Gone
(Saturday Evening, August 31st)
Beth sips on the large soda. "You know, I thought I was going to have to sit through some stupid horror film."
Chad moves an arm over her shoulders. "What? You peg me for one of those guys who tries to scare a girl into his arms?" Beth raises her eyebrows at him, and he looks back at the theater screen. "Okay. I might have tried it before."
"Didn't work, did it?"
"I attract damsels in distress." Chad frowns. "Just like my father."
Beth smiles. "I'm a damsel?"
"That's a compliment. Nothing scares you." He mutters, "Kind of makes being a knight in shining armor kind of useless. At least Flynn Rider got to convince Rapunzel to leave the castle. I couldn't even do that."
"Eugene."
"Hmm?" Chad hums.
"Flynn Rider was a wanted criminal," she corrects. "Sir Eugene Rider is a knight in shining armor."
"Flynn Rider. Aladdin Ali. John Smith," he lists. "Maybe I've got this all wrong. It's not enough to be hot as Hell. You need to act like you have the devil in your ear too."
Beth cringes. "Let's not get into religion."
"Seriously." Chad continues, "Everyone goes for the bad boys. And girls. As soon as the daughter of the most evil villain in history made it to our shores, suddenly I didn't exist."
Beth rolls her eyes. "Are we really talking about Ben again?"
"It's a valid conversation piece."
"No," Beth's eyebrows furrow. "You know—I'm using the bathroom." Her eyes widen. "Shit."
"What?" Chad questions.
"I have to use the bathroom."
"And?"
"And it's a public restroom," she whispers.
"So?" Beth takes a deep breath, and Chad leans in. "Look. No one in the restroom is going to be able to tell that you can't get pregnant." He speaks louder, "And you're hotter than any girl here. You have nothing to worry about."
Beth sighs, "Alright." She stands from her seat, exits into the aisle, and heads out into the light of the lobby. She glances at the people gathering the candy counter before heading into the restroom block, and she hurries past the girls into the stall.
Her eyes must have deceived her. Her ears must be mistaking the condescending, self-loathing tone. Audrey sighs. "Why can't anyone just appreciate the hard work I do?"
"I appreciate you," Ruby reassures.
"I invited everyone," Audrey complains. "Even my family didn't come."
"The musical was in Auradon," she reminds her. "It's a drive, and you're so talented at so many things. It's hard to show up for anything."
"You're still on for the charity auction for the homeless apartments, right?"
Ruby whines, "We shouldn't have to sell ourselves for money."
"It's just one date," Audrey reassures. "You never have to see them ever again."
"Five dates," she reminds her. "Five different people, five different ways to get stalked, drugged, or kidnapped."
"Not even the peasants are interested in me anymore," Audrey connects. "People used to show up to my plays just to see me up close."
"What's up with that girl?" Ruby whispers. "She's been in there a while." Beth rubs her forehead, and Ruby calls out, "Hey. In the stall, you need a tampon or anything?"
"Oh, no. I'm good," Beth reassures, before she flushes the toilet, steps out into view, and heads for the sinks.
Audrey blows on her freshly painted nails. "Ten years ago, wearing makeup was a crime. My grandmother is still convinced it's the devil's work. She only gets to wear it now because she's closer to God more than ever before."
Beth washes her hands, as Ruby questions, "What does that even mean?"
"I don't know," she answers, "but I can't let her see me wearing it without a reason. She's probably the only one who would show up to my events, but she'd probably turn stage makeup into some huge ordeal." She sighs again, staring into the mirror. "I'm beautiful, smart, and caring. Why is it so hard to get people to love me?"
"You must not have seen how much the news promotes you." Beth frowns. "Everyone loves you, Audrs."
She eyes her up-and-down in the mirror. "Sorry. Who are you?"
"Beth." Her eyes lower. "I'm kind of dating Chad. We're here. On a date."
