“Rupert, Louise, Natalie, Lucy, shut UP!” Ben called from his door. We stopped our game momentarily and looked at him innocently.

”NO!” Rupert shouted, and we all started jumping and shouting across the landing again. Mark came out of Ben’s room and started laughing.

”There’s only one way we can shut them up mate”

“Yeah. You get Lucy and Nat, I’ll get the terrible two”

They grinned at each other, and then ran after us. Nat squealed and charged down the stairs, with Mark hot on her heels. Ben dived between Rupert and me and grabbed our legs, pulling us down with him. Lucy giggled, watching us, and Mark grabbed her from behind, Nat already under his arm. Ben put his hands over Rupert and my mouths.

“Will you four please shut up? Mark and I are busy, writing songs. And it’s hard to concentrate with you lot shouting”

Rupert and I started arguing back through his hands, and he pretended to understand what we were trying to say.

“I really don’t care if you were arguing with Lucy and Nat. God, you two are SO annoying when you’re together. Made for each other or what?”
“Throw them in the broom cupboard together, see what they do!” Mark grinned. Nat and Lucy laughed, and all three of them rushed forward to help Ben. Before I knew it, Rupert and me were hauled into the upstairs cupboard, with Mark shutting the door on us. It was pitch black in there.

“Hey, let us out! Come on, open the door, this isn’t funny!” I called as I banged the door. Rupert put his hand on my shoulder. I shut up.

“He isn’t going to listen. He’ll leave us in here until mum calls”
“Lousy babysitter, isn’t he? He’s supposed to play with us”
“Yeah, well ‘I can’t help it if I’m inspired now shut up and enjoy the cupboard’-he always shoves me in here”

I hugged him, and he hugged back.

“Lou?” he whispered. I could barely hear him, his breathing had gone weird.
“Yeah Ru?” I whispered back.
“Um . . . nothing”
“Ru?”
“Yeah Lou?”
“You are so weird”
“So are you!”
“Oh, sure Adams! How’m I weird?”
“You let Ben rugby tackle you. No good comes from Ben’s tackles! How’m I weird?”
“Um, by telling me ‘nothing’? And I’ve never had Ben tackle me before; I’ve only seen him do it to you. I didn’t know what he was going to do!”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever, Manning”

I pushed him. He pushed back. We ended up wrestling on the cupboard floor. It’s stupid to wrestle with an Adams boy-they always win. Soon he was laying on top of me, both of us gasping for air.

“Lou?”
“Yeah Ru?”
“Hope we don’t get let out for a while”
“You really are weird”
“Oh, shut up Lou”
“Well, why don’t you wanna get let out?” I smoothed his floppy blond fringe out of his eyes.
“Because, I always have the most fun when it’s just you and me.” He hugged me, and like always, I hugged him back. But it felt different. Usually in Ru-and-Lou hugs, we put one arm around each other’s waist, and the other arm around each others necks. But he had both arms around my waist, and was burying his head into my neck.

“Ru?”
“Yeah Lou?” he sounded muffled.
“Are you all right?”
“Yeah, I’m great. Why?”
“You’re being weird . . . weirder than usual”

He laughed, and moved his head. I could feel him trying to make eye contact.

“You’re so nice to me sometimes”
“I know. Don’t you just love me for it?”
“Yeah, I guess”

He kissed my cheek, and a moment later, he moved and kissed my mouth. Wait-what the heck is he doing?

“Ru! What the heck are you doing?”
“Sorry, my hands are slipping on the floor”
“I gotta get up”

He got off me, and helped me off the floor. He was being way too weird for me to cope with, so I pushed against the cupboard door. Luckily, the door opened straight away, and I fell onto Ben.

“Lou, are you okay?” he asked from the floor where I’d knocked him. He sounded startled, and a bit winded.

“Help, Rupert’s being weird!”
“Rupert is weird”
“Weirder than normal-never shut me in a cupboard with him again!”

Ben hugged me to calm me down, and gave Rupert a weird look. I think they were mouthing over my head, because Ben kept making weird head movements.

“Ben?” I interrupted.
“Yeah?”
“When are our parents getting back from that fancy dinner?”
“Dunno, about two?”
“That’s late”
“Yup, and I promised your parents to help put you to bed. I was just going to do that actually, before you found your way out of the cupboard. Come on, Mark and Toby are sorting the others out, I got lumbered with you two” he picked me up then, and took me into Lucy’s room, Rupert following us closely. I made Rupert go out while I got changed, and then Ben helped me into the spare bed. He leaned over me as he tucked me in and whispered.

“What was Rupert doing earlier?”
“I think he tried to kiss me,” I whispered back. Ben’s eyebrows rose, and for a moment I thought he was smiling. If he had, it soon disappeared.

“Didn’t you want him to?”

I shook my head.

“Why do you think he did it?”

“Because he’s Rupert and he’s weird and I guess hugs aren’t enough anymore”

Ben just nodded and hugged me, and gave me a little kiss on my nose.

“Sweet dreams Lou”

He straightened up, and looked at Nat and Lucy as well.

“Right, the three of you are not supposed to stay up chatting, so in ten minutes you’ve got to shut up for once and try to sleep, alright?” he grinned and got to the door, then turned to wink at me before he went out to sort Rupert out. Nat rolled around in her sleeping bag, saw that Lucy was asleep already, and turned back to me.

“Lou?”
“Yeah?”
“I think Ben fancies you back”
“What???”
“Well, he chased you earlier, and told Toby and Mark that he wanted to chat to you so they should sort us out for bed, and he just kissed you and winked at you”

“Yeah he did. But I’m almost five years younger than him, he’ll never want me”

“I think he does. Didn’t he ask you to be his girlfriend last week?”
“He was teasing”
“I’m asking Toby when we get home. He’s bound to know and bound to tell me”
“Okay. Nat?”
“Yeah?”
“Are you and Rupert boyfriend and girlfriend?”
“Urgh, no! Gross, Rupert? I’m not Kel, Lou! I know who he likes and it isn’t me”
“He told you? He won’t ever tell me!”
“Yeah, but you never told him you have a thing for his older brother”

“Has he ever asked?”
“Oh yeah, of course! Well, not asked about Ben, just in general. I never tell him though. Like I’ll never tell you who he likes. You have to tell each other”

She rolled over again, and I knew she wanted to fall asleep. I couldn’t sleep myself though; I was too busy churning over what Natalie had just told me. Was it actually possible that he could actually like me back? That I could actually be Ben Adams’ girlfriend?

Hey peeps! Just a quick note to say-this is my LAST update until after my exams. I need to revise to get into uni! I will be back with loads of fics written in the occasional spare moment though! xxx zee xxx