Day by Day

Chapter 16: A Princess is Born

Everyone was gathered at the castle. Different emotions were filling the room. Mostly Ben's emotions. Apparently, due to old royal traditions, the father was not allowed in the room until after the baby was born. Saying Ben was nervous would be an understatement. He knew both Mal and his daughter would be fine and his mom was in there with her, but the thought of something going wrong flooded his mind.

Ben paced back and forth as his friends all sat down, being a little, more like a lot, calmer than Ben. One could see beads of sweat forming right where his golden-brown hair sweeps across his forehead. He was also breathing heavily.

"Dude, chill," Carlos said, worrying for the king.

"How can I stay calm at a time like this?" Ben said, his hands running through his hair.

"Look," Chad began, "We can't hear Mal screaming, so most likely, she's a lot calmer right now than you."

"Ben, just relax," Audrey added, holding her daughter in her arms. "Everything's going to be fine. I'm sure of it."

"Yeah, if anyone can get through this, it's Mal," Jay said.

Ben sat down on one of the seats in the hallway. He put his head in his hands, trying to relax himself. Mal's gonna be fine, he thought. Brelyn's gonna be fine. Everything's going to be fine. However, the more he thought about it, the more nervous and scared he got. His breathing became very heavy and very fast.

Evie was the one to notice this happening. She rushed over to the king's side. "Hey, Ben," she said, getting his attention. "Just breathe." Like Doug had done for her in the past, she helped Ben regain his breathing and put his mind back in reality.

"I'm sorry you had to see that," Ben told Evie. Evie took the seat next to him. "These things have been happening lately, but I just can't seem to know why."

"You mean anxiety attacks?" Evie asked.

"That was an anxiety attack?" Ben asked. "You mean, that's what I've been having since I was in high school."

"When did they begin?"

"Just a little after I became king," Ben replied. "Can you remember when your first Cotillion was?" Evie looked up, trying to remember the exact day. She nodded when the memory of that eventful night came. "They started just a few months after that. Maybe right when we started senior year."

"That's quite a long time," Evie said. "Does Mal know about them?"

"No," Ben said. "I mean, I don't think she does."

"Ben, if I...we, us villian kids, have learned anything during our time in Auradon, it's that telling people when something is wrong is the best way to start getting through it."

"I wanted to tell Mal, but she had her own problems. Then, the baby became a thing, and I didn't want to add any more stress on her."

"Does talking to me about it help?" Evie asked.

Ben nodded. "Y-Yeah. It kinda does." Ben sighed. "Wait, how do you know a lot about this stuff?"

"I have anxiety attacks myself," Evie said. "I've had them ever since I was ten. I lived with my mother and only my mother for ten years of my life. At ten, it had only been four years. My mother had brainwashed me into thinking I needed to be perfect. My skin, hair, clothes, everything had to be perfect. If I wasn't perfect, there were consequences. Due to this, I was always scared. I worried about every little detail, causing me do gain anxiety attacks." Evie sighed. "Those attacks were another thing my mother called an imperfection, so I tried to hide those too."