*Sigh* the penultimate chapter. It’s been done for months. Which is bizarre, I still haven’t done chapter 29-I needed a break before I did that chapter. Anywho, just wanna say, I have NO idea what happened to the latter half of this chapter . . . even shifting while I returned had that hideous result. I blame mum’s pootah, it doesn’t like to run normally. Still, enjoy! xxx zee xxx

Ben’s doorbell rang, and he fought with Paul to answer it.
“But what if that’s Kaz, Ben?” Paul complained as Ben shoved him out of the way.
“Then it’ll be Sammie too, as it’s my flat, I get to open the door to them!” Ben argued, and threw the door open to reveal . . . Keith.
“Hey Ben, thanks for inviting me! I can’t wait to see this!” He smiled as he walked in, and promptly started playing with Rupert and Lucy. Ben crashed in between Mark and Christian.
“Ben, are you okay? You’re really uptight” Mark said, and put a reassuring arm around him.
“Yeah, I’m okay, just wondering how many guys have hit on my girlfriend, nothing major”
“Well, you don’t have to worry, unless Sammie is really stupid, she’ll never find anyone better than you”
“Thanks Mark, but that doesn’t stop me worrying. We haven’t seen each other since that week”
“That hasn’t stopped you from phoning each other twenty times a day. I thought as a relationship went on you phone each other less, but you two are phoning each other more than ever. It’s obviously a good sign”
Ben grinned, and hugged him.
“That’s actually really reassuring. Thanks”
“Anytime!”
The doorbell rang again, and Paul opened the door. Kaz, Sammie and their families were crowded into the hall.
“Ben! She’s here!” Paul yelled, then wrapped his arms around Kaz. “Hi Mrs Kaz’s mum, hi, Mr Kaz’s dad!”
“Hello again Paul,” they smiled. Paul led them into Ben’s living room, holding onto Kaz tightly as he introduced her to his parents, sister, and brother in law. Sammie looked around the familiar room and saw Ben squished in between Mark and Christian in his armchair. They smiled at each other, and Ben wrestled his way up to introduce himself to Sammie’s parents. Max ran over to where Ben had been sitting, and squished himself between Mark and Christian, who immediately started chatting with him. While Ben was trying to impress Sammie’s parents, Sammie wrapped her arms around him. He hugged her back, and broke off his speech momentarily to kiss her. At that exact moment his parents walked in with Mark’s family, and Christian’s parents and sister.
“Hey, it’s five to, put the TV on, we’re going to miss it otherwise! Ben, have you got a video set up?”
“Yeah, it’s in there” He sighed, as he ran his hands through Sammie’s hair. As they stood by the door, getting reacquainted, everyone else looked for a seat. As the familiar tune started up, Ben found a spot on the floor and sat Sammie on top of him, kissing her gently. She snuggled into him, and made eye contact with Keith. They smiled at each other, before Keith focused back onto Christian’s sister, who he’d been chatting with for a while, and Sammie focused her attention to playing with Ben’s fingers.
Eventually, they got to Keith and Alicia talking about their date. Alicia was really laying into him, and Cilla was encouraging her to do so. Ben narrowed his eyes and tensed up. Sammie immediately noticed, and rubbed his arms to calm him down. They both looked at Keith and Christian, but they both seemed happy enough, so neither of them said anything. As Ben focused back on the television, he caught Sammie’s dad’s eye. Luckily, he was smiling at Ben and Sammie, so Ben smiled back. They waited for this girl to pick between three desperate guys, and finally a clip of Sammie and Ben was being shown.
Sammie immediately thought of the past week at school, after the first episode she had been on had been shown. Half the girls thought she was so lucky and were practically idolising her. They’d even given her things to pass on to other bands that were nothing to do with her relationship. The other half though, through jealousy, had been threatening her. She had decidedly stuck close to Kaz by day and talked to Ben at night, often crying if someone had been particularly vicious. And Ben had proved how much he still cared, often spending hours making sure she felt better, telling her how much he missed her and how he’d do anything to make her life better, often ending in his wish for her to come on tour with them at some point. The break finished and the interview was finally being screened.
“Hello again, Ben and Sammie!”
