*sorry I put this as chapter forty by accident before lol anyway*
Tuesday, 11:10 pm
Erica walks into the cafeteria, averting her gaze around in hopes to find Sarah or Mary, or really any of her friends. She spots Rory eating at least four tacos at once by himself, "Hey, where are those guys?"
Rory shakes his head, his mouth full of taco, "I don't know, but they're missing Taco Tuesday, not wise," he pauses to take another bite, while Erica shoots him a look. "Oh, I'm sorry," He says, holding up a taco with bits of food still in his mouth, "would you like a taco? I must be a gentleman."
Erica squints in disgust, "Ew, don't talk with your mouth full."
Rory shrugs and continues to much on his food, while Erica sits down and leans closer to him, "So, I've been meaning to ask, how have you been?"
"What do you mean?"
"You know, with the whole, liking your best friend's girlfriend thing."
"Oh, yeah, I'm doing great. I should be ready to drive a wooden stake through my chest any day now." Rory mumbles, suddenly losing his appetite and dropping the shell back onto his plate.
"Maybe you should try and distract yourself, or try to avoid her. It's a lot easier to loose interest in someone when you're not hanging out with them and their partner every day." Erica states. "You think I haven't tried? It seems like every other day you and I become a part of another magical showdown with them. Trust me, I've tried the abstinence route and it hasn't worked." Rory explains.
Erica sighs, "I get it. Well, hopefully it passes soon. At least it doesn't seem like she's here today either-"
"Hi guys." The brunette smiles softly, standing over their table. Rory's face instantly lights up, despite the conversation he was just having, "Hey."
Erica slightly rolls her eyes at him and turns to face Mary. "Have you seen Sarah? Or like any of them?"
Mary shakes her head, "No, and frankly I wouldn't mind not seeing Benny today."
Rory immediately stands up straight, "W-why is that?" Erica shoots him a "don't even think about it" glare, but he dismisses her by keeping his gaze on Mary.
Mary chews on her lip, keeping her eyes down, "We kinda had our first real, bad fight last night."
Monday, 5:45 pm
"Okay, here we go," Ethan's mom smiles and places a plate of chocolate chip cookies and four glasses of milk on the table, "Don't you think you guys are getting a little bit old for milk and cookies?"
"Maybe," Benny smirks and stacks three cookies on top of each other, "But you're never too old for a cookie sandwich." He takes a bite, causing Mary to chuckle and swat his shoulder, "Gross."
"Just when I think you've found every way to be disgusting, you find a new one." Sarah adds, scrunching her face at him.
Ethan glances down at the same stack of cookies in his own hand, and immediately puts two down on the table and brings only one to his mouth. "Yeah, I know right, grow up, Benny."
Benny scoffs at him, just as the back door opens and Evelyn walks in. The brunette boy immediately tenses, knowing he was in trouble, as does Mary because she was upset with him for what he did that put him in trouble.
"Hello!"
"Oh, hi Evelyn," Ethan's mom greets her, "What brings you here?"
"Well I just wanted to make sure that Benny isn't making a mess." Evelyn says, walking over and waving her hand, causing Benny's glass of milk to fall over and spill on the table. "Ooh, do you have any napkins?"
Ethan's mom nods, "Stay put, I'll go get them."
"Grandma!" Benny hisses.
"Well," Evelyn leans on the table to talk lower, "What do you have to say for yourselves?"
"It's an easy explanation," Benny says, "Sarah didn't believe in trolls, Ethan bet me I couldn't conjure one, and Mary agreed. What was I supposed to do?"
"You didn't conjure a troll, you conjured a toll! It cost me five bucks to get out of my living room." Evelyn replies. "Ha! Told ya you couldn't do it." Ethan grins while Sarah chuckles.
Ethan's mom comes back over with the napkins, but Evelyn wasn't done lecturing them so she knocks down a plate of cookies to the floor. "Oh! It's okay, I'll get the dust thingy."
"Well, at least I conjured a toll booth, can one of you three do that?" Benny asks.
Sarah scoffs, "No, all I do is fight everything while you hide, like you hide every time that stupid Robot Dentist movie is on."
Mary let's out a chuckle while Benny protests, "Hey! Cyber-Dontist came to this planet to fill our cavities with pain! At least I'm not hiding from myself."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Sarah sneers.
"That you're a vampire who's afraid to bite people." Ethan replies, holding in a laugh. Sarah glares at him. "What? He said it, I didn't."
"And you're so perfect?" Sarah asks.
"I'm just saying, between Benny's misspelt magic, Mary's crazy fireballs, and Sarah's smash happy strategy, you three would fail without my bulletproof genius plans." Ethan explains.
"Hey! Why am I getting roped into this?" Mary protests.
