60 Days With Ben

Chapter 3

1st day

"Ben settled with me to go to his house today. I mean, he did not invite me personally, but left this note," I said to a completely distracted Carla. "Are you listening to me?"

"Yes! Hand me the note," I did what she asked. I stretched my arm so that she could reach the note of the couch where she was sitting. I ended up falling to the floor, making Carla laugh. She came out of the sofa and joined me on the floor. "At my house. 4:30 pm. That's it? But where's the address?" She said, after reading the note.

"Ben is not stupid. He must imagine that I know where his house is."

"For sure he wonders. He just lives a block above your house. For sure, Ben must have noticed one of the thousand times you forced me to pass along with you in front of his house to see some sign of him there. Ben must have thought you were a psychopath.

"Carla!" I threw the pillow at her. "Will you come with me?"

"What am I going to do there?"

"Give me moral support!"

"No way. I have nothing to do there. I'm not even in the same class as you."

"But you're in the same year. And the work is the same."

"That's where you're wrong. In our class, your mother played the theater. She outdid herself this time," Carla said, pushing a lock of her blonde hair away from her face.

Carla did not want to come with me to Benjamin's house but accompanied me to the gate of his house. Which has already helped me enough. I do not know if I could have gotten out of the house if she had not made me.

Ben's house was only a block from mine. It was close, but far enough so I had no contact with him. Carla said goodbye even before I hit the intercom.

"Good luck, friend!" she said, waving.

"Traitor," I whispered to her.

Carla lives in another neighborhood, so she always depends on buses to come to mine. An extra expense that she makes a point of keeping so that our friendship never fades away.

The afternoon breeze stirs up a few strands of my ponytail as I stand in front of Ben's house, I have been here for ten minutes, taking courage to press the intercom. It is already 4:40 pm, which meant I was a little late.

I press the intercom at least three times until it was answered, a sweet yet tired voice answers me on the other side:

"Who is it?"

"This is Gabrielle, I have a school assignment with Ben .... Oh! With Benjamin," I answered uncomfortably. Where had I gotten so close to calling Benjamin Ben?

The woman on the other side opened the gate, giving way to me. The yellow two-story house behind the gate grids gave me a better view of how beautiful it was. There was a garden around the house, the grass was well-trimmed, and in place of the stairs there was a small ramp that led to the house entrance; it seemed to have been adapted to Ben's current situation.

I walked slowly to the entrance of the house. Ben's mother opened the door for me. How did I know she was his mother?

Her presence at school was constant because of everything Ben was up to. There was no way not to notice her in the school halls, talking to her son. Like Ben, she also seemed devastated. She was thinner and her hair was a few gray hairs. It seemed that she did not care what color her hair was anymore.

She greeted me with an embarrassed smile and invited me in. A heavy rock sound was echoing throughout the house. The windows were shaking with a powerful sound. I barely heard her speak.