I woke up to a pair of large, friendly, blue eyes hovering over me. I blinked, and then realised Ben had been leaning over, watching me.

         “Hi Ben.” I whispered, not wanting to wake Lucy or Nat.

         “Hey Lou sweetie.” He bent over, and kissed me hello. “Can I talk with you? Before anyone else wakes up?”

         I nodded, and climbed out of bed, and took his hand as we tiptoed over Nat and down the stairs. He led me into the kitchen and fixed us both a bowl of coco pops and an orange juice, before taking them out to the conservatory with me in tow. He waited until I got halfway through my cereal (he wasn’t touching his but I knew that he always leaves it a while for the milk to go all chocolaty) before he decided to talk.

         “Lou, something’s on my mind.”

         I looked up at him, and noticed how confused and concerned he looked.

         “What’s on your mind?”
         “You.”

         I coughed as my cereal went the wrong way. Ben slapped my back to help clear it.

         “Me?” I squeaked, before making my voice normal. “What’ve I done?”
         “Nothing. Nothing bad anyway. I just want to ask you a few things.”
         “Like what?”
         “Well, okay, first of all, did Rupert really kiss you?”
         “Yeah.” I wrinkled my nose in pretend disgust.

         “Where exactly?”
         “On my cheek and on my mouth.”

         He nodded, thinking.

         “And you have no idea why he kissed you?”

         I shook my head. Ben moved off his armchair to sit next to me on the sofa, where he put his arm across my shoulders.

         “Has he tried to kiss you before?”

         I shook my head, before realising that he had, way back two months ago when Ben was about to leave. I leant against Ben as I remembered. All he did was move his other arm across so that he was gently hugging me.

         “Want me to tell you why he did it?” Ben whispered, and I pulled away to look at him.

         “You know why he kissed me?”

         Ben nodded.

         “Want to know too?”
         “Who else knows?”
         “Everyone! It’s obvious to everyone-everyone except you.” I blinked, obviously not understanding. Ben half smiled, and stroked my hair. “He’s crazy about you Lou. From his first day at school he wouldn’t shut up about you. Actually, on the first day we met you, he told me he’d seen you and couldn’t stand not sitting next to you. He’s never stopped wanting you, Lou. When Kel kissed him-he came running to Stace and me and said ‘Kel kissed me Ben, Kel! Why couldn’t it have been Lou?’”

         I stared at him, hoping that what he’d just said wasn’t true. His eyes weren’t lying though.

         “Why are you saying this?”
         “Because, honey, I don’t want you in the dark about anything.”

         I nodded slowly, wishing that I could be home, and not near Rupert. Ben looked deep into my eyes.

         “Are you okay with this? And with me telling you?”

         I nodded again.

         “There’s something else Lou, something I won’t have the courage to say again for a long time, something that’s plaguing Ru.”
         “Go on.” I whispered.

         “He’s going to kill me, but, well . . . you know that day I came back from the band? And I asked yo-”

         He stopped talking and I looked up. Nat was wiping sleep from her eyes in the doorway.

         “Hi Ben, Hi Lou.” She said tiredly, stretching. Ben stopped hugging me and moved back to the armchair, and started eating. Nat looked between us.

         “I interrupted something big, didn’t I?”

         I looked at Ben, who shook his head, still eating his cereal. I looked back at Nat and shrugged. She nodded, as though she understood, then sat where Ben had been a few moments before. I finally found my voice again.

         “Nat, did you know Rupert likes me?”

         Ben spat his cereal back in the bowl. Nat and I glanced at him, then turned back to each other.

         “Gee Lou, he’s always liked you, you’re best friends, aren’t you?”
         “No Nat, did you know he-he fancies me?”

         Nat looked sideways at Ben, and sighed.

         “Okay, maybe I did. Everyone does. He tells everyone. It bugs me that he won’t tell you too, but I guess you know now.” She looked at Ben again, who was staring at his cereal, not moving.

         “So what do I do now?”

         Ben looked up, a weird expression in his eyes. Nat sat back in the seat.

         “What do you want to do? Do you want to be with him?” Ben asked stiffly. I shook my head. “Just carry on as normal for now then, and Nat and me’ll think of something, okay?”

         I nodded, and tried to finish off my breakfast. When Nat went into the kitchen to get her own food, I looked again at Ben.

         “Ben?”

         He looked up at me from his food, and I could tell by his eye that he wanted me to carry on speaking.

         “What were you going to say before Nat interrupted?”

         He swallowed quickly.

         “Oh, that! It doesn’t matter much. I’ll tell you some other time, when it’s just you and me.”

         He stood up and walked out, leaving me totally confused.