Something Bad

(Day 45: Tuesday Noon)

"I knew I'd find you here."

Evie rolls her eyes at the sound of Ben's hopeful voice, before she and Doug turn from the countertops, "You have some nerve interrupting my lunch hour again."

Ben half smiles, "It's not like you're going to be eating anyway."

"Ben," Doug sternly interrupts. "That's why she's here, is to eat."

"Okay. Well," Ben shakes his head as he takes a step forward. "This will only take a moment." He finds her unamused and so clasps his hands together, "Evie. I—"

She presses the button on the blender and smiles, as Ben frowns and his hands drops to his sides. "Sorry. What was that?"

"I—" The grinding sound erupts from the blender again; however, when it stops he takes a deep breath and tries again, "I—" The sound interrupts him again, and then he widens his eyes at her before yelling, "Would you just let me explain?"

Doug taps Evie's arm, and when she looks at him he comments, "He really tries not to get mad. Please, don't upset him."

Evie huffs and then turns back to Ben, "Fine. What do you want?"

He wets his lips as he takes a step forward, "You said I needed a better excuse for not looking after Mal."

She crosses her arms and raises her eyebrows, "You've got a better one for me?"

"I wasn't trying to make up an excuse last time," Ben responds as he rubs his hands together and glances down, before he takes another step and looks up at her. "I was just too scared to tell you the full truth."

Evie uncrosses her arms and tilts her head up, "I'm listening."

"You see…" He takes a couple short breaths, "I don't know if I can do this."

"You want to gain my trust back, don't you?" Ben merely looks at her, mouth cracked open. "You want to see Mal again? Prove that you're more than just some sleazy guy."

Ben takes a deep breath, "Well." He looks down for a second. "You know about sleep?" She gives him an odd look. "I've kind of had this thing where I don't really do that."

She takes a step forward, "What do you mean?"

He pauses, "After I quit the tourney team I found myself with more energy than I know what to do with… I still exercise and everything, but it doesn't seem to do that much." They stare at each other for a moment, before he glances down and continues, "I was going practically a full week without sleep, and every aspect of my life was suffering. So, I… I started to take something to sleep." He confesses, "That's why I couldn't wake up when Mal needed me. I wanted to be able to sleep when she was asleep."

Evie nearly laughs, "Why didn't you just say this before?"

Ben shuts his eyes, "I was scared and embarrassed." before he observes her expression. "I still am… The thing I've been using to sleep, I'm not exactly using it for it's designed purpose." She looks down for a second. "I didn't want anyone to know. No one can know."

She looks at him for a second, "Does Mal know?" He shakes his head. "She deserves to know. You need to tell her why you couldn't be there for her."

"Yeah. I know." Ben shakes his head, "But does it need to be so soon?" He sees her look, "I don't want her to see me any differently because of the problems I have."

"You're afraid that she won't want you anymore," Evie guesses.

Ben lets out a slow breath, "Yeah."

Evie partly smiles, "She feels the same way about you."

"What?" Ben questions.

She takes another step forward, "Mal thinks that if you get to know her better, then you won't like her anymore."

He shakes his head, "How could she think that?"

"How could you think that about her?" Evie rebuttals.

"I'm king," Ben explains. "People expect me to be perfect."

"And Mal thinks she's not good enough for you," Evie refutes. "So, why don't you just tell her you're a normal guy with normal expectations and everyday problems?"

"Well, my problems aren't exactly the most normal," he unsurely replies.

"Neither are Mal's." She touches his shoulder, "You will be fine." and when the timer goes off Evie rushes over to the oven. "Ooh. The cookies are done."

"Cookies?" Ben questions.

"Apparently, she likes to cook," Doug answers, and Evie lays the tray on top of the stove just as Ben walks over and reaches for one; however, he pulls his hand back in hesitance.

He points at them, "These aren't spiked with potion, are they?"

She laughs, "No. Help yourself."

"Thank you," he happily responds as he attempts to take one from the metal platter, but before he can the tips of his fingers are burned and he pulls away.

Evie smiles, "Maybe you should wait."