Audrey takes a deep breath. "I can't believe what I'm hearing. Of course, he would." Silence erupts, and Beth walks away. "Hey. Ben." She stops in her steps, her heart pounding. "Beth." Audrey releases a breath, and she turns around. "Lose the heals. You're tall enough the way it is."
Beth follows Audrey's eyes to her black shoes. "Evie said it would help keep my back straight."
"We're royal," Audrey scathes. "Perfect posture is in our culture." Beth stares, and Audrey glances down. "Right. No English." She folds her hands and strains a smile. "We have good backs. You're tall. If you want to look like a girl, stick with flats."
Beth continues to stare, and Ruby intrudes, "I don't think he understands."
"No. Um." Beth purses her lips. "I do. Thank you."
She leaves the bathroom, and Audrey takes a deep breath. "My grandmother cannot find out I'm encouraging her."
"You mean, him," Ruby corrects, and Audrey frowns at her. "I mean, you called him Ben. He is Ben, right?"
"What are you trying to do, get him killed?" Audrey puts her makeup away. "That was a mistake. Beth's a girl." She asserts, "I won't be responsible for getting my future husband killed. To think, if his parents knew about this—"
"I'm confused," Ruby interrupts. "You can't marry Ben if he's pretending to be a girl."
"He's in hiding," Audrey reminds her. "No. Once he turns eighteen, I'll come to his rescue, invite him to live with me, and then I'll be queen of all the land."
"That still doesn't explain why he's dressed like a girl."
"Ben's always been afraid of himself," Audrey dismisses. "Remember at the end of last year when he admitted his father basically enslaved his mother? If one of my parents raped and domesticated the other, I'd be afraid of ending up like them too."
"Oh. Look. Someone's in my room." Mal waves her claws at the woman. "I didn't get lunch, yet. Are you lunch?"
"Sorry to disappoint you." The brunette takes a seat in the cushioned chair. "Now that your withdrawals seem to be taken care of, I'm here to assess your emotional health."
Mal glows her eyes. "Leave my room and never come back."
"Sorry. That doesn't work on me."
She narrows her eyes. "You say sorry a lot."
"Just trying to be submissive," she reassures. "You're in control of this conversation. Make no mistake about that."
Mal moves to the edge of her seat. "So, I can talk about anything I want?"
"Yes."
"Then I want to talk about you." Mal crosses her arms. "Who are you?"
She smiles. "I'm Amanda. I have a Ph.D. in Psychology with an emphasis on drug addiction and adolescence."
"And you're a witch," Mal adds.
"Just an empath," she diminishes. "Nothing special."
"I wouldn't say nothing special." Mal glances at the padded floor, raising her eyebrows. "My girlfriend's an empath. She tried telling me Ben had a feminine personality." She clucks her tongue. "But I didn't listen."
"Are you still in contact with him?"
Mal sticks her claws into the plastic of her bed. "Kind of hard to stay in contact with someone who no longer exists." She pulls at the plastic, but it doesn't tear. "He's off being who he really is under some absurd not-so-unobvious name." She moves her hand in the other direction, but her claws are caught underneath. She hisses, "I hate this."
"Here. Let me help."
The therapist stands from her seat, but Mal rejects, "No. I don't need help." She pulls harder and seethes.
When the woman makes it to the bed, she sees blood pooling under one of the nails. "Here." She kneels down and takes Mal's hand. "I have cats at home. You need to be patient with curled nails." She frees Mal's pointer finger. "It needs more of a circular motion to release it." She frees the rest of Mal's claws, one by one. "There." Mal sucks on the bleeding finger. "They're a little long. Would you like them cut?"
Mal threatens, "The last person who tried to cut my nails doesn't have an arm anymore."
"I wouldn't cut them all the way," she reassures. "I could even sharpen them for you."
She eyes over her. "How am I supposed to trust you?"
"I have cats," she says again. "I'm completely against declawing. You need them to protect yourself."
Tears intrude Mal's eyes, and she takes a deep breath before asserting. "Okay. But only you. Got it?"
