The Perks of Being a Freak (Editing)

31. I Thought That I Closed This Chapter Of My Life

“Alright, so do you think you can hide something other than wings?” I giggled, flat on my stomach on the floor.

“I dunno,” Benny shrugged, lying on his back beside me, tossing a ball into the air and catching it.

“Wanna try?” 

We had gotten home three and a half hours ago, and Benny had figured out how to shield my wings from sight. He started babbling about light waves and reflections and I had just shut him out and doodled.

We had played Wii, and tried to make brownies, and now we were bored.

“Do you mean, like, hiding your hair so that you look bald?” Benny rolled onto his side and propped himself up.

“Kind of,” I mimicked his pose, only facing him. “Like… try to turn my hair brown or make me more attractive or something.”

“Well, making you more attractive I can do easily,” Benny laughed when I hit him. “Okay, sit up and face me.” I did as he instructed.

Benny had big, warm hands. They felt nice on my cheeks. Comforting. He watched me intently, smirking slightly. 

We sat like that for a long time. To me it seemed like hours, but maybe that’s just because I’m not patient. Finally, Benny hauled me up by my arm and dragged me to my bathroom.

“Voila!” He said with a flourish. “You are now the most attractive that you could ever be!”

I studied myself in the mirror, looking for change. I still had my narrow face, big green eyes, thin lips, snub nose. My hair was still blond and still braided. I didn’t look any different.

Oh.

“You smooth jerk,” I whispered, still watching my reflection. She wasn’t the tired version of Lia. She wasn’t the ghost. This was the Lia I had been before I was kidnapped. This was the Lia who was always happy, who always smiled.

But now she had wings.

“You’re always the prettiest, Lia,” Benny said. “Even when you don’t realize it.”

“Benny…” We couldn’t do this. It hadn’t worked out. We couldn’t try again, it would just be bad for us. We both have to move on.

“You’re thinking too hard, Lia,” he pressed a hand between my shoulder blades, between my wings, and I shuddered. “Look at us. We look good together.”

He was right. He was strong, solid, and I was thinner, lighter, but still well-built. We were both blond, we both had lighter eyes.

“We work well together,” he continued, dredging up memories of all the school projects they had done together, all the time spent working together on random things. A dog house. New tires for Lucy’s bike. A souffle. Growing a garden.

“We never run out of things to talk about.” I had spent hours of my life sitting with Benny, talking and laughing and falling deeper and deeper in love with him.

Or so I had thought.