The One That Got Away || Benny Weir

25

"Reagan, come on!" 

Sarah was trying to convince the girl to talk to Benny. Ever since the love potion, Reagan made sure to stay away from Benny. It was like grade school all over again. But this was much different.

Reagan was hurt. She was embarrassed. She was spelled to be in love with Benny which made her believe he did that because he was afraid to tell her how he felt. 

But she was wrong.

So wrong.

"Look, Sarah, I'm just not ready. And I know that's selfish but that was an embarrassing moment. I thought he was going to say how he felt about me, that maybe he actually liked me back, but he didn't." 

"But he doesn't know the real reason as to why you're ignoring him! It's not fair to him." Sarah tries to stick up for the Weir boy. 

Reagan sighs. "I will when I'm ready." 

"Well, let's hope you're ready now," Sarah says, and Reagan stops when she sees the two boys ahead of them. They were pulling weeds out of the grass, a punishment for their failed ghost alarm. 

Reagan tried to slitter away, but Sarah quickly grabbed ahold of her arm, dragging her to Ethan and Benny. "Hey, guys!"

The boys stop what they were doing and turn around. Benny freezes as he laid on his eyes on Reagan. It's been two weeks since the love potion incident, also two weeks since Reagan has stayed away from Benny. She had mumbled a few words to him as they passed each other in the hallway, but she never said a full sentence, nor hung out with him. 

The silence that fell upon them became very awkward. Ethan and Sarah glanced at the two teens who did not say a word. Ethan noticed how Benny had a lot he wanted to say while Sarah noticed the distraught and how uncomfortable Reagan was.

Sarah quickly went onto a topic. "Getting punished for your ghost alarm thing, huh?" Benny finally tears his eyes away from Reagan, now looking at Sarah.

"Sarah, can I ask you a question? Do girls have more earwax than guys? Is it a puberty thing?"

"Do guys have fewer brain cells or is it just a Benny thing?" Sarah remarks before she started to walk away, Reagan still in her spot. 

"Bye guys." The girl gives a quick nod at the two before following after Sarah.

"Well she made eye contact with you," Ethan tells his best friend. "That's an improvement." 

Benny sighs before continuing to pull out the weeds.

*

"Hey, Reagan!"

The girl turns around to be met with Rory. He was very... giddy.

"Hey, Rory." She shuts her locker. "What's got you all smiley?" Rory opens his mouth to speak until another voice did.

"Hey, Rory."

The two vampires turn around and Reagan's body freezes when she met Benny's eyes. But she quickly shrugs it off as she looked at Ethan, smiling at the boy.

"Erica and I totally like the same band," Rory says, showing them his shirt that said Single Tear: World Tour. 

"Single Tear?" Ethan questions.

"Aren't all those songs about how hard it is to be them?" Reagan asks. 

Rory nods. "They totally speak to me. They're rich and famous. I'm a vampire. Nobody gets us."

"Nobody's ever got you. I don't think liking the same band is gonna make much of a difference." Benny says, and Reagan nods. 

"Maybe not right away, but like Single Tear  says: There's no time like the future." Right when he went to put in his earbuds, but a small vine pops out of the speaker. Ethan grabs them and tries to yank out the weed, but it quickly retracts back into the earbud.

"What is going on here?" Reagan asks.

"The music industry is finally fighting back at illegal downloads," Benny says.

*

Rory takes the three to the computer lab, the last place where he plugged his earbuds in.

"My parents won't let me download at home. They think the internet is a bad influence." Rory explains to them.

"You're already a soulless undead creature of the night. How much worse can you get?" Benny chuckles.

"Dude, if my mom knew I was a vampire I'd be grounded for a month." Ethan and Benny look at each other from Rory's comment while Reagan snorts. "That's a better reaction my aunt would give." 

"I've got 80% of my future love life downloaded, boys and girl," Rory says, their attention turned to the computer screen. "By tomorrow, I predict Erica and I will interface."

"Hey!" Ethan shouts as a cord wraps around his foot. "Did that cord just move?" He leans down to pick up the wire. He notices a green goop leaking out of the cord. 

"What the heck is that?" Benny and Reagan question.

"Our homework."

*

"Woah, this is weird," Ethan says to his best friends, who were sitting next to him at his desk. He zooms in on his microscope. "Chlorophyll polymer ectoplasm? It's like a combination of paranormal weed and Ethernet cable."

"There's plant matter in the cables?" Reagan questions.

"No, they're combined. Half alive, half plastic." Ethan answers. "Like Heidi Montag." Benny cheers him on and the two high-five while Reagan chuckles at the two.

"Nobody's reported anything online," Benny says. A beep was heard from Sarah's laptop and the three look over at it. "Sarah's laptop is virus-free. Maybe it's a hardware problem."

"Smells moldy." Reagan scrunched her nose. Benny looks over at her before opening the bottom of the laptop to reveal the inside of it completely covered in green goo from before.

"Circuit salad! Ugh! Probably the same as Rory's Zypod and the cables in the computer lab." Benny says.

"Computer, cables, Zypods..." Reagan starts before an idea went off in Benny's mind. "I think I have a theory." The two look at him. "My theory is that you should figure this out."

"Actually, something may be growing in the school's computer network," Reagan explains. "We need to get back to the school and stop whatever this thing is."

*

The three enter the school hallways which was looking different. The end of the hallway was shining green, causing the three to cautiously walk in.

"Do you remember the hallway being so... ominous and terrifying this afternoon?" Benny asks them.

"It's not that bad," Ethan says, sounding like he was trying to convince himself. "It's just a deserted hallway with creepy flashing lights and an overriding sense of doom." He pauses. "Yeah, it's terrifying!" The boys hide behind Reagan, who rolls her eyes as pushed them off her.

"Let's just get in there and get this over with." She tells them. They nod before following her into the computer lab.

"Oh, I think we're too late," Ethan says. The girl from earlier that day was laying face flat on the keyboard with vines covering her face.

"Man! This stuff spreads fast." Benny says as he bends down to examine the vines on the girl.

"This girl is garnished. What do we do?" Ethan questions. "I think we need some weedkiller. I am not going to pull any weeds out of this girl's face." Benny says.

"You two go to the chemistry lab and I'll call Sarah," Ethan says to Benny and Reagan before they walked out of the computer lab.