So Ben didn’t take forever getting out of the window. He just slowed us down so bad on our way to meet up with the girls that I was nearly ready to just ditch him. A normal sprint to Cadence’s house would’ve taken about 15 minutes for me, but with Ben huffing and puffing behind me, it took just shy of half an hour to get there. When we reached Cadence’s place, her and Megan looked really upset. Brittany was on her phone and looked like she could care less, but Maria lit up when she saw us.

“You made it!” she cheered.

“Half an hour late,” sneered Cadence.

“And on a babysitting job?” Brittany asked, pointing to Ben.

“Yeah, I got a job,” I said. “It’s called being a sister. Now let’s go.”

“Nah, we’re talking about this,” interrupted Cadence. “Why’s your challenged brother throwing his dead weight around with us tonight?”

Why god, why was I put on the same continent as that girl. She was tolerable before, maybe even pretty kind at some points, but now she was just the biggest bitch to me lately. And now she was being the biggest bitch to Ben too. Even then, I just grit my teeth and acted like nothing was wrong. It was better that way.

“My brother’s a bit agoraphobic, so I’m taking him out to get a life.”

I guess that statement wasn’t totally inaccurate. I don’t think that I’ve ever seen him go out of the house with friends or anything. I don’t know if he really was afraid of going out, but judging by the fact that he never opened his mouth when we went to a store or restaurant, I wouldn’t put it past him to be true.

“So leave the little shut-in at home if he doesn’t wanna come out,” shrugged Megan. “Doesn’t seem so hard.”

“Well, he’s already here,” I said, glaring into Megan. “It’d take too long to bring him home and come back anyway, so he’s just coming with us tonight.”

“He’s just a-”

“Shut it, Meg.” Cadence said, fed up with hearing her voice. Frankly, I was fed up with the sound of her too. Megain shut her mouth real quick and sulked behind her. “If he doesn’t drag us, he can come along. If he’s dead weight, I’m not waiting up though.”

“Welcome aboard, little man,” Brittany grinned, ruffling Ben’s hair. He stiffened and froze, clearly not liking that.

As we walked on to go into town, I held Ben close. I didn’t trust him to wander off, and he needed to know some things first. Otherwise, these girls, or someone else, might just eat him for their midnight snack.

“Alright Ben,” I started. “Ground rules. You listening?”

He nodded his head.

“Good. Now, rule number one is that you can’t make a scene, got it? That’s for those three to be doing,” I said, pointing at Cadence, Megan, and Brittany. “Rule number two is that you can’t tell anyone your real name, got it? Fake names only. And rule number three is that you deny ever being out tonight, got it memorized?”

“I got it,” he said quietly. Something tells me he didn’t want to be noticed anyway. 

We made our first stop, which was also my least favorite place. Behind the drugstore, two teens our age were hanging out: Reigna and Trevor. They shoplifted drinks and stuff and resold them to underage people. Their eyes brightened and their mouths grinned when they saw us.

“Is that Cadence? Our best customer?” asked Reigna.

“You know it, girl.” she giggled. “The usual, please.”

Trevor reached into a backpack and pulled out two bottles of beer and handed them to her, and Reigna pulled a small pack of cigarettes out of her thick jacket. We do this most nights, and I don’t think anyone actually liked the two of them. They just had what kept Cadence from being intolerable. Both Ben and Maria stuck to my side.

“Hey, who’s the little man?” Trevor asked, pointing to Ben. All eyes went to him now, and I could see how it terrified him.

“He’s my-”

“Let the little guy speak for himself,” interrupted Reigna harshly. “Now come on, I won’t bite.” I could see Ben take a deep breath after that, trying to not look scared.

“I’m her cousin,” I heard him say. “Alan Scott. I’m visiting from New York in America.”

Damn, Ben’s not a half-bad liar when he wants to be. I mean, I could tell he was lying, but that’s because I was his sister. He said it with so much confidence that I almost thought that he had convinced himself. It sure fooled those two though.

“Nice to meetcha, Alan,” smirked Trevor. “You ever need anything stronger than a juice pouch, my and my girl can cover ya.”

“Nice offer, but no.” I said firmly.

“Sophs,” Cadence said, lighting a cigarette and blowing smoke in my direction. “Cool it. Let’s just get out of here.”

“Hold on a sec,” I said. “I wanna grab something first.”

I left Ben next to Maria and looked her strongly in the eyes.

“Make sure Ben doesn't leave, got it?”

“I’ve got him,” she said firmly.

I walked inside for a couple minutes before paying for something and coming back out. I put a rather large chocolate bar into Ben’s hands.

