Elowyn "Winnie" Smith met Ben when she was 4 years old. They've been best friends since they were 6. After her dad died when she was 13, he was the only person she wanted to talk to.
He should know everything about her, shouldn't he?
But he doesn'...
I rush to catch up with him but his long legs allow him to take bigger and faster steps.
"Where are you going?!?" I call but he just walks past the parking lot and onto the beach. I'm almost scared to follow him. He weaves through the crowds of drunk teenagers, fists clenched. There's a bonfire that wasn't there when I was last on the beach and loud, pumping, music.
I'm practically running through the crowd to make sure he doesn't do anything stupid and my eyes widen as I notice where he's headed. Near the bonfire stands Mark and a couple of the other guys from the soccer team. I break out into a sweat as I call Ben's name, my stomach doing somersaults as it dawns on me what he's about to.
In a blink Ben is standing infront of Mark grabbing him by his t-shirt.
"Fuck off!" Mark yells and spit flies out of his mouth. But Ben doesn't pull back, instead he pulls his arm back to punch him in the jaw.
Oh my god.
All of a sudden people are crowding the area, shouting and screaming. The two guys begin yelling at eachother but I can't make out what they're saying. Fists fly and they tackle eachother harshly. I swear I hear bones crunch as a fist connects with a face. I'm scared and I feel like this is all my fault. Why did I tell Ben?
Now people have their phones out and they're trying to get the best angle to record. I want to tell them to just stop, to calm down but my mouth won't open. I watch in horror as the two struggle with eachother some more when finally, Claire's boyfriend Alex and another guy come to pull the two apart.
Now everyone's freaking out, great. This is exactly what we didn't need. The guys on the soccer team are yelling at Ben and Mark for getting into it.
"I'm leaving. Don't go near her again. And you better not start shit at practice," Ben spits at Mark before walking away towards me.
"Why would you do that?" I say.
"He can't get away with doing that. I'm not holding back if he tries anything again," he growls. He needs to keep his voice down. These random kids don't need to hear about him "getting away with things". They're going to talk. He wipes at the blood coming out of his nose and sniffs.
"Fuck." He lets the blood drip out onto the ground and some eyes of people from school are still on us. Probably wondering why the fight started in the first place, but no one could possibly know except for Mark, Ben, and I. One pair of eyes that was on us starts to make way through the sand quickly and rest a hand on Ben's shoulder.
"Are you okay? Ben what the fuck was that about?" Says the person who was watching, Gloria. My gaze lands on her hand gently rubbing his back.
"Gloria... I'm sorry. I know you wanted to hang out.... look we'll talk tomorrow. I have to go." As he talks close to her face and I watch, I feel like a third wheel. Like some weirdo watching them. Quickly she goes up onto her tippy toes to place a kiss on his cheek, and as quickly as she arrives, she leaves.
Ben's anger is still radiating off of him though. It feels nice to know that Ben wants to protect me, but I'm scared of this side of him. I look up at him tentatively and there's blood still falling from his nose, a scrape and his cheek, and what looks to be a nasty bruise forming.
"Oh my god Ben. I'm so sorry. This is all my fault and you're hurt."
"It's not for fault," he says. "It's his." He places his hand on the small of my back and leads me towards the parking lot again. We climb into his car.
"Are you okay?" He asks for the millionth time and I say I'm fine again. But I don't mean it. I'm quite shaken up from all of this.
"Why don't we take you back home and clean your cuts," I say to him as he drives the car out of the parking lot, putting his arm on my head rest so he can see behind him to back out.
"My mom will be pissed if she sees me like this. Do you think I could spend the night at yours?" I want to say yes because he wouldn't even be in this situation if it wasn't for me but no one is allowed in my apartment. If he comes in I have to explain the disorder and uncleanliness to him, and he might see my mom who's a total mess right now.
"I don't think that's a good idea."
"You won't ever let me into your apartment anymore," he says softly not in an angry way, but like he's thinking. I take a deep breathe, trying to calm myself for the millionth time this night.
"Okay. You can stay over." As I say the words, a tinge of regret settles in my stomach but in order to keep this secret up he can't be suspicious. If I don't let him into my mom's room or mine, it won't look that bad. It won't look like our life is falling apart.
"Thanks. I'll tell my parents I'm at Ethan's." I nod an okay and look out the window at the night sky wishing that everything didn't have to be this hard. At least Ben isn't mad at me anymore. He probably never was. For some reason, he always gives me the benefit of the doubt. Thinking about his kindness just makes my heart clench more, a need for him burning inside of me. The way I feel about him is serious, like could-end-our-friendship serious. But he deserves a girl like Gloria who's perfect and pretty. My eyes draw upwards to study his side profile and I smile, feeling lucky to have him at least as a friend.
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