"No." Ben furrows his eyes at the challenge, "I've got this." before he carefully plucks one up and takes a bite out of it. "Mmm." He rests the large cookie in his hand and goes to grab some more; however, when the fifth one is piled on top he sees Evie observing him intently in question, before he frowns and puts three of them back. "You're a good cook. I should probably give other people a chance to eat them too." She doesn't respond. "So! Are you, ah, going to the hearing this afternoon?"

She gives him an odd look, "Am I allowed to come? I thought it was just the… what's it called? The legal team?"

"Well, ah, yes," Ben attempts to smile. "But, uh, I think we can make an exception for Mal's best friend, if you do want to come."

Evie is quiet for a minute, "Yeah. I think I would like that."

"Okay. Yeah. Good," Ben quickly responds as he slowly moves back towards the door. "I will let my parents know."

Evie watches him turn around and exit, "What was that?"

"He gets anxious a lot," Doug explains as she walks towards him.

"Hmm." She sits down, "You didn't know about his sleeping issues, did you?"

"I'm his roommate."

"Oh, right." Evie pauses, "How does… Does it affect him?"

"Well," Doug starts, "on the nights he doesn't sleep he studies."

She shakes her head, "And?"

"And," Doug slowly responds, "I'm pretty sure that when he studies he's also eating like an extra thousand calories each night."

Evie's eyebrows rise, "A thousand?"

"It might be more like seven hundred," Doug hurries. "Protein bars can range anywhere between two hundred to six hundred calories. There's no way to know for sure."

She gives him a look, "You weren't— I don't know— curious at all?"

He takes a breath, "Look. Ben says he just has a fast metabolism, and he is an athlete. So—"

"So, nothing," Evie interrupts. "He quit the team. He's not an athlete anymore. The amount of food he's eating is unacceptable."

Doug is quiet for a second, "Being an athlete isn't an occupation. It's a lifestyle."

"I don't care," she nearly shouts. "No one eats three thousand calories a day."

He calmly responds, "Well, Ben does… and, technically, it would probably be more like four thousand."

"And you think that's okay?" she accuses.

It takes him a minute to reply, "It's not like he's gaining any weight from it for anything. If he were, then, yeah, I might be a little more worried. But since he isn't…" He shakes his head, "Evie. Maybe he just needs it. You ever think about that?"

She swirls the straw around in her drink and mutters, "No one needs four stupid thousand calories a day."

He watches her push the smoothie away, "You should drink that."

Evie shakes her head, "No. I can't do this today."

"Says who?" Doug sternly questions.

An image of Evie's mother flashes in her mind, "No one… I just— I don't think I can do this today."

"Why?" She doesn't respond. "Is it because of Ben?"

She shuts her eyes hard, "No. It's not Ben."

"Then why?" he questions.

Evie widens her eyes at him, "Because bad things happen. Okay? When I eat…" She shakes her head. "Something bad always happens."

"You mean, like gaining weight," Doug guesses.

"No," Evie lets out a breath. "I mean, yes, but no… It's just bad things in general."

It takes him a moment to ask, "Like what?"

Evie remembers her mother's stern expression, "Don't eat that."

She huffed as she cut the cake slice with her fork, "What are you going to do? Lock me up again?"

"No." Evie stopped midway as she moved the fork to her mouth. "If you eat it, then this time I'll just have to lock up your little girlfriend instead."

Evie set the fork back onto the plate, "She's not my—"

"You dare lie to me!" She saw as her mother pulled the mirror out of her red dress. "It's been watching you."

"Mother. I—"

"You've betrayed us." She leaned back onto the counter, as her mother came closer to her. "Is this what you really want," the Evil Queen gritted her teeth, "to be a fucking dyke for the rest of your life?"

Evie let out a soft breath, "No. Of course, not."

"Are you sure about that?" her mother doubted as she drew nearer to her. "That's why you've been eating all this crap, isn't it?" She grabbed the plate out of Evie's hands and threw it against the wall, causing it to shatter to pieces. "You want to be fat, don't you? You want to make yourself ugly so that guys won't like you anymore, isn't that right?"

She kept her eyes shut, as she could feel her mother's breath against her face, "No."

