Bros With Benefits

You sat there with her on the edge of her bed in silence for who knows how long.

Neither of you even remember when you sat back down after your little interaction you just had. You just remember taking her phone and deleting the videos you very slightly wish deep inside you saw more of. But the fact that you value eachother's trust so much might be worth more than that.

RD already asked to forget the whole thing in favor of playing video games, and you agreed, but you're both still sitting here in silence anyway.

You and RD may be able to share a lot of mutual trust now, but you can't erase the fact that the same cannot be said for her other friends anymore.

The whole thing happened so fast, and you got so caught up in your disbelief that you acted purely on moral instinct, if that's the best way to describe whatever that was that had you reflexively hitting the delete button. That same "instinct" the part of you that wanted to think or talk things over is late to the party here.

"Just get it over with and keep yelling at me." RD seems to have changed her mind.

You look over at her, noticing the shame still lingering in her gaze at her bedroom floor. "What do you mean?"

"I can tell. Me letting you delete everything like that still... doesn't... mean I heard everything I needed to hear."

Her tone has grown heavy but lacking hesitancy. She's clearly more in the mood to punish herself as much as she feels she needs to instead of push these things into the future where your mutual trust should be free of them.

"I... have a real problem, man." RD lets the words spill out of her, no longer bottled inside. "You should know already. It's been there for as long as I can remember."

"Hey, now. You took responsibility and let me delete those things you shouldn't have had on your phone." You watch how tight-lipped RD is when looking away from you. "You did the right thing, and it's done now. So what's up? If you wanna forget about it, then let's forget about it. Just curb that shit in the future, alright?"

RD twiddles her thumbs, currently neglected by her usual tough exterior. The longer she stalls on letting something out, the worse it feels now.

"Remember when you yelled at me?" RD finally says to you.

"What do you mean?"

"You know, the playground. That spot. That time when you told me I was being a piece of shit." Recalls RD. "I think about that more often now that we go there together again. It made me not want you to remember the video on my phone. B-because..."

You silently wait for her to continue as her voice noticeably becomes shakier.

"It's because it just shows that I haven't changed at all." Confesses RD, seeming to ignore the time you and her were in the parking lot at night after the first sleepover her friends were throwing. "I'm still a terrible person for my friends to be around, they just don't know it anymore. Because I kept it all secret."

"So you mean back when we were kids?"

"...Yes." RD's voice cracks a little. "And you were right. I suck to be around. I did then and I still do. I was annoying Applejack the whole time I was taking that video, because my defenses about a fucking dart game were so up. I thought she was gonna get back at me for finally winning against her. Cause she knows how I always am about it, and she always wanted to take me down a peg, and... And then I..." She eyes her phone.

A distant plane hight up in the afternoon sky can be heard moaning by as RD wipes a couple of tufts of her messy-ish medium length hair away from her eyes. She takes a deep breath, too ashamed to look over at her posters on her wall.

"I actually had the nerve... to take a creepshot video of her when she was changing her clothes anyway. You're right, dude. These are my friends. What the fuck is wrong with me to treat them like that?"

Your words just now have really started to seep into her mind, the meaning behind them you may not have even been fully aware of shaking RD to her core with re-established guilt.

"This whole thing went exactly how I was afraid it would." RD breathes hesitantly. "I remembered what you said before after you said what you said just now and it's... I know you must have been holding the one from now in for a long time."

You stare at her as she looks down at her bedroom floor again. Her gaze feels distant with it, like it's up past the ceiling.

"So if there's anything left you wanna say, just go ahead and lay it on me."

"Well I've been past that part, but you definitely gotta do something to work on what you've had going on now." You proclaim the best thing your mind can muster.

She waits for you to say something else, as though she already knows there's more anyway. She seems to be expecting it no matter what you say, which calls out to you a signal of guilt that has lasted through the ages until now.

"Alright, look." You take a deep breath. "You're not awful to be around, I know you probably remember what I said really well. Even better than I do, because I myself forgot exactly what it was I said, if I'm being honest."

Her eyes widen a little bit.

