RENT: Red Ink

[find_rightbrain]

Title: Red Ink
Characters: Benny, Collins
Word Count: 514
Rating: G
Summary: Collins needs Benny to proofread a paper for him.
Notes: Written for speed_rent challenge #131 and fanfic100 prompt #11.
Disclaimer: Characters aren't mine, Rent's not mine, you know the drill.

Benny was used to Tom waltzing into his bedroom without warning—his parents let Tom in the house without question, having known him since he was six or seven, and Tom sometimes spent more time at Benny's house than at his own. Consequently, Benny didn't look up from the book he had been reading when his bedroom door swung inward and his friend strode in. "Hey," he said calmly, not bothering to give Tom more than a single, brief glance before returning to his book.

"Hey." Several papers hit Benny in the chest as Tom flopped down onto Benny's bed, grinning at him. Benny blinked and set his book aside.

"What the hell is this?" he asked, rifling through the papers Tom had thrown at him.

"It's my paper for English," Tom explained with a quick smile. "I need you to check it over for me."

Benny looked up at him, fixing him with an exasperated expression. "This is due tomorrow."

"And?"

"You just finished this about twenty minutes ago, didn't you?"

Tom shrugged and leaned back against the headboard of the bed. "I get away with it, don't I?"

"And God knows how," Benny muttered, standing up to walk to his desk and grab a red pen out of a drawer.

Watching him, Tom remarked, "You know, you always complain about reading my papers, but it's my belief that you take great pleasure in covering them with red ink."

Benny pulled out his desk chair and sat down, settling Tom's paper in front of him. "You bet I do," he answered, not without a hint of amusement, as he started to read the paper.

The amazing thing about Tom was that he could write a perfect paper in an incredibly short time, brilliant and well thought out, even funny… and the whole thing would still be riddled with spelling errors Benny had never seen before in his life—at points he wasn't even certain Tom was still writing in English.

At length, he looked up at his friend, turning in his chair to face him. "You've got to be kidding me, right?"

"What?"

"You can't spell 'existential' with only one T."

Tom seemed unfazed. "Why not?" he asked after a moment of silence. Benny stared at him for a few seconds, unable to tell if Tom was trying to make some obscure point, or just being obtuse. Finally, he looked back down at Tom's paper, now—as Tom had earlier predicted—covered in red ink.

"Look, you can spell things however you want in Collins-land, but if you want people to understand you… Oh, forget it, I give up." He turned and tossed the pen at Tom, who just caught it and threw it back, missing Benny by at least a foot.

"But other than the spelling, it's good, right?"

Benny rolled his eyes. "Yes, it's great, and you're going to get an A, and I hate you."

Tom didn't smirk at him or look at all conceited upon hearing that, just nodded smile, the faintest of smiles on his lips. "Thought so."