andante ❈ benjamin pavard

ELEVEN

"I think you're just chicken," Ben said, finally. Zoe scoffed in response, shaking her head, brown hair sticking to her lip gloss.

"I'm not going to fall for that competitive bait trap. I'm not Mathieu."

"Uh-huh." Ben paused. He smirked, folding his arms like chicken like wings. "Bawk bawk."

Zoe widened her eyes. As much as Ben didn't want to be recognized, he was causing an awful lot of attention to himself.

"Bawk bawk," he squeaked, higher pitched than before. "Bawk bawk!"

"Ben!" Zoe whisper-yelled, because she didn't want to cause even more attention by creating a scene. "Stop it."

"Bawk bawk!" He crouched down to Zoe's height, just to look her in the eye as he repeated himself. "Bawk bawk!"

Zoe pressed the palm of her hand over Ben's mouth, effectively shushing him. His eyes widened, and looking into them, Zoe could tell that he wanted to laugh. Of course he did.

"If I go to the karaoke, will you stop acting like a chicken?" Zoe asked. Ben nodded. "I'm going to move my hand from your mouth, and if you bawk, I'm going to hurt you."

Before Zoe could remove her hand from his mouth, Ben licked a stripe over her palm.

"Gross!" Zoe yelped. Ben laughed hysterically, and Zoe wiped his saliva on his shirt. "Why are you acting so weird?"

"How am I acting weird?"

Zoe shook her head, and glanced at him. "Weird isn't the right word, I guess. Immature."

"I'm not acting immature." Zoe frowned.

"Ben, you were making chicken noises like thirty seconds ago, and licked my hand when I told you to stop. You're twenty two. That's pretty immature."

Zoe couldn't understand why her comment grated on him so much. His entire demeanor changed. He stepped away and slightly angled his body away from her, and refused to look her in the eye. 

"Do I embarrass you?"

"I mean, when you did that, yeah." Zoe furrowed her eyes. She didn't want to turn it into an argument, so she decided to appease him. "Whatever. Let's just go to the karaoke place."

"Aren't you afraid I'll embarrass you there?" Ben asked, even though he had started walking. Zoe rolled her eyes, accompanied with a sigh.

"Ben," she started, exasperatedly. "Don't be so sensitive. I was embarrassed, yes. You're the one who's famous and loves attention and whatnot. I'm not. It's over. I'm going to sing with you and hopefully a dog nearby doesn't die. The end."

Ben stayed silent until they were in front of the door. While opening it, he said: "I'm not actually mad. I just like watching you squirm."

Zoe narrowed her eyes and smacked him on the chest. "You are the WOAT."

"The woot?"

"No, the WOAT."

"What's the WOAT?

"You."

"Haha, I said what's the WOAT not who's the WOAT."

"So you admit it?" Zoe asked, ignoring Ben's previous question. "You're the WOAT?"

"Now who's being the difficult one?"

Zoe rolled her eyes. "Opposite of GOAT. Worst of all time, like you. Happy?"

"Very." He bumped his hip with her's, which resulted in a giggle from Zoe.

The karaoke bar was fairly old, with a disco-ey vibe filled and retro carpet. The small stage had a large spotlight and there were a few people onstage singing. Zoe couldn't really make out what song they were singing because they were too busy laughing, and she didn't recognize any of the lyrics on the screen. The pair watched the current act finish their song before walking onto the stage.

"What song are we singing?" Ben asked.

"I don't know, you're the one that wanted to do this."

"I thought picking a song was a team effort."

"No, it's a Ben effort."

"If you guys don't have a song in thirty seconds, I'm picking one for you," the stage manager told them. Zoe stared out into the crowd of all seven people. It wasn't that daunting. She'd never see those strangers ever again, and she'd mostly be laughing into the microphone like the previous act, anyway.

"I literally can't think of a single song, what is happening to my brain?" Ben asked, and Zoe could distinctly hear an edge of panic in his voice.

"Relax, just let the lorax looking guy choose a song for us. We'll be reading off a screen anyway."

"I can hear you!"

Both of them laughed.

"What if he picks something fucking weird like Rasputin?"

"Rasputin is a musical masterpiece. Don't be a hater," Zoe defended. Ben held his hands up in mock surrender.

"Thirty seconds are up," the lorax looking stage manager said. "You'll be singing Andante by ABBA. Happy singing."

And with that, the opening chords began to play.

**

ooooof i tried to end this chapter at so many parts but it kinda left it awkward so thats why this chap is lowkey kinda long srry oooooops i just wrote the big drama chapter which is like 9 chapters away but im getting excited and i wanna hurry this story along cus its lowkey halfway done lmao ok im done rambling 

pls comment n vote esp comment bc i love hearing everyones thoughts on all the characters love u guys xoxoxoxoxo <3