I Love You, Benjamin Stone

Chapter 2
I was unaware of how fast my legs could move until I put it to test on my way home from school. My braids were whipping across my face and for the first time ever, I was happy I had glasses to keep my eyes from being knocked out of their sockets. Right now, I need my eyes to practice every single one of Ophelia’s lines to be sure that I would have them down pat for Friday.
I slam the front door of my house open, breathless, with strands of hair sticking to my face. The cold air of winter froze my bronchioles and bronchi, making it awkward to breathe but that was okay. There is absolutely nothing that could ruin my day at this point. Lady Luck finally turned her stupid head in my direction and gave me a shot to prove to Benjamin Stone that I’m a person and not just a... A... uhm... dork with ugly glasses and a bad hairstyle.
I kick off my winter boots, losing a sock on the way before running into the kitchen. The one sock I had on slid on the floor, causing me falling onto my butt. My mother turned around quickly and dropped the wooden spoon covered in cookie batter.
“For Heaven’s sakes Annaleigh! Is it really necessary to run in the house!?” She barks as I grip the table to get back on my feet.
“No mother, it’s not.” I clip back while trying to hide my smile. My mom then picks up the wooden spoon, gives me a look then places it in the sink. I take the opportunity to slip past her, extra sock in hand, and catapult up the stairs into my room.
Once the door is shut, I chuck everything in my hands onto the floor and begin squealing with joy. It was the jumping around and hand swinging that knocks my glass vase off of the T.V. and onto the floor.
So now I have something to keep my hyped-up mind occupied.
I kneel onto the floor and begin to pick up random shards while humming Hilary Duff songs. I am going to treasure this day until the end of time, ‘til robots appear in the new year, ‘til the world actually ends! There was no way that my mind could ever forget...
“Why are you hugging yourself Annie?” I feel my face flush and I drop my arms back down to the floor. Behind me, my younger brother Shea is staring at me with a inquisitive face. He kicks his Hot Wheels truck beside me and sits down before picking up a shard of broken glass.
“Shea! Don’t touch that, you’ll hurt yourself!” I exclaim and snatch the shard from his hand. Shea’s lip sticks out and he crosses his arms over his little chest.
“I’m trying to help ‘cause I feel bad for you.” I sigh heavily and lean across him to drop the pieces into the garbage.
“Why do you feel bad for me? I’m ecstatic today!” Shea rolls his truck over my foot and onto my leg. Sometimes it’s hard to remember that Shea is seven years old and not the seven year old with a genius brain.
“’Cause you’re sitting here like a total dweeb hugging yourself.” Shea replies simply and rolls the truck over my head. I frown and get to my feet, pulling the elastic bands from my braids.
“I’m happy about something Shea, that’s why I was err, hugging myself.” I ruffle the now loose braids into waves. Shea gets to his feet and walks to the door.
“Well if you weren’t so weird, you’d hug someone else and not yourself.” I give him a surprised stare which he missed due to walking out of my room.
It’s pretty sad when you’re such a dork that even your little brother notices, excluding the whole genius thing. Shea’s IQ was about 30 points higher than that of a child his age which is incredible for his age. Although I am fairly smart, above average, I still have to work hard for the grades I’m achieving. Shea doesn’t have to work since he’s in elementary and is raised a grade regularly.
I bite my lip and pick up my Hamlet book, flipping to the scene Ben had suggested our group try and act out. It was long and quite humorous until Hamlet and Ophelia began to talk more on their own rather than with those around them. As I read through the lines, I feel my mouth drop in surprise and horror.
Hamlet’s lines are laced with sexual innuendo, to the point I can feel my face burn to the equivalence of hot coals. There is no way I'll be able to perform this without turning into Ms. Tomato Face in front of the whole English class. Not only that, but Benjamin mouthing those lines would be enough to send me into a coma.
I read on until I hit another part.
