So I sign on to my email only to find 9 lovely reviews from you guys! Thank you all so so so so SO much! :D It's also really cool, because as I'm writing this, I have 39 reviews on this, so I found that funny. xD just a warning to you, the next few chapters are going to be more dark, and I'll really be taking advantage of the T rating on this, language and content wise. Don't worry; I'm not going to go all Lemony-fresh on you or anything, but just a heads up that this is going to deal a bit with alcoholism and a non-descriptive rape attempt. No need to panic, but there's a close call- just so you guys know before you read this chapter. I'm stating it right here, in bold print, so if you decide to review flame me for it, you'll just look stupid. Ok, moving on- here's chapter 6!
(sorry, one more thing- credit for the rhino metaphor goes to my friend Becky. And this chapter is dedicated to my friend Emily, or Emzilla101, who has a Harry Potter fic right now. If you're in to that kinda stuff, GO THERE NOW! :D Ok, shameless friend promotion done, here's the chapter!)
It wasn't until I got home that I realized two things:
One, although I had the perfect opportunity to, I never actually ended up telling Benjamin about Isabel, and Two, Oh My God, I Kissed Benjamin Freaking Kabra.
I. Kissed. Benjamin. Kabra.
Holly shit.
So now I was mentally berating myself, because not only did I not get the information I needed, I became very drunk in front of this guy who up until a week ago was my enemy, and that ended in a coffee-flavoured kiss.
Good lord, a coffee-flavoured kiss? I sound like Christofer Drew Ingle.
It was times like this where I really wished I had a friend that I could talk to about things like this- I had friends that I've met at concerts and stuff, and I know a lot of kids from a lot of branches, but I'm not that close with anyone but my mom and Dan. I think they've made it pretty darn clear that I shouldn't be talking about my Benjamin Kabra issues with them. And this takes me full circle, back to Isabel and, eventually, Benjamin. If she hadn't decided that she was going to murder people that day, I would have had my cousin to talk to, and that brings me back to that minor detail of telling Benjamin that his Grandmother has murdered people in cold blood. Specifically, my father, aunt, and cousin.
But, as it was Saturday, and I was still nursing a hangover, I figured I could wait a day or two to tell him about that minor detail. (That, and the fact that I'm not sure I want to face him after The Kiss.)
Which is why now, I'm sitting in my room with music playing very loudly, (but my room's soundproof, and it's classical, so if she was home, my mom probably wouldn't mind anyway) sitting on the floor in the middle of the room, reading. A private moment with Grace Cahill.
"You realize that there is a perfectly good couch right behind you, right?"
Well, that just gave me a freaking heart attack. Thank you, stupid British ninja.
"What the hell are you doing here?" I screamed.
He smirked, "Not as fun when you're on the receiving end of things, is it?"
"How did you even get up here? This place is harder to get into than Area 51!"
"You forget, Grace," he said, "that I have broken into Area 51. Multiple times."
"That still doesn't explain why you're here!"
"Oh, so you can break into my room in the middle of the night and expect me to just go along with whatever you have planned, but I can't stop by for a visit?"
"Not during daylight hours you can't!" I exclaimed. "Do you know who could walk in my room right now? Anyone! Any person could walk in this room right this very second, and do you know how much shit the both of us will get into? A lot. A lot a lot."
"Grace, I think the both of us know that neither your mother nor your uncle is here right now."
Damnit.
"That aside," I said, "what are you doing here?" changing the subject.
"Well," he drawled, taking a seat on the couch behind me, "since you aren't going to put this delightfully comfortable couch to good use, the job goes to me."
"So you came here to sit on my couch? How long have you been stalking me to know about my couch, Kabra?" ok, banter- this is good. It's not awkward yet, let's keep it that way.
"Never pegged you for a kiss fan." He said suddenly.
Ah, there's the awkward we've been looking for.
"Wh-What?" I stuttered out. Ah, eloquence, you truly are a lost art.
He looked confused at my stricken face, then it dawned on him, and he looked equally panicked.
"The song." He stated awkwardly, gesturing towards my iPod, where 'Beth' by KISS was playing.
"Oh!" I gasped out, relieved. "Well, what's not to love?"
"Right."
Worldwide, people are cringing, but they don't know why. This is just bad.
"Is there another reason you're here?" I asked. "You know, the real reason?"
"Yes, actually." He brightened, "It appears that you stole my jacket last night."
Oh.
"Um, what jacket?" I asked, stalling. "I don't recall the stealing of any articles of clothing."
"Bull. That's like me finding a giant pile of crap on the floor, and my pet rhino saying he didn't do it."
"Wow. That was quite the metaphor."
"Well, if there's anything I learned last night, Grace," he said, smirking at me, "it's that you appreciate metaphors."
I turned bright red, ducking into my closet to find him the jacket.
