Chapter Ten: Seventeen Candles
!WARNING! So, guys, I've made it clear from the beginning that this was a slash story, as in male/make pairing. If you don't understand and like that, then you should probably leave for your own good, and also because I don't want you reading my story anyway. It will take that turn for mature "M" chapters in the future (can't promise when).
AN/DEDICATION: I'd like to dedicate this chapter to an epic reader who'd been here since the beginning, reads all my Bethan stories, and always gives long, positive feedback. Her username is BethanForever! Ain't NO ONE as dope as you! xP You're support is awesome, and it's really you that makes me feel guilty about not updating my stories sooner. Thanks for liking my stories! xx I hope to see a lot more of you.
Sorry, guys, if I seem like I'm picking favorite readers, but BethanForever, I think, really deserves this recognition, even if its only in this little authors note. She, along with some others, is always unexpectedly enthusiastic in her reviews, and I really love that. I appreciate every review that pops up.
Enjoy! (With any luck.)
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"I'm seriously freaking out!" Ethan hissed into the phone. "I don't know what to get him! I've been in here, literally, for hours."
"You have to come across something, sometime. Don't you already have a present for Benny?" He could almost hear Sarah rolling her eyes. "Just keep looking, and would you mind picking up some more salt while your there? We're kind if all out."
"How could we be out of salt? Who runs out of salt?" Ethan asks, studying some watches and fancy compasses through a glass counter.
"We do, obviously. Rory was-"
"Enough said. Look, I gotta go. Benny's trying to call again, and I've been blowing him off all day, so I've gotta hurry up."
"He and Grandma are still out of town?" Sarah asked, a hint of nervousness in her voice.
"Yeah, but they'll be here in about two hours."
"Got it, bye!"
"Bye." Ethan hung up, glancing down at the watches again, eyeing one in particular as he set off to find an employee to get it out of the glass for him.
After he'd left the store called 'Things Remembered' he went around searching for another gift -or gifts- and found himself at a sports store. There, he bought several other items, and quickly searched the huge mall for other ideas. He was sure that Benny would be satisfied with what he'd gotten him, but really, the seer was just searching for anything else that really spoke to him.
One movie in particular stood out to him when he passed a movie store. Yep, you guessed it, Jacuzzi Time Machine, Benny's favorite movie of all time. Things had turned out better than expected, and he'd even scored some considerably cool wrapping paper.
Letting out a sigh of relief, Ethan jogged out to Sarah's car she'd been kind enough to borrow him, and was soon speeding towards the Weir home. Great. Now all he had to do was go home, pick up the card he'd originally gotten for Benny, go to Benny's house, wrap the presents, clean Benny's predictably untidy room, pick up the food they were soon to order, and tie up any loose ends. With any luck, Ethan would have time to shower and such before Grandma and Benny got home.
Grandma knew about this of course, but Benny didn't. His friends had been pretty much avoiding him all week, save for when Ethan'd come over to help him study for mid terms, but otherwise, he'd made the excuse that he'd been helping Sarah with an important project (not entirely a lie, but still pretty shady). Ethan felt bad though, especially since he hadn't said "happy birthday" to his friend at all today, and he didn't like the feeling that accompanied it.
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Ethan scowled as his phone lit up, vibrating violently with a certain nocturnal superhero's name across the screen. Benny'd gotten a hold of his phone one day, and changed his ID from "Benny" to "Batman". He pressed "reject" and bit his lip regretfully as he pulled up to Benny's home, grabbing the bags of takeout from the backseat. On his way in, he passed the bags over to Sarah and Erika and quickly sprinted up the stairs.
Calling Benny back as quick as he could, he flopped down on his friend's formerly made bed.
"Hey E." Benny greeted dejectedly.
"Hey Benny." Ethan tried to answer normally. "What's up? Sorry about earlier, I kind of had something to take care of before I picked up the phone."
"S'okay. Nothing, me and Grandma are just headed into town, thought you'd like to know."
"Oh? How'd things go?"