“Hi Cilla” they said together, and giggled.
“Well, you two look like you’re getting on well! Shall we look at the video and see what you got up to in the past week, eh chucks?” Cilla asked rhetorically. Before the VT started rolling, the camera zoomed in to show Ben take Sammie’s hand.
The first clip was on the beach, and showed Ben picking Sammie up and running with her into the sea while ‘Summertime of our lives’ started playing in the background. It cut to them playing about in the sea for a few seconds, before showing them together at the barbeque, first dancing, and then behind the tree, kissing. Ben tensed again as he watched, and Sammie gripped his arm. Everyone else shifted uncomfortably in their seats, and focused back onto the screen. Ben and Sammie were now whispering on the boat, and acting as though they were already very close. Sammie turned and faced Ben.
“Did you know they were filming that?”
“Not until you had fallen asleep”
“How much more have they filmed that we don’t know about?” Sammie asked desperately. Ben’s eyes widened as he thought of all the things that could have been filmed. He shrugged, and looked back at the TV. Clips were being shown in the market, first talking normally, then running and whispering, including a sound bite of the whispers they had thought were so private and secluded. The rest of the room were looking curiously at the both of them, looking now and again at the television set.
“Didn’t you two see this in the studio?”
“No, we only got shown each others interviews. I bet I know why they did this though” Sammie said, and exchanged a look with Ben, while everyone else turned back to the TV. Ben and Sammie were standing in the rain, kissing passionately. Ben began to kiss down her neck. Ben was the first of the couple to notice.
“BASTARDS!” He shouted, and as Sammie turned to see them in a tight embrace, she coloured.
“How? How did they get half of this?”
“Well, my telling them to piss off could have something to do with them sneaking around for cheap shots”
“Or maybe us running off for the afternoon made them decide to lay in wait for us”
They were together in the pool, talking and giggling, which faded into a scene of them playing with dolphins, including some underwater shots.
“Ben! You promised me that next time you got a chance to play with dolphins you’d take me!” Lucy complained, ignoring the TV finally. Ben walked up to the camera grinning, thumbs up in the air. Sammie giggled.
“Ben, why did you do that?”
“I was in a weird mood”
“So was that about me or the dolphins?” She asked and he laughed.
“Ooh, tough decision!” She slapped one of his arms. “Okay! The dolphins!” She slapped his other arm. “Oh, you want me to say you, I get it”
“Will you two shut up? They’re showing your interviews now” Paul said, and leaned off his chair to smack the back of Ben’s head lightly. Ben pulled Sammie closer to him, thinking about what to do about the camera crew. He could vaguely remember this interview, but to be honest they were all exactly the same, the only thing that really stood out was that Sammie had been right by him, squeezing his hand every now and again. Sammie had remembered more about it, and how Cilla had managed to be really condescending to the both of them without anyone else noticing.
“So, I take it this means you’ve broken thousands of girl hearts and gotten together?” Cilla smirked at them. Ben had taken charge of this question.
“I don’t know about breaking hearts Cilla, but yes, Sammie is now my girlfriend”
Even watching this back, Sammie was glad he’d answered. She wouldn’t have known where to look, let alone how to answer. She winced s the audience booed. That had really upset her at the time, and right now it was no different. Ben tightened his grip on her, like he had in the interview.
“What was this I heard about an argument on the first day?”
Bloody Cilla. Sammie answered this question; she had felt the need to make it up to Ben.
“Oh, that’s nothing. I just had a bit of jetlag and Ben decided to hide from me, that was my fault, but as you can see, we got over it”
Cilla took it the wrong way, totally annoying both Ben and Sammie.
“So you had a go at our Ben?”
‘Not your Ben, you’ve only met him once, you know nothing about him, and never will.’
“Not exactly, I just went to get a little space to try and get over the jetlag. We had a brilliant dinner together that night so obviously it wasn’t that big a deal,” Sammie had snapped at her.

In Ben’s living room, Sammie was burying her head into her hands. She was coming across as this complete bitch. Ben turned her around and pulled her into him as she broke down into silent tears. Ben kissed the top of her head, and whispered
“Hey, come on, ignore it, we can get through this. I promise nothing bad is going to happen to you, even if everyone acts like they hate you, I won’t let them hurt you for standing up for us”
She started crying harder, trying to stay silent so no one else in the room would worry about her, or fuss over her.