“That’ll keep you quiet, right?” I asked. 

Ben looked at it nervously, but nodded. He tore it open and started eating some small bits of chocolate. He noticed Maria staring and actually gave her a few pieces, which she took happily. I would’ve said something, but they both looked happy enough with the candy. Who was I to ruin my two favorite people smiling?

*   *   *   *   *

“That was a surprisingly fun time,” Cadence admitted. “Even with your little runt of a brother there.”

Once again, Cadence was just spouting whatever because she was drunk. I didn’t know how she wasn’t walking around with a constant headache or something. It was all alcohol and cigarettes at night, and it annoyed the hell out of anyone trying to have a good time.

“You two got her?” I sighed at Meg and Britt.

“Don’t we always?” Brittany grumbled, pulling Cadence on her shoulders.

“See you guys Monday!” Maria said, dashing back to her house.

“Let’s go,” I said to Ben, grabbing his hand and running back home. He looked like he had a fun enough time, which was to say he was fine as long as me and Maria were right next to him. 

When we got back to the house, I noticed a light or two on that were off when we left. I hoped nothing was up, but I could never be too sure. I told Ben to stop running as we approached. I didn’t need Mom or Dad hearing us if they were up.

“Shh…” I said, putting a finger to my lips. Ben stopped messing with the candy wrapper in his pocket and paid attention. “Try to do this quietly.”

We both shuffled around the house and to my bedroom. Ben almost fell backwards before I put an arm around his waist and yanked him through the window. Soundlessly, we slipped into my bedroom and quietly locked the window. When I turned around, the lights flicked on and we could both see Mom’s angry face sitting on my bed.

“Have a good night, you two?” she asked with those narrow, pissed eyes.

“Ah shit.” I cursed under my breath.

“She made me go, I didn’t wanna.” Ben cried, running forward and hugging Mom, who kept her eyes on me. 

“I was just trying to get him out of the house.” I nervously shrugged. 

“We’ll talk about this later with your father.” she said, eyeing the window. Oh man, I hoped I wouldn’t come home to find it nailed shut again. Prying those nails out with just a bunch of rulers and mechanical pencils was agony. 

Mom walked out of the room with Ben still clinging to her. I could hear her guide Ben to his room and put him to bed, then go across the hall. I considered jumping back out the window for a hard second, and I did. I turned out her light and put my sweatshirt around a few pillows before leaving though; I knew it wouldn’t do much but it would make Mom confused. I jumped out the window and landed in the side yard and took out my phone to text someone.

“You’re not freezing in that?” 

I turned around to see Dad outside the house on his own. He was wearing his jacket. I put my phone away.

“I’m fine.” I said, trying to not sound disappointed.

“Is it because you got caught?”

“It’s because this was the first time I saw Ben look up from his own world and join in with other people,” I said harshly. “And I’m probably going to get punished for it.”

“You did sneak out. That’s what? Three nights in a row?” My body stiffened.

“You know about those?”

“Hard to not hear when my office space is quiet enough to hear everything from,” he laughed. “Listen, I don’t mind you going out on your own sometimes as long as you stay safe and be responsible, but… don’t drag Ben out there. He’s not ready for those people.”

“You shelter him too much,” I scoffed. “You both do. Won’t let him have any actual fun in the real world.”

“That’s not yours to decide. What did we talk about just a few hours ago about keeping Ben safe?”

“I am keeping him safe!” I shouted. I was fed up with him thinking I didn’t care about Ben. “I was keeping him where I could see him!”

“Maybe you can do that at home where it’s safer,”

“What’s so great about at home, huh? Does Mom get better just because she’s at home?”

“Don’t bring your mother into this!” Dad countered. “You need to be reasonable!”

“This is reasonable, Dad! You think he needs to recover, but I think he needs to go live a bit and see what life really is like, and see it doesn’t matter what you look like. Did you ever think about that?!”

“That is not your-”

“Yeah, because you and Mom have clearly been making the right decisions to lead Ben to this point, right?!” I blurted out. I could see it on Dad’s face. I crossed a line.

“Sophia Hutcherson, get back to your room,” he said, more frustrated that I’ve seen him in a long time. “Now.”

Maybe I could’ve turned and ran, but I knew it wouldn’t do anything good. So instead, I walked back to my window, which Mom was inside looking at me from. Ah shit, she probably heard that entire thing. Hell, the neighbors probably heard it. I bowed my head and climbed back through as she went out of my room. I didn’t want to admit it, but I could really feel that I messed up this time.