Fissure
“Your girlfriend is looking for you.”
Ben gaped at her bluntness. “In… in the Hippodrome?”
Brenna rolled her eyes. “No, in the Death Star. Where do you think?”
“We were just coming back in anyway.” Jenna interrupted, walking back towards the direction of the building.
“We were?” Ben asked, following after her blindly.
Jenna ignored him and continued to walk away, forgetting that she was still wearing his jacket. She walked back through the doors leading into the auditorium and immediately ran into Kaitlyn.
“Hey, have you seen-” Kaitlyn started, but then stopped as her eyes surveyed Jenna’s attire. Ben walked in a moment later with Brenna in tow. “Isn’t that…” She trailed off, connecting the dots rather slowly.
“Ben, why is she wearing your jacket? W-what were you doing out there?”
“Oh, uhhhhh…” Ben stammered. Brenna merely smirked and stalked off, leaving Jenna to deal with it herself.
“I think I dropped something as I was coming in. Ben was just helping me look for it.” She lied easily, taking off the jacket and handing it back to him. He looked at her with grateful eyes.
“I’m… going to go get a drink.” Jenna said, walking in the opposite direction.
She stood at the punch bowl and tried to still her racing heart. She poured herself a cup of the red liquid with shaky hands.
Suddenly, the rambunctious group of boys standing next to her erupted in laughter. Her back to them, she didn’t know to duck out of the way as one of them rammed into her, effectively spilling the drink all across the front of her dress.
“Oh, shit…” She heard a male voice say. She turned around and saw Corby looking at her guiltily.
The Corby.
The Corby that, up until about two weeks ago, she had pined after desperately for about four years. That Corby.
“I’m really sorry.” He apologized as she merely stared at him. There was a beat of silence. “Um…” Corby stated as she continued to say nothing.
Jenna snapped out of her oh-my-god-he’s-talking-to-me trance and quickly grabbed a napkin, her embarrassment growing by the second. “Ugh, um no. It’s my fault. I- I wasn’t paying attention. Sorry.”
“I can’t believe I just did that.” He laughed, trying to seem concerned. Jenna rubbed furiously at the fabric of her dress, trying to get the red stain out.
“No, no. Sorry, it’s my fault.” She muttered, repeating it over again like a mantra.
“Um, let me help with that.” Corby stated, taking the napkin from her hands dabbing it delicately at the stain.
“What the hell!” The voice of Ben suddenly yelled, causing Jenna to take a startled step back.
“Ben, what are you doing?” Kaitlyn asked in the background. Her voice was inconsequential and Ben barely heard it. He was fueled by rage.
“Get your hands off of her.” He growled, ripping the older and taller boy away from his… friend.
“Dude, calm down.” Corby petitioned him, holding his hands up as if he were being arrested.
“Don’t touch her.” Ben warned, giving Corby a little shove to show he meant business. He realized in the back of his mind that Kaitlyn was a mere few steps away, pleading with him to stop.
It wasn’t that he held any contempt for the Corby. And in truth, he knew that nothing was really happening between the two. But he was angry, and frustrated, and on a very short fuse, and he was goddamn tired of having Jenna so close but never being able to tell her how he felt.
And the mere thought of her with someone else was driving him crazy.
“What is your problem?” Corby said, taking a step closer. He was confident that his athletic experience far topped that of Ben’s, and he was able to take the boy easily in a fight.
“Ben.” Jenna said quietly, lightly touching his shoulder. She might as well have screamed his name through a megaphone. He stumbled backwards, jerked out of his wrathful daze. “Don’t, please don’t.” She begged in a whisper.
For a second, he actually seemed to hear her words. For a second, he seemed to be calming down. But Corby had other ideas.
“Hey!” He yelled as Ben began to walk away as if nothing had happened. Ben turned around and Corby took advantage of this opportunity. He drew his fist back and delivered an effective punch to the face.
