Chapter 25: Spring Cleaning

I Don't Own Ben 10 or Any of the Respective Characters, The Rights Belong to Man of Action Studios and Cartoon Network

Author's Note:

* Hello and welcome to Chapter 25!

* This chapter is mostly going to be short and sweet, I think. There's two major events in this chapter and that's it. Sorry if the last chapter was a bit too long, it's a little tough writing these sometimes. I don't want to condense down my material in a way that would leave out important information, story beats or what have you.

* Anyways, that's all I got. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter and I'll leave you to it!

Gwen

Monday, April 30th, 2018

Madison High School

Despite what I had told him that Thursday, wouldn't you know it, Brad showed up at my house that night, expecting me to go out with him. And when I told him that I wasn't going anywhere with him right now, he stormed away from my house, not before calling me just about every name in the book. I had begun to think Ben may have been right about this guy and that I was wrong to say what I said to him that day.

I hadn't seen him since then, but I had had enough time to make up my mind. I was going to break up with him. It was a toxic relationship and he didn't even like me for my personality or anything like that. It was just about my looks and the idea that he "had" me. I've also overheard on one occasion, one of his friends commenting on how he had said that I had "the biggest tits that he had ever seen".

And that's wrong for a couple reasons. One, he had never even seen me shirtless. But by the way he acted, I bet he wishes that he could. And two, as much as I find this topic to be awkward, mine aren't even that big! There were other girls in this school who sported bigger sets than mine! But I digress. I was sick of how I was being treated and I was going to end it today.

Right around lunch time, I went back to the spot where he had been eating with all of his friends and to no surprise, that's where I found him. Only this time, he was less receptive to what I had to say.

"Brad, we need to talk." I said as I stopped to his left.

All he did was lift up the back of his hand as he spoke.

"Leave us alone. I'm trying to talk to my boys here."

This time I wasn't taking his crap. I grasped his hand hard and yanked him up from his chair, which I was amazed I was able to do.

"I said, we need to talk, Brad!" I hissed as I pulled him toward the cafeteria's exit.

"Alright, alright! I'm comin'!"

I heard his friends all snickering in response, which just made me dislike them more. I pulled him out of the cafeteria and toward the doors out to the courtyard, which was mostly empty today, due to the weather being overcast. We walked out into the courtyard and I finally let go of his hand, feeling sick with how long I had been holding it.

"Easy, Doll! You don't have to be so—"

"Stop it!" I exclaimed in an annoyed tone. "I'm not your doll, I'm not your honey, and I sure as hell don't belong to you! I'm my own person!"

He rolled his eyes.

"Of course, you belong to me. You're mine."

"No, I'm not! See, that's your problem! You're self-centered! You don't care about other people, you expect stuff just to be handed to you, it's me, me, me, me, me with you! You certainly don't care about me, otherwise you wouldn't have called me a carpet muncher, a bitch, a whore and all of those other names you used Thursday night!"

Suddenly he got closer to me, pushing my back up against the window as he rested his arm above my right shoulder.

"I keep telling you babe, if you just let me satisfy you, then you'd—"

"Eww, you're soooo gross!" I said as I kicked him in the stomach to get him away from me.

Much to my surprise, that actually worked. He stumbled backward, holding his stomach.

"I'm not just going to sit on the sidelines as your porcelain doll while you do what you wish before doing what you please with me! There's more to life than that! We're done here, Brad. It's over."

I turned around, hoping that he had gotten the message, but of course, nothing was ever that simple. I felt him grab me by the wrist with force.

"You're not going anywhere, bitch! You're going to stay right here and listen to me when I tell you what you need!"

I whipped around to retaliate.

"Take your God damn hand off me!" I exclaimed as I slapped him across his cheek.

I saw the red where my hand struck his face. He felt it and it must have stung, because he winced. For the first time he looked at me with malice in his eyes, but I wasn't afraid of him.

"Just wait until I get my hands on you, you whore! I'll—"

I grabbed him by the chin, effectively shutting him up.

"Shut your damn mouth and for once in your fucking life, listen!"

To my surprise, he actually stayed quiet after that, so I proceeded.

"Suck up your ego and accept that I'm one girl who won't fall for your 'charms'. There are plenty of dumb blondes in this school and I'm not one of them. So, if you want to get into someone's pants, go try them! And if you keep trying to hit on me, just know that I can ruin your life!"

He just grinned with amusement.

"How can you ruin my life? You can't do—"

"Do you know how inconvenient for you it would be if the entire school found out that you sexually assaulted me one day while the girl's locker room was empty?"

For once in the short time that I had known him, I saw a degree of fear on Brad's face.

"But I never did such a thing to you!"

I smirked, taking pride in the fact that I had him right where I wanted him.

"Exactly. High schools are the breeding ground for all kinds of nasty rumors, so what's one more hurt? Think about my words for a second, Brad. Who would believe that you're innocent? Better yet, why would anyone believe you? There won't be a single place in town that'll hire you, hell, there won't be a single college that'll offer you a scholarship. Is the rest of your life really worth throwing away over one girl who wouldn't let you have your way with her?"

