Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

MAY 27nth, 1993
Benny’s POV:

        The hot summer sun beats down on my face as I stand on the porch of some random lady’s house. I ring the doorbell a few times, but there’s no reply. I’m about to walk away before I hear the door swing open. The voice of a girl rings through my ears as I swing around. She asks, “Were you the one that sent a baseball flying through my window?”
It seemed more like a rhetorical question. I was scared to answer, if I’m being honest.
        “Uh, yeah. That was me.” I say sheepishly. I rub the back of my neck, an old habit of mine. “Can I come in? To take a look at it..” I ask her. She nods reluctantly, walking inside as I follow behind her. I close the door behind me as I feel a gust of wind from the fan blow at me. Despite my current situation, the fan feels amazing and I couldn’t care less about how I had just accidentally broken this girl's window.
I follow her into the kitchen to see broken glass all over the floor and my baseball on the counter. I reach out for it, but she takes it and holds it in her hand before I can even get my fingers on it.
        “You’re gonna have to pay for this, y’know.” she tells me. I rub my neck and take my hat off, setting it on the counter. “I know..” I say sheepishly. “How much is it gonna be?” I ask, too scared to even look at her.
        “I don’t know, I’ll have to call and ask. Come back tomorrow at 5, okay?” She says, seeming to have calmed down a bit. I nod, looking at my baseball in her hands. She notices and hands it back to me, muttering, “sorry..”
        “You’re good. I did break your window, after all.” I say, giving her a light smile as I try to lighten the mood. She smiles back at me, glancing down at the glass. I take this as my chance to get on her good side. “Here, I’ll clean it up for you, don’t worry.” I say, placing my baseball on the counter as I grab a nearby broom and sweep up the shattered glass.
        “Do you have a dustpan?” I ask, to which she grabs one out of a coat closet. I sweep up the glass and she leads me out to the side door. I dump the glass in the recycling, placing the broom and dustpan on the side of her house.
        “Thank you..” she says, seemingly a bit guilty for snapping at me earlier. “No problem. I couldn’t just leave your kitchen a mess.” I say, chuckling. “Remember, tomorrow at 5, okay?” she reminds me, to which I nod.
        “Oh, I’m Benny, by the way. Benny Rodriguez,” I say, holding my hand out for her to shake. She takes my hand and shakes it.
        “I’m Alaina Vaughn,” she says.

I went home after that. About halfway home, I realized that I had left my hat on her kitchen counter. To be honest, I was too scared to go back and grab it in case her mom had come home to see that she no longer had a kitchen window. I didn’t even wanna think about going back tomorrow. I returned to the sandlot to see my team sitting in the dugout. They all went quiet when I approached.
        “So, how’d it go?” one of them had asked. They all looked more nervous and worried than I did. I grabbed a coke out of the cooler and cracked it open, taking a sip.
        “It was good. Thankfully, some girl opened the door and not her dad or something. That could've been a lot worse,” they all looked visibly relieved.
“When’re you going back?” Smalls asked.
“Tomorrow at 5.”
        They all gave me worried looks. Hopefully I’m met with that same girl instead of her angry mom.
“Hey guys, I think I’m gonna head home.” I say. They all look at me like I’m crazy, and maybe I am. I’m too nervous to do anything right now, even baseball. I turn around and walk out of the sandlot. I can hear them whispering behind me, but it’s all a blur.
When I get home, I slip my shoes off and go into my room. I toss my baseball on my bed and lean my bat against the wall. I run my fingers through my hair. God, what do I even do? I don’t have the money to pay for the window, and I know that my parents most definitely won’t pay for it, either. What the hell do I do, set up a lemonade stand?

Chapter Text

MAY 28th, 1993
Alaina’s POV:

        It was 5:30 and my mom was on her way home. What am I gonna tell her? “Mom! Some kid made a baseball go flying through the window!” There’s no way she’ll believe me. All I can do is wait, I guess. I’m pacing back and forth, rearranging the pillows on the couch and organizing the DVD’s on the shelf. It’s pretty obvious that I’m scared shitless right now.
        I hear the car pull into the driveway. The lock clicks and she walks inside. It’s quiet besides the sound of her heels clicking against the cold floor, until she suddenly stops. Oh shit.
        “Alaina! Come here, now!” I hear her shout. I stumble on my feet and fall face flat on the living room floor. I scramble to get up before going into the kitchen. “Yes, Mom?”
        “You wanna explain why there’s no window above the sink anymore?” she asks. It’s more of a rhetorical question, I think. I don’t know whether I should answer or not, until she says, “Go on.”
        “Um, a baseball flew through it.” I say sheepishly. I rub the back of my neck, too afraid to make eye contact with her. I wasn’t even the one that broke it, so why am I so nervous?
        “A boy came and said that he would come back tomorrow– and he said that he would pay for it, and stuff.” she raises her eyebrow at me, tapping her finger on the counter.
        “What time?” she asks, her tongue in her cheek. She looks like she’s about to cuss me out for something I didn’t even do. Now, I’m scared for that boy. She’s probably gonna yell at him, too. “I told him to come at five..”
        “He’s lucky that I won’t be here. I’m staying late at the office tomorrow, so he better be grateful that I won’t be here to smack him so hard that his clothes go out of style.” I’m silently thanking God that she won’t be here to see him. I’m afraid that he won’t see the light of day if she ever does see him. I’m also afraid that he won’t talk to me anymore after that. I know that he literally broke my window, but he doesn’t seem so bad. My mom storms out of the kitchen and goes into her bedroom to call a repair company to see how much it’ll cost to fix the window and stuff.
        I’m just now realizing that I forgot to get that boy's number. Now he probably won’t even stop by tomorrow. I better not have to pay for his mess. I can hear my mom yelling over the phone to the people who work at the glass repairing place. I feel bad that they have to deal with people like her. My mom isn’t all that bad, though. She’s just kind of.. Yeah.
        I go into my room and start pacing around in a panic. What if he doesn’t come tomorrow? What if my mom makes me pay for it? She wouldn’t do that, right? I don’t know.

MAY 29nth, 1993
Benny’s POV:

        It’s around 4 o’clock. Like I am everyday, I’m at the sandlot with my friends. Except today, I have to go back to that girl's house to see how much it’ll cost to fix her window. What if her mom is there? I hope not. I’m going there at five, so hopefully her mom isn’t home by then. I’m scared shitless that she’ll yell at me. I’m not playing my best today, either, and everyone knows it. I’m not having fun, either. The overwhelming feeling of going back to her house and possibly being met with her mom is freaking me out.
        We all decided to take a break in the dugout. I pull out a cola from the cooler, cracking it open and putting it up to my lips. “What’re you gonna do, Bennyman?” Yeah-Yeah asks.
        “I don’t know, guys. I just hope her parents aren’t home when I get there. I’m already worried as is. Just imagine how bad it’ll be if her parents are there.” I sit down in the dugout and put my face in my hands, my elbows resting on my knees. “I think I’ll just go now and get it over with. I’ll see you guys later.” I say, standing up and grabbing my coke. I walk out of the sandlot, leaving the bat and baseball for the others so they can continue playing while I’m gone.
        As I’m heading to her house, every bad scenario is flooding through my head. I’m imagining her parents answering the door instead of her, I’m imagining the price for replacing the window, I’m imagining everything bad that could happen. I walk up the porch steps as a shaky hand rings the doorbell.
        I let out a sigh of relief when I saw that she answered and not her mom or something.
“Hey,” she says.
“Hey.”
        She leads me inside and we sit at the kitchen island. She had a notepad in front of her.
She picks it up and looks down at it before her eyes meet mine.
        “That’ll be $100.”
        “$100??” I say, a little louder than intended. “Are you serious?” I ask, making sure that I heard the right thing.
        “Yeah..” she says. She doesn’t seem to be happy about it, either. “Sorry,” she says. Why is she apologizing? She didn’t do anything.
        “You don’t have to apologize, it’s not your fault,” I say. I run my hand through my hair, trying to think of how I’m even going to pay for this.
“I know, I just feel bad..” she says, looking down at the notepad. She places it on the counter and looks at me. On the notepad was written in fine cursive,
        “Cost is $100, cash or check is fine. House phone is *** *** ****”
Her mom must've written it.
        “Are your parents home?” I ask, just to be sure that I won’t get yelled at or something.
“No, they aren’t, don’t worry.”
“Are they upset?” I ask.
“Oh, yeah. My dad, not so much, which surprised me. My mom is pissed, though.”
        I’m visibly worried. I feel bad for not only breaking her window, but I also feel bad because her parents are mad at her for something that was completely out of her control. “I’m really sorry,” I say. “She’s mad at you because of me..”
        “Well, she’s mad at the both of us, not just me. You should be grateful that she’s working late tonight,” she says. She looks grateful that her mom is working late tonight, too.
        “What about your dad? Where is he?” I ask.
“Oh, I don’t know when he’ll be home. He does construction, so it’s different every night. I don’t think he’d be too mad at you, though. I mean, you play baseball, right?” she asks, to which I nod.
        “Then you have nothing to worry about. He really likes baseball, too. Since he didn’t have any sons, he taught me how to play, instead.” Now that got my attention.
        “You play baseball?” I ask.
“Used to. I still know how, I just don’t have anyone to play with.”
“You could play with me and my friends!” I say. She looks unsure.
        “I don’t know.. Maybe. But anyway, do you know when you’ll get the money for me?” she asks. Shit. The money. “Uh, yeah, about that, I’m not sure. I know that my parents definitely won’t pay for it, and I don’t have a job.”
        “Well then I guess you’ll have to set up a lemonade stand,” she jokes. That’s starting to haunt me. That would be so embarrassing. “God, I hope not.” I say, grimacing at the thought of myself running a lemonade stand.
        “It’s not that bad of an idea. It’s summer. There’s kids running around in 80 degree weather. They’re gonna want something to drink, right? Probably something sweet, too.”
        It’s not necessarily a bad idea, it’s just that the thought of a fourteen-year-old boy running a lemonade stand seems a bit childish to me.
“Or you could babysit, walk dogs, mow people’s lawns, anything. There’s a lot of things you could do, y’know.”
        “I know.. I just wish I didn’t have to.”
        “I wish you didn’t have to, either. I wish the window wasn’t broken so we would be able to use the air conditioning. My parents took the fan, so now I have to suffer,” she says. Now I feel even worse.
        “So, did your mom say when she wanted the money?” I ask.
“She didn’t say. Either way, I’d get it to her as soon as possible if I were you.”
        I nod. Will I really have to set up a lemonade stand?
        I’m thinking back on the jobs she recommended to me. Mowing lawns doesn’t sound too bad, but that doesn’t mean that I’m exactly thrilled to be doing it. I don’t have an allowance, either. It’s not like my mom’ll pay me for doing the dishes, because that’s an everyday task. I’m torn out of my thoughts by her voice.
        “Could I get your phone number? I forgot to ask you last night and was worried that you wouldn’t come back,” she says. As much as I don’t want to pay for breaking the window, I wouldn’t just leave it up to her to pay for it. I’m not that cruel.
        “Oh, yeah, of course,” I say. I tear a piece of paper from the notepad and write my number down.
        “I don’t live that far from you, actually. If you go down the street and turn right, my house should be right there,” I say. “Maybe we could hang out sometime.”
        “Yeah, maybe. We just have to make sure that my mom never sees your face, otherwise we’ll never be able to hang out.”
         Right, her mom.
“Okay, sounds good. Also, what time does your mom usually get home from work?”
        “Around 6, why?”

“Well, no offense or anything, but I just don’t want to see your mom when I drop the money off,” I admit. She nods, and I think she agrees with me.
        “Yeah, me neither. Just try and get it to me soon, okay? I’m afraid she’ll get mad if it takes too long.”
        “Yeah, of course.” I still have no idea what I’m gonna do in order to make some extra cash. I guess that means no baseball for a while. Maybe I could ask my uncle.
        My eyes drifted from one room to the next. I saw some family photos hanging on the walls, spiking my interest. “Can I take a look at these photos?” I ask.
        “Oh, of course,” she says. She stands up and walks over to them, looking over at each individual person. I see her eyes glued onto one person in particular. “Is that you?” I ask, pointing to a young looking girl in the photo. She gave a faint laugh. “Yeah, it is.”
        She takes the frame off of the wall and turns it over, looking at the date on the back of the photograph. “1987. I was eight.”
        I did the math in my head and found that she was fourteen, the same age as me.
“You’re fourteen?” I ask, to which she nods. “Me too.” I smile at her, and she smiles back.
        “When’s your birthday?” I ask her. “July 16th. What about you?”
        “October 25th. You’re just barely older,” I joke.
        “Hey, that’s actually good! You can come hang out with my friends!” I say. It’d be nice to have a new member in the group. Plus, we need an extra person to complete the team. (yes ik that baseball has 9 players on the field at once but just pretend it’s 10)
        “Yeah.. I don’t know. I would, but I don’t think your friends would enjoy my company very much. I mean, it’s kind of humiliating to play baseball with a girl,” she says. It sounds like she’s speaking from experience.
        “Hey, don’t worry about it! Why don’t we go over there right now? You can play ball with us!”
        She seems hesitant, and I’m starting to feel a bit worried that she’ll say no.
“Are you sure? I don’t wanna embarrass myself.”
        “You know how to play, right?”
        “Yeah..”
        “Okay, then let’s go! It’s not hard, y’know. If you need a refresher to get back into the jist, then let's just play catch in the front!” I’m practically begging her now, and it’s a bit embarrassing. She finally agrees and excuses herself to go get her glove. As I’m waiting, I look at the more recent family photos. I carefully take one off the wall and check the date. April 23rd, 1993. That was only last month.
        I hear her walking back to the kitchen so I quietly place it back on the wall as if nothing happened. “Let’s play catch, then,” she says, leading me out into the front yard. We begin the never ending game of catch, making small conversation.
        “Are the boys you play with nice?” she asks.
“You just have to get to know them.”
“So.. no?”
“No, they’re nice! Just.. don’t get offended if they say anything, okay?”
        She looks a bit skeptical, but nods anyway. I just hope they don’t scare her away.

Chapter Text

MAY 29nth, 1993– 5:00PM

Alaina’s POV:

        Benny and I have been playing catch for about 15 minutes, making small conversation as we do so. He invited me to play baseball with him and his friends, but I’m not so sure if it’s a good idea. What if they laugh at me? From what I’ve gathered, they’re all boys. Fantastic.

        I’m not so worried about playing with Benny. I’m more worried about his friends. He even told me to not get offended if they say anything rude. How can I not get offended?

        I’m still considering whether I want to join them or not. I mean, yeah, it’d be nice to finally play with a real team, but at the same time, a group of boys? I don’t know. What would my mom say? I guess I’ll have to see for myself.

        “So, when should I come play?” I ask. His eyes light up.

        “You’ll play??”

        “Sure, why not.”

I’m still a bit skeptical, but it can’t be that bad, right?

        It was that bad.

When I arrived, they all fell to their knees with laughter.

        “What’s a girl doing here? Is that your girlfriend , Benny?”

        “What’s your sister doing here?” they joked.

        Now, I’m sitting on the curb about a block away from the ‘sandlot,’ as Benny calls it. I’m embarrassed. What did I think was gonna happen? That they would welcome someone like me , a girl , to play? Hell no! I could hear Benny run over and come to a stop behind me.

        “Please don’t cry, Alaina,” he says. I practically snap my head around. Crying?

        “I’m not crying!”  I shout. He hesitates at first, but then sits beside me.

“I’m sorry for what they said, I really am. Please come back?” he pleads, placing a hand on my shoulder.

        “Benny, I can’t go back. They’ll just laugh at me again. Thanks for inviting me, anyway,” I say as I stand up. He grabs my wrist, practically tugging me back down.

        “Look, I’ll talk to them, okay? Just please don’t go. I’ll be right back, okay?” he says, not even waiting for a reply as he runs back to the sandlot. I sit there and wait for a minute or two, the hot sun beating down on my face. Should I just leave while he’s not looking?

        That’s when I heard him come back. 

“Alaina, you get to bat. Sound good?” he says as he tosses me the bat. I’m about to refuse before I see the look on his face. Damnit.

         We walk back into the ‘sandlot’ and I walk up to home base. I look out at the boys just to see that all “yawn” and check their imaginary watches. I get into position, and before I even know it, I see a ball come flying up to my face. Right between my eyes. I immediately duck and look at Benny who’s standing off to the side.

        “Cmon, Kenny! I’m serious!” Benny shouts. I get back into position and wait for him to throw another one. It’s fast, but this time it’s not aiming for my head. I swing the bat and hear a clunk noise. I look up and see the ball flying straight to the bushes in the very back by an old, run-down fence. I get a rush of adrenaline as I run to first base, then second, then third, then home. Did I just get a home run? I’m too full of adrenaline to notice Benny aggressively shaking my shoulders.

        “Woah! You hit a home run!” he practically shouts at my face.

“Yeah, I knew the whole time.” I heard the one who was pitching say, following with a few, “Does this mean she’s playing with us?” and, “No way we just got beat by a girl..”

        I don’t know whether to feel proud or annoyed by that statement. Beaten by a girl? Really?

Benny’s POV:

        “You should totally play with us!” I say. Whether she was good or not, I think I would have invited her to continue playing with us, anyway. She’s really awesome!

        She seems a bit hesitant. “Please? They aren’t as bad as they sound.” I say, referring to my friends. I’m telling the truth, though. She just needs to get to know them. “Please?” I whine. It’s kinda embarrassing that I’m whining for her to play baseball with us, but I really can’t miss this opportunity.

        “Okay, I’ll play for a few days and we’ll see how it goes,” she finally agrees. This is great! I wish it wasn’t so late, though. It’s almost five. We have about an hour and a half left until the others leave for dinner. As much as I like batting, I’ll let her do it. I just hope she doesn’t hit it over the fence. She was pretty close to getting it over last time.

And then what I dreaded most happened. She hit it over the fence.

        When she gets back to home plate, she looks at me and realizes that she hit the ball over the fence. I can practically see the color drain from her face. “Sorry!” she shouts, running over to the fence. Before I realize what she’s about to do, I see her start climbing the fence. Oh no. We all run over and grab her ankles, trying to pull her down. She looks horrified, and I can’t help but chuckle. I grab her and place her back on the dirt, pulling my hands away once her feet have hit the ground.

        “You can’t go over there, man,” I say, and she looks at me confused.

        “Why not? I don’t see a problem.”

         “The Beast.” Kenny says. She looks dumbfounded.

         “The ‘Beast?’ Really?”

        “You see that hole in the fence? Just look through it, ‘kay?” I tell her. She looks a bit scared. “Just go,” I say gently, lightly pushing her forward. She looks through the hole and we all hear a loud growling. She falls back, landing on her butt. She scrambles up, backing up into me.

        “So what? It’s just a dog!” she stammers, looking up at me.

We all look at each other and say the same thing:

        “CAMP OUT!”

