When the Stars Align: A Modern Day Reylo AU

Chapter 15

Rey graduated high school with Ben in the audience cheering for her. She picked more shifts up at the coffee shop for the summer so she could stash more money away. Her boss gave her a raise, too.

July rolled around and she had freshman orientation. When she walked to the college of science and engineering she was thrilled. She chatted with a few people and got some contacts. She signed up to be a part of the robotics team and chose her classes. She had signed up for 5 classes, Studies in Literature, Calculus, Physics, Linear Algebra, and Introduction to Engineering. She was very excited. Her classes didn't have assigned professors yet. She set her schedule up so she was loaded on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. She had 4 of her 5 classes in a row on those days. She started at 9:00 with Physics, then at 10:30 she had Literature. She left herself a lunch break. At 1:00 she went to Linear Algebra and ended her day from 2:30-3:30 with her engineering class. She was taking her Calculus class on Tuesdays, only a once a week long class (3 hours) from 9:00-12:00. That way, she could work on Thursdays from open (at 4:00 am) until noon and Tuesdays from noon to close. She would also work the closing shift from 4:00pm-9:00pm on Saturdays and Wednesdays. That gave her enough hours to support her apartment and herself and also to have a little fun.

She was telling Ben all about it. She had spent the night at the college for orientation so she was excited to see him when she came home the next day. They had been dating for a few months now, but it felt like forever.

"Rey," he said, "I'm not sure how to approach this," he was obviously nervous and kept running his hand through his hair and fidgeting. It was making her nervous.

"Ummm, just say whatever you need to," she encouraged him.

"So, I'm worried that when I say this it is going to drive a wedge between us, and I don't want that to happen," he said, darting his eyes around, "so if I say this and it sounds so incredibly stupid, you have to pretend I didn't say it," he said.

"You are making me nervous," she said, "Are you breaking up with me?" she asked, tears welling in her eyes.

"Rey, oh my God, no," he said, a smiling forming in the corners of his mouth, " the opposite," he said. "My lease, it runs out in mid August," he said. "What if..." he paused, still obviously nervous to spit it out, "I moved in here?" he said, looking away quickly. "Nevermind, that's dumb, I know, I'm moving to fast," he quickly added.

Rey was caught off guard. That was NOT was she was expecting. "Ben," she tried to interrupt him, he kept talking, "Ben, " she said again, to no avail, "BEN," she shouted over him. "I would like that very much, although my apartment seems like an interesting choice given that you live in the luxury apartments," she said.

"Yours is perfect for us and it's significantly cheaper, we can split the rent, which is helpful for both of us, and we can condense our stuff, not that either of us has much," he added.

"I love you," she said to him, for the first time. He stood staring at her, wondering if he heard the words come out of her mouth correctly.

"I love you, too" he said back and kissed her passionately which lead to wonderful, earth shattering sex.

As August approached they started to condense their things. They kept Rey's bed and sold Ben's, all of them. He had lots of guest rooms and they only had one bedroom. They kept Ben's couch and sold off the teal couch. Ben supplied most of the kitchen items, since Rey had the bare minimum. When all was said and done, their apartment was cozy and a pleasant mix of their things and looked homier than either of their independent apartments ever had. They also made almost $1,000 selling their things. They used it to pay the August rent.

Classes started and Rey was excited for her first day of college. She was glad they had August's rent covered because she had to buy her books for college. She spent about $300 on those, and she was required to have a laptop. Ben had bought her one for her high school graduation, a really nice MacBook Pro.

On Rey's first day of class she was excited and nervous. In her first class, she recognized one of the kids from her freshman orientation. His name was Finn. They sat together and chatted. It turned out they had another class together later. She was glad for that.

Ben was nervous as well. He was teaching his first class this afternoon. He had doctorate classes all morning, but he and Rey met up for lunch in the cafeteria. She had two more classes after lunch and he had one more class and then was teaching. He had his new blazer. He had been preparing his lecture and lessons for weeks.

Rey's class after lunch was with Finn as well. She was glad for a familiar face. So far she was enjoying her classes, this was literature though. Finn was an English major, so she was glad she could have him here to help her too.

Her last class, the one she was really looking forward too, was her engineering class. She was 10 minutes early and got a seat close to the front. She pulled her laptop out and got set up. She was eager to begin. When the professor walked in, her jaw dropped. No friggin way.

"Good afternoon class, my name is Mr. Solo," she heard Ben say. He scanned the room and saw her. His eyes grew wide and his mouth was agape slightly. He kept on teaching, pretending his live in girlfriend wasn't sitting in front of him. She was interested in his material and was pleased to see he was a great professor.

When they got home after class it was just briefly, Rey had robotics on Monday nights from 4:30-7:00.

"Oh my God, Ben, how did this happen," she said giggling.

"I don't know how we didn't realize this!" he said back.

"We can do this, right? I don't want to drop your class," she said.

"No, don't drop it, seeing you hang off my every word made me hot," he said.

"Hot enough for a quickie before robotics?" she asked.

He didn't need any more encouragement, he took her right there on the couch. "Shit Rey," he said to her when they finished, "I fucking love you."

"I love you, too, Professor Solo," she said with a coy smile and pulled her clothes back on to go to Robotics.