Page 2 of Ben

Ambra merely tightened her lips and stared at Peter until he scowled and then looked at his friends, nodding for them to follow him as he turned to walk away.

They turned to watch the crowd of young boys and girls disperse, and then he saw the other girl raise the rough material of her shirt and gently wipe at his brother’s bleeding lip. Michael flinched and he knew it must hurt like hell. As his body was now hurting and throbbing but he was enjoying it, as he knew that this also probably bruised Michael pride.

His brother always wanted to look as if nothing bothered him but that was not true, and he didn’t sometimes react well when he was crossed. His attention had been on them long enough, the girl with the baton was his focus once more. He could hear the conversation still going on around him and turned to see the girl now inspecting her face in a compact mirror. The look on her face indicated that she was now disinterested in the whole situation, but he could tell that was not true, her body was still turned toward him, and he could tell by the slight tilt of her head she was still listening to the conversation happening between the other dark girl and his brother Michael.

“Your lip is bleeding.” He heard the other girl explain to his brother.

“Thank you.” He heard Michael say before he felt his brother’s concerned gaze on him and knew he must look a sight. He could feel the grass in his hair and was sure he had bruises on his face, but he didn’t care to look at his brother to reassure him that he was fine. He was too busy now watchingherbreath, every breath expelled from her lips fascinating him.

“I’m Ambra, and that is my older sister Diamond.”

AhDiamond.Perfect name for her because she was a bright sparkling light now in his darkness.

“Thank you for what you did for us. I’m Michael, and that is my brother Ben.”

His attention shifted slightly when the girl named Ambra moved and now stood next to her sister Diamond, Ambra was now eyeing Ben.

“Hi Ben, I am Ambra, and this is my sister Diam—” She stopped and from the corner of his eye, saw her turn to his brother, her eyebrows raised in question. When he paid her no mind.

Sensing she was about to leave he moved closer to Diamond, hoping she would not leave and stay. But Diamond, who had been fixing her makeup in a compact mirror, then snapped it shut, finally looking at all of them and smiling.

“Well, that was fun! Now I have to go; cheerleading practice is about to start. Ambra will take you both to see the nurse.” She stepped away with a wave and walked off before turning again. “By the way, welcome to Logan Private School. You both definitely made an impact on your first day. Stay out of trouble from now on please. I almost broke a nail.” She turned, her skirt swirling around her brown legs before she continued off the field, heading towards the school.

The light in his darkness dimmed and winked out, his hands fisted, and he knew he would be overstepping and looking crazy if he followed her, so he took a steadying breath and refocused.

“Come on, I will walk you to see Nurse Hemmingway,” Ambra said.

As they both walked on either side of Ambra, she elbowed Ben. “So, are you in love with my sister or something?”

Ben stunned for a minute at the girl’s blunt comment, just scowled and shrugged. “Nooo, she is just pretty to look at.” He didn’t know her well and didn’t want her telling her older sister that so that she would not come around him anymore and think of him as a creepy kid.

He felt a punch to his stomach and his world went black, when she suddenly said to him. “Well don’t get any ideas. She is seeing the star quarterback, and they already have their lives mapped out.” She rolled her eyes.

Ben kept his swirling emotions off his face and knew tonight he would need to do something, to calm the swirling vortex going on inside of him.

“Is that why the boys stopped when you both got involved?” His brother Michael questioned curiously.

She glared hard at Michael. “No. I have a mean right fist, and Peter learned that the first time he tried to bully someone. Our father is Winston Jackson, the heavyweight champion in mixed martial arts. He owns his own studios in several cities in the US. And our mother is Deone Harris, an Olympic gold medalist in track for sprints, mids, and hurdles, and after retiring and finishing her degree, she is now the head of Logan Private School. Both Diamond and I know how to defend ourselves, and we are both great at sports. It runs in the family.” She shrugged as if her parents were just ordinary people.

Michael and Ben turned and gaped at her. Ambra and Diamond’s parents were two legends in the athletics world. Now Ben and from the look on Michael’s face, they now understood the clout they had in the school. No one would want to mess with Winston Jackson’s daughters.

As they continued to walk towards the nurse’s office, Ambra answered all the questions they peppered her with about her parents and the school. She reciprocated and also asked them about themselves and their family. She thought it was cool that they were fraternal twins.

She waited around while they were in the nurse’s office and met up with them after school to hang out before the drivers arrived to take everyone home.

Two things happened that day for Ben, they were all inseparable after that day and his obsession for Diamond had started.

Chapter 1

Ben surveyed the numbers in front of him, anticipation and excitement coursing through him; if anyone from the outside were to see him now, they wouldn’t know what he was thinking or feeling; he rarely showed much emotion on his face. His family and friends considered him a very stoic person, and they were not wrong. He finally was able to determine what was going on with him with help from his mother. His mother happened one day to see him piercing his flesh with a safety pin.

He had just finished when she walked into his room without knocking. She was holding his sweatshirt in her hands and paused in shock. Then she schooled her features, laid the sweatshirt on his bed, and walked out of his room. In that moment, he should have felt horror at her seeing him like this, and he knew that she must be disgusted and was heading downstairs to talk to his father, but he couldn’t bring himself to care.

Moments later, she’d come back into his room and shut the door behind her with peroxide and a swab in hand. His mother, Elizabeth, gently pulled the pin out and cleaned the area; she then sat back on his bed and patted it for him to take a seat.

“Why did you do that?”

“So that I can feel something.”

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