Chapter Text

MAY 29th, 1993
Alaina’s POV:

        “No way.”
        “Why not?”

        “I’m not spending the night in a treehouse with nine random boys that I just met!”
        “C’mon, it’ll be fun!”

        Is he being serious? I’m not just gonna spend the night in some run-down treehouse with people I just met. Boys that I just met. Benny is practically pleading with me. I don’t necessarily have a problem with sleeping in a treehouse. I think it’d be fun. The only problem is that they’re all boys. Not that I believe that they– more specifically Benny, would do anything to harm me. It’s just.. Weird. I don’t like it.
        “At least stay for at least a few hours, then I’ll walk you home..” he proposes, and I actually think about it. I guess it wouldn’t hurt if I just stayed until nine or something. They made it seem like such a big deal with that dog hidden behind the fence. Is it really worth staying for?
        “Okay, I’ll ask my parents.”
         By parents, I mean I’ll ask my dad.

        “It’s okay? Thank you, I’ll see you later. Love you, bye.” I say as I hang up the phone. I ran to my house to call my dad and ask if I could stay out a little later than usual tonight. I return back to the sandlot with the boys nowhere to be seen. I look around and hear commotion coming from the treehouse.
        I climb up and see various posters and photographs scattered around the walls. Years and years of memories. I sit down on the dusty floor, leaning against a pillar. Benny scoots over to sit beside me.
        “What’d your parents say?” he asks.
        “My dad said it’s okay if I stay out for a few more hours. I’m not staying overnight, though, okay?” I explained to him. He nods.
        It actually wasn’t as bad as I thought it’d be. We talked and laughed and shared stories. That was until Squints had shared the story of ‘The Beast.’ He made it seem a lot more dramatic than what had actually most likely happened. The lights were off in the tree house, except for a flashlight. The others were exchanging stories with each other, squealing like little girls. I started to feel my eyes get heavy. It wasn’t even that late and yet I was exhausted. Benny seemed to notice it.
        “Tired?” he asks, scooting closer to me. I nod. “You could always just spend the night,” he persuades me, tilting his head to the side.
        “You know I have to go home. My dad never agreed on me spending the night, he only said that I could stay for an extra few hours. I should start heading home now, anyway.” I say, standing up and dusting myself off. I feel him grab my wrist.
        “At least let me walk you home?” he asks, to which I nod. I didn’t wanna walk home in the dark, anyway. I say goodbye to the boys and climb down the ladder, Benny following behind me. We walk out of the sandlot and make it to the sidewalk. Even though it was summertime, it still got cold at night.
        “Cold?” he questions, and I nod. “I’d give you my jacket, but I don’t have one either.” he chuckles, rubbing the back of his neck. I smile. It’s the thought that counts, I guess. I’m starting to wish that I could’ve stayed with them, but I don’t think I’d be allowed. I could just lie and say that I’m staying the night at a friend's house. Well, it’s not technically a lie. I’m just not specifying what friend I’ll be staying with. Maybe later in the summer, when I get to know them more. I wouldn’t mind having Benny by my side.
        “I wish you could’ve stayed the night with us,” he says.
        “Me too. It seems like a lot of fun.” He looks over at me as I say that. “You wanna stay the night? Well why don’t you?”
        “I don’t know you guys all that well.”
“C’mon, you really think that they are gonna cause you trouble?” he laughs. I guess I can understand where he’s coming from.
        “Don’t you think it’s kind of weird for a girl to sleep in the same room as nine boys?” I ask.
        “Well, yeah, I see what you mean. But c’mon, look at us, we’re losers. We play baseball all day and don’t have social lives.” he jokes.
        “I guess, yeah. Maybe some other time in the summer. Maybe the 4th of July?” I suggest. His eyes light up.
        “Yeah!”
And before I knew it, our time together had come to an end. We stood on the porch of my house.
        “Maybe I’ll come early tomorrow to wake you guys up,” I say, only half joking. He smiles.
        “Alright, sounds good, Alaina. Sleep well,” he says, walking down the porch. I wave to him and turn to look at him one last time, and it seems like he had the same idea. I laugh and open the front door, heading inside. My mom was watching TV in her bedroom and my dad wasn’t home yet. I slip into my bedroom and change into my pajamas.
        I think I will show up early tomorrow morning to scare them. It’ll be funny to hear them squeal like little girls.
        I’m starting to wonder how Benny plans on paying me back for breaking the window. I really do hope he does a lemonade stand. I could die happy. I’d snap a photo and hang it on the walls of the treehouse for all of the boys to see.
        I look at the alarm clock on my nightstand, the clock reading 10:37PM. I doubt they’ll be up early tomorrow. That is unless Benny decides to wake up at the ass crack of dawn to play baseball. I set my alarm for 6:30 so I have time to shower and eat before heading over to the sandlot. I plan to get there at about 7:15. 

MAY 29th, 1993
Benny’s POV:

        I think it was about 10:30 when I walked Alaina to her house. I quickly ran back to the sandlot, goosebumps on my arms. I really should've brought a flannel, or something. Anything. I climb up the ladder to the treehouse and lay down in my sleeping bag in order to stay warm.
        “What took you so long? Did you guys make out?” Yeah-Yeah asks. Really?
“No, idiot! Knock it off!” I scold, throwing a pillow at him.

        “Oh-ohh, someone’s mad!” they tease. Why do I even bother?
        “Get your head out of your ass! No, we didn't make out!”

“Someone’s not a happy camper..” Ham mutters. I grab the nearest thing, a disposable camera, and chuck it at him. “OW!”

        We all lay down in our sleeping bags, and the flashlight is turned off. The chirping of the cicadas and faint sound of dogs barking filled the silence. The moonlight spilled into the treehouse through the window. I could hear the hushed noise of wind chimes in the distance, a light breeze brushing over my face.
        I close my eyes and let sleep take over my body. Maybe I’ll wake up to see Alaina’s face.

Chapter Text

MAY 3oth, 1993

Benny’s POV:

        I woke up at around 7:30. Since it was still early, it was still pretty cold. The sun had risen and the birds were chirping. I open my eyes, and instead of being met with the wooden ceiling of the treehouse, I’m met with Alaina’s face about 3 inches away from mine. She jumps up, falling flat on her butt. I sit up, laughing quietly as I see her cover her smile.

        “It’s freezing,” she whispers.

        “I know,” I say, my voice a bit raspy from sleep. I look around and see everyone else asleep. I turn back to her, seeing a marker in her hand.

        “What’s with the marker?” I ask.

“I was gonna draw on your face, but you woke up.”

“Wanna draw on their faces?” I suggest, a smile growing on my face.

        She nods, her smile widening.

        I get out from my sleeping bag, slipping on a flannel. I scoot over next to her, leaning over her shoulder as she draws a mustache on Timmy’s face. I stifle a laugh, resting my head on her shoulder. Timmy stops snoring, and she pauses.

        Timmy goes back to snoring and she resumes her drawing on his face. It was one after another. Timmy, Tommy, Ham, Yeah-Yeah, Kenny, Bertram, and Squints. She hovers over Smalls face, when he opens his eyes.

        “Good morning sleepyheaddd…” She says awkwardly, trying to figure out a reason as to why she’s hovering over his face. Smalls was still waking up. He sits up, looking at the mustaches drawn on the other boys’ faces. Alaina puts a finger to her lips, and Smalls nods with a grin on his face.

MAY 30th, 1993

Benny’s POV:

        It was about 12:30. Everyone had gone home to take a shower and what not before coming back to the sandlot. I didn’t think to ask whether or not Alaina was gonna play with us today. I wanna ask, but I don’t wanna seem clingy. I was pacing back and forth in front of the phone.

        I picked up the phone and immediately dialed her number. I didn’t stop to think that maybe one of her parents would answer.

        “Hello?” I hear from the other side of the line. It’s Alaina.

        “Hey, I was calling to see if you were gonna join us today?”

        “Sorry, can’t.”

I pause.

        “Why not?”
        “I have plans.”

        “What are they?”

        “Aren’t you chatty?”

I laugh.

        “I have to clean the house before my mom gets home,” she admits.

        “Your mom scares me.”

        “That’s just because you broke our kitchen window.”

Right.

        “Okay, fair enough. See you later.”

        “Bye.”

        I couldn’t help but feel disappointed at the fact that she wasn’t gonna play with us today. I shake the thought off. I shouldn’t care, I don’t know why I do.

MAY 30th, 1993

Alaina’s POV:

        It was about noon, and I was stuck at home. My mom told me to clean the house before the repair company stops by to fix the kitchen window. My mom said she’ll be home early, so now I can’t procrastinate.

        I still haven’t heard back from Benny about when he’s gonna get me the money for repairing the window. I stand by what I said: a lemonade stand. Not only do I think that it’d get him money in a reasonable amount of time, it’d be really funny to see Benny, a 14-year-old boy, working a lemonade stand. I’m not saying that he can’t, it’s just a job that 10-year-olds do.

        I don’t blame him for being scared of my mom. She really is nice, and I don’t blame her for being mad, but I don’t think I’ll ever introduce Benny to her. She’ll scare him away.

        I can’t help but wonder what it would be like if Benny and I were closer. Closer as in best friends. I highly doubt that, though.

        I can’t help but wonder if I’ll hang out with those boys again. I had fun, yeah, but did they? I can’t help but find it odd that some random girl is playing baseball with nine boys. Not that there’s anything wrong with that— it’s just not something you see everyday. It’s straight out of a movie.

        That also leads me to wonder how they reacted to seeing a drawn on mustache on their faces after they went home.

        I get lost in thought while I’m cleaning. Why has Benny been so nice to me? He’s invited me to play baseball with him and his friends, defended me in front of them, invited me to spend the night, walked me home in the pitch darkness, and I’ve only known him for a few days. I wouldn’t expect him to be so nice to me when he owes me $100.

        If he’s been this nice to me, what will the future be like? Will he be even nicer? Or will he be a total bitch?

        Y’know when you first meet someone and you can just tell that they’re a good person? That’s kind of how it’s like with Benny. For some reason, I can’t imagine him doing anything wrong. I hate that.

        This is gonna sound really horrible, but I need him to do something really bad so I can be at peace. That’s really selfish of me.

        I’m thinking back to that phone call from earlier.

        ‘Hey, I was calling to see if you were gonna join us today?’

        Was that an invitation for me to join?

        I almost wish that I said ‘screw it’ and went along to join him. No offense, though, but I’d rather not have to deal with my mom yelling at me, thanks.

        That’s when the phone rings. I set the broom aside and walk over to the phone, picking it up and putting it to my ear.

        “Hello, who is this?”

        “Alaina, honey, it’s Mom. When is that boy going to drop off the money?”

Benny this, Benny that. Why is he everywhere??

        “Oh, I’m not sure. I’ll call him.”

        “Okay, thanks hun. Bye-bye.”

I dial his number, but I doubt he’ll answer. He probably went to go play baseball or something.

        I don’t even have a chance to rehearse what I’m gonna say before the phone is picked up.

“Hello?” He says. I’m a bit scared at how he answered so fast.

        “Hey. Sorry to bother you, but my mom wants to know when you’re gonna get the money for the window.”

        “Oh, right. I’ll get it to you as soon as possible, ‘kay?”

        “How soon?”

        “Maybe… Two months?”

        “ Two months??”

Two months is not soon, Benny. Not soon at all.

        “Benny, I’m gonna need it by at least the end of June, or else my mom is gonna be pissed.”

        “Okay… I’ll try.”

        “No, you aren’t gonna just try, you’re getting it to me by the end of June, okay?”

        “Okay,” he stutters out.

Chapter Text

JUNE 3rd, 1993

Alaina’s POV:

        It’s been a few days since I’ve seen Benny. I talked to him on the phone a few days ago, I think it was Monday. He said he applied for a few babysitting jobs around the neighborhood, but I haven’t heard back from him yet.

        Speaking of babysitting, I’m watching over my younger cousin, Nadia. She’s turning six in about a week, so my aunt and uncle wanted me to watch over her while they shop for her presents.

        I don’t mind babysitting her, or babysitting anyone in general. Well, it depends on the kid. Some of the kids I’ve babysat in the past have either been Heaven sent or they’ve been absolutely horrible . 

        Nadia is a sweet girl. She’s respectful, has good manners, and is just such a bright person to be around. Hopefully she stays that way.

        It’s about 6 o’clock. We just ate dinner, so I decided to take Nadia on a walk so she’d be tired when we got back. Then maybe I’ll be able to relax.

        Right as we turn the corner, I see no other than Benny Rodriguez running a lemonade stand.

        “Alaina! Alaina! Can we buy lemonade?” Nadia asks me, pulling my hand over to where Benny had set up his ‘stand,’ if that’s what you could even call this.

        “Funny seeing you here,” I comment, holding back a laugh. He looks up at me, obviously embarrassed. “How much money have you made?”

        “None..” he mutters under his breath. I look down to the sign that says. “LEMONADE- $2.00”

        “You’re not making any money because you made it two dollars!” I say.

        “Well, how much should I make it?”

        “At least fifty cents.”

        “Fifty cents?? Then I won’t make anything!” he argues.

        “Yeah you will. The only reason people aren’t buying it is because you made it too expensive. If you lower the price, then more people are gonna buy it.” I explain.

        “How do you know?”

        “Benny, I had a lemonade stand.”

        I dig into my pocket and find a few coins. A dime and two quarters. I drop it into the plastic cup on the so-called ‘stand’.

        “There’s a little head start,” I say, and Benny pours a little cup of lemonade and hands it to Nadia.

        “Here you go,” he tells her, an awkward smile on his face.

        “Benny, in the nicest way possible, this is pathetic. Did you hear back from any of those babysitting jobs yet?”

        “No, not yet. It’s been two days..”

        “Just be patient. I’m sure they’ll get back to you soon.”

Now that I think of it, maybe Benny could babysit Nadia with me tomorrow.

        “Hey, I’ll be babysitting my cousin again tomorrow, so maybe you can join me.”

         He nods his head, seeming almost desperate. I don’t blame him. This stand really is pathetic.

        “Alright, I’ll ask her parents.”

         And so he helped babysit.

JUNE 4th, 1993

Benny’s POV:

        Here I am, at Alaina’s house, helping her babysit her cousin, Nadia. I know nothing about kids. I’m an only child, so I didn’t really feel the need to worry about that kind of stuff.

        It’s not going too bad, though. At first, Nadia was quiet, but she’s warmed up to me. Alaina’s been flipping through magazines on the couch while I play Barbie’s with Nadia. This is really embarrassing.

        I was the Ken doll and she was the Barbie doll. I don’t know a whole lot about Barbie, but I do know that Barbie and Ken are dating. Awesome.

        “Ken, my water just broke!” Nadia screams, waving the Barbie around. Alaina chokes on her soda, clearing her throat. “Nadia, you can’t say that.”

        “Why not?” she asks, oblivious to what she just said.

        “You just can’t, hun. Stick to something more appropriate, okay? You’re freaking Benny out.”

Nadia turns back to me, saying something ten times worse.

        “Ken, I want a baby!”

        “ Nadia!!”

        What felt like three years was actually three hours. Nadia’s mom had come by to pick her up. I introduced myself to her, wiping the sweat off my hand.

        “Nice to meet you sir– I-I mean ma’am,” I stammer out, holding out a shaky hand. She doesn’t seem to notice my slip up and shakes my hand.

        “You must be Benny! It’s so nice to meet you. Thank you for watching her! I know she can be a handful sometimes,” she tells me, and she’s not wrong. Alaina had Nadia hoisted up on her hip. That’s when the woman, (Nadia’s mom, Alaina’s aunt) said,

        “You two almost look like a married couple!”

I laugh awkwardly, not knowing how to reply. Alaina just looks annoyed. Alaina’s aunt, who I later found out was named Julia, handed me a $10 bill. Not to be selfish or anything, but I almost think I deserve $20 instead for having to act out the awkward scene between the Ken doll and Barbie earlier.

Alaina sets Nadia down on her feet. As soon as she hits the ground, she goes over and wraps her arms around my leg. I wasn’t expecting a hug, but I appreciate it. I pat her head, smiling down at her.

“Thank you for playing with me,” she says, and it convinces me to forgive her for the Barbie and Ken incident earlier.

“Of course,” I say. As awkward as that whole experience was, I wouldn’t mind doing it nine more times. I just need the money, man.

JUNE 4th, 1993

Alaina’s POV:

        My aunt Julia had just left with Nadia. I can see the visible relief on Benny’s face, and I don’t blame him. Nadia can be a bit much sometimes.

        “Well… now that that’s over, wanna order some food? I mean, you’re free to go if you want, but my mom won’t be home for a while, so you don’t have to worry about her yelling at you,” I suggest.

        “Yeah, that sounds amazing. I’m starving,” he breathes out, sitting down on the couch.

        “Okay, awesome. Should we just order pizza?” I suggest. You can’t go wrong with pizza.

        “Sure, anything is fine.”

        “Does pepperoni sound good?”

        “Yeah, sounds good.”

        I pick up the phone book and flip through it until I find the closest pizza place. I pick up the phone and dial the number, waiting for them to pick up.

        “Hey, can I get a medium pepperoni pizza with a large lemonade and a…” I look to Benny, signaling for him to tell me what drink he wants. “Pepsi.”

        “And a large Pepsi, please?”

        Now all we had to do was wait. I slumped down on the couch next to him, flipping through the various TV channels. I flipped through until I found the sitcom, ‘ FRIENDS.’

        I’d seen it on TV a few times and had always wanted to watch it, but in order to watch it from the very beginning, you’d have to wait until they’d finished streaming the whole series. Right now, there was only two seasons, so while waiting for the third season to air, they just put reruns of seasons one and two.

        A/N: yes, i know that ‘friends’ didn’t air until like 1994 but idc bc it’s my favorite show and i wanted to include it in this fic. also i have no clue if this is how television worked in the 90s bc i wasn't born then, so yeah. bear with me. also, this will include spoilers from the show, so i’ll put a spoiler warning in case any of you are watching the show and don’t want it to be ruined by spoilers.

        “Wanna watch ‘Friends?’ This is the first episode, and it seems like a funny show.”

        “Sure, why not,”

        And so we watched the first episode while we waited for the pizza to arrive.

        SPOILER FOR SEASON ONE, EPISODE ONE

        The episode started with all of the main characters in a coffee house. Some random lady dressed in a wedding dress runs in. Her name is Rachel.

        Basically, a short summary of the episode is that Rachel ran away from her wedding at the altar. She moves in with her old friend from high school, Monica. Rachel has always depended on her dad for money, and now she has to learn to live on her own.

        Right as the episode ends, the doorbell rings. I’m assuming it’s the pizza so I stand up with the money and go to the door. Benny follows behind me. I open the door and hand the delivery guy the money and he hands me the pizza and Benny the drinks. I close the door with my foot and go over to the kitchen island, where we open the pizza and dig in.

