A/N: I know it's taken me forever, but we finally have the confrontation part 2! I am still mostly skating around the graphic stuff, since I don't think that any of them would talk about it in a group like this, but there is some short stuff here. Thank you to all of you who reviewed. It makes my day every time I read them. Special thanks to HawkFrost99 for their suggestions and ideas. The poison idea came from them, and I will go deeper into that and use some of their other ideas soon. Thank you for your support. Happy reading!
After Doug went outside, the room was silent for a few seconds. Mal began pacing again, but Ben was confused.
"What just happened?" he asked. Mal stopped pacing and looked ready to blow her top, but Jay grabbed her shoulder. She gave Jay a dirty look, and he stepped away with his hands up in surrender. Evie took this as a chance to intervene.
"Carlos just… forgot he was in Auradon for a minute," she said carefully. She had to appear strong, or else Carlos would fall apart again and Mal would erupt. Ben looked at her, perturbed.
"You said 'usually'. You asked Jay what he 'usually' did." Evie's eyes widened, Mal clenched her fist, Jay stepped back uncomfortably, and Carlos looked at the floor. Noticing the tension, Lonnie stood and took Jay's hand. Ben continued, "Has this happened before? Does it happen a lot?" No one would meet his eyes now, not even Evie. She looked to Mal, asking for permission. Mal gave a small shake of her head. No. She was their leader. She would handle this.
"Look," she said, attempting to speak calmly. There was a knock on the door, and Doug stepped back inside Jay and Carlos's room.
"Jane said that she'll be leaving the Radcliffe's soon, and she and Dude should be back around six." Doug looked around the room. Oh, no, he thought. I've interrupted something. The room was silent for a moment, as everyone waited for Mal to continue talking. Realizing that everyone was staring at her, Mal addressed Ben, Lonnie, and Doug.
"I don't want to say this twice." Mal hesitated, before saying. "I'm sure you all know that moving to Auradon was a big adjustment for us." She paused. "You probably also know that Auradon is very different from the Isle." She gave a melancholy laugh, "But there is a lot that you don't know." Mal sobered, turning to Ben. "Yes, Carlos has had panic attacks before, though they're better now than they were." She glanced at Evie and Jay before turning back to Ben. "We all have something like that: panic attacks, nightmares, scars. Things happen when you disappoint your parents." Ben was trying to take in all that she was saying. "Well, when we disappointed our parents."
"When I didn't fluff her furs enough," Carlos shuddered. Jay put a protective hand on his shoulder as he gave another explanation.
"When I didn't steal a big enough score." Lonnie looked at Jay, and rose to go stand beside him. She would be there for him if he wanted her. Everyone turned their heads as Evie hung hers, whispering,
"When I wasn't pretty enough." Doug immediately crossed to her and soothingly rubbed circles on her back. He whispered into his girlfriend's ear while his roommate stared in shock. How could she not be pretty enough? Ben thought. Evie's a knockout. Even Audrey goes to her for beauty tips. Any fool could- His thoughts were interrupted when Mal added her own statement.
"When I was weak." Ben took Mal's hands in his own.
"Mal - I - you're not weak. You're the strongest person I know." Mal pulled her hand away and averted her eyes.
"Yeah, well, there's a lot you don't know," she mumbled. She could feel everyone watching her, waiting for her to say more. "I'm done talking," she said stiffly. Ben tried to take her hand back.
"Mal, I-"
"No." Mal turned, ignoring Ben, and yelled at Jay and Evie. "Why didn't you tell me? Why didn't you tell Carlos? You could have at least prepared us for this. That panic attack? You could have prevented it." She looked between her three adoptive siblings. "We are a team. We stick together. We're supposed to always have each other's backs." Evie and Jay looked guilty, and Jay tried to interject.
"Do you really think that would've helped? You would have flipped the h*** out, and Carlos still would've had a-"
"So you think this is any better?" Mal yelled. Evie pushed Doug back towards the wall protectively. Jay had spoken too soon. "At least then we could have come up with a plan-"
"Mal, you don't need a plan here, everything's going to be okay," Ben said calmly.
"Easy for you to say!" Mal's eyes flashed a dangerous green and Evie winced. Mal was starting to go angry dragon, and was no stopping her now. "You haven't had your dad whip you or throw dishes and whatever else he can find at you." Jay cringed. "You haven't had your mom use your skin to put out her cigarettes." Carlos flinched. "Or chain you up in a dungeon." Evie inhaled sharply, and Mal stopped, her voice going eerily low. "And you sure as h*** haven't had your parents force you to watch as your friends' parents cut them. Stab them. Burn them. Use them as a Guinea pig for poisons." Doug came back from the wall to hug his girlfriend from behind after she jumped from hearing the word "poisons". Ben stood in a state of shock.
"Mal, I - I had no idea." He suddenly pulled her into a bone crushing hug, and she blinked, stepping back out of his embrace. She looked at Ben in fear, and then turned to look at Evie, Jay, and Carlos.
"I- I'm so sorry." Mal ran out of the room, as the world around her blurred. What did I just do? She thought as she struggled to see where she was going, running down the hallway.
A/N: By the way, in case it's unclear, I did not intend any Ben/Evie. Ben's thought about Evie was simply there to show how confused he is (and likely how everyone else in Auradon would be) that Evie's mother didn't think she was beautiful enough.