38. The Road Home (1/2)

38 – the road home

felicity watched

bubbles of carbonation form on the straw of her soda. "i just… i thought he was

different."

like a true

friend, shelly puffed with indignation and sat on the next barstool. "he's a

jerk. you don't need him. cute jerks are still jerks."

"yeah, i know,"

felicity murmured. she stirred her soda restlessly with the straw.

shelly laid a

hand on her friend's arm. "sure you won't dance with us?"

felicity shook

her head. "no. i think i'm just going to finish my drink and go home, if that's

okay with you. i'm tired, anyway," she lied.

shelly frowned

in sympathy. "okay. if you change your mind, we're going to rudebaker's

after this. i'll see you later."

"yeah. thanks." felicity wrapped a sneaker around the leg of

the barstool. shelly gave her arm a

ief squeeze and went back to the dance

floor.

a sudden flurry

of noise made her look up. felicity turned toward the doorway for the source of

the disturbance to see a small group of laughing young men enter the bar. she

recognized the one in front as kurt. two others entered behind him, arguing

over something. great, just what i need. ben's friends.

then ben stepped

through the doorway. he stood on the threshold with his hands stuffed in his

jacket pockets. he swept the room with a casual glance, and his eyes landed on

her. he stared across the room with an unreadable expression.

felicity looked

away first. she pulled her soda toward her and hunched over it. the fast song

ended, only to be replaced by another. to felicity's mortification, kurt

crossed the room and bellied up to the bar to ask for four beers. fake id, no doubt, she thought with a

smirk.

while kurt

waited for the bartender to fill his order, he looked around. she could almost

feel the moment when his gaze landed on her. he stared so hard she wanted to

squirm in her seat. she almost felt like she was back in high school, the

frizzy-haired nobody that guys like him only looked at when they wanted to

ridicule someone. she set her jaw and tried to ignore him. it still hurt.

he edged closer.

"so, what are you doing here?"

the old felicity

would have slunk away, or looked around to see if he was talking to someone

else. the new felicity surprised her by taking over in a burst of indignation.

she eyed him. "what's it look like?"

kurt raised his

hands in a mock show of fending her off. "don't get your panties in a twist. i

was just wondering, you know, if you had a hot date."

she tried to

come up with a snappy reply, something to shut him up. nothing came, so she

settled for her most withering show of indifference and turned back to her

soda.

"hey, where do

you get off being so high and mighty? i'm just trying to be friendly, here."

kurt laid a hand on her shoulder.

she grabbed it

and threw it off. "don't touch me."

"whoa, hey. check out the ice queen. i guess i was wrong

about you and ben, wasn't i?"

she

istled.

more than four years of harassment by his ilk finally became too much to bear.

the old felicity cringed in expectation of the outburst. "why don't you take

your jock friends and go bother someone else?" she said, loud enough for most

of the bar's patrons to overhear. a nasty little part of her hoped ben heard

it, too.

kurt scowled at

her. "i always did think you were a frigid bitch. thanks for proving me right."

he snatched his beers, threw a few bills on the bar, and stalked away.

- - - - -

ben caught kurt

by the sleeve on his way back from the bar. "hey, man, what did you say to

her?"

"nothing she

didn't deserve."

ben made a face

of disgust. "she wasn't bothering you. why do you have to be such a dick to

her?"

"why do you

care, covington?

she's not worth the time. she's nobody special." kurt shrugged him off and

headed back to their table.

ben followed.

"look, what's your problem? you used to be less of a jerk than this." sitting

at the table, jason and eric gave him curious looks.

"yeah, and you

used to be fun to hang out with," responded kurt, raising an eye

ow at him. "i

fixed you up with a hot girl, and you barely blinked."

"if you'd

bothered to talk to her first, you would have known she's already into somebody

else!" ben fumed.

"who cares about

some stupid girl? let's play pool," eric interjected. he jerked his head toward

the billiard table in the corner of the bar.

"stay out of

it," ben snapped. eric blinked at him, startled into silence.

jason held up

his hands. "will you both just lay off each other? we're here to have a good

time."

"yeah? don't go asking for porter's phone number," kurt

jabbed.

ben snarled.

"you know, i've had enough of your crap, kurt. you may not like her, but let me

tell you something about felicity. she's been a better friend to me in the past

year than you have in seven." to

jason and eric, he said, "i'll see you guys around." he walked away.

jason watched

him go with a look of regret. eric shrugged.

kurt hissed and