        “So, do you think you’ll join us for baseball anytime soon?” Benny asks, and to be honest, I’m not quite sure.

        “I don’t know, why?”

        “Because I like you.”

Excuse me?

        Benny sees the look on my face and immediately elaborates.

        “Well– not like that! Not that I don’t think you’re beautiful and amazing and good at baseball– you- you know what I mean?”

        I laugh at how panicked he is and nod my head.

It takes me a minute to realize that he called me beautiful.

Chapter Text

JUNE 6th, 1993

Benny’s POV:

        Over the course of three days, I’ve made $30 from babysitting Alaina’s younger cousin, Nadia, for three hours each day. Today will be another $10 added to my ‘debt.’ Alaina has been watching me with her, but she’s just kind of been in the background, making sure nothing goes wrong. Not to give myself all of the credit, but I think I’ve done most of the work. I mean, I am the one getting paid, so…

        As usual, I’m babysitting Nadia from 12PM to 3PM. It’s currently 3:30, and Nadia’s mom still isn't here yet. I’m starting to get a bit concerned.

        “Alaina, can you call your aunt? It’s been 30 minutes, and she’s still not here yet. I’m supposed to join the others for baseball later,” I say. I don’t want it to seem like I’m rushing, but I think both me and Alaina have established that.

        “Yeah, I’ll call her right now.”

She picks up her pager and sends her a message.

(please don’t come for me, I wasn’t born in the 90s so I have no idea how a pager works)

        “I just left her a message, I’ll let you know when she answers.” I nod my head. I guess I’ll have to keep Nadia entertained for a bit longer, which shouldn’t be too hard. She’s been watching TV for the past 20 minutes. I slump down on the couch next to Nadia, pretending to be interested in whatever she’s watching. 

        Another 20 minutes go by, and Alaina pulls me off to the side.

        “She said that she’s gonna be another three hours… but she said that she’ll pay you extra if you stay longer.” Now that got my attention.

        “Of course! I don’t mind at all!”

        She looks visibly relieved. Did she think I’d be mad?

       I honestly don’t mind watching Nadia for another three hours. I also wouldn’t mind making some extra cash. As much as I’d like to, I don’t think it’s necessarily the best idea to let Nadia watch TV for another three hours. I’m a bit worried about how I’m going to get her away from the TV. Thankfully, I’ve never had to deal with a tantrum before. Well, at least with Nadia. And I’m hoping that today isn’t the first time.

        “Hey, Nadia… your mom is gonna be running a bit late today. Why don’t we take a break from watching TV and go play outside?”

        A smile grows on her face and she immediately jumps up from the couch. I silently say a prayer. I survived a potential tantrum. “Okay, get your shoes.”

        I slip my shoes on and grab the cardboard box of chalk from the shelf by the front door. I look back at Alaina, and she immediately changes the channel from ‘My Little Pony’ to ‘Jurassic Park.’

        Nadia and I sit down on the sidewalk, the sun beating down on us. Alaina comes outside, tossing me a can of sunscreen. “Make sure to wear sunscreen,” she comments, going back inside. How could I forget that??

        “Open your arms,” I tell Nadia, popping off the cap of the sunscreen can and spraying her arms with it. She rubs it in herself, which I’m thankful for. “Close your eyes,” I tell her. I spray the sunscreen in her face, hoping and praying that none of it got in her mouth or her eyes.

        She turns around and I spray the back of her neck, arms, and legs. Now we can start drawing. She picks up the pink chalk, making a hopscotch. She draws various hearts and stars around it, chalk staining her shirt.

        We had been outside for about an hour. I decided it was time to head inside– I didn’t want Nadia to get heatstroke. Hopefully she isn’t too upset about having to go inside.

        “Hey, Nadia, let’s take a break and go inside, okay?” I suggest. It’s more like a demand, but I want her to feel like she has a say in this.

        “No!” she whines. Oh, c’mon…

        “Nadia, let’s just take a break, okay?”

        “Nooo!!”

“Please don’t cry, please don’t cry, please don’t cry,” were the words repeating in my head.

        “We can come back outside later, okay?”

        And that’s when she started sobbing.

I had only held Nadia a few times, so I could only hope that it would also be okay this time.

        I reached out and put my hands under her arms, lifting her to rest on my hip. “C’mon, Nadia, just a short break. We can come back out in a few minutes, okay?”

        She didn’t reply, continuing to cry. She didn’t seem to be protesting anymore, so I walked inside. Alaina was nowhere to be seen, presumably in her room. I set Nadia down on the couch, kneeling in front of her. “Are you hungry?” I ask. She nods, no longer wailing. Her face was still wet with tears, snot dripping from her nose. It was gross, but I didn’t say anything. I can’t really blame her.

        I’m not gonna lie and say that I know what to do. Like I said, I’ve never been in situations like this before. I go into the kitchen, opening the cabinet and pulling out a box of Cheez-Its. I dump a small portion into a plastic bowl, bringing it into the living room.

        “Why don’t you watch some TV?” I suggested to her. She nods, snot still running down her nose. I set the plastic bowl down on her lap, disappearing down into the hallway and to the door at the very end. I knock, and I hear an annoyed, “what?”

        “It’s Benny.”
        “Oh.”

She opens the bedroom door.

        “What’s up?”

        “I told Nadia to come inside and she started crying,” I admit, rubbing the back of my neck.

        “Oh, that’s normal. Don’t worry about it.” She closes the door, leaving me on my own.

        I hope I get paid extra for this.

        And I did.

        Three hours went by, and Nadia’s mom finally came by to pick her up. I had explained to her what happened. If I were her, I’d be pretty concerned as to why my child had snot running down her chin and red, puffy eyes.

        “Oh Nadia… I really am sorry, hun. You know how kids can be. Here, I’ll give you a tip.” She pulls her wallet out of her purse, pulling out a $20 bill. My eyes widened. I can’t help being greedy in this situation.

        “Oh… thank you, Mrs… Julia,” I say, extending my hand as she hands me the crisp bill. I slip it into my pocket. It feels like when you open a birthday card or a Christmas card and a bunch of money falls out of the card, but you just have to pretend like you don’t notice it. It’s kind of hard to not notice it.

        Nadia was clinging to my leg, picking at the skin on her thumb. I crouch down to be at her level. “Are you gonna be good for your mom?” I ask, patting her head. I hope this doesn’t make me sound too selfish, but I hope that maybe this’ll make her tip me even more. Now I really sound greedy. Nadia nods her head, grinning at me.

        “Good.”

        I lightly push her towards her mom, standing back up. “Again, thank you so much. Does same time tomorrow work?” she asks me, to which I nod my head. “Of course, ma’am. I’d love to.”

        She nods at me, whispering to Nadia to wave goodbye to me. Nadia waves her hand, now clinging to her mom’s leg. I felt a sigh of relief escape my lips as the door shut. I walked to the end of the hallway, not even bothering to knock on Alaina’s door. I walk in, moving her legs out of the way on the bed as I lay back on the twin bed. “What’s up?” she asks, setting the magazine on the nightstand.

        “That was so exhausting,” I exhale. As much as I really do enjoy babysitting Nadia, it really can be tiring.

        “Oh, I know what you mean. Did she pay you extra?” she asks, to which I nod. “Good. I told her to.”

        Oh?

“You did?”

“I did.”

“Well… thank you,” I say, sitting up and using my elbows as support.

         She nods, opening her magazine to the previous page. I take it out of her hands, dropping it on the floor. She sits up as well, leaning on her elbow with her chin resting on her hand. “How much did she pay you?” she asks. “Twenty bucks.” She raises her eyebrows.

        “You’ll only have to babysit five more times before you reach $100,” she says.

        “Yeah, you’re right.”

        “Are you gonna play baseball with us again?” I ask. She shrugs. “Why not?”

                “I dunno, I just don’t know if I want to. Why?”

        “Because I want you to play with us.”

         And suddenly the words just slipped out of my mouth. I mean, I’m not lying. I do want her to play with us.

        “Why?”

        “I just do.”

        I just do. I don’t know why I do, I just. Do.

Chapter Text

JUNE 6th, 1993

Alaina’s POV:

        Benny had barged into my room, practically claiming it as his own as he sprawled out on my bed. He picks up the magazine that I was reading from where he had tossed it on the floor. He skims through it, eventually stopping on a page. There was a page dedicated to sports fashion, one of them being softball. He points at the photo of a college student wearing softball attire. “See! It’s a sign!”

        “That’s softball, Benny. Not baseball.”
        “Same thing!”

I can’t help but laugh.

        “You’ve made yourself quite comfortable,” I say. It’s only been about two weeks since we’ve met, and it’s not like we’ve been hanging out every day. I don’t know whether I would consider him a friend or not.

        “Benny, would you consider me a friend?” I ask.

        “I mean, yeah! Why wouldn’t I?”

        “Just… wondering.”

Well that’s interesting.

        Benny looks around my room, standing up and roaming around. He goes over to my bookshelf, looking at the various picture frames. I feel kinda bad for even asking if we were friends. Can you blame me, though?

        I don’t know why, but the sudden thought of Benny having a girlfriend or someone he likes had popped into my mind. Well that was really random.

        I had spent the next five minutes in silence, pondering on whether I should ask him or not. I would open my mouth, but nothing would come out.

        “Benny…” I begin, my voice slightly shaking.

                “Do you have a girlfriend? Or, someone you like… maybe?”

He laughs.

        “No, not at all. Look at me.”

And I did. I didn’t see any problem.

        “Well? What?”

        “Alaina, all I do is play baseball. That’s it. What kind of girl would go for someone who lives and breathes baseball? I mean, if I were a girl, I know I wouldn’t.” I would.

        “Well… you’ve had to have someone confess to you, at least once. Right?” I ask.

        “Well, yeah, but none of them knew me. They liked the idea of me. You know me, though.”

        What does me knowing him have anything to do with this? “What do you mean, ‘I know you?’ I wouldn’t say that. We’ve only known each other for what, two weeks?”

        “Yeah, but you’re taking the time to get to know me, even though I did technically break your window…”

        “Yeah, I guess so.”

        The talk of girlfriends and crushes must have messed with something in my head. Why am I thinking of me and Benny as a couple? I barely know him, yet alone believe he would even date, just in general. I mean, he said it himself. All he does is play baseball.

        “If you care so much about baseball, then why don’t you go play right now? I mean, earlier you said that you were supposed to go to the sandlot after babysitting Nadia, yet you’re still here. Do you enjoy my company?” I tease. He just laughs, shaking his head.

        “Is that a yes?” I push, lightly shoving his shoulder.

        “Maybe I do, maybe I don’t.”

What kind of answer is that?

        “Well? Are you gonna go play baseball, or what?”

        “No, probably not.”

        “Why’s that?”

        “I wanna stay here.”

He never fails to confuse me.

        “And do what?” I ask.

        “We should watch ‘Friends.’”

        “I don’t think that’s a good idea. My mom’ll be home any minute, and I don’t want her coming into my room to see the one and only Benny who broke our kitchen window,” I say half jokingly.

        He whines, leaning on his elbow, lightly hitting my leg with the magazine. “Benny, I’m serious. No amount of whining will change my mind. Go.”

        “Fine…” he stands up and I follow suit. As I’m walking him to the front door, I hear the engine of my mom’s car revving as she pulls into the driveway.

        “See, I told you!” I scold, grabbing his wrist and pulling him into my bedroom. I close the door, locking it behind me. “Climb out the window,” I direct.

        “Are you serious? I’ll get hurt?” Is he serious?

        “Benny, my house is one story! You’ll be fine!” I open the window, ushering him out. I can hear my mom walk into the house, her high heels clicking against the cold wood floor. “Go!” I whisper yell. He falls down onto his behind, and I stifle a laugh. “Bye, Benny.”

        “When can you hang out a–” I interrupt his sentence by closing the window and pulling the curtains to cover the window. I quickly unlock my door before my mom even tries opening it. Right as I unlock it, she opens it. She jumps slightly, surprised to see me so close to the door.

        “Oh!” she squeaks.

        “Sorry, Mom.”

        “That’s all right, sweetie.”

        “When is that boy going to send us the money for the window? It’s been almost two weeks.” Benny had been babysitting Nadia for what, 3 days? I don’t know, but he should be at least halfway to $100.

        “I think he has about $50 right now, so it might take maybe another week. I’ll ask him, though,” I say.

        “Well, okay then. Hopefully soon, then.” She turns around, the clicking sound of her heels slowly fading as she walks into her bedroom. I close the door, locking it just in case she comes back. I walk over to my window, opening the curtains and pushing it open. As I expected, Benny was there, waiting.

        “So… about the money. I’ll have it by next week, I promise,” he says, and I can sense a hint of worry in his eyes.

        “Benny, I’m not the one who’s worried about when they’re gonna get the money. My mom is. But thankfully, she doesn’t know that you’re the one who broke the window. Let’s keep it that way, ‘kay?” I ask, but I’m also not really asking. It’s more like I’m telling him that it’s going to stay that way. He nods.

        “So, how much money have you made?” I ask, leaning my elbows on the windowsill.

        “$50. Not to be selfish or anything, but I hope that Nadia has more tantrums, so your aunt’ll pay me extra,” he says, and I laugh. I don’t blame him, though.

        “Yeah, I don’t blame you. Hey, only five more times. Then you can go back to your normal routine and play baseball all day,” I say in a half joking manner. I mean, I’m not lying. He does play baseball all day.

        “Yeah… I’m excited,” he mutters, though he doesn’t sound or look excited.

        “You don’t seem excited.”

        “Well, I guess I’m not. I mean, I hope this doesn’t sound creepy or anything, but I’m gonna miss hanging out with you. A-and Nadia, too!” he defends, “but mostly you.” I smile.

        “Just because you won’t come over to babysit anymore doesn’t mean that we still can’t hang out, y’know.”

        “I knew that! Just… wanted to see your reaction,” he says, rather obviously lying. It’s cute.

        “Okay then, you should go before my mom hears me. I’ll see you tomorrow, same time.”

        “Alright, bye, Alaina.”

        “Bye, Benny,” I say, grins on both of our faces. I close the window, and he runs off so my mom doesn’t see him through the window. I can’t help but laugh at how he almost trips on his own feet.

Chapter Text

JUNE 12th, 1993

Benny’s POV:

        Today was my last day of babysitting. Only $10, then I can finally get the worry and fear of Alaina’s mom off my back. Nadia had been put down for a nap right before I got there, and apparently she had a rough night. Maybe she’ll just sleep the whole night, which is good for me. Not that I don’t like babysitting her! It’d just be nice to talk to Alaina…

        I was in Alaina’s room with her, sitting on desk’s chair as she sat on the bed, reading another magazine. Most people would find the silence awkward, I find it comfortable. But I’ve been sitting here for the past 10 minutes, and I’m starting to get bored. I get up from the chair, going over to the bed. I sit down next to her, pushing her to the side as I try to make room for myself.

        “What a gentleman,” she says, her tone flat, and I can tell that she’s being sarcastic. “You’ve made yourself quite at home, haven’t you? Now you’re all cuddled up with me,” she jokes, though it still makes me a bit flustered. I lightly push her to the side even more, laying down.

        “You’re not even fighting it…” I mutter. She flicks my forehead. “Ow!”

JUNE 20th, 1993

Benny’s POV:

        A week had passed since Alaina and I last hung out. I had racked up $100 from babysitting Nadia. I gave the money to Alaina, which she then gave to her mom. Now that I’m not babysitting anymore, I don’t know when I’ll be able to see Alaina again. I know that I could just ask her, but it seems… I don’t know, awkward? I don’t wanna bother her, but what else am I supposed to do?

        That’s when I got either the smartest or dumbest idea ever.

        “Are you kidding me!?” they all yelled, looking up at the sky as the ball flew down a few houses, right into what I was hoping to be Alaina’s backyard.

        “Don’t worry, I’ll just go get it.” I was just praying that Alaina was home and not her mom. It is Saturday, after all. I ran to Alaina’s house, taking a moment to breathe on the porch. I sat down on the steps, fanning myself with my cap. That’s when the door opened, my head snapping around.

        “I can hear your stomping from a mile away. Why are you on my porch?” Alaina asks in a teasing tone. I put my cap back on, standing up. “Uh, my baseball flew into the backyard… Could I get it back?” I ask sheepishly. She hands it to me, as if she knew I was coming. “Got it right here.” I couldn’t help but feel disappointed. I was hoping to come in, and to maybe start a conversation. I don’t let her see my disappointment, though. “Oh, thanks. Sorry, again.”

        “No worries.” and then she closed the door. I stared at the panels on the door, watching through the window as she walked back to her bedroom. I couldn’t help but think that was a failure. Maybe I’ll try again later?

        I ran back to the sandlot, tossing the ball to Kenny. “Alright, let’s run it back.”

        “Seriously, Benny? Again?”

        “Sorry! I’ll go get it again…”

In reality, I wasn’t sorry.

        I ran back over to Alaina’s house, knocking on the door. I waited for about 30 seconds before knocking again, though I got no reply. I ring the doorbell, still no reply. I ring the doorbell about three more times before a grumpy Alaina opens the door. “What??”

        “Were you asleep?”
        “Isn’t it obvious?”

        “At 7 o'clock?”

        “I took a nap. What do you want?”

“My ball… it went over the fence again.”

“Man, you pitch weird. Why does it always go over here.?”

“Couldn’t tell you.”

        She opens the door wider, allowing me in. I walk out to the backyard, reaching down and grabbing the ball from the bush. I rushed back inside, hoping that Alaina didn’t go back to bed. Her hair was all over the place, her shirt wrinkled.

        “Sleep well?” I ask, ruffling her hair. Was that too much?

        “Shut up,” she mutters back, slapping my hand away. I can’t help but laugh at the way her face contorts when she’s mad.

Chapter Text

JUNE 24th, 1993

Alaina’s POV:

        Why is it raining when it’s almost July? I couldn’t tell you. And why is someone knocking on my door in the middle of a storm? I don’t know either. I drag myself off of the couch, leaving my blanket behind. I go to the front door, opening it to see Benny drenched in rain. Not one piece of clothing dry. I can hear the wet squishy noise from his socks as she shifts his feet.

        “You look like a wet dog,” was the first thing I said. And I wasn’t wrong.

        “Thanks,” he says sarcastically.

        “Sorry to bother you, but it started raining right as we were playing baseball. I ran to my house, but no one was home,” he sheepishly explains.

        “And you don’t have a spare key? Maybe hidden under the mat?” he shakes his head.

        “Wow, you really are helpless. Wait here.”

        I close the door, going to grab him a towel. I can’t just not let him in. My mom was at my aunt’s house, but I’m assuming that she’s gonna be stuck there because of the rain. It’s pouring so hard that it’s dangerous to drive. My dad was working, but I have no idea where he could be now. Hopefully somewhere safe. I open the door, handing him a towel. “Take your clothes off,” I say bluntly.

