Another Fairytale Story [REWRITTEN]

06

"Bella! Where have you been?"

The twins hadn't talked since Monday, which was a long time for them because they were always talking. Bella was but also wasn't avoiding Ben, if he had wanted to talk to her she wouldn't have turned him away but she wasn't going out of her way to see him...

"Here, at school, where else would I be?" She didn't stop walking so he had to try to keep up with her. "Well I texted you last night and this morning, but you didn't reply either time. Is everything okay?"

"I shut my phone off, I was studying. Not all of us were blessed to have been born gifted, some of us have to study to earn our grades."

"Bella, are you mad at me? You're acting weird."

She stopped abruptly in the middle of the hallway causing him to crash into her. She didn't give him time to recompose himself before she pulled him to the side.

"I'm acting weird? ME? You're the one who declared your love for Mal in front of the whole school! But yeah, I'm the one acting weird." She emphasized her words by poking him in the chest.

"It was a dare!"

"A dare? You told Mal you loved her, serenaded her, and asked her to be your date to the coronation in front of everyone because of a dare? Is Mal in on this dare? Is Audrey? She must not because I saw her leave the game completely heartbroken! A dare, Ben! You're about to become King, you can't just go around pulling stunts like that."

Ben tried not to meet her eyes, the first person who coined the phrase 'if looks could kill' must have been on the receiving end of Bella's glare. If looks could kill, all of Auradon would be six feet under right now.

"You sound just like Dad. Yes, Mal is in on the dare and Audrey isn't, but it was just unfortunate timing. I will apologize to Audrey and set the record straight with her if she'll let me. I am a man of my word so I went through with the dare, and I will take Mal to the coronation as promised. There's nothing to worry about, I have everything under control."

There was so much more Bella wanted to say but couldn't get to it, her mind was full of what her brother had said. 'You sound just like dad.' Words that rendered her silent, something that wasn't quite easy to do. Bella didn't care about being compared to other girls or even her mother, but being compared to her father, well that was her worst nightmare.

"Well, anyways, I wanted to talk to you about this last night. Do you remember that stuff we talked about? Well, it's progressed, and now there's a guy." He leaned in close and whispered the 'guy' part. Bella followed suit.

"A guy? Who is it? Do I know him? Is he in our grade?" She didn't forget about what Ben and his dare and how she felt about the whole thing, but she was willing to push that aside for the moment to listen to her brother tell her about whoever this guy was.

"Yes you know him, and I have it under good authority that he likes me too."

"What? How?"

"Cause he told me last night, and we're hanging out in a bit."

"You're going on a date?" She wanted to say 'before me' but bit her tongue, it was too pathetic to admit. Her brother goes through a sexuality crisis, comes to terms with who he is, and finds a guy who likes him all in less than a week. She's known she's gay for much longer and she's never even held a girl's hand! Well, she has held hands with Evie but that was purely platonic!

"It's not a date, it's too soon to call it a date. We're just hanging out. Do you think he thinks it's a date? Should I have worn something different? What do I do? What do we talk about? You've been on dates before, right? What were they like?" She was honored that Ben thought she was experienced enough to ask for her advice, but there wasn't much she could offer him.