"What I've been trying to say that you just gotta get rid of your problems now. Yes, you gotta be nicer to your friends than that, but you've been fun even back when we were kids. It's always been both of those at the same time, and now it's just time for one to win over the other one. You never would have broken my gaming console if I didn't want to play games with you in the first place. We wouldn't have had that dumbass shouting match near the playground all those years ago if no one wanted to hang out with you at all. If I still meant that stuff I said long ago, then I wouldn't be here with you right now. And I wouldn't have bothered telling you that you should respect your other friends, because I wouldn't have cared if you lost them. I don't want you to lose them, RD. And I especially don't want to lose our friendship either. Alright? Okay?"

A quiet sniffle acts as a barometer measuring the impact of your words.

RD realizes that you heard that come from her and darts her eyes up to the ceiling as she prepares to tie her voice together so it doesn't break.

"It's okay, RD. I'm admittedly kind of a perv sometimes too." You get even more real with her. "A number of people are on the inside, even if just a little bit. You just gotta... not... do that stuff, okay?"

"Okay." RD's voice strains outwards against the metaphorical ropes, cracks already showing.

"Are you alr-"

"I'm fine, bro!"

If there is one thing RD knows she is not, it is someone who cries.

Her glare forces itself to become angry looking as her fists clench, but then loosen a little when she remembers it's only you in her room here with her. Her breathing picked up for about five seconds before returning back to being inaudible, and her swallows after clearing her throat. Blinking rapidly.

You won't encroach on her pride any further, not when it's being challenged on the inside. Just as you wouldn't want others doing that with you.

All of everything questionable that happened between you, RD, and her friends, sudden'y felt so small after you told her all the stuff you just told her, with her listening to it after having voluntarily allowed you to delete the videos ~~that might have been hot to at least watch only one time~~ off of her phone. Like it all just got minimized to this very small blot of ink that can easily be wiped away. It feels so insignificant now.

"S-sorry." RD breaks the silence your own thoughts distracted you from.

"Don't worry about it... none taken."

A second silence arrives, now holding both of you still on the edge of the bed. You each have a flurry of worried thoughts buzzing around in your heads. Thinking of the next thing to say in this moment of sappy drama that made its way in to your friendship that was kind of RD's fault in the first place.

A universe of possibilities feels like it's just floating around inside of RD's bedroom all around the two of you. Like a vast collection of the cosmos in the air. Things you can do, things you can say to break the silence.

And what's the first thing RD does?

The remote control slides across the nightstand, the click of the TV turning on faintly sounds, the power button of RD's gaming console clicks while being pushed in then out, and the soothing sound effect of the gaming system fills the room.

And that blot of ink gets washed over by a huge wave of water.

~

Supercell's vicious growling that dominated the digital city streets is therapeutic.

It's been about an hour or two now since RD silently decided that all you two need to do is flip on the console and get lost in the world she's conquered completely. Now she's demonstrating again and again why she named her Corvette in the game Supercell, because of the way all the other racers should feel like there's a storm coming when she's about to lap them again.

RD has been challenging you to challenge her, since the AI players in the game can't really pose much of a challenge to her anymore. So with that, you get yourself a Viper to drive with in the game, paint it in the coolest way you can think of, and do 1v1 races with RD with the Ls piling up on your side pretty quickly.

"C'mon, bro. I'm not letting you stop until you beat me just once!" RD resurrects the same tone she had when you two were running together through the neighborhood.

"You think I haven't been fuckin' trying?" You gripe.

"Well try harder!"

You're just glad you don't have to be out of breath this time; this is a lot more fun when your body isn't on the verge of collapse and screaming at you to stop. Though, you're still sweating a little bit. But having a car that's actually on her car's level and not something like a regular old jeep or something like you are in real life helps a hell of a lot.

RD's merciless hands work her trusty bandaged up controller as she grits her teeth, sure she's going to defeat you again despite helping you tune your sports car almost exactly the same way she tuned hers.

Your own hands don't carry the same ferocity it would take to break the newer controller of hers you have in them, not that you'd want to... but it feels as thought that's what would be necessary in order to defeat her and her Corvette Supercell on the track.

"This isn't fair!" You protest. "You're way too good at this! I have no chance."

"Not yet you don't."

