Chapter 27

 

“I can’t believe I can’t see you tomorrow,” he grumbled, fiddling absent mindidly with the daisy in his hand.

 

“I know it sucks, but I need to see my friends,” I explained.

 

“Aren’t I your friend?”

 

“Of course you are, but I need to spend time with my girlie friends.”

 

“I could be a girl!” Ben said indignantly, ignoring me as I laughed at him, “look I can make daisy chains and everything.”

 

“There’s a bit more to being a girl than making daisy chains,” I replied, examining the little necklace he had just placed around my neck.

 

“What do girls talk about when they get together anyway?”

 

“Boys,” I said simply.

 

“They don’t know about me do they?” he asked.

 

“No”

 

“That’s OK then,” he smiled.

 

“I wish I could tell them, its horrid keeping things from them.”

 

“You can tell them soon enough,” he replied.

 

“The whole thing is stupid,” I grumbled, “you still haven’t even told your Mum.”

 

“What does that matter?”

 

“Well, I always have to sneak over here when she’s not in.”

 

“Well with all the stuff we do is probably best she isn’t in really,” he smirked.

 

“I’m not joking Ben,” I snapped, “if we don’t start telling people soon I’m going to go mad.”

 

“We can, its just hard because of …” he stopped himself mid sentence.

 

I knew exactly what he was talking about, and was glad that he had stopped.  We had never spoken about Kelly out loud, and I liked it like that, it meant that she didn’t have to exist.

 

“Its lovely out here,” I commented, quickly changing the subject.

 

We were sat out in Ben’s garden again, this time on a picnic rug, sunbathing in the beautiful spring sunshine.  It seemed that we’d been having a bit of a heat wave recently – even thought it was now 6.00 pm the sun was blazing hot and I was lying in my bikini with my sunglasses propped up on my head.

 

“You look great in the sun,” he commented, looking at me.

 

I smiled, “you don’t look so bad yourself.”

 

And he really did look amazing – he was lying in just his shorts and his bronzed skin was just begging to be touched.

 

And that’s exactly what I did, moving towards him, I lay my head down on his chest and felt a flutter of happiness as his hand slid across to rest on my head.

 

“Can I ask you a question?” I asked suddenly.

 

“Yep,” he replied lazily, but opening his eyes to let me know that he was listening.

 

“Why were you ever with Kelly?”

 

His eyes opened wider, shocked that I had mentioned her name.

 

“Just kind of happened,” he replied awkwardly.

 

“You love her?”

 

“No,” he replied.

 

“You must have done once.”

 

“Not really,” he said, “its more of a Popular thing.”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“Well, she was the most popular girl in the school so I kind of had to go with her.”

 

“Isn’t that a bit stupid?” I asked

 

“Probably,” he admitted, “but that’s just the way that it goes.”

 

“Does she still come over here?”

 

“Kim do we have to talk about this?” he asked awkwardly.

 

“I need to know Ben,” Kim urged.

 

“Kelly isn’t connected with this in anyway though,” he argued back.

 

“She is if you are still seeing her.”

“I’m working on it OK?”

 

“You’re being rather slow about it,” I retorted, feeling the anger rising slowly up inside me.

 

“Its delicate”

”Do you actually want to break up with her?” I asked, sitting up right and glaring down at her.

 

“Of course I do”

 

“So you don’t feel anything at all for her?”

 

“Course not.”

 

“Yet you are still seeing her.”

 

“Yeah, kind of,” he said weakly.

 

“So you are still kissing her like you kiss me? I asked.

 

He sat in silence, not confirming it, but hardly jumping to deny it either.

 

“You sleeping with her?”

 

“No!” he replied firmly.

 

“You promise me you aren’t,” she said, looking at him straight in the eyes to see if they gave away any hidden secrets.

 

“I promise you I’m not.”

 

For some reason that satisfied me, maybe because the accusation had brought such hurt in his eyes, I actually felt awful for asking him it. 

 

“I’m sorry I asked you that,” I said, wanting more than anything to take away the little glint of pain that had appeared in his eyes.

 

Knowing only one thing that would win him back I leant forward and gave him a gentle little kiss on the lips.

 

When I pulled away he was smiling at me, and then lunged forward for another kiss, followed by another and another.

 

“You OK?” I asked when we finally stopped.

 

“Yeah,” he replied, “I’m sorry for making you mad.

 

“No, I’m sorry,” I replied and laughing together we held each other tightly.

“You know the perfect way to get rid of any left over tension?” he asked me cheekily.

 

“Ben, I should be heading back,” I replied, laughing at him and getting up to my feet.

 

He quickly got up next to me and pulled at my arm.

 

“Plllllllllllllllllllease” he begged.

 

Why was it that I could never ever resist those eyes – before I knew it I was following him upstairs.