Love Springs Eternal | Benslie

Chapter 1

Leslie Knope sighed as she sat down on her bed. College was gruelling. It would be less so if not for her nemesis Benjamin Wyatt. They were in constant competition to be the best in their class, and with their latest project, Leslie knew she'd have to bring her best. It was lucky that her best friend Ann Perkins knew what she was doing. With Ann's knowledge on the subject and her own organisation and presentation, Leslie was sure she'd ace her project.

See, she was studying politics, and Ann was going into nursing. The project was about the government's involvement in medicine, and though Leslie was well-versed in all governmental scenarios, having a friend in the medical field would hopefully give her an advantage against Ben. She and Ben had been friends, once. Somewhere between junior and senior year of high school, though, things changed. Ben became cold towards her and held a callous and competitive attitude towards everything she did.

A new relationship? Ben had to one-up her. Doing well in her classes? He was doing better. She felt he had developed a sense of superiority after he met his best friend, Chris Traeger. Coincidentally, Ann had also dated Chris for a short time in junior year. It came to a quick end when Ann realised that their goals were just too different to sustain a relationship. In regard to Ben and Leslie's relationships, one time Ben went too far in senior year in an incident involving Shauna Malwae-Tweep, then Leslie ended things with her long-term boyfriend Dave Sanderson and she hadn't had a relationship since.

Ben, on the other hand, went through his dating life as if he were looking for quantity over quality. Leslie had noticed many of the short-lived flings he'd had were with tall brunettes. She felt offended at the lack of blonde representation in his relationships, but if he had a type, he had a type. He'd had no issues with dating blondes before junior year, though, so it had struck Leslie as extremely strange.

"You're in your head again," Ann analysed, smiling as Leslie snapped her head up to look at her. "We're two years into college. Don't you think it's time to get over yours and Ben's issues?"

"I'll get over them when he apologises for being an ass," Leslie spat. "Sorry. I just can't move past it for some reason."

"You guys used to be so close," Ann said.

Leslie scoffed. "We weren't that close," she replied. "I've never even met his family, and he's never met my mom. Probably for the best, Mom wouldn't have liked him. Especially not after the Shauna incident."

"They were just words, Les," Ann sighed. "I know they hurt, but we were all just kids. Angsty, stupid teenagers. I doubt he even meant it."

"If he didn't mean it, he would have apologised," the blonde grumbled. "Every day he has gone on with his life is a day where he's standing by what he said. Now, please help me with this stupid project so I can beat him again."

Ann rolled her eyes and begrudgingly agreed. She felt like the past four years had been so childish and pointless. Even she and Chris had managed to stay kind with each other after their breakup. She had managed to keep Leslie in check for the most part, but sometimes the other woman would go rogue and do things behind her back. Still, she forgave her best friend because in the grand scheme of things, it wasn't truly hurting anybody. Plus, she kind of hated Ben for everything, too.

After the pair had done some work on Leslie's project, they decided to go out to the party being held by one of the frat houses. It was a Friday night, and they knew how to pace themselves. Well, if Ben wasn't there, Leslie knew how to pace herself. Unfortunately for her, Ben was there, already drunk at 9pm, making out with anyone who gave him the time of their night. It wasn't until 11pm that Leslie had hit that same level of drunkness.

Ann wasn't drunk, but she was tipsy. She kept a keen eye on her friend as Leslie danced up against any man who moved. Ann noted that once Ben saw Leslie in her element, he took the hand of another girl and pushed her against the wall so they could make out. It was barely 12am at this point and already the competition was starting. As the night went on, Leslie and Ben both got to the point of drunkenness that caused incoherent arguments.