He looked disturbed by my words, which I also took pride in. After a few more seconds, he finally spoke.

"You're crazy! You and your cousin are both fucking crazy!"

I got the sense that I had intimidated him enough, so there was no point in dragging this out any further. I pushed him away from me.

"Get the hell away from me and leave me alone. I better not see your face ever again."

I turned on my heel and walked back toward the doors without looking back.

Ben

Later That Day

The Tennyson House

I finished up my last day of ISS without any issues. In fact, the whole thing blew over without any problems. Principal Hannigan had kept his word in not calling my parents, so they had no idea that I had caused a "thing" at school. Speaking of my parents, they decided to go out after dinner tonight, so I decided that I'd do some quick work around the house for them. I had unloaded and put the dirty dishes into the dishwasher, vacuumed the upstairs and I was currently working on watering Mom's flowers in the front yard. As I was working on that task, I began to see the silhouette of someone approaching from behind me.

"Who is it?" I asked without turning around.

"It's me." Gwen replied.

I was a little displeased with her coming here, but she couldn't see my face, so maybe I'd be able to hide it.

"Oh. What's up?"

"I just wanted to tell you that you were right about Brad, okay? He's not a good person."

"Good."

When I didn't say anything again after that, an awkward silence fell between us and she was eventually forced to break it herself.

"I broke up with him."

That got my attention. I turned around to look at her.

"I'm a little surprised that he would let you do that."

She shook her head with a slight smirk on her face.

"He wasn't willing to let me go at first. But I was able to convince him."

"How did you manage to do that?"

"I may or may not have threatened him that if he didn't let me split things off with him, then I'd spread rumors around the school that would make life for him incredibly difficult, possibly to the point where he wouldn't be allowed to walk on graduation day."

You… threatened him?

"Wow, that's really unlike you, Gwen. Normally you're so nice and outgoing—"

"Don't start, okay?" she spoke as she put her right hand on her left arm, all the while her cheeks turned red. "I feel bad enough about it as it is."

"Don't, okay? He was scum and he deserved to be threatened for once in his life. People like him have to understand that they don't always get what they want."

The red slightly disappeared from her cheeks, however, she still looked a bit upset with herself. I decided to change the subject.

"Why did you decide to break up with him? Was there another reason besides him being a jerk?"

That made her cheeks flare up with pink again as she nervously began to rub her arm.

"Um, actually now that you mention it, I decided to end things with him because I think I might be falling for someone else."

For some reason, that comment hit me like a bullet to the heart. I couldn't just leave well enough alone, I had to know why she really broke up with him.

No, idiot, it's not you. Why would it be you? This isn't some fantasy world or one of those weird animes, this is the real world. She's found someone better for her and where does that leave me? Feeling jealous that she'll get to experience a healthy relationship. Something I was robbed of thanks to—

Gwen seemed to have noticed that my demeanor had changed, because a look of concern formed on her face.

"Ben, are you alright? You look like you've seen a ghost."

I tried to play it cool and reached down to pick up the watering can at my feet. After I picked it back up, I turned around so that she couldn't see my face anymore.

"Yeah, I'm fine, don't worry. I'm afraid I have to cut this conversation short, I have things I need to do inside."

I half expected her to offer to come inside to help, but she didn't. Instead, she spoke with a disappointed tone.

"Oh, okay."

"I'll see you around."

"Yeah."

I opened the front door, walked inside and shut it behind me. I then quickly walked to the garage, where I opened the door and threw the nearly empty watering can inside, spraying a few droplets of water onto the concrete floor. I then shut the door to the garage and sprinted down the hall to my bedroom. I slammed that door shut and dove onto my bed, where I pressed my face into my pillow and screamed as loud as I could. This whole time I had wanted to cry, but my eyes were dry as could be.

Under normal circumstances, I should have been happy that Gwen was catching feelings for someone else. But here I was feeling an intense wave of jealousy… along with a knot-like structure of discomfort in my stomach. And moreover, she was going to be able to get a fulfilling relationship one day, which was something I was robbed of! Why does this keep getting more and more complicated?!

Gwen

I stood outside of Ben's house for a few moments, before deciding to just jog back home. As I jogged, I fell deep into thought.

Why didn't he at least ask who the other guy was? Or at the very least have congratulated me?

"Um, actually now that you mention it, I decided to end things with him because I think I might be falling for someone else."

That was what I had said to you. But there was just a bit more to it than that. I think I'm falling for you, Doofus. And you don't seem to see it.

I sniffled while a few tears began to run down my cheeks as I continued to jog my way home.

Author's Note:

* And that's it for this chapter! I hope you all enjoyed.

* So, you guys may be seeing that things are becoming more emotional and angsty for Ben. And Gwen too, I suppose. What did you think of how Gwen threatened to ruin Brad's life if he didn't leave her alone? And how do you think Ben's reaction to Gwen's words will affect their current relationship going forward?

* As always, please post a review or send me a PM if you want to share your thoughts, comments or concerns. That'll do it for me, so have a fantastic day and bye.

Next Chapter: Ben and Gwen graduate from high school. Ben reconsiders what choices he has in regards to Gwen.