Fire N' Gold ~Benlos~

Calming Down

~Carlos' POV~

For 30 minutes we stayed like that. After the first 15 minutes, my sobs finally stopped and I was just silently crying. I felt embarrassed but I was too focused on calming down for me to care at the time. At least Ben was nice about it, he didn't push me away in disgust or stand there annoyed, waiting for me to stop. He actually comforted me.

"Carlos I'm so sorry, I really am. I didn't know you were that afraid of dogs," Ben said as he looked at me with sadness in his eyes. "I really just thought your mom hated them, I wanted you to meet one cause I thought you'd like him." I could see regret written all on his face and I put my hand on his shoulder.

"You don't need to feel bad, you couldn't have known," I reassured him he slightly smiled. "Maybe one day I'll warm up to Dude, but I just can't do it right now." He nodded in understanding.

We started walking out of the woods, I needed to get my things from the field and take a shower and get myself together again. I haven't had a break down like that in a long time.

"Hey, Carlos, you don't need to apologize for being the son of a villain," Ben said, breaking the comfortable silence we had, but I didn't know what he was talking about.

"What are you talking about?" I ask, confusion evident in my voice.

"Back there, when you tried to climb the tree to get away from Dude, you were pleading me not to let him get you. Then you said you were sorry... sorry for being the son of a villain." I thought about it then remembered what I said in the middle of all my panic, and I looked down at the ground.

"It's just, I thought you knew I had a fear of dogs, and I guess it went through my head that you brought us here for a different reason," I say, trying to explain what was going through my head at the time to him.

"A different reason?" He asked confused and I nodded my head. We both stopped when we got to my bag and I picked it up and we continued walking.

"I don't know when I was trying to figure out a way to get away from the dog, I put it in my head that you brought us here to punish us or torture us... and you were starting with me." I looked down again, feeling bad for trying to make him the bad guy. "I thought the only way I could live was to try and plead to your good side."

"Carlos, I would never do anything to intentionally hurt you." He said then he cleared his throat quickly and coughed. "Any of you! I would never do anything to intentionally hurt any of you." He corrected himself. "If I would've known that you were going to react the way you did with Dude, I would never have even considered bringing him out to meet you."

"Thanks, Ben," I say kindly, at least he wouldn't intentionally hurt me.

"But are you though?" He asked with curiosity lingering in the sentence.

"Am I what?" I asked him confused.

"Sorry that you're the son of a villain? I know you said it out of fear, but did you mean it?" He asked and I went to answer but nothing came out. The truth is, I didn't know. If you would've asked me a week I would have said of course not. But now that I've been here, with all these really friendly people and their parents being so amazing and nice, I couldn't tell you.

"I don't know. Before I came here I wasn't." I told him truthfully and he nodded his head showing he understood. After that, we finally arrived at my room.

"Thanks for walking me to my room, Ben," I said to him while turning to him and giving him a small smile.

"It's the least I can do, I still feel awful, please tell me there's something I can do to make it up to you?" He almost pleads. Even though I know there's nothing he could do, I could see in his eyes that if he doesn't do anything he would feel awful for the rest of his life.