        “What?!”

        “Do you wanna freeze?”

        “No…”

        “So take your clothes off, idiot. Plus, my mom’ll be mad if you get water all over the house.” Not that my mom was home, but I don’t wanna have to clean it up. He takes his flannel off, dropping it onto the porch. He followed suit with the rest of his clothes, leaving him only in his boxers.

        “Just leave your stuff there, I’ll wash them later,” I say, walking inside. He had the towel wrapped around his shoulders. I could hear his teeth shattering. He follows me into my bathroom, and I turn the shower on. “You can use whatever you want, just not my hair mask,” I tell him.

        “Why would I use that ?”

        “Well, it looks like you need it. Holler if you need anything,” I say, closing the door behind me as I exit the bathroom. I walked back to the front door, opening it and stepping outside. I close the door behind me, the wind chimes from the neighbors ringing in my ears. I could barely hear myself think from the combined sound of the wind, rain, and wind chimes. I crouch down, grabbing his discarded shirt and wringing the water from it. I do the same to his jeans, flannel, and against my will, his socks. I bring them inside and walk into the garage, tossing them into the washing machine. While I was at it I decided to throw some of my clothes in, too.

        I went back outside and grabbed his belt and his shoes. I grabbed his shoes and put them upside down over the vent, hoping that they’d dry in time for him to go home either tonight or tomorrow. Worst case scenario being that he’d have to sleep over if his parents don’t come home. I’m assuming that they’re still working, but who knows if they’ll even be able to come home tonight in this weather. I drape his belt over the stool at the kitchen island. The things I do for him.

        I decided to choose happiness today and made him some soup. Right as I turn the stove off, I hear the shower turn off, as well as Benny yelling my name. I walk down the hall and stand outside the bathroom door. “Yeah?”

        “I need clothes!”

        “Oh, right. Just a sec.”

        I totally forgot about clothes. I don’t mind him using mine, since I have some from Christmas that are still too big for me, yet my mom insists that I’ll grow into them. I guess he could use my dad’s boxers. Well, obviously. What else would he even use?

        I walk into my parent's closet, grabbing boxers from my dad’s drawer. I then walk into my room, opening the closet door and digging through a bin of clothes that again, my mom INSISTS I’ll grow into. I grab a pair of blue plaid pajama pants and a random college’s shirt. I grab a pack of unopened socks, tearing the package open and grabbing a pair. I bring the pile of clothes to the bathroom, knocking on the door. “Got your clothes.”

        He opens the door a few inches, his hand sticking out. I drop the pile of clothes onto his hand. “Thanks, I’ll be out in a minute.”

        “No problem.”

        I walk into the kitchen and grab a bowl from the cabinet. I pour the soup into the bowl, grabbing a spoon as well. Not long after, Benny comes out of the bathroom with a hand towel resting on his neck. His hair was only slightly damp. The clothes I picked out for him seemed to fit him just right. That’s convenient. He sees the bowl of soup, and I hand it to him.

        “You made me soup?” he asks, seemingly surprised.

        “It’s nothing fancy, it’s just from a can.”

        “Well, still. Thanks,” he says, sitting at the kitchen island. “Did you make any for yourself?”

        “No, I’m not hungry. Also, when you’re done, just throw your boxers in the washing machine, okay? No offense or anything, but I’m not touching those.”

        He chuckles. “Yeah, no problem.”

        I glanced at the clock on the microwave, and it read 3:30. I wonder when his parents’ll come home.

        “Hey, do you know when your parents will be home?”

        “I dunno, like 5 or 6. It depends on the day, really.”

        So I’m stuck with him for another few hours. It’s not a bad thing, I guess, but I was planning on watching movies all night until my parents got home. I’m starting to wonder what we’ll do all night. What will we do if he has to sleep over? What will I do?

                                THREE HOURS LATER

        It was now 6:30. The storm hadn’t calmed down at all, it just got worse. Benny and I were eating dinner, which was just frozen pizza. We were sitting on the couch, watching Karate Kid , the first one to be more specific. I remember when I was around 10, I used to be obsessed with Ralph Macchio. I don’t blame myself.

        We’re at the scene where Daniel and Ali made out, and I cringe every time I see it. Ralph was 21 while filming and he looked like he’d never kissed a girl before.

        “Gosh, he’s practically eating her,” Benny says, shoving popcorn into his mouth. I laugh.

        “I mean, I haven’t kissed anyone before, but I bet that I could do better than that . That just looks foul. Poor Ali.”

        “You haven’t kissed anyone before?” he asks, seemingly shocked.

        “No, have you?”

        “No, but I would’ve expected you to have had your first kiss by now,” he admits, shrugging.

        “What’s that supposed to mean?” I’m almost offended.

        “No, it’s not a bad thing! You’re just really pretty and stuff, I would’ve expected at least a few guys to have tried to make a move on you.”

        So is that a compliment? I don’t know what to say, so I just nod and take a bite of the popcorn. I’m surprised that no one’s tried to make a move on him . Maybe he’s just too oblivious to notice, but who knows. I think back on what he said, realizing that he called me pretty. I’m almost flattered, but remind myself to not think too much of it. He was just being nice.

        Right?

        About 45 minutes later, it was 7:10 and we had just finished the first Karate Kid .

        “Wanna watch the second one?” I ask, taking the DVD out. He nods, stretching his legs out onto the coffee table. “I’ll go make more popcorn, then,” I say, going to the kitchen and digging through the pantry for more popcorn.

        I find the kernels and oil, pouring some of the oil into the popper. I dump the kernels into the popper, beginning to crank the handle. It’s only been a minute and my arm is already sore. “Benny, can you come crank this?” I ask, and he almost immediately gets up. He gently places his hands on my waist, moving me to the side.

        I walk away to the living room to switch out the DVD’s, trying to comprehend what just happened. Am I going crazy? No, I’m not. At least I don’t think I am. He just put his hands on my waist and moved me aside like it was nothing. That was not normal, and you can’t convince me otherwise. I wish he could disappear for like, an hour so I can call my best friend, Dani. Oh gosh.

        I kneel down in front of the TV, rummaging through the shelf to find the Karate Kid II disc. After some searching, I find the case and open it up. I set it down on the floor, standing back up to check up on the popcorn. I walk into the kitchen, a thought crossing my mind. Just hear me out.

        What if I try moving Benny aside like he did to me? Placing my hands on his waist and gently moving him to the side. All I can do is hope that he doesn’t just stand there and not move. I’d cry.

        I take a deep breath, mustering up the courage to do it. I hesitantly reach my hands for his waist before pulling away. No, I need to be nonchalant and confident. I try again, this time not hesitating. My hands meet his waist, gently moving him aside as I open the lid and check on the popcorn. Gosh, I just realized how much I sound like a creep. I cringe, but quickly cover up the horrified face that I just made at my own thoughts.

        I think I made the right decision, though. He didn’t seem to mind. This is probably gonna sound really selfish, but I hope he’s freaking out like I did when he moved me aside. It does sound selfish, now that I really think about it. Well, can you blame me?

        I wonder if boys feel the same way about their crushes like girls do.

        Wait.

        No, no way.

        This is NOT a crush. Under any circumstances, this. Is. Not. A. Crush. Period. End of discussion.

        Gosh, I really hope it’s not a crush.

        Damnit, Benny, you’re playing tricks with my mind. Why would you do that?

        He better not get my hopes up, or feed my delusions. I can already tell that this isn't gonna end well.

        I shake the thought out of my head, reminding myself that Benny is behind me. I can’t freak out in front of him. I’m not even sure if this is a crush or a delusion because one guy was nice to me. I need to calm down and bring myself back down to Earth. What planet am I even on?? I need Dani. Like, right now. I can’t just call her, Benny’s here!

        What happened to calming myself down?

Chapter Text

JUNE 24th, 1993

Alaina’s POV:

        I excused myself to the bathroom and managed to calm myself down. I look in the mirror, comprehending what just happened. He grabbed my waist like it was nothing. You can’t just do that! It’s unfair.

        I start cleaning through my drawer, trying to distract myself. Stress-cleaning, you could say. Is this why my mom always cleans?

        After a few minutes, I decided to toughen up and go back to the kitchen. I don’t want to be gone for too long. I leave the bathroom, walking down the hallway, through the living room, and into the kitchen. He turns to look at me. “Good, the popcorn just finished.”

        I nod, going to stand next to him. I look up, noticing the significant height difference between him and I. I can’t tell you how tall he was, but compared to me, he was tall . “Hey, how tall are you?” I ask.

        “Oh, around 5’6-ish. What about you? Like 5’4?”

        “5’1.”

        “ 5’1?!”

        “I can’t control that!” I argue back, though I’m not actually mad. He turns the stove off, moving the popcorn popper to the side. I open the cabinet, grabbing a red plastic bowl and placing it on the counter. He grabs the popper and dumps the popcorn into the bowl, dropping a few pieces of popcorn on the floor. I leaned down and picked it up, noticing his hand was on the edge of the counter, making sure I didn’t bonk my head. I’m not even gonna bother. I know I’m being delusional. Right? Anyone would’ve done that.

        I toss the extra pieces into the garbage, ripping a few paper towels from the roll and placing them on the counter. “Want anything to drink?” I ask, opening the fridge as I grab a coke for myself. “Sure,” he says. I grab an extra coke for him, placing both of the cans on coasters on the coffee table. He walks over, placing the bowl on the couch. “Ready?” he asks, and I nod as I pop in the DVD.

        I go over to the kitchen, flipping the lights off. I hurry over to the couch, sitting down next to him, the popcorn bowl separating us from touching. The movie starts, and by now it’s about 7:30 when the phone rings. I get up, going over to the wall by the kitchen. I take the phone off the wall, holding it up to my ear. “Hello?”

        “Hey, sweetie, it’s Mom. Just wanted to let you know that dad is here with me, he got home safe. It took a while, though. He had to go slow.”

        “Oh, good, I was worried,” I say, though Benny helped to distract me.

        “Well, we’re planning to spend the night at Aunt Julie’s house. It’s too dangerous to drive home. The roads are way too sleek and the clouds make it dark. Will you be okay on your own?”

        Well, I’m not on my own, but she doesn’t have to know that. “Yeah, don’t worry, I’ll be okay. When will you be home?”

        “It depends, hun. Maybe 11 or 12. I’ll call you in the morning to check in, okay?”

        “Okay, thanks. Love you.”

        “Love you too. Bye.”

        The line cut off and I put the phone back on the wall. “Was that your mom?” he asks, and I nod. “Yeah. Lucky for you, her and my dad are spending the night at my aunt Julie’s house. You won’t have to worry about running into my mom,” I say jokingly. He chuckles, motioning me to come back to the couch.

        I sit down, putting my hand into the popcorn bowl and grabbing a small handful. “Have you seen this one before?” I ask, just trying to make small talk. “Of course I have!” he replies, his mouth stuffed with popcorn. I look over to him, his cheeks twice the size as they normally were. I laugh to myself, turning my head back to the TV.

        That’s when I suddenly got reminded of his parents. Maybe they’re home.

        “Hey, you should try calling your parents to see if they’re home. I’m sure they’re worried about you,” I say. He nods, immediately getting up. “You’re right.”

        I decided to just take the DVD out. Then we can restart when he gets off the phone, no interruptions this time.

        I remained sat on the floor by the TV, looking over to him as he tried calling to see if anyone’s home. I’m guessing that no one answered because he says, “Hey, just wanted to let you guys know that I’m spending the night at a friend's house because of the storm. I tried getting inside but you guys weren't home. See you.” He puts the phone back onto the wall.

        “I guess you’re spending the night, then,” I say, and he nods.

        “Sorry to intrude. I thought the storm would’ve calmed down by now,” he explains.

        “So did I. It’s okay, though. I guess it’ll be fun,” I respond, just trying to make light of the situation while also trying to make sure that I don’t send myself into a spiral. He smiles, and I smile back. I pop the DVD back into the TV, sitting back on the couch. The popcorn bowl was now on his lap. “Greedy,” I say, though I’m only joking. I reach my hand into the bowl, grabbing a few pieces and shoving them into my mouth. “Yeah, yeah,” he says, the slight smirk evident on his face.

        Thirty minutes had gone by and I had finally noticed the significant change in the distance between Benny and I. By now there was no space between us. It’s not like I was pressed against him, but we were pretty close. If it helps your imagination, we were shoulder to shoulder. I thought that it might be awkward, but I felt pretty comfortable. That seems to be a common theme when I’m with him.

        There were loud cracks of thunder and possibly lightning.

        “Hopefully the power doesn’t go o–”

        And the power went out.

        “You jinxed it!” I say, pretending to sound annoyed. The lights shut off and the DVD had slid out. I stand up, trying to make my way over to the kitchen but failing and tripping over Benny’s legs. He laughs while I’m just laying there on the floor. He eventually helps me up, sticking his arms out into the darkness so he doesn’t run into anything.

        “Benny,”

        “Yeah?”

        “You’re touching my boobs.”
        “Oh.”

        After that awkward encounter that I’d rather not remember, we made it to the kitchen. I was rummaging through the junk-drawer, hoping and praying that there’s a flashlight in there. I’m terrified of the dark, but it’s not so bad when Benny’s here with me.

        I ended up finding a flashlight, but it needed new batteries. When I turned around, Benny was gone. “Oh come on…” I mutter under my breath. I try flipping the lights on, completely forgetting about the power outage.

        I wandered down the hall, wondering if maybe he went to look in the coat closet’s top shelf. That’s when I heard a loud, “BOO!” and felt someone shaking my shoulders. I scream, jumping and immediately turn around. I can see Benny’s stupid shit-eating grin from the moonlight peering in through the window.

        “Benny!” I say, almost disappointed.

        “What?” he asks, his voice innocent as if he hadn’t just scared the shit out of me.

        “You know what!”

        I grab the batteries from his hand, going back to the kitchen and popping them into the flashlight. I turn it on, purposefully shining it into his face. I laugh at his scrunched-up face.

        “What are we supposed to do? It’s only like, 8. I’m not exactly tired,” I say.

        “Neither am I. I guess we could just set up where I’ll be sleeping, just to get it out of the way,” he suggests. I nod.

        “I don’t mind if you sleep in my room,” I say. He looks surprised.

        “You’ll let me sleep in the bed with you?”

        “Why do you sound so excited?”

        My bed was a full sized bed, so it was a little bigger than a twin size. It could easily fit two people.

        “Well… yeah. I’m not just gonna make you sleep on the floor if there’s enough room for the two of us,” I explain. Now that I really think about it, this may not have been the best idea, but that’s okay!! “Just don’t make it weird.”

        We went to my room to set up the sleeping situation. I pulled the covers back, tossing some of the pillows on the chair by my desk. “What’re we gonna do until we go to sleep?” he asks.

        “I don’t know. The power’s out, so we can’t watch TV. We obviously can’t go outside. We could talk, I guess.”

        “About what?”

        “Anything.”

        And that’s what we did. We talked for hours, just laying on the bed and staring at the ceiling. We would occasionally turn to our sides to face each other, but I’d always turn back onto my back. We talked about where we saw ourselves in ten years, we talked about school, we talked about our families, everything.

        It was nearing 10 o’clock by the time we’d finished talking, my voice now a bit sore from the non-stop chattering. “I guess now is a reasonable time to go to bed. Maybe the storm will be gone by the morning,” I say.

        “Maybe.”

        I slip under the covers and he follows suit. “Good night, then.”

        “Good night.”

        I rolled over so my back was facing him. I closed my eyes, hoping to get some sleep. It was kind of hard with the loud thunder, and the fact that Benny was right beside me.

        It had been thirty minutes, and by now I was fed up.

        “Alaina,” Benny whispers, slightly shaking my shoulder.

        “What?”

        “I can’t sleep.”

        “Well, neither can I. What do you want me to do about it?” I ask.

        “I don’t know.”

        I sigh softly, running a hand through my hair. How am I supposed to help him when I can’t help myself? “Hug your pillow or something,” I suggest, rolling onto my back and turning my head to face him. He does just that, taking the pillow from underneath his head and hugging it. I turn to my side again, closing my eyes in an effort to actually fall asleep this time.

        Right as I was about to doze off, I felt Benny poking my shoulder. “What??” I groan, turning to face him.

        “Can we cuddle?”

        And then I woke up.

        I check the clock, and it reads 2:19AM .

        I flop back down onto the bed, turning to see Benny now facing me. His hand had been resting under my head. Now why is he supporting my delusions in his sleep ? Not cool, Benny.

        I decide to just lay my head back on his hand, feeling his fingers slowly scratch my scalp in his sleep. It feels comforting, in a way. I let out a soft sigh, sitting up once again. I reach over to the nightstand, reaching for the metal-beaded string to turn the lamp on. Still, no power.

        I can hear the thunder booming, the wind chimes from various houses blowing like crazy. Will this storm ever come to an end? Who knows. What I do know is that I like the feeling of Benny’s fingers gently scratching my head a little too much.

        I lay back down for the umpteenth time, Benny’s fingers tangling in my hair. I can’t lie, it really does feel nice. Especially from him.

        He really is driving me crazy.

JUNE 25TH, 1993– 6:03AM

Benny’s POV:

        I woke up to the sunlight peering in through the window, the light casting a soft glow over Alaina’s sleeping face. She was laying on her back and I was on my side, facing her. My arm was resting underneath her head, almost like a pillow.

        The storm must’ve stopped only a few hours ago. There were still a few raindrops on the window, but overall it wasn’t bad. I slowly sat up, making sure to not wake Alaina in the process as I carefully removed my arm from underneath her head. I peek out the window, seeing some small twigs from trees scattered across the yard and streets. It wasn’t horrible, though. I check the clock– roughly 6AM. The sun had just begun to really rise.

        I’m not sure if this is a good idea, but I plan on doing it anyway.

        “Alaina…” I whisper, rubbing her shoulder. Her nose scrunches up, her eyes slowly opening. Her eyelids were heavy as she looked up at me. “What.?”

        “Can we go for a walk?”

        “At…” she pauses, turning her head to look at the clock before turning her head back to me. “6AM? Right now?” I nod.

        “Please?” I ask, my hand on her shoulder.

        “Benny… It's six o’clock in the morning. Can it wait?”

        “Please? It’s nice outside. It’s sunny.”

        She pauses, turning her head to the side as she peers out the window. She slowly sits up, rubbing her eyes. Her hair was a mess, but I found it cute. It was endearing.

        “Fine,” she finally groans out, her hand running through her hair. I immediately stood up, going to grab my shoes from the vent where Alaina had placed them to dry. I slip them on, running back to her bedroom to see her lying back in bed with her eyes closed.

        “Alainaaa…” I whine, sitting next to her.

        “Get your shoes off the bed,” she mutters, lightly shoving me. I gently grab her wrists, pulling her up into a sitting position. “Let’s gooo. C’mon.”

