Pic: Ben (he be looking FINEEEE) ;)
Seeing signs for Manchester, London and Birmingham started getting me a little jittery, but my hand that was laced with Ben's was keeping my breathing steady, even though it was his fault I was getting worried anyway.
I guess it was the fact that I knew with him, I was totally safe. Wherever we go, it's not like I'm having to face it alone. It's just like going to Ben's neighbourhood, because that place was scary.
"Can I ask what area we're heading to?"
"Nope."
"Be-en." I dragged out.
"Would I put you in a situation that you'd hate? Of course not, so just trust me."
I sighed and rested my head against the window, overlooking the sun that was settling on the field that surrounded the road. Cows aimlessly pottered about and ate grass on my left side, and on the right, there were horses doing pretty much the same thing.
The road we were on was dark, with the only source of light being the headlights of this car, and the headlights of cars coming the opposite direction. With the latter, that was only so often.
I was slowly feeling my eyes get heavy, so shutting them for even a prolonged moment was enough to fall into a slumber.
*.*.*.*.*
The car kept jolting all of a sudden, waking me up from my once peaceful nap. I grunted as I sat up in my seat after noticing I had somehow managed to get my butt right to the edge of the seat even with my belt wrapped tightly around me.
"You sleep funny." Ben chuckled.
I rolled my eyes, and noticed that the jolting was just Ben trying to park the car in reverse. He braked suddenly after every little edge backwards towards the wall.
I gathered that with the two hundred other cars around us, the tight parking space and the distant sound of oncoming traffic, we were in an underground car park in a bustling city.
"We're here?" I grinned.
"Yep, and fashionably late."
"I like how you added 'fashionably' in there."
"That's because being fashionably late is your style. I wouldn't want to come to this place right on time anyway, since nobody would do that except- wait, never mind." He cut himself off before he could say another word that might give away the surprise, and I found myself rolling my eyes yet again. "I can tell you now however, we're in Manchester."
I stepped out the car as soon as he did, and stretched my arms out and bent my legs back and forward. Sleeping in a position like that with lanky legs was not a good a idea.
He locked the car and hid away the keys inside his blazer pocket, and then laced my hands with his. I was grinning the whole way out of the car park, and the only reason I stopped was when I saw a banqueting hall down a smaller road right opposite us, with men and women queuing outside in lavish suits and dresses. You could hear their posh laughs from here, even with the busy road between us.
"We're going there?"
"Yep." He grinned. "I'll explain once we're queued."
We crossed the road at the pelican crossing, and queued up. It wasn't a long queue, so it wasn't too bad, I guess the only annoying thing about it was the posh fucks that surrounded me.
Perhaps I shouldn't be so mean.
"So this place is a soirée. Ever heard of one?"
"Not really."
"It's a gathering, only for alumni, future and current students."
"You got into Oxford?" I screamed. I should feel bad for screaming at him, because all of the eyes were on us now and I wanted nothing more than to crawl into a hole.
Ben grinned at me, surprisingly speechless. He nodded instead, and I attacked him into a huge bear hug. "I'm so happy."
I clung to his neck for dear life, even when he tried to pull me off him. I was over the fact that people were watching, because all I cared about right at this moment was Ben. I don't know what I'd do if I had to go to university without him. It might just be that I'd drop out again.
"You kinda need to let go now." He grumbled.
"No." I grinned, squeezing him tightly.
"Yes, get off." He managed to pull apart my arms and then looked around suspiciously before straightening out his suit and grabbing my hand.
"Names?" The doorman asked.
"Flynn Hopper and Benjamin Matthews." Ben told the man, who lifted up his checklist and whistled to himself.
He did a little scribble next to our names and let us through. Ben didn't let go of my hand as we walked through the crowd of people standing around with champagne in their hands. I can't tell if he was holding my hand just because I wanted him to, given the situation from earlier in the queue, I just wasn't sure if holding hands in front of so many people would make him uncomfortable.
Decided I might just overthink into abyss, I let go, cleared my throat and stopped the waiter walking around with a tray of champagne. I grabbed two flutes, and handed one to Ben but he looked at me quizzically.
"You're on lithium."
