After the tutoring session at her place, Rey expected Ben's treatment of her in class to be even more touchy feely then he had before. She thought that after their dinner, which had felt more like a date to her then just a studying session, he would ramp up his level of affection. She thought that he would be even more brave with giving her extra attention.
She was wrong.
She hadn't prepared herself for the opposite result to occur.
Ben ignored her in class.
He acted like she didn't even exist in front of the other students and her teacher.
At first, she thought she had just imagined his indignation. She walked into class, practically skipping. Ben kissing her had made her feel jubilant and she had been on cloud nine the entire night before. The remnants of that joy filtered into Math class with her.
She grinned at him as soon as she passed through the entranceway of the classroom. "Good morning, Mr. Solo", she greeted him.
Ben's eyes fell upon her for a few seconds and then she thought she saw a slight smile cross his lips but then he averted his eyes and focused on greeting the other students who were walking into the classroom.
While he was lecturing, he asked the students if they knew the answer to a particular problem. It was the same example that he had gone over with her the night before. Rey excitedly raised her hand but Ben didn't call on her. After that he asked three other questions of the students and each time she raised her hand, although those times didn't hold the same enthusiasm and she just raised her arm half way up in the air.
Ben seemed to be looking past her and would call on students around her but never on her.
Soon after that Ms. Barrow took over and dismissed class shortly after that. While Rey was gathering up her books she tried to catch Ben's eye. He was busy gathering up his lecture notes and stuffing them into his leather messenger bag that was slung on his shoulder.
Rey shyly smiled at him and gave him a little wave when she did manage to catch his eye for a moment. He looked down at his papers, shoved them in the bag and walked past her like he was in a hurry to be somewhere else.
Rey's heart dropped. She thought to herself that maybe she had imagined any signs of affection from him. Perhaps, he was just naturally friendly with students and she wasn't any more special than anyone else.
After the third day in a row of him ignoring her and not even looking at her after they had kissed, Rey was beyond frustrated with him. She was beginning to think that Ben was playing some sort of game with her. He had flirted with her. He was the one who initiated the kiss. Now he was giving her the cold shoulder.
The guy that sat behind Rey in her math class, Snap, came over to her and crouched down next to her.
"Hey Rey, if you aren't busy Friday night, would you like to catch a movie with me? The premiere just dropped of the latest Mission Impossible movie and I have been itching to see it.", he asked her, smiling sweetly up at her.
Rey had never thought of Snap as anything other then the class clown, who made others laugh. They hadn't talked much in the past and didn't share many classes together. She hadn't ever had any inkling that he had any interest in her before.
Rey wasn't the type of girl who got asked out. She was a senior and hadn't ever been on a date. She had been focused on school and worked three nights a week at her foster father's scrap yard. She had a few close friends such as Rose Tico and her sister Paige but didn't go out with them that often.
Dating wasn't in Rey's vocabulary. Her friends all had boyfriends or at least boyfriend prospects in Paige's case. The closest that she had gotten to a date was Ben coming over to tutor her. That hadn't been a real date she knew but she had been swept up by the way that Ben had treated her, the way he looked at her, the way he thanked her for cooking dinner and especially the tingling she felt all over her body when Ben pressed his lips to hers.
Rey happened to look up and catch Ben's eye as he was sitting behind the teacher's desk.
He had his arms crossed and was frowning while he glared at Rey.
Rey noticed his reaction immediately and decided to test his reaction to her flirting back with Snap, accepting his invitation.
Rey smiled sweetly at Snap and giggled. "Oh that's really nice of you to ask me. I don't have any plans on Friday and I'd love to go", she said loud enough for Ben to hear from where he was sitting about 20 feet from her desk.
Rey could swear that the classroom went silent for a moment. She glanced up at Ben again and she swore that she had seen a darkness flicker in his eyes.
Then the moment passed and the usual chatter picked up again and Ben was looking down at papers that were lying on the desk.
