Truth Or Fiction

Chapter Forty Three

Ben couldn't help but stare at the floating eyeball in the corner, hoping beyond hope that it would start to pulse and spin once more and bring some new people to the reading thereby distracting his parents yet again.

Unfortunately for him, lighting didn't strike twice. Hence why he quickly found himself in the room that had been used for the awkward private chats others had already used it for.

Hopefully the Fates created a new room for the Charmings, Ben thought as he lightly bit his lip. Being in a room with his parents, Chip, Abby, and the older version of himself was not exactly an experience he'd expected to ever have.

Emphasis on ever.

The only good thing was that Akiho and Emir weren't in the room as well; both of them had been pulled aside by their parents to talk about the fact that, well, they hadn't talked to an adult and tried to take matters into their own hands regarding Ben's eating habits and sleeping schedule.

"Okay," Abby said, clapping her hands together. "I'll be the first to break the slightly ominous silence coming from all of us. I think there's a subject we need to discuss with my particularly stubborn older brother."

"There's nothing to discuss and I'm not stubborn," Ben said, shaking his head and earning a small snort of amusement from Benji. Malinda wasn't in the room, having said that she felt that this should be something that was just between family. Also, she'd said that she wanted to try to knock some sense into her younger self regarding the whole feud with Evie.

Abby rolled her eyes. "Benjamin Florian, I've watched you for thirteen years. I've seen the way you never put yourself first, I've seen how you put yourself through hell with the Banshee all for the sake of Auradon. There is certainly something to discuss because if you join me in Elysium before you have great, great, great grandchildren, I will kick your ass and find a way to send you right back!"

"Language young lady," Belle warned.

"Yes mom," Abby nodded. "But you see my point right?"

"That you've spent too much time watching Akiho and Emir to have learned their nickname for Audrey?" Ben asked.

"Is that really possible? To spend too much time watching the interactions of my brother's best friends?"

Ben sighed. "Abigail, I have to put Auradon first. A King puts the needs of his people above his own. But why does everyone think I'm going to end up hurting myself or worse? Clearly I survive to adulthood since the older me is sitting right there. Now, can we please drop it? I'm fine, there's nothing to discuss."

Benji sighed and knelt down in front of his younger self, the younger Ben having been sat down in a chair as to prevent him from running off from the conversation.

"Okay here's the deal," he said. "You can keep saying that there's nothing to discuss but that doesn't change the fact that there is something to talk about. That's the fun part about being you, you know? I know what's going on in that head of yours. Right now you think you're not hurting yourself because you're sixteen but we skipped dinner eleven times. Not to mention the number of times we missed breakfast because of oversleeping causing us to run late."

"Hold up, Ben are you saying there were days where lunch was your only meal?" Chip asked.

"Well yes but that's not helping right now Chip," Benji said, shaking his head slightly. "Ben, do you know how lucky we were that Malinda got pregnant? Yes she's a Godling but she's also a girl from the Isle. That on top of us constantly skipping meals could have put both of us at risk for reproductive issues. It'd be a lot harder to recover from a broken bone from Tourney if it didn't heal."