"I can have one." I stuck my tongue out at him and he just rolled his eyes. Grinning, I continued on walking and he placed his hand on my lower back.
"Over there," he pointed to an old man across the room, "is the chancellor."
"Oh yeah?"
"We're going to talk to him."
"What the- no, we aren't! I'm not prepared! What do I talk to him about?"
"He's a chill guy-"
"No he isn't, he's the chancellor of fucking Oxford." I bit, stiffening at the thought of talking to him with no pre-planned conversation tips.
Ben just cheekily grinned at me, biting his lip in the process and showing off those pearly whites. It was as if he was trying to keep himself from smiling but failed to do so. All of a sudden, I felt him force me to walk forward by pushing his hand that was on my lower back.
"Ben.." I whisper-shouted, making sure to add that extra whimper and the puppy dog eyes.
He paused for a moment and looked at me, "I'm not falling for that scared act." Then he carried on walking.
I sighed and nodded in defeat, and tried my best to think of up topics I could talk about. Of course, I wasn't well rehearsed so I took into account that I might make a fool of myself.
"You'll do fine." Ben whispered. He moved his hand from my lower back to behind my neck, running his hands up and down and brushing his thumb left and right before placing it back on my lower back.
"Chancellor." Ben greeted, catching the old man's attention. He turned to face us with a smile and shook mine and Ben's hands.
We rushed through the 'how are you's' and 'this soirée is brilliant' and 'I like the crudités' and then Ben started going on about a classical music group based in London. I rolled my eyes to myself at the fact that he made he sure that he did his research and leaving me out to dry.
I smiled politely and nodded a long, but my attention wasn't fully on the chancellor. It was on a group of students huddled up by the staircase, acting like complete fools by being a little too tipsy. Moments later, they were taken away by guards towards first aid.
I perked up when I heard my name being spoken by Ben.
"Yeah, Flynn here is ecstatic to be joining Oxford."
"What will you be studying?" The chancellor asked, darting his eyes to me and keeping a soft smile on his face.
"Biomedical Sciences." I smiled. "I never really thought I'd be going into this field, but here I am."
"You know, your head lecturer is a wonderful man." He said, "you're going to the Manchester campus I assume? Well he's right over there if you'd like to speak with him." The chancellor pointed to his right, to a man who stood away from the crowd and overlooked the whole soirée. To me, it didn't seem as if he was a talkative and sociable person.
"Thank you for that, I'll make sure to talk to him." I smiled.
Ben was back In a conversation with the chancellor, they were on about sports now, and the fact that Oxford was great for its extracurricular sporting activities.
Suck up, I thought with a small chuckle. To be honest, I wouldn't expect anything less from Ben.
I downed my glass of Prosecco and straightened my bow-tie, all the while barely participating in their conversation and only muttering agreements and disagreements without explanation. The Flynn from perhaps five year ago would've been all over this, however right now, I just felt tired from the long day I had, all the travelling, the lithium and that glass of Prosecco which just enhanced my tiredness.
"Thank you for your time, chancellor. We're both so grateful." Ben smiled one of those award winning smiles. You know, those fake, giant smiles that you greet your distant family with before you go on about how long it's been since you've last seen each other.
He pulled me away, but kept his smile on his face, and then when we were sort of alone, he went back to his usual, bored facial expression but through his eyes, he seemed angry. The bright green orbs were now darker.
"What is it with you?"
"I'm tired." I huffed, wrapping my arms around Ben's torso and resting my face on his shirt, "I'm happy you bought me here, and I appreciate it and all, but I'm on medication remember? I need to find somewhere to nap or let go of gas-"
"Excuse me." A very small, hesitant voice rang from behind us.
My eyes widened and I blushed profusely after realising she probably heard what I just said about letting go of some gas.
"Hello." Ben greeted the woman, gently plucking me off of him. She was small, and not just because Ben and I were tall as fuck, she was just really short and it looked as if you could break her as easily as you can break a matchstick.
"Hello, my name is Anna-Marie. I'm apart of the student union, and we're doing a survey."
"Right..." I trailed off, glancing down at her clipboard.
"The survey is for future students, and I was wondering if your could spare a few minutes to answer it?" She pleaded, "I shouldn't really tell you this, but everyone's turned me down."
