Forever and Always

We were both undergraduates at the Australian National University. He was majoring in history and I was studying psychology. He wanted to be over and done with his university degree and I wanted to go into clinical psychology helping people turn their lives around. I had my whole life planned out, and he was taking one step at a time. We shared no classes together.
We were completely different people, and yet we got along.

*

We met at the 24 hour Jazz Café. It was a run-down café that desperately needed a paint job and a good scrub. I – having been persuaded from my historical textbook – was just looking to get a coffee and then go straight back to studying for the exam tomorrow. He was sitting with his friends at the far end of the café, and – although he likes to protest – it was his laugh that drew my attention. It was this throaty, deep laugh that lit up his entire face. However, after looking at him for no less than two seconds, I paid him no attention. When I was ordering said coffee, he had left his seat and was standing next to me.
“Hi.”
I looked at him; he had brown eyes, wide and “pretty” (or so I would later describe them), with a little stubble growing on his chin.
“Hi,” I said in return. He looked at ease; calm and collected.
“You’re the guy who studies history, right?”
“Yeah – and you’re the guy who studies psychology,” I remembered Chloe telling me about him.
“I’m Ben,” he said, extending his hand.
“Harry,” I said, taking it.
“Do you wanna come over to my table?” he said, pointing to the group of uninterested friends.
I hesitated, thinking about the final exam and how unprepared I was; then, I said,
“Sure.”

At his table, I met John, Mark, Laura, Debbie and Crystal. When I sat down, the questions were f...

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...urn.
All I remember after that was his arm falling innocently over my chest and me deciding that I wouldn’t move it.

*

When I awoke, I was greeted with the smell of cooked eggs and bacon. After deciding that it was safe to open my eyes, I ventured out of the bedroom to find the living room clean and Ben cooking in the kitchen.
“Good morning,” he said cheerfully.
“Morning,” I said back, then was appalled at the state of my voice. I coughed and my voice was back to normal.
“Eggs?”
“Sure.”
After eating eggs and bacon, Ben said to me,
“Thank you for staying last night – it really meant a lot.”
“No problem – as long as it made you feel better.”
“It did,” he said.
That was all that mattered – as long as Ben felt safe and not as lonely, that was all that really mattered.
However, even your best intentions somehow still go wrong…and there was nothing I could do.