"Alright I guess. Not too many things changed about that town since we were last there, and Grandma dropped off her food at the funeral. You know, because nothing says 'sorry for your loss' than lasagna and rhubarb pie. Ow!" Ethan couldn't help but chuckle as he heard Grandma scold her grandson. "Anyway, I didn't eat at all. It's weird eating at funerals. Wanna go get something? I'm starving." 'That's good.' Ethan thought. 'We've got all your favorite food.'
"Uh...actually I just ate, and Sarah kinda needs help with her project, and I'm going over to her place. But I'll catch up with you later okay?"
"Okay." Ethan felt worse as he recognized the suppressed hurt in Benny's voice. "Bye Ethan." And that was the end of that.
Reminding himself that this was for a good cause, Ethan began pushing Benny's presents under the now clean floor under the bed along with the card he'd gotten, and straightened out the sheets once again. Sitting down at Benny's computer chair, he yelled that Benny and Grandma were in town, before signing his new, less awesome card for Benny and sealing the cheap paper with a lick.
"Their here!" He heard Sarah shout from downstairs and Ethan's heart lept. "Your creepy friends are here too!"
"Coming!" Ethan yelled down the stairs as he ran, registering that Cody and Senna were there too, and hoping they would play along with what they were doing. "Someone get the lights!" It was already dark outside, and the absence of lights would make it near pitch black.
"Wait! I forgot to take out the lightbulbs!" Rory yelled and flew up to the ceiling to twist the bulbs out of their sockets, so Benny would have no choice but to make his way to the dining room if he wanted light.
"Grandma! Can we order takeout?" Benny complained from outside the door as the keys jingled in the slots.
"Get down!" Erika hissed and Rory blurred over to hide behind a chair next to Sarah with a girly squeak as the door in the other room swing open. They could hear the hallway light click on, and then off, with no response from the empty socket. "Grandma!" He whined. "The lights are out!"
"Well the porch light is on!" They could hear Cody yell. "Try another one!" Benny drug himself over to the kitchen and flicked the lights on, once again being met with darkness. "What the heck?" They could see a small light shining across the ceiling, and Ethan's heart sped up a little more as he tensed with anticipation. He could see clearly, even in the darkness, a smiling Cody and Senna on either side of Benny. "Why aren't there any lightbulbs? Grandma?" Benny asked as he walked into the dining room and then flicking on the light as the four in the dining area sprang up from behind the table and shot confetti guns.
"Surprise!" They yelled as one, and laughed at the shock on Benny's face as the two behind him also shot confetti over their heads and the shiny paper material rained down on him.
"What?" Benny asked, not yet registering what was going on. The three vampires in the room then pulled each a lighter gun and lit the seventeen individual candles atop the ice cream cake, as well as the big, glamorous candle in the center shaped as '17'.
They then proceeded to sing "Happy Birthday" to Benny, as the teen struggled to regain his composure. His red, flustered face expressed everything though, and Cody swung an arm around his shoulders for comfort. When the singing had ceased and the candles were blown out, everyone clapped and cheered as the spellmaster slumped back against the wall.
"I told you they didn't forget!" Grandma smirked as she walked into the room.
"You knew about this?" Benny asked in a small voice, his face still burning. "I feel betrayed. All of you have been acting so stuck up this whole week!" He gave a small laugh, earning some smiles from the surrounding people.
"Sorry Benny." Rory shrugged, and then grinned. "But you were surprised weren't you?"
"Yeah." Benny said, smiling himself as Ethan stepped up to give him a high five, and a quick hug before throwing an arm around his shoulder. "You ignored me this whole week." Benny accused, making the Seer grin sheepishly. "You pretended like you didn't know it was my birthday! I felt bad all day!"
"Sorry bro." Ethan smiled up at his friend. "It was necessary!"
"But dudes!" Rory strode forward, holding a long knife in one hand, and placing his arm around Benny's other shoulder. "Did you see that wicked cake? It's completely oreo'd out!" He exclaimed as they took steps forward to the table. "So, you gonna cut it?" the blonde asked, handing over the knife.
"It's bad luck if you don't." Ethan agreed.
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"So, Ben?" Ethan asked nervously as he sat down beside his friend. Sitting on his other side was Sarah, smiling in a friendly way as she got up to go talk to Erika, across the room.
