Entitled . HS

SIXTEEN. *

A/N: This is part of a double update. Make sure you've read chapter FIFTEEN first, or things might not make a whole lot of sense.

~~~~~~~~~~

I got back to the Jeep and I threw the crutches in the back and I sat down in the passenger seat with a humph. I didn't move to buckle my seat belt because I wasn't ready for Benji to drive anywhere and he knew it. I was processing. What the? How the? WHY the hell? He sat, staring out the front window for a couple minutes before he finally turned to me.

"You have to talk to me now because I know what's spinning inside that brain of yours."

"Not sure I have the words yet," I replied honestly.

"He did say he would give you a $10,000 bonus to come and work for him. Maybe that's what this is?"

"But he didn't pay for it. His dad did."

"Maybe it's your bonus for the year?" Benji suggested, trying to be helpful, but just making me more annoyed in the process. I didn't think it was any of those things. I thought perhaps it was Harris telling his dad to pay my tuition, but then that made me feel like I was going to owe them something.

"I don't even know how to bring it up, or how to ask him. And when I do, do I ask Arthur or Harris?"

"Maybe you just don't say anything."

"I can't do that, Benj. This isn't someone buying my lunch. This is $16,000. SIXTEEN," I drew out the last words. "I have to say something because I need to thank them, or ask what they want. I don't know. This just feels weird."

"That's just because you're not used to being on the receiving end of good fortune. Perhaps it's time you learned what that feels like. To be the one who people are helping instead of always being the one that's doing the helping." Benji always hated that I took on the role of caregiver, but I lived a life where, most of the time, there wasn't anyone else to be the caregiver if I wasn't willing to step up. I knew it was bothering him because we drove back to the bar in near silence.

Once we got back, he ordered us some lunch and we talked about the third and fourth dates he went on with Derek. A part of me still struggled with him telling me all about his new person, but we both knew that eventually we'd move on to other people. We had to. Derek seemed like a good guy. He was a law student and Benji was smitten. I knew this because they didn't have sex the first date, meaning he was in the 'boyfriend potential' category.

"So, will I get to meet him at Thanksgiving?"

"No. We're not to 'meet the parents' status yet. It's still early, but he did make it past the dreaded third date." Benji always had a third date rule. The first date was just the first awkward, but good enough to exchange numbers, date. The second was to see if your opinion after the first date stuck. Then, the third date was the one where everyone showed more of their 'real' self. That was the make-it-or-break-it date. If you made it to date four, at least with him, you were in for a longer-term thing.

As we were eating, Harris arrived early to pick me up and take me back to Guin and Law's place. "Hey," he said as he walked up to me. He first looked around to see if anyone was in the bar that shouldn't see us together, and once he saw that there were a total of four other people in the bar at the moment, he came in for a chaste kiss.

"Hi," I said with a smile after our lips disconnected. "That's weird," I admitted, after he kissed me in public.

"Weird as in don't do it again?"

"No, just don't get too comfortable or our cover will be blown." He sat down next to me, taking his coat off. He looked between Benji and me, deducting that we had been in the middle of a conversation that he had interrupted.