hate is a strong word (bxb)

37

Ben found himself hurting the next day in a variety of different ways.

The first way he could have predicted. His father had given him a hell of a beating last night and his body ached as a result. All of his muscles had seized up and it was clear that his body was struggling to recover from that. Without even looking at himself in a full-body mirror, he could tell that he must've been pretty bruised up. He could see in his car mirror that his left cheek had an obvious bruise. He can also look down at his own arms, and there are great purple welts that he figured would only deepen in color over the next couple of days.

His back hurt a lot, but he figured that this wasn't because of his father. Rather, it was because of the uncomfortable sleeping position he was forced to take. He didn't think that it would be that hard to fall asleep in his car, but the seats in his car weren't nearly as comfortable during the night time as they were when he was driving. Not to mention, the rain was pouring down. It hit the top of his car hard, almost sounding like hail. The wind was bad too, occasionally pushing around his cheap and shitty car.

In addition to this, there were great dark spots that settled under his eyes as a result of lack of sleep. Between the discomfort of sleeping in the car and the stress itself, he figured that he must've gotten at most three or four hours of sleep. Keeping his eyes open was almost a pain to him, and he hadn't even been awake for an hour.

Ben walks into the McDonalds that his car was parked at and goes into the bathroom to get changed into a different outfit from the one that he was wearing the night before. He takes a moment to look at himself before he leaves, and at that moment, it truly sets in how much he looks like shit.

It's 6:55 now: the time that Ben's bus usually comes for him and Braxton, and just like clockwork, he receives a text from Braxton. The text says, "Where are you? You missed the bus."

Ben texts back, "I'm driving myself in." He doesn't know if this same excuse is going to work again tomorrow, but he knows that he'll get by on it for now.

So, he drives himself to school and parks at the ACME that's down the street. He walks there and immediately finds himself being glanced at by a few people. He supposes it's because of the massive bruise on his face; he certainly didn't look like he was in the most tip-top shape. Scar, who was stood right at his locker, does a double-take. "Ben," he shouts out, and Ben walks his way over to Scar, "What the fuck, dude, are you alright?"

"Yeah," he says, "I, uh, I got mugged last night. It's not really a big deal though."

"What do you mean it's not a big deal?" Scar questions, "You look like literal death. I've never seen you look like this before."

"I promise, I'm cool," Ben laughed, but even as he laughs, he sees Scar look at him with a questioning stare.

Before he even gets to first period, he knows that Braxton's reaction is going to be even worse than Scar's reaction was. Though, he couldn't have imagined it to be nearly as bad as it was.

"Fucking hell," Braxton's voice reached a level that was almost a shout as Ben walked into the classroom, and it seemed that tons of eyes turned to look at Ben and Braxton, "what happened to you?"

"Keep your voice down," Ben's eyes grow wide, "and it's nothing."

"Explain," Braxton demands as Ben comes closer.

"I told you, it's nothing," Ben claims, "uh, I was out on a late-night walk and I got mugged. That's all."

"Where?"

"I don't know," Ben answered to fill the void as he searched for an answer, "it was that one main road that's sort of near our house—the one that's near the little convenience store. I was walking down there and I got mugged."

"Did you call the cops?" Braxton asks.

"No," he answers, "I mean, I didn't really think that I needed to. I'm fine."

"Sure as hell doesn't look fine," Braxton states, not even bothering to beat around the bush, "I mean, you always look fine, if you catch my drift, but right now... Jesus... you don't look good."

Ben almost can't believe that Braxton is somehow managing to flirt with him while simultaneously insulting him. It took a lot of nerve. Though, he could've expected that much from Braxton.

"Gee, thanks," Ben muttered.

"You should've called the cops," Braxton says, "Even if the person had already disappeared, you should always call the cops."

"I'll keep that in mind the next time that I get mugged," Benjamin answers sarcastically and then seeing the look on Braxton's face, he tries to take back what he said, "Sorry, sorry, I didn't mean to snap. I just... I didn't get any sleep last night, and I so desperately need to sleep. Yeah, I think that I'm going to sleep."

Ben puts his head down on the table and takes a nap as Braxton watches over him with concern evident in his eyes.