So now that I know I love Benji, how should I go about letting him know? Amity pondered, as she sat across the table from him at breakfast and watched him slowly eat his 'lucky charms' cereal. Just the way he selected his charms before he ate them, and the way the milk slightly spilled back over his lips gave Amity shivers.
"What's up with you today?" Amy asked, snapping Amity out of her trance and bring her back into the real world.
"What do you mean?" She replied, quickly tearing her eyes away from Benji's mouth and forcing them on Amy's pretty face.
"Well you've hardly touched your crepe, which I know to be really nice because I made them myself, and it's like you're in some kind of…. daze" Amy finished, selecting her words carefully.
Amity breathed a sigh of relief. Thank God Amy had failed to realize that she'd been staring at Benji for a full 10 minutes now.
As Benji's eyes left his cereal and focused on her, Amity felt the inkling of a flush.
She quickly got up from her seat and went over to the fridge.
"I just need a drink. You know, good ol' re-hydration," She said dumbly, hoping they'd both buy it.
"Well if you're not going to eat your crepe, can I have it?" Benji inquired, already reaching for it.
"Sure" Amity agreed.
Bad idea!
Now she was forced to watch as Benji rolled the crepe between his strong fingers and began to drizzle maple syrup…
'Oh Lord' Amity thought
'If he licks his fingers I'm gone'"Excuse me" She said hurriedly and walked briskly out of the room.
'You've got to get a grip' She told herself as she ran a trembling hand through her hair.
'Acting the way you just did, it can't happen again, it was just so…. so…'"Stupid" She said out loud, finding the right word.
"What was stupid?" A voice asked from behind her.
"Paul, uh, nevermind. I didn't hear you come up. Did you sleep well last night? Are you going for breakfast?" Amity decided it best that she shut up right now. She scratched nervously at the back of her neck and glanced back to the dining area. From where she stood, she could still see half of Benji's back. She took a step forward to remove him from her peripheral vision.
"I ah" Paul began, not knowing which question to answer first, and taken a little aback by Amity's sudden giant step towards him.
"I've had breakfast already" He finally answered.
"Paul I think we need to talk" Amity thought it best she let him down now.
"Should we maybe go somewhere for this?" Paul asked, unsure.
"Yeah, it could take a while"
The two of them headed back down the hall and out into the yard.
"I want to start by telling you how much of a great time I had last night with you. Even though I feel asleep" She grinned and nervously thrust her hands into the back pockets of her jeans.
Paul only nodded and Amity got the feeling that he knew what was coming next.
"Paul I really value our friendship and I don't want to ever do anything that will jeopardise it. But I feel that it's unfair to you if I let this go on any longer." Paul's eyes were downcast and Amity began to toe at the ground with her shoe.
"Paul, the reason that I can't be with you is…"
"There's someone else" He breathed out the words and looked up at her. He was now pretty calm and looked to be in good spirits about the whole thing. But how had he known? Had she been that obvious? Surely that couldn't be the case since she herself had only realised her feelings for Benji early this morning.
"I'm sorry, I should have phrased that more like a question" Paul apologised.
"You don't have to say anything. It's just that I…Well to be perfectly honest, I've kinda sensed from the start that your feelings may have been elsewhere."
Amity nodded and smiled. Paul's perception was astounding. Even she herself hadn't even known.
"So I guess this means that we won't be going to this party anymore tonight?"
"Oh no, we could definitely still go. I mean, my dress is all ready and we've already made arrangements" Amity suddenly felt a little silly. For all she knew, Paul wouldn't even want to go with her anymore.
"That is if you don't have anyone else in mind to go with" She added, a little embarrassed at her brashness.
"Not really" Paul admitted.
"Great" Amity was glad. Things were going better than she had ever hoped.
"I better get back" Paul said, looking back to the house.
"Yeah" She agreed and wrapped her arms around herself.
"Um, Paul" She called before he had reached the steps.
"Yeah" he turned around
"Things aren't going to be…well, weird between us…right?" She began to bite her lip once more.
Paul, who had been suspecting that things would be a little strange between them, was suddenly disarmed by Amity's fragility and felt an overwhelming urge to comfort and reassure her that everything would be ok. He took the 10 paces back to her in his stride and wrapped his arms around her in a protective brotherly hug.
"Don't worry" He spoke gently into her ear.
A tear slid down Amity's cheek.