The Evolution

25

Rebecca and Stephenie sat alone in the school library with only a few students surrounding them. All that could be heard were keys on the keyboard typing, pages of textbooks flipping, and whispering back and forth. Both chose to skip lunch to work on their presentations for class president and class vice president. Each role had a lot of responsibilities, but they were ready to take on the challenge.

Rebecca concentrated hard on her paper, trying to mentally pry away from the time Ben kissed her two nights ago. She could still feel the contact on her lips, and kept wiping them on her sleeve every five minutes.

"Alright, finally done," she said while stretching, "How 'bout you?"

"Almost done," Stephenie said with her eyes on the computer screen. Her eyes moved side to side, skimming all her sentences. "Yeah...I think it's pretty okay," she said unsurely.

"Oh, don't worry. You'll do fine," Rebecca encouraged while patting her friend's back. 

Stephenie just shrugged her shoulders in response. She didn't feel like she did much, but maybe she wrote enough to get at least a few decent votes. But it didn't matter what she wrote as long as she promised to make it true.

*******

After school, the girls, along with Gray and Eugene, waited for the rest of the group to walk home together. Although, Rebecca's heartbeat became faster as her intestines squeezed into a tighter knot. She wasn't ready to face him, and will probably never be. She felt dirty, and weak, like a helpless victim. Was this really the Ben she knew? Do his friends know if he's usually like 'this'? She thought. 

'God, I want to cry, and scream, and throw up. Maybe I should just go home by myself.'

"Rebecca?" 

"Wha- Yeah?!" she flinched.

"Are you okay? You've been kinda weird since this morning. Though...I can't really tell if you've gotten paler or not," Stephenie scratched her chin.

"That was a lame joke, you know," Rebecca said with her eyelids flat and her lips pressed into a tight line.

Stephenie lightly chuckled. "Yeah but anyway, are you sure you're okay?"

Rebecca ran her fingers through the back of her hair, giving her answer a bit of thought. Simply telling her friend that she was "fine" or "okay" would definitely raise more suspicions. "Um...well, I'm definitely stable."

Stephenie arched an eyebrow, "Sta...ble?"

"I mean," Rebecca dug her fists into her skirt pockets, "It's just school, you know? I'm definitely not depressed or self-harming or anything like that. It's just a bit of stress. Don't tell me you're in a better condition than I am, right?"

Stephenie sighed, "Yeah, you're right. But don't worry," she squeezed Rebecca's shoulders, "We'll get through this together, okay?"

"Yeah," Rebecca heaved out a puff of air. She felt pretty guilty about lying to her first friend at Eunjang, but the thought of starting a huge commotion and risking breaking the group apart made her feel like a terrible person.

"Yo! Sorry if we kept you guys waiting," Rowan said as he and the rest of the gang approached Stephenie and Rebecca. Rebecca noticed that everyone was there...except Ben, which made her calm down a bit.

"No worries," Stephenie smiled with her eyes closed. Gray couldn't help but blush a bit and smile, as her cheery appearance resembled Stephen so well, not to mention her personality too, except a tad bossy, but that shaped her perfectly. "Hey, Rowan?"

Rowan paused his conversation with Eugene and turned to Stephenie. "Yeah?"

"Is that a new backpack?"

Rowan turned his head and looked at his slick black leather backpack with the brand GOLD written on the handle loop. "Oh yeah. It is. You realized?"

Stephenie leaned her head sideways and rubbed her chin, "Well...I only noticed the brand. I heard it's a pretty expensive kind."

"Seriously?" Rowan asked in astonishment. He looked and Eugene, who was also aware of the brand.

"Actually, I feel like I've seen people wear brands like that before. I just can't remember who," Rebecca added.

"Maybe you saw it on an ad?" Stephenie asked, although she knew that was probably not the case. And she was right. Rebecca said she was positive she had seen it on an actual person in person.

"Yo amigos! Sorry, I made you guys wait!" 

Everyone looked back and saw Ben panting as he jogged over to his group.

"The hell took you so long?" Alex frowned, "You made us wait for..." he glanced at his watch, "five minutes."

'Five minutes isn't even that long,' Ben mentally debated. But he didn't feel like arguing. "Sorry, I had to help some girl move some boxes."

"Some girl?" Gerard echoed.

"I mean, come on. She was falling everywhere. And, those boxes were actually pretty damn heavy," Ben defended.

"We should start going home now, or else the school security man will yell at us," Gray said, to which everyone agreed.

Instead of all going home as they planned, they actually took a small visit to one of the school's nearby small restaurants,  where each of them ordered a burger, fries, and a drink. Rebecca felt even more like throwing up. She didn't even take a bite of her food, but she also didn't want her friends to notice. To make matters worse, she was cooped up next to Ben in a small booth everyone sat in.

"I'm gonna go to the bathroom really quick. You guys eat without me," she said as she squeezed past everyone's legs. Ben watched her walk away down the hall to the restroom with concern. He knew it had something to do with that night, but still confused about what he did that would make Rebecca avoid him as if her life depended on it.

"Um, I have to go to the bathroom too."

"Gee, I told you not to chug that burger," Teddy tiredly said as he took another small bite from his food while scrolling through his phone.

Ben nodded without even laughing and left the booth. He anxiously walked to the bathroom Rebecca went in. His fist clenched tightly and his thumb rubbed up and down the side of his index finger.

'Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit holy shit holy shit! I don't even know what to say! Do I apologize, even though I don't know what I did wrong? Did I do something that bad? Am I gonna end up in jail? How will my friends face me then?' He thought as he stood in front of the bathroom door.

Just then, door opened, but was just about to close when Rebecca saw Ben standing right in front of her. He held his hand out to stop the door from closing and glared at her, but not in a way that meant he wanted to cause harm.

"We...need to talk," he said as a start.

Rebecca quickly looked the other way, refusing to look at Ben in the eyes. She couldn't stand being in front of him. "Wh-what talk about what? I mean," Rebecca squeezed her eyes and shook her head, "What d-do you want about talk, I mean-" she agitatedly sighed, "I just-" Ben placed his hands on her shoulders, making her flinch and throw them off. "Stop!"

Ben was taken back by the sudden raise of tone in her voice. "What?"

"Don't...don't touch me," she said while looking at the tile floor. Her arms wrapped around her shoulders where Ben touched her. 

"Rebecca...please," Ben slowly reached his hand out, but that only made Rebecca take a few steps back, "Alright, all I want to do is to talk. I want to understand why you've been avoiding me these past few days. What exactly did I do that night at your house? And whatever I did, I can see that it's definitely scarred you, and I'm sorry. I truly am. But please, just five minutes. That's all. Give us five minutes to discuss what happened, okay?" Ben begged.

Rebecca finally lifted her head up and sighed. She gripped her shoulders tightly and let out a loud puff of breath. "Fine."