“He has to put his head on my lap!?” I hiss out in a hushed whisper. I drop the book onto the floor and cover my face. I am really not sure how I was supposed to pull this off now! Turning red is something I can barely handle, but the fact that Benjamin Stone would be placing his head on my leg is enough to make my heart race into cardiac arrest.
Oh Ms. Weatherton, I’m pretty sure that you are no longer my favourite teacher.
“Annaleigh!?”
I sit up and give a mean little glare at the Hamlet book before heading down the stairs, avoiding all of Shea’s toys on the steps. Mom is standing over her recipe book; the frown on her face is large enough to be seen from miles away. She steps toward the fridge and then notices me, waiting for her to explain why she's calling me.
“Annaleigh, I need you to go to Wal-Mart. It seems that I’ve run out of dish soap AND eggs.” I nod and reach for my jacket in the closet. My mother places money in my hands. “Maybe it’d be a good idea to see if they’re hiring too, just so you could maybe try and get out of your shell a bit.”
“I’ll check mom.” I fib sheepishly and pocket the money.
“I don’t want you to think that I’m trying to force you Anna, it’s just that I want you to try and extend your boundaries a bit.” She places her hand on my shoulder and squeezes.
“I know.” I give her a reassuring smile before slipping on my shoes, still missing one sock.
It's still freezing outside and I can see my breath slipping from my lips. I zip my jacket higher and wish I had brought a toque or something to cover my head. It is a bit better than the walk home since I now have my hair down rather than in braids. I touch the frizzy disaster self –consciously, my boots crunching through the snow loudly.
“Why didn’t I at least bring a scarf or something?” I mutter in annoyance and tuck my chin into my jacket.
Overall, it's fairly beautiful outside and I find myself wondering if Ben thought it was beautiful as well. Would he be standing out in the cold watching the snow fall? Or walking to Wal-Mart to pick up groceries for his mother?
“You’re gonna pay for that!” I stop walking and search around for the source of the voices. Sure enough, there are a group of boys standing across the street. The tension is heavy as two of them stare each other down, their bodies rigid and ready to attack. It isn’t the first time I've witnessed a fight but I definitely don’t really want to see another one.
It would be like watching Mufasa and Scar, one of them had to die. Only in this case, I would hope there would be no deaths. I never have had to do real CPR on someone before.
The one boy is tall and skinny, his hair looking purposely messed in a fashionable way. His skinny jeans were surprisingly loose and his t-shirt is a screaming yellow color. The other boy is huskier with broad shoulders and a buzz cut, the looks of a typical bully. His arms are crossed over his broad chest and his mouth set into a firm line.
The skinny boy mutters a few words and places his hands on his narrow hips, trying to look more threatening towards bully boy. I can’t help but watch from a distance, scared to see what was to happen and yet curious to see how the skinny boy would hold up.
The first punch is thrown by the larger boy, his fist cracking across the skinny guy’s jaw. He staggers slightly and shakes his head then lunges at the large boy, knocking him off of his feet. The two hit the ground hard and begin to roll around, one trying to get the better of the other. The thin boy’s fist reaches up and smashes into the bigger guy’s nose, blood pools down his nose and over his mouth.
The large boy grabs the slender boy’s neck and throws him off, repeatedly punching him in the face until I wasn’t sure the one boy was conscious. A hand goes up and connects with the big guy’s eye, knocking him off balance and onto the cement yet again. The skinny guy gets to his feet, spits and kicks the large boy in the ribs as hard as he can multiple times. Finally the big guy catches his leg and pulls him onto the ground, his blows continuing.
Finally it becomes too much.
“Hey! Stop it! I mean it, stop!” I shout as loud as I can, running over to the scene. In a situation like this, I normally would be hiding in the background, shielding my eyes from the violence. I never have tried to help anyone before but the sight of these two guys beating the snot out of each other is definitely becoming too much for me to handle.
