“Cheers mate. I’ll see you tomorrow Mark.” Ben called as he got out of
the car and walked towards the door of his London flat.
Letting himself in, he picked up the post that was randomly scattered
over the floor.
“Why can it not just stay in one neat pile?” he muttered to himself,
walking through to the kitchen and dumping the letters on the surface as he
switched on the kettle.
“What do we have here then?” Ben asked, flipping through the pile.
“Bill, bill, bank statement, ah-ha!”
He picked up a square yellow envelope and grinned as he recognised the
familiar handwriting. Ignoring the other letters, he made himself a cup of
coffee and sat down on the sofa in the front room, pressing the “messages”
switch on his answering machine as he passed. There was a beep and then Paul’s
voice came out of the machine.
“Hi Ben, it’s Paul. Just wondering if you’re coming out tonight mate.
Give me a call when you get in.”
There was another beep to signify the end of the messages.
Sipping his coffee, Ben opened the envelope he was
holding and started to read the letter from his little sister, Lucy. When he’d
finished reading, he reached over the side of the sofa and picked up the phone.
He checked his watch, and seeing that it was quite late, decided to call Paul
on his mobile. He pressed the speed-dial button for Paul’s number and after
about five rings, Paul answered.
“Hello?”
“Hi Paul, it’s Ben.”
“Ah Ben mate, you coming out?”
“I think I’m gonna stay in tonight if that’s okay?”
“You’ll be missing all the fun…” Paul warned, clearly already drunk.
“I think I’ll just about cope mate, but thanks for the offer.” Ben
assured him.
“Well if you’re sure man…”
“I’m sure. Have a good night, make sure you get yourself to the studios
tomorrow.” Ben subtly reminded him, not wanting a repeat of their post Brits
interview when Paul had got so drunk the night before, they couldn’t get him
out of bed the next day and had to do the show without him!
“I wiiiiill!!!!”
“Good, I’ll see you tomorrow then.”
“Byyyyyyyeeeeeeee!!!!!!!” Paul shouted, probably as much to the people
he was drinking with, as to Ben.
Ben laughed as he hung up. Paul was so funny when he was drunk.
“Right…”
With that done, it was time for the next task. Not that it was exactly a
task, just slightly nerve wracking.
He had to call Chloe.
It was half past 10; Ben hoped he hadn’t left it too late. Finding her
number, Ben took a deep breath and dialled it, noticing with interest that his
heart was beating faster than usual.
“Hello?”
“Chloe?” Ben asked, not confident he could recognise her voice on the
phone.
“Yeah.”
“Hi, it’s Ben.”
“Hiya! How are you?”
“I’m fine, I’m not ringing too late am I?”
“Oh no, me and Rose will be up for ages. What time did you get back?”
“About 20 minutes ago.”
“Really? Wow. Was there lots of traffic?”
“Nah, not really, just the usual.”
“Cool.”
“So… how are you?” Ben asked, really struggling for something to say
which was odd for him; he could usually talk for hours about nothing!
“I’m fine!” Chloe said.
There was an awkward pause.
“Is it just me, or is this conversation unnecessarily formal?” Chloe
asked.
Ben smiled. Straight to the point as usual.
"It is, isn’t it” he agreed.
“Why is that? I mean, we’ve just spent a whole day together, you’d think
we’d be able to chat on the phone wouldn’t you?”
“You would think that. Well let’s try, maybe it’ll come naturally after
a while!” Ben suggested.
“I think it’s my fault you know.” Chloe said.
“Why’s that?”
“Well I’m rubbish at talking on the phone.”
“You’re doing alright. I think you’ve just about mastered the art of
speaking into the right bit.”
Chloe laughed. “Well y’know, took me a few years, but once you’ve got
the hang of it… like riding a bike.”
“You never forget.”
“Uh-huh. Oooh, wouldn’t it be good if elephants could ride bikes?”
“What?” Ben asked.
That was a very random thing to say!
“Well elephants never forget, right? And you never forget how to ride a
bike…”
“Ohhhhh. You’re very strange.” Ben said.
Chloe laughed. “So you keep telling me!”
“Do I?”
“On average, after every other sentence I say.”
“Oh. Sorry about that!”
“That’s okay, I like people thinking I’m strange.”
“Again…”
“Don’t say it.”
“I don’t think I need to do I?”
“Well not really.”
“Works for me.”
“I wish you were here.” Chloe said.
“Me too. I mean, your room’s just so nice…”
“Oh, so you wouldn’t want to spend any time with me, you just like my
room.”
“Yeah, I think that’s the general gist of it.” Ben joked.
“Very funny.”
“I know, it’s a gift!”
“Yeah. Moving on! I can’t wait for the weekend.”
“Me too, it’s gonna be really fun.”
“Anything’s fun when I’m with you.”
