Chapter 4
Don’t read this part if you have a weak
heart. Go on until you see “Stop”.
“Yes, Ben, yes!”
Eleanor (sorry to any Eleanor(s) that’s reading this fic! But it’s OK if you’re
a Ben fan) moaned as Ben pushed in deeper. “Oooh… that feels sooooo
fine!” She wrapped her legs loosely around Ben’s hips so that he’d have more
space to move around. Moaning as she felt another sensation, he felt her grip
tightened on back of his neck; her other hand gripping the bed covers as she
felt her muscles contracting.
Ben was moving around
a lot, like he was in a hurry and wanted this to finish fast but Eleanor wasn’t
complaining. She’d tasted bliss but none of those was as sweet, compared to the
one that she’s having right now.
Ben felt her tensed
up and she seemed to be arching her back nearly every time he pushed it in. He
must’ve been one hell of a maniac! He was sure that he’d given her the pleasure
of her life, probably more.
Having sex in her
apartment on a Saturday night and making love with the famous Ben Adams… this
should go into the history books!
Stop. You can continue now.
“Paul, would you please
calm down?!” Mark exasperated, casting a glance at
a-jumping/overactive-Paul.
Christian raised one
of his eyebrows at Mark’s comment. Without a question, he diverted his glance
and looked back down at the music sheet grasped in his left hand.
“I can’t!” Paul
hollered back from the other side of the room.
“I can’t write anything
with you distracting me and jumping around like a maniac in front of
me!”
“You’re not even
writing!”
“That’s ‘cause I can’t!”
“You can’t write?!”
Paul grinned. “God, Mark, you should’ve told us earlier that you couldn’t
write. We could’ve at least send you back to school.”
“Paul, I’m not in the
mood for any of your silly jokes at the moment,” Mark groaned.
“You’re not writing,
you’re not writing…” Paul sang in a off-key melody that he’d just made up in
his head. “You two are sun-tanning!” Paul accused, jabbing Mark’s bare chest
with his finger and ran away before Mark managed to get up from the chair.
“True, true.”
Christian sat up in the chair suddenly and grabbed the music sheet, scribbling
something furiously on it before presenting the paper to Mark. “Ta-da!”
“Eh?”
“It’s called Eyes
On You.”
“It sounds like an
Eric Clapton song or something.”
“Er…” Christian
rolled his eyes. “That’s only ‘cause song titles are always the same. We’ve
got other bands or singers writing songs with the title Hey You, If Only,
Miracle…”
“Cut it, Chris. I
know that.” Mark looked at the music sheet for a while. “But I just want us to
be different.”
“How different,
Mark?” Christian asked. “After all, we’re all human. If you want us to be
different, we might as well have bigger heads for our big brains and probably
two more extra limbs and we can write and produce more songs so that other
bands wouldn’t have the chance to write songs with the same title.”
“But that would mean
we’ll have twice or probably three times more albums than the rest of the
singers.”
“Well, that’s what
you want, isn’t it?”
“Come to think of it,
I don’t think so.” Mark shuddered. “People might freak and we can say bye-bye
to our dreams and goals and of being in a1.”
“Told you.” Christian
laughed as he looked at Paul who was trying to untangle himself from a bush
nearby the swimming pool. “Fool.”
“Hey, I heard
that!” Paul shouted. “Just don’t understand how could I get stuck!”
“Take off your
pants!” Mark shouted back. “It’s probably hooked to those branches!”
Paul laughed dryly
and shouted a quick “hi” to Ben who’d just walked out of the back door to the
house’s backyard that housed the swimming pool.
“Hey Ben!” Mark and
Christian said at the same time.
Ben looked up from
the chair that he was seated in and nodded a “hello”.
“What’s up?” Mark
asked.
“Tired.”
“It’s normal.”
Christian chuckled. “We know what you’re up to last night.”
“You do?”
“Yeah,” Mark said.
“After all, you’re always going to her house when you need one.”
“Right…”
“Hey, you can’t say
that we’re wrong ‘cause you never bring your girl back here,” Christian
said.
