Ignite ─ Ben Hardy

CHAPTER SIXTEEN ━ UPSIDE DOWN

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𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚕 𝚕𝚒𝚏𝚎.

BEN HARDY HAD WISHED THAT SEDATING THE MATTERS TO SLEEP WOULD DEPRIVE HIS GUILT, but hell was he wrong. A torturous headache still reconnoitered on the back of his mind, and now his chest felt heavy as well, scrutinizing sadly at the fallow space next to him.

Did Bethany leave? Did she eventually realize that he was never worthy of her time?

If that was the case, Ben would let her go. The look reflected on Bethany's face last night was enough to make him feel like he had taken advantage of her all this time, she did not deserve it all for sure. However, if she was willing to wait for a little bit longer, Ben had made a promise to himself that he would forget Shanessa and gave Bethany as much as she deserved.

He only needed more time, and probably a closure.

"Bee?" And to say Ben was surprised to see the woman still under the same roof as him was understandable. He would smile, wide, if only Bethany was not in such a state.

There was no dint of indulgence on Bethany's facial feature, it was unreadable but emitted sundry conundrums. "I — I can't do this anymore."

Swallowing the lump on his throat, Ben took a few steps forward prudently. "What?"

"I have to tell you something."

"What is it?" Ben inquired, though his heart was accelerating rapidly, he didn't expect much from her. "Did I do something? If yes, I'm so sorr—"

Another singularity heaved in sight as tears flooded Bethany's olive green eyes, yielding himself to get worse because he had no idea what was really happening. Bethany shook her head lightly, trailing her gaze downward. "It's not you, it's us."

"Us? What do you mean?"

When silence engulfed the aerial, nothing good ever came out. There was always a hurricane behind the languor, which surely one of them would be maimed afterward. In this case, the pair might experience it together, but whether they would be a remedy for each other, it still stayed an enigma.

There was a long pause between the two and Bethany was honestly grateful he didn't press her to dispense everything out all at once. "The whole Bumble situation, I wasn't involved from the start."

"What—?"

"I wasn't the original Bumblebee, Ben."

The gravity seemed heavy around them as another silence bounced back and forth between them. It had been quite a long time for Ben to even perturb his brain to work faster and remember what or who Bumblebee was. Then, it clicked. Another get-away Ben chose to allay his misfortune. "Who is it then?"

"Who do you think it is?" Bethany shot back, a lone tear rolled down her cheek. "The girl confessed to you about being kissed under the mistletoe, she had a crush on someone but her crush only saw her as a friend, their friendship became rocky afterward, hell, she lived in the same building as her." Bethany sucked a deep breath before she wiped her tear harshly. "Sounds familiar? I don't know if you're being oblivious or just stupid in general, but I'm pretty sure you can connect all the dots from there."

For a brief moment, Ben got stray in the unexpected epiphany as his arid lips parted open, eyes widening slowly in realization. "Don't tell me—"

"Yes, Ben. It was her," Bethany confirmed, her voice wavered. "It was Shanessa."

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