"Stop! You four are a team!" Evelyn whisper yells. "I sense a coming darkness. A force so powerful, so evil that none of you stand a chance against it alone. Only by working together can you..." but the teenagers ignored her, their faces in their phones, "You have to work together!"
The four continue to ignore her, eventually causing Evelyn to give up on them.
Later that night, Mary and Benny head back to his house to hang out, talk, and watch a movie like they normally did, but tonight she was quiet. Benny hated when she was quiet.
"What's wrong?" He asks.
"What makes you think something is wrong?" She replies while messing with a loose strand on the pillow across her lap.
"Because you're doing that thing when you get all quiet on me, and that either means you're mad at me or something bad happened. So spill." Benny states, turning his body to face hers.
She sighs. "Fine, I'm just, worried."
"About what?"
"About you."
He scrunches his face at her, slightly laughing, "Why?"
"Benny, you know I love you, but Ethan kinda had a point earlier, about your spells."
"What do you mean?"
Mary clears her throat, "I just worry that, if you're not more careful and responsible with these spells that something might happen."
"What, Mary where is this coming from?" He asks, feeling himself grow defensive.
"No, Benny, I didn't mean it like that-"
"What, you think I can't do magic right? That I'm just some careless idiot who might say a spell wrong and hurt someone? I thought you believed in me." Benny argues.
"Of course I believe in you," Mary insists, "I just want you to be more careful."
Benny scoffs and stands up. "Yeah, because you think I'll screw up. I'm not the same idiot who made a love potion that ended up with almost all the girls at school trying to kill me last year, okay? I'm better now."
Mary stands up too, "I never said you were an idiot and I know you're better now. You're reading too much into this."
"No I'm not, it's pretty clear, you think that I'm bad at magic and that all I do is put people in danger or conjure up toll booths instead of trolls."
"Benny-"
"I mean I expect Ethan to bet against me, he does that to everyone, but I thought you of all people wouldn't do that."
"I'm not, I just want you to be-"
"More careful, yeah I got that. You know, that's really rich coming from you." Benny states.
Now it was Mary's turn to be angry, because she knew exactly what he meant by that. Benny instantly regrets his words when he sees the hurt across her face, but he was hurt too. His own girlfriend didn't believe in him.
Mary didn't respond to his cold words, instead she just shook her head and grabbed her bag. "I'll see you tomorrow." She mumbles, quickly storming out of the house before he could say anything else.
"Mary-" he tries to stop her, but he knew it was no use. The damage was done.
...
Tuesday, 7:45 am
The next morning, Benny wakes up with an ache in his head and his chest feels heavy. He immediately checks his phone before he gets out of his bed, and to no surprise, no messages from Mary. Or, anyone, for that matter. "Weird." He mumbles, rubbing his tired eyes.
There wasn't much to eat for breakfast that morning, all he found was a depressing looking bagel. He continues on his walk, checking his phone, again, no messages. He tried to call Mary, but his phone wouldn't even ring. He shrugs it off, thinking maybe his grandma forgot to pay the cell phone bill.
He continues on his way to school, also weary about the empty, eerily quiet streets. But an idea pops into his head that distracts him, he quickly looks around then utters a spell in his head, and half a second later his bagel became a donut. He grins widely and takes a bite.
Once he gets to school, he doesn't even notice how empty the school was. All he could think about was Mary and their fight, her words were echoing in his head, as well as his own. Damn his good memory.
"If you're not more careful and responsible with these spells something could happen..."
"More careful, yeah I got that. You know, that's really rich coming from you..."
His thoughts were interrupted by a loud burp from himself. He laughs and turns to face the desk behind him, "Ooh, okay, that ones on me boys, that ones on me..." he trails off once he notices there was no one else in the classroom. "Okay, either I'm really late or really early."
...
11:45 am
Erica studies the paper on her clipboard until she sees Rory nearby. "Hey, Rory," she says, but pauses when he turns holding a large stuff animal.
"What is that?"
Rory shrugs, "Vampire Sasquatch, can you believe they cancelled the show after just nine seasons?"
"Uh, yeah." Erica scoffs, "Anyways, have you seen Sarah?"
"Yes." Rory nods.
"Today!"
He shakes his head, "No."
Erica sighs. "I wanna run for vampire council party planner but I need two other vamps to sign for me, in their blood." An idea pops into her head and a smirk stretches across her face, "Speaking of which..."
She stabs the pen into Rory's hand, "Ow!" He shouts, glancing at the bloody mark that quickly healed and disappeared. "Wait," he takes the form from her hand, "As vampire council member, what will you do to help our fangy community?"
Erica grins and takes the Sasquatch from his hands. "First I can start by making sure your furry friend's head, stays on his body."
Rory scrunches his face at her, "But his head is already on his body..."
