A flashlight in the shadows.

Chapter 7: French fries can save you.

Needless to say, I was not looking forward to my date with Carson. Set aside the fact that he threatened my sister, he was just an overall asshole. Kendra, Hannah, and Dina all came over to help me get ready, but Kendra had also devised a plan with Dina. Dina and Bennett had worked out their differences, but half the school was still gossiping about it, but Dina wasn't concerned with that at the moment. As I sat at the bathroom mirror with Hannah braiding my hair, Dina sat next to me, explaining their plan.
"Ok, so, Kendra and I will follow you to the restaraunt, where we'll wait outside until you two come out, then, if he tried anything funny, we'll swoop in and save you, sound good?"
"Except for one thing, that's the worst plan I've ever heard!" She rolled her eyes.
"Well, it's what we've got, so deal with it!" I crossed my arms,
"Fine, sounds good." Kendra revved her engine, and Dina said goodbye and left to join her. Jane asked for some help on her homework, so Hannah and her went to the kitchen. I sighed and sat on my bed, picking up a random book from my night stand. When I was about to read it, I looked slightly to the side and saw Bennett, staring wide eyed through his brown curtains. I smiled and waved. He smiled and waved back. I giggled as he wrote down on his pad of paper. He turned it around and showed me,
~you look nice.~ I smiled and wrote on a notebook,
-thanks.- he blushed and jotted down,
~I have to tell you something.- I frowned and wrote down,
-what?- but before he could respond, I got a text from Carson,
'Im waiting.' I sighed and waved goodbye, running down the stairs. Jane had answered the door, and stared wide eyed at Carson. I pushed her away and gave her a quick hug.
"He's hot!"
"Love you, jane. I'll see you later." I kissed her forehead and got into the car with Carson. Once inside and driving, Carson sighed.
"I thought I told you not to wear blue." I crossed my arms and said,
"Well, it's the only short thing I own," I stated. I wore a blue skirt that cut off just above my knees with a blue tank top and a black jacket and black dress shoes. I didn't want to go through the trouble of make up tonight, especially for Carson. He smirked.
"Fine," he veered off into the parking lot of the mall and put the car in park. I frowned.
"What're we doing?" He got out of his side and ripped me out of the car, dragging me by my arm inside to Forever 21. He brought me to the dress rack and tossed me at it, my arm getting a new red mark. "OWW! That hurt!"
"Try on this dress," he stated, handing me a small green dress that was basically a long shirt. I shook my head.
"No."
"What?"
"I said no, I'm not here just to please you." He smirked and nodded,
"Fine, pick out one you like." I was surprised by this, and not wanting him to go off the hinges, walked over to the rack and chose a purple dress with sparkle flowers on the bottom. He smiled and purchased the dress, tossing it to me and saying,
"Put it on."
"Huh? Where?"
"In the bathroom, I'll wait." I walked in the bathroom and changed into the dress, carrying the other clothes in my hands. As we got in his car, I sat down and leaned back. He got in, turned to me calmly, and slapped me on the cheek. Hard. I yelped and grabbed my face, holding in my tears.
"Next time, if I tell you to wear a certain dress, maybe you'll listen." He started up and drove us to Liptons, a nice restaurant near the edge of town. I sighed as we sat down and ordered. I could see Kendra and Dina sitting a few cars away from Carson's. The whole time we waited for our food, Carson talked about basketball. Eventually when we got our food, he payed and got boxes. I frowned,
"We haven't eaten yet."
"We're going to the park, c'mon." He dragged me to the car and drove us to a park nearby. Once there, he parked the car and handed me my food.
"C'mon, let's get going." I looked back at Kendra and Dina, who were talking over what to do. I bit my lip and followed him past the playground and through a thicket of trees. We approached a clearing and sat down, eating our food. I had to sit on my knees to keep my new dress from flying up. He looked at me and smirked.
"You look good on your knees, Appleton."
"My name is Sarah, thank you very much." He put his hands in the air, in fake surrender.
"Ok, whatever you say." I rolled my eyes and looked at the sky. He sighed and said,
"So, what do you like?"
"Uh...books. I like books."
"Oh yeah, I forgot your a nerd. Why are they so important to you?" He asked, smirking. I smiled and tried to refrain from punching him. Take the high road, as they say.
"They've always been there for me. If my life was a question mark, then it would be the proud and bold period beneath it, typed with certainty."
"Geez, everything's gotta sound smart when it comes from your mouth." He stated, smiling to himself. I rolled my eyes and said,
"Better than sounding like a complete bimbo."
"I don't know, you'd make a pretty nice bimbo," he looked at my cleavage area. I covered up as best I could and replied,
"No, I have too much in my brain to be a bimbo."
"Yeah, whatever, so, tell me about jane." I straightened up when he mentioned her.
"What about her?"
"Is she easy? She's a masterpiece, I tell you." He smiled and took another bite of his Alfredo. I crossed my arms,
"Don't talk about her, she'd never go out with you."
"Oh yeah, how come?"
"Because I would never let you," I stated, raising my voice. He smirked and rolled his eyes.
"You think you're intimidating, don't you?"