I retrieved it from the very back corner of my closet, where I had hid it last night, and brought it back for him. I handed it over and he got up and opened my window to leave.
"Wait." I said, acting on autopilot. Benjamin raised an eyebrow; yes?
"Um, you were right." I said. "My mom isn't home, and nobody's going to come over. So, um, you could stay if you wanted to. I need to tell you something, anyway."
He just nodded, and sat back down on my couch.
"What do you need to tell me?" he asked quietly.
I took a deep breath.
"Last night, I told you my father died the day I was born."
He nodded.
"I didn't tell you how he died."
"How did he die?" he asked. It didn't seem like he knew why I was taking the conversation this way, but he was listening, at least.
I closed my eyes; I didn't want to see his face when I told him.
"He was flying. His plane got shot down over the ocean."
He looked at me quizzically, but all the same came to sit on the floor beside me.
"I'm sorry." He said.
"I'm not done." I whispered.
"Go on."
"It was intentional- someone killed him."
"I gathered that," he said gently, "who?"
"I don't think you're going to want to know." I said.
"I do." He said, "Tell me."
I paused for a long time, but eventually said it.
"Isabel Kabra."
I opened my eyes, and told him everything. The entire story (minus Madison, that seemed too personal) that Dan told me.
He was silent at first, but then he stood up, and opened my window again.
"Where are you going?" I asked, tears already welling up in my eyes.
"You're good." He said, ignoring the question.
"What do you mean?"
"You're good. Better than I thought, that is. I didn't think you'd really stoop that low- what, if you turn me against my own family it'll be easier to unite the Lucians? Your mom's watching right now, isn't she? I know that Kabra's aren't known for being good people, but my Grandmother would never stoop that low. She would never try to kill an infant. But you're good- I almost believed you, for about ten minutes."
I stared at him in shock, but then the shock turned into anger.
"Get the hell out of my house."
"Way ahead of you Grace. For the first time, apparently."
I watched him leave, and then looked at the window for a few minutes. I won't lie, I cried. I cried for a long time, and then I watched a crap movie on TV before I reacted the way that I react to a lot of things- I drove to the club that I took Benjamin to last night.
The night was still young; it was only 9, so I sat in a corner, people watching for a while. I refused to think about Benjamin, and it seemed like the more I was here, the less I thought about him. It wasn't enough though- every so often, his name would come to mind, and then I just got more upset. I needed a distraction.
Just as I was thinking this, a guy walked up to me- he was probably in his early 20s, and he reeked of cigarettes and vodka.
He'd do.
...
Benjamin was never a fan of self-loathing, but today seemed like a pretty good day to make an exception.
Not only was Grace a Madrigal, she was the daughter of one of the most powerful women in the world- why should he have expected anything different? But he didn't- he was still young, clearly. Young enough to assume the best in people, when they didn't deserve it.
But he liked to think that, even though she had been manipulating him, he got to know Grace at least a little bit. But he had to know that that couldn't be true, because based on what he thought he knew about Grace, he would have had to believe that she wasn't lying. Grace looked genuine when she was crying, telling him the entire story. The entire, fabricated story, he continued to remind himself.
But that didn't explain why he was here, in his grandmother's office, trying to come up with the right way to word a question that he wasn't supposed to be asking, but he decides to ask it anyway.
"When Grace Cahill and I were talking... Um, at the coffee shop that day, she mentioned something about her father."
Isabel chuckled, "Did she? Yes, Hamilton Holt. Go on."
"Well, she said that he died the day she was born."
"She would be correct."
Benjamin hesitated. "And, well... she also said that you were the one that killed him."
Isabel smirked.
"Benjamin," she said, "you don't think that to win this competition, a little blood might have to be shed? Hamilton Holt was a necessary casualty."
He almost didn't understand what she was admitting to. Almost.
"So, you admit it?" he asked, still shell-shocked. "You killed him?"
"I had no choice, Benjamin." Isabel said.
"You can leave now, if that's all you want." She continued after a few moments.
He nodded woodenly, leaving the room.
It then dawned on him that Grace had never lied to him; the ten minutes were nothing but the truth.
And he called her a liar, after the finally got the courage to tell him something that he had always known, but denied.
...
I am not enjoying myself right now.
This guy is all over me, and he never even told me his name- but that's ok, because I'm not thinking about Benjamin.
Of course, now I am.
...
She wasn't in her room.
That was the one thing Benjamin knew right now about where Grace was- but it wasn't doing him any good, because that only meant that he didn't know where she wasn't. He knew that Grace's mother still wasn't home, so he made is way downstairs, to see if he could find a better hint as to Grace's location. He found it in a note taped to the fridge.
Mom,
Went out to that Tomas-run club.
I'm fine, I'm safe, I love you-
Grace.
