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BEN AND I CAN'T CONTINUE the mission until Isaiah gets another order from FoodGo. We could start another mission in the meantime... if I felt like it... which I don't. After our initial meeting, I'm in no hurry to see Ben again.
As the days go by, I decide to focus on my Archangel training. I spend a lot of time crossing swords with Taishi, which is as depressing as it sounds. I'm constantly reminded that our relationship is professional and platonic. His girlfriend even visits the Archangel Training Garden sometimes, and I watch them eat sandwiches and sip milkshakes by the flowers. I want to sip milkshakes with Taishi, but I only ever get the painfully formal version of him. Sometimes I wonder if he would even consider me a friend.
Apparently, spending two days away from my new student is a no-no, and it gets me a lecture from my mom. We pass each other in the hall, in our house, when she criticizes me, “You should have started another mission while you wait! I think you're trying to avoid Ben on purpose.”
Maybe she's right. Maybe I am. At the moment, I can't think of anything I like about him.
On my third day away from Ben, I get a notification on my LightTab. I was using it to track Isaiah's internet activities, and it looks like he's ordered another sixty dollars in groceries from FoodGo. I immediately send a text to Ben.
“We need to return to Isaiah. Are you available?”
After a few minutes of no response, I follow up with another message.
“Please reply, Ben. Are you ready to go?”
Ugh, this boy is so frustrating. He's not saying anything, so I'll have to collect him at his dorm again. Last time, warping directly to his bedroom got me teased, so I change it up. I warp to the dormitory hallway and pound on Ben's door.
“Ben!” I holler. “Ben, open the door!”
He appears a moment later, his brow pinched, his hair disheveled. “Damn, girl, I know you're excited to see me, but you don't need to shout.”
He's trying to talk with a cigarette in his mouth, so I can barely make out what he says. I pluck the cigarette from his lips, make it disappear, and reply, “Once again, I tried to contact you on the LightTab, but I couldn't get through to you.”
“I don't like the LightTab, so I don't leave it on that much. I didn't like phones either. I don't like to be available to people.” Ben suddenly rips off his white t-shirt and tosses it on a pile of clothes.
“What are you doing?” I ask, perplexed as to why he's tearing off his clothes.
“I'm changing shirts... obviously. That one had a stain on it.” Ben grabs a hunter green shirt from the pile and pops it over his head.
“You could just manifest a new shirt if you wanted to. You don't have to dress and undress the normal way.”
“I know. I just thought I'd share my body with you again,” answers a winking Ben.
“You are so full of yourself,” I grumble. While I could never like anyone as disgustingly vain as Ben Worthington, I have to admit, I'm not entirely immune to his good looks. His perfect abs, cheeky smile, and wavy brown hair would be hard for anyone to resist—anyone but me, of course.
“I was just teasing you,” Ben says. “Anyway... where are we going? Back to Isaiah?”
“We are. He ordered from FoodGo again.”
“Damn, that was fast. Wasn't his last order, like... three days ago?”
“It was.” I grab Ben's arm and send us flying back to Isaiah's house. We zip from Ben's dorm, fly through the cosmos, and suddenly we're back in Isaiah's living room.
“I'll admit, it was a long three days,” Ben says, exaggerating a sigh. “I missed you, Kaylene.”
“You did not.”
“I did!” Ben insists. “The last time I actually turned on my LightTab, I searched for you. Apparently, you're kind of famous. I saw some really hot pictures of you too. Like... damn.”
This isn't the first time a student has flirted with me. It's only happened a few times, but I've gotten pretty good at deflecting any and all amorous attention. The easiest way is to simply ignore their advances.
“Isaiah, as you can see, is waiting for his FoodGo order to arrive,” I point out the obvious.
“Yeah. The dude is watching his door like a puppy. He really wants to see Angelica again,” Ben says. “Is she the only FoodGo delivery girl in his area, or could he end up getting his groceries from a fat, sweaty guy named Marco?”
“I guess we'll find out.” I sit down, cross my legs, and nonchalantly add, “It seems like he's had multiple encounters with Angelica, so let's assume it'll be her and not Marco.”
“We could always try to get him a date with Marco instead.”
His Marco joke is getting stale, so I don't comment. I don't think I've ever laughed at one of Ben's attempts at humor. It seems like we're as different as two people could possibly be. I do have a sense of humor, I think, but mine's more subtle.
The next time I glance in Ben's direction, he's smoking a cigarette again. With a roll of my eyes, I tell him, “You know, if you were as good at missions as you were at manifesting cigarettes, you wouldn't have a zero rating.”
Ben removes the cigarette from the corner of his mouth and pouts at me. “You keep picking on my zero rating. I wish you wouldn't. I'm real sensitive about it, you know.”
“Really?”
“No. I'm dagnaming with you,” replies a snickering Ben—but I get the last laugh. Every time he curses, he sounds as ridiculous as my dad, and I love it.
I point at the cigarette in Ben's hand and say, “Isaiah will smell that, you know.”
“So? Why should that matter?”