"Got it." She moves over to the door, pressing the button, and requests the nail kit. It's a few minutes before the door's cracked open, and the woman's given the clipper and file. They're locked in again, and she returns to the bed. "This won't hurt a bit."
Mal watches the woman cut one of her claws and then use the file to follow the nailbeds, resulting in a pointed nail. "Your cats are lucky to have such a good owner. I can imagine you being there for them and loving them."
"I love them a lot," she confirms.
"When I first started dating Ben, him and Evie would fight over me and my love. Now, they're getting so along, I feel less loved somehow."
"What do you think changed?"
"I don't know." Mal shakes her head. "They're just not focused on me anymore. They're… they're not devoted to me anymore." She irritably replies, "Not that it matters, because Ben's a completely different person now."
"Now that he's being more himself?" she recalls.
"The entire time we were dating, he kept saying that he's a king, that it was his entire personality." She angers, "But it wasn't. He was hiding his true personality—his true feelings—the entire time. It's like I don't even know him anymore… But, I guess, I never did."
"And how does that make you feel?"
"Upset." Tears leave her eyes. "I feel like I've been lied to. This whole time."
The doorman takes his finger off the earpiece. "He will be down momentarily."
"No." Belle pushes past the muscular man. "I demand to talk to him. Now."
"Belle," Charming calls from the second floor.
She turns towards him. "Where's Ben?"
He hurries down the stairs. "What are you talking about?"
"I know you're hiding him," she asserts.
Charming strides over to her. "Ben's not here."
"School's starting soon." She grabs him. "I'm not asking you to bring him to the castle. I'm telling you to get him to campus."
"And I'm telling you," he evenly expresses, "Ben's not here."
Her arms slowly drop. "I could've sworn… No. He looks up to you. He has to be here."
"I offered him a place to stay," Charming confesses, "but Ben already made arrangements. He has a job. He has a roommate. He has people who can look after him."
"So, you know where he is," she assumes.
Charming slowly shakes his head. "I'm sorry, Belle, but I don't."
"But you talked to him."
"To say goodbye," he finishes. "Ben's made a new identity for himself. I'm lucky I got to see him at all."
"And you don't know anything more?"
Charming's eyes lower. "I wish I could tell you more, but I really don't know a lot."
"What can you tell me?"
Charming tries to smile. "Well. He looks healthier."
She raises an eyebrow. "Healthier?"
"Ten pounds healthier," he unsurely answers. "I think the lack of stress has been very good for him."
"He was more than ten pounds underweight," she worries.
"It's still better than nothing." Charming frowns. "I think giving him the time to explore what he wants and express himself might help even more than the feeding clinic could."
"He's king," she disbelieves. "The people need to know when he's coming back."
"Maybe he never will," Charming's voice raises. "But I know what Ben's plans were, and as his advisor, I plan to do my best to see it through."
"This is his senior year," Belle outrages. "He needs to finish high school."
"I don't know." Charming suggests, "I think he'd have more fun if he graduated with Chad. It makes it easier for them to choose a college."
"How does dropping school for a year make college easier?"
"Oh. You know, just that they… Never mind."
"Ben barely even speaks English."
"Neither do a quarter of people in Charmington." He reassures, "There's a French college here. Having a problem with English won't ruin his college experience."
"But it does limit his options." Charming quiets, and she says, "If you know anything about where he is or who he's pretending to be, you need to tell me."
He purses his lips. "I don't have to tell you anything." She opens her mouth, and he interrupts. "Without me, Ben wouldn't even be alive right now. If he needs to take a year off for his mental health, I don't think it's going to cause any damage."
"For his mental health?" she repeats. "He needs real help."
"He's doing just fine." Charming widens his eyes. "He's doing better. He's happy."
"Ben happy?" She shakes her head. "Impossible. He has untreated anxiety. He was supposed to get a prescription after he stopped drinking so much soda."
