“Eight times eight is…” Bounce. Bounce. “…is…” Bounce. Bounce. “ARGH! Why can’t I remember that one???”

Nick had to laugh. Ben wasn’t doing too bad at all, really. His frustration coming at appropriately frustrating times and his joy being sincere. The first Nick had ever seen. “I don’t know…stop dribbling.”

Ben grabbed the ball and tossed it to Nick. “I’m getting tired.”

“Get through 8’s and we’ll get lunch. What’s 8 x 8?”

“Sixty four! Sixty stinkin’ four! Why can’t I get it?”

“Cuz it’s not in your head enough, yet. It will be.” Nick started dribbling the ball hand to hand himself, giving Ben a breather. “You want the flash cards on these?”

“Yeah…let’s use those. But, I feel like I’m cheating.”

“That’s stopped you before?”

Ben smiled through his glare. “No, but…I dunno. I guess I’ve gotten this far. I wanna go all the way without the cards.”

“Next time…you’re doin’ great, Ben…”

The two sets of blue eyes met and Nick stopped bouncing the ball.

“Why are you doing this for me?”

“Because I sucked at math too and this kind of thing helped me remember stuff. It’s not gonna get easier…”

“…yeah, yeah…but why do you care? No one cares about me.”

“Miss Romero does. And so does Barry. They think we make a good team now.”

“And you?”

“I think they may be right.”

“You have a good meeting with Miss Romero?”

Nick knew the positive meeting from the previous weekend was too good to be true. Ben’s attitude was back, as was his annoying silence. Another long afternoon stood before him and he was growing weary of all the effort it was taking just to get this kid to be generally polite. Scruffing Ben’s hair as he hiked up into the truck, Nick turned back to the center’s door when he thought he heard his name.

“Un momento, Nick…do you mind?”

“Nope…” Nick got Ben’s attention through the window and tried a smile to ease the look of concern when Ben saw who was delaying their meeting. Jogging over to his new, dare he say…friend, he looked back one more time to check on Ben. “What’s up?”

“Go easy on him today, huh?”

“He okay?”

“No…I got the ‘incident’ out of him. At least a little. He’s very angry he talked about it with anyone.”

“Oh man…okay.” Running a hand through his hair and checking back yet again, he stood shifting his weight from foot to foot, trying to decide what to do. “Should we just reschedule? He probably doesn’t want to do anything.”

“No, go ahead with your plans. He was looking forward to Spider-man. Take his mind off of stuff.”

“Yeah, probably. Okay…so what’s gonna happen with all of that…stuff?”

“I’m gonna connect him with someone to talk to. I’m not really qualified and you aren’t either. But, he trusts us both. If we talk this up, he’ll go and hopefully cooperate.”

Nodding his head, he did something he hadn’t done since their miniature bump and grind session on the dance floor. He reached out and touched her. Just on the arm, but with an eye connection as well, they both fought the surge that went through them. This was something that just could not be. Not now. Probably not ever. “Thanks, Lani…he’s gonna be okay, isn’t he?”

“Yep…and so are you…now go get those bad guys, Spiderman.”

“What the hell did she want?”

Ben’s words actually caught Nick off-guard. Nothing had been said when he got back in the truck all the way to the theater. Now that they were there, Ben decided to get chatty. Naturally.

“Oh, Miss Romero? Yeah…I’m headed to New York for a couple of weeks. Just wanted to check on when I’d get back…she was bein’ my mom.” Okay, so it was a lie. It needed to be. For now. And he was leaving and he had talked to Solana about it. Just not right then. White lie.

“Oh.” He started fidgeting with his shirt hem. “When do you take off?”

“Saturday. I’ll be gone…yeah, almost 2 weeks.”

Ben just nodded and made no effort to get out of the truck, finding great interest in the threads pulling loose on his shirt. “Will you be back in time for my birthday?”

“June 12, right?”

“Yeah…I mean, you don’t have to…”

“I know, but yeah…I’ll be back.” Watching Ben fidget and struggle with something was killing him. He knew first hand what it was like keeping stuff locked up inside. It’d eat at you. And it sucked. “Ben…what’s up, dude?”

The young boy shrugged and looked out the passenger window, biting his thumbnail and watching as people entered and exited the theater. After a few moments of silence, he turned to Nick, shocking him with the slightest sign of a tear welling up in his eye. “Can I ask you a question?”

“Yep.”

“How come when you say something to one person…even if you swore you never would tell a soul, all the sudden, you say it to someone else too…without even thinking about it?”

“I’m not sure I follow…”

“Um, well…I was talking to Miss Romero and…well, next thing I know, I told her about that dude.”

“The one who hurt you?”

“Yeah…although he really didn’t hurt me…he just tried. I kicked him in the nuts.”

Nick had to laugh at that…what an image. “Good for you! So, uh…what’d Miss Romero say?”

“She’s gonna get someone for me to talk to.” Looking up to Nick, the tear escaped its confines and he angrily wiped it away, streaking his face with his dirty hand. “I don’t want to talk about it, Nick.”

“No, but it might be a good thing.”

“How? It won’t change what happened.”

“I know it won’t, but it might help you deal with it better.”

“I just want it to go away. I hate him.”

“Well, it won’t go away, Ben…but what you do with it will make all the difference.”

“I guess so.”

“I know so.” Sitting quietly for another few moments, Nick realized nothing more would be accomplished. It was time to redirect and let the boy be a boy. “You ready to see this movie?”

“Yeah…” Without another word, or sadly a change in attitude, Ben opened his door and slid out. Nick just watched him, wishing he could do or say something to make it all go away for him too. It wasn’t right. Even if this guy didn’t succeed at his attempts, the effect it was having on the boy was intense.

Just as Nick pushed the remote to lock his doors, Ben jumped. “OH! I almost forgot. Unlock the door again.”

Ben dug through his backpack and finally unearthed a crumpled up paper. “Here, check this out.”

“What’s this?” Nick took the paper from him, motioning for him to turn around so he could smooth it out on the younger boys’ back. “Woah! A B+!”

Ben turned back around and looked over the paper with him. A B+. He couldn’t believe it. “Yeah…that’s a test too. I’ve NEVER gotten anything above a C on a math test!”

“You did it, man…that’s great! Gimme five.”

Ben brought his hand up and smacked Nick’s, not expecting anything more. Nick wasn’t expecting anything less. He grabbed Ben’s hand and pulled him in, hugging him and thumping, then rubbing his back. Dammit, it was about time he’d done this. Poor kid probably hadn’t had a hug in God knows how long.

Ben stood stiff in Nick’s arms, but the larger man wouldn’t relent. Wouldn’t pull back. This kid was going to accept this benign display of affection. “I’m proud of you, Ben…real proud.”

That did it. Nick felt the boy’s body relax in his and smiled as his skinny arms slid around Nick’s back. “Uh, yeah…” Pat. Pat. “Thanks. You helped.”

Pulling back and tossing the test back into the truck, they finally made their way into the theater. “Yeah, but you did the work…”

“Yeah, I did, didn’t I? Even practiced that dribbling thing every night.”

“See…” Nick wrapped an arm around Ben’s shoulder as they walked, amazed that he let him do it. “…you did it, Ben…I’ll even buy you a super sized popcorn for that one.”