“Usually, we only use strong scents when we want to let a charge know we're present,” I explain. “There are just a few scents that are strong enough to pierce the veil and reach the other side. We sometimes use smoke, vanilla, or familiar perfumes to—”
My thought is interrupted by the doorbell's toll. Isaiah's wheelchair flies forward, and he answers the door immediately. For once, I think Ben might be right. Isaiah is really looking forward to seeing Angelica again.
“Hello, Angelica.” Isaiah sounds a bit sheepish, like a little boy greeting his first crush.
“Hey, Isaiah! I've got your stuff!” Angelica holds up a bag and six bottles of root beer. “Where do you want me to drop it off?”
“Anywhere you want,” Isaiah replies, wheeling away from the door.
As he retreats from Angelica, I whisper in his ear, “Tell her she looks pretty.”
“You, uh... you look really nice today,” Isaiah quietly compliments the girl with his groceries. “You look a little tanner than usual.”
“I'm surprised you noticed. I did go with some friends to the beach the other day,” Angelica says. “It's getting warmer again, so... why not, right?”
“I can't remember the last time I've gone to the beach,” Isaiah says—so I give him an idea.
Leaning over his ear again, I suggest, “Why don't you invite her to go to the beach with you?”
“Nah, man,” Ben rejects the idea. “The guy doesn't even have a car! He can't invite her to the beach if he can't even take her there.”
“So?” I clench a fist, resisting the temptation to hurl a punch my student. “Maybe Angelica could drive them there?”
“You can't ask a girl on a date and then ask her to pick your ass up. How lame is that?” Ben argues.
“Isaiah is disabled! I'm sure she'd understand.” While we're bickering, I can sense the loss of confidence in our charge. Once again, he's silently watching the object of his affection put away his groceries.
“Personally, I don't think we should be doing this mission at all,” Ben says. “Angelica is way too hot for him. I know you don't like to hear that, but I'm just being realistic.”
I snap at Ben, “Isaiah probably heard you say that! Way to kill his confidence, Ben! Good job!”
“We can help the guy find love, if you want... I don't have a problem with that,” Ben says. “I just don't think it's realistic to hook him up with a girl who looks like she walked off of a Victoria's Secret runway. We should try to find him a nice girl who—”
I finally blow up at Ben, raising my voice and everything. “Looks aren't everything, you know! In fact, I would argue that looks are the least important thing! Kindness, a sense of humor, personality, a heart of gold... shouldn't those things matter more?”
“Sure, but it's not realistic,” Ben overenunciates his reply. “It would be nice if we lived in a world of rainbows and kittens, but that's not what society's like. Society is really judgmental. Anyone with a decent pair of eyes would look at this guy and this girl and think the same thing as me!”
“I don't think it!” I squeal. “I see a nice guy and a nice girl who could probably benefit from a closer relationship!”
Ben rolls his eyes, but that's the end of his comebacks. He's said so many mean things, Isaiah's self-worth is probably crushed.
While Angelica sticks his root beers in the fridge, I tell Isaiah, “I think you should ask her out! You and Angelica would be a really cute couple.”
“Yeah. In your dreams,” Ben adds. “We'll find you a nice girl, Isaiah... but this ain't the one for you.”
My jaw drops. I have no idea how to respond to that. Ben's previous instructor wrote something about a mission getting sabotaged, but I didn't believe it. Now that I've seen it for myself, I'm floored. In all my years as an instructor, I've never seen someone deliberately foil a mission.
When he sees the shocked look on my face, Ben throws up his arms and says, “What? I do want to help the guy, but I want to do it the right way.”
“Our mission is to get him with Angelica!” I screech. “And you... you just squandered our chance!”
“You decided he should be with Angelica. I didn't!” Ben says. “In the long run, do you really think it's going to help his confidence to be with a girl who's a ten out of ten? Every time he's with her, he'll probably feel like shit.”
A curse word slipped through my filter. I'll have to do something about that.
“Or...” I take a deep breath, calming myself before I reply, “Or she'll make him feel better about himself, and the two of them will be very happy together. You can't make assumptions.”
“You peeked into the guy's head once and you think you know exactly what he wants,” Ben says. “Doesn't that seem a little messed up to you?”
“Well, I've definitely done more than you have done. You've been useless this entire time! No... you're worse than useless because you've been detrimental to this mission!”
During our argument, Angelica and Isaiah say goodbye to each other and part with an exchange of smiles. We officially missed our chance.
“I'm just trying to bring a different perspective to this,” Ben says. “If you thought about it for a second, maybe you'd realize I'm not entirely wrong.”
“Or maybe if you actually had even one brain cell or a modicum of tact, I would take your opinion seriously,” I fire back at him.
Ooo. That was harsh—and not in a good way. It's not the way an instructor should treat her student. I hate that I've lost my cool. I hate that I let him rankle me, but what's done is done. Now I need to bring back the patient girl with a will of steel. That is the Kaylene I want to project to the world.
“Next time, we'll do things my way,” I declare. “You'll just watch, listen... and if we're lucky, maybe you'll learn something.”