"RD, I can't beat you a this game. You're too unstoppable." You appeal to her ego to convince her. "I barely got a chance to play this one a lot yet. There's no way I can magically get on your level without practicing for a long ass time first. You're just that good, RD. You got me overmatched."

"Shit, I guess you're right, dude. I can't expect you to get as good as me at this game in less than a month or something."

"Exactly! It's like working out. I can't get to your level in such a short time. It's unrealistic."

"Yeah, bro. You're right. It's unrealistic." RD looks over at her mountain of video game cases on her messy floor. "Hey, wanna play Super Smash Bros? We're probably more evenly matched in that one."

"Now we're talking."

"Just gotta make sure I don't miss my evening run and workout." RD looks at her clock. "But we got time, though. Don't sweat it."

One last race concludes the RD v. you matchup with a 17-0, and then the discs are swapped.

"You wanna just go ahead and make this another sleepover at this point? My parents already trust me not to do any partying shit."

"I think I can stay over."

RD's eyes fill with relief like she wanted to make sure you didn't only meet again a couple of days from now after your upcoming high school graduation, even though that would have been a better idea anyway.

The plan is set in place as you two play the next game together, now with RD starting to appear worried in her facial expression as you get closer and closer to securing a W while getting into your zone with more ease this time. There's no race tracks in this one, nowhere outside of the fighting platform to run to, this ain't Mario Kart.

RD can feel you encroaching upon her pride but in a more friendly way in a controlled gaming environment this time.

"There you go, bro." RD starts to sound like she's about to start trying harder to not actually let you defeat her, despite the fact that's what she wants.

Maybe she really can't decide. Like one part of her wants to coach you by finding a way to have you win without her openly letting you win, but another part of her just... does not want to lose.

Eventually, after choosing a different character each time, your characters you choose eventually squeak closer and closer to breaking RD's winning streak. RD can sense this, and her conflicted approach towards this really starts to show in her face, and how firmly she grips her trusty bandaged up controller as she tries harder and harder to reach that winning strea-

"FUCK!" RD nearly stands up with an urge to shuck the controller at the floor.

That combo of moves you just pulled off was delivered at just the right time, and the character RD was fighting with spirals down into the abyss with a 2-1 appearing on the screen at only the third game.

"V-very good." RD says it loud enough for it to really keep herself reminded that this was part of the plan.

A plan that somehow involved her tripling down now that you figured out how to style on her with the right moves and turn that 2-1 into a 2-2, prompting her eyes to widen in determination as you fight the urge to grin at her.

"Oh, it's on now, bro!" RD leans forward and flexes her firm muscles.

So, it is.

There she goes, pulling all the stops within the rules she can in attempt to stop you from winning another round... but you've really gotten into your groove now, and it's surprisingly effective against RD's jam she's starting to get stuck in while trying to figure out how to make that "GAME!" message appear for her victory instead of yours.

"God damn it, dude. How the fuck did you get so g-"

RD is interrupted by the very thing she was trying to prevent from happening.

She stares at you in disbelief, but knows that this is pretty much what she wanted to encourage, so it's not like she can reasonably get mad at you, and she knows this watching the way you kind of shrug it off at her like you're not enthusiastic about celebrating it.

RD pats one of your raised shoulders. "Damn, you got me by surprise there."

"Want me to try to do it twice?" You blurt without thinking.

You're not sure what to say or feel until RD responds with a delighted "Hell yeah, that's the spirit!".

The two of you start playing more and more until the sky outside begins to grow darker, and your plans for sleeping over basically just go as they did before: with you opting for the air mattress on the floor in one of RD's old neutral outfits her friends wouldn't so easily recognize on you in the first place.

Though, it's not like you're going to see them much more after graduation anyway, unless they go to the same college you're setting yourself up to attend, but that's a train of thought to have later than fun time now.

"I feel like I should've asked this before but, what kind of path do you wanna get in shape?" RD brings up. "Strength or endurance?"

"It matters?"

"Kinda. From what I know, building muscle is when you lift weights first and then do cardio, and building endurance is when you do cardio first and then lift weights. Of course, you gotta also eat healthy or else what you're doing gets all fucked u-haaAAH!"

She gawks at the screen as you defeat her in battle once again.

