Whoo! Decided to get this chapter up before I headed to bed. I gotta work tomorrow and then i'm going to the midnight premiere of Harry Potter! Anyone else excited about that? I'm 99% sure i'm going to get the next chapter up tomorrow after I get off work, which will be 5:00 EST. I'm not good with time zones at all... anyway, I won't keep you! Enjoy!
Chapter 16
Ben had promised to pick Allison up at 5:00 Wednesday night to take her to dinner. He was looking forward to it, but was disappointed that he had to wait until Wednesday night to see her.
The next couple of days dragged on for what seemed like forever. When he got home Sunday night, he sat in the living room with his father and watched T.V. They had a long conversation about Allison; he asked his dad if he liked her and he said he did. He also apologized again for saying those things about her. He thought she was really nice and loved her manners.
On Monday, he basically lazed around. Except for taking a jog around the neighborhood, he stayed in the house. He cleaned the entire house and, as a thank you, his dad took him out for dinner.
They went to a restaurant called Rucker Johns down at Monkey Junction. Rucker Johns was famous for their awesome croissants and lightly-buttered chicken tenders; Ben and his father got these every time they came. It was the first time they had been since his mother had died and he felt a surge of sadness wen the pulled into the parking lot.
He was still grieving over the death of his mom. Sometimes, when he would go to sleep at night, he would have nightmares and wake up pouring sweat. The nightmare was always the same; his mom was in her car driving home, just like on the night of her accident. The only thing different was that Ben was with her in the passenger's seat. They were just driving and talking when, suddenly, headlights appeared in his mom's window.
He tried to scream to her to watch out, but nothing came out of his mouth. She would eventually turn her head and look out the window, only to see blinding lights fill her window. The sound of glass breaking was deafening as he would wake up, at that same moment, drenched in sweat. The last time he had that the nightmare was Thursday night. Hopefully, it would end soon. He thought about his mom often but, instead of thinking about the accident, he remembered all of the happy memories he had with her and it helped subside the pain.
They went in the restaurant and sat in a booth across from each other. They ordered their drinks and their entrees at the same time since they both knew what they wanted. About fifteen minutes later, their waitress brought them their food. They ate most of their dinner in silence except when his dad asked about Allison.
"So, you didn't see Allison today?"
"No, they're having a huge family reunion tomorrow and she was helping set up today." His dad nodded,
"So you're not going to see her tomorrow either?"
"No, but I'm taking her out to dinner Wednesday night."
"Oh, where are you taking her?"
"The Deck House down at Carolina Beach."
"Oh, so it's like a date."
"Yeah." He took a little break, then smiled and nodded,
"I'm kind of nervous though."
"Why?"
"I don't know, there's something about her that makes me nervous whenever I get around her. She's unlike anyone I've ever met."
"Tell me about her." He looked at him,
"What do you want to know?"
"Whatever you want to tell me; just things about her, how she makes you feel." Ben nodded and didn't even have to think,
"Well, she turned 21 in November and she lives with her parents in the country. Not like backwoods-living-in-a-trailer-going-mudding kind of country, but lives-down-a-long-country-road-surrounded-by-three-fields-on-each-side-of-her-house country. She goes to church regularly and, like I said earlier, volunteers at her church regularly, too. She applied to three colleges but really wants to go to UNCW, she wants to major in Pediatrics and UNCW has an awesome program for medical students. She's got an awesome singing voice, but doesn't want to admit it even though I keep telling her." He took a little break and decided to tell his father how she made him feel. He smiled and continued,
"She, uh," He cleared his throat and smiled again. He motioned to his face,
"As you can tell, she makes me smile just by thinking about her. She pops in my head randomly and regularly and every time she does, I can't help but smile. She's got a small gap between her teeth that flashes whenever she smiles and her smile is infectious. It sounds so lame, but whenever she smiles, I feel warm inside; like there's no place I'd rather be than right there with her."
There was much more he could have said, but he decided to stop there. They sat there for a minute and Ben wondered if his father was going to say anything. He finally nodded and said,
"You're in love with her, aren't you?" He looked at his father, surprised,
"How do you know?"
"Because it's written all over your face; I knew it before you even told me any of that. It was confirmed as you were talking." Ben smiled and nodded, finally admitting the truth,
"Yeah, I'm in love with her."
"Does she know?"
"No, I haven't told her."
"Why not? She's got to be in love with you." He looked at his dad,
"How do you know?" He shrugged his shoulders,
"She's got to be, considering how much you're in love with her."
They finished the rest of their dinner in silence. Ben thought continuously about what his father had said; he thought about it all through dinner, the entire ride home and for the rest of the night. When they got home, he finally broke the silence and said,
"Thank you for dinner, dad."
"You're welcome, son." They both sat down; Ben on the couch and his dad in the recliner.
"Listen, I shouldn't have said what I did back at the restaurant."
"It's okay."
"No, I can't say that she's in love with you because I don't know. All I can say is that, if you love her, tell her. Don't keep words like that to yourself."