She exchanged numbers with Snap and he promised to text her the details of the movie date when he got home.
Ben started passing out graded quizzes and when he go to Rey, he threw down her quiz with a large
'C +' marked in red across the top. "See me after class Miss Johnson. I have something that I need to discuss with you", he said, his voice low and almost sounded like he was growling.
Rey was slightly disappointed at her grade. She had thought that she had understood the concepts that were on the quiz after Ben had gone over all of the material. The grade was better then she had done on her last quiz without his assistance though so she didn't think that he graded it unfairly even with his recent attitude towards her.
After class ended, Rey nervously approached Ben at the desk and waited until he finished talking with another student. She didn't know what to expect. This was their first time talking to each other in almost a week. She still didn't understand why Ben was acting so differently towards her then he had before. She felt as if she had done something wrong but wasn't sure what she had done. Ben turned to look at her and raised his eyebrows.
"Are we still on for a tutoring session on Friday evening?", Ben smugly asked.
Rey's jaw dropped and she stood there gaping at him in disbelief. She had a date with Snap Friday night and she was certain that Ben had heard Snap asking her out and knew when it was.
Rey closed her mouth and just stood staring at him and shaking her head. "I appreciate you offering to tutor me again Mr. Solo but I can't do it Friday night, I have plans for that evening", she told him. She wasn't going to give up a chance to go on an actual date with someone who actually seemed to be interested in going out with her and not ignoring her and acting like she didn't exist.
"Well your grade should be more important than your social plans Miss Johnson. I thought you were serious about raising your grade and not just getting a passing grade to skid by in this class", he chided her.
Rey shook her head and glanced up at the clock on the wall. She needed to get to her next class and if she didn't get going in the next five minutes she would be late.
"I'm sorry Mr. Solo but I really need to get going to my next class now. We can plan for another day next week. Just text or email a convenient time for you and I will make it work", she offered.
Ben licked his lips and stood up, he leaned down and moved his mouth close to the shell of her ear. She could feel his breath, hot in her ear.
"You will cancel your plans with the annoying boy and I will meet you at your house at 7:30 on Friday evening unless you expect to fail your next exam", he threatened in a low tone in her ear.
Rey felt like crying. She didn't want to give up an opportunity to go on her first date. She had really liked Ben and would have canceled her date within seconds if he hadn't been acting like a complete jerk to her in the last week.
She hesitated and then shook her head. "Ok that's fine, I will work around our tutoring session then", she compromised.
She wasn't about to cancel her date with Snap. She'd schedule it for right after her tutoring session with Ben. She thought to herself that she had obviously misread Ben's signals before. She wasn't going to go out of her way to accommodate him, especially since he used her grade to threaten her with.
Ben frowned but nodded. Rey saw her teacher from the corner of her eye approaching the classroom.
Ben straightened up his body and moved away from Rey just as Ms. Barrow walked into the classroom. Ben shifted past Rey and strolled out of the classroom. He briefly glanced back at Rey mouthing, "I'll call you later", to her.
Ben did call her after school ended to confirm that Unkar, her foster father would be out of the house at 7:30. He also stiffly asked her what time she was going out later and she informed him that she needed to be done before 9 pm as that was when her date would be there to pick her up.
"We'll see about that", he stiffly told her and them hung up the phone.
Rey made the arrangements with Snap. He was supposed to pick her up at her house at 9. She was giddy with excitement.
She stared at her closet lost in thought. She didn't feel like any of her clothes were appropriate for the date. They were too plain, too dated. She didn't want to look like 'regular, everyday Rey'. She wanted to look like 'fun to hang out with Rey. She found hanging in the back of her closet a sparkly silver tank top that Rose had left at her house during one of their sleep overs She paired it with black leggings and her cherished pair of chucks. She had to beg Unkar to buy them for her for practicality reasons . He had grumbled about paying for the Converse sneakers but had eventually relented and she had worn them almost every day for the past six months.