        After what felt like a million years, we were on a walk around the neighborhood. Since it was early in the morning and the fact that there had been a storm only hours before stepping outside, it was pretty cold. She had lended me one of her sweatshirts that was too big for her, which seemed to fit me just right.

        She was in her pajamas, but of course she threw a sweatshirt over it. The smell outside was very distinct– rain and misty. I wasn’t complaining, though. I had always liked summer more, but the occasional rain was nice.

        Although before I wasn’t particularly happy with being caught up in the rain, I’m kind of glad it happened. I got to spend the night with the girl I’ve been crushing on for the past month.

        Oh, did I not mention that?

Chapter Text

JUNE 25TH, 1993

Alaina’s POV:

        Benny had left about two hours ago. After our walk, I went straight back to bed. Benny woke me up at around eight and said that he was leaving because his parents had gotten home. It was about nine when my mom called and said that her and my dad would be home by about twelve.

        Now I’m leaning against the wall in the living room, anxiously biting my nails as I wait for the phone to be picked up.

        “Hello?”

        “DANI–”

        And we talked for two hours.

        “I just don’t know– do I like him or am I just delusional? Does he like me? Ugh! I hate this,” I groan.

        “There’s no way that he doesn’t. You’ve known him for what, a month?”

        “Yeah… is it bad that I like him?”

        “No, it’s not bad. I don’t blame you, though. His actions are rather… scandalous,” Dani explains. In case you forgot, Dani is my best friend. “But my point here is: just wait a few months and see how things go. Let his true colors show. Ew, that sounds really corny out loud. Anyway! I think he likes you, Ali. Just take it slow, okay?”

        “Okay,” I say, sighing softly. “I’m gonna go, my mom’s gonna be home soon. Thanks for listening to me rant, and stuff,” I say sheepishly.

        “Of course. Bye, Ali. Love you.”

        “Love you too.”

God bless her.

        I go back to what I said– ‘Yeah… is it bad that I like him?’

        Oh. Well, shit.

JUNE 25th, 1993

Benny’s POV:

        “I KNEW IT!!”

        “You’re lying!”
        “THE Benny Rodriguez actually likes something other than baseball/?! AND it’s a girl?!”

        “I knew you’d crack at some point!”

Was the first thing I heard when the word ‘crush’ left my lips.

        “Guys– I’m not a robot, y’know! I have feelings too!” I argue. And it’s true! I like other things besides baseball. Don’t ask me what.

        “ Ooo~ Benny has a crushhh~ ” Yeah-Yeah echoes.

        “You guys are never gonna let me live this down, are you?”

        “Nope.”

        “Not at all.”

        “Not a chance!”

        “Not a chance !”

        “And hey! Don’t act like you and Squints weren't just swooning over Wendy Peffercorn!” I argue back. That made the two of them shut up real fast.

        “Well– whatever!” Yeah-Yeah retorts, sulking like a little girl.

        “Well… when’re you gonna tell her?” Kenny asks.

        “Not anytime soon, I can tell you that.”

        “What? Why?”

        “I’ve only known her for a month!”

        “Oh, right.”

        “Did you guys make out?”

        “No, Tommy!”

        There was a loud echo of conversations before Squints goes, “Hey, why don’t you invite her to the diner? Or the fair?” That’s not a bad idea, but I’m way too scared. Though I’d never admit that out loud.

        “Yeah, that doesn’t sound too bad.”

        “So it’s a date!” Squints exclaims, to which I immediately shut down.

        “No! Not yet.”

        The rest of my friends had ushered me home and instructed me to look ‘snappy.’ Apparently I have to invite her to the diner today . I’m questioning if she’ll even want to hang out, considering that I just spent the night at her house.

        And so I did.

        I went home and put on some of my fancy cologne, looked in the mirror for about five minutes, brushed my teeth, and ditched my hat for once.

        I didn’t really think before leaving the house. It felt like I wasn’t in control of my body, like someone else was controlling me. Like my legs were moving on their own.

        I found myself at her doorstep, still no cars parked in the driveway. I went to press the button for the doorbell, but I guess my body decided to give me control again and I found myself hesitating. I tell myself that it's too late now, and I press the doorbell. No reply. Just as I’m about to ring it again, Alaina opens the door, towel around her body and hair soaking well.

        Well that’s just unfair.

        “Oh– Sorry! I can come back later—” Ι stammer out, turning around to leave.

        “Well you’re already here. What is it?” she asks, seeming to be completely unbothered.

        “Oh, well, uhm,” I stutter, completely forgetting why I even came here in the first place. “Right! Uh, I was wondering if you wanted to hang out at the diner, or something.”

        “Right now?” she asks, to which I nod.

        “Give me like, 30 minutes. You can wait inside,” she says, opening the door wider and stepping aside. I walk in, shutting the door behind me.

        “Your clothes from yesterday are on the counter,” she says, walking down the hallway and into the bathroom. I look to the kitchen island and see my clothes folded on the counter. I make it a point to take them home once I drop her back after we hang out ( hang out , NOT a date).

JUNE 25th, 1993

Alaina’s POV:

        Now what the hell.

        I thought it would be my mom or something at the door, not Benny! Hence why I opened it while all that was covering my body was a towel. I’m never erasing this from my mind, am I? I quickly brush my hair, water getting all over the counter. I’m just now realizing that Benny has never seen my natural hair. When he first met me, my hair was in a braid, and the other times it was in a bun or something. Last night, I straightened my hair. This would be the first time that he’d be seeing my hair curly. I quickly put some product in it, turning on my diffuser. I try to multitask by getting changed while also drying my hair, which didn’t work out well.

        I ended up getting changed before going back to drying my hair. One hand was holding the hair dryer and the other was putting on mascara.

        After about 30 minutes, my hair was still a bit damp, but it was fine. I quickly distributed hair oil throughout my hair before quickly checking myself in the mirror. I was wearing jean shorts and a plain tank top. Simple enough.

        I exit the bathroom, quickly slipping on my shoes before meeting him in the living room. I dug into my pockets, finding a $20 bill. My luck today is amazing, and  no, I’m not being sarcastic.

        “Ready?” I ask. He looks dumbfounded.

        “You have curly hair?!” he asks, surprised. I thought it was kind of obvious, considering how you could see the slight frizz from when my hair was in a bun. I nod, smiling softly.

        “Do you like it?” I ask, doing a little spin. I don’t know why I care about his opinion, but I just do.

        “Yeah!” he exclaims, stepping closer and examining my hair like it’s something he’s never seen before. I can’t help but smile. I feel special. “Can I touch it?” he asks, his eyes pleading with me. I nod, and his hand reaches up to touch my hair. His touch was gentle, as if he was scared that my hair would turn to dust if he was too rough with it.

        “It’s so soft! It smells good, too,” he says, fascinated. I can’t help but laugh.

        “Sorry! That sounded really weird now that I think about it–” he says, pulling his hand away.

        “It’s okay. I think it’s cute,” Ι say. Look who’s being bold now, Benny!

        He smiles at me, and I smile back. My mouth is starting to hurt now.

        We walked to the diner, talking and laughing the whole way there. Not long later, we made it and sat at a window seat.

        “It’s still a bit early. I think I’ll get breakfast, I haven’t eaten yet,” I say, picking up the menu.

        “Neither have I. I’m starving,” Benny admits, putting a hand on his stomach as the other holds the menu.

        I examine the menu, trying to find something that catches my eye. Benny holds the menu out so we can both look. The waitress then comes over with her notepad. That was fast.

        “Awh, are you two on a date!”

        “N–”

        “Let me get you something special! Stay here–” the girl goes, quickly leaving and going back to the bar area.

        “Well, that’s great. Hopefully it’s free,” I say, trying to lift the awkwardness of the situation. “I want my waffles, though,” Ι say. The girl looked to be maybe sixteen or seventeen, so maybe she thought she was doing us (or me) a favor.

        She comes back not long later, placing a singular milkshake in the middle of the table with two straws. “Enjoy!” she says, giggling as she quickly walks away and hides behind the counter.

        Benny chuckles, shaking his head as he puts both of the straws in the drink. “This should be fun,” he says, and I laugh. At least it’s not too awkward.

        I lean in, putting the straw up to my lips. As I look up, I’m met with Benny’s eyes staring straight into mine. I spit out my drink, laughing as it gets all over his face.

        “Really?” he says, though I can tell that he’s not mad. I can help but laugh, tears forming in my eyes. Benny excuses himself to the bathroom, coming back about a minute later, the milkshake no longer all over his face. 

        “Sorryyy,” I say, collecting myself.

        “It’s alright. As long as I made you laugh, I’m okay with getting milkshakes all over my face,” he says, and I can’t help but feel relieved that he found the situation amusing as well. 

        We talked for a little while, laughing and telling old stories. My eyes drift from Benny’s to behind him, seeing a familiar figure with their faced pressed against the window. DANI?!

        “And then Squints– Hey, is something wrong?” he asks, my eyes drifting back to his.

        “What? Sorry, can you give me a sec? Just wait here–” I say, putting a hand on his shoulder as I stand up and walk outside. Dani removes her face from the window, yelling, “You guys are on a DATE and you didn’t TELL M–” was all she could get out before I slapped my hand over her mouth.

        “It was super last minute– and it’s not a date! How did you even know I was here?” I ask.

        “I was at the supermarket and saw you walk in here!”

        “Okay, well leave!”

         As Dani quickly walked back to her mom’s side, I walked back inside the diner and sat back down. Right as I sat down, Benny stood up and announced that he’d be right back.

JUNE 25th, 1993

Benny’s POV:

        “Seriously, guys? Do you not have anything better to do?” I scold. They all point fingers to Squints, who looks around innocently.
        “Well? How’s it going?” Kenny asks.

        “Good, before you guys showed up. Go home!” I whisper yell, going back inside.

        Does this count as a date?

Chapter Text

JUNE 25th, 1993

Alaina’s POV:

        I glance around the diner, turning my head once I hear the bells on the door jingle. It was Benny. He sits in front of me, running a hand through his hair. “Sorry, I saw someone I recognized,” he explains sheepishly.

        “Oh, who?” I ask, taking a sip of the milkshake.

        “One of my old teachers,” he explains. I don’t question it. The waitress comes back over, and before I can even get my words out, she goes, “How’s that milkshake tasting?”

        “Good, thanks. Uh, can we order now?” Benny asks, placing the menu at the end of the table. “Sure thing!”

        “Okay, uh, Alaina?” he says, waiting for me to go first.

        “Oh, I’ll just get the waffles, please.” I say with a small smile.

        “Perfect! And for your boyfriend?”

        “He’s not m–” I was then shushed by Benny, his finger on my lips. “I’ll get the pancakes and orange juice, please.” The girl nods and scurries back to the kitchen, a large smile on her face.

        “What was that for?” I ask, not mad at the fact but incredibly confused. “Just trust me on this,” he says, a grin forming on his lips. “It’s kind of hard to trust you when you’re smiling like that,” I chuckle, only half jokingly.

        Right as I was in the middle of my sentence, I saw a flash from the corner of my eye. I slowly turn my head, almost a bit frightened. Did someone just take a photo of me? “Did you see that?” I ask Benny. He nods, concern etched on his face. “I’ll be right back,” I say, going into the women’s restroom– where I saw the flash from.

        I walk into the women’s restroom, all of the stalls open except one. I bend down, trying to see if I can recognize the shoes. I immediately recognize the red converse. “Dani, I know it’s you. Get out here,” I say, my voice stern.

        She slowly opens the door, a sheepish smile on her face. I can’t not smile.

        “Did you get the photo?” I ask, giggling as I go into the stall with her. She nods, a huge grin on her face. She reaches for her pocket, showing me the polaroid photo she had just snuck of Benny and I.

        “Ugh, it’s not ready yet,” I whine, looking at the white polaroid. I stare and watch as the photo starts to form. I shake the polaroid back and forth, hoping to speed up the process. It didn’t take long.

        “Look!” Dani practically squeals, shoving the photo in my face. “Look at his smile– and how he’s looking at you!” I press my finger over her lips, trying to remain quiet.

        “I know!!” I go. I bring the photo to my lips, kissing it like I would to my grandma’s cheek. Dani, I love you dearly.

        “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” I go, shoving the photo into my back pocket. “Okay, I gotta go!” I say, leaving the stall. I quickly check my hair in the mirror, before walking towards the door. Right as my hand touches the door handle, I pull back and turn around, kissing Dani’s cheeks before leaving the bathroom. My soulmate. I hear her giggle before I leave the bathroom. I went back to where Benny and I were seated, sitting across from him.

        “Who was it??” Benny asks, taking a sip of the milkshake.

        “It was that waitress girl,” I explain, praying that he wasn’t paying attention to my giggles and squeals from the bathroom.

        “Really? That’s kinda creepy,” he says, his eyebrows furrowed slightly. “Did she give you the photo?” he asks.

        “Yeah, she did. Wanna see it?” I ask, already reaching to pull the photo out of my back pocket. He nods. I hand the photo over to him, turning my head to the bathroom as I hear the door creak open. I see Dani standing at the door like a deer in headlights, and my heart stops for a moment. My eyes widen, and so do hers.

        I mouth the words, “Dani! Hurry!” and man, did she hurry . She practically bolted for the door, running past our table. I can’t help but giggle. Benny lifts his head, turning his head to see Dani trip on the leg of his chair and fall on her face.

        I slap my hand over my mouth, holding back my laughter. Benny’s eyes widen as he puts the photo down, reaching to help her up. “Are you okay??” he asks, concern evident in his voice. Dani immediately gets up, running out of the diner. I could see her trying not to laugh. Benny thinks that I don’t know this girl, so if he sees me laughing, he’s going to think that I’m a horrible person. I paint a look of concern on my face, trying to hide the fact that I was currently fighting demons.

        “Oh my gosh, that looked like it hurt,” I go. He nods, turning to face me.

        “I hope she’s alright,” he says. I try to change the subject, pointing towards the polaroid. “So? How’s it look?”

        “Hey, this is actually a really nice photo. Too bad you can only see your back,” he says, chuckling. “It’s okay. At least I can see your face,” I say, trying to make light of the situation even though this works out perfectly for me. 

        He hands the polaroid to me, and I put it back in my pocket. “It’s a nice memory,” Ι go.

        “Yeah. Our first ‘date.’”

        OH?

        It didn’t take long for the waitress to come out with our food.

        “Waffles for the lady… and pancakes for the boyfriend,” the girl goes, giggling as she places the food down. She’s really trying to make it a point that he’s my ‘boyfriend,’ isn’t she?

        “And your orange jui–” she cuts off, slipping from the roller blades they were forced to wear and dropping the cup of orange juice on me. I gasp, feeling the cold drink spill down my shirt. The girl gasps loudly, her hands slapping over her mouth. “Oh my gosh– I am so sorry!!” she exclaims, grabbing several napkins from the holder and rubbing my chest with them. This just made it even more awkward. I looked up at Benny and saw a look of cringe on his face. Me too, Benny. Me too.

        “It’s okay, just give us a moment, please?” I ask, trying to remain calm. I know that she didn’t mean to do it, and I know that she’s just as embarrassed as I am. She nods, awkwardly skating off to behind the counter. I look over at her, seeing her plop down onto a chair and bury her face in her hands. At least we’re both on the same page.

        I sigh softly, looking down at the mess on my shirt. Benny almost immediately stands up, taking off his flannel and draping it over me. “What?” I ask, looking up at him. “Just go look in the bathroom,” he goes, his face showing sympathy. I slowly stood up, going to the bathroom to see what he was talking about. I open the heavy door and stand in front of the mirror, looking down at my shirt to realize that you can see my bra.

        My eyes widen and I lean more towards the mirror. “Shit…” I mumble, grabbing paper towels and aggressively trying to rub my shirt dry. I look around the bathroom, my eyes landing on the automatic hand dryers. I hope no one walks in.

        I position myself under the dryer, the sensor turning on and blowing cold air on my shirt. This better work or else it’s gonna be really embarrassing.

        I didn’t wanna take too long so I looked in the mirror, deciding that it was good enough. I exit the bathroom, returning to the table to see that everything had been cleaned up. The floor was dried, my seat had been wiped, and Benny’s cup of orange juice was refilled. I sat down across from him, sympathy still on his face.

        “You okay?” he asks, to which I nod. “Are you sure? We can leave, if you want,” he offers, to which I immediately shake my head. “No, it’s okay. It was a small mistake, it’s no big deal,” I say, pulling the flannel to cover my chest first. Not once has Benny even tried stealing a glance at my chest, so I felt a bit more at peace. 

        “Let’s just eat,” I say, grabbing my fork and knife. I cut the waffle into small bite-size pieces, and Benny followed suit. 

        It didn’t take long before we finished eating. The waitress lady came back to our table, collecting our plates. She left again, leaving to the kitchen before quickly returning. “I really am so so–” she starts, but I cut her off. “It’s okay, really. I know it was an accident,” I say as Benny and I stand up. I reach into my pocket to grab my money before I see Benny place a $20 bill on the table. The girl shakes her head, grabbing the bill and shoving it back into Benny’s hands.

        “Please, it’s on me. I ruined your guys’ date,” she says, an apologetic look on her face. I can tell that she genuinely feels bad. “It’s okay, really–” I start, before I feel Benny grab my hand and tug me along with him. He opens the door, pulling me to his side as we walk out. Is he mad?

        “Benny, what’s wrong?” I ask, trying to gauge his emotions.

        “It worked,” he chuckles.

        “What worked??”

        “We didn’t have to pay.”

        I finally understood what his plan was. I did feel a bit guilty about this, but hey, you would do it too. The girl thought Benny and I were on a date, so she wanted to make it special for us by not making us pay.

        Although she didn’t mean to spill orange juice all over me, she did sort of help. Benny offered me his flannel so I could cover up. I mean, a win is a win.

        I chuckled, realizing that his plan did work. “Well, anyway, thanks for giving me your flannel,” I say. He nods.

        “Of course. Who would I be if I didn’t?”

        I smile at that. To Dani, and to that waitress, thank you. I owe you my life.

Chapter Text

JUNE 25th, 1993

Benny’s POV:

        I had walked Alaina back to her house, and I couldn’t help but stare at her the whole way back. I mean, she was wearing my flannel. I don’t know. I just couldn’t help but smile.

        She invited me inside so I could grab my clothes from the other night. I felt the cool air blow onto my face. She took my flannel off, and I couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed. She held her arm out to me, going, “thanks for letting me borrow this.”

        I shook my head, gently pushing her hand away. “Keep it,” I go. She looks at me, confused.

        “What?”

        “Keep it. I have a lot, so it’s okay. I have too many, actually,” I say sheepishly, my hand coming up to rub my neck. She smiles softly, and I can’t help but do the same. I hear her mutter a quiet, “thanks,” before she drapes the flannel over the chair of the kitchen island. “Oh, here are your clothes, by the way,” she says, picking up the small pile of clothes and handing them to me.

