Benedict Cumberbatch: Life With Ben

Chapter Nine: The 4x4 The Idol and The Paparazzi

Ben and I sat revising vectors, algebra & indices. Well it was more me teaching Ben how to do it as not being at school for nearly 20 years has made Ben forget most of the things that I need to know for the exam. But it was still good revision as it was proving I knew what I was talking about.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Time had flown by and it was time to go home. I gathered my bag together, collected my phone and slid my shoes onto my naked feet. I was still wearing his cardigan. "Ben," I said removing his cardigan, "thank you! Thank you so much for today. It has been so fun!" He looked down into my eyes whilst I looked up into his eyes. I went to pass him his cardigan back when he said, "You are more than welcome, princess. I have enjoyed it as well. You will come and see me again won't you?"

"Of course I will! Would you like your cardigan back" I said handing him his cardigan back again.

"No, please keep it. Like I said earlier, it looks much better on you than it does on me!" I blushed again. His big bear hands took the cardigan out of my hands and walked behind me to put the cardigan back on me. He was a proper gentleman. He turned to me and said, "I'm not promising there isn't any paparazzi outside, but if there is, please do not look at them, do not talk to them and do not talk to me until we get into the car. It's not because I'm being mean but it's because I do not want you to get into the media, not yet anyway as you are still a minor and I do not want your parents or Sam getting dragged into anything."

I smiled at him and said "I promise." He opened the front door and led the way down the concrete steps down towards a black 4 x 4. It was such a beautiful model. I didn't know a lot about cars but this one was amazing! The wheels were huge, the exterior was shinny and all smoothed out so I'm guessing it had just been for a wax. The interior was gorgeous. Cream leather seating with a cream dash board and all along the area with the buttons (you see why I said I had no idea on cars).

Ben walked around the car to open the door for me whilst I covered my face with my bag and my hair and helped me in before he shut the door gently and opened his door and jumped in. Cameras were flashing and people were shouting Ben's name. I rearranged my hair so it was back to how it was and I put my seat belt on. "Ready?" Ben asked.

"Ready!" I replied and with that we sped down the road to avoid anymore pictures. "Do you get that all the time?" I asked as we drive down the roads that twisted and turned, "Most of the time, you get used to it though. I know it's scary at first don't worry, I was nervous when I was a little bit younger than you, but I have been brought up around cameras so it doesn't bother me as such." His tone was kind but sad.

"What's wrong? You sound sad and upset" I asked.

"Nothing is wrong princess, I'm fine!" He placed his hand that was on the gear stick on to my knee and gave it a little squeeze. "Don't worry about me! I am fine; it just makes me feel so proud to have the privilege of meeting someone like you. Such a smart & beautiful young lady!" He said, his eyes started to water. I tried to ignore the fact that he was crying but I couldn't.

"Ben, please, don't cry over me. If you cry I'll cry and we don't want that to happen." There was no reply from Ben as he sat in tears for a long time.

I opened my bag to check my phone. I had texts from Sam, texts from Lucy, texts from Amiee & a text from Domino's pizza. I ignored all the texts and went straight to my photo albums to see all the pictures Ben and I took. There were over 30 pictures of us goofing about. I put my phone on my lap and another message came through from Sam, reading; "Claudia, are you on your way home we need to talk." Ben finally started talking and said, "Who was that?" "It was Sam, apparently we need to talk" "Oh, okay, phone him if you like" So that is what I did.