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Peter had fun with the zoom tool as he filmed Ben and Bea making silly faces.
“Look at them,” he said as Bea laughed. “Look at their stupid faces. Aww, makes you wanna cry. Makes you wanna be sick. Majestic.”
Freddie then got done with her phone call.
“Yeah, the others are going to come here for a bit and Meg’s going to Vegan Fred’s,” she told the group. “It’s too cold for sardines anyways. Movies are where it’s at.”
“Actually can we have the blanket off the end of your bed tonight, Peter?” Ben asked as Peter moved back to sit on the edge of the couch.
“Aw for tonight? I think there are some spares in the hallway cupboard?”
“Talk to the neighbors? See if we can get some of theirs?”
“Ben, I’m sure we’ll be fine, we can just penguin huddle for warmth,” Bea said.
Ben just looked at her.
“Well, look, for the majority of this trip I’ve been on a bed roll in a tent. And yeah, Vegan Fred’s was amazing but, I’m sure I can deal with a drafty, Wellington flat,” Bea said.
“Bea, I thought Rosa wasn’t keen on you staying with her, something about crazy flatmates?” Ben said.
“I mean your flat, Dick-Face,” Bea said, kissing him on the cheek before getting up.
“Bea, you can’t stay here,” Ben said slowly. “I mean you’re fine in the tent and stuff but, flat rules.”
“Benedick Hobbes, are you serious right now?”
“I mean, we can’t just chuck it after all the hard work we put in,” Ben said as he stood up.
“You guys have just broken a whole lot of stupid rules that you made up,” Bea said, getting angrier as she went on. “Okay? Peter doesn’t need them anymore,” she said, pointing to her friend with the camera. “Okay? And Fred’s too far gone for them, so why don’t you just tell Balthazar that you’re going to stop this rules game?”
“Because The Rules make us happy!” Ben blurted out.
“How does that make any fucking sense?” Bea shouted.
“Well it did at the beginning,” Peter cut in. “Ben needed to pass the year but I know he’s thinking of quitting, he just hasn’t talked to his parent about it yet.” He ignored Ben’s look of betrayal and continued on, pointing at Freddie. “And Fred needed control but I think she’s realized she can step back every once and a while. And yes the ‘no shenanigans’ thing was aimed at me, which sucked at the time because I was unhappy, but then I was happy because the flat became a team.”
“We still are a team,” Freddie spoke up.
“I don’t think me and Ben are,” Bea muttered.
“Bea-”
“Didn’t Balthazar’s party prove that you could be happy without the rules?” she asked. “Speaking of, why did he need the rules anyway?”
“He was working himself too hard and he wanted the flat to bond,” Ben answered.
“Oh yeah, I’m sure the bonding went great when he got the worst of the punishments,” she said, still angry.
“He was sort of the guinea pig for the first one,” Freddie said.
“And the last time was my fault, not his,” Peter added.
“So, what now?” Fred asked.
“Fuck the rules,” Peter said.
“It doesn’t work like that!” Ben jumped in.
“Ben! Just admit the rules are stupid and move on!” Bea yelled at him.
“They aren’t making any of us happy,” Fred told him.
“We didn’t let down the rules,” Peter said. “The rules back fired on us, Ben.”
“But if we don’t have the rules, I lose the camera!”
Bea threw her hands up in the air. “Oh my god.”
“Fred?” Peter said, turning to her.
“You can keep the stupid camera, just don’t be a dick about it,” she said.
“We can keep the sentiment of the rules,” Peter said. “So like, making time to hang out as a flat, and no loud noises after ten, but no ridiculous punishments for human mistakes.”
“So no more rules?” Freddie asked.
“No more rules,” Peter agreed.
There was a pause.
“Ben?” Bea prompted.
“I’m not saying anything until Balthy gets here,” Ben said, sitting back down on the couch. “He’s still a member of this flat. He should be a part of this.”
“That’s the only sensible thing you’ve said all night,” Bea said, flopping down next to him and pulling out her phone to text Meg.
Peter set the camera down on the table and took a place on the couch above Fred. Important flat meeting. Please hurry back. He texted Balth before putting his phone away to wait like the others.
Meg arrived first.
“So you’re getting rid of The Rules?” she asked the moment she walked in.
“They’ve put it to a vote and Ben refuses to vote until Balthazar gets here,” Bea informed her.
“But you two want to get rid of The Rules?” Meg asked Freddie and Peter.
“I never wanted them in the first place,” Peter responded.
“Well good,” Meg said, sitting down between Ben and Bea. “You can sit with your girlfriend again when you actually have one,” she said when Ben protested.
“Bea?”
“The Rules,” was her only response.
Balthazar and Kit arrived only a short time later.
“Pete said there was a flat meeting?” he asked, looking at all their serious faces.
“We’re voting on whether or not to keep The Rules,” Ben said.
“Oh, um, has anyone voted yet?” he asked.
“Freds and I have both voted to throw out the rules,” Peter said, looking only at Balthazar.
Kit rounded on Ben. “Are you seriously choosing these stupid rules over your girlfriend?”
“No! Of course not! I didn’t want to vote until Balth was here,” Ben defended himself.
“Well, I’m here now. I’m going to side with Freddie and Peter on this one, Ben,” Balthazar said.
“Alright, good, glad that’s settled,” Ben said. He rubbed his hands together awkwardly, throwing a glance at Bea. “Do you, uh, do you want to do the honors of tearing them off the wall then?”
Balth smiled a little as he carefully pealed the tape off the walls. He took the paper and held it out to Peter. Peter smiled back as they both tore the paper in half.
Meg cheered and jumped up from the couch.
“Now Bea, can-“
Beatrice cut Ben off by grabbing his hand and pulling him to his room, the door shutting behind them.
“So, no rules,” Kit said, looking at Freddie. She got up from the couch and walked over to him.
“Since there are no rules to you want to have a not-secret-relationship?” she asked.
“Yeah, we could try that,” he said with a smile, pulling her in for a hug.
Peter jumped slightly when Meg put a hand on his shoulder.
“Balthazar, I’m going to be taking your bed but I will happily move down to the floor if Peter here sticks his foot in his mouth again,” Meg said. “Have fun.” She punctuated the last part with a strange hand sign that Peter had seen Ben do in one of his first videos.
They watched Meg disappear before Peter nodded towards his own room. Balthazar nodded back and they left Kit and Freddie alone in the front room. Peter closed the door behind him and Balth sat down on Peter’s bed. Peter joined him and took a piece of paper out of his pocket.
“Now I know I’m not Marlowe or anything, but I wrote you a sonnet,” he said, handing the paper to Balth.
“I thought this was for school,” he said as he unfolded it.
“Well, it was, or is, but you inspired it and I was going to give it to you when it was done and Bea said it was kind of cheesy and I'm not sure if it’s a hundred percent yet but-“ Peter trailed off as he watched Balth’s lips move along with the words he had written.
They sat in silence when Balth had finished, neither wanting to break it until Balthazar finally said, “I’m not the greatest and interpreting this stuff, so do you want to kiss my lips or my fingers?”
There was a smile in his voice that filled Peter with hope.
“I’d prefer lips if it’s all the same to you,” he said in response.
“Yeah, I guess it is.”
And then Balth was leaning forward and responding to the sonnet in the best way imaginable.
“You’re not just a casual thing to me, Balthazar,” he said when they pulled apart. “I love you.”
“I kind of love you too,” he said back.
“Kind of?”
“Kind of a lot, yeah.”
Peter pulled him in for another kiss.