Chapter Text
Today´s the day. You're wearing a black dress, that perfectly accentuates your body, for the last time you´re going to set a foot in the Highschool you had to go to for so long. The day of the graduation ceremony and prom afterwards. Somehow sad because of those thoughts you make your way towards your friend Anne who is so busy looking around, searching for somebody that she barely realizes you're standing next to her now.
“He won't come.”, you say, trying to gain her attention.
“Who knows? It was worth a try.”, Anne replies and you can clearly see the disappointment in her bright eyes.
“You don't even know if the story about the other girl who invited him to prom is true. You just read it on the internet.”
“But what if it is really true and there is the slightest chance of him going to prom with me? Plus I have his name written on my wrist. He's my soulmate and if I don't take care of us meeting, then who does?” Anne gets more and more upset while she´s talking and you know exactly why. She really has his name written on her wrist permanently. Not a tattoo. It´s just there. Everyone has it. The name of their soulmate written on their wrists. The only challenge is to find this particular person but in her case it wasn't the most difficult thing to do. He is a very popular actor. You remember Anne freaking out about it during your endless talks about your soulmates. Well she was talking most of the time because you stayed silent all the years, never talking about your soulmate´s name. But for her finding him was an easy thing to do: finding an actor with such a weird, unique name. Benedict Cumberbatch. You know this name by heart because she had waved her wrist in front of your face often enough, being so proud of what these two words would mean for her future. But that's not the only reason you know this name so very well. You were seeing it every single night before falling asleep, written on your own wrist. It isn't supposed to happen that the same name is visible on two different girl´s wrists, so you never told her, covering the name up with make-up every morning because you didn't want to ruin your friendship over a silly name like that. You stayed silent every second when she was babbling about how much of a crush she already has on him but the last few weeks she seemed to have gone mad. She wrote him a letter, inviting him to go to prom with her because she had read a story on the internet where it is told that another girl did the same thing and now she's hoping Benedict would show up every minute. You are not that optimistic. He's a busy man overall and you´re doubting he would come here just to go to prom with a girl that is quite a few years younger than himself. Suddenly your thoughts were interrupted by a quiet little squeak coming from your friend and as you look at her she seems like she's going to faint any second. Confused you turn around and try to follow her gaze and then you could barely hold back the same noise when you see a tall, strangely handsome man at the other side of the hall, walking towards a group of your class mates who stare at him in silent awe. He seems to ask them a question but they only shrug and fall into silent staring again.
“You have to go and greet him, Anne.”, you say to her, but she doesn't look like she is capable of enunciating any kind of sound besides excited squeaks for the next few minutes.
“Anne. Listen to me. He's here. Now you have to go to him and talk.” Still trying to bring here back to reality, you stand right in front of her, blocking her view on him while hoping she will soon find her ability to think clearly again.
“Can't you go and say hi?”, she begs with those puppy eyes of hers.
“And what am I supposed to say? 'Hi, Mr. Cumberbatch. My friend urged you to come here but now she doesn't want to talk to you. Do you fancy a drink?'”
“Yes!”
“Are you serious?!”, you nearly yell because she obviously ignored your sarcastic way to say that it would be totally embarrassing for both of you if you had to go and greet him instead of her.
“Please! I'll talk to him later. I promise.”
“I don't believe you're asking me to do that.”, you say while turning around and already start walking towards him in an almost angry manner but soon your steps slow down as your heart beats faster with every inch you move closer to him. You feel your blood glowing in your cheeks as you´re struggling to take the last few steps as normal as possible even though he turned around and smiled at you, keeping his eyes fixed on you until you're standing right in front of him.
“Hey.”, you say, already regretting it because your voice was way too shaky for not being noticed by him.
“Hello! You must be Anne.”, you hear him saying as he shakes your hand lightly and you barely find words to say.
With an slightly embarrassed smile you explain: “No I'm not actually. I'm (y/n).”
“Oh. Pleasure to meet you, (y/n). I was just about to say that it was very nice to read your letter but... Where is she, though? I would love to meet her.”
“She... had to powder her nose. She'll be back in a bit but sent me to talk to you because she saw you walking around here all by yourself.”
“Well, that's very nice of you.”, he smiled and you could swear your heart skipped a beat when you looked into his beautiful rainbow eyes and you could just stutter a little “Yes.” and had to look away for a second.
“So.. She had to powder her nose? You're sure it's not her standing there and staring at us from the distance?”
You knew exactly where to look because it was just typical for Anne to do things like that.
“Oh. Yeah. She must be back already.”, you try to explain, looking at your friend and can barely hold back a giggle when you see her face go bright red the moment she notices that you both are looking her way.
“I think we should pay her a visit.”, Benedict whispers into your ear and pushes you ever so lightly towards Anne, his hand burning on your back as you two are crossing the hall. You see panic in your friend's eyes but you can't focus on that right now. You're too busy pulling yourself together after his lips were so close to your ear and his hand is still laying on your back, sending shivers through your veins.