        I extend my arms, taking the clothes from her hands. “Thanks for washing them. I know it was pretty annoying, huh?” I go, smiling awkwardly. She smiles, shaking her head. “No worries. It wasn’t a big deal.”

        We just kind of looked at each other, smiling. The silence was broken when she went, “you should go. My parents’ll be home soon.”

        I couldn’t help but feel a pang of disappointment at that. Hopefully that wasn’t just an excuse for me to leave. “Yeah, you’re right. Call me?” I go, a hint of desperation in my voice. She nods, walking to the front door as I follow behind her.

        I’ve been thinking of doing this since we started walking back from the diner.

        I gently wrap my free arm around her shoulder, pulling her into a side hug. “Thanks for today,” I go. “Sorry that it was last minute… and the fact that you got orange juice spilled all over you,” I mutter, trying to make light of the situation. I felt a sigh of relief slip past my lips as she laughed.

        “Yeah, it was fun. Hopefully we can do it again another time. And maybe with a different server…” she goes, though I could tell that she was only joking. I reluctantly remove my arm from her shoulder, opening the front door as I step out. “Thanks again,” I go, making my way down the steps. “Bye,” she goes, waving to me as she closes the door.

JUNE 25th, 1993

Alaina’s POV:

        The SECOND I had closed the door and watched Benny make his way down the sidewalk, I grabbed his flannel from the chair at the kitchen island and practically sprinted to my room. I shakily grabbed the phone, punching in Dani’s number. She answered within the second ring.

        “Hey! How’d it–”

        “DANI! HE GAVE ME HIS FLANNEL!” I shout into the phone, laying on my bed and kicking my shoes off. Dani screamed back just as loud.

        “HE DID??”
        “YES! He let me keep it, too!”

        “HE DID?”
        “YEAH!!”

        Dani and I had debriefed the whole situation for about an hour. The polaroid, how she fell flat on her face and how I was practically fighting demons, the orange juice spilling on me, Benny giving me his flannel, Benny letting me KEEP his flannel, Benny practically HUGGING me, etc. Literally every. Little. Detail. 

        By now, I was giggling and kicking my feet as I twirled the wire on the landline.

        “Ugh, I love this! It’s like my own little romance sitcom,” Dani giggles. Whatever keeps her entertained, I guess. That’s when it hit me.

        “Oh my gosh, Dani, he told me to call him. What am I supposed to say??”

        “Oh! Oh! Ask him to play baseball!-- Just you two.”

        “Baseball? So just tossing the ball back and forth, like catch?” I ask, a slight cringe evident on my face.

        “Yeah! You guys can talk while you do that, and stuff.”

        “I don’t know. I mean, maybe? It just seems awkward. What if there’s nothing to talk about?”

        “Trust me, if he really likes you, then he’ll find something to talk about,” Dani explains, and I can’t help but think she’s right.

        “I guess you have a point. When should I call him? It’s only, what, like eleven?”

        “Maybe around 4. You guys just hung out. And plus, there’ll be more shade so your not burning.”

        “Okay, thanks, Dani. I’ll call you later. Love you.”

        “Love you too.”

        And we hung up.

Chapter Text

JUNE 25th, 1993

Benny’s POV:

        I opened the front door to my house, being met with my mom who was wearing a huge grin on her face. “Hey… Mom.” I say slowly, confusion ringing in my voice.

        “Come, come. Sit,” she goes, standing across from me at the kitchen island. I slip into the chair, adjusting my collar. Is it hot in here?

        “How was your date?” she asks, her chin resting on her hand.

        “My what?” I stutter out, my eyes widening a little as my head leans in a few centimeters.

        “Your date, baby! How was it? Who was it?” she asks. How did she know? I don’t remember telling her.

        “How did you know? I mean– not that I was trying to keep it a secret– Mom?” I hesitate.

        “You’re not all that secretive, Benjamin. The cologne, no hat, brushing your teeth in the middle of the day. I saw you put my lip balm on, too–”

        “Okay, okay. You got me. It wasn’t a date , though!”

        She gives me this look, one that screams, “ oh, sureee.”

        “Well– I don’t know! Maybe? Does she think it was a date?”

        “Oh, for sure. Trust me.” I ran my hand through my hair, jumping out of my seat and pacing the kitchen before my mom grabbed me by the shoulders.

        “Benjamin, did you pay?” she asks, something that almost sounds life fear evident in her voice as if she would be hunted and killed if I didn’t answer correctly. Like it’s her life’s mission.

        “Yes..?” I go, my face cringing at her tight grip on my shoulders.

        “ Benjamin Franklin Rodriguez, did you pay?”

        “Yes, Mom!” I plead, and she finally releases my shoulders from her death grip. I mean, I didn’t technically pay since we got it for free, but if we had to pay, then yes, I would’ve.

        “Good. I raised you right,” she mumbles under her breath, and I’m wondering what it would’ve been like if I said no. Do I wanna know?

        A switch suddenly flips in my mom when she goes back to her smiley, giggly self. “So, what’s her name?”

        “Alaina…”

        “Alaina? Alaina what?”

        “Alaina Vaughn.”

        “That’s it? You don’t know her middle name?” Is she serious?

        “Mom! I don’t know her that well yet!”
        “Well it’s gonna stay like that if you don’t try! What else do you know about her?”

        “Well… her birthday is… July 16th, making her 14. She’s 5’1, but to be fair, I think she’s a bit shorter. She has brown curly hair, and she’s kind of tan. It depends how you’d define tan. She’s an only child. She babysits, smells kind of like vanilla, she likes magazines, pretty sure she’s obsessed with Ralph Macchio, stuff like that.”

        My mom looks like she wants to cry.

        “You remembered all of that?” she goes, her hands coming up to her mouth.

        “Yeah..? What?”

        “Benjamin, that’s so sweet! I would’ve cried if a guy treated me that way.”
        “What about Dad?”

        “I’m talking about when I was your age!”

        “Do you have a photo?” she asks, and I shake my head. “You gotta let me meet her some day, sweetie.”

        “Yeah… I don’t know. You might scare her away,” I say, only half joking. She smacks my arm.

        “Ow!”

JUNE 25th, 1993– 4:00PM

Alaina’s POV:

        I had been staring at the clock for a good five minutes before anxiously picking up the phone, dialing Benny’s number. I leaned against the wall, picking at the skin on my lips.

        The ringing stopped and a woman’s voice could be heard on the other line.

        “Hello?”

        “Um, hi! Is Benny there?” I ask, squeezing my eyes shut. Gosh, this was so embarrassing for literally no reason.

        “Oh! Sure thing, hun,” the voice goes. As I’m waiting, I hear in a teasing tone, “BENJAMIN! Your girlfriend’s calling you!”

        I hear stumbling in the background, which eventually led to a loud thud. I hear an out of breath Benny on the other line. “Hey!”

        “Hey… you okay?”

        “Of course! Why?”

        “No reason… uh, do you maybe wanna hang out? I don’t know, play… catch? ” I hesitate, cringing at my own words. Play catch? What am I, eight? I sink down, crouching on the floor.

        “Yeah! Your house?--”

        “No!” I shout, a little too quickly. “Sandlot?”

        “Can’t, everyone’s already playing there. Is my house okay?”

        “Yeah! Sounds good. I’ll head over right now,” I say, standing up from my crouching position.

        “Okay, see you.”

        “Bye.”

        I hung up the phone before shakily stumbling to my room, grabbing my glove from under the bed. I open my mom’s bedroom door, going, “Can I go to a friend's house for a bit? We’re gonna watch a movie,” while hiding the glove behind my back. My mom looks up from her book, smiling as she nods at me. “Be home by 9, okay?”

        And I was gone.

        I walked down the block to Benny’s house, not seeing him anywhere. I just realized that I don’t even know where he lives. As my eyes travel from house to house, I hear,

        “Over here, sweetheart!”

        My eyes look up to meet what seems to be Benny’s mom. I smile, walking over and walking up the driveway. She pulls me into a hug, and over her shoulder I can see Benny crouching on the porch with his face in his hands. This is just as awkward for you as it is for me, Benny.

        “Hi sweetheart! I’m Benjamin’s mom.”

        “Hi! Mrs… Rodriguez.”

        “Oh! Call me Nancy. What’s your name, sweetheart?” she asks, pulling me away from the tight hug so she can see my face. “Alaina…”

        “Alaina?”

        “Oh, Alaina Vaughn,” I go, forcing a smile on my face.

        “You don’t have a middle name?” Why does she need to know??

        “No, I do.”

        “Well?”
        “Oh, um, Lee.”

        “Oh, adorable! Have fun, you two!” she goes before skipping off into the house, shutting the door behind her. Benny stands up from the porch, walking over to me. He takes my hands, looking into my eyes. “I am so sorry.”

        I can’t help but laugh. “She seems nice! Just… a bit too excited. She likes the name sweetheart a little too much.”

        “Oh, trust me, I know. C’mon, let's start.”

        I nod, going to the other side of the lawn as I slip my glove on. Right as Benny tosses me the ball, I see his mom’s face in the corner of the window. “Uh, Benny?”

        “Yeah?”

        “Your mom is looking at us through the window…”

        Right as Benny’s head snapped to look at the window, Mrs. Rodriguez’s face disappeared. “Sorry, she’s kinda… yeah.”

        “So, Lee?” he says, referring to my middle name.

        “Oh, yeah. Kinda random that your mom asked me that, though.”

        “Yeah, she’s just excited.” Excited?

        “Why?”

        “Well… I don’t really talk to girls too often.”

        “Why, they scared of you?” I tease, which makes him laugh.

        “I hope not. I just… I don’t know. My mom says that I play baseball too much.”

        Too much is an understatement, Benny. I don’t say that out loud, though.

        We had been tossing the ball to each other for the past, what, 10 minutes? We were interrupted by the front door opening with Mrs. Rodriguez emerging from the darkness of the cool house. “Hey, kids! Why don’t you come inside for a bit? It’s getting hot.”

        Benny looks at me and I subtly shake my head, signaling that I don’t mind staying out for a bit longer. “No, we’re okay, Mom,” Benny says.

        “Benny, be nice! She looks like she’s about to pass out,” Mrs. Rodriguez says, looking at me with mock sympathy.

        “No, really, I–”

        And we were dragged inside.

        To be honest, I’m kind of scared of Benny’s mom. She seems nice– too nice. It’s freaking me out. “Benny, why don’t you get Alaina some water?” Mrs. Rodriguez asks in a sweet voice, taking my hand and bringing me to the living room. Benny disappeared into the kitchen, leaving me alone with Mrs. Rodriguez.

        She sits me down next to her, taking both of my hands in hers. “So, Alaina. What do you think about Benny, hm?”

        That caught me way off guard.

        “Oh, um, he’s nice, I guess.”

        “Tell me more! How was the date?”

        “The date..?”

        “The date! Today?”

        “Oh! Um, yeah, it was nice.” And that’s when Benny entered the room with a glass of ice water. Thank you, God.

        Benny places the ice water on the coffee table in front of me.

        “Oh! Let me leave you two alone. Have fun! And no funny business,” Mrs. Rodriguez says in a teasing tone, giggling as she leaves the room. I felt a sigh of relief slip past my lips as she left. Benny sits next to me, a concerned look on his face.

        “I’m so sorry, I don’t know why she’s like this. Are you okay?”

        “It’s fine. It isn’t your fault. She just kinda freaks me out, is all,” I admit. Benny seems to agree with me, nodding his head.

        “I got you some water,” he says, picking up the glass and handing it to me. I mutter a small, “thanks,” before bringing the glass up to my lips. I take a sip before lowering the glass, setting it down on the coffee table.

        “So, your house is nice,” I say, trying to make conversation after that rather awkward encounter with Benny’s mom. “What does your room look like? You’ve seen mine but I’ve never seen yours,” I say.

        “Thanks,” he says, a small smile growing on his lips. “Follow me,” he says, standing up and leading me down the hall. He opens the door, gesturing for me to walk in first. I was met with baseball trophies and posters everywhere. Am I even surprised?

        “I didn’t know you liked baseball,” I joke, sitting on the edge of his bed. He laughs, sitting next to me. “Is it what you expected?” he asks. I think to myself, my eyes scanning the room.

        “I guess, yeah. I didn’t know you were this obsessed, though,” I say, laughing. Benny laughs, though I can tell that he’s a bit embarrassed. He rubs the back of his neck, an awkward smile on his face.

        “Hah, yeah.”

        “I never said it was a bad thing. It’s cute.” So I actually didn’t mean to say that!!

JUNE 25th, 1993

Benny’s POV:

        This is too much. First, I’m pretty sure that Alaina is terrified of my mom. Second, Alaina’s literally in my room. Third, she called me cute. Wait, did she call me cute or my obsession with baseball cute?-- Whatever, it doesn’t matter. I lied. It does matter. Of course it matters!

        I turn my head the other way, pretending to look out the window as I try to stop myself from spiraling.

        “So… you know my middle name. What’s yours?” she asks, breaking my focus away from my thoughts– thankfully. I turn to look at her, face to face now.

        “Oh. Franklin.”

        “Franklin? It suits you. Benjamin Franklin Rodriguez,” she announces. That just makes me spiral even more.

        “And Alaina Lee Vaughn,” I reply, praying it’s not just me who’s going insane over this. She smiles, and I return the favor.

        Do I laugh or cry?

Chapter Text

JUNE 25th, 1993

Alaina’s POV:

        Benny leaves the room for not even a full minute and now his mom is showing me his baby photos. What have I ever done to deserve this?

        Don’t get me wrong, the photos are absolutely adorable. It’s the fact that his mom is starting to get too comfortable with me. “Oh, look at this one, sweetie! This was when he was, what, 10? So cute!” No, Nancy, the photo of Benny’s bare ass cheeks is not a sight I would like to see, thanks.

        I shifted my gaze to the wall, trying to distract myself from the fact that I had just seen Benny naked. Whether it was when he was younger or not, I’d rather not see that. My focus on the wall was broken away from the sound of the door creaking open. About time.

        “Oh, Benjamin! I was just showing Alaina here your baby photos! Look at this one–”

        It took a lot in me to not laugh at Benny’s face of agony and despair. “Mom…” he whines, flopping down next to me on the bed and covering his face with a pillow. “Hey! They aren’t that bad…” I say, trying to tug the pillow away from his tight grip.

        “Yes it isss…” he whimpers, looking up at me, his face tinged with embarrassment.

        “It could be worse. It could be you butt ass naked,” I whisper to him, which I think just makes it worse.

        “You saw that, didn’t you!” He groans, rolling over and burying his face in the comforter. “Nooo,” I say innocently, my hand gently rubbing his shoulder– trying to persuade him to roll over and look at me.

        Birds seemed to chirp and the sun shone brighter once Mrs. Rodriguez left the room. Kidding, but I’m not gonna lie and say that I wasn’t relieved. I heard the door click shut, the photo album of Benny left on the bed.

        “Is this an ongoing photo album?”

        “No, it’s an old one. I think it ended when I was… I don’t know, maybe 12?” Benny replies, sitting up. He reaches over my lap, grabbing the photo album, flipping through it. He stops on that same treacherous photo I saw earlier with his bare ass cheeks out. I can see the panicked expression on his face as he scurries to flip the page, only to be met with more naked photos.

        I laugh so hard that I feel the six-pack forming on my abs. “Shit!” Benny yells.

        “Stop laughinggg!” he whines, lightly smacking my knee as if that would do anything. Benny closes the photo album and shoves it underneath his bed, flopping back onto the mattress.

        “It’s not that bad. At least it was when you were younger. It could’ve been a lot worse if the photo was recent,” I explain, trying to make light of the situation.

        “It is recent!”
        “Benny, I don’t know if four years ago was recent,” I say, turning to see the embarrassed expression on his face.

        “I guess…”

        I turn my head away, trying to hide the growing smile on my lips. I can’t help but laugh at his defeated manner.

        “It’s not the end of the world, Benny,” I say, composing myself.

        “You’re just saying that…”

        “Stop whining.”

        “Benny, in all seriousness, can I see the photo album? Minus the naked pictures?” I say, a hint of teasing in my tone.

        “Yeah, yeah, real funny,” he replies, his voice monotone. I can tell that he’s only kidding, though. He sits up, grabbing the photo album and flipping the pages– scanning for photos that shouldn’t see the light of day before mindlessly flipping through the book.

        I peeked my head over his shoulder, the polaroid glued to the page reading, “Benny’s first kiss!” with Benny’s mom kissing his cheek when he was a baby. I hear Benny mumble out, “Oh man…” before flipping the page. I can’t help but snicker as each page just seems to get worse and worse.

        “Are you an only child?” I ask, changing the topic just to spite Benny. He nods, turning his head to look at me. “Oh, yeah. I am. I have a lot of cousins, though. Maybe you can meet them some day. I’m sure they’ll love you,” Benny says, a smile forming on his lips. I nod, my lips forming into a small grin. “I’d like that. I hope they’d like me– Nadia seemed to really like you. She might even have a crush on you,” I tease, lightly bumping his shoulder with mine.

        He laughs, shaking his head as he looks down at the photo album. “Nah, not true.”

        “It totally is true. It’s cute!”

        “Sorry to disappoint her, but that’s never gonna happen,” he says, his eyes now meeting mine.

        “Well don’t tell her that. She’ll start crying and then I’ll have to handle it,” I say, only half joking.

         “Well… hopefully she’ll be seeing a lot more of me around your house, right?” he asks, almost hesitantly. I can’t stop my grin from widening.

        “Yeah, I think so.”

        I almost seemed to be in a daze before my eyes were torn away from his at the sound of knocking on the window. We both turn our heads, seeing Yeah-Yeah  standing at the window.

JUNE 25th, 1993

Benny’s POV:

        I sigh softly, reluctantly standing up from my spot on the bed next to Alaina and dragging myself over to the window. I open the window, Yeah-Yeah’s eyes looking right past me. “Is that Alaina? Your lovergirl?” he teases, his voice a bit too loud for my liking.

        I lower my voice, leaning my head out the window. “What is it?”

        “Woah, Bennyman. Sorry to interrupt your fun. Where have you been? You said you’d join us after your date,” Yeah-Yeah says, confusion in his voice.

        “It wasn’t a date!” I whisper yell, turning my head back to see if Alaina had been paying attention. Her head was buried in the photo album, giggling as she flips through the embarrassing photos of my childhood. I turn my head back to Yeah-Yeah.

        “But anyway, I told Alaina to call me later and I didn’t wanna miss it.”

        “Man, why don’t you just ask her to come play with us? We need you. It’s no fun without you,” he explains, over exaggerating how ‘depressing’ it was without me.

        “I mean… I guess I can ask.?” I say, giving in to at least test my chances. “Wait here.”

