Sammie couldn’t breathe-she had to get air. She opened her mouth and heard giggling. She sat up in Ben’s bed and opened her eyes. As she did, she realised why she couldn’t breathe through her nose-Paul was pinching it gently. Kaz was doing the same to Ben, and a few moments later he sat up, gasping for breath as well.
“Paul you pig” Ben said, his voice sounding strange as Kaz was still holding his nose. “Get off of my girlfriend, then get your girlfriend off of me” Paul let go of Sammie’s nose and kissed her cheek by way of apology, then walked around Ben’s bed and turned Kaz around, resting his hands on her hips as soon as she was facing him. Ben and Sammie wrapped their arms around each other and watched Paul and Kaz whispering. Ben started humming quietly, playing with Sammie’s hair. Paul noticed the humming and turned his head around.
“Doesn’t that annoy you, Sammie?” he asked, trying to hold in his laughter. Sammie shook her head and buried it into Ben’s chest.

“Awww!” Kaz and Paul said together. Ben reached behind and grabbed a pillow, then threw it at them. Paul let go of Kaz and pulled Ben’s duvet clean off the bed.
“Come on” he said “Get up, get dressed and tell us how it went” he led Kaz out of the room. Ben crawled across the bed to retrieve the duvet and started laughing. Sammie looked at him and was greeted by the sight of his bum clad in his white boxers.
“What’s up?” she asked, trying to focus on another part of his body. She looked at his feet but all too soon her eyes were flickering back up.
“Paul’s dragged our stuff in here. I think they really want to know how our week went” he came back and covered them both with the duvet again, putting his arm over Sammie as he did. “So let’s keep them in suspense” He kissed her forehead and held her tighter. After ten minutes, Paul marched back into the room.
“Oh, stop being difficult! Come and tell us”
“Hmmm . . . . . no!”
“Fine, you can tell us in here” he raised his voice. “KAZ! The lazy arses are insisting we listen in the boudoir!”
Kaz came into the room giggling, and sat with Paul at the foot of Ben’s bed, both looking expectantly and curiously at Ben and Sammie.
“Come on, spill! How was it?” Paul asked impatiently.
“Terrible”
“Awful”
“Horrid weather”
“Nasty locals”
“She was a cow”
“He was a bastard”
“Thank god for the camera crew”
“Yeah, the only highlight of the week”
Paul and Kaz looked at them gobsmacked, until Ben and Sammie burst into laughter. Paul grabbed a t-shirt and threw it at them.
“Be serious!”
“It was fantastic”
“It was good, apart from the first day”
“Only ‘coz you got drunk”
“I was thinking along the lines of you disappearing”

“I was only playing, and I did make up for it later”
“Getting me drunk was making up for it?”
They burst into laughter again. Paul clicked his tongue impatiently, and slipped his arm around Kaz.
“Okay Paul, what do you want to know specifically?” Paul grinned dirtily. “I’m not saying whether we did or didn’t”
“Why not? We already know you’ve snogged”
“And that’s all you’ll ever know”
“Why?”
“’Coz, like we’ve already discussed, I respect Sammie and because I respect her so much I’m not going to discuss that. Anything else you want to know?”
“Um, did you stay in Male again?” Ben nodded. “Okay . . . are you two . . . you know, together now?”
Ben and Sammie looked into each others eyes and smiled. Ben took one of Sammie’s hands.
“Sammie is officially my girlfriend” he held up the hand to show the ring he had bought.
“And Ben is officially my boyfriend” she let go of Ben completely, and searched inside their t-shirts for the necklace and neck chain. Paul and Kaz gasped when they saw them.
“They look bloody expensive” Kaz breathed.
“They didn’t cost as much as I would’ve spent” Ben said simply, hugging Sammie again.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Ben giggled.
“They’re only silver. I want them to be platinum”
“Anyway . . . what did you do there?”
“This, that, the other”
“Ben! Seriously!”
“Bit of beach, bit of pool, bit of market, bit of dolphins, lot of this” Ben leaned over and kissed Sammie.
“Do you actually remember much of it?”
“Enough for the show”
“Oh” Sammie finally spoke, interrupting Paul’s interrogation. “Oh, Ben, what are they going to show? You really rubbed one of them the wrong way-I know he started it, but you gave him a reaction. They could show things that contradict what we say”
Ben thought for a while, his smile slowly fading as he did. He cupped her chin and made her look into his eyes.
“When we do our private interviews later, watch what you say. They’ll be waiting for certain things to fit with their footage”
“They do that?”
Kaz interrupted.
“Yeah, in dead famous, that Ben Elton book, this girl said something in the big-brother diary room thing, but the producer didn’t like her and shortened her speech so she sounded like a right cow”
“They do it to us all the time too. Be very careful Sammie” Paul leaned over and squeezed her hand. The doorbell went.
“Who’s that?” Paul asked, seemingly interested. Ben rushed to the door and Sammie rushed to her case.
“Sammie what’s going on?”
“Um, Ben asked someone over the other day, I don’t want them to see me in . . . I was gonna say nightclothes but Ben’s t-shirt is worse. Don’t leave the room, they don’t know you’re here, they think it’s just Ben and me” she rushed out of the room, arms laden with clothes, closing the door firmly behind her. Ben saw her rush to the bathroom, and knew he had five minutes to keep Christian busy before Sammie took over and he could change.
“Hey Ben” Christian sighed.
“Chris, are you okay? You look tired”
Christian slumped into Ben’s armchair.
“I am, I haven’t slept since I saw Paul and Kaz . . .” he noticed Ben’s sofa bed was still opened “. . . why’s that opened out?”
“Sammie stayed over last night,” Ben said simply, praying that Christian would accept it.
“So you gave her your bed and slept out here?” Ben nodded. “That’s cute. So why’m I here Ben?”
“What, I’ve been away for a week and we only spoke once and you don’t want to see me or find out how my date’s been? Chris, I’m hurt!” Ben looked at him from under his eyebrows, lowering his head so he looked especially vulnerable. Christian sighed heavily.
“Sorry man. Obviously you’d be excited about it. So where is she?”
At that moment, Sammie entered the room. She smiled at Christian, and then hugged Ben.
“Chris, this is Sammie, Sammie, you know this is Chris. I know you’ve met before. I’m just going to get changed, see you in a sec” He left the room. Sammie smiled nervously at Christian.
“Hi”
“Hey”