She put on a sparkly pink lip gloss and brushed a nude eyeshadow across her lids.
Unkar had left her to go to his night job around 6 pm. She had popped a frozen cheese pizza in the oven as there was no way that she was going to go out of her way to make a nice meal for Ben again.
Ben arrived five minutes late. When she opened the door for him she was surprised to see that he looked like he had just come from the gym. His was wearing black Nike shorts and a gray tank top. He still had beads of sweat clinging to his forehead. His arms and legs were muscular and well defined.
Ben combed his fingers through his hair that appeared to be damp with perspiration. He looked Rey up and down , his eyes falling on the bit of cleavage that was visible from the scoop neck tank top.
"You dressed up for me? You know you shouldn't have.", he said , licking his lips and gazing down at her.
Rey rolled her eyes at him and ushered him into he kitchen where she had her math text book and papers scattered about.
He noticed a copy of 'Pride and Prejudice' laying on top of a notebook that she had thumbed through before he had gotten there.
"Oh a Classics girl, are you?", he teased. "I'm a Classic guy so I guess we go together perfectly".
Rey was still baffled by his behavior. How he could go fro looking past her one moment to being in her kitchen teasing her about her choice of literature. "Don't be ridiculous. You know that I'm dressed up for my date with Snap. I'm positive you overheard all of the details He'll be here after you leave. Not that it should matter to you anyways as its not really any of your business.", she sneered at him.
Ben frowned and narrowed his eyes. "it is my business", he replied as they sat down next to each other at the table.
Rey shook her head. Its certainly not your business. I am just your student. There is nothing else between us. You've made that completely clear this week with your actions. You looked through me, acted like I don't exist after you had the gull to kiss me and make me think that you liked me. I was an idiot for thinking that was true by the way", Rey declared, pulling her chair away from his, adding distance between him.
Ben grabbed for her hand. He laid his hand on top of hers and she promptly jerked her hand away from his, into her lap.
"I do like you, Rey. I just can't display that in class. I got a warning notice on Monday that someone anonymously reported me to the principal for inappropriate behavior with a student. I was making it too obvious before. I can't tell you who reported me. It could have been another student or a teacher. I couldn't take any chances and lost my position. That would mean I would lose out on seeing you every day".
Rey shook her head, still not convinced that he's not lying to her. "So instead of just going back to treating me like any other student, you ignore me completely? You give me a lower grade then what I deserved in order to force me into more at home study sessions with you? You look through me like I don't exist?", Rey argued. She crossed her arms over her chest, glaring at Ben whose hand again found its way on top of hers. His fingers intertwined with hers.
"I'm sorry baby. I know I've been acting like a complete jackass to you lately and I promise to make it up to you. We'll have fun tonight I promise. I'll help you study first and then we'll go out", he said.
Rey felt the warmth radiating off of his hand. It felt comfortable and she felt safe.
"Why don't you cancel your date with that boy and go out with me tonight. I'll take you out to dinner so you don't have to eat that", he said while gesturing towards the pizza that was cooling on top of the counter.
"Ben, you don't know how long I've waited to be asked out on a real date. This is the first time ever", she argued.
He grinned at her. "I will take you out on a real date. I promise. Somewhere nice, where you can get some real food"
"I thought you can't risk being seen with me. What will people say if someone recognizes us out together", Rey questioned.
"I planned to take you out to Chandrilla. Its like an hour from here. It's a college town. The chances of being recognized by anyone there are pretty slim. We can stop by my apartment on our way there.
Excitement pulsed through Rey's veins as she thought of going on a romantic date with Ben and she soon forgot why she was angry with him before.
Rey grabbed her phone and texted Snap quickly. She told him she wasn't feeling well so had to cancel their date. She added a sad emoji for good measure.
She looked up at Ben and he smiled at her and pulled open the text book.
Rey was excited to see what would happen on their date.