hate is a strong word (bxb)

40

Monday afternoon, after school.

Ben finds himself staring at his house. It stood so tall, so proud, as if unknowing to all of the chaos that had unfolded inside of it a week ago. Thinking about that filled his soul was an anger that he couldn't even describe. He thought that it was unfair that his entire world was now fucked up, and his father was able to just go on about his life without any repercussions. He walked around all day thinking that he was in the right for the truly horrid things that he had done, and thinking of that made Benjamin feel a certain type of way. He felt as though none of that way fair.

He stared at the house more, and he turned to Braxton, "You know, if my father wasn't the way that he was, I would be going home right now. That was supposed to be my home. What a piece of shit."

"Yeah, I know," Braxton agrees.

"I think I'm going to break in," Ben states, squinting his eyes at the house.

The words had come out almost absent-mindedly, almost as if there were no thought behind them. He meant every word of what he said, though.

"That's kind of illegal," Braxton tells him, as if he hadn't already known.

"What's he going to do? Call the cops and say that his minor son robbed him? Then he's going to have to explain that he kicked me out of the house and then he's going to suffer the consequences for being an abusive father."

"Why not just call the cops on your father in the first place then?"

"Because then they're either going to force my father to take me back in or they're going to put me in some sort of group home until I turn eighteen," Ben explained, "the systems complicated, but robbing your own bigoted father? A lot less complicated if you ask me. He's at work right now—he works late on Monday's."

"So, you're going to break in today?"

"I don't see why not. The prick deserves it. And he never took my key, so he's practically asking for it," Ben says as he pulls his key chain out of his pocket and jingles it a little, looking over at the house almost as if it were some kind of target—and it was.

"This is ballsy for you," Braxton states, "It's kind of hot. I'm in."

"You're in?" Ben squints his eyes, "What do you mean you're in?"

"It means that I'll come with you so that you don't get into something stupid," Braxton chuckles, "Aw, this can even be our first date. It'll be really cute. We can rob your father now, maybe hit a bank later, by tonight we'll be wanted criminals, elope and flee the country."

Ben thought on what Braxton said, and the massive flaw that he saw in that plan was that Braxton claimed that he would be there to make sure that Ben didn't get himself into anything bad, but Braxton always tended to be the bad influence in their dynamic. Though, Benjamin chose not to say anything about that because not only was Braxton a horribly influence, but he also was quite possibly the most hotheaded person that Ben had ever met. He put up a strong fight when it came to getting whatever it was that he wanted, so Ben thought that it wasn't even worth the trouble of arguing with him about it. Besides, he figured that it would be nice to have some company. At least it would keep him from getting paranoid while he was in the house.

"Alright, yeah, let's go then," Ben gave him a smile—not the happy kind of smile, but the devious sort, the "I'm about to rob my father" sort.

To Ben, it barely even felt as though he was breaking in. When he envisioned breaking into a house, he usually associated it more with breaking down doors or smashing windows, but that was nothing like what he was doing. All he was doing was turning a key—which he had been given by the owner of the house—into the lock.