The weekend rolled around as soon as the week had started. After Randy and the gang's initial assault, Jeff had barely seen them. Of course there was the brief awkward eye contact in the hallways, but none of them ever tried to start anything. Ben was convinced that Jeff had scared them off, but the teen wasn't so sure. He sat in his bedroom, strumming a few random notes on his guitar, it was Friday and there wasn't much to do. His hand was completely healed, but the skin on the knuckles felt smoother than the rest. His parents had gone out to go shopping for some Halloween decorations, without asking if he wanted to come along.
He sighed, and leaned back onto the ground. I could call Ben. He thought. The boy did live across the street. Some human interaction would do him good. He had been hanging with them all week anyways. Skipping class after lunch to hang out under the bleachers. With a heave, he stood up and walked downstairs.
Lui was at the kitchen table, working on homework. When he saw Jeff he immediately put down his pencil. "Ahah! So the bear has left his cave!"
Jeff only gave that joke half a snicker. "You still aren't done?" He asked, grabbing his black messenger bag from the coat rack.
Lui slumped back into his chair and puffed out his cheeks. "Yeah... AP classes suck."
Jeff nodded knowingly. "That's why I never took them, but then again, I was never as smart as you were."
Lui rolled his eyes. "Well being smart sucks when all you get for it is extra work."
"True."
Jeff shoved some papers into his bag, along with a few pencils. He went to the fridge and pulled out two sodas, and also added them to the bag. "Is it ok if I leave ya. I'm sure mom and dad won't mind."
"I guess not, where are you going?"
"Just across the street. Friend's house."
"Ben, right?"
"Yep."
Jeff had told Liu the events of the first day at school. He knew Liu wouldn't rat him out, and Liu found the event extremely impressive. "So if people ever pick on me, you can come beat them up right?" Is what he said. Jeff agreed, he'd always have his brother's back.
With a final wave, Jeff stepped outside and welcomed the dull cloudy sky. Perfect fall weather, perfect weather in general. He walked across the street, looking for the home number Ben had told him. Not many people were outside today, there were a few children playing hopscotch, and a woman jogging by, but the streets were quiet. He found the house, it was practically in front of his own. The yard was trimmed unevenly and the house was a nice latte brown. As he walked up the porch he noticed several, nearly dead, plants and what he assumed to be Ben's skateboard. Ben was definitely home. After fixing the bag on his shoulder, Jeff knocked on the door and waited for a response. Nothing. He sighed and knocked again. There was no reaction for a moment, until he heard a sudden thump. Followed by a crash and then the sound of the door being unlocked.
Jeff was greeted by a shirtless, half dressed Ben. "Jeff! Hey!"
"Did you fall down the stairs?"
"Yes. Come in! Nice to see you outside of school!"
Ben opened the door wider to let the other in. Jeff stepped inside and quickly took in his surroundings. More dead plants. Relatively messy, there were some clothes hanging off the sides of the stairs and a pile of shoes were kicked into the corner of the room. "Take your shoes off, you can just throw 'em there." Ben said, scratching his back.
Jeff added his converse to the mountainous pile. Without his beanie, Ben's hair nearly covered his eyes, it looked more like a mullet up close. "What brings you to casa de Ben?" Joked the blond.
"Boredom. Do you mind if I hang out?"
Ben nodded. "Yeah, my family is out right now, so we can chill. How's that hand of yours?"
Jeff glanced at his hand, he was still wearing Nat's bracelet. "Healed."
The pair went upstairs to where Ben's room was. The house's build was similar to Jeff's, though it was decorated differently. Ben's room had a lot of movie posters, and not just horror movies. He had a small portable TV in his room and there were 2 more skateboards hung on the wall. There were 3 bean bags and what Jeff could only assume was a water bed. It was certainly a mess, more laundry on the floor and plenty of empty water bottles. Ben told Jeff to take a seat, so he plopped himself onto a red bean bag and promptly sunk into it. The skater made a feeble effort to clean up, but resorted to kicking most of the stuff plaguing the ground under his bed. "I brought drinks." Jeff mentioned, suddenly remembering the soda in his bag.
"Sick, just one moment." Ben was slipping a T-shirt over his previously exposed frame.
Once done, he jumped onto one of the beanbags and handed Jeff an Atari joystick. "Pac Man or Asteroids?"