Ben nodded as he sunk
back into the chair, trying to soak up the heat from the sun.
“Paul, are you out?” Mark
shouted.
“Nearly…” Paul
muttered to himself. He looked across to see a frown marring Mark’s face. “Ooh…
yay!!” Paul yelled with happiness as he leaped away from the bush.
“Finally…!” Christian
exasperated.
“Bad bush, bad!” Paul
said, wiggling his finger at the bush, as if scolding it.
Mark and Christian
burst into laughter as they saw Paul scolding the bush, waking up a sleeping
Ben. Apparently, he’d fallen asleep amidst all the commotion happening around
him.
~~ecaf~~
“Babe!” He heard someone
called. Turning around, he found himself staring into a pair of dark brown
eyes.
“Hi Lyean,” he said
as he bent down a little to kiss her. However, she pushed him away.
“I heard what
happened.”
He simply stared back
at her, a blank look on his face.
“Your mother told
me.”
“About?”
“About last night.”
“Oh…” and for a
second there, he looked unhappy as a look of hurt crossed his face but it
passed quickly. “So, you knew, huh?”
“Babe, you know you
could’ve told me. I can help you.”
“No one can, Lyean.
Besides, I don’t want to trouble you. He’s not all gentle. In fact, I’m
doubting that he even has a loving and caring side.”
“You longed for a
better father, don’t you?”
He nodded solemnly.
“We all do, don’t we? I mean, if you have a bad, mean father. Of course
you would longed for a better father. It’s for a better future.”
“I know what you
mean.”
He started walking
toward his class as he didn’t want to discuss that matter any more with her,
hoping that she would take that as a sign and walked away to her own class as
well but he was wrong.
She jogged up to him,
grabbing him by his arm when she’s close enough. “Look, I can help you and I
mean it.”
“Listen here, Lyean.
No one can help me when I can’t even help myself! I can’t help my mother either
and I can’t ease her pain! And do you know how much I’d suffered for the past,
what – ten years? You don’t know! So, please, Lyean, I’m begging you.
Don’t act like you understand.” He paused, studying her face. He thought he saw
a look of hurt in her eyes but he wasn’t sure. “I know you care but believe me,
but you’ve got no idea how much I’d suffered and how much I wish that I’m
dead.” He stopped curtly and started walking away, after wrenching his wrist
from her grip.
Lyeana stood there,
outside at the corridors, staring at her boyfriend as he walked off. She could
feel his anger; his anger for his father and his anger for his mother. He’s
just wishing that he were never born. Even if he’s born, he didn’t want to be
born in that family… and what she felt for him was tearing her apart.
When he thought that
she couldn’t understand him, she actually could. She wasn’t exactly her
father’s biological daughter. She’s been picked up from an orphanage by quite a
well-off family – after she’d ran away from home with her sister; running away
from their father, who was a child-abuser as well. But her situation was a
little different. Her mother died giving birth to her, so she didn’t have a
mother to protect her. That’s why she ran away at a young age of six. Her
biological father never did searched for her though. Probably happier that
they’d finally left and he could be single again.
Her new father – whom
she loved to bits – was a lawyer and she knew that her father could help him.
But why didn’t her boyfriend accept her offer? Just because he’s poor?
He wasn’t exactly
poor though but he wasn’t exactly rich either. More like, stuck in the middle.
His father used to be very smart – which was why he was rather smart as well –
and quite rich. His income for every month was probably around £3,000 and
above. So, wasn’t he quite rich? Then again, his father probably spent all his
money buying alcoholic drinks, especially after he started developing the habit
of drinking to drown his sorrows; after he’d stopped talking to his wife and
closed off all contacts – losing all ways to express his bottled-up feelings
and problems.
Lyeana shook her head
sadly. “I’ll help you, babe. Don’t worry. I promise that I will.”
~~ecaf~~
Ben woke up in his
bed, drenched in cold sweat, breathing hard, as he tried to concentrate on
slowing down his pulse.
“No… please!” was all
he’d said throughout the whole course of the nightmare. He remembered the fear
he’d felt in the dream and probably the pain – if there were pain in the
nightmare. He remembered the dream vividly. He shuddered as he recalled the icy
coldness and dagger-like stares.