"Oh no.." Ben said, fake sympathy dripping from his voice. I loved the fact that I could pick up on the sarcasm.
"We'll do it." I smiled, "as long as it's quick."
"It will be, you can release your gas soon, I promise." She grinned mischievously,
I rolled my eyes and she asked the first question, something about the expectations on extracurricular activities that we hope Oxford will live up to.
Ben had a lot to say, since he loved his sports, on the other hand, I wasn't sure what to say because sports was no longer a big part of my life.
As more questions went on, I felt a wave of guilt run through me as I remembered this was my Valentine's Day surprise, and I should act like I'm more interested.
I grabbed a glass of coke from a woman who went past me with a tray and downed half the can.
Anna-Marie finally moved on her last question, something about why we chose Oxford for our degree and not another university. The answer was obvious, but I cleared my throat as I finished the last sip of coke from the glass.
"The teaching is incredible, and we only get the best lecturers for every single course. The facilities are top-notch, and every student feels as important as the next, we feel like we belong in this university since we fought so hard to get in." I smiled. I glanced to Ben for reassurance and I saw the slightest smile paint his lips as he met my eyes. "Other universities, you don't feel that important, believe me, I know because I was at another university just a few months ago."
"That's great-" Anna-Marie said, but I cut her off.
"It's as if only those at the top of the class or who are friends with the lecturers get treated nicely, you know? At Oxford, I just know that each student will be treated equally, regardless of our diveristy."
She wrote it down on her clipboard, trying to fit it all in the small box at the bottom of the page.
"Thanks for your time." She said, and with that, she left us. I felt Ben's eyes drilling holes into my head and I turned around and pecked him on the lips - taking him by surprise.
"We'll leave in ten minutes, okay?" He placed a hand at the back of my neck.
I smiled at him, "We can stay longer if you'd like. We've come all the way here, so we should make the most of it."
"About that." He smiled sheepishly. "This is only part one of the date."
"What?" I raised a brow and looked at him dumbly.
"Yeah, but if you're tired we could skip it, I didn't think you'd get tired so quickly, it's only 8."
"No." I grinned, "I can sleep anytime, but I can't relive this anytime, so I'll just cope."
"Okay, but if you get too tired then you have to tell me. After all, its the medication, its' not your fault."
"My gassiness is also not my fault." I grinned at him. He just rolled his eyes at me, obviously not comfortable with opening up about these sorts of things. I don't think he and Jace ever spoke so openly about things like this.
He just smirked and checked his watch, "part two of the date is back at home, so we should leave soon anyway, since it's an hour's journey."
I just shrugged, and leaned into him, hugging him tightly and feeling my whole body melt into his. "I don't know how you deal with my needs." I found myself mumbling into his shirt.
"Flynn, we should talk about that someplace else." he said quietly. Loud enough for me to hear, but anyone outside a three foot radius wouldn't even hear a mumble. I felt his arms wrap around me, and a slight amount of pressure on my head.
"Did you just kiss my head?" I chuckled.
"Yeah.. I just sort of figured that as much as I complain, you won't suck it up and keep your hands off me at a social event like this." he said awkwardly, "so what?"
"Nothing," I grinned to myself and let go, standing back and ducking my head to hide my smile.
"Let's ditch this place." he grinned, nodding his head in the direction of the exit, "we've had our fun."
"I have no complaints about that." I grinned. We made our way out of the soirée, and once we were outside, Ben stretched his hand out to me and I happily caught up to him and intwined them together.
My heart raced as we walked past crowds of people, holding hands. It was exhilarating, and I loved the feeling of him sharing the warmth as he pulled me close to him absentmindedly when we walked past a group of smartly dressed young men, such as ourselves.
I came to the conclusion that I was falling for Ben hard and fast. The way he's just so compassionate behind that tough exterior, and how thoughtful he is, and how he puts other people's happiness first. He was sweet, and kind, and so optimistic and full of life. He was the type of person I'd never want to let go of, because - and I'd never tell him this - he was my rock.
I was starting to fall In love, and surprisingly, not in the same way as I did back in school. I felt different. My feelings were different.
Everything was different.