"What up, E?" Benny asked, taking a big bite of his Italian pizza.
"Uh...after setting up everything, I didn't really get the chance to do some serious shopping." He began, and continued when he saw that Benny wasn't really phased by this. "So, I did get you something, but it's probably not that good of a present."
"That's okay, E." Benny said with only a hint of awkwardness in his voice. "You didn't need to get me anything."
"Well I did, sort of." Ethan said, his hesitant smile still intact as he handed over a small birthday themed bag and a card. "Oh! And I got you a card too." Benny set down his plate and opened the card first, as was tradition.
After receiving a non personal quote from the card, Benny smiled and reached into the bag, pulling out 'Jacuzzi Time Machine' on DVD.
"Dude! I've been looking for this forever!" Benny exclaimed, twisting the shiny plastic case in his fingers.
"I know.' Ethan smiled. "You're the first person I thought of when I seen it."
"Thanks E." Benny smiled, wrapping an arm around his friend after a pause. "I forgive you for almost making me cry with this whole thing " Ethan laughed.
"Sorry about that." He grinned. "Oh, but my mom and dad remembered, and they wanted me to give these to you." He then handed over another card and two different boxes.
When Benny opened the card, he caught the few dollars that fell from it to 'keep hydrated at school' and laughed at the singing science fiction themed characters as they shook around on the card. He then lifted the lids off of the space themed boxes, one cubed, and one long and skinny, and pulled out first a Darth Vader stress toy from the shorter box.
"That one's from mom." Ethan smiled. "For when you get mad at out video games for 'making you lose.'" He laughed and Benny found himself grinning anyway.
"This is awesome, but hopefully I won't have to use it too often." He laughed and then his face really lit up as he uncovered Ross' gift. "This is so epic!" Benny near shouted as he pulled the small plastic cases from inside the box. "How'd he know?!"
"He said he went out looking for them so you'd quit complaining about them everytime you came over." Ethan said eyeing the laser tripwires and rechargeable batteries.
"Why'd they spend so much money?" Benny asked to no one in particular. "I'm pretty sure your mom had to look online for the DV stress toy and these lasers aren't cheap when you get the good ones."
"Your like another one of their kids." Ethan laughed. "When you live next door, go on family vacations, raid their fridge every time you come over and basically live in my room, things like this happen."
"I'll come over later to tell them thanks." Benny smiled, laughing also just as Erika strode forward from her current spot across the room, with a quite uncharacteristic smile on her face.
"Hey Benny, can you come here for a second? Cody and Kenna want to show you something out front."
"Cody and Senna?" Benny asked and with a nod from Ethan, got up to go along with the blonde.
"Whatever. They don't care to get my name right." She rolled her eyes before composing herself again, but her nice demeanor had broken, and Ethan found himself gazing at her suspiciously. She held on to a surprised Benny's arm as they began to walk away. "Oh, and Ethan, Evelyn wants you in her office."
"Okay.." Ethan got up, and watched the couple walk away before walking up the stairs to Grandma's study.
"Ethan!" Grandma smiled when he arrived. "There you are. First, I wanted to say 'thank you' for cleaning up the house. You said you were going to clean, but you kind of went overboard." She smiled.
"Oh, we'll...thanks?" Ethan struggled to find words and smiled back at her. "It looks like it payed off, though."
"Benny seems to have been enjoying himself tonight. But that's not what I wanted you to talk to you about." She smiled, rather reluctantly. "I didn't want to tell Benny, and stress him out in his birthday, and I've already told the vampires, because they'll be leaving soon...I've been sensing some new energy in town, some supernatural energy, and it's strong." Ethan's eyebrows furrowed.
"What do you mean? Like Jesse, again?"
"Not exactly...this is different, and it's starting to worry me. It comes and goes, and most of the time it leaves for weeks at a time,...but I've been feeling different entities entering Whitechapel periodically over the last few weeks."
"Who are they?" Ethan asked, only slightly becoming fidgety. It was times like these that he felt Grandma knew everything, as if he was exposed to her, and all his lies were lied out on the floor in front of him. Of course he knew this wasn't true, that she couldn't really see through him, because if she could, he probably wouldn't be there right then.