“Well in that case, be prepared for some mega fun! Oh, before I forget,
we’re doing GMTV tomorrow so watch it.”
“What time?” Chloe asked.
“About 7.”
“7 o’ clock?! You do realise I’ll have to wake up specially to watch it.
Honestly, the things I do for you! No, I’m only joking, of course I’ll watch
it. It’ll be cool, I’ll get to see you on TV and go, ‘that’s my boyfriend!’”
Ben laughed. “I was thinking about you the whole way down here.” He
said.
“Really?”
“Yeah, thinking about how great you are and how much I wish I didn’t
have to leave you. Especially not when you were upset. Are you okay now?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. I guess I just didn’t want you to go coz I’d had such a
good time, and to be honest, it seemed like if you went, then it wouldn’t be
real any more. Does that make sense? I’m not very good with words.”
“Everything you say makes sense to me Clo.”
“I think you’re the only person in the whole world who thinks that. We
must have some kind of special connection.” Chloe said.
“We must have.” Ben agreed, thinking the whole time how he didn’t think
it was possible to love her any more than he did right now.
He hadn’t thought it was possible to love anyone this much.
But he did.
“Yeah, it was good fun, we met a couple of fans, took them out, it was
cool.” Mark was telling his parents from the kitchen where he was making
himself a sandwich.
He’d decided to leave out the bit where he had a 16 year old girlfriend
and had invited her to stay for the weekend, although eventually, he was going
to have to mention it. Ideally, before she came to stay. It wasn’t like he was
scared of telling them exactly, but a part of him kept saying that they
wouldn’t approve and he wanted them to. He wanted them to like Rose as much as
he did. He didn’t want it to be awkward when she came round. Maybe he could use
the old ‘as long as I’m happy, why does it matter?’ guilt trip.
“I think I’ll go and watch some TV in my room.” Mark said, appearing in
the doorway of the living room. “I might not see you tomorrow morning coz I’ve
gotta leave quite early to get to the studios. But I should be back sometime in
the afternoon; it depends what we do after the show. We’re rehearsing for some
of the road shows we’re doing this summer for a couple of hours I think so
it’ll probably be about 2 when I get back.”
“Okay.” Pamela said.
Mark smiled. “Goodnight then.”
“Sleep well love.”
“I will, night dad.”
“Goodnight.”
Breathing a sigh of relief that he’d managed to avoid any intense
questioning on the events on the past few days, Mark went up the stairs to his
room and closed the door behind him. He didn’t know what to do with himself. He
felt all funny inside and every time he thought about Rose, which was
continually, he got what can only be described as an electric shock of what?
Affection? Lust? …love?
Mark wasn’t sure. His mind was unusually scatty and he didn’t know what
he felt like doing. He was pretty sure he wouldn’t sleep if he went to bed
right now. Not after the day he’d had. Not if he kept thinking about Rose.
Which he would. So sleep was pretty much a no-no.
Mark looked around his entertainment packed room.
There must be something I can do. He thought, sitting down on his bed.
But then again, if the only thing he felt physically and mentally able
to do was think about Rose, then why not do that?
“Because it’ll drive me crazy not being with her,
that’s why.” Mark said out loud. He liked the whole ‘new relationship’ phase,
but not when he wasn’t with the girl. Then it was horrible. Almost as if he was
missing out on that fun first few months.
Uh-oh, talking to yourself Mark, not a
good sign. He thought
worriedly, going over to his stereo and pressing play, not bothering to see
what CD was in there. Walking back over to his bed, he smiled as he heard the
familiar sounds of The Beatles, his favourite group.
Giving in to the Rose thoughts racing manically around his head, Mark
lay down on his bed as the vocals kicked in.
‘Oh yeh, I’ll tell you something,
I think you’ll understand,
When I say that something,
I wanna hold your hand.’
I want to do more than that. Mark thought as he relaxed. The song
playing was so true of how he felt at that moment. Considering that, it was a
shame he didn’t get to hear it all, as he was asleep by the end of the second
chorus, obviously a lot more tired than he’d thought.
“Do you think Mark’s alright?” Mark’s mum asked his dad worriedly, as
they sat in the front room.
“He looked fine to me.” Keith said, not looking up from the book he was
reading.
“Don’t you think he seemed a bit less chatty than usual?” Pamela
persisted.
“There’s something he’s not telling us, if that’s what you mean?”
“Yes, he seemed to be in a hurry to be on his own.”
“He’s met someone.” Keith said.
“How do you know that?” Pamela asked, surprised.
“He put sugar in my coffee.” Keith revealed.
“Did he?”
Keith nodded.
“Aw… Why hasn’t he told us about her?”
“Maybe he doesn’t want to tell us yet. I’m sure he will eventually. You
worry about him too much Pam.”
“I know, I just like to make sure he’s happy.”
“He is happy. It’s in his eyes. And in my coffee.”