AWAKEN ; benny weir [2]

twelve

As Ethan finally backed away from Benny's face, he caught a glimpse of the magenta colour leaving his eyes. An ill expression replaced the angered one that Benny had worn for hours, swallowing hard to his friends.

"...I don't remember any of that."

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"That actually happened?" 

Ethan and Sarah circled around the magic room, helping Benny clean up his rageful mess that he made while in his supposed trance.
"There's no way I said all that."

"Sorry, dude," Ethan apologized. "Be glad that Ellie remembered the brain-wave trick, or you would've been in some deeper shit."

"I gotta talk to her," Benny stopped, pulling out his phone.
Sarah didn't skip a beat to yank the cell phone out of his hands and shove it into her pocket, ignoring Benny's surprised face. 

"Sarah, what the hell? Give me my phone back—!"
"I'm doing you a favour," she assured. "Ellie does not wanna talk to you right now; I guarantee it."
"Okay, wouldn't Ellie know of all people that I didn't mean any of that?" he questioned. "She's smart enough, and she's been through this control thing before. I obviously didn't mean it."

"Doesn't change what you said, though," Ethan countered, picking up the broken witch bottles off the floor.
"You yelled in her face saying that your grandma wasted her powers on her, and that it was her fault for everything that Stern did—!"

"—I get it, Ethan!" he yelled, a few sparks flinging from his fingertips. Immediately cautious, Benny shook his hand off and shoved it in his jacket pocket. 

"Sorry, I just... ugh," he groaned. "I am in deep shit."

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"I hate that you're making me do this." 

Ethan shook his head at the sight of Benny, who had 'cleverly' stashed himself under Ethan's desk to hide from his video-chat camera. Not even an hour ago, he wanted to give Benny a black eye, but now he was doing him a favour. Ethan was such a pushover.
"Would you just call her?" Benny pressured, trying not to hit his head against the bottom of Ethan's desk.

The seer huffed, fixing the framing of his camera to make sure that Benny was hidden before calling Ellie. The computer began to ring before the image from Ellie's webcam popped onto the screen.

"Hey, Eth."
"Hey, El," he greeted. "You doin' okay?"

"I could be better," she admitted, rubbing her exhausted face in her hands. "Tried to drink a soda, but it exploded in my hand."

Benny swore at himself from under Ethan's desk. He knew that was one of Ellie's anxiety impulses when it came to raw power. Even with controlled magic, she got overwhelmed.

"Sarah and I went back to Benny's place after we left your house," Ethan explained. "He was super bummed about what happened in the hall. You haven't been answering any of his calls, or Sarah's, so I was just wondering—!"

"Are you trying to get me to talk to him?" Ellie asked. "Because, I'm not going to."
"Come on, El," Ethan begged. "Benny feels really bad and he just wants to—!"

"—Ethan, if this was the only thing you wanted to call about, then I'm hanging up."

"Ellie, dude, c'mon."
Ethan tried to stop her from ending the call, but her face instantly disappeared from his computer screen. "She hung up, B."

"I messed up so hard," Benny groaned. "This is really bad, dude, what if—?"

"—Don't start with the bullshit 'what-if?' questions."

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Two days had passed since the incident after algebra, and Ellie has been trying her best to ignore Ethan and Benny.
Her days had consisted of boring magic studies and hanging out with Sarah. It wasn't as great as it could be, but she knew what was best for her.

Grabbing anything out of her locker was also difficult, since Ethan and Benny would purposely camp there so they could strike. Even if she hated the back pain, Ellie decided to carry everything from her locker into her bookbag. It was like lugging cement all day.

When the dismissal bell rang along the halls, Ellie would wait each time to drop off her books and supplies into her locker. Avoiding her best friends was way too hard.

"I can't do this for much longer," Ellie sighed to herself as she opened her locker door. 

"...We can change that— like, right now."

She flinched hard at the sound of her boyfriend's voice from the other side of her locker door. Being face-to-face with Benny for the first time in days instantly took her back to algebra, gulping as she silently continued to stash her books away.

"Ellie, just hear me out," Benny begged.
He took the rest of the books out of Ellie's hands and shoved them into her locker, closing it shut and standing in front of it. Benny really did not want her to ignore him.
"You know how hard it is to learn control," he tried. "It was hard for you, and you had your bracelet. I don't have anything right now... expect for you."

Ellie couldn't help but look away from Benny, already feeling her eyes sting from the tears that were beginning to well up. Hearing his voice in front of her and remembering his rage-filled words made her sick to her stomach.

"During algebra, I-I didn't..."
Benny couldn't come up with the right words for this. Acknowledging that he was in the wrong was incredibly difficult to do and it took a lot of balls, but he had to shove his pride down. She deserved an explanation.

"Ethan and Sarah think I black out when I lose control," he continued. "It happened to you last year. You didn't even know you threw Sarah into that wall, remember?"

"But... all those things you said," Ellie finally said, almost whispering as her voice got smaller. "Maybe, you were right. Maybe, all of this was my fault and I was the reason for the explosion and for Rory and Erica to go missing and for Stern to—!"

"—Stop, stop, stop, don't do that."
Benny took Ellie's hands within his and cupped them with sincerity, forcing Ellie to feel his integrity. 
"Don't listen to me, okay?" he begged, exhaling at the tears that rolled down Ellie's face. "I said some fucked-up stuff, but I wasn't conscious. The magic took me over, but I know for a fact that you didn't cause any of this."

Ellie blinked hard at the feeling of Benny's thumb wiping away her own tear, unable to take what he said into consideration. She wanted to believe it, but she couldn't shake the feeling of guilt that plagued her brain.

She couldn't even bring herself to look Benny in the eye, feeling so dysphoric that it moved her heart into her throat.

"Hey, hey, look up. Stop staring at the floor," Benny chuckled, moving her chin up to face him.

"I'm so sorry that you had to hear me say that to you," he apologized, finally seeing her glossed green eyes for the first time in days. "You're my better, way smarter half and I love you so much. Never listen to my trances."

Ellie couldn't even control her body's next move as she looped her arms around his neck, engulfing Benny in a delayed hug that she had needed for days. 
He gladly returned, embracing the anchor of his life in a hug that could only be described as wanted. They were their own halves.