"Well, obviously I wanna be more like you." You bring up. "And you're like a Corvette, right?"

"...Yeah..." Sighs RD.

It doesn't take long for her to piece everything together.

"So you wanna lift weights first, then?"

"Let's do it."

"Oh, you mean like, right now?"

"We can pick this game up later." You sound as eager as you can. "I wanna see what I can do with those weights you got lying around there."

RD watches you glance over at the bunch of dumbbells on her floor, mostly disorganized and waiting to be picked up once again. She looks over at you and starts to get the vibe that you're trying to best her in a physical competition as well, despite the inability to step into a suddenly existent sports car or push a button to fire a hadoken-like laser beam in real life. This time, it depends solely on your own bodies, and RD knows she can really hold her own with ease here.

The TV screen is momentarily turned off.

A challenging smirk spreads across RD's face as she watches you stretch to get ready for the whooping she's about to deliver upon you.

"You go first." She suddenly tells you out of the blue.

"First?"

"Yeah, first. What, you think I said last?"

"Sure." You crouch neat the bunch of dumbbells.

"No, hold on, we're doing sit-ups first."

"Oh."

RD gestures for you to sit on her bed before going to get something out of her closet. You oblige, waiting for her to fish something out that's far back in the corner after presumably being tossed there from the outside.

"Whatcha doin'?" You ask her.

"You gotta use th- oh." RD starts off before realizing she's not going to be alone this time. "Never mind."

"What?"

"I usually tie a belt to my bed to hold me feet down, but I guess I can just do that myself this time with you and you can do that with me." RD explains. "Heh, sorry bro. Getting that belt's been kind of a habit of mine." She chuckles at her own double entendre she just made.

You almost want to say something like "you mean like a wrestling championship belt or like how badly I just started to whip you in Super Smash Bros?", but you're kind of too intimidated too after watching RD stretch her own arms and remind you of how much more well-built she is than you are. As if the fact that she can easily outrun you wasn't enough... the memories of her beating up multiple guys who were even slightly bigger than her wakes you catch your own tongue with cat-like reflexes before something of a mistake slips out.

"Go on, lean back bro." RD kneels before you as you perch yourself at the edge of the bed.

You really hope you had enough time to prepare, though is there even something like for simply getting ready to do sit-ups?

Feel a tiny rush when you feel her hands clamp down onto your ankles as you lean back with your fingers locked over the back of your head.

There's a certain heaviness in your body that is already starting to annoy you, a soft heaviness that comes off as weakness as she tells you to begin and you do the first sit-up a lot slower than you intended.

"1... 2... 3... 4... 5..." RD counts for you, keeping note of what number she has to do at least twice as much as in order to put you back into your place.

You already start to feel tuckered out by 12, drawing a "c'mon, really" look from RD's face as she expected at least more of a challenge to redeem herself with.

RD can't help but feel as though this can't count, because it's too easy.

"You gotta try harder than that, bro!" She complains. "You're only at 15!"

With a strained grunt, you continue to try and try and try, making it to 16 sit-ups, then 17 sit-ups... but you're not sure if you can go beyond that. You're already surprised you had made it this far into it.

"C'mon, just 3 more and you're at 20!" RD eggs you on.

You try to make it to 18 sit-ups, and barely squeeze out an extra sit-up that doesn't feel like it counts before falling back onto RD's bed with a soft muffled plop.

RD lets out a satisfied sigh, but with a hint of dissatisfaction as she expected her upcoming kill to count with more value and meaning.

"I tried! I really did!"

You feel as though you're trapped in this perpetual state of competition with RD, just as she supposedly felt about you and a few others automatically for a while now. Now you have to put up with her trying to one-up you after you started beating her in video games, which is silly, but it's not like her competitive side can be ignored so quickly.

"Move over." RD settles for making the fall on your end feel harder despite your progress not being so big in the first place.

The two of you switch places, and RD grabs the bottom of her shirt and lifts it up without warning, catching you entirely off guard.

The sight of RD's toned tummy once again awakens something in you, except her shirt wasn't unintentionally dragged up above her bellybutton this time, and she lifts it up even further than ever before right in front of you. RD casually bares her sports bra she has on before you like its no big deal, letting you stare at the firm landscape of her fit form as her top is bunched over her face.