"But what if she doesn't feel the same way? And she just wants to be friends?"
"I don't know, Ben. Just do whatever you think is right." Ben nodded, a million things going through his head. They say together for a while before he said,
"Well 'm going to head to my room, okay?"
He got up and walked to his room, where he spent the rest of his night.
He fell asleep, continuously thinking about Allison and his feelings about her. Though he fell asleep, thinking about Allison, he had yet another nightmare about his mother. It was the same exact one, and, like before, he woke up pouring sweat. He got up and walked to the bathroom and wiped his face with a towel. He walked back into his room and lay down in his bed. He lay there for a while, thinking that these dreams couldn't be normal. He never told his father about his dreams. He was coping with her death on his own and he didn't need the extra stress of Ben's problems, too He eventually fell back asleep, hoping that tonight was the last of the nightmares, but he somehow knew it wasn't.
The next day he woke up and ate breakfast and read the paper. Reading the newspaper was the only way Ben kept up with that was happening in the world. He rarely watched the news; almost every one of the stories was about something bad. Very rarely were there any happy stories, except for at the end of the newscast when they talked about an animal being helped or rescued.
He continued to skim the headlines until one caught his attention. He read it and thought immediately of Allison. He closed the newspaper and smiled to himself, thinking that life couldn't get any better.
After reading the newspaper, he went back to his room and saw his guitar sitting in the corner. He thought of Allison and decided to learn how to play her favorite song, which was Misery Business by Paramore. They didn't have a computer, so he would have to go to the library and use theirs. He didn't mind; he had to stop by there anyway and pick up a book. He smiled, thinking back to the newspaper article he had just read. It was a perfect coincidence that it happened to fall on the night of their first date.
He went to the library and used their computer to print out the guitar tabs for the song. After he printed it, he got the book he needed and checked out. He went home and spent nearly all day learning how to play Misery Business. He had heard the song before, but he had never tried to learn it. Thankfully, it was a pretty easy song to learn, except for the solo. He finally learned the basics of the whole song and put his guitar down at 3:45.
He then opened up the book he checked out at the library and started reading it. He read it until he heard his father call out that dinner was ready. They ate their dinner in almost total silence except for when his father asked what he did today. He told him he got up and took a jog around the neighborhood and went to the library. Then he told him how he learned to play Allison's favorite song in a couple of hours and, to this, his father raised his eyebrow and nodded, but said nothing.
His dad asked if he was ready for his date with Allison tomorrow night. Ben smiled and nodded; he had been looking forward to it all day and the day before, too. He had the evening all planned out and thought that Mother Nature couldn't have picked a better night to be on his side.
They finished their dinner and his father washed the dishes. Ben went into the living room and lay down on the couch and turned the T.V. to the weather channel to check the forecast for tomorrow night. It was supposed to be mainly clear with a low around fifty-two degrees. He smiled to himself, hoping the forecast wouldn't chance. He flipped through the channels and watched a couple of hours of T.V. before deciding to hand the remote to his father.
He walked to his room and lay down on the bed, continuing to read where he left off. The book was an essential component to their date tomorrow night and he wanted to read as much as he could. He read well into the night and, when he could barely keep his eyes open, decided to put it down and call it a night.
He lay in his bed for a while, just thinking about things; his date with Allison tomorrow night, his plan for evening, and his actual feelings for her. He still hadn't decided what he was going to do. Should he go for it and tell her his true feelings? Or keep his feeling a secret and not tell her he words that sparked this predicament. He lay there thinking until he finally drifted off to sleep, still unsure of what he was going to do.
He woke up Wednesday morning at 10:00 with a smile on his face, looking forward to the day ahead. He jogged around the neighborhood for about forty-five minutes before coming home and taking a long, hot shower. He practiced Misery Business for a while, trying to perfect the details, and then read more of the book he had checked out from the library; he read it until 3:30.
He put the book down and decided to gather the stuff he needed for their date. He went to the hall closet and grabbed a big blanket. He grabbed his keys and went outside and put the blanket in the back seat of his truck. He went back inside and went into the kitchen. He made a thermos of hot chocolate and then went back to his room and picked out his clothes.
He chose a pair of jeans and put on a blue and white plaid shirt over a white t-shirt. He slipped on a pair of flip-flops and looked at himself in the mirror. He fixed his collar and then went to the bathroom and sprayed a couple of sprays of cologne on his neck. He walked back into the kitchen and grabbed the thermos and his book and went back outside to his truck. He put the thermos and the book underneath the blanket so Allison wouldn't see it. He smiled again liking his idea and hoping Allison would, too.
He wasn't going to tell Allison about his plan until after dinner; he planned to surprise her. He went inside and checked the weather forecast to make sure it hadn't changed and smiled when it said it hadn't. He went to his room and grabbed a gray sweatshirt, then grabbed his keys and headed out the door.
Holla back! So next chapter will be their date! I think you guys are really going to like it! I'll try to get it up asap! Please review this shizz ;)
