When Worlds Collide
Chapter 12
By: Bella
Benji woke up the next morning to see Tristen sitting on his legs looking down at him. She had been watching him and thinking about how sweet he looked when he slept. She loved that about him. While he was awake he would always try to make himself look so hard and tough. But when he smiled and when he slept he looked like a completely different person. He looked so peaceful and innocent. He looked back at her, neither of them saying a thing. After a few moments of silence and staring, Tristen finally spoke.
"You're so beautiful," she said, saying the first thing that entered her mind.
"So are you," he said, with his eyes still on her. "How long have you been staring at my beautiful face?"
"I don't know exactly. A while," she answered.
"Well, now that I'm awake, what should we do?" he asked.
"Well, I was thinking that we never got to finish what we started last night, and I don't think that Little Benjamin was very happy about that," she said with a wicked grin as she undid her robe to reveal that she wasn't wearing anything under it. Kicking off her slippers, she hopped into bed with him.
"No, Little Benj wasn't very happy about that at all. How considerate of you, Tristen," he joked.
"You know me, I just like to help people out," she joked back.
"Where are your parents?" he asked, worried that they would once again be interrupted before the plug even connected with the socket.
"Tuesdays are tennis days with Mr. and Mrs. Adams," she said.
"Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Adams!" he called out to nobody as he pulled the covers up and over them both.
---
"Kate!" Tristen squealed in the middle of the airport when she saw her friend and immediately ran to her. She hugged her tightly and then stepped back and looked at her. "You've changed so much! The hair is so cute, it's been ages since I've seen it so short!"
Kate and Tristen had been friends since the 6th grade. Kate was the closest thing that Tristen had to a sister. They were inseparable through most of their teen years, and were both sad that they would not be attending college together. While Tristen had attended Stanford, which was just a couple of hours away from their hometown, Kate had decided to attend college in France, where her grandparents lived. She had been living in France for 5 years, and now taught English to children there. She lived with her grandparents, but still came back to visit the rest of her family in California once or twice a year. Due to Tristen's hectic touring schedule for the past year and a half, they hadn't seen each other in nearly two years. Kate had come back for about a month and a half to visit with family, help Tristen out with the final wedding preparations, and of course to witness the event. Both were ecstatic to be reunited.
"Oh, thanks. I decided that it was finally time to chop it all off and do something fun with it. And look at you! You look so happy! Like you're about to burst!" Kate said, noticing that Tristen looked happier and more content than she had ever seen her in all of the 11 or so years that she had known her.
"I am happy! I'd like you to meet my fiance, Benji. Benji, this is Kate," Tristen said, introducing them.
"Nice to meet you," Benji smiled, sticking his hand out.
"You too," Kate said, accepting his hand and giving it a shake. They then went to get her bags and hopped into Tristen's dark green 2002 Lexus LX470, a 23rd birthday present to Tristen from her parents that replaced her 20th birthday present, which was a purple 1999 Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder GS-T that had hardly been driven and Benji now happily used while staying with Tristen and her family.
They stopped and had ice cream at Tristen and Kate's favorite place to have ice cream growing up, Pat's Ice Cream Parlor. Tristen and Kate used to go to the old fashioned themed parlor almost every day after school and order the same thing every time. For Tristen, it was a scoop of chocolate fudge in a waffle cone. For Kate, it was a scoop of chocolate chip cookie dough in a dish with as many maraschino cherries that Pat could fit on top. Pat was delighted to see the girls again, and even remembered their usual orders since he had served it to them so often and regularly for more than 4 years. Benji ordered a scoop of rocky road in a waffle cone, which Pat vowed to remember as his favorite because from now on it seemed that Benji would be accompanying Tristen to the ice cream parlor, which Tristen promised Pat she would visit each time she came back to town.
Tristen and Benji dropped Kate off at her parent's house, where she would be technically be staying (although they both knew that she would actually spend most of the time at Tristen's house) and made plans to meet up that night for dinner at Kate's house, so that Kate's parents could see Tristen again and meet Benji. When Benji and Tristen got back to her place, they noticed that her parents were out and decided to lay on the couch together and watch a movie. After much pleading, Tristen finally talked Benji into watching "Coyote Ugly," and she popped it into the dvd player and laid back down on the couch with Benji, Tristen in front of him resting the side of her head on his upper arm and Benji behind her with his arms wrapped around her.
Not long after the movie had started, Tristen's parents got back from jogging near the beach and both went to take showers. Once they were out, they made sandwiches and took them into the large family room where Tristen and Benji now sat on the couch together watching the end of the movie.
"While you two were out this morning, Benji's mother called with a great idea," Tristen's mom said.
"Oh, really? What idea did she have?" Tristen asked, curious.
"Well, she suggested that during your guys' stay in Maryland to visit her next week we should come along, that way we can meet before the wedding because you know how hectic it's going to be by the time she gets here and we're in the final stages of preparation. We'll have more time to get to know each other since we are going to be family and all. She just sounded like the sweetest person, as Benji has told us that she is, and we think that it will be a wonderful time," her mom said with a smile.
"Unfortunately, I could only get 3 days off at the office next week, so that means that since we are going there on Wednesday your mother and I will only get to spend 5 days with you guys. But, I think that it will still give us plenty of time to get aquatinted with one another and have a good time together," her father added.
Tristen and Benji looked at each other, and Tristen raised her eyebrows showing a surprised and somewhat scared expression.
"This should definitely be interesting," Benji thought.