Cilla was probing them again on the screen.
“I heard another rumour”
“Did you Cilla?” Ben tried to smile, but he sounded too off-hand for it to be genuine. By now, his arm was right across Sammie’s shoulders, trying to show how protective he was of her.
“I heard you two have matching necklaces”
They exchanged a look, smiled briefly at each other, and pulled each others necklaces out, holding them up for a closer inspection by Cilla and the cameras.

Everyone in the room gasped, except for Paul and Kaz, and looked over again at Ben and Sammie’s huddle. Only Mark got a strange feeling from seeing them like it, and pulled them out into the kitchen.
“Oh, Sammie, why are you crying?”
“’Coz now all of England will see me and think ‘what a pretentious bitch’ and I can’t exactly prove them wrong now, can I?”

Mark shrugged helplessly.
“I didn’t think you came across as any kind of bitch. If anything, Cilla was a bitch, for asking questions like that. I think the fans will see her as unreasonable too, even on the screen it looked like Ben wanted to hit her for what she was . . . Ben, who are you phoning?”
Sammie had been smiling gratefully at Mark, and turned to see Ben, through her tears, lift his mobile to his ear. He shook his head at Mark, and rolled his eyes, mouthing to himself as the other end rang.
“Oh, hi, is that the producer of Blind Date? Okay, can you put me through? . . . Ben Adams” He started scowling.
Mark and Sammie exchanged a look.
“What?” They mouthed together.
“The bastards put me on hold” Ben muttered. Through the hallway, they heard the familiar tune start up again, then heard Lucy shout ‘ITV2, now!’. Mark and Sammie giggled, but Ben kept the scowl on his face. Mark made eye contact with Sammie, sighed, then leaned over and muttered
“He’s being bloody stubborn again”
“Oh, shut up Ma-hi, is that the producer of Blind Date? Oh, don’t put me on hold again; you’ve got crap muzak. Listen, this is Ben Adams, I was- . . . oh, you do know, well, could you put me through to him? I don’t care, I have a problem with the show, and I wanna complain . . . no, I want the producer! . . . thank you . . . okay”
Ben smiled slightly and mouthed ‘got through’ to the others in the kitchen. They smiled back.
“Hello, who’s this? . . . You are? Good! It’s Ben Adams . . . yeah, so did I” He leant over and wiped Sammie’s cheeks to remove her tears. “Well of course you did, after what Cilla said to Sammie I expect your ratings are through the roof! . . . I don’t care . . . because I’m having to stand here and watch Sammie cry . . . have you ever seen your wife cry? . . . no, it’s not that different! I want a formal apology . . . why not? We’d have to if we were even a tenth that evil to someone . . . she’s in tears and you don’t even care! . . . Well, prove it, make it up to her the way she deserves . . . If she gets death threats, you can tell her that . . . that won’t be enough . . . yeah, okay”
Mark was looking at Ben cautiously, confusion written all over his face. Ben ignored him and instead pulled Sammie towards him to give her a hug.
“Um, it’s 0-7-7-3-7-5-6-2-2-9-0. What time are you calling? Okay, and before you go . . . yeah I have another complaint! When we agreed to do the show I don’t remember there being a clause that said the crew could film whatever the hell they wanted. Half the footage shown were private moments that the crew weren’t meant to even see, let alone film . . . it’s not good enough! . . . How the hell did they get those shots? . . . No, I’m not being unreasonable, they were unreasonable to film without our knowledge . . . I’m looking for my copy of the contract then, and if I’m right, I’m going to sue your arses off.”
He hung up then, and practically threw his mobile onto the worktop. Mark walked over and pulled him into a hug.
“Why did we agree to go on that goddamn show?”
“Well, if I remember rightly Ben, which we both know is a risk, you were the one who was really up for it, it was me who didn’t want to”
“Yeah, but I wasn’t thinking about the show, I was thinking about the holiday. I should’ve known something would screw up, I mean, the week was perfect, Sammie was perfect . . . and you weren’t up for it in case you forgot her name!”
