The Wrong Direction

Chapter Twenty

Adriana

Chapter Twenty

Larr stretched out casually on the grass in a relaxed position.  He rested his bald head on his arms that were folded behind him as a pillow.

"Now shut up kids," he ordered.  "Me gonna tan me toenails.  They've been as pale as Edward Cullen lately."

Wow, that just proves that he's not as cut off from society as he appears.  How else would he know who Edward Cullen is?  In fact, he already knows more about modern day society than most elderly men.  I don't know any old men who know Edward Cullen by name.

"Ooh, I wanna tan my toenails too!" Ben said excitedly.  "Can one of you pull off my shoes and socks for me?"

Larr just snorted at Ben like a pig.  He really acted like his prized pigs.  

Although I was really starting to dislike Larr for basically kidnapping me and Ben, I did agree with him about not helping Ben.

"You have one free hand.  Take off your disgusting socks by yourself," I argued.

I was not going to go through all of that effort to crawl over to Ben, just to take off his smelly socks for him.  Trust me, going anywhere near Ben's feet is like being next to a bomb.  It'll knock you out faster than you can say, "Ben is disturbing!"  There's a reason Ben was banned from changing in our school's public locker room.  He had to change in a janitor's closet that was stuffed full of Febreze and car fresheners.

"But I thought we were friends, Adriana!" Ben whined, giving me the biggest puppy dog face ever.

I have to admit, Ben has always been good at the puppy dog face.  I swear, if they had an Olympic competition just for that facial expression, Ben would be a world champion.  But Ben had one thing about him that prevented me from falling into his trap.  His creepy, disturbing, demented, psychotic personality.  He even scared away therapists.  I'm not even joking.  His last therapist immediately booked a session with a different therapist after talking with him for an hour.  I only know this because she complained to my parents that they needed to pay her therapist fee because their son had caused her emotional breakdown.

I shook my head at Ben.  "No, Ben, we'll never be friends.  You're just too creepy and embarrassing to be seen with anywhere - even in the middle of the Switzerland Alps."

Ben then started to whine about how "life wasn't fair".  He could be such a baby sometimes.  Everybody knows life is good!

"Huh, and me thought me had issues," Larr remarked after a while, referring to Ben obviously.

"Oh, don't worry, you do," I replied casually.

Larr's mouth spread into a huge 'o' shape.  "What?  But me is normal compared to dat boy!"

I laughed at Larr.  He could really crack me up with his naive comments.  "Trust me, it doesn't take much to be more normal than Ben."

"Hey!" Ben yelled defensively.

I shrugged at him.  He needed to know the truth.  The sooner he realized that he needed help, the better.  Ben has been in the denial stage his whole life.  I may not be a licensed therapist, but even I know that that's not healthy.

Larr sat up from his relaxed position on the grass and glared at us.  "Ya kiddos need ta shut the fudge up!  Me pretty toenails can't tan with all of ya bickering."

"Oh no, we wouldn't want that!" I gasped dramatically.  No one seemed to understand my sarcasm.

At first, Ben seemed plain confused.  He stared at the ground with a blank look on his face, but suddenly his eyes lit up like a light bulb.