Ben is a whirlwind of charm trapped in the body of a young boy. He smiles too wide, his eyes are too open, as if trying to catch everything that happens in the world around him. His voice is too smoother, unmarked by the terror the world (he can remember the drowning, when he thinks about it, but forgets it as quickly as it comes.)
He likes the puppy, he decides, the way its body moves closer to him and Bnejamen feels his first pang of jealousy that rises in his chest, wishing it could be his. He has no name for this feeling, so it is forgotten in the next instant.
“Did you ask everyone?” That question is most certainly one his mother would ask in this moment and so the boy asks it too. Though his does not hold the playful banter that his mother’s would, instead it is said with such a genuine, innocent nature, and sounds entirely wrong coming from his lips with that face and those eyes.
Maybe he isn’t really a star. He is too young for this thought to have ever crossed his mind, to accept anything than what has been told of him, what he has experienced. That there was an alternative is not something had not been something he considered. He should be angry, or at least annoyed that she would question such things about his family that he loves so dearly. But neither the feeling nor the expression can falter his youthful glow. “Why wouldn't he be?” He asks, too young for doubt, but already too old to hold his tongue.
never gave a single thought to where it might lead
image by Gary Bendig
@[neuna]