Camera Shy || Ben Barlow

Eighteen

I'd never noticed how small an area the boys really had to sleep/live in on this ridiculous bus until Ben and I tried to cram ourselves messily between his and Dani's beds, not much space between us at all. "Have you told any of them?" Ben asked, in a whisper, his lips hovering above mine. All I needed to do to connect them was stand up onto my toes, ever so slightly, not even all the way from this angle. I shook my head, pressing myself further into Ben. It was for spacial purposes only, I swear. 

"Me neither," he said, with a small smile. We'd decided, one and a half weeks prior, that we weren't going to tell anyone about us just yet. Not because we were embarrassed, but because it would be hilarious watching our friends sit there oblivious while we ran off together like school children with a secret. 

"Now that we're... you know..." I said, leaning backwards until I tumbled back onto Ben's bed, knocking my head on the wall slightly. I pushed myself into a sitting position, moving myself so that Ben could sit on the bed facing me. He frowned, slightly, at the noise of my head against the paper-thin walls. Imagine what they thought we were doing in there. 

"Together?" He smirked. Ben hadn't seemed like much of a smirker before now, but Draco Malfoy looked good on him. I doubted he'd pull off the hair, however perpetually attractive my infatuation with him made him seem. 

"That's the one," I said, ducking my head so as to hide the redness in my cheeks. 

"I'e already seen it, Es," referring to the fact that he'd made me blush. I rolled my eyes. "What were you saying?" 

"Oh! Now that we're... together, do I get to see what's in that special book of yours?" Ben looked taken aback, as though he wasn't expecting me to ever ask him directly. His eyebrows knitted themselves together as he pulled a contemplative face. 

"Not yet."

"What do you mean not yet?! I deserve to know!" I flailed my arms, hitting West's bed above Ben's and rubbing my wrist as though that would make it any better Ben nodded, smiling at my outburst. Despite his evident amusement, he took my hand into his and brushed his thumb across the thumb. Magically, it didn't hurt anymore. 

"You'll know one day."

"Why can't that be today?" I cried, before realising that we needed to be quiet; Zach and Dani were both taking a nap in the room next door, and we didn't want everyone else to think anything dodgy was going on. We'd told them Ben needed help selecting a t-shirt, which was believe because, let's be honest, none of these boys were exactly self sufficient. Ben pulled a face and shrugged his shoulders (which somehow involved the movement of his entire body) in that very specific way that he always did. 

I stumbled out of the cupboard the boys called a bedroom before Ben to avoid suspicions, hoping to god the redness in my cheeks had noticeably gone away. 

Dani and Zach were still soundly asleep, Dani mumbling nonsense to himself every few seconds, but West and Cara were giving me an odd look; Sam and Fil were too engrossed in conversation to have noticed my sudden entrance. "Has he found a shirt yet?" Cara asked, a sickeningly sweet smile on her face.

"What?"

"Ben," she prompted, amused. West looked more concerned than amused, but I tried to ignore that. 

"Ben! Oh! Uh, yeah," I said, far more loudly than necessary, causing Dani to stir on his litte loveseat. I wasn't sure whether I preferred him asleep or awake. On the one hand, he was kind of adorable while he slept (also while he was awake, but that isn't the point here), in an innocent way; he wasn't causing a ruckus when he was sleeping. But, on the other, no one quite made me laugh like little Dani did.