"I don't know, and I can't tell if they're here to harm us or not, and thats what worries me." Her own eyebrows frowned in thought. "But can you keep a look out? For yourself, anyway? And tell me if your having any strange visions? I'm worried about this, Ethan."
"Of course I will." Ethan smiled, with some effort. "I suppose that now is a good time as ever to tell you about the dreams I've been having...well, I can't tell for sure what it was that got me. It was all really unclear.." This was true. Ethan didn't know precisely for himself what had happened. "But I do remember it was big...it had strength like you wouldn't believe, and eyes that glowed green."
He went on to tell her how the rest of the memories went, leaving out the parts that would essentially give away that it was a werewolf, and the parts that would reveal himself as a werewolf. He also left out names and descriptions, telling Grandma that it had been so dark that night, and his mind had been on more painful things than to register who'd been helping him. "It hurt like you wouldn't believe.." He told as much of the truth as possible without totally giving himself, and his newfound friends away.
"I'm sorry, Ethan." Grandma had the biggest frown on her face by the time he was finished. "I had no idea..."
"Neither did I.." Ethan smiled.
"Well...I'll take time to think about this. Do you mind if I tell the others?" She asked.
"Well, it's fine if you tell Cody and Senna, but I wouldn't really like you to repeat this to Benny just yet...I kinda haven't told him too much. Not all of the details."
"But you will tell him? He has to find out sometime, and he wouldn't like you keeping this from him."
"Of course." Ethan smiled. "I'll tell him everything...just not today." Ethan's smile then faded momentarily with an indescribable emotion as he glanced out the two story window and caught sight of his best friend kissing Erika.
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"This was officially the best birthday ever!" Benny exclaimed as he fell onto his bed at the end of the night.
"I liked Rory's present." Ethan commented from across the room. "He must've had a hard time giving up those X-Men playing cards."
"All my presents were awesome." Benny agreed, but then made a face. "But they made me feel like a total geek!"
"You are a total geek." Ethan teased.
"Well, I like other things than science fiction!" Benny protested. "I'm still a person!"
"Cody and Senna seemed to get that idea." Ethan smiled. "Your old bike's been too rusted for years."
"Yeah." Benny smiled, and then frowned slightly. "Hey E?" He sat up in his bed and started pulling off his shoes. "You know when Erika pulled me outside and told you Grandma was looking for you?"
"Yeah..." Ethan tensed slightly. He remembered the kiss between Benny and Erika with a wince. He wasn't sure why it had nagged at him so much. He'd seen them kiss before...maybe it was because Ethan was steadily starting to really dislike Erika. He didn't want Benny to start hanging out...he thought, maybe, Benny'd start acting like her. He wouldn't need to spend time with Ethan anymore.
"Well, she led me outside, and Cody and Senna showed me the bike they got me. It was really cool and everything, and then when they left...Erika kissed me." Benny said the last part rather quietly.
"I know." Ethan smiled ruefully. "I saw you guys out Grandma's window."
"You were watching!?"
"No! I just happened to glance out when me and Grandma were talking." Ethan tried to make his smile genuine. "But anyway, nice! How's that for a birthday present?"
"Well, it wasn't the best one of the day." Benny surprised Ethan as he grimaced.
"I thought you liked Erika?" Ethan asked, confused.
"Well, I did...but the kiss wasn't that good." Benny looked uncomfortable. "I was disappointed, actually. I mean, this whole day was great! I totally wasn't expecting you guys to do this for me! But when she kissed me..." Benny sighed.
"Were her fangs out?" Ethan wondered.
"No...but I don't think I like her anymore. When she kissed me, it wasn't...personal. I was trying to feel something, but then I realized that Sarah probably put her up to it." Benny scowled. "Erika doesn't really like me...and I don't really like her. She might be hot, but she's too stuck up." Ethan laughed at that, and Benny eventually joined in.
"Well that's a relief." Ethan found himself muttering, and Benny's eyebrows rose. The seer mentally cursed himself.
