Maybe I was Wrong

(Saturday Night, June 29th)

Ben turns on his side, away from the door, as he hides the small knife under the covers. His mother walks towards that side of the bed, and he makes an effort to conceal his mouth, clutching part of the blanket over it as he turns his head further down. "Honey?" she questions again, before she sits on the bed's edge. "How are you feeling?"

When she tries to feel his forehead, he moves his head even further into the pillow, irritably answering, "I'm fine."

"I know how hard it is for you to stay here," she mentions. "If you're not feeling well, we can always go home."

"I'm fine," Ben repeats.

She sighs, "Maybe just—"

Ben feels her try to pull the covers lower and he tugs them back, "No. I want them." before he shuts his eyes for a moment. "They're comfy." They're hot as hell, but they are comfy.

"Okay," she accepts. "Is there anything I can get you?"

Chad. She could get him Chad. "No," he mumbles.

"Okay." She kisses him on the corner of his forehead, "Rest well." before she stands.

He hears her touch the door, "Mom?"

"Yes?"

Ben pauses, "Can you put on the fan for me?" She flips one switch to turn on the fan and the other to turn the lights off. "Thanks," he whispers.

Belle shuts the door and turns, noticing Chad, "Do you need help with that?"

"With what?" he surprises.

She points, "That." and he reaches to the cut.

When he feels the wetness and sees the blood on his fingers, he sighs, "Probably."

When Adam notices her open the book and start to read, he makes a noise, "Belle." and she meets his eyes. "We can't keep doing this to him."

She shuts the book, folding her hands over it, "I assume, you mean Ben."

"He needs to know what he is," he proclaims. "The things he does and thinks, he must feel so isolated."

Belle partly smiles, "You're projecting a little, don't you think?"

"You've seen how he's been behaving," Adam counters. "He's been all irritable and defensive and—"

"Because we don't know anyone else who's like that," she lifts an eyebrow.

"He's getting tired of eating," Adam informs. "He said nothing helps."

"He has a fast metabolism," she excuses. "An athlete like him—"

"It's more than that," Adam asserts, before he hesitates, "I don't think a dinner roast is going to cut it for him anymore."

Belle takes his hand, "Adam. If something were going it happen, it would have already happened. You're the one that convinced me of that, remember?"

He makes a noise, "Well, maybe I was wrong." and her expression falters. "He's reckless. If there is something wrong, we need to get a grip on it."

She takes a moment, "Adam. You know your paranoia can get the better of you."

"Not about this," he insists. "I'm telling you, there's something seriously wrong with him. We've got to do something."

Belle slowly suggests, "Maybe this isn't the best time for this conversation."

"No," he yells, before he points a finger and grits his teeth. "I've held my tongue long enough. This fantasy you've given Ben is going to stop."

She moves his finger down as she holds his hand with hers, "Adam. Please."

"He's my son," Adam asserts. "I should have a say in his life."

"It's his life," she reminds him. "And if he really needs help, he will come to me."

Adam grumbles, "Because, he would never come to me."

Belle takes a breath, "Adam. You and Ben haven't exactly been on great terms. The chances of him coming to you right now… It's not going to happen."

"Unless he's afraid," he realizes.

"Well," Belle thinks, "I suppose."

He quiets, "And if I were to tell you that Ben's already spoken with me?"

She offers an unsure expression, "How do you mean?"

Adam hesitates, "I don't want to get into the details… but he is having a really hard time with this. We need to do something about it."

"You really are concerned about him," Belle realizes.

"He's going to lose himself," Adam continues. "He's going through this, and he has nowhere to turn."

"He can turn to us," she reminds him.

"But we've been lying to him," Adam widens his eyes. "Maybe he has been wanting to talk to us. Maybe he is struggling." He takes a deep breath, "And maybe us lying to him, it's made him feel worse about it." Belle's eyes lower in thought. "And if he's looking for answers, we need to give them to him."

She looks back up, "If what you're saying is true, then it's more important than ever that when he finds out again, he is able to accept it this time." and she sternly eyes him. "If his appetite has been getting worse, we can't have him stop eating meat altogether again."

"He needs more than that," Adam insists.

"If you want him to accept the truth once he finds out," Belle mentions, "then you might reconsider letting him attend a hybrid gathering."

"You really think people finding out about what he is, is going to make him feel any better?" Adam doubts.

She pauses, "I think that if Mal offers to put herself out there for Ben's sake, then we should take her up on it."

He grumbles, "That fairy—"

"Cares about him," Belle finishes. "We all want the same thing. Why can't you see that?"

"He needs to know now," Adam attempts to explain. "Why can't you understand he just is what he is? His body isn't going to wait for him to accept it, and you going along with this idea of him being human, it's just going to make things worse."