"What was that?" her mother pulled at the roots of her hair, and she yelped. "I didn't hear that. Speak louder."

"No," Evie says again, more confidently this time, before she opens her eyes. "I want to be beautiful. I want guys to like me. I really, really do."

The Evil Queen let go of her, "I'm glad to hear that." but as Evie felt the tears streaming down her face she watched as her mother came in to hug her. "Oh. My poor, little evilette." She placed her hands on her shoulders, "You won't have to rely on that poor excuse of a girl for attention forever. You can be beautiful." She glanced up at the pan in disgust, "You've just got to stop eating all this trash. Okay?"

Evie nodded, "Yes. I'll stop."

"You've better," her mother warned as she stood to full height. "Ugh. Look at this." She looked at the broken plate and the white frosting stuck to the stone wall. "Look at the mess you've made." Her mother eyed her again, "Clean it up, and don't you dare let it happen again."

"Evie?"

She looks up at Doug, "What if Mal gets hurt?"

"What?" he asks in confusion.

"The hearing is today. What if it goes bad?"

"Evie," Doug frowns. "You don't honestly think that if you eat, then Mal's hearing will go bad." She looks down again, and he lets out a sad breath.

"Something bad always happens," she whispers before looking back up at him. "I can't do this, not if it means something bad happening to her."

"Nothing bad is going to happen to her," he promises.

"You can't know that," Evie denies.

He looks down for a second, "You're right. I can't." before he looks back up. "But what I do know is that if something bad happens, it will not be because of what you do or don't eat." Evie shakes her head. "What? You don't believe I'm telling you the truth." She merely looks at him, and then he takes a stressed breath. "Ugh." He presses his glasses to the ridge of his nose, "Evie… I know you don't know this." He eyes her for a moment. "But the way you're thinking, it's really messed up. Have you talked to someone about this, like a professional?"

She looks away from him, "I'm not seeing anyone. They're going to call me crazy… Everyone thinks I'm crazy."

Doug innocently replies, "I don't think you're crazy."

She smiles at him, "That's sweet, but you hardly know me."

"Then let's get to know each other a little better."

"What?" she frowns.

"No. I just—" He tenses, "Since you don't want to have lunch, I thought maybe we could have dinner together instead… you know, after the hearing."

"Dinner?" she uneasily questions.

"Yeah." Doug hopefully smiles, "With like potatoes and gravy, and cooked carrots."

She smiles unsurely, "I don't know—"

"Please," he insists. "If it makes you feel better, it doesn't have to just be the two of us. We can sit out in the cafeteria."

"You mean, like with Ben?" she hesitates.

"Ah, no." He explains, "Ben usually has dinner with the team— or actually— you know, sometimes I don't know where he goes, but we won't be sitting with him."

"Then who?" she inquires.

He shrugs, "What about your friends?"

"My friends?"

"You know," he slowly explains, "Carlos, Jay… Mal."

"Oh, ah," she attempts to smile. "No."

"Why not?"

"Why do you want to see my friends?" she loudly asks back.

It takes him a minute, "They're important to you. I thought I should get to know them."

"Well, you're not my boyfriend," Evie retorts, "so I don't need to introduce you to them."

Doug glances down, "I know I'm not your boyfriend… I'm just trying to be a good friend, make sure that the progress we've made with your eating isn't undone by some stupid, irrational fear you have."

"It's not irrational," Evie denies, but she turns away at the sight of his doubt. "Um… We can just have dinner in here tonight." She whispers, "I can't bear the idea of people seeing me. And the cafeteria is always filled with people taking dumb pictures… I can't get caught."

Doug nods, "Alright. We can eat here tonight."

She partly smiles, "Thank you."

He smiles back, "Thank me for what?"

"For trying to be understanding."

He lets out a breath of relief, "Good. I've really been trying to be."

- I know I probably should have written the chapter for the hearing before posting this set, but I just really wanted to get them out there. What do you think of the flashback? Is the Evil Queen horribly horrible or is the scene just that horrifically great? Let me know what you think of these chapters. Predictions are always great to read too. I've had people post predictions before, even when they're like twenty chapters behind. It doesn't make the comments any less fun to read. Trust me.