Everyone stops moving to stare at me in confusion and surprise. The larger boy gets to his feet and makes his way over to me. It is apparent that the smaller guy could hit pretty hard considering the big guy’s eye is swollen shut, his lip split, his cheek and his nose probably broken. The skinny guy starts to haul himself off of the concrete, his gaze fixated on me.
“Get lost nerd.” He growls in a low tone, enough to actually make me gulp.
“S-stop fighting with that guy. Violence never solves a-anything.” I stammer, my voice rising an octave. The skinny guy has made his way over.
Overall, despite his thinness he is decent looking. Chocolate brown eyes with just a fleck of green surrounded by thick lashes. His nose is pin straight and his hair a mess on top of his head. He glares at me darkly and crosses his arms over his chest. From a distance away, he looks fragile but now that he is right in front of me, I realize that he is a lot taller than I gave him credit for, probably about 6'3".
“Well violence is gonna be what gets you to piss off if you don’t get the hell outta here now.” The big guy growls in my face. I think I actually let out a little squeak of fear.
“Leave her alone Boston, this is between you and me.” The thin guy snaps at the big guy, who I assume is Boston. Boston cranes his head around to glance at the thin guy, narrowing his one non-swollen eye.
“Shove off Rex, it’s not like you’re any better!” Rex gives Boston the finger and shoves in front of me, facing the larger boy.
“We’ll finish this tomorrow, you asswipe.” Rex hisses at Boston. Boston laughs and turns away, his group following after him like puppies. Soon enough, there is a roar of car engines and the squealing of tires to leave me alone with this weird guy.
Rex spits more blood out of his mouth and wipes his lips with the back of his hand. He turns to me and scowls.
“You should have kept out of this.” He snaps at me, his voice low and rugged.
I bow my head and stare at my feet.
“Well... You were... I was...”
“Would you just spit it out?!”
“I was worried that you wouldn’t be able to beat him! It looked bad where I was standing and I... I can’t stand it when people fight!” My voice is actually louder than I intend and Rex stares at me. I blush deeply and look away, crossing my arms over my chest self-consciously.
“Sometimes fighting is the only way to handle things.” Rex answers softly and dabs his split eyebrow with his shirt. A small section of blood is now noticeable on the painfully yellow fabric.
“Fighting is never the answer, fighting is just people’s way of acting-“
“Like assholes. Got it.” Rex finishes for me and spits again. I pause for a moment then nodded slowly.
There is a moment of awkward silence between the two of us.
“I have band-aids and polysporin in my purse if you’d like.” I offer quietly. Rex’s eyes run over me quickly and then he shrugs.
“You seem harmless enough. Maybe you’re actually Mary Poppins in disguise.” He makes his way over to the curb of the sidewalk and sits down. I follow, sitting a few feet away while digging through my purse for the items. Rex moves closer.
“Damn, do you have a whole pharmacy or what in there?” He mutters as I unscrew the lid of the tube.
“No, I just don’t like being unprepared.” I hand Rex the bottle and he squeezes some of the gelatine liquid onto his finger and rubs it across the cut on his eyebrow. I then hand him a band-aid.
“Am I over it?” He asks cautiously while trying to place the band-aid over his eyebrow. His aim is way off.
“No.” I reply softly and point to the affected area. Rex moves the band-aid up and stops again.
“Here?”
“No.”
Rex scowls and hands me the band-aid.
“Then will you put it on for me please?” I take the band-aid from his hand and blush furiously, raising my hands to place the medical strip over the wound. He flinches slightly and I jerk back, band-aid still in hand.
“Don’t move please.” I state firmly. I place the strip onto his eyebrow and then back away. Rex reaches up and touches it lightly, wincing.
“Well, I was definitely off track.” He says with a grin and hands me the polysporin.
“What about your other..?” I trail off as he begins to walk away.
“I’ll be fine. You better get yourself home soon before those guys see you on their own otherwise you’ll need more than that pharmacy in your bag.” He calls out and then breaks into a jog, leaving me alone in the empty parking lot.