AIP 8

They had both been in the club for half an hour dancing with each other, and having a laugh, Ben didn’t know anyone who could dance as much as Sofia, she was so active, and she was an amazing dancer.
“Can we go get a drink now?” Ben said.
“Yeah sure.”
“Thanks” he said as they walked over to the bar, Sofia’s ex-boyfriend was serving the drinks, they were now both really good mates. Sofia thought that even though she didn’t want to fall in love, she was still entitled to have fun and have a boyfriend.
“Hey Sof!”
“Hey Jamie” She said as she leant over and kissed him on the cheek.
“Ben what do you wanna drink?” Sofia asked,
“I’ll have a bacardi breezer, the watermelon one”
“k, Jamie, can I have to Breezer’s both watermelon”
“No, your underage Sof” Jamie said.
“Shut up, I want one!”
“Fine…but only coz you’re a close mate, if I get done, it’s your fault.” He said as he gave her two breezer’s. She went to pay but he said “nah, its on the house!”
“Awww thank you Jamie!”
“Your welcome sweetheart!”
“Well, I’m gonna go dance with, him” Sofia said pointing at her friend Jay he worked at the club but always danced with her.
“Jay and you, is there summit going on?”
“Eeyoo, no! He’s like so not my type, he’s too, err, I dunno, he’s too into himself, I just like dancing with him”
Jamie laughed and watched her approach Jay.
“Jay lets dance!!”
“k then” he said as he took her hand and they started dancing. Ben stared at Jay, feeling jealous, he wanted to dance with Sofia, he couldn’t believe he was falling for her, after just one day of knowing her, but she was so amazing, he felt like he had known her for a lifetime.
“You alright mate?” Jamie said to Ben.
“Yeah, I’m fine u?” He said still looking at Sofia.
“Yeah I’m cool, why don’t you just tell her?”
“Tell her what?” Ben said not interested.
“That you fancy her, its so obvious”
Ben took his attention away from Sofia and looked at Jamie “I…I dunno…what your talking about.”
“Oh, come on mate, it’s kinda obvious, and me being her ex boyfriend, I would know, coz I got that jealous of her and Jay too” Jamie said.
“Y…you’re her ex?” Ben said quietly.
“Yeah, but she didn’t want a serious relationship. She’s scared of love, she says she doesn’t wanna fall in love, but she does. She’s just so scared that she’s gonna get hurt that she doesn’t let herself be loved. I tried to get close to her but she pushed me away, it’s all she knows she was brought up in such an unstable environment. Her parents were always fighting and it left her scarred emotionally.” Jamie said.
Ben looked at him, he knew Sofia was hurt but he didn’t know she was scared of love, he wanted to help her, but he didn’t want her to push him away, he decided to try and help overcome her fear of love. “I need to talk to Sofia, thanks mate” Ben said as he walked over to where Sofia and Jay were.
“Sofia, can we go for a walk?” Ben asked.
“Yeah, sure” She said smiling and took his hand. Ben smiled and they walked out of the club. They walked down to the park and sat down by the lake, the stars were shining and it was lovely.
“Can I ask you something about your parents?” Ben said
“I…I guess…” Sofia said quietly.
“How old were you when they started fighting?”
“They started fighting after I was born, they never fought until I was born, my sister was first born, and until she was four, they were fine, it was when I was born, everything changed.” Sofia hugged her knees, feeling scared and alone.
“Do you blame yourself for their fighting?”

Sofia knodded, “they used to blame me too, they just never knew I heard, they still don’t know” a tear escaped her eye and fell to the ground, just one lonely tear. Ben wrapped his arms round her and hugged her softly, she couldn’t bring herself to hug him back, she was too scared, she knew she was falling for him, and she didn’t want to.
“Are you scared of love?”
“N…no” Sofia said, lying.
“Jamie said you are, and that you want to fall in love but your scared that you’ll get hurt.”
“He shouldn’t have told you that” Sofia said.
“So, its true?”
“No…it’s not”

“So you just don’t wanna fall in love?”
“No, I don’t” Sofia said, lying again.
Ben rolled his eyes because he knew what she said was a lie, “You know Sofia you are really stubborn”
“I am not stubborn!” She said.
“So why are you not giving in, even tho you know that you want love, you’re just scared? I wanna help you.”
“I don’t need help, I never have needed it and I never intend on needing it.”
Ben smiled at how stubborn she was, it was cute, but he was not gonna give up on her, she was gonna fall in love and live happily.
“You know, I’m not gonna give up until you admit that you wanna fall in love”
“I don’t care, I don’t want love.”
“You do”
“Don’t”
“Do”
“Don’t” they carried on arguing for about 10 minutes until Sofia finally cracked leaving Ben with a rather smug look on his face. “I told ya so.”
“Shut up, I only agreed to shut you up” She said.
“You did not”
“Did”
“Did not”
“Oh, lets not start this again”
“Start what?” Sofia said innocently.
“This”
“What?”
“This”
“What?”
“This”
“What?”
“Stoop it!!” Ben said laughing,
“Ok…this time I’ll stop it.” She said as she shivered.
“You cold?” Ben asked.
“Yeah a little bit.” He took his jacket off and went to wrap it around her but she wouldn’t accept it, “It’s Ok, I’m fine”
“You just said you were cold.”
“I am”
“So wear the jacket”
“No, coz then you’ll get cold” She said.
“Fine, then I’ll cuddle you to keep you warm” before Sofia could say no, Ben’s arms were wrapped round her cuddling her close. She didn’t want to admit it, but being in Ben’s arms made her feel safe, like no one could ever hurt her, and soon without realising it she rested her head on his shoulder. Ben smiled to himself and held her closer to him.