Special Handling (manxman)

Chapter 7

Chapter 7 

Benji's POV 

Ajax was quiet the whole ride to his apartment, which made me nervous…and me nervous is not such a great thing.  First I got fidgety, then I start babbling stupid things when I should really just keep my mouth shut. 

 "So…Sir…how was your day?" 

 "It was fine Benji," he replied tersely. 

"Cool!  That's good.  Yeah…my day was good, just went really slow.  Today I had Cognitive Psychology and the professor has some kind of weird thing going on with her eyes…you know, where you can't tell where they're actually looking?  So you have to look like you're paying attention the whole time because, like, what if she's looking at you.  It's not that big a class, so it's not like you can hide behind the person in front of you."  I just kept babbling on and on like that. I'm just not good when I'm nervous. 

"Benji!" Ajax said abruptly, interrupting my extensive soliloquy. 

"Yes, Sir?" 

"Stop bouncing your knee." 

"Oh," I grimaced sheepishly, not even noticing my leg was bouncing even faster than I was talking. 

"Are you nervous?" he asked, his voice a little softer. 

"A little." 

"Why?" 

"I…I guess because I don't know what's going to happen tonight…and I wasn't sure if you were mad…" 

"Do you trust me?" he asked. 

"Y…yes." 

"Then you don't have to worry, do you," he replied, his voice steady and giving no hint of his mood. 

"Am I staying over?" 

"Do you want to?" 

"Yeah…but I didn't bring anything…well, my meds are in my backpack, but that's it." 

"I have everything else you'd need, and I'll make sure you're back at your dorm well before your first class tomorrow." 

Okay. So he didn't quite answer my question about whether he was mad, but that was okay.  I tried to take my nervousness down a few notches by closing my eyes and taking a few deep breaths counting in my head through each inhale and exhale trying to get them to at least 5-one thousand; my tried and true method of calming myself down.  When I opened my eyes I tried to focus on the landscape.   

I was surprised again when Ajax put a hand on my knee and gave me a comforting squeeze, "You have nothing to worry about Benji." 

"Okay. Thank you Sir." 

I relaxed even more as he left it there, the contact somehow was very reassuring.  About 20 minutes later he pulled into the parking lot of a chinese restaurant.  "I'll be right back," he said, hopping out of the car.  He was back within 5 minutes with a big paper bag that smelled amazing. 

"I should have asked," he began, "Do you like chinese?" 

"Yes!  I love it!  It smells amazing!" I added, taking an audible sniff. 

"Good.  This place is great.  They don't add any MSG, they use local produce, free range chicken and beef; it’s chinese for the health conscious."  He placed the bag on the floor of the back seat and started the car back up.  "I got several things I thought you might like."