"What?" Benny's voiced was amused, and there was a smile on his face before he composed himself. "Don't tell me you like Erika?"
"Of course not!" Ethan rolled his eyes, and then hesitated before continuing. "I was just thinking earlier that if you and Erika started dating, you would turn like her, and that would be the last I'd ever see of you."
"That'd never happen, E." Benny smiled. "We're not like her. We don't want to hide who we are just to be popular..." Benny trailed off and he looked down at his bed thoughtfully for a few seconds before starting to pull off his shoes again.
"Hey, can I borrow some sweats?" Ethan asked. "I don't like sleeping in jeans."
"You know where they are." Benny replied, pulling off his polo and trading it for a baggy t-shirt. "Throw me some plaid pants too."
"Here." Once they were done getting changed, and sprawled on Benny's floor playing video games, Ethan decided it was about time to give Benny his real presents.
"Hey, Benny?" Ethan asked as they were talking a break from playing.
"Hm?"
"I found something under your bed earlier.." He started, and then began pulling out the presents he had for Benny from under the bed. "...that I think you'd like to see..."
"Aw, E..." Benny laughed as he saw the colored foil presents. "I knew it! I knew you wouldn't forget! But you didn't have to, really.." But Benny couldn't keep the smile off his face.
"That line's way overused." Ethan found himself grinning back. "I wanted to. Now open them! I've been waiting all day! Do the card first!"
"Remember, you're never too old to learn something stupid." Benny grinned at his own face, frozen in mid laugh, and surrounded by orange and grey stripes, much like his favorite polo. He realized Ethan must've customized The card. "Let's get weird..it's your birthday!" Then, from the cover he opened the card to look at the contents, and was surprised to see many pop-up monsters on the pages as well as a night theme with stars and the moon. Even more pleasant was the song that came on upon opening the card. It was the song that he and Ethan had danced to at the vampire party, on the first night they'd found out about the supernatural.
"This was only just over a year ago..." Benny murmured. "It seems like forever."
'That night changed everything.' Benny thought, gazing at the card.
"We've known each other for over eleven years now." Benny started. "And I know this might be sappy, but I wanted you to know how important you are to me, and that I'm so thankful for this month and day in time. It brought me my best friend. Happy Birthday, Benny!" Benny eyed Ethan's signature at the bottom, and bit his lip as his eyes stung.
"I don't know why I'm being so sensitive this month." Benny tried for a laugh, extremely embarrassed as he teared up. He wiped at his eyes with the back of his hand and cursed himself when more rolled down as Ethan placed an arm around Benny's shoulder. "I don't even think I want to open these presents tonight, E." He sniffled and turned his face away slightly. "It just seems too impersonal."
"That's okay, B." Ethan's voice was steady, but seeing how his simple words had affected Benny was making his heart swell with emotion. "Funny how just a few words can do this to do this to you..am I really that unaffectionate with you that I make you cry with a birthday card?" Ethan smiled and tightened his one-armed embrace, trying to comfort the other teen.
"No." Benny found himself really smiling now, but more tears slipped on their own accord, and Ethan handed him a tissue from the box of Kleenex that had been on the bookcase. "I don't know why I'm being so emotional lately.."
"Have you been crying all the time?" Ethan asked in concern.
"No, but a lot more than usual."
"You dont think you're pregnant do you?" Ethan asked seriously, but his grin betrayed him.
"You'd be the first to know." Benny responded and then blushed as he realized what he'd implied. Then both boys were laughing in the former quiet of the house, and spent the rest of the night gaming, watching movies, and eating until the sun came up. Every once in a while, each of the boys caught sight of the card that now rested on Benny's bedside table, and in a moment of sentiment, exchanged a few affectionate gestures. Even then, the presents remained near forgotten under the spellmaster's bed.
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AN: Sorry for the wait, guys, and for any grammar mistakes, but how'd you like the chapter? The chapter itself was acceptionally long, wasn't it? Somewhere around 4,300 words. I think it's moving along nicely... Thanks in advance to those who've reviewed and those who review regularly.
What'd you guys think of Benny's birthday? Any comments? Screams of rage? Tears of sadness? Tell me your thoughts! xx