        I walk back over to the bed, sitting next to Alaina once again. She lifts her head from the photo album, shutting it and placing it to the side. “Hey, Yeah-Yeah wants to know if you wanna join us for baseball. If you don’t want to, it’s totally fine. We can just stay here and watch a movie if you want,” I explain, turning my head for a slight second to see Yeah-Yeah’s face contorting into the face of a disappointed mother.

        I turn my head back to Alaina, her eyes staring down into her lap as she tries to make up her mind.

        “Maybe for a little, sure,” she says, her eyes coming back up to meet mine. 

        “Okay, great. You can borrow a glove, hold on,” I say, scurrying to my closet to see if I can find a glove that would fit her. I grab a few, laying them out on the bed. “You can try these, see if they fit.”

        She slips one of the gloves on, her hand being enveloped by the leather. “Okay, maybe not this one,” I mutter, grabbing the glove from off of her hand and slipping a new one on. “This one?” I ask.

        She shakes her head, taking the glove off and placing it on the bed. “Okay… this one?” I suggest, giving her another option. She slips it on, opening and closing her hand to see if it fits okay. “Yeah, this one’s alright,” she says, standing up from the bed. 

        “Are you sure? You can try on more, if you want,” I suggest. She shakes her head, smiling. “Don’t worry about it.”

        And so we left. Yeah-Yeah had ran way ahead of us, leaving just me and Alaina alone. “Do you know what time it is?” she asks, turning to look at me. “Uh… I think around 4:45. Don’t worry, we won’t play for that long if you don’t want to. What time do you have to be home?” I ask.

        “My mom said nine. We have a while,” she says, to which I nod.

        The walk to the sandlot was fairly short. When Alaina and I appeared from behind the bushes, I could see the group of boys I had claimed to have been ‘neglecting’ running over to us and yelling. Right as they had lunged at me, Alaina jumped to the side so she could avoid being tackled.

        Once the chaos had calmed down, I gently grabbed Alaina’s arm and pulled her to my side, my arm wrapping around her shoulder. “Alaina’s gonna join us,” I announced, lightly squeezing her shoulder. 

JUNE 25th, 1993

Alaina’s POV:

        This could either go really good or really bad.

Chapter Text

JUNE 25th, 1993

Benny’s POV:

        “How come she gets to pitch!” Kenny whines.

        “Because I said so. Here,” I say, tossing her the ball. Kenny grabs my arm, pulling me aside. “Seriously? You’re gonna let her take my spot?”

        “Just this once. Please? I’ll buy you food, or something,” I say, almost pleading with  him. A smirk forms onto his face, and I can tell that I’m already going to regret this. “Alright, sure,” he says, running off to left center.

        “Ready?” Alaina asks, to which I give her an encouraging nod. She pitched the ball and I almost had to duck. I miss the ball, Ham behind me catching it in his glove. He throws the ball back to Alaina, who pitches it again– and I miss, again. 

        “Benny, what’s up with you? You never suck this bad,” Ham says behind me, and I can tell that he’s just trying to distract me and get under my skin. He has a point, though. I really do suck right now.

        “Is it because of your darling lovergirl?” I hear Squints yell from first base. I ignore it, but Alaina seems to let out a small laugh at the comment. She pitches the ball again, and I actually seem to get my thoughts together and hit the ball. The ball goes straight back to Alaina, nearly hitting her in the face. She quickly ducks, falling flat on her butt.

        “Woah, are you trying to kill her?” Ham comments, snickering. I mutter a quiet ‘no…” before jogging over to her, grabbing her hands and helping her up. “You okay?” I ask, dusting off her shoulders. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just try not to aim directly at me next time, okay?” she says, only half joking. I nod, going back to my batting position.

        She pitches, and yet again, I miss. I’ve given up at this point. “Someone bat for me,” I announce in a disappointed tone, to which everyone runs over with their hands raised.

        I scan the crowd, noticing that everyone’s hands are raised besides Alaina’s. “Alaina, you bat.”

        “What?”

        “It’s your turn to bat.”

        “But I don’t want to.”

         Everyone turns their heads to Alaina, shocked expressions on their faces. Now they started tormenting Alaina about who gets to bat.

         “Uh… Yeah-Yeah, you bat,” she says, just picking the first hand she saw. Yeah-Yeah smirks, walking over to me and whispering, “Seems like your girlfriend likes me now!”

         My eyes squint at him, and I can’t help but cringe. “You’re barely taller than her!”

        “You’re not denying it!”

        I’m not even gonna bother arguing with him. Alaina walks over to third base, taking over Yeah-Yeah’s position. 

        (Disclaimer!!: If the positions or the playing are wrong, don’t judge me. I’ve never played baseball once in my life.  Same with the timeline– Sometimes I just wanna go at my own pace. I’m trying my best!!)

        Not long after we had begun the never-ending-game, I heard the familiar clicking of a bicycle chain. In came Phillips and the rest of his team. 

        “Are you kidding me?!” yelled Squints, which gathered everyone’s attention. We all gathered together in a circle as Phillips and his minions approached us. “Who’s that?” Alaina asks, turning to look at me. “Him?” I ask, pointing my bat towards Phillips. She nods.

        “Jordan Phillips.”
        “Oh, is he nice?” she asks, to which I immediately shake my head.

        “You don’t wanna be seen with garbage like that.”

        “Yeah, it’s easy when you play with a bunch of rejects and a fat kid, Rodriguez– and a girl?”

        “Shut your mouth, Phillips!” I defend, pointing my bat at him.

        “What’d you say, crap face?” Ham yells.

        “I said you shouldn’t even be allowed to touch a baseball,” Phillips says, that stupid smirk on his face. I didn’t even realize that I was holding Alaina’s arm until she left my side and stood next to Ham.

        “Except for Rodriguez, you’re all an insult to the game. Especially her,” Phillips says, referring to Alaina. I step up, but Kenny puts an arm in front of me. “Just wait,” he whispers to me, looking intently at Alaina.

        “Excuse me?” Alaina asks, and everyone goes silent. She kind of sounds like my mom when she’s mad. It’s kind of scary. Phillips gets off of his bike, inching towards Alaina. 

        “What’s a girl like you playing baseball with a bunch of geeks like them?” he asks, glancing at the group behind Alaina. He grabs her wrist, pulling her forward. Right as I take a step forward, Alaina grabs his shoulders and knees him in the nuts.

        A loud echo of gasps surrounds both groups of boys, as well as a groan from Phillps as he crumbles down to the dirt ground. I guess this seems to surprise Alaina as well, because she covers her mouth with her hands and steps back. I step forward, my hands on her shoulders as I stand behind her. “Good job!” I praise, a large grin on my face as I gently shake her shoulders.

         This collects a loud applause and cheer from the rest of our friends, all while Phillips’ teammates were crouched around him as he groaned like a baby. “I did not mean to do that,” Alaina says, looking up at me with a shocked expression. I can’t help but laugh, shaking my head.

        “Well I’m glad you did– we all are. Good job.”

        Phillips stands up, his knees bent inward as he squeaks out, “Tomorrow… noon, our field.” He waddles over to his bike, climbing on and awkwardly walking away. I hear one of his teammates say in a snarky voice, “Way to go, Jordan…” which elicits a laugh from Alaina.

JUNE 26th, 1993– 11:53AM

Alaina’s POV: 

        “Alaina, why don’t you be a catcher instead?” Ham suggests, my head turning to look at him with a confused expression. “Why?” I ask.

        “So you can distract them. When they’re up to bat, just say something mean. You’re a girl, right?” He asks, to which I look down at my chest and sarcastically say, “I think so,” before looking back up at him. “You know what I mean. You girls are mean– well, not you– just get under his skin. You’re good at insulting. I think. Okay?”

        I just nod my head, not entirely wanting to know what he meant. Do I seem mean?

        I was squatted near one of the guys on Phillips’ team, announcing insults or just random things to distract them at every pitch.

        “I’m not wearing a bra,” I announce, making the batter look down at me right as I catch the ball in my glove. “Seriously? Are you that gullible?” I ask, throwing the ball back to the pitcher.

        “I’m not wearing any underwear, either,” I state, to which he looks at me again. “Really? Again? Embarrassing..” I say, muttering the last part under my breath. I toss the ball back to the pitcher, and the comments and insults go on.

        “Is that your sister in left field? Naked?” Now that really seemed to bother him.

        “Would you shut up?” the boy yells, turning to face me.

        “Hey, hey! I’m just trying to have a friendly conversation here,” I say, my tone light.

        “Think she’d go out with me?” Ι say after a long pause.

        It was eventually time for me to bat, which made me a lot more nervous than I would’ve liked, since it was game point. Kenny looks at me, giving me a subtle nod. I can only hope that means that he won’t aim for my eye this time. I nod back, and he pitches me the ball. I hit it pretty far, but I guess it wasn’t far enough because now I’m running back and forth between third base and home as the two boys throw the ball back and forth.

        I make a run for it, sliding to the home plate– having to go underneath some random boys’ legs. Fortunately, I made it just in time. I could hear overlapping voices along with loud clapping and cheering. I looked up and saw the crowd of boys practically stampede over to me.

        One of them grabs my hands and helps me up, cheering as the other boys on Phillips’ team just moped around with their heads facing the ground. I feel a familiar pair of hands on my shoulders from behind me, shaking me back and forth. His head leans over my shoulder, looking down at me as I look right back up.

        “That was amazing!” he says, a large grin on his face. I was torn away from my gaze as I felt a pair of arms lunge at me. What the hell?

JUNE 26th, 1993

Benny’s POV:

        I looked down and saw Yeah-Yeah lunge at Alaina, his arms around her waist as he rested his head on her shoulder. He looked up at me, making a weird face and mouthing, “I beat you!”

        I knew that he was just doing this to make me jealous. And as much as I hate to say it, it’s working. I grab his arm, trying to tug him away from Alaina’s arms. He doesn’t budge, only holding onto her tighter. “Yeah-Yeah, get off me,” she says, trying to push him off.

        “I’m just so proud of you!” he exclaims, still wearing that stupid shit-eating-grin on his lips.

        “Hey, knock it off,” I say, my tone a bit more stern. He only lets go when Kenny drags him away by the arm. I grab Alaina’s shoulders, gently turning her around to face me.

        “You okay?” Ι ask, my tone sympathetic.

        “Yeah, it’s fine,” she says, taking my hands that were on her shoulders and subtly just brushing them off. I can’t help but feel disappointed– nor can I help wondering if maybe it meant something more. I haven’t been overly touchy with her at all. Is she starting to get uncomfortable?

        “Do you not want me to touch you?” I hesitantly ask, to which she almost immediately shakes her head.

        “No, I don’t mind when you touch me. I like it– well, okay, that sounds weird, but you know what I mean,” she says, laughing. I smile, lightly squeezing her arm.

        “Well I like when you touch me, too,” I say, and now I know what she meant when she said that it sounds weird out loud. She laughs, and I can’t help but do the same. I would say that we were having a moment– okay, nevermind, that sounds weird too. Anyway, we were torn away from our conversation by Phillips walking over, giving Alaina puppy eyes as he asks in a soft voice, “Um, I’m sorry, but could you just give us a moment?” he asks, to which I just look at Alaina. She nods, and when I turn to look at Phillips, he’s giving me a disgusted look.

JUNE 26th, 1993

Alaina’s POV:

        As soon as Benny left and walked a few feet away, Jordan, or who the others call ‘Phillips’, took his hat off and grabbed my hands, looking up at me through his eyelashes. “Oh– please don–”

        “Alaina, you gotta stay away from Benny. You don’t know what he’s like.”

        “How do you know my n–”

        “Well– like I was saying, you don’t wanna be with someone like him. He’s heartless,” he says, glancing over to Benny. My gaze follows his, turning my head to see Benny with his arms crossed, sticking his tongue out at Jordan. As soon as he sees me turn my head, his expression turns into a warm smile as he waves at me. I can’t stop the smile from growing on my lips as I wave back. How could you call someone like that heartless? That could go two different ways.

        I tear my hands away from his, crossing my arms as I turn to look back at him. “So? What’s the point of this? You’re just making useless conversation,” I say, starting to get a bit annoyed.

        Just on time, Benny had grabbed my arm and pulled me away from Jordan without a word. I didn’t fight it.

        Right as we were about to leave the field, I stopped. Benny turned to look at me, confusion on his face. “What?” he asks.

        I may have gotten either the best or worst idea. “Follow me,” I say, grabbing his arm and walking to the pile of bikes that were leaning against the wall of the restrooms. I looked around, making sure that it was just us.

        “Alaina, what’re you doing?” Benny asks, also looking at our surroundings. I take one of my earrings out, bending down and putting it up against one of the tires on the several bikes. “Alaina…” he says, almost like a disappointed mom.

        “C’mon, you know you wanna do it too,” I say, looking up at him with a smile. He looks around for a second before kneeling next to me. “You’re right, I do. Give me an earring,” he says, holding his hand out. I take my other earring out and drop it into his hand, already getting to work by pushing the pointy end into the rubber tires.

        We had gotten through a few pairs of bicycles before we heard footsteps leaving the bathroom. I heard Benny mumble, “oh shit…” before handing me back my earring. The end of it was bent, as he had probably pulled it out of the tire too fast or in a weird direction. He looks at me with sympathy, the residue of rubber left on the ends. “It’s fine, let’s go,” I say, standing up.

        Right as we stood up, we heard one of Phillips’ teammates yell, “Hey!”

        “Shit, go,” Benny says, grabbing my hand. I had stood up too fast, the blood rushing to my head as I fell flat on my butt. Benny laughs, grabbing my arms and pulling me up and beginning to run. All I saw was spots for the next few seconds.

Chapter Text

JUNE 26th, 1993

Benny’s POV:

        We were all sitting at the dugout, just processing the win from just a few moments ago. That’s when I announced, “Hey, why don’t we go to the fair tonight? To celebrate,” I say, setting my coke on the dusty ground below me. Everyone agrees, echoes of, “yeah, sounds fun,” and, “what time?”

        “Why don’t we go at 7:30? It’ll have cooled down by then,” I suggest, turning to Alaina to get her input. She looks up from her drink, confusion on her face.              “What?”

        “Is that okay with you?” I ask.

        “Yeah, sounds good.”

        Kenny gives me this look, to which I mouth, “What?”

        He just smiles, shaking his head and turning the other way. I turn back to Alaina, putting a hand on her shoulder. “I’ll pick you up at 7:15, okay?” I say, to which she nods. “Oh, thanks,” she replies, smiling as she goes back to attempting to crack open her coke.

        “You really can’t do it? Give me that,” I say, taking the bottle from her hands. I put the bottle under the bench, bending it slightly as I hear the bottle cap pop off. I take a sip, forgetting that this was her drink and not mine. “Really?” she says, pretending to be annoyed. I realize what I’ve just done, wiping the rim of the bottle that I’ve just put my lips on and handing it to her. 

        She laughs, taking the bottle and bringing it up to her lips. I don’t know why, but that simple action was a lot more attractive than it should’ve been. 

JUNE 26th, 1993– 7:09PM

Alaina’s POV:

        After the big game with the ‘Tigers,’ well, that’s what Jordan said his team was called. Anywho, after the big game, we decided to all go home and just relax until it was time to go to the fair. This is how that dreaded conversation went.

        “Yeah, I’m gonna head home. My mom probably won’t let me go until I clean my room,” Scotty said, standing up from the bench. Benny looked at him, a look of what seemed like betrayal on his face. “You’re leaving? It’s only what, one? C’mon!”

        “Benny, c’mon, man. Just go hang out with Alaina or something. Everyone else is leaving, too,” Kenny says, gesturing to everyone else with his glove. I grabbed Benny’s arm, standing up. “C’mon, it’s just for a bit. Watch TV, or something,” I say. Benny doesn’t seem to hesitate in standing up and grabbing his glove.

        “Yeah, sounds good. Bye, guys,” he says, waving. A look of confusion washes over everyone's faces. They all look at me for an answer, but I don’t even know what that was about. I just shrug my shoulders and walk next to Benny.

        I stood in the entryway to my house, looking in the mirror to make sure my hair looked good. My parents asked if I was going with a friend, to which I said yes. I already told them that this said friend was picking me up, so I couldn’t lie and say it was Dani. I’m sure that Dani would’ve just come to my door and picked me up before sending me off to meet Benny, but the problem with that is that Dani is stuck at home babysitting for the night. Maybe I’ll go to the fair with her next when she’s free.

        Anywho, this is actually sort of good. If you think about it, my mom doesn’t know that Benny was the one who broke the kitchen window. Hopefully this will help him be less afraid of my mom.

        “So, who’s your little friend?” my mom asks, coming around the corner with a big smile on her face. I turn to face her, clipping my earrings on. “His name is Benny,” I say, to which her eyes widen a bit.

        “Oh, it’s a he? ” she asks in a surprised voice, which makes me a bit offended.

        “Yeah..?” I say, almost hesitating. “Is that okay?”

        “Oh! Of course! Can we meet him?” she asks, a desperate look on her face as she clasps her hands together. I nod, fluffing up my hair a bit. My mom calls my dad to the room, a huge grin on her face. Oh gosh.

        “John! Alaina’s got a date!” my mom announces cheerfully.

        “What?”

        “Mom!”

        Thankfully, Benny had just rang the doorbell. I give my parents this desperate look, silently pleading with them to not embarrass me. I open the door, and it seems like Benny cleaned up pretty well. He ditched the hat and flannel look and was wearing these slacks, a shirt, and a jacket over it. (search up the carnival scene if you don’t know what i’m talking about bc idk how to describe his outfit haha)

        My mom’s eyes brighten up. “Come in, come in!” she coaxes, waving her hands. I give Benny a sympathetic look and mouth the words, “I’m sorry.”

        Benny steps inside, putting a smile on his face. Smile through the pain, Benny. “Oh! I’m Benny, nice to meet you, Mrs. Vaughn,” he says, holding his hand out for my mom to shake. She takes his hand in hers, giving him a firm handshake despite the large grin she’s wearing. I’m surprised that she’s not bouncing off the walls.

        Benny turns to my dad and does the same, holding his hand out. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Vaughn,” Benny says, to which my dad lets out a quiet grunt as he shakes Benny’s hand. My dad seems a bit skeptical.

        “Oh! Benny plays baseball, by the way,” I point out matter-of-factly. My dads eyes lighten up as he crosses his arms, a smile forming on his lips. “Oh really?”

        After that dreaded conversation, I fear it only got worse. Right as Benny and I were about to head out, my mom says, “Oh, just one picture! Please?” she says, already clutching the camera in her hands. “Quickly,” I say, standing in front of the door. Benny stands next to me, wrapping his arm around my shoulder. My mom gets closer, practically smushing us together. “Come on, get closer!”

        Benny hesitantly moves his hand to my waist, giving me a small squeeze. I smile, and he does the same. I put my arm around his waist, resting my hand on the small of his back. My mom snaps a few photos before shooing us away with her hand. “Go have fun!!” she says, practically shoving us out the door. I couldn’t be happier to be out of that house right now.

