Your Best Friend, Benedict Cumberbatch

Chapter 21

Ben's POV

"Morning" you say in your husky morning voice as you turn your head slightly and kiss El on the top of her head. She was currently curled into you, under your arm and scrolling through her phone.

"Morning" she replies, as she looks up at you and smiles slightly. That smile was clearly forced, which makes you frown. "What's wrong darling?" you ask as you slowly run your hands through her hair and pull her closer into you with your other arm.

She sighs, "nothing. I'm fine." Then looks back down at her phone and continues to scroll.

"Are you sure?" you ask as you continue to stroke her hair as you gaze down at her, "doesn't seem like nothing?"

"I'm fine Ben" she replies bluntly as she continues to stare at her phone.

Maybe she's tired, or just having a down day, you thought. Maybe seeing the Graham Norton interview yesterday drained her . "Ok darling" you reply as you kiss her head again and gently remove your arm that was wrapped around her, "I'm going to make some breakfast. What would you like?"

"It's ok, I'm not hungry." El replies, still yet to make eye contact with you.

"El, you need to eat. You've barely eaten anything these past few days." You reply as you move out of the bed and grab your t-shirt from the floor. "I'll make you your favourite," you look over to her and smile. Not that she can see, as she's still looking at her phone.

"Ben, seriously." She replies in an angry tone as she suddenly looks up at you. "I don't want anything. Leave me alone." She says through gritted teeth as her eyes begin to water.

You held your breath momentarily, to stop yourself from angrily snapping back. There was clearly something wrong but you had to respect that she didn't want to speak about it at the moment. A lot has happened in the past week and maybe it's  just all sinking in now.

"Ok," you sigh, "well I'll be here when you're ready to talk."  You put your t-shirt on and walk out of the bedroom and into the kitchen. Although she says she's not hungry, you thought it would still be nice to make her breakfast in bed. Hopefully it would cheer her up.

"Here you go darling!" You say with a big smile on your face as you walk back into the bedroom 15 minutes later with a tray in your hand. It had her favourite - scrambled eggs, bacon and toast with a cup of tea. You had even took one of the roses out of the bunch that were in the living room and put it in a small vase. You knew this wouldn't fix whatever was wrong, but you hoped it was a start to making her feel happier. As you said previously, all that mattered to you was her happiness.

She slowly moves her head away from her phone and looks up at you. Pausing for a moment with a blank expression, she moves so that she is now sitting up to take the food. "Thank you." She replies, with that slight, forced smile again.

"That's ok darling." You smile as you place the tray over her and tried to stay upbeat. "I hope you like it." You reply as you automatically rub the back of your neck with your hand, feeling unsure on how to help her. You stood there for a moment awkwardly, then walked round to the other side of the bed and got back in, under the duvet, when you start to hear her cry.

"Oh, El." You say as you move closer to her and wrap your arms around her. "What is it? You can tell me."

"You're so lovely and I'm being a complete bitch." She replies as she sobs into your arms, which makes you chuckle slightly.

"Is that why you're crying?" You ask as you give her a squeeze. "You're not a bitch. You're just feeling down today, you're only human El." You remove your arms from her for a moment, as you grab the tray from over her lap and place it on the floor, so you can hold her properly. "You know I'm always here for you, no matter what." Gently you cup her jaw so you can softly move her face up to you, "I love you so much El. So so much." You smile then gently kiss her forehead.