Stars Collide

Chapter 10 (Part 2)

I anxiously tapped the side of my thigh as Chiara went on and on about how amazing it was that I was going on a date. We were waiting for Ben to show up so that we could get our off-campus passes together.

"This is so exciting!" Chiara exclaimed. "You have to tell me everything, okay?"

I managed a weak smile. "You know I will."

"Yeah," she said. "I know." She began pacing the room. "I wonder if anyone will ever ask me out on a date. Most of the people here are American. I'm just a European. I'm not as sophisticated as them."

I laughed. "Oh, you'd be surprised."

Chiara gave me a confused look before going on with her ranting. After what seemed like hours of wait, there was a knock on my door. "Quick," Chiara squealed. "Get it."

I got up off the bed and walked to the door, my stomach feeling queasy. Chiara backed up to give me space as I opened the door. Ben stood there, smiling at me. "Ready to go?"

I nodded as he led me out. I looked back one last time to catch Chiara mouthing, Good luck.

We both walked to the office in awkward silence. We were crossing the Midwest Building when Ben decided to break the ice. "So, what's your story?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. I've lived in New York- the state, not the city- for as long as I can remember. My parents own a business that's pretty big back in the states so I've always been pegged as a spoiled brat-" I looked up at him. "Do you think you can handle that?" I continued at his nod, "Well, I never really had any friends except for people who wanted to mooch off me, so I never really got to developing any great social skills. My parents sent me to Luxembourg for the last three of the four most important years of my life and a boy just asked me out the other day." I took a deep breath. "What about you?"

He ran a hand through his dark curls and sighed. "I don't know. There isn't as much to me as there is to you. I was born Benoit Weber seventeen years ago and I was first enrolled in the American Schools when I was five but I already had an English tutor before that. I met my best friends somewhere in second grade and I had never..." He looked down at his feet sheepishly.

"You had never what?" I asked him.

"Before you, I had never asked a girl out."

I felt this whole flock of butterflies make their way into my stomach. It looked like the Monarch was hosting another party again.

I didn't say anything. I didn't know what to say to that. Thankfully, we had reached the office.

Ben held the door open for me before walking inside. He walked up to one of the teachers at the front desk. "Can we have two passes?"

The teacher raised his eyebrow. "You're going out on a date?"

Ben nodded.

"That's nice," the teacher continued. "I'm sorry, but you'll have to keep the date on-campus today. No one's allowed out. Principal's orders. Sorry, kids."

Well, I guess I wasn't going to be going on a first date today after all. Ben looked at me and smiled. "That's okay," he said, still looking at me. "We can still have our date."

"Where?" I asked.

"I don't know," he admitted, his eyes twinkling as he led me outside. When we were outside the office, he turned to me and whispered, "Okay, so I really do know where we should go. I just couldn't say it in front of a teacher. We're going to the park."

I glanced up at the clouds building up above us. "Are you sure about that? And this school has a park?"

He nodded. "No one knows about it. It's not really a park, just a stretch of really nice land. My friend Jack discovered it a few years ago. It's our spot."

He was showing me his spot. I had no idea what to think of that.

"It's going to rain soon," I reminded him.

"Are you afraid of getting wet?" I shook my head. "Okay, then," he said, grabbing my hand. "Let's go."

I felt like I was in first grade again, grabbing a friend's hand and running to the playground. I laughed as we raced through campus, completely unaware of how we held hands. It felt natural.

It was empty outside right now. I'd never seen the campus like this. Everyone was probably inside their rooms right now. It was just me and Ben and I loved it.

When we finally reached the park, he let go and smiled at me. "How is it?"

I looked at what was in front of us. There was a gazebo in the middle of it and a pool towards the back, both sitting in a sea of grass. "Calling it a stretch of land would be a major understatement. How does no one know about this?"

Ben ran his hand through his hair. "Well," he said. "It's not exactly on-campus. This land belongs to my father."

"So I'm guessing your friend Jack didn't discover it."

He nodded slowly. "This is... our spot."

"Wow," I said. "It's really pretty."

"Thanks," Ben said before taking my hand again. "Come on, let's go in the gazebo."

We sat down right next to each other, no questions asked. I felt like I was being drawn to him. "Leah," Ben said. "What company do your parents own?"

Well, that was out of the blue. "Why?" I asked.

"At the beginning of summer, my dad told me that the daughter of the people that own the company Ian's dad works for will be coming here."

"Ian?" I asked.

"My friend," he told me. "So, what company do they own?"

"It's called Mac, Cheese and Chocolat Chaud," I told him.

He snapped his fingers. "That's it. Wow, you must be pretty rich."

I looked around us. "If your dad owns this, you must be pretty rich too."

"You know," Ben said slowly. "Sometimes I wish my dad didn't have so much money. It gives you a title, you know. Like, Hey look, there's that kid whose dad can get him out of anything. People already have a reason to hate us, you know?"

I nodded. "I know," I said.

Ben smiled. "Enough about that. I wanted to know something else."

"What?" I asked curiously.

"Would you be willing to possibly go on a second date with me, even though this one didn't go so well?"

I smiled confidently. "I would. And don't worry, this date was perfect."

He smiled back. "Good." He picked up my hand. "It's about to pour. May I walk you home?"

"Let's stay," I told him as thoughts began circulating through my head. What is home?