not really important. Hi.." and he drove back the unsettled moments of scent that seemed almost familiar, as if it came from a very distant dream. Not to mention why it chose then, during all of what had been happening, to come up in his mind.

Jack, seeing the more cheerful face, seemed to settle into the chair with a greater ease. "Hey." He sighed in apparent relief. "So.. umm... I have been meaning to ask, if we could talk. I mean, we do talk, but I wanted to talk-talk, you know?"

Smiling, Ben nodded. His heart, a moment before broken beyond belief, suddenly soaring again. He knew exactly what that meant. "Yeah. I know. I've kinda been hoping we could too."

Ben glanced around then back at Jack. "This doesn't bother you? Talking to me?"

Jack looked puzzled for a moment then laughed. "Because of what they say about you? If I lived my life because of what everyone says, I'd be a pretty sad guy, you know?"

Ben laughed. "Yeah. Well, I'm glad you're not." Then, with the silence, "So, you have a good week so far?"

Jack grinned. "The best."

It was awkward, in the best of ways. "You heading to Band?"

Ben laughed. "After my next class, yeah. We do have another class.." he loved how Jack turned pink. It was so damnably cute!

Jack nodded with a chuckle. "That's what I meant. I mean, you normally hang out with your friends and stuff. But if maybe you wanted to meet up and walk there?" He looked suddenly uncomfortable. "If that's okay. It's just, I'm in the other hall so I figure if I don't ask people, I'll never have anyone to walk to classes with. And because we have classes together and all..." he died off.

Ben's appetite wasn't back, but he sure felt a helluva lot better. He swallowed hard. "Sure. I'll meet you at the edge of the hall."

"I feel like an idiot, almost as if I were setting up a date or something," Jack laughed. "Really though, it would be nice to get to know you."

Ben could only smile like an idiot. He thought he might have managed a "yeah" somewhere in there before Jack said goodbye, but he wasn't sure. Still, his happy day had returned and when Claire and Kyler didn't wait for him to get back from Calc II and Claire didn't show up to class, he didn't feel so lonely with Jack walking by his side.