spy school - operation creeping spider

Chapter 9 - The plan

"What's the plan then? I asked.

"It's not really a plan, but its a start"

"Okay, so what is it?"

"Well, I have a lot of suspicions on an Indian billionaire called Aakash Arvind."

"But why, isn't he the billionaire who made ValuePrix?" Mike said,

"well, He has been tracked by 10 months by the CIA and he hasn't appeared for 5 months, which is unusual since he's such a show off." Erica said.

This was true, Aakash Aravind was a big time showoff, he made a 12 story building for himself and his family, bought 20 supercars incase one of them broke down and Bought the most expensive phone in the world, costing him 50,000$.

"So how we gonna investigate this guy?" Zoe asked

"Easy. They're having a party for his son's birthday. We can pretend to be tutors."

"when's the party?" I asked

"2 weeks and they're inviting everyone within 2 miles of their home"

"weird but ok" I said.

"Have you did the appointment or something?" Mike asked

"Yep."

"Damn, you're always one step ahead of us" I said. ( I think I was blushing a little)

"Thank you." Erica complimented. wait. she complimented me. Everyone except Erica gasped a little, fully knowing that Erica is not a person who compliments people.

After that we finished the ''meeting'' when I went to the room, Mike pulled me in.

"what the hell Mike"

"Benjamin Ripley!" he said as if he was my mother scolding me.

"what."

"Dude. do you not know how to pick up human interactions?"

"I do... or at least better than Erica"

"Dude"

"She was flirting with you."

"don't you know we're kinda dating?"

"I do. but she might want to make it Dating + She never flirts with anyone willingly, only for a mission."

"How is saying thank you flirting?" 

"it isn't in the normal world, but in the Erica world, both of you might as well had been engaged" Mike smickered as he said it

"Ben"

"BEN!"

''Huh-what?"

"you zoned out again."

"ok"

"so when're you gonna date her?"

"I dunno"

"wha- you haven't even asked her for dating?"

"Nope."

"meh ok"

"How's things going between you and Zoe?" I asked

Mike seemed very shy all of a sudden

"uhh nothing."

And then Erica stormed into our room. She was wearing a awfully unfamiliar outfit, she was wearing something casual and not spy wear as she usually does (usually normal people think she's a emo or something.), This time she was wearing a blue jacket along with a black underdress and blue jeans, Something didn't feel right though this is how most people wear.         The last time she had worn something different other than a black stealth suit was all the way back in vail, when she wore a coat. She was still beautiful as ever, even more than the time I met her.

Flashback
                                                                                                                                                                                                         Who are you?" Erica hissed.

"B-B-B-Benjamin Ripley," I sputtered. "I'm a student here." "I've never seen you before." "I only got accepted this afternoon," I explained, and then thought to add, "Please don't kill me."Erica groaned. "A newbie? Now?! This day just keeps getting better." Now that the voice was inflected with sarcasm rather than aggression, it was higher than I'd expected. I looked at the body sitting on my chest and realized it was slim with curves.                                                                            "You're a girl," I said. "Wow," she replied. "No wonder you got accepted. Your powers of deduction are amazing." She pulled her mask back, revealing her face.                                                                                                                     I wouldn't have thought my heart could have beat any faster than it had while racing for my life from a hail of gunfire, but it suddenly sped up to a whole new level. Elizabeth Pasternak was no longer the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen (Still she is not)                                                             The girl sitting on my chest appeared to be a few years older than me, maybe fourteen or fifteen, with thick dark hair and incredibly blue eyes. Her skin was flawless, her cheekbones were sculpted, and her lips were full. She was slight of build—almost delicate—and yet she'd been powerful enough to flatten me in half a second. She even smelled incredible, an intoxicating combination of lilacs and gunpowder. But perhaps the most attractive thing about her was how calm and confident she was in the midst of a life-or-death situation. She seemed far more annoyed that I'd stumbled into the action than by the idea that bullets were flying outside.

End of flashback

"Ben, we need to talk" she seemed surprised that Mike was in the room, but shot him a glare that basically said ''get out". Mike immediately scooted out snickering like a obedient dog.

"What do you want to talk about?" I said calmly, I didn't know yet if it was 'can I go on a date with you' or 'I'm breaking up with you' situation.

"Ben...I feel like..." Erica said as coldly as antarctica.

"You feel like what?" I asked again calmly, I didn't want to be seem way to casual or way to worried.

"I feel like you're gonna betray me..." She said coldly, though I could see a flicker of worry in her icy blue eyes.

"why? I've been your Friend, or if you will your best friend for almost 2 years..." I asked her worriedly, now i had real worry in my brain, my heart was pounding almost as fast as a Bugatti could rev.

"Joshua was the same." she replied to me coldly, like the way she used to answer me a obvious answer all the way back when I had just started in spy school. And this was true, Joshua was the only person who could break the ice queen other than me and there were rumors that Erica had a crush on Joshua. but this all broke down when Joshua died...but he didn't, he merely faked his death to be a SPYDER agent. It's believed that this made Erica even more Icy.

I said the most cheesiest words I had ever said in my life, probably the most I've heard my life.

"Erica hale, I would never betray anyone in the CIA other than double agents, Not even the Idiot. (the idiot was the nickname Zoe gave to him because, well he's a total idiot.) And never you, I've had a crush on you ever since you attacked me the day I arrived here, and I like you a lot..."

Erica seemed reassured about this and then she asked

"Promise?"

"YES! duh" 

"Ok I guess I'll go no-

Then, I saw shock in Erica's face, It looked like she had just seen me being a boyfriend with someone else...

I kissed her.
I kissed Erica hale.

I had never kissed Erica myself, she had always done it the 3 times we had, the first at vail 2nd at the emperor of the seas and 3rd at the plane, now 4th in a hotel.

Erica didn't move away, almost as though she enjoyed it, after at least 20 seconds, she moved away. I only did this to reassure her that I would never ever betray her and I think it just about worked..