"Adam," she sighs.

"What do you think is going to happen when it finally happens?" he disbelieves. "I'll tell you what will happen. He will be an utter wreck, and all because he wasn't prepared for it."

Belle nods, "So, we're at an impasse, then."

"There is no impasse," his voice raises. "Ben needs to know now. It can't wait."

"Please," she pleads. "You know what happened last time."

He shakes his head, "Why can't he just accept it?"

"We should have told him when he was younger," Belle comments. "We should have told him it was okay to be different. Instead, we've made him ashamed of himself."

"We can't tell him yet?" he unsurely thinks.

"No," Belle frowns. "We can't."

Adam grumbles, "You really think this meeting can help?"

She nods, "I believe so."

Adam takes a deep breath, "Alright." before he gives a look. "But we're going to tell him. And soon."

"Soon," Belle promises.

When the door opens Ben looks up from the book, "Chad?"

"I figured you'd still be awake," he says, before he steps in and slowly shuts the door.

Ben shakes his head, "What are you doing here?"

Chad frowns as he shrugs, "Well, we didn't get a lot of time earlier."

He shuts the book, "Chad." before facing him. "The cut's going to be healed by now."

Chad scrunches his eyebrows, "Okay. I don't know about you, but it takes me more than one day to heal a cut, much less a few hours."

"But it's not bleeding," Ben counters.

"I don't know," Chad frustrates, before he makes a noise. "And why does it matter? You already told me you don't do that with Mal."

Ben sighs, "And if I'm doing anything with Mal, it usually has more to do with her needing heat or me needing to get rid of a fever."

His eyes shift, "I didn't think Mal knew about your temperature."

"She just thinks I'm hot, literally," he irritably responds. "She doesn't actually know about…" His frown deepens, "That I'm sick." and a sudden unsettling feeling flows over him. He eyes Chad up-and-down, "Did you want me to… um, check on the cut?"

Chad walks over to sit on the bed, "Your mom put something on it to stop the bleeding."

Ben peels the square bandage off, muttering, "Whatever she did, it didn't work." before he caresses his bottom lip up Chad's neck to catch the blood. He closes his lips over the cut and pushes him back onto the bed, and when Chad moves his shoulder to reveal the novel, Ben tosses it to the floor.

Chad laughs, "Your mom would be so disappointed."

"Shut up," Ben breathes, before he repositions himself over Chad and moves into the left of his neck again. It flows just as well as before, and although he urges for more, the speed stays the same. It does not slow, as he would expect it to, and the bitter taste no longer puts him off as it had before. It's sweet in its own way. Not like sugar, just sweet, but the taste is still so consuming. He takes a deep breath, ready to bite, except that he doesn't even know if his teeth would work like that and Chad's already complained about the cutting from his front teeth earlier. The blood's starting to slow, but he needs the taste to stay. Even just one minute longer, he urns to lose himself in it. He feels a hand slide under his shirt to his hip. If he were to do anything more, Chad may not object to it, and he bets anything that more activity would get the heartrate up. If he gets Chad's heartrate up, that will get things flowing. Grinding against him, getting him off, that should do it. Is it too weird? Is it wrong? No. He would do anything for just one more second, and another, and then another.

- Posted: 04/15/2019

- Megan Yeah. It was intended for Jasmine to be rude. Her character wasn't the most calm in her movie, and sadly I thought this would be a good portrayal of her and her life. Onto the pairing question, I thought I explained this in the first chapter, but it was probably under spoilers. Right now, Mal has pretty much been dating Ben and Evie behind Ben's back and telling Evie that their relationship doesn't mean as much as it does. By the time this fic is over I want to have Ben and Evie consenting to having Mal date both of them. The relationship that's been developing between Ben and Evie won't be a sexual one. They will just become heavily reliant on each other and used to each other's company, which will come to a point where if they were to separate, it would hurt as though they were in a relationship. To be clear, though, my interpretation of the characters are as follows. Evie is a lesbian, but as a hopeless romantic she also dreams of the "perfect" romance, which may or may not result in her trying to date a guy for a while. Mal is bi, and she's shameless about it. Ben... Well, Ben's Ben. Let's just leave it there. I have a lot of interesting things planned for him, but most of it isn't going to happen until after he graduates high school. If anyone has any further questions (like not being able to stay out of Ben's business, for instance), I'm willing to answer.

- So, I've been watching a spin-off from Pretty Little Liars called The Perfectionists, and the actress that portrays Evie is in it. It's so awesome, you don't even know. She plays the character Ava, and the character is exactly like Evie's, right down to the villain parent and neglectful upbringing. Her personality is a little darker, but I rather like it. I swear, a little Isle vibes is exactly what that show needed. It just makes some of her lines that much deeper.