Dare - Benrius Story

Dare - PT 2

After Ben had his little mental talk to himself, he joined Kenji back by the shower system. He placed his buckets by the shower tube, not considering on filling it up. Kenji had already refilled the shower tube with the big barrel he filled up, so he could use the extra water for another use. Everyone was eating lunch, including Kenji as he was now sitting on the empty barrel as a seat, eating pre-cooked mini hotdogs.

Ben first looked to see if Bumpy was here, which she was, then looked to see what the rest of the group was doing. He stood in the middle of all of them, so it was quiet obvious he was looking at them.
 
   Yaz and Sammy were sitting on logs, using a big tree stump as a table to hold their food. Yaz was eating canned fruit while Sammy ate some left over chocolates that she stored for later. They weren't really having a conversation, more of just thoughtless stares. When Ben came back, it wasn't noticeable at first, but when Yaz noticed she signaled for Sammy to look at what Ben was doing.

Everything seemed normal at first, but when he eventually got to Darius and Brooklyn he immediately felt anger. Brooklyn seemed to be having a very intense conversation with Darius, although he couldn't see Darius's face.

   They have been hanging out together ever since last night, acting as if they were best friends. It was always Ben and Darius, but now it was Darius and Brooklyn.

The thought of this made Ben grit his teeth and mold his hands into fists.

That should be me. He thought as he stared at them.

The more he thought about it, the more stupid this dare became.

——-

I was just going to be mad at him, maybe even shove him and ignore him, but now this is war.

Maybe it was in my mind that I wanted him to feel bad for me, to pity me and make him feel regret as he ignored me. Although... Maybe it was my heart telling me how much I yearned for his attention.

"-th to Ben?" Yaz yelled, cuffing her hands to her mouth in hopes to draw my attention.

"Huh? Oh sorry I was spaced out" I muttered. "Uh.. did you say something?"

"Yeah, I asked if you were okay. You were staring at Brooklyn for quite a long time, you know. Also I was going to ask if you wanted some of these left over chocolates. Seems like you haven't had dinner/lunch yet." She said, holding some small chocolates in her hands. Sammy was laying on the ground, holding her stomach, probably from eating to many chocolates.

"Oh yeah, I'm fine. Like I said, I spaced out there for a moment. Haha" I said while scratching the back of my neck.

How embarrassing.

I turned to look over at Darius and Brooklyn again. Brooklyn was giving a confused face, but the twinkle in her eye said something else.

I bet she's having the laugh of a life time seeing me like this. I would do anything to get back at her right now.

"That's fine Ben. Here you might wanna take these chocolates before they melt." Sammy said, getting up cupping her hands to take the chocolates from Yaz.

   "Oh thanks, but no thanks. I'm not really hungry. Those chocolates must have filled me up" I said while rubbing my stomach. It was a lie but I didn't want to be sitting with any of them right now.

   I was gonna take a walk with bumpy, but before I did I wanted to get one last glance at Darius's face. I turned around to see him looking worried, but almost instantly he turned away.

   Great, feel bad.

   I rubbed bumpy's head as I guided her to the trees. With ever step my feet aggressively hit the ground, soon synchronizing with Bumpy's, loud but not aggressive, footsteps. I didn't have berries on me, but maybe later I could pick some on our walk. I was a bit hungry and my stomach was growling.