Chapter Text
Darius never would have considered himself to be a superstitious person, but something about getting stuck on a deadly island of dinosaurs makes you become a bit more careful in life. So as he walked up a long sidewalk, he made sure to avoid the cracks lacing through the concrete for the sake of his dear mother’s back. It was the least he could do for her after how supportive and loving she’d been since his return home a couple months ago. She had been providing him with proper care, giving him hundreds of daily hugs, oh and flying him across the ocean to visit his best friend.
With school out (not that he’d been attending) and no remaining friends to turn to, Darius’s summer had started off pretty bland. He had plenty of dinosaur analyses and theories he could write out after his extended stay at Jurassic World, but his therapist advised he be patient with that stuff. Darius knew she was right, but what else did he have to do with his times if not let them be consumed by his passion for once-extinct reptiles?
Those were his exact thoughts before his mom announced a business trip she’d be taking to Chicago: the same city a certain-someone lived.
Jumping away from his thoughts, Darius peered at the door before him. The door he’d begged his mom to take him to. He couldn’t lie; his palms were definitely sweating a bit at the thought of twisting the knob and seeing his friend. There were so many unknowns behind the door and sometimes, Darius thinks, it’s better to leaves doors closed.
“C’mon sweetie, ring the bell,” Ms. Bowman prompted, her hands filled with bags and a suitcase.
Per request, Darius set down his bag and forcefully shoved his shaky finger onto the doorbell, a soft ring echoing from the device.
It was only a short moment after that the door whipped open with a cheery woman on the other side.
“Hello hello! It’s good to see you two. Come on in,” she greeted.
Grabbing his bag, Darius shuffled into the house, quickly noticing there weren’t any certain-boys in sight. Instead, there was a small stack of shoes near the doorway and a short hallway leading to what looked like an open kitchen and dining room.
“Hi, thank you so much for letting us stay here,” Ms. Bowman said. “Hotels cost a fortune in this city.”
“Don’t think much of it; it’s my pleasure. Plus, it’ll be nice to finally meet the famous Darius Bowman. Ben’s talked quite a bit about you,” she commented with a smile.
Not sure how to reply, Darius simply returned the smile and tried to hide his blushing cheeks. He had to admit that he was quite fond of the idea of Ben talking about him, even if the attention was a little embarrassing.
“If it’s alright with you, there are a couple items I need to pick up at a store. Notecards and such for my presentation tomorrow. I’ll be back in time for dinner, but could I leave Darius here with you in the meantime?” Ms. Bowman asked.
“Of course.”
After a quick exchange of names and ‘thanks you’s, Mrs. Bowman headed back out the door, leaving Darius with her pile of bags and a sense of thrilling yet terrifying anxiety.
“I’m assuming you’re wondering where Ben is, hm?” Mrs. Pincus—who’d introduced herself as Elia—guessed.
“Yeah,” Darius sheepishly admitted.
“He’s just upstairs. You’ll be staying in his rooms, so take your bag with you. I can deal with your mom’s” she said, a contagiously warm smile on her face.
“Thank you, Ma’am!”
Dashing up the nearby stairs, Darius found himself in a bit of a puzzle. Four doors were presented before him. One was open and the insides weren’t screaming ‘I’M BEN’S ROOM’. More likely, the room to belonged to his parents, so that left him with three options. All had the same white paint and simplistic pattern engraved into the wood, so Darius decided to use his trusty gut as a Ben compass to figure out which was the boy’s room.
He settled on the far left one and placed his hand on the knob to open it. The problem, though, was that his hand couldn’t move. His brain was screaming at it not to. Because there were endless possibilities lying behind that door. Maybe the brave Jungle Man Ben once was had reverted back a scared little boy. If so, did that mean he no longer had a bandana? God, Darius could hardly even imagine what a bandana-less Ben looked like. Would his hair be shorter? Longer? Would he still look feral? Would he still act feral? What about-
“Are you gonna open the door or are we just gonna stare at it?”
