the 'brook action threads

Benson let himself into the off-campus apartment that he shared with Garrett Carver, one of Madeline's cousins, and immediately dumped his backpack on the floor just before flopping down onto a ratty old sofa that his mother had insisted that he remove from the Retlins' basement.  When a quick glance didn't turn up the TV remote, he started feeling beneath the sofa until he spotted it across the room on top of the TV itself.  Now he was faced with getting up to get it and turn on the TV or stay lazily on the couch.  Before he could make a decision, though, a knock sounded on the front door, so he stood up and walked over to answer it, making a detour by the TV set and grabbing the remote so that he wouldn't forget.
 
"Elise!" he smiled, moving back to let her walk inside.  "Garrett didn't tell me that you were coming."
 
This was his and Garrett's second year as roommates, having been introduced to each other by Madeline during Benson's freshman year.  He'd been skeptical of her prediction that he and her cousin would make great friends because he was used to her trying to prank him...and getting him to sign up to live with someone awful for an entire school year would be a pretty epic prank to pull, no matter how mean-spirited.  To his surprise, she'd been right; Garrett wasn't much like Mad except for his friendly, outgoing personality and he and Benson wound up having a lot in common.
 
Garrett met Elise at the beginning of this school year when he and Benson had a party at their new place, finally having moved off-campus.  She came up for the weekend for the party and to hang out with Benson, but Garrett had tagged along with them and spent his time trying to keep Elise's attention to himself.  Since she had arrived early on a Friday morning, they had the entire day together before that night's party.  When Benson woke up Saturday morning with a hangover, he shuffled out of his bedroom to find Garrett in the kitchen at the sink and Elise not on the couch.
 
"Where's Elise?" he asked, wondering if she'd managed to escape a hangover and was already out running or something.  Garrett turned around and Benson saw his eyes dart to his closed bedroom door before looking at Benson with a slightly alarmed look.  "Shit!  Is she in there?!  I swear to God that if you took advantage of her at all, I'm gonna--"
 
Garrett shook his head vehemently and threw his hands up in the air, defensively.  "No, Ben, I swear, nothing happened!  Well...I mean, some stuff happened--we made out--but that's it, I swear!"
 
Benson trusted that his friend was telling him the truth, but still wasn't happy about the situation until Garrett promised that he actually liked Elise and wanted to go out with her.  Shortly thereafter, they became a couple and Benson got used to two of his best friends dating each other.