Beyond fear (Jenny scott)

The party

It's 8 pm and I'm with Mia, getting some things ready to make the evening perfect. And when I say perfect, I mean perfect for me and Ben. I hope he finally confesses his feelings to me tonight. I'm tired of hearing from people that he likes me a lot. This evening is the perfect opportunity for that.

I stand there, lost in my thoughts, when I feel a shadow pass behind me. I turn around and realize that I'm alone in the room.

"Where is Mia?" I ask myself.

I walk towards the kitchen when I hear someone whisper my name: "Jenny!" I turn around to see who's calling me, but the door slams shut in my face. I don't panic, because I know that everything has a logical explanation and that it could be my imagination. Given the night I had yesterday, things have been haunting my mind.

"Mia!" I call out, but no one answers. I hear voices whispering, several voices, and I try to open the kitchen door, but it's stuck. I keep shouting, but no one answers. My dad hasn't come back yet and I was with Mia. Where is she? I walk towards the second kitchen door that leads to the bedroom stairs when suddenly the door opens and the lights in the house turn on, then off by themselves.

"Who could be playing with the electricity?" I ask myself.

I see a shadow pass by. I walk forward and leave the kitchen, and then someone jumps on me.

"Aah!" scream the people who are trying to scare me.

It's Ben, Jack, Alice, and Mia. They're just my friends who have really bad jokes. They look disappointed that their joke didn't work.

"You're not funny, you know that?" says Jack.

"After all that, you weren't even scared," adds Alice.

I look at them and laugh, my friends are really crazy.

"I've always told you that these things are bullshit that's been put in your head," I reply. "Luckily for me, no one was there to put those things in my head."

"Aah, that's it! Fear doesn't exist and it's all in our heads," says Jack.

"Together," we say.

Ben walks towards me and gives me a kiss on the cheek. Oh, he's so thoughtful, not like the others present here. "Are you okay, Jenny?" Ben asks me. I blush and freeze when I meet his dark eyes, I love them, I can't answer him. Fortunately, Alice comes to my rescue.

"Excuse us, we're going to have to prepare something to stuff ourselves with," says Alice before taking me away and bringing me to the kitchen with Mia.

"Go and settle down over there and choose a good movie," Mia adds, smiling.

We entered the kitchen. My friends are always there for me in situations like this. I don't always know how to behave when Ben is around. I completely lose control.

"Jenny, what was that?" Alice asked me.

"What?" I replied, pretending not to understand.

"The way you were looking at Ben, everyone noticed," she said.

"Oh, what look? I wasn't giving Ben any particular look," I said.

"Come on, Jenny! You were like, 'Oh Ben! My heart belongs only to you!'" Mia teased.

I tapped her and told her to stop. We laughed together. I really love my friends. We've known each other for more than 10 years. Our dads were friends. I think our generation of friendship will continue.

We left the kitchen with our hands full of snacks and drinks. We joined the boys who had chosen a horror movie. They want to have nightmares. I find these kinds of movies boring. One wonders why.

"Oh no, not your movies, guys!" I complained.

"Sorry, Jenny, we want to be scared tonight," Jack said.

"You know very well that these kinds of movies don't affect me," I replied, sitting down.

"We know you're not scared," Ben said. The others laughed.

"But I wish you could be scared so that I could comfort you," Ben added. Everyone stayed quiet. Our eyes met. Why did he say that? What was I supposed to understand by that? He was so cute and his lips were so captivating. STOP, Jenny, get a grip. I have to stop fantasizing like this.

"Well, are we putting on this movie or not?" Jack said to break the silence that had settled in the room.

"What movie did you choose?" Alice asked.

"Annabelle: Creation," Jack said with a mischievous laugh.

"Is your dad not home?" Ben asked me.

"He's coming home soon," I replied.

"And does he know there are boys here with you?"

"No, he wasn't okay with it," I joked.

Ben looked frightened, which made me laugh and left him perplexed.

"I'm kidding, he knows," I said.

We laughed together and the others told us to be quiet because the movie was starting.