With the speed of a lightning strike, Darius spun around to find the owner of the sudden voice—a less-feral version of his best friend.
He immediately noticed Ben’s hair. It was swept into a style Darius had yet to see on the boy. It wasn’t his Scared Boy hair but it also wasn’t his Jungle Man hair. It was just Ben hair. And, to Darius’s relief, the bandana-less style looked pretty good.
“Wait, how are you here? I thought you were in your room,” Darius said, motioning to the still-closed door.
“Ah sorry. No, I was in the basement.” Ben seemed to be copying Darius, scanning over his new appearance. Not that there was much of a difference other than an absence of dirt. “And, by the way, wrong room. That’s a closet.”
“Oh.”
Great going, gut, Darius cursed himself as Ben stepped to the door beside him.
Before opening it, though, Ben looked to Darius and asked, “How come you didn’t open the door if you thought I was in there?”
“Oh well um, you know, the uh…doorknobs! Yes, the doorknobs! They just look so pretty and…glimmery. I didn’t wanna risk getting the dirty,” Darius lied while giving his best ‘I’m totally innocent smile’.
The skeptical and almost hurt expression he was receiving made it clear that Darius wasn’t fooling anyone. But Ben let it slide.
“Well, you can touch the doorknobs. It’s kinda their whole purpose,” he said, opening the door and stepping inside for Darius to join.
Ben’s room was pretty much what Darius had expected. As clean and germ-free as physically possible, a large bookshelf filled with manuals and fantastical novels, a case of academic awards. But there was one thing in the room that Darius lingered on, saddening the longer he stared.
A familiar crayon drawing of two best friends was hung on the wall nearest to the bed’s headboard.
Ben must’ve noticed his gaze because he put a hand on his shoulder and said, “Hey, stop looking so sad. I'm just proud of that drawing, that's all. It showcases my artistic ability quite well.” He tried to put up some sort of smile, but Darius could see how painfully fake it was. Clearly there was more to it than "showcasing artistic ability".
But he had literally just gotten there, so it felt wrong to get all serious and emotional within just five minutes of reuniting.
So, he decided to go with a safer topic.
“Thanks for letting my mom and I stay here. I mean, I know it was more of your mothers’ decision, but thank you, anyway. I wasn’t sure if you’d be prepared to see me again,” Darius said, keeping a bright smile on his face.
“You’re welcome,” Ben mumbled, walking towards his desk and plopping in the leather chair.
When neither of them tried to continue the conversation, Ben started fidgeting with one of the pencils on his desk, looking bored out of his mind.
Was he not excited to see Darius? Darius had been dreaming about this moment ever since his mom told him about her work trip. It was taking all of his self-control not to tackle-hug Ben while squealing like a little compy. But Ben seemed…disappointed.
“You are okay with me being here, right? If it’s too hard to see me right now, I can stay with my mom in the guest room. I’ll stay out of your way as much as I can. You’ve been through the most out of all of us, it’s fair that you need more time.”
Ben sighed. “No, it’s not that.”
“Then…what? Has therapy been really hard? My therapist’s been pretty nice, but you haven’t really mentioned anything about yours in the group chat. If you need a new one-”
“Not that either,” he said, now fidgeting with the pencil more forcefully.
“Do you miss Bumpy?”
“Yes. But also no.”
“What do you mean ‘but no’?”
“I just- Can you stop guessing?” Ben outraged.
Darius paused for a second, a bit taken-aback by Ben’s outburst. Then he whispered, “But it worked before.”
Ben’s expression changed at that. It was only for a split second, but it was as if a mask that was blocking Darius from his friend shattered.
Then it rebuilt itself, stronger this time.
“Yeah, well, nothing lasts forever.”
With that, Ben left his desk and walked out the bedroom door, shutting it behind him and leaving Darius alone in there.
Darius only had one thought: What the heck had just happened?