“Oh, no, I’m not taking the fall for this. Thea is,” replied Zach, grinning. “I thought maybe she could use some distraction after that thing with the lollipop, earlier.” Thea had turned around in her seat, staring Ben straight in the eye, and eaten a lollipop in the most outrageously suggestive way possible, earlier, managing to completely gross out Zach. This seemed to be her version of flirting and it was, frankly, more than Zach could take.
“Given their…status, he seemed like the best target of opportunity. She’s stubborn enough that, with the right push - supplied by yours truly - she not only won’t tell Jackson she didn’t do it, she’ll claim she did.” He grinned his best magnificent bastard grin and held his arms wide. “They’ll be so busy arguing for the rest of the day, that I won’t have to watch whatever freaky weirdness it is you two have got going, for another 24 hours.”
He nodded to himself, “The trap is set. No way this is going to backfire on me, now,” he added with a great deal of confidence, despite the fact they both knew it was highly possible it could backfire. These things had a way of doing just that. “Anyway, I’m not afraid of Walt. Even an angry one.” This wasn’t 100% true, but it was at least 79% true (mostly because Zach often lacked common sense) which was close enough for Zach.
“Dude, same,” replied a zealous Zach. “The entire day will be ODR prep before it comes on and, after it does, the rest will be rewatching and analysis.” Amongst other things, Zach had a crazy crush on Guinevere Fontaine and rooted for the Drake boys like nobody’s business. Team Beaumont frankly freaked him out, but he loved it that way. “God, and where they left Alexandir, last season! And Celia! And damn, that whole thing with Rob and Dezód what on earth?! Who is the dragon’s daughter? Ok: prediction time. What happens next?”
When Ben suggested the similarities between Lynessa and Thea, the excitement died on his face. “Shit,” he said, instead, eyeing his friend. “Thank God she clearly isn’t doing that to you, given that you have…nothing of value,” he added, glibly, though frankly the thing that had really disturbed him about her earlier display hadn’t been the display itself: it had been the fear that his best friend was about to get black widowed…and not the sexy scarjo variety as seen on the mcu…the nature kind, the kind that had made Walter a shell of a man (or, at least, that’s how Zach liked to put it now for dramatic effect the jury was still out on what made Walter Walter). “She might still crazy murder you, though. I don’t think that’s ever out of the cards.”
Zach nodded. “It’s a plan,” he agreed. “Ok, what’s the best way to distract Leo? Should we tell him that his mom’s stuck on the side of the road we don’t know exactly where and needs him to pick her up? Or have we used that one to many times in the past year?”
“Fucking A, dude,” Ben said, laughing, when Zach told him that Thea was going to take the fall for his prank. It was moments like this when Ben looked at Zach and thought: I’m never going to find a more perfect person. (As a side note to this thought, he wondered why he couldn’t have said something that sounded that gay when he was trying to supplement the rumors he’d planted about him and Zach dating to throw Thea off.)
“Oh, god,” Ben groaned, remembering the lollipop incident. “I wish I didn’t find that a very confusing combination of both repulsive and hot.” But that’s kinda of what he thought about Thea Coyle, in general. “So yes, this is a good distraction for everyone. No one needs to think about that longer than we already have. Plus, I’m always down for a little Thea-Walter argument. Should I make the popcorn this time?”
Ben laughed, “Well, then --- you’re an idiot, because I’m pretty sure that Walter would also straight up murder you ... and then me, just because we’re friends. That being said, someone at this station is going to murder us one day, so it might as well be Walt and it might as well be today.” He said, smirking. “Even though,” He began, slightly louder as he turned to the rest of the room, “I think we can all agree that Leo is going to murder all of us one day, so ... yeah. I like to think that we’re taking something away from him by letting Walt do it instead.”
Ben shook his head, “If they kill Alexandir for something he didn’t even do, I will be so pissed, dude. I don’t think they will, but Brian Young is also one sick fuck so ... yeah, I can also see it happening. But if it does, I want Avelina to die first. I hate her so much. She’s so annoying. I really don’t want her to have the satisfaction of outliving him.”
Ben laughed, “Rob is so stupid. Like if you are that fucking stupid, how do you survive in a place like Aragoth for so long? I need answers. I’m just waiting for this whole deal with Dezód to backfire. Someone like Rob just can’t go up against someone like Dezód and expect good things. It’s gonna be a disaster. It’s gonna be awesome.”
Ben leaned back in his chair, assuming the most serious expression he’d had all afternoon -- because Zach had asked him a very serious question: what happens next on ODR?
“Okay, well Dmitrei is gonna fuck over the Beaumonts. At least I hope he does. A lot of people are gonna die. Horribly. James is going to do something stupid -- while doing something badass at the same time -- and ruin everything. Oh, and I hope Arthur dies. I can’t stand him.”
Ben laughed, “Everything of value that I have is actually technically Leo’s so ... you aren’t wrong. But yeah. I’m aware. I feel like she doesn’t need a reason to murder me. Or at least a good one. And I’m probably giving her a good one by rejecting her ... while also kinda leading her on. Damnit, I’m an asshole.”
Ben paused, considering. “Okay, so telling Leo his mom is on the side of the road somewhere always works, if we wanna be lazy.” The only thing they had to do for that one is switch out her number in his phone to a disconnected one and then he couldn’t call her to confirm where she was, either way. They’d done this one before (several times, in fact). Leo had always known that the chances that they were lying were high, but he was such a good guy that he never wanted to take the chance that they weren’t lying and so he’d circle around town looking for his mom for hours until he finally figured out that she was okay. “But ultimately, I feel like that one is a little overdone and I feel like Leo needs a little more excitement in his life, so maybe we should switch it up this time?”
turnnoffyourmind
dailybridgerton
