Under My Skin (on hold)

Chapter 17- Long Way Down

"How did we get here?" Bethany whispered hoarsely to Benjamin, who was standing next to her on the front porch. Frost had coated the grass and the leaves in the late night hours before. Now, before dawn, Benjamin was breathless, and finally admitted he wanted help from Bethany.

Ben's face was sheltered by shadows and his head hanging low. He admitted defeat, and the pain that he had been holding back for so long was finally hurting him. It hurt Bethany, but it was killing him.

Ben revealed a split lip, a black eye and a cut eyebrow. Bethany didn't know what to make of it, because she was most concerned about what Ben had gotten himself into this time.

"I don't know, Bethany. I don't know how we ended up here."

"It's not what I planned, you know." Bethany turned to open the front door of her house, then turning back to Ben.

"Me neither." He muttered before walking into Bethany's house with her.

Jeremiah was squarely asleep in their bed, clutching drumsticks to his chest like a child with a bear, and they walked softly to the bathroom. Bethany flipped on the light, causing Ben to squint under the brightness. Bethany wet the corner of a small towel in warm water and dabbed at Ben's wounds.

"How did this happen, Ben?" Bethany asked, exasperated.

"Well, Jessica's ex boyfriend came after me. Things didn't go down well."

"I can see that."

Ben winced when she dabbed too hard at the cut on his face. Even though she was mad at him for getting into a fight and showing up here in the middle of the night, she was momentarily apologetic towards him.

"Ben, can I ask what you got into?"

"Things with Jessica and I were going well, and I really thought that she and I could start over again. Until this guy named Drake showed up at my doorstep and just attacked me."

"What did you do?"

"I didn't think I did anything."

"Hm. Well, the cut on your face won't stop bleeding, how hard did he hit you?"

"Well he did hit me over the head with a vase."

"BEN!!"

"I told you, I didn't do anything! I didn't even have to open my mouth."

"Hold on a second." Bethany said to Ben, giving him the towel she was using to try and stop the bleeding on his head.

"Hold that to your face for a second." She instructed as she reached up and got out a packet of dental floss from the cabinet. She fetched a needle from another part of the house and came back to Ben.

"Wait, whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold up. Why can't we just tape it up?"

"Because the tape will be bloody. I'll give you a stitch or two and THEN tape you up."

"Are you gonna sterilize the needle at least?" Ben whined.

Bethany ran to the kitchen and seized a bottle of something strong, splashed some over the needle, onto the cut on his head, and then handed him the bottle to take a drink.

She strung the needle with the floss, and just at that moment, Jeremiah rolled out of bed and to the bathroom. He didn't expect to see the scene before him, as he just wanted to go take care of business.

"What?!" Jeremiah asked after some other indistinct muttering.

"Angry ex came after Ben and he won't stop bleeding." Bethany explained casually as if it were an everyday occasion. She stitched up Benjamin, who would kill to be anywhere else but here right now.

"So this is the solution?"

"I needed someone to talk to." Ben said as Bethany was finishing up the stitches and he winced.

"You know you're always welcome here, dude." Jeremiah sleepily comforted.

"Thanks, man." Ben said, sliding off of the sink and putting his coat back on.

"I'll talk to you later." He ended as he walked out the front door. He could see his breath before him, and he pulled out a lighter and a cigarette from the inside pocket of his canvas jacket.

Jessica had wanted him to quit when they were still together, and he tried to, for her. She wanted his lips on her lips and not a cigarette, and as a singer he knew it was bad for him. But, before they got engaged, the couple took a break for a while in the early stages of their relationship. In that time, Ben went over to her house to say that he loved her, but found her lips on another guy's lips, and not his.

He walked off of Jessica's front doorstep that night with a cigarette between his teeth. He did the same with Bethany.

Ben knew what he was feeling towards her. Since they had switched bodies for quite some time, he understood her, and the two became closer. There were still things that he didn't like about her, and the same went for her towards him, but he couldn't help but see her beauty and all the good things about her when he looked at her.

She was also his best friends fiancée.

It wasn't the fact that she was already in a better relationship than he's ever had with anybody. It wasn't the fact that he liked her but couldn't have her. The reason he felt a pang in his chest every time he saw her was because he knew she was happy.

He also knew he was not happy.

Benjamin realized that he was hitting rock bottom before things began getting better for him, and this was only the beginning of his free fall.