You kneel on her floor, unable to move or think of a response as the sight of RD's bare midriff takes ahold of you with the strength her core certainly has that overpowers yours.

An odd combination of feeling jealous and feeling turned on keeps you in place until RD snaps her fingers and brings you back to reality. "Over here, dude. Come on, you scared I'm gonna do like a hundred?" She starts to taunt. "Don't worry, I won't embarrass ya that much."

You have to keep your hands from trembling enough for RD to feel it as you grab her ankles, already afraid she might accidentally kick you in the face.

"You know, I've been dying to work on my abs more." RD suddenly tells you. "I didn't realize how far I've come until I saw you only do 18 just now."

"...Thanks." You make a face at her, to which she reciprocates over the soft bulges from her chest nearly blocking her face as she leans back from being able to see you at her angle.

And with that, RD begins doing her own set of sit-ups, counting them on her own:

"1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17... 18... 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25... 26... 27... 28... 29..."

Only once she closes in on 40 does she start to seem like she's getting tired and really slow down to a significant degree.

"44... 45... 46... ngh... 47... 48... 49..."

Your hands fall away in impressed surprise when she stops at 50. Slipping away like limp slugs off of rocks in a river.

RD's toned abs along with her cute bellybutton rise and fall with her labored breaths, all right in front of you and making you want to bury your face in all that as she cools down, almost willing to take the sock to the face you expect from her if you actually went through with something like that (of course you won't).

"Your turn." She tells you, likely noticing your eyes had begun to examine her sports bra but doesn't say anything. "C'mon, bro."

Keep your legs raised forward a little bit ahead of time before you rest back onto RD's bed, so you can hide anything going on in your pants just in case it's apparent.

As soon as she grabs your ankles again, you resume your comparably pitiful display of sit-ups, only pulling off 7 this time... a single digit number.

RD's face indicates she's holding back laughter, but you laugh first on purpose so she feels more comfortable just letting it out.

"Don't worry, bro. You'll get there one day." RD puts an arm around you, now feeling a lot more comfortable. "As for me, though..."

Feeling the softness of RD's chest pressing into you was a heaven you didn't want to end as her strong arm was around your back. You just wanted to hold back onto her for safety from whatever dumb thing you could come up with as the sky outside gets darker.

But the moment unfortunately had to be interrupted in order for RD to do her next bunch of sit-ups.

You hold her ankles as she cranks out another 20 sit-ups, then makes it to 25, then 30. But then breathes heavily while falling back onto her bed.

This continues until the two of you have gone through 5 sets each, now with each of you unable to even get out 3 sit-ups by the end. which might have been intentional on RD's part to make you feel like you're more on the same level as her in the end.

You're still taken aback by the fact RD is sitting next to you with nothing stopping her from being fully topless except her slightly damp sports bra.

Both of you are breathing really... REALLY heavily until RD puts her arm around you again, now eyeing the dumbbells on her floor.

"C'mon, bro." She grabs your hand and guides it to her alluring abdomen. "Don't be scared. Feel them!"

All of the history the two of you have together feels like it's being lit on fire as your fingers begin to probe RD's bare skin, getting a good feel of her firm muscles underneath it.

"I've really been starting to chisel them out lately." RD tells you. "Takes a lot of hard work."

Instinctively, you begin to run your hand up and down RD's abs, since she practically invited you to do so anyway...

The fact you both are still breathing really heavily sparks a few implications in both of your minds, and you feel yourself start to stand up inside of your pants as you stay seated right up against RD.

"You jealous, bro?" Asks RD.

You nod, accidentally letting your hand linger a bit higher up than RD's toned abs. Her skin already has a slight coat of sweat, so it was a reasonable mistake, and she seems to understand then immediately after feeling your thumb brush along the bottom rim of her sports bra, still breathing heavily with you, almost sharing breaths with you with how close you're sitting together.

So much of you in on the verge of making a move right now, out of nowhere but raw primal instinct.

"It's fine, bro." RD tells you. "I like when you feel my muscles."

You're trying to figure out how to react.