She twists the neck of the stuffed animal and hovers over it with her fangs out, shooting Rory a wicked wink. "Oh." His eyes go wide, but then his face turns sour, "Nice try, Erica, but he's a vampire; he'll just regenerate."
"Fine," Erica rolls her eyes, "What will it take?"
Rory thinks for a moment, "Hang out with me, for some reason Ethan and Benny aren't around."
Erica groans, "Whatever, fine."
Rory clears his throat, "Have you uh, seen Mary since lunch? Maybe she could...join us?"
Erica shakes her head and points at him, "No! No, you are not going to try and jump on an opportunity just because Mary and Benny had a fight."
"Wha-no! I wasn't gonna do anything like that, I wouldn't do that and you know it." Rory replies harshly. "It's just, you know, she seemed sad. Maybe hanging out with her friends could make her feel better."
"You can say that again." Mary appears beside them. Erica internally shouts, how the hell does she keep appearing?
"Hi!" Rory grins and leans against his locker, a little to harshly and hitting his elbow, but he swallows the pain.
"Have either of you seen Sarah?" Mary asks. Erica shakes her head, "No, that's why I came to Rory to sign my vampire council party planner form."
"Why am I not surprised?" Mary chuckles. "That would be a cool position for you."
"Right!"
...
8:05 am
Benny wanders the quiet and empty hallways, the only sound were his shoes on the floor and his thundering heartbeat. "Hello? Anyone here?"
His brain starts to wander, Mary's words echoed in his head again. "Did I do this? This feels like something I did..." He wonders. "I bet that disappearing spell went wrong...or everyone turned invisible...or I made everyone silent, and tiny, and I'm their overseer." A grin spreads across his face at the thought, but it quickly falls.
"Dammit, Mary was right."
He shakes his head and continues to explore the empty school, when a smell enters his nose. "Is that..." his smile returns and he quickly follows it, leading to the cafeteria where a large tray of fries sat.
"My favorite class...fries!" He giggles like a little kid and hurries over to sit and munch on the fries. "If I did this, I'm awesome."
...
12:20 pm
Erica makes sure to keep herself between Rory and Mary, she knew she didn't have to worry about Mary, but knowing Rory he'll accidentally let something slip.
Eventually they run into Principal Hicks, "Um, don't you three have class?"
The teenagers were about to answer, when suddenly their principal starts to freak out and tap his head. "Who said that? Hello! Who's this voice?" He shouts then starts to walk away, forgetting about the teenagers, "Please, leave my head!"
The three squint at him in confusion. "If there's somebody in his head they must be pretty small." Rory jokes, then starts to laugh at his own joke and tries to high-five Erica. "Yeah, no."
Mary shrugs and high-fives him, "I thought it was funny."
Rory blushes, "Thanks."
Erica shakes her head and sneakily punches his arm, hard, "Ow-"
"We should maybe get to class so we don't run into him again."
...
8:45 am
Benny continues to happily munch on the tray of fries, when the door behind him swings open, the odd sounds of metal and gears clanking follow. He slowly turns around, his eyes going wide when he sees the horror in front of him.
"Cyber-Dontist?!"
The robot smirks and holds up a large drill where his hand should be, "Brace yourself, by my calculations, it is time for a checkup."
Benny stands and throws the napkin on his chest to the floor, "I knew this would happen someday!" He lifts his hands, "But I'm ready. Technologlos, byrathamnar, gramnath!" A weak bit of purple escapes his hands and hits the robot, but it doesn't even make him flinch.
The robot chuckles, "Illogical human, dentists are immune to magic. Now open wide!" Benny shrieks and quickly runs away, the dentist following close behind.
As he runs, he hears a distant voice that sounded like it was only in his head...literally. "Benny? Benny can you hear me? Benny!"
"Ethan?" Benny wonders once he recognizes the voice, although it was strange that his friend's voice was in his head, he felt a little relieved by it. "Why are you shouting inside my brain? What's going on?!"
"You tell me! Didn't you do this?" Ethan replies.
Benny scoffs, "Me?! Oh yeah, sure, blame Benny! You and everyone else!"
"Look, we're stuck in our own universes, but, for some reason when I hold your gym shorts I can talk to you." Ethan says.
"You're talking into my gym shorts?" Benny scrunches his face. "Ugh, worst cellphone ever."
Ethan nods, "Yeah, why the gym shorts, what's so special about them?"
Benny shrugs, "Nothing, I hate gym, more than anything. Whenever I put those shorts on, I'm wearing a cotton shame blend."
Ethan's eyes go wide. "That must be it! It's an emotional connection! Hang on, I'm gonna try something okay?"
Benny nods as the voice fades, when suddenly another voice rings out through the halls, a loud, familiar shriek. He turns his head around the corner, a quiet gasp escapes his mouth.
"Mary?!"
🔮