“She's a little nervous, isn't she?”, you hear him saying with a little grin on his lips.
“Yes, she is. But that's understandable I think.” A second later, when Benedict looks at you out of the corners of his eyes and you realize you said something stupid, you wished you weren't that nervous yourself and could control your words a little more. Just for today.
When you finally reached your designation, you broke the silence first. “Benedict, that's Anne. Anne... Benedict.”, you grinned at her a little and then Benedict did the same charming thing to greet her that he did with you and your grin fades instantly. You watch them talking and smiling for a moment before you cast a glance at your wrist, still covered with make-up, and you begin to feel sad. You barely listen as Benedict's voice strikes through your thoughts, calling your name.
“Sorry.”, you said, faking a smile. “What did you say?”
“I asked if you'd maybe fancy a drink.” His charming smile again and you admire his face for a second more before you reply: “That would be very nice.”
Off he goes with a barely visible bow and you can feel sorrow budding in your chest.
“Oh my gosh. Did you see that?”, Anne squeaks again while you're still watching him walk away, watching his body move smoothly, perfectly.
“Yeah.”, you mutter and finally avert your gaze from him.
“He's exactly like I imagined him to be.”, Anne proceeds and you try to fake a smile again, thinking to yourself that he is not really what you imagined. He's better.
The evening went on pretty smooth and fast. You've watched them dance an endless amount of waltzes from where you're sitting and every single one of their laughters breaks your heart a little bit. This was not supposed to happen. Not two girls for one man. It's not fair. While the song changes you order another drink, almost emptying the glass in one go and then staring at it while turning it in your fingers slowly.
“May I have the pleasure of this dance?”, you hear a husky, honeyed voice next to you. Surprised you look up to see him leaning down to you, smiling just like all the time before.
“Of course.” is your answer and Benedict grabs your hand, leading you to the dance floor where all the couples are already dancing just then for you to realize it's a slow dance. This kind of dance where there will barely be a few inches of space between you and him and your heart drops.
“Where's Anne?”, you ask shyly and let Benedict lay your hands around his neck.
He huskily answers your question, speaking low while his hands wander down your sides a bit and finally rest on your waist. “Her father wanted to dance with her and I had to let her go.”
You think to hear a little sarcastic tone in his voice and you try to read his expression but he just does the typical thing he always does when he laughs and you can't help but smile to yourself.
Finally you can think of a thing to say: “Do you do that often? Going to prom with girls you don't even know?”
Again he grins and explains that this is the first time he got an invitation to do so and he couldn't really say no. Right after he finished speaking his right hand scammed up on your side and over your arm to your hand, grabbing it lightly before he spins you around one time. Slowly you turn around your own axis and you know exactly that he is looking at you, nearly staring, but you don't care. You smile as you lay your hands back on his neck again and look into his eyes, nearly getting lost.
“You're looking gorgeous right now.”, you hear his voice reaching out, barely reaching you but immediately you feel yourself blushing.
“Thank you.”, you muttered and suddenly felt the weird urge to say something – anything – just to break the silence.
“So... What do you do for fun?”
Benedict utters a weird sound that you can't really define and his facial features express pretended disappointment and you nearly laughed at this sight.
“What?”, you try to raise a complaint but he just goes on and adds his voice to his expression by saying: “You really had to start the small talk and ruin everything. I'm very disappointed in you.”
“Oh I'm so so sorry, Mr. Cumberbatch. How about I leave the choice of a topic for this conversation to you?”, you say jokingly and gain a grin of his.
“I suggest we just leave the small talk behind and go on to real talk?”
“Okay.”, you say and try to concentrate while his hands slide on your back achingly slow and he pulls you closer, close enough that you touch his chest every time you take a breath. “So it's your turn to chose a topic that is not small talk.”
He returns your smile before he bites his lower lip, obviously trying to think of something. The song ends and the next one blends in smoothly having the same slow rhythm and you feel yourself drawn to him even more than before. And suddenly you remember that this shouldn't be happening. He's your friend´s date. Not yours. This is wrong and you know it.
“How about we talk about why you're so terribly nervous all the time?”, he laughs and you feel his fingers moving slightly on your back.
“Because...”, you stutter and all the words spin around in your head you wanted to spit all of them out but no sound crawls out of your open mouth. This is not right.
In this very moment Anne walks up next to you and you let your hands sink immediately. She doesn't even seem to be mad. Her smile is as bright and beautiful as ever and while his touch left you you can feel the warmth that you experienced while dancing with Benedict leave you behind in the cold loneliness. You bring yourself to fake one last smile and then leave the hall. Outside you sit down on a bench somewhere slightly away from the lights of the hall and look at your wrist. You remember how you've sworn yourself not to care about what the name on your wrist tells you, how you've sworn yourself you want to get to know someone, you want to like someone not because you have his stupid letters written in your skin. Gosh, he's amazing.