The Right Side of Wrong

Even Warmer Welcomes

All my original ideas of scaring him away vanished, just by listening to the pleading in his voice.

"I don't fit in, Ben," I warned him. "I really gave it my best shot. And if you think I can change, I think you're wrong."

"Then I'll change!" he quickly responded. "I'll skip school, have more fun. You know, I-I'll blow off some of my responsibilities."

"No, no!" I said, frustrated. "Don't you see? I'm such a terrible influence. It's only a matter of time before I do something so messed up that not only does the kingdom turn on me, but they turn on you!"

"Don't quit us, Mal!" he insisted.

He took a step forward and took my hands into his own. This was wrong. I was falling for it again. I was falling for all the good in the world and the kindness of a boy's face. But I already tried that and it didn't agree with me.

"The people love you."

Flipping my palm up, he dropped his class ring into my hand. I sighed and looked up to argue once more, but he cut me off.

"I love you."

I opened my mouth to say something. Anything. But my throat closed up.

He narrowed his eyes when he saw my hesitance. "Don't you love me?"

"I..." My lungs felt as if they were being crushed by the pressure at the bottom of the ocean. "I can't do this."

This was no longer about me. It hadn't been for a while. This was about Ben's happiness. Evie's and Jay's and Carlos's. Auradon's. And the pain that I caused them when I was around was much worse than how much it would hurt to let me go.

I put the ring back into Ben's hand and closed his fingers around it. Then, in a fit, I grabbed his arm and began to drag him out of my apartment and down the stairs.

"Mal, please!" he argued, but I didn't stop. I didn't look at him. I didn't cry.

"Mal?" I heard Jay ask softly, but he stopped when he saw me pulling Ben behind me like a prisoner.

All three of them stood silently at the bottom of the stairs, watching this go down. Once I reached the last step, I reached down, grabbed a piece of the fence, and threw it up, just enough to push Ben back under and out of my space.

Ben fell directly into Evie, both of them stumbling in surprise. The door began to close between us, but Jay rushed forward and grabbed it with his hands, preventing me from shutting them out.

"Mal," he grunted, pushing it back up, over his head. "What is wrong with you?"

"I'm doing this for you! For all of you!"

"The Isle? Really?"

I shook my head, disgust filling my face. "If you don't like it, you can go home. Back to your big castles and pretty flowers."

I took a step back, preparing myself for what I was about to do. It was risky, Jay was much stronger than me. But he wouldn't see this coming, would he?

In a flash, I kicked him square in the chest.

He landed on his ass, the door shutting between us once more and this time, no one stopped it. It hit the ground with a clash and I attached the lock I had for it to the ground.

"But please just go away," I begged.

I flipped around on my heel and stormed back up to my room, green clouding the edges of my eyes.

~ ~ ~

Ben watched Mal knock over Jay before turning away and walking down one of the nearby alleyways. He wasn't planning to go far, he just wanted to get away from all of this.

He didn't like this Mal. This violent, angry Mal who was determined not to listen to anyone but herself. This wasn't the Mal that he knew.

He hissed through his teeth. He wanted things to just go back to the way they were, but he knew that wouldn't happen. And if Mal was truly unhappy with her life, he didn't want her to keep lying about it, but this couldn't be better.

Ben paused, hearing footsteps approaching him from behind. He rubbed his face and turned to tell the others that they should all just go home, when he found himself face to face with Gil and another boy that he couldn't identify.

Crap.

He took in as much air as he could, preparing to scream, but the other kid was covering his mouth in a second. "Uh, uh, uh," he teased, in a thick accent. "We can't have you ruining our fun, now can we?"

Gil held Ben's hands behind his back while the other boy taped his mouth shut.

"Sorry, my king. It's nothing personal, just, uh... you're quite a valuable commodity. And I don't know if your little villain friends told you, but we like to steal nice things here." He turned to Gil. "Take him to Uma. I'll talk to the traitors."

"Will do, Harry."

~ ~ ~

"Mal, it's Evie." Her voice reverberated inside the small device I used to use as a sort-of doorbell. I could hear people speaking outside my house through it which was helpful, considering we didn't have phones on the Isle. "Something has happened."

They just couldn't take a hint, could they. I was frustrated, and suffocated, and they had been standing outside my door for the past few minutes.

I considered screaming back down at Evie to stop, but I got distracted by the sound of my window opening. I whipped around just in time to watch Jay slid in and shut the window once more.

"What the fuck?! How did you get up here?"

I stormed over to him, but the minute he was inside, he was on his way to the door and down the stairs.

"I climbed up," he responded, nonchalantly.

"What are you doing?" I demanded, watching him run down to the ground level once more.

"I'm opening the door for Evie and Carlos. We need to talk!"

"I already said-"

"About Ben!" he interrupted. "He's been kidnapped."