32. Wallace #4
“Bummer. At any rate, it was set to use the internet port as a jumping off point to continue the search in related files in other connected locations. I don’t think it was supposed to burn out the port though—that was just shitty coding—so I don’t think it actually got anywhere.
Hey,” he interrupted himself. “Is this bothering you?” He held up the paperweight.
“Well, uh…” Wallace didn’t want to come right out and say it.
“Sorry. I fidget with shit all the time.” He put it behind himself, then curled his fingers around the edge of the desk, like he was trying to glue them into place.
“Really, a lot of this was just shitty coding. Not elegant at all, kind of tearing around and fucking things up. But I was able to trace through enough to help reconnect some of Volt’s motor control pathways.
” He started drumming his fingers on the wood, almost like he couldn’t help himself.
Wallace wanted to know every single detail about the takeover mod, but he was also kind of fascinated by Ben’s behavior.
“Ahhh!” Ben pulled at his hair. “I’m doing it again. Sorry. My brain’s just in too many places at once today. And fixing the mod is super cool. I mean, the mod is shitty, but fixing it is kind of… OMGeeeee… I’ll try not to tap.”
Wallace shook his head. “No, uh, it’s okay. The tapping doesn’t bother me.” Or not much. Not now that he realized Ben wasn’t doing it specifically to annoy him. Not now that Ben had gone out of his way to apologize and tried to stop.
Could they have been friends all this time if he’d only been a little kinder? If he hadn’t been so worried about asserting his “authority” and living up to his father’s ideals that he’d missed the whole point?
“The ball thing reminds me of my brother,” Wallace found himself saying.
“Ahhhh… Rick the Dick. I’ve totally seen him do that manly man jock shit.”
Wallace felt his eyes widen. Rick the Dick was the name that he’d privately given his half-sibling in high school, but he’d never dared to say it aloud. Nor had he heard anyone else say it, though it was the obvious rhyme.
Somehow, he’d been Wallace the Walrus since his first week of kindergarten, but Rick was always the golden child. The sports hero. The guy with the easy A’s and the crowd of popular friends. No one ever told him that he was doing too much manly man jock shit.
But how had Ben known that he was a dick? Everyone at work usually loved him. It was really just Wallace who was the target for his bullying.
“I bet he was the star quarterback or something, wasn’t he?” Ben prompted. “And prom king?”
“Yeah.” It wasn’t hard to guess.
Ben gave an exaggerated shudder. “Ugh. Jocks. At any rate, uh, motor pathways. Things are looking good, or at least as good as I can get them right now. I want to start on the speech centers next.”
“Oh, uh, thank you. Can I, um, help?” Wallace had kind of assumed that Oliver was doing everything, but if he could have been helping this whole time, he absolutely would have.
Ben looked Wallace up and down, and Wallace found himself shrinking.
Did Ben really think that little of him?
He wasn’t completely inept. He might not be a computer genius like Ben, or have the creative processing power of a knowledge like Oliver, but he had a degree in computer engineering, even if he didn’t get to use it nearly enough. He would have given it his all.
But maybe to Ben, he really wasn’t worth including. There had to be a reason neither of them had invited him so far. Maybe he’d only get in the way. Or fuck things up.
“You need food first,” Ben declared. “You’ve been sitting here too long.”
Wallace blinked.
“Come on.” Ben leapt off the desk. “Oliver will let us know if anything changes. And your Daddy wouldn’t want you cooped up in here all day. My friends Quincy and Evan are coming over for dinner, and I want you to meet them.”
That was Evan, the friend who’d gotten Kira to smuggle the sexbot out of the building, and Quincy, Evan’s boyfriend who’d been kidnapped and gone on trial when he’d tried to defend himself.
Helping Evan get to Quincy was the reason Oliver had broken so many laws, which Wallace had blamed him for without understanding.
So Wallace owed them an apology, too. Especially since, as he understood it, these were Ben’s best friends.
No pressure or anything.
Wallace was still staring when Ben marched across the room and grabbed his arm.
Not hard though, kind of… friendly?
“I promise I’ll let you troubleshoot until your eyes get grainy and Oliver makes us sleep, but after dinner, alright?” Ben smiled.
Since when did Ben smile at him?
Wallace found himself nodding and smiling back. Following Ben out of the airless room and down the hall.
Even though he hated new people. And didn’t want to do anything but stay by Daddy’s side.
But Oliver had already extended the invitation, and if Ben wanted him to meet his friends, too…
Well, he would do his best.
And if they hated him, he could leave.
But for a moment, he wondered what it might be like to meet people who weren’t colleagues, rich socialites, or money grubbers.
Just… friends.