“Oh my god!” Kaitlyn shrieked obnoxiously, putting her fluttering hands to her mouth in shock. “Oh my god, Ben, oh my god.” She muttered, rushing over to her now-unconscious boyfriend who had blood streaming down his face.
A group of people had now assembled around them to witness the action, blocking the adults from seeing anything that had occurred. Corby flexed his hand, smirking at the boy on the ground before walking over to a group of friends who huddled around him, delivering pats on the back and insensitive cheers.
Jenna stood frozen, shocked by what just happened. She felt an overwhelming need to go and help Ben, but it didn’t seem appropriate. It occurred to her that she should probably go find a teacher.
Before she could leave however, Kaitlyn stood up, her face covered with smeared makeup and tears. “This is your fault.” She accused, glaring in Jenna’s direction.
“What? I- I didn’t… do anything…” Jenna denied on instinct.
“You did something. Why was he saying that about you? What did you do?” She hissed at Jenna, stepping closer as if she were stalking her prey.
“I didn’t-!” Jenna looked away with nervous eyes. “C-can we just take care of Ben right now and maybe talk about this later?” She asked, hoping to calm Kaitlyn down a bit.
Kaitlyn glared at her, her eyes softening only at the mention of Ben. “Later.” She hissed menacingly. From below them, Ben groaned as he began to regain consciousness, causing both the girls to scramble to his side to help them.
Realizing that the action was over, the crowd of people dispersed quickly. “Let’s take him to the bathroom and clean the blood off.” Jenna suggested reasonably, not accustomed to treating the wounded.
“How?” Kaitlyn asked. “Drag him?” She didn’t wait for Jenna’s answer, already beginning to pick up his limp arm, pulling him across the dirty floor.
Jenna didn’t have time to protest before a male voice interrupted them. “Maybe I can help with that.”
Kaitlyn spun around only to find herself staring deeply into the eyes of Alex. He brought Ben up so that he was standing up, leaning on Alex for support as he limped along in his semi-conscious state.
Jenna stayed a few steps back, knowing that she could probably slip away unnoticed at this point, but still too worried about Ben to leave just yet. Alex and Kaitlyn whispered in front of her like gossiping schoolgirls, completely oblivious to her presence.
They reached the bathroom and Alex rested Ben on the cold tile floor. “Let’s go find a teacher.” Kaitlyn suggested. “Jenna can stay with Ben while we go look.”
Jenna was amazed by the fact that it was only a mere moment ago that Kaitlyn was accusing Jenna of being a home-wrecker, yet now she was entrusting her with the responsibility of looking after him. “Um, yeah. Sure.”
Kaitlyn was already out the door, however, not seeming to care enough to actually stay and hear her confirmation. Jenna wet some paper towels and sat down awkwardly on the floor next to Ben.
Not really sure what to do with herself, she hesitantly began wiping the blood of his face. He groaned in pain and his eyes fluttered open. “Jenna?” He asked, as if questioning if she were real or not.
“I’m so sorry.” Jenna apologized, wondering if perhaps he had a concussion. “How many fingers am I holding up?” She asked, waving her hand in front of him. She wasn’t sure if that was the right medical test for a concussion or not, but it seemed legit.
He merely laughed and shook his head. “I’m fine, Jenna.” He said.
Jenna slumped back down and handed him the wet paper towel so he could finish washing his face himself. Ben smirked at the towel in his hand. “So… that was pretty bad, huh?” He said, trying to crack a joke.
“Why did you do that?” Jenna asked, not in the mood to beat around the bush.
Ben sighed, looking away. There was a long pause.
“Because I’m in love with you.”
A/N: PART 2. There will be one more. At first I thought there would only be two parts but then I hit like the 1,000 word mark on this one and was all 'damn, i'm not gonna make it' so this happened. Also, I don't really know Alex as a person/character, so for the purposes of this story, he's going to be suave/able to carry Ben's corpse through the halls of the Hippodrome. And my apologies to Anita who didn't get a bigger part as per request, but I'll try to write you into the final part. Besides, Jenna probs won't see this tonight anyway- it's far past her bedtime as we all know.