Control • Benny Weir [1] (#wattys2016)

☾f o u r; v a m p p a r t y ☾

Grace lay on her bed after that horrific event, wondering what had happened to her. She knew that her cousins would, more than likely, be freaked out by her and she understood if Benny never wanted to speak to her again. Eventually, she did decide that locking herself up in her room was ridiculous; she would have to talk to the two of them sooner or later and, even though Grace hated confrontation, she knew she would prefer to talk to them about it sooner. It was then that she remembered that she still needed to tell the two of them about what had happened earlier on when they were in town. She still needed to tell them about the fact that she thought she saw her mom.

So, she pulled herself off of her bed before dragging herself over to her bedroom door. Grace hesitated for a moment before she let out a sigh, opening the door and making her way down the hall to the stairs. She let out a breath before she made her way down the stairs, where she ran into the others. She ended up stumbling on the bottom step, causing her to fall and felt some strong arms catch her. She glanced up and her green eyes connected with another pair of familiar green ones. Benny.

"Th-thanks," Grace stuttered, pulling herself up so that she was standing instead of putting all of her weight on Benny. Benny smiled at her before Grace took a step or two away from the group, causing Benny's smile to fade and be replaced by a look of confusion, his eyebrows furrowed as he looked at her. He noticed how she stuffed her hands into her jacket and how she refused to take them out of her jacket pockets. Benny reached out and grabbed Grace's arms and pulling her hands out of her pockets, "Why aren't you afraid of me? I'm a freak," Grace whispered so that Ethan couldn't hear. Not that he would anyway; he's too busy talking to Sarah, Grace thought.

"Hey, you are not a freak, Gray." Was all Benny managed to say before he was dragged back into Ethan and Sarah's conversation. Grace sighed and wandered into the bathroom, where she splashed water on her face to try and calm herself down. She placed her hands on either side of the sink and felt tears forming in her eyes. She didn't know what was stopping her from believing Benny; she felt as though Benny was only trying to cheer her up because they were friends; she couldn't shake the idea of Benny being afraid of her because she believed he was.

A tear fell down her cheek while she thought about it. Why would he still want to be friends with you, Grace? A defeated, sad sounding voice said at the back of her head. After that, she was full on sobbing over the fact that her best friend and her family probably hate her and there was nothing she could do about it. She felt a pain in her chest as she thought about Benny never wanting to speak to her again. Heartbreak, the voice in her head told her. She hated the idea of her friends snubbing her and never speaking to her again; she hated the idea of losing more people; she hated the idea of feeling the same kind of way as she had when her parents died: alone. She had felt lonely after her parents died; she felt like she had no one there to talk to.

Eventually, the tears stopped. Grace let out a shaky breath before wiping the tears away and making sure she looked like she hadn't been sobbing. However, that proved to be difficult; she couldn't get rid of her puffy, red eyes as quick as she could get rid of the tear stains. So, she decided that she would just have to face whatever Benny and Ethan had to say about her crying over being hated and alone. They probably won't even talk to you, freak, Grace fought the voice in her head back before she made her way into the kitchen, where Benny and Ethan were.

Ethan spotted his cousin's swollen, red eyes and pulled her into a side hug. Grace fought the urge to cry by biting down on her lip and blinking the tears away. However, Benny noticed. He knew what Grace did to stop herself from crying, smirking, smiling, laughing, everything. He had known her since they were young kids; he had grown up with her and had seen her at her worst times. Of course he would start to notice little mannerisms she had and he happened to love them, no matter how annoying or weird they could be.