Wild ♥︎ Book 2

Chapter 7

BPOV

The stack of papers that Snoke had given him to grade was so huge that Ben had to tell Snoke that he'd be right back. He was shocked that Snoke would give him all of his students's summer assignments and the ones they just did for Ben to grade in 2 days. But he guessed it was just part of the teacher assistant job.

When Ben left he went to Finn and Poe's dorm (they had somehow weaselled around the college rules and were living together, Ben and Rey thought it was adorable) because he knew that Poe owned a huge backpack from last year that he wasn't using this year. Ben didn't know if he brought it along with him but felt as though it was worth a try. He knocked on the door.

Finn opened up, a big smile appearing on his face. "Hey, Ben," he said. Then he checked his phone. "It's 3:00 and we have no homework. Do you want to hang around, perhaps?"

"Actually, Finn, I'd love to but I can't. I have a huge amount of student papers and projects to grade that Snoke gave me. And I'm going to need your boyfriend's huge backpack to carry them in an orderly fashion back to my dorm."

"Why can't you just grade them at Snoke's place?"

"I definitely do not want to stay in there for longer than I need to. I've already graded some... but I'm tired and I wanna get it all done tonight, so I'll take them back to my dorm and grade then there because it's more... homely."

Finn nodded. "Yeah, yeah, I gotcha." Finn looked behind him, and opened the door a bit wider so Ben can step in. "Uhhh... he's in the shower right now, actually."

"Why is he taking a shower at 3:00?"

"Swim team."

"Ohhh."

Finn bent down next to the bed and looked around underneath it. He pulled out Poe's huge LL Bean backpack from last year, standing up and saying, "Oh yeah, I remember that he took it in case he ever needed it again. I'll tell him hug borrowed it, he wouldn't mind."

Ben have Finn a one-armed hug and said, "Thanks so much, man. Say hey to Poe for me." He jogged out the door and back to Snoke's office.

"Where did you get that backpack, Ben?" Snoke asked as Ben started to slide papers into it. They went in neatly, which Ben thought was strange, but he wasn't complaining.

"Borrowed it from a friend, sir. Must be large enough to fit all these papers. I'm taking them back to my dorm to grade." Ben put the last paper in, smoothed a lock of hair behind his ear and sighed with relief.

"Looks like you have your wish."

"Yeah," Ben hauled the backpack onto his shoulders, and carried his own backpack at the handle at the top. He smiled at Snoke and they said their farewells.

Ben got back to his dorm to see Rey sitting on her bed with her legs crossed, reading a manga. She didn't even look up when Ben came in, but then said, "Hey, Benny. How was your first day?" She looked up at him and frowned a bit in confusion. "Why do you have Poe's backpack?"

"Correction: his old backpack. Using it to carry the crapload of papers that Snoke forced me to grade. And thank you Rey, my day was fine, how about yours?"

"Fantastic. All my teachers are reasonable and I have no homework today." She bookmarked her place in the manga and went into the kitchen. "I'm making popcorn, you want some?"

"Yeah, of course, thanks Rey." Ben knew that he was kind of spacey today and knew Rey would notice. He couldn't forget that Hux hadn't called him in 5 days and it was bothering him a lot for many reasons. But he chose to forget about that and instead grabbed a smaller stack from the huge stack of papers. He sorted them by class period and assignment and once he had finished with 4 neat stacks of papers, he started to grade them.

At this point, Rey had come out with the huge bowl of popcorn. "Here ya go." She grabbed a handful of popcorn and shoved it in her mouth.

Ben laughed a bit. "Thanks, Rey." He halfheartedly took a kernel of popcorn out of the bowl with his pointer finger and thumb and popped it in his mouth. Then he turned back to his papers.

There was a weird bout of silence before Rey said, "You're acting strange, Ben. I can read you like a magazine. What's up?"

Ben sighed. "It's just that... everything's been weird without Brendol around." He turned around on his chair to face Rey. "I mean, Rey, he hasn't even called or texted me in the past 5 days. God knows what he could be doing."

"Oh my gosh, Ben. Do you actually think he could be cheating on you??"

"No!" Ben said quickly. Rey raised an eyebrow slightly and then he said, "Well, I don't know what the hell to think."

"He's busy too. Maybe a project or something he had to do before school started. It's only been 5 days, Ben."

"Yeah, I know, I know. But he promised to call every day! I just wish... I could know if everything's alright with him."

Rey nodded. She cleared her throat and sat on the floor next to Ben's chair, saying, "Well, he's a nice guy and now he's gonna be a successful neuroscientist. He'll be fine, Ben, trust me."

Ben nodded a bit. Rey patted Ben on the back. Then he reached her arms out and asked Ben, "Do you want a hug?"

Ben smiled a bit, nodding. "Yeah." He reached his arms down to Rey and hugged her above her ribcage. Rey hugged him back and when they let go, she stood up and picked up the popcorn bowl.

"Want any more popcorn, Ben?"

"Nah. Thanks though." Ben watched as Rey started to leave, but then he said, "Oh, and Rey?"

She turned her head around.

"I believe you. About Brendol. I know he's fine. And I believe he'll call soon."

Rey smiled. "That's the spirit, man. And also, Ben, about the 8-hour time difference and you guys speaking to each other, you'll figure a way around."

"How do you know?"

"You guys always do." Rey smiled one more time as she turned into the kitchen. Rey yelled from the kitchen, "Now those papers ain't gonna grade themselves!!"

Ben turned back to his papers, chuckling.

You'll figure a way around. You guys always do.