two steps back / ele ( clue. )

It's a strange sort of heaviness that settles slowly just below his ribs at two in the afternoon. The sensation isn't new, he's been disappointed before. Benji didn't know what he'd been expecting, Scarlet to just walk around a corner and loop her arm through his?

"Come on you grump, I've got something for you," she'd say and drag him somewhere for the afternoon like she always did.

She was dead. All this pining for a dead girl was just going to make him sick, so he'd thrown his hat on other stands.

Afternoon sun fell on him and he tilted his head back in an effort to catch their weak warmth. Summer would be ending soon and it would be autumn then. Winters always felt too long. He didn't like the way snow and slush took over the district and spring always took too long to come again.

For a first day back, it really hadn't been so terrible. There was the assembly that had gone on for far too long and then homeroom which had been boring. His classes had been interesting enough though and then, of course, his free period had gone better than he'd thought it might. The only thing that was unnerving him was the underclassman that had been following him around since assembly.

Benji didn't know what he was after or who had sent him. It could be any number of people, even Stella was somewhere near the top of that list. He'd been easy enough to lose around lunch, no one really wanted to be in the vicinity of Cleo. He'd been followed again soon after. A bench, out in the open air of the quad just seemed like the best place to wait for his pursuer.

It didn't take long.

Grady came striding across the lawn and Benji felt a small flicker of interest. He hadn't spoken to the other boy since the summer. He can still taste the blackberry liquor on his tongue and the way that it'd made him a bit more undone than usual. Grady had been there, going off about something between Parker and him. Benji had listened, waited. He didn't know what Grady wanted off him then, what he was supposed to say. Stella wanted him to make friends but Benji had never really been one for that.

Usually, people wanted just one thing anyway.

So he'd kissed Grady, pulled him close against him by the hip and pressed his lips against his. Grady had tasted like the blackberry liquor and a trace of mint from his toothpaste.

Then Grady had gone and Benji had sat on the balcony railing and watched kids spill out onto the lawn below until Stella came up behind him and wrapped her arms around his chest. "Don't jump," she'd teased.

He hadn't considered it.

Grady got straight to the point.

It was rare for Benji to get angry but he did get annoyed often enough and Grady was annoying him then. He understood the games that the students around him played but he'd never considered himself part of them and he had no intention of joining in. "Grady," he acknowledged his presence, "I have no idea what you're on about, you look ill, perhaps you should go and see the nurse."

It was delicious to see Grady Sullivan speechless for at least a moment. Benji gazed across the quad as he sputtered beside him. Nothing like the sound of a dying fish to accentuate the otherwise peaceful afternoon.

Benji wasn't a spurned lover.

Grady wanting to erase that kiss wasn't hurtful, just laughable. It had happened, what was the point, he wondered, in pretending that it hadn't. He might as well try drawing the air he'd just breathed back into his lungs.

He glanced at Grady, maybe part of him feeling bad for causing stress. He could be taking it all a bit personally he supposed but he'd never had an unhappy customer before. The kiss hadn't been bad, at least he didn't think so. No one had ever complained about it before until Grady. Could it be that he was experiencing a moment of damaged pride?

After a moment of consideration, he decided that Grady was in the wrong and that teasing him was acceptable. He could afford to be taken down a peg or two and it wouldn't cost him much. Grady, for all of his assets, only seemed to be able to offer one thing to people and that was money.

"It's funny you think that you can buy me, Sullivan" Benji said casually, "You forget, you're not the only one who comes from money." Perhaps not the same amount that Grady did, but Benji'scame from a long line of Doctors and Scientists, he'd never wanted for anything growing up and he'd never had to worry.

"Perhaps I just want another one," he said with a lazy grin, "I don't think I have to spell it out for you."

Half-teasing, he had no idea what he was doing. It wasn't as if he expected Grady to take the bait, it was more like he wanted to see his reaction. A thrill ran through him, maybe this was why his classmates were so insistent on playing games, it was pretty fun. Besides, he'd just had Cleo, might as well go for the set.