All Four Of Me

Chapter 36

KENZIE

"First of all, I have something that I need to admit." Ben confesses as he closes my bedroom door, scratching the back of his head with a sheepish look on his face.

The guys were cool with Ben coming over to see me, and after enduring the ten minute wait it took for him to ride his bike here, we decided to migrate up to my room so that our conversation would remain private. I'm still not ready to share my knowledge of Dominic with anybody other than Ben at this stage, there are just too many things that could go wrong and I don't want to taint the only good memories I seem to have from my childhood. With that said, once I know enough about Dominic and our relationship, I will eventually come clean to Dr Miller so that he can help me decipher the array of unfamiliar emotions I seem to be crushed by every time I remember something new about him.

Ben didn't give me any further indication as to what he was so desperate to talk to me about other than what was in his text, so I'm kind of nervous to hear what he has to say. This conversation could go one of two ways, either he has learned something about Dominic that could help our investigation, or he has discovered something that could set us back. I'm hoping it is the first option, but I have to remain on guard in case it turns out to be the other.

"Ok, what is it?" I ask cautiously, walking across the room towards the desk and taking a seat on the chair.

"So, you know back at the arcade when I went off to play that new zombie game by myself?" He asks placing his backpack onto the floor near my bed and kicking his shoes off as well.

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Well... I wasn't actually playing the zombie game." He admits while dropping himself down so that he is sitting on the edge of my bed. "I really went to the library instead."

Not for the first time today, I am caught completely off guard by the answer I am given. Of all the things he could have confessed, I was not expecting for him to say this.

"Why did you go there? I thought we were going to figure something else out." I stumble over my words as I struggle to get them out.

I'm not angry at him for following through with our original plan, not at all. I trust him more than just about anybody else I have ever known to help me understand my past. I'm just surprised that he would go out of his way as far as he has in order to assist me in finding the truth. Sure, he is probably curious as hell about my childhood and how I ended up in the mess that is currently unfolding as a result, however that doesn't mean that he is under any obligation to help me, whether he promised to or not.

"Because I know how much finding Dominic means to you, and I didn't want you to lose the opportunity to find your closure if that was the only chance we had to find a proper lead." Ben answers with a solemn smile, making me wonder what in this world I did right to deserve him in my life.

"Hey, hey don't cry. I'm sorry, I should have waited for you to be there with me, but I couldn't help it. Maddie was stuck to you like glue and you looked like you were starting to have fun so I didn't think it would hurt to slip away for a little bit." Ben rushes out as my eyes gloss over with a layer of moisture.

"Did you find anything?" I ask, feeling slightly flustered by the sudden wave of emotion that Ben's answer generated.

"Actually, yes, but I don't think it's what you were expecting us to find." His response instantly pulls me out of my emotional state.

"What do you mean?" I ask again, rubbing the wetness away from my eyes with the tips of my fingers.

"Well, when I went to the library I didn't exactly know where to start, so I used their internal search system to see if I could locate anything in their media archives using only keywords and names, that sort of thing. Funnily enough Dominic's name actually came up on their data base, just not in the media archives." Ben explains with an excited gleam in his eyes, almost as excited as when he talks about food.