"Being Ben's"

29. Birfday boi

There was a knock on our door - no, multiple - I thought Ben would get it but when I went out to the living room he wasn't there. I didn't think much of it because I thought it would have just been Amelia or Nea but...

"Mom? Dad?"

"Happy birthday son. We've missed you." Mom said reaching out to me. I stepped back letting go of the door that I was gripping so hard. "What's going on?" I looked for Ben again but didn't see him. "Why are you here? What do you want?" My expression turned angry.

"We inured since Ben was gone you'd want to see your sister." Mom furrowed her eyebrows.

"Gone, what do you mean gone? Where'd he go?"

The apeara behind me pushing me out the door. I tried to stop by grabbing the doorframe but my fingers slipped. "Stop! Where's Ben?"

"Shhh you're safe now."

——

"Stop!" I gasped and looked around the room frantically.

Just a bad dream.

I'm okay.

Ben's heavy hurried footsteps came running. "Felix, what happened?"

I buried my head in my hands and felt him sit next to me. His hand glided over my back, consoling me. "It was just a bad dream." I said softly, dropping my hands and leaning into him. He placed his lips to the top of my head and hummed. "You've been having a lot of those recently."

I sighed. "It seems like the only kind of dreams I have." I yawned. He kissed my cheek. "I'm sorry." He slid his hand up my waist and down my arm, holding my hand. My body warmed and tingled at his warm touch. I pushed up and sat facing him on his lap, wrapping my arms around his neck and my legs around his waist.

"Happy birthday though." He said, his eyes never leaving mine. I smiled leaning my head on his shoulder. "Thanks."

"I'm sorry you can't see your twin but I promise it's the first stop well make once we are okay to leave Hawaii."

I lifted my head smiling. "And I'll introduce you to her as my actual boyfriend." I chuckled. He nodded, chuckling as well. "Maybe if we find a working phone on this island you can call her."

"Really?" I raised my eyebrow. Ben was very particular about what things we had to leave behind and our phones were definitely not coming with us. He was afraid to even buy new ones, not that I minded or cared because we were to busy most of the time to even remember what phones were but today was different. Today is me and Felicity's twenty third birthday and it would be the only birthday we hadn't spent together.

"Really." Ben said and squeezed me to his chest. I squeezed back chuckling but then I saw a dish towel on the nightstand with spots of bright red. I pushed back from his chest and looked at him. "Did you cut yourself?"

"My finger while I was cutting the fruit for our breakfast."

I trailed my hands down his arms and inspected both his hands. His left hand, ring finger hand a bandaid or a make shift one with paper towel and tape. I chuckled and pushed up his sleeve but he put a hand over mine. He closed his eyes sighing softly. "Sorry,"

"Ben."

I realized I haven't seen his arms before, I don't think anyone has. He was always wearing long sleeves, a button up and when it got hot he'd just leave it unbuttoned.

"They're old... okay?" He said curling his fingers around his sleeves. I sat there staring at his arms then I blinked up at him. He sighed and looked away. I looked back down and pushed up his sleeve gently, revealing darkened scars. I didn't blame him but somehow I knew he regretted this.