A Flight's Desire

Chapter 8: Helping

"Please tell me that you don't kill Cassie."

Robin's head jerked up, hearing a phrase that she had only read from her friends about her book. "Oh, so you decided on their ship name!" She teased, trying to sound profound.

"Yes, but-" He turned to look at her and found her wearing glasses. "Uh...." He looked away in order to not get distracted. "I mean, Caleb and Sophie joined together comes to 'Cassie' somehow, even though it doesn't. It makes sense to call them that. Don't ask me why I'm not calling them 'Calphie'."

Robin tried to hold back the quick tears forming in her eyes. She never told anyone that she had named the ship of her characters as 'Cassie'. "This feels so surreal. You have no idea. Me, sitting here next to you. You, reading my book and talking to me about my ship."

"I would have read it if I came across it somewhere. It has definitely drawn me in. Firstly, the cover is beautiful, and I'm saying that even though I know that I shouldn't judge a book by it's cover. Secondly, I have just spent the last five hours of my life in Caleb's shoes and-"

"You imagined yourself as Caleb?"

"He is easily the most relatable character that I've read and-" He saw the bewildered look on her face and stopped talking. "Uh, why are you looking at me like that?" He was used to seeing the happy shock look on the faces of people that he met but that was a different kind of shock - appalled even.

She took a deep breath and scratched her right eyebrow. "I wrote his character with you in mind." She admitted it out loud for the first time. She had only ever told her friend, Mila Anne about it because she had figured it out.

"Really?" His heart moved with delight. People always came up to him with artworks that they would have made for him or letters that they would have written for him to read. This was the first time someone was telling him that they had written an entire book, which had a planned sequel coming soon, with a character keeping him in mind. "Oh my God, I'm honoured!"

"You're honoured?" She scoffed. "Okay, this is definitely the most realistic dream that I've had since the royalty one and I am going to wake up soon now that I've realised this." She closed her eyes and counted to five but when she opened them, she found Ben smiling at her. "Not a dream?"

He shook his head. "Fortunately, no."

"Dang it!"

He closed the book with the bookmark that he was playing with while reading. "I am honoured that you thought of me as Caleb and I am glad to have met you, dear little friend." He quoted a phrase from his favourite book.

Her heart was beating out of her chest and she hoped that she wasn't blushing. "Do you always call your fans your friends?" She asked him the question that had been running in her brain.

"Well, I try to reply to every comment that people make on my Instagram posts and I try to be as sweet as possible. In a way," he inhaled. "I do consider fans my friends." A smile crept up on his face. "They want the best for me and I didn't think that I would one day have this much love."

"Wow." She breathed out at his openness. "I've always wanted to, um, meet you at Comic Cons but something always came in the way and...." she shook her head. "It's very surreal that I'm meeting you now."

"If you had met me at Comic Con, would you have told me about Out of the Blue?" He pointed to the book in his hand.

"Absolutely not!"

A laugh escaped him. "Okay, coming back to my question," he brought the topic into the conversation once again. There was only one theory running in his mind and he was pretty sure that he would start crying if it came true. "Please tell me that you don't kill Cassie off."

"I....can't say anything about it." She knew she couldn't reveal the ending because of, well, spoilers. The ending was the important part that was crucial for what she was typing. "You only have a few more chapters to go. Why don't you finish it and then ask me your questions?" She suggested. "I mean, if you would like to and-" She really prayed that she wasn't forcing him into the situation.

"I am going to take you up on that and believe me now, you are going to regret agreeing to answer my questions."

"Try me," she said, squinting her eyes at him as he accepted the challenge. "Can I say something beforehand?"

"Yeah, sure." He closed the book with the bookmark that was already in it. The tone in Robin's voice suggested that she had something important to talk about.

"I want to apologise....on behalf of all us fans. I've seen what happens during Instagram Lives and believe me, no one deserves that. People should realise that you are just another human being." Her voice had a tinge of anger in it. Clearly that had been bothering her even though she had never even met him. "I mean, another human being with immense talent," Ben smiled. "But still a human being."

"Thank you. I don't think you have to apologise with the weight of the world on your shoulder for other people's actions....but thank you."

"Of course. Now, this is what I would have told you in Comic Con. And, well, there is one more thing that I would have done."

"What?"

"I think I still have it but it is packed in my suitcase."

"Can I see it?" He asked curiously. "Once we land or something."

She imagined handing the packed gift to him. "Sure," she said. "You can keep it and I hope you like it." She crossed her fingers. "I did make it a very long time ago and I don't even know why I packed it, but I'm glad I did. I'm sure this guitar is going to play a role somewhere."

"May I ask what it is?" He had a few guesses about it but they weren't close to what Robin had in hand.

"Nope!" She said, popping the 'p'.

"Expected that. Okay, I'm going to get back to reading. Sophie has just knocked on Caleb's door and I am guessing that she is going to talk things out. God, this is so intense and interesting. Intriguing? I could go on and on and I really hope I'm not troubling you."

"Please," she waved her hand down. "I should be saying that. You are the celebrity, not me. And, if it is okay with you, I have a couple of questions to ask you as well."

"For me? Sure! Once I finish the book? And after I ask my questions, of course. You know what the book is about and honestly, I'm your biggest fan now."

"Oh stop it, don't make me cry!" She exclaimed, holding her hands over her mouth to prevent the tears from starting to flow. Hearing those words from his mouth had to have been the best thing that ever happened to her in her life and it was still very surreal.

"If you kill them off, I'm going to have to sue you," he threatened subtly.

"It is not my fault because Caleb was inspired by you and you die in almost all your movies and shows," she shrugged. "Technically I should be suing you for psychological damage."

"I....am going to call it even then."

"Brave decision." She joked before the pilot's voice over the intercom interrupted them.