"Belle." He takes her hands. "Ben's fine, and he is a lot happier now."
"Without me," she interprets.
"Without his father, maybe," Charming accepts. "Without the entire country watching his every move, absolutely."
"You definitely know who he's pretending to be."
"I'm not supposed to know," Charming eyes away. "I'm pretending I don't."
"Well, tell me."
He sighs. "If I tell you, you're going to tell Adam, and he's going to send Ben to the hospital again."
"Ben needs to be in the hospital," she relays.
"You know what I mean." She looks down. "And if you're intending to go after him, then I can't tell you where he is either."
"I won't." She meets his eyes. "I promise." Charming makes a disgruntled noise. "Seriously. Tell me where he is, and I will do nothing more than keep an eye on him from afar."
"She," he corrects.
She takes her hands from his. "Excuse me?"
"Ben's alias is Beth Fleur," he divulges. "She works at the health store in Auradon, shares an apartment with another girl, and she's dating Chad."
"You keep calling him 'she'," Belle emphasizes.
"So long as Ben's happy, I don't care what he wants to be called."
"And you're condoning this?"
He pinches the bridge of his nose. "I know it's a little unorthodox."
"He's dating your son," she outrages. "How can you accept that?"
"Better than them dating behind our backs again," Charming inputs, and she seethes, rubbing her head. "You okay?"
"Suddenly dizzy." She closes her eyes. "I must be dehydrated."
"Let's sit down." He guides her to the couches before shouting back at the doorman, "Can you get us some water, please?" The man heads up the stairs, and they sit. "Look. Chad's only dating Beth because he knows she's Ben. We're working on getting a ball together for his birthday party. Hopefully, he will find one of the girls there interesting."
"Why a girl?" Belle murmurs. "It sounds to me, he doesn't even like them."
"He likes Ben." Charming challenges, "He just needs to learn to respect women."
"Ben's not a girl," Belle rebuttals. "And if he doesn't respect women, then you need to figure out why."
"I didn't teach him to be sexist," Charming defends.
"Of course, not. Society did." She faces him. "It was your job to teach him it's wrong." She takes a deep breath. "And it was my job to keep Ben from crossdressing and dating boys."
"I thought you didn't care who he was with."
"Every royal family has that one king who had a favorite servant." She frowns. "Dating is more public, and that doubles when royals are dating other royals."
"So, you're not okay with them dating?"
She faces him. "Are you? I mean, religion can be very judgmental. No offense."
Charming takes a moment. "I think it's a recipe for a lot of people to get hurt. Ben's finally expressing some things society said was wrong, and Chad's under the impression Ben's only pretending to be this way… So, Ben's going to get hurt, not to mention his girlfriend, who moved here to be with him… But I can't say anything or else Beth will run away. Maybe she'll even decide life isn't worth all the risk and the trying."
"Sorry." Belle raises a hand. "You don't think Ben wants to be Beth?"
"He could have chosen to be anyone."
"He's obviously doing it so that he can publicly date Chad," she disagrees.
"You're right. Maybe it's not that serious."
The doorman sets down the pitcher of ice water, and Belle takes a glass. "Thank you."
"But I do think he really wanted the flowers, he doesn't mind painting his nails, and that he's still jealous that Evie has a smaller waist," Charming counters.
"There's an easy way to settle this." She clings to the cup. "We hire a private investigator. If Beth's happy, we don't intervene. If he's not, we stop this."
He frowns. "What happened to watching from afar?"
"If he's only doing this for Chad, it's not healthy. I need to know he's happy too."
"He's happier than he was," Charming quotes. "Those are his words, and I believe him."
She starts to cry and covers her eyes with her hand. "Sorry. I just miss him so much. He used to trust me with everything, and now…" Charming hugs her. "He's gone. Again."
- This concludes Isle Problems 2: In the Family. I hope you will join me for Isle Problems 3: Recovery. Please leave your final thoughts in the comments, and have a very wonderful start to your New Year.