“Thanks Ben, make me feel good, after all, I’m trying to help”
“I’m sorry Mark, I didn’t mean it like that . . . how could they screw up so badly when it was so amazingly great?
“’Coz people get jealous when they see a good thing, realise they can’t have it and think ‘if it’s not mine, it’s no one’s’ and there we go, they try and break you up”
“Bloody imbeciles” Ben finally turned to Sammie. “Are you okay babe?” He held out a spare arm. She walked over and hugged Ben back, accidentally trapping Mark as well.
“Yeah, I’m alright, what about you?”
“I guess I’m okay. But I’m really pissed off at them.”
“Ben! I didn’t bring you up to swear your mouth off!” Mrs. Adams exclaimed as she entered the kitchen with Mrs. Read and Sammie’s mother. Ben looked incredibly guilty.
“Sorry mum, really, but they’re giving me loads of attitude, and it should be the other way around. You know the person on that screen wasn’t the real Sammie, and you know what’s going to happen now.”
“I don’t know Ben, I don’t know Sammie at all, but even I could tell she was being tricked into saying those things” Mark said quietly.
“Yeah, but that’s different. You’re my best mate, and you can always see the best in everyone, not everyone’s going to be as great about it as you.” As Ben spoke, Sammie’s mother pulled her away from Ben and Mark and hugged her, although Ben insisted on keeping hold of her hand.
“Well, I could tell you two really care about each other . . . although we’re not sure of one thing” Mrs. Adams piped up, exchanging a look over Sammie’s head with her mother.
“What?” Ben panicked, and Sammie spun around to look at her, worry written all over her face.
“Those clips they showed, the one of you two kissing at night?” Ben and Sammie’s heart simultaneously sunk. This wasn’t going to be good. They grasped each other’s hands tighter. “Well, we were just worried that you two had gone further and . . . well, slept together out on the street.”
Sammie’s jaw dropped, and Ben’s eyebrows rose.
“It’s not that we have a problem with you sleeping together, you’re both old enough to, but . . . it was the fact that you were getting heavy like that in a public place where it’s illegal, and probably not the sort of thing to go down too well in that sort of culture” Sammie’s mother hastily added to Anita’s speech. Ben was first to remember how to talk.
“I can’t believe you think I have so little respect for Sammie that I’d do that for the whole world to see. It’s bad enough the camera crew were spying on us to get that footage” His voice was barely more than a whisper, and tears were collecting in his eyes.
“Oh Ben, we’re not having a go at you for it, we’re just concerned in case it gets the both of you into trouble . . . although I’m not sure that little kid’s mothers will be impressed to see a popstar practically sleeping with someone in the middle of the street”
“Mum, why are you making me out to be so bad?” He sniffed, and the tears started falling. Sammie let go of his hand and wrapped her arms around him tightly, trying to cope with his weight as he melted into her hug. Mrs. Adams walked over and stroked her son’s face.
“I’m not trying to do that sugar, you know that I think the world of you. But others might not, and I was only expressing my motherly concerns”
“So it’s alright for everyone else to cop off with whoever they wanna wherever and whenever they wanna but as soon as I show how much my girlfriend means to me I’ve basically committed a crime? How wrong is that?!” He sniffed again, and realised he was making Sammie’s neck incredibly wet, and started trying to dry it. She gave him a small squeeze.
“Sammie, are you okay? You’re being awfully quiet”
“I still can’t believe they filmed so much that we didn’t know about, and well, Ben has a point, people shouldn’t jump to conclusions about us from stuff like they shot. They’ve left out loads of things we did which would show what we’re really like together, like in the pool with those little kids”
Ben smiled at the memory.
“Yeah, those kids were funny, even if we couldn’t talk with most of them”
“You could, I couldn’t!”
“That’s because I’m wonderful” They managed to laugh, and Ben gave Sammie a small kiss on the cheek. Their mothers exchanged another quick look.
“Do you two really mean that much to each other?” They nodded, trying to smile. “Then I’m sure people will realise eventually and accept that you’re together, just like everyone in this flat has.”
Ben and Sammie grinned at each other, and rushed to their mothers to hug them, still holding each other.