Wicked Ones ♛ MAL [✓]

➣ seven.

007. | BETTER LEFT UNSAID

Mal and I walked out of the closet, heading back to where Ben was talking with Audrey. As she left, the dark haired girl chimed in her overly optimistic yet totally fake voice, "Bye, Bennyboo!"

Ben sighed softly. "Bye."

Mal glanced at me, nodding faintly before we put our most convincing smiles and walked up to Ben.

"Hey, Bennyboo!" Mal said, teasingly.

Ben perked up, smiling at Mal as he said, "Hey."

"We just made a batch of cookies," I said, taking the bag of cookies out of my backpack and showing them to him. "Double chocolate chip, do you want one?"

Ben shook his head. "Oh, I, uh, I've got a big game. I don't eat before a big game." Seeing our feigned disappointment, he added quickly, "But thank you so, so much. Thank you. Next time. Next time."

Mal falsely sighed. "No, yeah. I completely understand. 'Be careful of treats offered by kids of villains.'"

Ben's eyes widened, and he shook his head. "No, no, no–"

I quickly chimed in, "No, it's fine. I'm sure every kid in Auradon knows that."

"No, that's not it," Ben stammered. "No, no, no, I—I really do–"

"No, I get it," Mal went on. "You're cautious. That's smart."

"Oh, well," I said, taking a cookie out of the bag and breaking it in half before handing one half to Mal. "More for us, I guess."

Ben quickly took the pieces from us and took a bite of each one, smiling and chewing as he said, "No, no. Hey... see that? Totally trust you. Totally."

Mal smiled. "How are they?"

Ben nodded. "They're good. They're great! They're amazing! They're, uh... I mean, they're chewy and, and you know, they... is that walnuts? I love walnuts. I mean, uh, you know, the..." He trailed off, slowing down his eating as the love spell began to take effect. "The chocolate... The... the chocolate... The chocolate chips are... I'm sorry." Jay, Carlos, and Evie, all walked towards us, gathering around the three of us as Ben said, "Um... Uh, they're... They're warm and soft. And they're sweet... Mal, have you always had those little golden flecks in your eyes?"

Jay put his hands on Ben's shoulders, then said, "How you feeling, bro?"

"I feel..." Ben hesitated. "I feel... I feel like..." His face brightened, and he said loudly, "Like singing your name!" Then he began to sing, "Mal, Mal! Ma–"

I quickly clamped my hand over his mouth, silencing him and stopping him from drawing attention to ourselves. Then the five of us exchanged proud glances.

The spell had worked. We were one step closer to that wand.

━━━ ✥ ━━━

"This is a nail-biter, folks," the announcer said as we watched the boys' tourney game. "There's 47 seconds left on the clock. We're all tied up. The Sherwood Falcons, two. The Fighting Knights, two. What a game between Auradon's fiercest rivals."

"So your mom really wanted you to trick me into falling in love with you?" I asked Mal after a few minutes.

"Yeah, she did," Mal said. "She remembered when I used to have a crush on you and thought it might work in her favor."

I blinked, shocked. "You never told me you had a crush on me."

"Oh, she did," Evie spoke up from her spot beside Mal. "It was ridiculously obvious, I don't know how you didn't see it."