39 ~ Sweet as a Milkshake-1

Chapter 39: Sweet as a Milkshake "Lottie," I heard. "Go away." "Lottie." My mind was foggy and I couldn't make sense of what was going on. I stretched and pressed my face into my pillow. "No, go away," I said sleepily. I heard a couple of thuds and sighed, trying to fall asleep again. But then I felt a soft tickling on my face and wrinkled my nose. "Why?" I whined, opening my eyes. "Who even-" "Happy birthday," Ben said. He had on a conical paper hat that fastened under his chin and was decorated with poorly drawn blue balloons. He looked extremely uncomfortable and that made me want to laugh. "You look great," I said, smiling at him. He leant down so that instead of kneeling, he was on his elbows and eye-level with me. "I always look great," he replied and patted my head like I was a dog. "Your dad made it." I stretched out my aching arms and accidentally smacked Ben in the face. "Oops, sorry," I said, patting his cheek. He just laughed and sat up, pulling me with him. I yawned and said, "I'm so tired." "Your dad made you breakfast, so you should get up." I cocked my head. "What did he do? Defrost the waffles or put the bread in the toaster?" "It's a special day, I think he made both." Abruptly, I leant forward and kissed Ben's cheek, then I stood up, scratching the back of my head. "Let's go then, I'm hungry." Ben stood up as well and yanked the adorable birthday hat off of his head, jamming it onto mine instead. "That thing was giving me a double chin," he grumbled, running his hand across his jaw. "Don't blame the hat, Benny," I teased. He just scoffed and nudged my shoulder. I noticed he had put his shirt back on, but I wasn't sure whether that was a good thing or not. I shook my head fiercely to get rid of the image. "Charlotte!" Papa exclaimed when I entered the kitchen. I grinned at him and ran up to him, giving him a big hug. "Happy birthday, poppet," he said, holding me tightly. "I heard you cooked me breakfast?" He let go of me and chuckled. "The very loose definition of 'cooked,' Charlie." Ben suddenly came up behind me and touched the small of my back. "By cooked he means he went to the bakery and brought back croissants and muffins," he said. Papa and I laughed, and I saw the big white box from the local bakery and made a beeline for it. I grinned when I saw my favourite chocolate-filled croissant waiting for me, still warm and buttery from the oven. "You look like a hungry wolf," Ben said, but I ignored his stupid jokes and started eating it. I should've changed and brushed my bird's nest hair before having breakfast, but I was starved. Papa rubbed my head as I ate and said, "I'm going to Delia's house for a bit, okay? Charlie, Ben said you and him can spend the day however you want, but come home for dinner and presents with Delia and I." "Okay, Papa," I mumbled. He shook his head and left, and then Ben sat down next to me. "Do you want any?" I asked after I finished the bite in my mouth. He just stared at me, and I frowned and wiped at my mouth self-consciously. "What?" "What do you want to do today?" he asked. I smiled dopily and shrugged. "I'm going to say it." Ben rolled his eyes. "Shut up, don't say it." "I will." "No, please, Lottie. Don't." "Ben, it doesn't matter what we do-" "Please shut the fuck up." "-as long as we do it together." I started giggling at the fed-up expression on Ben's face. We had watched a movie a while ago where the couple would say the same such sickly-sweet things, and Ben had hated it. "Lottie, why do you hate me?" he groaned while I laughed at him. I shoved the rest of the croissant in my mouth and grinned. Once I'd swallowed, I said, "I'm sorry, but not really." When he just stared at me flatly, I stood up. "Do you want eggs and toast for breakfast?" Ben pursed his lips and smiled slightly at me, making me return it tenfold. "Yes please." As I passed his chair on my way to the fridge, I ruffled his hair playfully. "How many eggs?" I asked, turning around to look at him. Ben looked at me for a second, and then his eyes widened and his hand twitched. "I actually forgot that I'm deathly allergic to eggs and toast." My eyebrows furrowed. "What?" "Come here, Lottie." I just stared at him, confused. "How can you be allergic to eggs and toast? You've been eating my baked goods for weeks and you're not dead. You do know that most cakes have eggs?" Ben leapt out of his chair and grabbed my hand, tugging me out of the kitchen and upstairs. "Go change, we're going out to do something." I froze and squirmed in his hold. "But you haven't eaten breakfast." "There's some stuff left in the box, I'll eat one of the scones or something. Just go get ready. Something kind of warm." "Ben, make sure you eat breakfast!" He kept pulling me upstairs and then shoved me in my room. "Yeah, I will, don't worry." The door to my room closed and I stared at it, confused. Deathly allergic to eggs and toast? How dumb did he think I was? I decided to let it go for the moment, because I was sure that he couldn't be hiding anything bad from me. So I just grabbed some old clothes from the pile I'd left behind when I went to university and took them to my bathroom, where I showered and changed. Ben was waiting by the front door when I trailed downstairs, and I skipped over to him. His bored expression softened when he saw me, and I smiled at him. "Where are we going?" I asked. "Do you like ice skating?" I slipped my feet in my shoes and nodded eagerly. "Yeah, are we going to the ice rink in the town centre?" Ben wrapped his arm around my shoulders and I cuddled against his side as he led me to his car. "Yeah. There's nothing much else to do in this place." "You're right," I said. "I mean, we could go vandalise something-"