Much Ado About Ben and Trix

Act 2 Scene 1 (2)

"Benedick: She speaks poniards, and every word stabs. If her breath were as terrible as her terminations, there were no living near her" - Act 2 Scene 1

Ben adjusted his mask aware of its inability to conceal his face - to any degree. He stood next to Claude who was nibbling on a cracker, his eyes following Helena.

"You could have asked her out yourself," Ben said, his eyes scanning the room.

"Beatrix the bitch is here," Claude whispered.

Ben punched him in the arm. "Don't call her that, if you date Petrakis she'd kill you for saying that. Now excuse me."

Ben brushed himself down, tugging at his suit jacket - bought for way too many weddings, ten exactly, of which four had ended in divorce - striding towards the left corner of the multi-purpose hall. Beatrix stood stood with a heeled foot propped up against the brick wall, sipping out of a plastic cup. Despite her masked face her stiff posture and straying brown eyes gave her away instantly.

Smiling slightly he stood next to her. "Would you like to dance?" he asked, his voice squeaking slightly causing him to blush.

Beatrix looked him up and down smiling slightly, a mischievous glint lighting up her eyes. "I'm so sorry I don't know who you are," she said, searching his face, the mischief gone. The philosophy of man-hating (expressed during her Area of Study speech) seemed to be challenged by a disguised Ben, much to his joy.

"Thomas Anderson," he said, holding out a hand.

"Yes, Thomas that sounds...fantastic." she said, smiling and taking his clammy hand.

He pulled her out onto the dancefloor, taking one hand and wrapping another around her waist. "You're Ben's ex-girlfriend aren't you?"

"Don't hold that against me," she said, with a laugh.

The two of them struggled to lead, resulting in tugging and pulling each other. The rest of the students watched as the two of them as them stepped on each other, apologising then sending angry glares flying around the room, before the students averted their eyes back to their own dance partners.

"I take it the relationships didn't end well."

"It was mainly the jokes. People keep him around to make them laugh, he normally does something stupid enough, yet for every good joke there were a hundred bad ones. Then there was the kissing, all tongue and the stabbing. Oh the disgusting stabbing. He thought he was a charmer but he tripped over walking out of a restaurant. He's pretty weedy despite his alright physique. He's also prone to explosive diarrhea -"

"-That was one time!" Ben said, releasing her hands.

Beatrix laughed. "Nice try Ben," she said, patting his chest and moving back to her corner.

***

Ben stormed off the floor and burst into the boy's bathroom (from when the school was co-ed). Locking himself in one of the stalls, he leant against the green door, scratching at his arm, swearing under his breath.

"Alright mate, listen I like you but he's come out as bisexual, he's going to steal Petrakis from you. You need to go out and prove you're a real man."

It came from the other side of the stall; if Ben knew his enemies well enough (and he had a few) he knew it to be Jamie Donne.

"Piss off mate, I know you and I don't trust you," Claude hissed. The slam of a body against a wall and a cry of pain rang out.

"Just think about it buddy, look how close he is with her, you couldn't fit a piece of paper between them. She's laughing at him they're flirting. Mate, I've known Petrakis since I was a kid she isn't worth it, I know when she likes a guy, she liked me at one point. The signs are there," Jamie said, gasping.

"Imma kill him, I. Am. Going. To. Kill. Him."

Pulling out the rusty lock and walked out of the stall. Dashing over to Claude's side, Ben dodged the flying arms. Claude had his arm pressed up against Jamie's throat. "Quit it. You know he's riling you up like he always does."

He grabbed the bigger boy by his light brown hair, pulling him out of the bathroom into the dimly lit room. The music pulsed through the room. The scent of perfumes and aftershave, which a bunch of seventeen year olds had not yet learnt to use liberally, filled the room. Ben kept an iron grip on Claude's arm, marching him over to Marlin, who was standing hand widths apart from Helena.

"She said yes buddy," Marlin said, beaming. "I'll leave you two to get acquainted." Patting both of their shoulders, he moved to Ben's side, walking towards a plastic table covered in a purple table cloth. "Ben, what did you do to Beatrix?" He pointed over to the corner where she was standing, swaying but refusing to look up.

"What did I do to her! More like what did she do to me! At least when we get into fight with Jamie it's fist to fist but with her it's her brain against mine but she always gets in first and kicks below the belt. I'm stuck with her all the time and all she does is insult me and I'm a guy, I can't insult her back or anything. If she is upset than that's how I feel tenfold. She broke me, I don't understand why she is so bitter," he spat.

"You did stand her up," Marlin said, with a shrug.

"My grandfather had just died, we were both at his funeral. We were really close, I couldn't bring myself to have any contact with anyone."

"You could have told her," he said, softly. "Now be nice she's coming over."

Beatrix ran over, throwing her arms around the new couple. "You two are so gorgeous together," she said, pulling them close to her. "What are you guys thinking?"

The two of them stayed silent, looking into each other's eyes.

"Just pash already," Ben said, from three feet away, rolling his eyes.

"I know a science classroom that's always open," Helena said, taking his hand.

"I need the bathroom," Marlin said, running the opposite way, with his phone out furiously typing.

A minute later the hall door slammed, as Peyton ran out of the room. Thus leaving Ben and Beatrix alone.

"We're going to have to put up with that now aren't we. We weren't like that were we?" Ben said, rolling up the sleeves of his jacket.

"You were, you felt the need to stick your tongue down my throat five seconds."

"Don't pretend you didn't like it."

"Alright I won't." With that she strode over to a group of girls who quickly enveloped her into their group. 

A/N: Here is this. Updates may be a little more sporadic now that school is back (3 major projects was not a good idea) but I hope you liked this. Please vote and comment and let me know what you think. This scene has to be one of my favourites in the actual play (in my head Beatrice always knew it was Benedick under the mask). This was fun to write. Song of the chapter is Romeo (wrong play I know) by Chairlift but I think it really captures these two :(