Benny sat on the porch, reading the bible, the same bible that he's read dozens of times, he didn't care for it much anymore, but still pretended to appreciate it since it was the only thing that him and Mary bonded with, every time they talked it was about god, nothing else, Caleb and Lillian got all the good attention, and the twins had each other, but Benny had nothing. he looked up from his bible to look at his family, Tim and Tom were having a conversation, he could tell they were smiling through their masks, laughing and having a good time, then he saw Caleb and Lillian, they were playing animals, Lillian was pretending to be a rabbit while Caleb seemed to be a wolf, they looked so very happy, and were running around, and John and Mary were just talking normally, seemed to be pretty happy, why couldn't he have that? The twins have a friendship that he could only dream of and Caleb and Lillian had many friends, and was adored by anyone who saw them, but what about him? He had nothing, no friends no social skills, hell, he didn't have any skills to began with. None of his family were interested in talking to him. John only said hi every once in a while, Mary only talked to him about religion, and ignored him otherwise, the twins treated him like he was a monster, refusing to even make eye contact, they thought he was like Mary, though that was far from the truth. Caleb said he was busy, yet had all the time in the world for seemingly everyone else. Lillian at least talked to him, sometimes played, he wasn't really interested in that stuff, but it felt great to at least talk with somebody. He always acted like he didn't care what others thought of him, but he did, he really did. People would use the fact that he supposedly didn't care what others thought of him to their advantage, so that they could use the excuse that they thought he didn't care, which bothered him, it wasn't just random people at school, it was actually mostly his brothers, they would say mean things to him, once he asked Caleb if he could hang out with him, and Caleb said "What? You? No offence dude, but you're huge, no way you'd be able to play a sport like soccer or racing, maybe when we're doing bible study." and as if that didn't hurt enough, one of his friends said "Yeah dude, you're a fuckin' fatty, you can't even tie your own damn shoe laces, not to mention you're an idiot, I've seen how you spell, if you can't even spell your own name, how the hell can you figure out the complexity of sports? Fix your shitty posture then get back to us." Caleb didn't defend him, he just laughed and walked away. How unlikeable was he? Maybe he was just some dumbass who couldn't do simple things like writing, Mary said it herself "What is wrong with you? You're almost in 10th grade yet write like a toddler! How incompetent are you?" He wiped aways small tears as he thought of this, the horrible things people said to him. "What the hell are I doing wrong?" he stared at the floor, as if he was looking for the answer to his question He was interrupted from these thoughts by Caleb. "You alright? What's wrong?" he asked, for once seeming concerned about him. "Nothing, fuck off." Benny said back. He couldn't believe he just said that, yet it honestly felt great, despite being the biggest in the family, he always felt so small, but saying that made him finally feel in charge, Caleb was shocked "Jeez, sorry for asking." Mary wasn't deaf, she heard Benny say this "Benjamin Weaver! What has gotten into you? Go to your room this instant." Mary shouted "Whatever " Benny said, rolling his eyes. "I'm disappointed in you Benny, you were such a good kid." John said, as Benny was going to the door. "I don't give a damn what you think." he shot back, before slamming the door, it was silent for a while, before Mary spun around and Tim and shouted "What in the world are you telling him? To speak profanity and to talk back to us? I knew you were a bad influence!" Tim raised his hands in defence "This had nothing to do with me I promise!" Tim saw Benny differently after that day.