“Um, how are you?”
Christian sighed yet again.
“Not good, but I’ll survive. How about you, I mean, Ben did treat you right, didn’t he?”
“He was a perfect gentleman”
“Good. So you had a good time then?”
“Yeah, it was great. Fantastic even”
Christian nodded, and looked around, while Sammie chewed on the skin around her nails, wondering what to say. She couldn’t think past Kaz and Paul.
“I can’t believe how lazy Ben is, he hasn’t packed up his bed yet!” Christian exclaimed, trying to laugh.
“Do you think we should do it for him then?” Sammie suggested, wondering if he’d talk more if he were kept busy. He nodded, and together they moved off all the sheets and pillows, and started moving the bed back into a sofa form. They were about to fold the blankets when someone knocked at the door. Sammie looked at Christian, who was managing to smile.
“That’s Mark’s special knock”
Sammie smiled back and let Mark in. He immediately started whispering to her.
“Hey Sammie. Where’s Ben?”
“Getting changed”
“They all here?” Mark waved at Christian, then focused back on Sammie.
“Yeah, in the bedroom” She raised her voice to its normal level. “Want to help me and Christian tidy up after Ben?” she giggled a little. Mark nodded, and started helping after Sammie had called to Ben, letting him know Mark had arrived. As they folded the second blanket, Christian let out a gasp and dropped his corner.
“Um, Chris, if you keep hold of the blanket you can fold, it’s harder if you let go” Mark tried to joke. Christian just stared in front of him. Sammie and Mark looked to where Christian was staring, and saw Ben with Paul and Kaz.
“ THEY are here” he finally stated.
“Yeah, um, Ben and I wanted to talk to the three of you” Sammie said quietly.
“So I’m here under false pretences”
“No, I really will bang on about the date, I’ll just do it once the three of you have heard us out” Ben said quietly, but there was a cheeky glint in his eye.
“Why’s Mark here?” Christian sighed.
“To clean up after Ben!” Everyone shot him a Look. “Okay! I’m doing the same as Ben and Sammie”
Christian sighed again, and sat on the edge of the sofa bed, folding his arms and looking away from everyone else.
“Paul, sit in the middle. Don’t ask why, just do, okay?” Paul nodded and sat next to Christian, looking at him hopefully. Kaz sat next to him, and took his hand. Ben and Mark sat on the regular sofa opposite, and Ben pulled Sammie onto his lap.
“Christian?” Sammie asked. He turned to look at her. “Um, what exactly do you want?”
He looked surprised by the question.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, do you want Paul back as a mate or what?”
Christian lapsed into thought.
“I guess so, but it doesn’t mean I’m forgiving him”
“But you’re okay with making up?”
Christian paused, shrugged, and nodded. Paul smiled broadly, and hugged him hard, and Christian caved, hugging him back just as hard.
“Oh, you do still love me, Chris! That’s great, I love ya too man!”
Everyone waited until Paul and Christian finished hugging, then Sammie started questioning Christian again.
“What about Kaz? What’ll you do about her?”
Christian looked over at Kaz, who smiled back shyly.
“Well, I wouldn’t mind hanging around with her, as friends, but first I need time away from her”
Mark and Ben nodded, Paul and Christian hugged again, and Sammie watched Kaz for a few seconds, then crossed the room to hug her, preventing any of the guys from seeing Kaz crying.

*****

Paul and Mark were competing on a fighting game on Ben’s PS2. Ben was watching, and encouraging Kaz to put Paul off. Sammie and Christian were in the kitchen talking.
“Sammie?”
“Yeah?”
“Um, can you stop calling me Christian? It sounds so formal, everyone else just calls me Chris, please do it too”
“Okay. Chris? Are you okay?”
He nodded and smiled.
“Yeah, thanks to you and Ben. So, you’re properly together”
“Yeah”
“Cool. Wow, Ben has a proper girlfriend. You must have something really special about you. I reckon I can see it, and he’s very, very lucky” Sammie smiled back, and hugged him, blushing slightly from his compliments. Ben walked into the kitchen at that moment and insisted on hugging the both of them, kissing the top of Sammie’s head as he did so.
“Are we all good now Chris?”
“Yeah, it’s all good”
They giggled, then joined everyone else in Ben’s lounge.