"Let me ask you something," I started, fuming with built up rage, "did you want to go out so you'd get to know me? Or did you just need a personal punching bag? Because studies show that's the behavior of someone with a little man complex, if you know what I mean." I stopped, breathing. He looked at me and scooted closer.
"Did you just refer to me as having a small penis? And no, I chose you for two reasons."
"Which are?" I asked, feeling a sense of danger.
"1: you're easy to scare," he smiled. I shrugged and said,
"Guess I can't argue on that one."
"Nope, you sure can't." He stated, smiling at me. I frowned and asked,
"And number two?"
"You turn me on," he lunged forwards, pinning my wrists to the side and kissing my lips. I screamed and kneed him in the balls. He cried out in pain, but quickly pinned me again and slapped my face as hard as he could.
"You're gonna pay for that," he started to unbuckle his pants. Just then, Dina came sprinting at us, throwing French fries at him. When he looked up, one landed on his eye, filling it with salt. He screamed in pain and rolled off to the side, me crawling away. Kendra threw her windshield scraper at him and we all ran to her car. I hopped in and caught my breath. Dina and Kendra high fived and turned to me.
"Are you ok?" Dina asked. I nodded and smiled.
"You threw French fries at him?"
"Hey, it saved your life, didn't it?" Kendra asked. I giggled and nodded.
"Yeah, I guess it did."
"Never underestimate the power of the French fry!" Kendra shouted, smirking. I huffed and leaned back in the seats. Kendra, Hannah and Dina didn't want me to be alone tonight, so they agreed to have a sleepover. We all sat in the living room and tried to pick out a movie. Jane sat on the floor with a huge bowl of popcorn, Dina sat behind her, toying with jane's hair. Kendra looked through our stack of movies while Hannah helped me cook some hush puppies.
"Ok, so you take that mixture and pour it in here..."
"Uhhhh! These are gonna be the most deformed looking hush puppies ever!" She laughed, trying to keep up with me. Once we'd rolled them all into a batter, I let her go back to the living room while I fried the hush puppies. I was about halfway finished when I heard some knocking from our back door. I shut off the deep fryer and walked out, frowning.
"Hello-" but I was cut off by a hand over my mouth. I tried to scream, but Bennett calmed me down by saying,
"SHH! It's just me!" I pushed him away and breathed.
"Jesus, don't scare me like that!"
"Sorry, I just need to tell you something." He stated, sitting on one of the porch chairs. I sat next to him and asked,
"What is it?" He sighed and looked at me.
"I feel like an ass for not saying this earlier, but you shouldn't go out with Carson anymore. He only went in the first place because someone dared him to, but don't go out with him ever again. He's a shitty guy to date."
"Uh, yeah, I know." I stated, trying not to giggle. He frowned and said,
"You do?" I nodded and told him the whole story. Everything from tonight to the kitchen and to the mall. He listened, eyes wide. I noticed something about him then; he was a great listener. He just listened without inturupting, without making additional comments and without nodding every other sentence. He seemed intrigued and awed by the words coming out of my mouth, which I guess I was too. When I finished, he looked down and mumbled,
"That son of a bitch."
"Huh?" I asked, frowning. He shook his head and looked at me with his grey eyes.
"Nothing, I promise he won't bother you or your sister, k?" I nodded and smiled. We sat there awkwardly for a few moments before I finally said,
"Would you like to come in?"
"No, I'd better be getting back, see you tomorrow? My house?" I nodded and smirked.
"Bye Webber." He got up and smirked back.
"Bye, book theif." I threw a pebble at him before I pranced back inside. I finished frying the hush puppies and walked into the living room, where everyone was watching Sandlot. I smiled and sat down next to them. Everything went pretty good, until Hannah got a call on her phone.
"Hey." There was some muffled sounds from the other end, then she smiled and said,
"Oh, ok!" She hung up and said, we've got to go bring mike to his house, wanna join me?" We all agreed and got into Kendra's car, singing along to the radio, which was currently playing 'All about that base.' We pulled up to the school where mike was waiting on a bench. He'd needed some tutoring, so he stayed behind longer to get the help he needed. As we all pulled up to his place, Hannah decided to stay with him. I waved goodbye from my window as Kendra shouted out the window,
"Use protection my child!" Hannah glared at her and walked inside, mike holding her hand. When we got back to my house, I just walked up the stairs and plopped face first on my bed. When I needed oxegyn, I slid my face to the side, breathing. The window to Bennett's room was open, and the curtains swayed from side to side. Something caught my eye. I sat up and watched as Bennett stood in front of his easel, painting. His face was placid and he looked in the zone. I watched as the brush strokes made beautiful markings on the blank canvas. He turned around to grab more paint, but when he saw me staring, he immediately closed the curtains and shut the window. I got up and typed on my computer,
'It looked nice.' It was about twenty five minutes before he emailed back,
'Please don't say anything.' I smiled and typed,
'Cross my heart and hope to die.'

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Thanks everyone, enjoy the next chapter, bye! :3