3. The Vanity: Theorized.

"What is vanity?

The trickle of satisfaction when you look in the mirror?

The pride and glory, poured into each reflection peering back at you. A taste for the finer glimpses of life--shallow, skin deep?

A shred of vanity, it didn't harm anyone, some could say.

Yet to the eyes behind the mirror, well, perhaps it felt differently.

Perhaps it felt perplexed.

Hostile.

With just a dash of predatory."

Ben stiffened in his seat, his eyes wide as the passage from his literature class was spoken fluidly from his teacher's lips. He looked pale in his seat, he knew it from the whispers around him. A blonde he had always liked kept staring at him from the corner of his eyes as she mouthed “are you okay…” to check in on him.

Any other day, he would’ve been ecstatic. His hormonal teenage self would’ve been thrumming with life at the idea of even having her attention—finally, he might add. But today, or any day since Cassius unwelcome appearance, he wanted nothing to do with any of it.

The bone stuck in his throat, it tortured him. His nerves coming alive in his fingertips as he tapped insistently at his desk.

The professor cleared his throat, clearly annoyed.

“Benjamin Faye, is there something you’d like to share with the class?”

The tapping didn’t stop, Ben bit his lip.

Predator.

Vanity.

The passage only brought gold eyes to mind. Playing in his head over and over.

He didn’t want to be afraid anymore, no, honestly by this point…

Ben was fed up. With a shake of his head and a deep breath, his dirty blonde hair whipped back and forth with his head. “No sir.”

With his heartbeat under wraps, Ben took his notes. The pencil pausing during a certain passage.

“And for as predatory as one may be, to be invincible, God grants no one.

No man, nor beast.

Your reflection shall beg no difference, a weakness could be foretold.

Positivity your anchor as…”

And an idea was born.

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"Hey Tyler… positive and negative always attract right?" Ben knew it was a dumb question, even before he asked it. But as the three of them sat in Tyler’s room—Ben needed a break from his house—he couldn’t help but ask as he watched Tyler pry apart two magnets on his desk. The tall boy glanced at him, surprise on his features.

“Uh, yeah Ben. I know I’m the shocking nerd of the group, despite my hobbies, but I thought you’d know that much man. It’s pretty common stuff, even if ya hate science as much as you do.”

Coloring, Ben looked away. “I was just making sure.” Trying to ignore the insult to his intelligence, Ben pressed on. “I wanted to learn more about it, how to… use magnetism, cancelling it out—all that.”

Jessie was the one to look up now, her fingers playing idly with Tyler’s game system controller as she skimmed through the selection of games. “Is everything okay, Ben? If you need help studying, I’m always here you know.”

“No, it’s not that. I just wanted to borrow a book… so do you have one, Ty?”

With the use of his old nickname, the boy practically ruffled his own feathers as his chest puffed with pride.

"Gimme one reason why I wouldn't have a book on magnetism. I have a book on everything. The scientific method, asteroids, you name it. " As Tyler slid from his desk, a tan finger along the shelf to a red spinal color textbook.

“But can I ask more on why you want to borrow it, I don’t care really. I just feel like since we’re all best friends… maybe you should be more honest with us.”

Tossing the book back and forth between his hands, Tyler leveled him with a stare that made him feel about two feet tall.

Jessie nodded, humming softly, “he’s right you know, it’s not like you to lie, Ben. Are you mad at us?”

Ben hesitated before he answered. Guilt eating at his stomach as he weathered his bottom lip. "I.. I’m sorry. It’s just …” His lashes fold down, and he frowns. Ben knew they'd never believe him. Hell, he barely believed it and he had been there. Honestly, if he hadn’t seen Cassius more than once, the entity loving to cackle at his distress, Ben would have convinced himself it was all a really bad dream. If he thought that way… no doubt Tyler would be worse. The guy lived and breathed science; he lived in the code of black and white with no in-betweens. Jessie was more open minded but… she didn’t believe in fairytales anymore either.  

He was on his own.

So if he was going to lie, he had to make it believable.

“It’s my dad. He’s mad at me for not being able to fix something in the garage… I thought if I could apply magnetisim to the issue… maybe I could finally fix it?” He said and then he held his breath. 

Waiting for their reactions to his lie.

Jessie stared at him.

He could hear his own heartbeat.

And then both she and Tyler shrugged at the same time.

“That sucks man, no wonder you’ve been in a shit mood. Listen, I’m not the car guy, that’s all you and your pops. Just give it back when you’re done, okay?”

Ben let out a sigh of relief and a megawatt smile.

“Okay.”

Ben wasn’t sure if it would work, but his teacher had given him hope. A theory was just a theory, but it was better than nothing. His eyes hungrily staring at the book cover when Jessie slid next to him.

“Hey Ben…”

He blinked, “what?”

Tyler slid on his other side, his grin huge as both he and Jessie nudged him at the same time.

“If you’re feeling negative…” Jessie sang softly, and Ben cringed.

“You guys-!”

“We’re gonna have to be your positive~!” Tyler finished, singing with a deep bellow.

Ben could only groan, hiding his face from the two of them as they laughed. “Seriously, why are you two like this??”

That evening had finished like that with the three of them laughing and playing video games, until he had returned home well into the night. The textbook clung to his side like a safety blanket as he read most of it religiously.

He felt confident that maybe, just maybe, it could work.

That confidence dimming some when he could have sworn that at 3am, he heard cackling from somewhere downstairs—as if he was laughing at him.