Never Let Me Fall

'Al…. Al…' 

The voice made its way into my dreams, pulling me out of sleep. Damn. I wasn't a morning person, but once I had woken up, I couldn’t get back to sleep. I groaned and rolled over, smooshing my face into the pillows. I swear I slept at Ben, my best friend since before kindergarten's, house more than I did my own.

'ALLISON MAY MCKINLEY GET UP RIGHT NOW OR I SWEAR TO GOD I WILL POUR THIS COFFE OVER YOUR HEAD!!'

I grumbled and rolled over, my eyes still shut. I knew better than to mess with Ben when he used my full name.

'Piss off, Benji.'

'I wasn't joking.' His voice sounded closer than I expected. 'You have 10 seconds to get up and take the breakfast I so kindly went out and bought especially for you, or you will have first degree burns all over the upper half of your body.'

He's so CUTE when he tries to be scary!  I thought, pulling the sheets over my head.

'Tries?' Ben said, sarcasm in his voice.

Shit... Was that out loud? I thought, screwing my face up.

'Yep… still is, in fact.' Ben said, amusement in his voice now. 'Now... Get. Up.'

I groaned again and pulled the sheets from my face, only to find Ben's deep blue eyes less than an inch from mine. I froze.  I can't believe I had never noticed how blue his eyes were. Or how amazingly his dark hair contrasted with  his skin. Or how soft that skin looked in the dim room. Or… wait. Dim room? Was the sun even up? I didn’t realise we had been staring until he cleared his throat and pulled away from me.

'Come on. I brought you donuts. Get dressed.' he said. I couldn’t tell, but it looked like he was blushing. I twisted my head and looked out the window behind his bed. The garden was grey and ghostlike in the early morning mist.

'Too early. The sun's not even up yet.' I said, reaching for the coffee in his hand. Now I was up, I may as well give in to my growling stomach.

'Nuh uh. Mine.' he said, pulling away from my reaching hand. 'Yours is in the kitchen. Did you forget already? It's Saturday.' Saturday, now I remembered. This Saturday I had agreed to climb the hill behind his house  with him, to watch the sunrise.

'Can't we do it tomorrow?' I asked.

'No. in case you had forgotten, tomorrow is your birthday.' He said, his reply slightly muffled by the doors of the closet he was now in, reaching for the stash of clothes that I left at his house.

'I hadn't forgotten.' I replied, frowning.

'Good. Shower and then get changed.' he ordered, throwing the clothes at me.

'What about you?'

He rolled his eyes.

'I was up an hour ago.  I let you sleep in. I didn’t need any help to get organised.'

Now it was my turn to roll my eyes. Ben never accepted help, from me or anyone else.

'Help me up?' I said, reaching out to him. He sighed and turned back around.

'Please, Benji?'

'Fine. This once.  Since you ask so nicely.' he grumbled, grabbing my hand, and then my legs... And then pulling me off the bed to land on a heap on the floor.

'Benji!' I yelled, sitting up. He snickered.

'Serves you right. Get up yourself next time.' I jumped up and lunged towards him, but as usual, he was too fast for me. He jumped out of the way, and then caught me in a head lock.

'Dammit, Benji, get off me,' I said.

'Certainly.'

Wait… Certainly? I thought. Benji's giving up with out a fight? Something's up…

Distracted by the thought of this, I didn't realise what he was doing… until he turned the shower on.

'Eeep! Not cool!' I squealed, fumbling for the tap to turn off the icy water.  I pulled off the shirt I had slept in, leaving me in my bra and underwear, and threw it at his face.

'Get out.'

He grinned and threw it back.

'Already gone, babe'

 I had finished getting undressed and was washing my hair before I realised. He never called me 'babe'. Or  'honey', or 'gorgeous', or anything other than Al, really. But he had today. What did that mean? I was still puzzling over this as the hot water ran out.

Ben's POV

 Shit.  I thought.  I hadn't meant to call her babe. It had just come out when I saw her there, water dripping into her amazing green eyes.

It doesn't matter, Ben.  I told myself. She just thinks of you as a friend.  Wasn't that how she introduced me all the time? This is my friend, Ben?  I wished that friendship could develop into something more, but I didn’t want to do anything that would spoil our friendship.

Why can't I just know what to DO?!

Allie's POV

 I walked around the apparently empty house, trying to find Ben.

'Benji...' I whispered. I didn’t want to wake up his mum, Anne. His father had walked out on them two years after I met him.

'Allie? You about ready to go?' he called from the kitchen.

'Benji, shh! Your mum!' I whisper shouted, walking into the kitchen and slapping his arm.

'She's in New York for the week, didn't I tell you? Your coffee's  probably cold by now.' he said, his back still to me, gesturing to the kitchen counter. He turned to me and eyed me up and down.

'Nice. Have I ever told you red's your colour?' he grinned.

'Frequently. Let's go.' I said, tipping the now cold coffee down the sink and rinsing the cup. Knowing red was his favourite colour on me, I had put on a plain red singlet, skinny jeans, red converse and a grey beanie before leaving his room.

'Let me get my guitar.' he said, quickly grabbing the black case before locking the door behind us and with that we set off for the mountain.