Over, Gone, and Lost

P A R T 7

"What's your middle name? Actually, what's your full name?"

"Bennett Johnathan Xavier Peter Maldonado Carson, but everyone knows me as Ben Carson."

Caroline stares at Ben in awe, "why is your name so long" she says, making him laugh.

"My parents are of mixed cultures, Greek and Spanish, and wanted me to have an American name but still be old-fashioned, I guess. I got both my parent's last names and three middle names for whatever different reason."

Caroline just nods and looks back out the window. After a few minutes, Ben sighs and pulls off of the highway.

"Hey, where are we going," Caroline asks, noticing this is not the way to the bridge. Is he going back on his promise?!

"I'm hungry. Just because you aren't gonna be alive, tonight doesn't mean I won't either." he laughs, trying to lighten the mood after realizing her panic.

Ben pulls up to a fast-food drive-through and looks over the menu. He then pulls up to the window and orders a burger and fries, and a drink.

"Do you want anything?" Ben asks, looking at Caroline. She shakes her head no, and he furrows his brows.

"Can you actually make that two of each? Thanks," he says to the lady working. Caroline looks at Ben, confused as he moves the car to the check-out window.

When they get the food, he passes her an order and puts his in the middle before driving off.

"Can we stop somewhere to eat? It's hard to drive and eat at the same time," Ben asks.

"Oh, uh sure," she whispers.

Ben drives around for a minute, not knowing the area before he sees a small beach. He pulls into a parking spot and turns off his car, and takes off his seatbelt.

"Dig in" Ben smiles as he opens his burger to add an unnecessary amount of ketchup and takes a big bite.

"That's a lot of ketchup," Caroline laughs when Ben removes the burger from his face to see that Ben has a mini ketchup mustache.

"You uh, you got a little something right here," Caroline motions to her upper lip, and Ben tries but fails to wipe away all the ketchup.

"Let me help you," she says and reaches over to wipe it off. Ben stares at her as she gently moves her finger across his upper lip, almost like he's in a trance.

"Th-thanks," Ben mutters. Not even noticing the effect she just had on Ben, Caroline smiles and sits back in her seat. When she goes to take off her seatbelt, Ben notices for the first time that she has a small cast over her left wrist that was covered by her sweater a minute ago.

"What happened to your hand," Ben asks, taking another bite of his food.

"Oh, I fell," she lied.

"Bull," Ben states, knowing how to read people.

Ben was always good at reading people, it was in his nature, and it became an asset to him when he became a cop. He could read pretty much anyone. However, right now, Ben was having a hard time reading Caroline. He knew she was lying because she avoided eye contact, but he couldn't tell why she would lie.

She wasn't kidding.

Reading her, he understood that when she said she wanted to kill herself, she was serious. If he hadn't shown up when he did, she would be dead right now. But he couldn't understand why. She was young and beautiful and worth life. He couldn't understand why she didn't see what he saw so quickly.

"I-"

"You don't have to tell me if you really don't want to but don't lie to me," Ben said, a little upset. Caroline could tell he was upset about it and felt bad. She simply nodded and opened her food to eat. 

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