I Choose You

Exams and Doodles

Ben grunted for the thousandth time in the past few minutes. He could not get his Chemistry down and it was driving him crazy. "It's not that hard," Cassie told him as she easily breezed through the study guide. "Look, electrons are arranged around the atomic nucleus, in various volumes of space called shells. Do you know what the shells are?"

Ben shook his head. "Ben, he went over this like a million times!" Cassie exclaimed. "What do you do in that class?" He thought for a moment, then said, "Think about the beautiful girl sitting beside me, wondering what in the hell went wrong in her head to think I'm a good choice for a suitable boyfriend."

That earned him a smack on the arm. "Nothing went wrong with me," she told him. "Anyways, you shouldn't be thinking about me during classes; you should be taking notes and...learning." He gave her a smile and said, "But I am learning."

Before she could even ask, he said, "You do this thing with your fingers when you start to get sleepy, where you rub your thumb and index finger together. When you get bored, you start to doodle little cartoons, which is something I didn't know you could do. When you get excited about learning something new, your eyes light up the room. And when you get annoyed with Mr. Channing, you role your eyes like you do when you get annoyed with me."

Cassie playfully rolled her eyes and Ben tickled her side. "I have to know how to doodle," she told him. "I'm a story-teller and sometimes I have to lay it out in pictures first to get the visual of what I want. I've been doing it for years."

"See," he said, "I do learn something! Doodle something for me." He took out a blank piece of lined paper and put it in front of her. Cassie sighed with a smile and pushed her Chemistry book out of the way to give her more space.

She started carefully drawing something, as she blocked what it was from Ben's sight with her arm. He kept trying to get a peak, but she kept skillfully hiding it. It was only a few minutes later when she blew on the paper, then slid it over to him.

It was a tiny four-part cartoon of Ben leaning towards her at the table like he just was, then another of him handing her a paper, and then another of her drawing and him trying to peak. It was really, very good. The last one on the paper was of them kissing.

He looked up at her from the paper and she leaned in and kissed him. He hummed, then smiled as he cupped her jaw. When they pulled back, she told him, "You can keep them." He chuckled, "Thank you, darling. These are seriously good." He looked them over one more time, laughing at how she made his cartoon so tall and scrawny and awkward looking. He then got up from the kitchen table and went into his room.

He set it on his night stand, where it could be propped up on his lamp. He decided he would get it framed later. It was so perfectly drawn with bold-point pen, it almost looked printed. He smiled when he thought about how he didn't know this about her. That just means there's so much more to her than he knows and he can't wait to find out more.

When he came back out, Cassie was lying on the couch with one arm hanging off of it and the other covering her eyes. "Sweetheart, what's wrong?" He asked as he went over to her and knelt down beside her. "I'm just so tired," she sighed. "I'm so tired of studying, I just need a break. And sleep. I need sleep. Sleep sounds good. Amazing, actually."

Ben chuckled and rested his hand on her thigh. "You can take a nap in my room, come on." He held his hand out to her, but she simply looked at him, then asked, "Won't Tom be home soon? Am I still banned for eternity?"

Laughing, he took her hand anyways and hauled her up. "No, you are not banned for eternity," he told her as they walked to his room. "You are more than welcome for eternity." He placed a kiss on her head, then continued to lead them into his room.