Jeff laughed. "Pac Man, obviously."
Ben and Jeff took turns playing the game, for way longer than they should've. Each time trying to one-up each other's score. To be frank: Ben was whooping Jeff's ass. But they got tired of it, sodas all gone. They talked for a little bit, Ben making comments about his family and school club stuff. Jeff mentioned his hobbies, mostly about guitar, which Ben found to be the coolest thing ever. But that topic soon died out until there was an awkward silence once more.
Ben suddenly looked like he had an idea. As if he were thinking of something mischievous. "Dude... you smoke?"
Jeff looked at him quizzically. "Yes..?"
Ben shook his head, a weird suspicious grin on his face. "No, no... do you smoke?"
Jeff looked confused, but it suddenly clicked in his brain. Oh . He knew Ben wouldn't pressure him into it, but to be quite honest, Jeff had never smoked weed. "Do you get high with all your new friends?" Jeff asked, joking.
Ben snickered. "Nat and I sometimes do, Toby doesn't touch the stuff, which I can respect."
"Where do you even get it from?"
Jeff was picturing Ben opening up a secret door to some secret marajuana garden in his house. But Ben only winked. He wasn't going to tell, that much was obvious.
He watched as the blond crawled over to his bed and pulled out a mini cooler. Within was a jar, filled nearly to the brim with the devil's lettuce. He shook it playfully and spoke again. "So what'll it be, Jeffy boy?"
...
Jeff had always been anxious, when he wasn't angry or between states of being comatose, he was nervous. Who knew smoking pot would make it vanish?
They say smoking weed for the first time will be the best experience of your life or so astoundingly horrible that you'll be convinced baby spiders are coming out of your eyeballs. Jeff felt great. But he also felt like doing nothing at all. He felt like he was laying on a cloud of angel wings, when in reality he was on Ben's disgusting floor. Ben was obviously used to it, so he was a little more grounded than the newby. He felt like a weight in his stomach had been ameliorated. Like he could think clearly for once in his life. He felt as if he were watching his body lay there in the room from the third person. But something sounded off.
Jeff could tell that Ben was talking about something, but he has subconsciously tuned him out. He swore he could hear music somewhere in the room and was trying to listen closely to it. "Is there somebody outside..?" Jeff asked, surprised by how slow his speech sounded.
He saw Ben crane his head to look out the window. He shook his head. "Nah man, don't think so."
Jeff nodded, but he could hear the music getting louder, almost amusingly so. He could feel every crease in his clothing. The lamp in Ben's room was burning his eyes. He face planted on the floor to hide from the annoyingly bright light, being entertained by the blotches of color that appeared in his blank mind and the pressure of his eyeballs. The previous euphoria was replaced with an oncoming headache. The music wasn't going away.
With a cursory glance, Jeff peeked up towards the window. It sounded old, as if it were being played on a dusty record player. "You seriously don't hear that?"
Ben's mellow face had bouts of concern. Jeff stood up, wanting to see for himself. "It sounds like it's literally outside."
It sounded like a children's song, there were no lyrics to the fictitious melody, but the boy could swear he could hear the words in his head. He had no idea how dark it had gotten outside, the sky was grey and lifeless. How long had he been here? He scanned the outdoors through the window, nothing but forests of houses. The distant grumbling of the bordering woodland breathed like a smoker's lungs. A perfect silhouette stood there watching as music oozed from its shape. Jeff's grip on the windowsill tightened. Who was that? "There's a person outside.."
Ben shot up, and looked out the window. His shoulders sagging in response. "Jeff there's nothing there. Why don't you sit down I'll get you some-"
The lights went out. Fear flooded in Jeff's chest like a crashing wave. "Ben?"
Nothing.
He could only see the window, only pitch blackness within the room. His head buzzed with pain and he keeled over. He felt nauseous, the window was warping in front of his eyes. The voices in his head grew louder and more tauntingly. His mouth tasted like iron, his eyes burned, his head felt cracked. The tune shunned to a whisper. Almost as if on command, and the lyrics played out once more.
When all the kids have gone to sleep
A quiet man has come to peep
For if you aren't tuck in bed
He'll take you fast, and you'll be dead
Beware the forest and any place-
You see a man, who bear's no face