Spy School: We Meet Again

Chapter 11: Good morning...

Erica's POV

The sun was shining thru the window straight in my eyes, forcing me to wake up. It was a nice morning outside. Bright blue sky, with few fluffy clouds gliding across it. But something seemed off. Where am I? What happened yesterday? I was confused because I'm definitely not in my house.

I could smell a delicious smell in the air. Are those pancakes? If yes, then I will eat like 5 of them, I'm feeling super hungry and it's strange because it's rare that I get this hungry.

Sitting up, I got a better look around me. My head turned in the direction of the kitchen and I could not believe what I was seeing. Ok, now I remember what happened yesterday, but it was still surreal. In the kitchen, I could see Ben standing by the stove, cooking what I could guess was pancakes and dancing to a song that he was listening to on his headphones. It was quite a view and I'm just happy that he had a shirt on. All tho, would it be that bad to see him without it on? Erica, you need to keep your thoughts together, stop thinking about him.

It was quite hard to not look at him tho. There was just something about the fact, that Ben got up early in the morning to cook up some breakfast. It looks like he likes to cook, which is good because I absolutely hate it. If you see me cooking, it can only be because someone forced me, or I am absolutely starving and I have no other way to get food.

While Ben was cooking breakfast and moving his head to the music, after a while, I could hear him starting to hum along to the melody. This is something that I thought I would never see, but here I am.

After a minute or so, of me staring at him, he turned around with a plate full of pancakes. He noticed me and placed the plate on a counter and immediately took off his headphones.

"Did I wake you up? Sorry, I didn't mean to." Why does he care so much?

"No of course not. The sun is the culprit. All tho looking at the time, I have already overslept, so I guess it's fine"

"Well, good morning." He checked if he turned off the stove and turned back around to face me.

"Good morning." Both of us made eye contact "It looked like you were enjoying yourself there."

"Oh... so you saw that." He looked a bit embarrassed and I would be lying, if I said that, he doesn't look cute, while he overthinks his choice of action.

"Yes I did and I am happy I did. One more thing to annoy you with."

Ben gave me a small smile and took the plate of pancakes in his hands. He brought it to the dining table, that was already set up and placed it down in the middle.

If I would have opened up to him before, would this be something I would see every day? Was it my fault, why he left?

"Well, breakfast is ready, so you can come here. I made some pancakes. Take as many as you like." He sat down on one of the chairs and waited for me to take a seat as well.

So, I go up. I had a quick stretch and then walked to the table.

Everything was nicely set up. Plates, forks, knives, napkins and different kind of toppings, for us to eat, with the pancakes.

"How did you sleep?" Ben asked me while I was taking my first pancake.

"Good," I wanted to continue, but something else caught my eye. For some reason, yesterday I didn't notice this, but looking at the other side of the room, he had a big window with a view that made my eyes go wide.

Quickly, Ben noticed what I was looking at and smiled. "This was one of the reasons why I wanted this apartment."

In the mornings the view was breathtaking. The sun shining over the whole city and if that wasn't enough, you could also see the Washington monument right in the center of it all.

"How expensive is this apartment?" I had to know.

"Well, it is not cheap." And here again, is the Ben, that doesn't want to tell me anything.

Ben's POV

I haven't slept all night. How could I, if I know that Erica is just in the next room. I'm a complete mess. What should I do? What should I do later when she wakes up? How should I tell her that I can't be a spy? What should I do when she leaves? Should I move somewhere else so we don't walk into each other again?

These were just a handful of questions that I was asking myself all night. To say that my thoughts were a mess is an understatement.

And now, when she is sitting in front of me, I understand that my time to think of an answer is running out.

After her question about how expensive this apartment is, I could feel the temperature in this room dropping to an absolute zero. Everything is just so awkward between us, so we were eating in silence for the rest of the meal.

I had to break the silence because it was starting to bother me a lot."So... how were the pancakes? I'm not much of a cook, so I don't normally make anything like this."

"They were delicious. Thank you for the breakfast." I could feel that she is slowly turning back, into her old self. I could still see emotion in her, but Erica isn't smiling like she did before and her voice isn't displaying any emotion what's soever.

By the way, our conversation is going I could sense that soon she will be back to the Ice Queen I met in school. It breaks my heart that I will not be able to see the side of her, I saw yesterday.

"You know Ben, as much as I want to stay here and do nothing, I can't. I have to go and find out what is happening with SPYDER, so I'm not gonna act like I have the whole day free. I will ask you one time and one time only- do you want to help me, or do you want to stay here and keep destroying what you have already been destroying between us?" Yeah, straight to the point as always. But I knew this was coming. I have to be strong and do what is right, so I closed my eyes and took a deep breath before I absolutely destroyed everything.

"Erica I can't help you. I can't be a spy like you want me to be. It's not something I can become again, not after everything that happened."

The second I said that she changed. She built up a wall around her. Actually, it even looked like she built up two walls around her. The girl that I saw yesterday was nowhere to be seen and I knew this would happen. She still had her beautiful ice blue eyes, but I could not tell anything from them.

"Well, then I will be on my way. I will just go and change back into my clothes." She stood up and walked into the bathroom.

What did I just do? I was still sitting by the dining table, with my head in my hands thinking about what kind of person am I. And then I heard my front door open. I looked up and saw Erica standing there, looking down.

"Bye Ben." And with that, she walked out of my apartment and I was left with an empty feeling.

Hope you liked the chapter and I want to thank all of you for the support and great feedback that I have received since I started this story!

As always, see you tomorrow! :D