He had no idea if the club he went to with her was Tomas-run, but he figured that now would be as good a time as any to get away from the hunt, which is what Grace had said she did at the club.
So he drove.
...
Maybe this wasn't a good idea.
Because at first, yeah, I was distracted. But now I'm trying to distract him, the guy who seems to think that I signed on for a tad more than I intended to.
I know this, because he all but dragged me into a dark corner of the club- dark corners, in my experience, aren't for friendly chatting. But what do I know, because I don't have much experience with acts one commits in dark corners. Or any experience, for that matter.
This has gone on long enough.
I pushed the guy away, trying to get him off of me and escape to somewhere well-lit and crowded, but he took it the wrong way, grinning predatorily, grabbing my hand, and leading me towards the men's bathroom. I tried to pull away, but his grip was unrelenting. Normally, I could take him down, but to be honest, I was damn scared.
...
Benjamin walked in (thankful he had kept the fake I.D. Grace had made) the club and immediately looked around for any sign of Grace. He found her near the men's washroom, struggling to break away from a large man. He was grinning down at her, like this was all just a game to him, and he was winning. With one last tug, he managed to pull her fully into the washroom, closing the door behind him. Benjamin broke into a run, pushing people out of the way to get to Grace. The idiot didn't think to lock the door, so Benjamin just barged in.
The man was looming over Grace. She had bruises on her ribs, which were exposed since he had ripped off her shirt (it shouldn't matter, but Benjamin was glad for the fact that she was wearing a bra- no need to make this doubly traumatizing for Grace.), she was huddled in the corner, while the man had his back turned to Benjamin.
Benjamin knew exactly how to make a grown man unconscious (many different ways, actually), but he opted instead to try out a nerve pinch that he learned a few months ago. The man went down, leaving Grace and Benjamin cautiously watching each other.
...
Ok, so I don't know what he's doing here, but never have I been happier to see anyone in my life. I was still shaking, and he slowly came over to me, like I was a scared animal, like he thought I was going to run away. He handed me the jacket he was wearing (somewhere in the back of my mind it occurred to me that I was quickly obtaining a collection of Benjamin Kabra's jackets), and without saying a word, I put it on and wrapped it around myself. He offered me his hand, and I took it, letting myself be pulled up. He must have noticed how much my hands were shaking, because he didn't let go after he helped me up.
We didn't say anything; we just walked out of the club. Benjamin opened the door to my car for me, muttering something about how he'd pick his up later. I slipped in the passenger seat- no way was I driving like this. And Benjamin sped off in the direction of my house.
"Are you okay?" asked after a few minutes of silence.
"I'm fine." I said, "Nothing happened, you got there in time."
"Is your mom going to be home?" he asked.
"No. She said she won't be home until morning. Some Madrigal thing, I think."
He nodded.
We drove the rest of the way in silence, and when we got to my house, despite the warning bells going off in my head, I invited him in. He waited in my room while I showered and got changed, and then we had the inevitable conversation.
I curled up in my bed- I still couldn't shake the feeling of being frozen- and Benjamin sat at the foot of my bed. We stayed like that for a while until he broke the silence.
"She told me everything." He admitted.
"Everything as in...?"
"As in I asked her point blank if she killed your father, and she fully admitted to it. Said it was 'necessary'. So, I'm sorry."
"You should be." I said, "But I forgive you- we're pretty even now." Followed by an attempt at a laugh.
"Why would someone do that? Try to kill a baby, but opt to kill her father instead?"
"I can give you 39 reasons why someone would do that."
I yawned after I said that, and after a while I could feel my eyes about to betray me.
"You should probably go to sleep." Benjamin said when he noticed. "I'll go."
"Can you... not?" I asked, not wanting to outright ask him to stay- it wasn't that I was afraid of the dark, I was afraid of what could be hiding in the dark.
He just nodded, and pulled out the chair from my desk so he could sit by me.
"I feel like Edward Cullen- being creepy, watching you sleep." He said with a laugh.
"Never. Say. That. Again." I said, dead serious. "I mean it, I will end you."
He just laughed, held up his hands, palms out- just saying!
My hand flopped out so it was hanging over the edge of the bed, and Benjamin picked up my hand to put it back. Like last time, however, he didn't let go, and I didn't say anything.
...
Benjamin didn't know what time it was, but he knew it was very late. He still felt odd, sitting by Grace's bed holding her hand while she slept- it was a situation that would make anyone feel a bit creepy.
And that's when Amy Cahill walked in.
At first, she looked like she was trying to figure out why he was there, but when he stood up to go, and realized that he was still holding Grace's hand, a change came over her expression. She- well, she didn't exactly smile, but it looked like she might have, had things turned out differently, if this was a different life.
She nodded at him, he nodded back, and she left the room, leaving him still holding Grace's hand, with still no intention of letting go.