Page 1 of Ben

Prologue

“Fight, fight, fight!” the crowd of boys and girls chanted as Michael and Ben confronted the sea of faces with their backs pressed against each other.

“You just had to say something,” Ben, Michael’s fraternal twin brother muttered under his breath. Not surprised that they were now in this predicament on their first day at school.

“Not my fault the kids at this school have no chill or can’t take a joke!” Michael shouted, loud enough for him and their audience to hear. From the corner of his eye, he watched his older brother— by mere seconds— raise his hands up when one of the boys in the surrounding circle lunged forward but didn’t make a real move. This made the boys laugh at his brother’s expense. Ben’s mouth firmed, even though his brother could be an ass, he didn’t like anyone laughing at him or them.

Ben and Michael were the new kids at a mixed co-ed private school, and on their first day, they ended up stepping on some toes...or at least, Michael did. Once again, his brother’s uncontrollable mouth and love of a good practical joke had gotten them into trouble on numerous occasions, and he was always part of the casualty; guilty by association just because he was related to Michael.

Ben’s attention turned to the boys in front of him when he saw them elbow each other and nod their heads, he stiffened in preparation and heard his brother say his voice breaking slightly, “Here they come!”

They were suddenly rushed from all sides by boys aged 12 to 15.

He felt his brother at his back take a swing at one of the boys but didn’t know who. He heard flesh hitting flesh as he patiently waited for the first boy to come within reach and then threw a punch hitting the boy in the nose. He observed this clinically as blood began to drip out of the kids’ nose and felt a punch to the side of his face.

Not really feeling it as he’d become numb, Ben found he was emotionally numb a lot, not like his vibrant twin brother Michael and their over achiever older brother Carter. He’d found that pain when inflicted, helped sometimes with his numbness. Conversely, he also felt more than most and sometimes his emotions would get too much for him and pain also helped to calm him down. Pain so far was his best coping mechanism, and he’d gotten good at hiding this from his family. If they discovered his true nature, they would not love or want him anymore or worse lock him up into an institution.

He’d always felt different from his twin Michael and their older brother Carter. He liked to quietly sit back and observe people and their surroundings, but people who were loud and had a lot of hyper energy would cause him to go into himself. When he found it to be too much, especially being around Michael. He would find himself shutting down and finding solace in his room, reading, or studying to settle his mind and pain.

Ben refocused into the moment and stepped away quickly before the others could catch up to like the current boy and swarm him. He hit the boy in the eye, stopping him in his tracks before turning slightly and throwing a punch at someone coming in from the other side.

They fought a good fight, but eventually, Ben was taken down and pinned on the ground by several boys.

With each blow, his inner numbness began to fade, and he welcomed the pain. Through his haze he heard, “Let’s see you make fun of me now, with a mouth full of my fist” And knew that Michael was in trouble, he began to push through the high he was getting from the pain and began to struggle, remembering what had started this all.

During a break touring the school, Ben and Michael came across some older boys hanging outside near the track. Michael cracked a joke after hearing how the boy couldn’t stop talking about how popular he was, bragging about his position playing football and how influential his parents were. He had been trying to impress the new kids, but things went sour when Peter announced he was king at the school and that both Michael and Ben needed to do as he told them and join his group.

Michael then pointed out that, from the sounds of it, Peter was only going to be good for one thing in life—and that was a dried-up wide receiver, as his parents’ money wouldn’t help him to be anything else, and that he—Michael—would rather watch paint dry than having to listen to Peter drone on about himself any longer.

He new that they were going to pay for Michael’s words by the boy’s pupils dilatating and his face flushing in a ruddy red color.

Ben heard a hard thump sound, and a boy yell out in pain, then another and another, the boys that had jumped him began to roll of and away from him and he now could see a black girl twirling and swinging her baton down on the flesh of the boys trying to beat him to a pulp. Her face was a thing of beauty to him. Serene as she inflicted pain on those that she struck, but he could see in her eyes that she was enjoying it and when her eyes meet his briefly, he began to feel an instant connection with her before she closed off all emotion from him.

She was able to free him of almost all of them and he shoved the last kid off him, but just laid there on the grass watching her in awe. She sparkled for him, all he could see were lights surrounding her, like flashes of light from a diamond.

She was now inspecting her nails, as she stood there at the ready in case they decided to come back for more. Her look reeked of money. Her hair was done in curls with nothing out of place, her makeup emphasizing her beauty, her nails done in a French manicure, her uniform pressed and wrinkle-free. While most of the children wore comfortable loafers or flats, she was in high heels. He could see them scowling at her and rubbing the parts that she had hit. He took note that it wasn’t the usual uniform that everyone was wearing, and it was a short, pleated skirt and her top contained the school colors and initials. She had to be a cheerleader and very popular at the school because no one had made a move against her as he continued to stare at her, mesmerized for the first time in his young teenage life, but she became focus on someone else and he found himself not liking that her attention was on another person.

She looked amused and proud of someone at the same time, before he could turn his head to see who caught her attention, he heard flesh hitting, flesh again and then an angry bellow and turned to see Michael being released by Peter.

Peter was now holding his mouth, his face growing red from embarrassment. “But Am, he made fun of me and my parents.”

Then he shifted his gaze to his brother, when Michael raised a finger. “Technically just you, not your parents,” he said sarcastically.

“Shut up Michael,” he grumbled angrily. Ben felt embarrassed now in front of the beautiful dark-skinned teenagegirl for his brother’s inability to know when to keep his mouth closed.

She looked back down at him suddenly, giving him a smirk and a knowing look that said she was aware of him watching her, before reaching out a manicured hand to him and he took it, a feeling of warmth spread through him at the touch.

Ben then heard a voice say, “I do not care. You know I hate bullying of any kind, and it wasn’t a fair fight with half the football team beating the newbies up.”

His first impression was that it was a boy based on the way they were dressed: baggy black pants, a white cotton button-up shirt with sneakers, and their hair in tight medium-length cornrows. But Ben was quicker to pick up on details more than his sibling and noticed the outline of small breasts and saw when his brother saw them as well because Michael moved closer to inspect what he thought he saw.

Dark-brown eyes frowned with irritation at what his brother was doing. He refocused on her and realized it was another black girl with the same complexion as his cheerleader. The girl was of the same height and age as him, standing there with her feet spread apart and her hands fisted.

She shifted and turned to glare at one of the boys who moved slightly, her eyes holding a threatening look in them, like she was ready to pop one off again if anyone made a move.

“It’s over now Peter, you got your licks in from the look of him and his brother.” Her eyes shifted to Ben, her brown gaze running over his form before flicking back to gaze into Michael’s silver eyes with a look of concern.

“But Ambra,” Peter whined.

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