When A Swan Drowns [BEN Drowned Fanfic/ Romance]

Chapter 8 : Issues

When A Swan Drowns

[Ben DROWNED Fanfic/Romance]

Chapter 8: Issues

The tension in the air is fully obvious.

"It has been pestering you for almost three nights, you didn't even tell me!?"

"Ben you don't need to shout--"

"Don't tell me what to do, Victoria! If only you did what I told you, I will not shout at you!" 

Victoria flinched lightly and hid the half of her face with a pillow. “Well…he’s not hurting me; actually…he’s just saying something about forwarding emails.”

Ben glared at the girl who was seated comfortably on the bed. His pale hands were balled into fists; he can even feel his fingernails digging on his palm, even at the absence of living flesh. Yes, that’s how angry he was. “So you’re going to say that you’re going to keep that damn dog inside your head until it hurts you!?”

The young female pinned her gaze straight to the boy’s empty eye sockets, and laughed awkwardly. “Er…it doesn’t seem like that…uh…he’s adorable. He lets me pet his head repeatedly and he doesn’t have fleas.”

He stared at her in sheer disbelief. Smile dog? Adorable? What the hell? It was like saying that Laughing Jack will stop singing Pop Goes the Weasel in every house he visits. “For fuck’s sake, Victoria!” he thundered. The fluorescent lights upon the ceiling flickered momentarily. “Why the hell are you so impossible!?” By the looks of it, if he can only burst in flames because of the bottled up anger that can’t be vented out easily, perhaps the room is already blazing in flames.

Vicky remained staring at him, unmoved, before wriggling close to the other side of the bed. “Sit down, Ben,” she said softly.

“That was it!? You’re just going to tell me to sit down!?”

On the other hand, Vicky was happy that nobody was currently at the house. Although it was the doctor’s orders not to leave her alone, it seems that Paul and her parents had gone downtown to buy groceries. “Just do it,” she said quietly. “Please?”

Eventually, the blond boy sat down on the edge of the bed, still fuming with intense infuriation, and with that signature imminent glare plastered in his sharply chiseled face. That’s it! That simply explains his difficulty in trying to appear in her dreams! The smiling dog was diverting her attention away from him, only to nag about spreading the word and the emails. Really, Smile needs to get a life.

And Victoria can’t even realize that he’s already revealing a part of himself to her, like she had wished. Well, he just don’t want to admit this to himself, and was sometimes the cause of his daily dilemma. But now that he was trying to summon his courage to open himself to her, she was not paying attention.

Or maybe he was just too late?

Maybe the former dreams that he sent her were too enigmatic to decipher?

This awkward realization haunted him, and the feeling was not good. Was he overdoing it all this time?

“You see…I’m happy when Smile appears in my dreams, Ben. The closest that I ever had for a pet is a goldfish that I won in the third grade’s science fair. It died three weeks later because of food overdose. When Smile came it’s like a little kid’s dream. He can talk, he can sympathize, and he can smile! I enjoy talking to him even though he’s pretty creepy at times,” Victoria reasoned out, laughing slightly. This was very unlike the others whom Smile had visited before. Ben can’t help to wonder what was with this girl, surely, it’s not just her disability to walk was the reason why the other monsters seemed to have mercy on her. There should be something else.  And he just can’t discern what. Vicky pinned her gaze to his, and smiled. So cheerful, like usual. “I don’t know. I enjoy talking to him. It’s like having an imaginary friend.”