Slowly, he got out of
bed, grabbed his glasses, put them on and made his way through the darkness of his
room, running his fingertips along the walls and the banister as he went down
to the living room in darkness and was suddenly temporarily blinded by the
light from the kitchen; only to find Christian sleeping in there.
Ben filled a glass to
the brim with cold water and took a seat by the kitchen table, staring at the
rising and falling of Christian’s back as he breathed. A pen was still in his
hand, froze in motion as he’d stopped writing when he’d fallen asleep; with his
left cheek nestled on the crook of his left elbow that was resting on the
tabletop. His guitar was leaning on a table leg nearby.
Ben wondered how long
had Christian been asleep as he sipped the water slowly, taking a quick glance
at the clock hanging above the arch that served as a door that led out of the
kitchen and into the living room. The clock showed 4.13 in the morning.
Placing the glass in
the kitchen sink, Ben walked toward Christian and shook him up.
“What the – ”
Christian begun, his voice thick with sleep.
“Mind your language,
Ingebrigtsen,” Ben scolded playfully.
“Oh… hi Ben.”
Christian dropped his pen and started rubbing the sleep out of his eyes
vigorously with the heel of his hands.
“Yes, hi Ben,” Ben
said sarcastically. “What are you doing writing a song in the dead of the night
like this?”
“You’re not my
mother.”
“Am your band mate.
I’ve got to know. Besides, I thought Tim gave us three days off. This is just
the second day. So, why are you working when you’re not supposed to?”
“Just felt like.”
“Eh?”
“I’ve got ideas,
alright? It can’t wait, you know. When you get brainstorms, you just have to
empty those brilliant ideas…”
“Not that brainstorm
talk again.” Ben sighed as he scratched the back of his head that wasn’t even
itchy. “Look, get some sleep, will ya? We don’t want you to collapse from
exhaustion like what happened the other time when we’re in Thailand.”
“I did?” Christian
asked, puzzled.
“Yea.”
Slowly, Christian
regained his temporarily lost memory. “Sorry, my brain’s not working very well.
It’s too early in the morning.”
“That’s why you
shouldn’t write a song early in the morning. You can’t even think
straight, needless to say that you’re definitely not getting any
brainstorms at all.”
“Alright, alright.
Quit it already. I’m off to bed.”
“Glad to hear that you’re
taking my advice.”
“Am not. Just need
some sleep ‘cause I’m thinking of going shopping tomorrow. You wanna come?”
“Sure, I don’t see
why not.”
“Good.”
~~ecaf~~
“Really, Dad, this
boy has been abused since… oh, I don’t know… ever since I knew him.” Lyeana
paced her father’s office restlessly.
“I thought you knew
him since you went to the same primary school,” her father replied calmly from
behind her. He was seating on the great oak table, looking as his adopted
daughter paced the room. He was a handsome man with a great build for a body –
a result of working out three times a week with his personal trainer and
working out on his own whenever he felt like he wanted to. After all, he had a
gym in his house.
“Yeah, yeah… that’s right.
Ever since primary school.” Lyeana stopped pacing and took a seat on the couch
nearby. “Dad, this boy’s really nice. I’m sure you knew it just by your first
look at him.”
“That’s very true,
princess.”
“Don’t call me that,
Dad. You know I don’t really like it. It makes me sound as if I’d been pampered
all my life and I demand for everything.”
“Aren’t you being
pampered all you life?”
“Dad, I don’t demand
for it, I just get it because you want to give it to me.”
Her father looked at
her, smiling. He really didn’t pick the wrong ones – Lyeana and her sister were
wonderful kids. He vowed to help Lyeana’s boyfriend, even if that means
Lyeana’s boyfriend would break up with her or even if he’ll break up with
Lyeana when they’re both out of school.
This was what a
lawyer should do, wasn’t it? To help someone when they’re down and to defend
someone who’s correct and not to defend the evil. He was sure that he’d help
this boyfriend of his daughter’s.