┍━━━━ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ━━━━┑
chapter five
|his point of view|
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on a steamer across atlantic...
benjamin blythe stares in nowhere, he just wants to freshen his mind. as he stares in the blue sky, he's starting to reminisce about the past events, the reason he was on this steamer, working with his brother and the others.
when their mother died, a year ago, of giving birth on his young brother and when their father, john blythe, died a month ago, of illness, the blythe brothers feel like their life is going upside down. now, they are working on a steamer and fulfilled their father's wish to travel.
their father loved to travel and wants his sons to do the same, but that is not only the reason why benjamin blythe wants to travel, but he also wants to get away to avonlea. he wants to get away to the place that causing his heartache.
after his father died, he found out that his former fiance, victoria allen, was cheating on him. she even put the blame on him and his father for being deceased.
[ a month ago...]
"v-victoria? amour? w-who is that man?" benjamin asked, pleadingly to provide him an answer.
"i don't need to tell everything to you, benjamin! i don't wanna be with you! you always have no time!" victoria spat on him. benjamin looked at the girl with a shocked expression. it isn't the girl he loved, the girl he wants to be for the rest of his life.
"you know that my father's dead, right? please, just understand me. victoria, please." he begged as he put down his knee to kneel.
"it isn't my fault that your father is dead! now, go away! i don't wanna see you again! i'm happy with him and there's nothing you can do about that!" victoria said as she threw the ring that benjamin give to her when he proposed.
"i don't really love you, benjamin. my father is just forcing me to be with you because your father is still alive before, but he's gone now and i don't wanna pretend to love you anymore!" she said as she walks out the door, leaving benjamin alone.
[present]
"ben? ben, you alright?" ben seems to come to reality as his younger brother approaches him.
"yes. yes, i guess." ben just answered. gilbert seems to understand what his brother meant and just stared in the sky. both blythe suddenly remember their last travel with their father, it was very good. it was like the way of their father saying goodbye to them.
he is still heartbroken about his deceased father and the loss of his love in his arms but he needs to be strong, for his brother, for both of them.
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"that if i did not kiss the girls, my lips would grow all moldy," ben and gilbert sang softly. gilbert was reading a notebook in his hammock while ben is just watching are staring in nowhere, once again.
"two days of this. fireman's not the only one who doesn't appreciate that song," their friend, sebastion lacroix, told them as he was getting cozy in his bed. bash was a colored man, he was kind and helpful but was judged by the other people.
ben got up from his bed as he chuckled, "nobody here appreciates that song."
"you know why," his brother replied. "well, we're just joking around," the younger blythe added.
"well, don't."
"you're right, you're right. fireman is an easy target." gilbert said as ben let out a small laugh.
"that's not why," bash said, his thick accent is appearing.
"what's eating you?" gilbert asks his colored man friend.
"i have been trimmer for ten years, more. this is all i have. i can't move up, this is for me. and there ain't nothin' for me on dry land. you two are a white boy... you both got options. you two are tourists. i need this. don't lose this work for me, understand?"
both blythe nodded, "yeah. yeah, we're sorry."
"and you both don't sing worth a damn," bash teased.
"says you!" gilbert said, ben just smiled in their bickering.
"i bet you haven't even kissed a girl," bash said as ben stifled a laugh. he knew that his brother never experiences kissing, even a peck.
"you're right, bash, he hasn't." ben agreed to their friend as gilbert playfully glared at him.
"i will soon," gilbert said and bash just laughed at the boy. "why you didn't ask ben if he ever kissed a girl too?"
"because, gil, that has an absolute answer. i'm even more good-looking than you."
"no, you're just older."
it was no doubt that the blythe brother was very good-looking, the girls swoon over them. the girls always say that they are 'full packaged', which is real, the blythe are very kind, helpful, gentleman, and good-looking.
ben was currently seventeen years old, while his younger brother, gilbert, was fifteen. ben was much more mature than gilbert, much the fact that he is the eldest. ben has a raven black hair, much like his father and brother. he has hazel eyes that can make the ladies swoon. like gilbert, he is also one of the 'best students' back in the schoolhouse.
"you seem a bit off, ben, are you alright?" bash asked him.
"yes, just thinking of something," ben answered as bash let out a teasing 'ooh'.
"got a girl back in the home, blythe?"
"no," he replied, thinking of how to change the subject. "but gilbert has," he added as he playfully grins at his younger brother.
"n-no, i don't!" gilbert stuttered, ben almost wanted to laugh by his brother's sudden nervousness.
"really? spell truce," he teased as gilbert rolled his eyes.
ben remembered the day they last saw anne shirley, his friend back in avonlea. the girl has amazing red hair and a fiery attitude that he seems to like, anne was like the sister he never had. he knew that his brother was head over the heels over anne ever since the girl hit gilbert's face with a slate, gilbert's still figuring his feelings out.
and so was ben, he hopes to meet the girl that was right for him.