        Once we were out the door, I faced Benny to say, “See? My mom isn’t that scary,” to which he just gives me this funny look. “If that wasn’t scary then I don’t know what is,” he says, laughing through the pain.

        “She was just excited,” I explained. “She didn’t know that I was going with a boy. She thinks it’s a date.” He turns to look at me, a slightly confused expression on his face.

        “This isn’t a date?”

        Now that made me pause. I turn to look at him, confusion now evident on my face. “Is it?” I ask, to which he takes a moment to what seemed like collect his thoughts. “I don’t know… I guess it’s not really a date if everyone else is going too, huh?” he says, laughing. I guess he has a point.

        This whole conversation really got me thinking, though. If he thought that this was a date, did he also think that going to the diner was a date? Do I even think it’s a date? To be honest, when I’m with him, I don’t feel the need to worry about those kinds of things. Does that make sense? I don’t know, I guess what I’m trying to say is that when I’m around him, I don’t really feel the need to worry.

        I hesitate for a moment, my mouth open but no words coming out. I wish I could say that I brought myself to spit out, ‘Do you want it to be a date?’ , but I didn’t. I just kept my mouth shut. Like I always do.

        “What about my dad? Does he scare you?” I ask Benny, switching the subject to avoid the awkwardness that I’m pretty sure I created. Benny lets out a soft sigh, thinking of his answer.

        “I mean… at first, for sure, I thought I would die right then and there,” he says, eliciting a laugh from me. “But after you told him that I played baseball, it wasn’t so bad. Think he likes me?” he asks, his tone slightly teasing.

        “Yeah, I think so. I know that my mom already loves you. Be aware if she asks you to stay for dinner one night,” I say, my tone only half joking.

        “That doesn’t sound so bad,” he says, seeming to be actually considering the idea. Oh, Benny. You don’t know what you’re getting yourself into.

        “Trust me, you don’t wanna do that. I’m not saying that I wouldn’t want you over, it’s just that my mom can be a lot. She’ll be asking you a bunch of weird questions,” I say, almost shivering at the thought. Benny looks at me like I’ve grown two heads.

        “Hey, you survived my mom’s endless questions. Well, for now. Anyway, it’s only fair,” he explains. You do you, I guess.

        When we arrived at the fair, we saw the rest of the group in a bunch in front of the gates. Squints throws up his arms, groaning out, “Finally! Let’s go already!”

        When we made it to the ticket stand, Benny stepped up and announced that he would pay for everyone. As he was grabbing his wallet, I leaned against the metal gate that was the entrance to the fair. As my eyes wandered over the hundreds of people in the crowd, my eyes landed on a familiar face. Jordan Phillips. With… a girl?

        Hey, not that I necessarily give a shit about who Jordan is going out with, but did he or did he not literally just ask me out hours before? Should I tell that girl or is it none of my business?

        I was snapped out of my thoughts by Benny laying his hand on my shoulder. Everyone else had run off to go on the rides, leaving Benny alone with me. “You okay?” he asks, my eyes travelling to meet his. “Yeah…” I say after a moment.

        “You sure?”

        “Yeah, I’m sure,” I say, standing up straight.

        “Want me to hold onto your bracelet?” he asks, to which I shake my head. My eyes had travelled back to Jordan and that girl as I had absentmindedly grabbed the paper bracelet from Benny and attempted, but failed, to put it on by myself. Benny grabs the paper, wrapping it around my wrist and connecting the sticky part to the paper.

         I decided to brush it off for now. Maybe I’ll say something later.

        “Hey, let’s go on some rides, ‘kay? How about this one?” Benny says, pointing towards one of the many rides. I guess I should’ve been paying better attention because now I was going up 90 degrees for what seemed like forever.

        “Benny, what kind of ride is this?” I ask, my voice a bit shaky as I tightly squeeze my eyes shut to avoid looking down. “It’s fun, right?” Benny says, turning to look at me. His voice softens, going, “What’s wrong? Are you scared of heights?”

         “Not really, I just didn’t know that this ride went 90 degrees up!”

        “Oh… do you wanna get off?” Oh please, as if it wasn’t already too late. I was torn away from my thoughts by the ride going straight down. No curve or warning. Just straight down. My hand fiddled off of the metal handle, grabbing Benny’s hand in a death grip. I was so terrified that the sound of screaming wouldn’t even leave my mouth.

        Just as I thought it couldn’t get any worse, I opened my eyes just to be met with a loop right in front of me. Why did we have to be in the very front?

JUNE 26th, 1993

Benny’s POV:

        As soon as we got off the ride, Alaina wobbly walked down the metal steps and leaned against the metal railing. I helped her onto the ground, my hold gentle on her arm. “Are you okay?” I ask, my hand on her shoulder.

        “C’mon, look at me,” I say, softly coaxing her to look up at me. She hesitantly looks up at me, her eyes red and lip slightly quivering. Oh man.

        “Oh, don’t cry,” I say, feeling her arms shakily wrap around my waist. She breaks out into a sob, her head on my chest. Now I know that now isn’t the time at all, but this is the first time she’s hugged me. Do I wish it was in this circumstance? No, but hey, a win is a win, I guess.

        “Why’re you crying? The ride’s already over,” I say, trying to bring her tears to an end. We just got here and I already made her upset. Her head was tucked under my chin as one of my hands rested on the back of her head, the other rubbing her back gently.

        “Do you wanna go home?” I ask, to which she shakes her head no.

        “Do you want food?” I propose, and she nods her head. We’re getting somewhere.

Chapter Text

JUNE 26th, 1993

Benny’s POV:

        I told Alaina to wait at a picnic table while I went to pay for her fries. When I returned, she seemed to have calmed down a bit. She was no longer crying, which was good. I sat down next to her, handing her the small plate of fries and a coke. She mutters a quiet, “thank you,” before shoving a fry into her mouth. I reach over, my hand gently patting her back.

        “You’re fine. It wasn’t that bad,” I say, which probably wasn’t a good idea because now she’s glaring at me with her mascara-smudged eyes. “Sorry,” I mutter, turning to look the other way.

        I turn back to look at her, going, “hey, look at me real quick?”

        She turns to look at me, to which I go, “Can I?”

        She doesn’t seem to understand what I’m asking, but she nods her head anyway. I reach my hand up to gently wipe the mascara away from her bottom lashes– a result of her tears from earlier. “Did it smudge?” she asks, looking up at me. Damnit, don’t look at me while I’m doing it!

        I stumble over my words for a second before ultimately deciding to just nod my head. “Is it bad?” she asks, to which I immediately shake my head. “Not at all. It was just a little bit. You still look beautiful, though,” I say absentmindedly. She smiles, turning her head the other way as she munches on her food.

        Did I just score??

        After Alaina had finished her food, we decided to look around for more rides that wouldn’t, in her words, ‘give her a heart attack.’ We walked around, and from the corner of my eye, I saw Phillips with some girl, doing what I guess you could call ‘flirting.’ I tap Alaina on her shoulder, pointing to the pair.

        Her expression was puzzled as her eyebrows furrowed. “What?” I ask, curious as to why she even cares. “He was with a different girl earlier,” she says, looking up at me.

        “Should we say something?” I ask, taking a quick glance at Phillips and that girl before turning back to Alaina. She shakes her head, going, “No, let’s wait for a bit. Trust me.” Now I hope this doesn’t sound wrong or anything, but she’s a girl and I’m assuming she knows a lot about this. I hope that makes sense.

        We decided to put it off for now and go find some more rides like we had originally planned. She pointed to a different roller coaster, and I couldn’t help but ask, “Are you sure?”

        After what happened last time, I’m not taking any risks.

        The ride was the kind that went all the way up, eerily slow, and then would drop straight down. Whatever she wants, I guess. “Don’t complain when you get scared, though,” I warn in a teasing tone.

        “I won’t get scared,” she says, giving me this funny look.

        And what did she do? Get scared.

        “I wanna get offfff…” she whines, her grip on my hand like steel. “It’s too late, Alaina,” I say, laughing as I turn to look at her– her eyes squeezed shut. We were slowly ascending all the way to the top, almost there. She opens her eyes, looking down before crying out again, “Bennyyy… why do you enjoy torturing me?”

        I can’t help but laugh, explaining that this whole thing was her idea. Right before she could let out another word, the ride stopped for a moment before the speaker announced in a cheerful tone, “You are now 95 feet in the air!” which just makes Alaina cry even more. I can’t tell if she’s actually crying or just whining.         “Hey, it–”

        Right before I could even get my sentence out, the ride dropped straight down with no warning. 

JUNE 26th, 1993

Alaina’s POV:

        I feel like I’m experiencing deja vu. My legs wobbled slightly as I stepped down the flimsy wooden steps, landing on the grass below me. Benny grabs my arm, gently pulling me aside so as to not block the stairs. “Are you okay?” he asks, concern washing over his expression. I nod, smiling.

        “Yeah, that one was pretty fun,” I say, glancing up at the ride as more people in line stepped up. He looks at me with a confused expression, saying, “But you were freaking out a minute ago.”

        “Well, yeah, but it’s fine now.”

        “What about that other ride?”

        “That’s different,” I explain. “That one was horrifying and whoever made it needs jail time.”

        As time went on, we went on various different rides, bumping into some of the other boys as we went along. We saw Yeah-Yeah and Squints freaking out on the ferris wheel. The ferris wheel.  

        As it started getting darker and the sun was barely visible above the horizon, we decided to go on the ferris wheel for a nice view. As we stepped up and got into the cart, we saw a few fireworks go off. “This should be a nice view,” I say, a smile already growing on my face at the thought. The ferris wheel was pretty high, but I guess that meant that it was better for the view.

        As we ascended up, we eventually had to stop at the very top so more people could board the ride. Right as I was mid sentence, the loud boom of a firework was heard above us. I looked up, pointing at the large red firework. “They’re doing fireworks a bit early this year, aren’t they? The fourth isn’t for another week, right?” I say, turning to look at Benny.

        “Yeah, it’s next Sunday. Perfect timing, I guess,” he says, smiling at me.

        It was taking a lot longer than I would’ve thought. I looked down at the people below us, seeing some random girl arguing with her boyfriend– well, who I assumed to be her boyfriend. I then heard a familiar voice.

        “Oh my gosh, Benny, it’s Jordan!” I say, laughing. He looks over the edge, laughing as he sees the girl pour her milkshake all over Jordan.

        “Oh, c’mon, Wedny– I mean Claire!”

        “My name’s Charlotte, Jordan!”

        “Poor girl,” I say, turning to look at Benny. “I’d hate it if that was me,” I say, turning to look over the edge again. “You don’t have to worry,” Benny says, turning to look at me now. My gaze shifted onto him, my expression a bit confused. “What’s that mean?” I ask.

        “Don’t worry about it,” he replies. Well now I’m curious– but I decided to just ignore it for now.

        I’m just now realizing how cramped we are in here. My knees are touching his, almost to the point where my knee is between his legs. “I can’t believe that Yeah-Yeah and Squints were scared of this thing. It isn’t even that bad,” I explain. Benny nods his head, agreeing with me.

        “Yeah, it’s just a bit cramped,” he explains.

        “Oh, tell me about it.”

        “I don’t mind. That just gives me an excuse to be close to you,” he says in a soft voice. I’ve never heard that tone before. What am I supposed to do now?

        I just smile, looking up at the array of fireworks.

        I genuinely do not know what to do, especially after that comment he made. Am I supposed to kiss him? Hug him? I don’t know! I’ve never kissed anyone before!

        This whole thing is really starting to mess with my head.

JUNE 26th, 1993

Benny’s POV:

        The second I stepped into the cart, my heart was racing. Not because I was scared of heights, though.

        Okay, am I supposed to do it now? That’s what my mom said to do…

        Yeah, I don’t know if listening to my mom’s advice about talking to girls was the best idea. But I did it anyway, and looking back now, I’m so incredibly grateful that I did.

        I bit down on my bottom lip, running my hands over my knees as I tried to get rid of the excess sweat. My lips were dry, palms sweaty, you name it. I ran my tongue over my lips before opening my mouth to say something, yet no words came out.

        It took a while before I brought myself to say her name. Alaina turns to look at me, going, “Yeah?”

        Please don’t make this harder for me.

        It was too late to back out now. I don’t think I’ve ever been this nervous, not once. My breath was shaky, and I could feel my ears getting warm. Alaina looks a bit concerned, which brings me to spit out the words I had been bringing myself to say for the past month.

        “Can I kiss you?”

Chapter Text

JUNE 26th, 1993

Benny’s POV:

        “Can I kiss you?”

        Alaina just stares blankly at me for what seemed like an eternity. My heart was beating so fast that I’m pretty sure she could hear it too. Right as I was about to open my mouth to say her name, she brought her hands up to my cheeks and pressed her lips against mine. No warning, no, ‘yes, you can kiss me,’ nothing.

        I brought my shaky hands up to her waist, turning my head slightly. I felt her lips pull away from mine, and I had to try to mask my disappointment. The second we make eye contact, she covers her face, her elbows resting on her knees. “Ah, that was so embarrassing!” she whines, and I could see her ears tinted red at the tips.

        “Did I do it wrong?” I ask, my voice tinged with worry and a bit of fear.

        “How would I know?” she replies, laughing as she sits up to look at me. I was snapped out of my trance by hearing a loud scream. I turn to look down, seeing Ham and Kenny in the cart below us. Did they see us?

        Just then, Kenny covers Ham’s mouth with a loud slap. I’m in for a rough day tomorrow, I can tell you that.

        I try to recover from that embarrassing moment, discarding the memory into the back of my head. What am I supposed to say now? My mom didn’t prepare me for this part…

        “So… what now?”

        Real smooth, Benjamin.

        She pauses, fiddling with the charm dangling from her bracelet.  “Well… I want to kiss you again. Maybe tomorrow, too. And the next day. Oh my gosh…” she says, breathing out a laugh as she turns to look out at the fireworks again– and I’m hoping that she’s too distracted to notice the red on my face.

        I can’t help but feel a huge wave of relief that we were both thinking the same thing.

        “I mean…” she begins, turning to look at me again. “What do you want?”

        What do I want? Haven’t I made that clear by now? “I mean– I like you. I’ve liked you.”

JUNE 26th, 1993

Alaina’s POV:

        Oh.

        Wait– oh??

        “Yeah, I’ve liked you too,” I reply, trying to ignore the fact that my legs are bouncing up and down like crazy.

JUNE 26th, 1993

Benny’s POV:

        Oh, okay.

        OH??

        “Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool… so, uh. Are we together, or? I mean– can I be your boyfriend, or is that too?--”

        “Yes, Benny, you can be my boyfriend,” she says, cutting me off before I embarrass myself even more. “Can we maybe take it slow, though? I’m not ready to do anything else…” she explains, and I can’t help but panic a bit. Does she really think that I would make her do anything that she doesn’t want to?

        “Oh, yeah, of course. Don’t worry.”

        It took me a moment to realize that we were now back on the ground. To be honest, my mind kinda blanked out after all that. I mean, can you blame me? Suddenly, the bright lights on all of the games and rides seemed to shine brighter. The smell of popcorn was more distinct now, and suddenly, I was a bit more aware of my surroundings.

        “Hey, I’m gonna go to the bathroom, okay? Can you wait here?” I say, my hand on her shoulder. She nods, a smile forming on her face. Hopefully I can regain my composure.

JUNE 26th, 1993

Alaina’s POV:

        To say that I was happy was an understatement. My face was starting to hurt at this point because I was smiling so much. As Benny went to use the bathroom, I sat down on a bench off to the side. The second I sat down, I could practically smell Jordan from behind me as he walked up to the bench. He still smelled like strawberry milkshake from when that girl dumped it on him.

        “Hey, Alaina. Where’s Benny? Did he leave you?” he asks, almost a little too hopeful.

        “Where’s Wendy? Or was it Claire?” I tease, trying to get a reaction out of him. He’s like a dog– he’s pretty easy to rile up. It’s almost embarrassing.

        “Hey, why don’t you and me hang out some time? I can take you to this real nice–”

        “No, Jordan, I’m okay,” I reply, not wanting to start any unwanted drama. Can he please leave me alone? I felt him put an arm around me, getting his sticky milkshake-covered jacket in the ends of my hair. I cringed, scooting to the side, trying to avoid him as he just pulled me closer.

        God must have heard my prayers because Benny appeared from the bathroom, and I’m guessing he saw the discomfort on my face because he walked over rather quickly. As soon as Jordan saw him, he teased, “Hey, look who it is! We were just talking about you. Alaina was saying–”

        Jordan was cut off by Benny saying, “She doesn’t need you to speak for her, thanks,” before he took my hand and pulled me up. I tried to cover my laugh as Jordan stumbled over his words. Suddenly, nothing was funny anymore because I remembered that his stupid milkshake was in my hair now.

        “Benny,”

        “Hm?”

        “Is it bad?” I ask, almost nervous.

        “Is what bad?” he asks, turning to look at me.

        “The milkshake from his jacket got in my hair,” I explain, looking down to see the sticky liquid on the ends of my hair.

        “C’mon, let’s go to the bathroom,” he says, pulling me to the bathroom designated for families.

        “It’s not that bad, just put your head by the sink, okay?” he instructs, turning the sink on. I hesitantly bring my head down to the sink, almost afraid that he’ll just make it worse. I can feel him running his fingers through the tiny strand, rinsing it. “See? It’s done already,” he says, turning the water off. I lift my head, picking up the wet strand and trying to curl it with my fingers. I cover it with the dry strands of my hair, trying to make it less noticeable.

        “You look great. Don’t worry,” he says, his hands fluffing up my hair, which ended up feeling oddly comforting.

        I could get used to this.

Chapter Text

JUNE 26th, 1993

Alaina’s POV:

        Time had come for Benny to walk me home, a time I had been silently dreading but also anticipating. We arrived on my porch, hand in hand– which I had only really come to realize half way here.

        The porch creaked slightly under us, and suddenly I was a lot more aware of everything. I guess just appreciating the small details that you don’t always tend to notice. Benny turns to look at me, still wearing that stupid grin that seems to get me every time.

        “I had a lot of fun tonight,” I say, breaking the awkward, yet almost comfortable silence. He nods, going, “So did I. Thank you.”

        Benny brings our intertwined hands up to his lips, kissing my knuckles. I wanted to say more, but I just wasn't sure what. I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. “Good night, Benny,” I say, trying to restrain myself from sprinting to the phone to call Dani.

        “Good night, Alaina,” he says, still holding onto my hand. Just as I had turned around, his grip on my hand tightened slightly. “Wait,”

        I turned around, my eyebrows raised slightly. Benny seemed nervous, too, which made me feel a bit better about how my hands were shaking. Still.

        “Can I… can we hug?” he asks, eyebrows twitching for a second– a nervous habit of his that seemed to have happened a lot tonight. I want to tell him that he doesn't have to ask. That it’s more than okay, but I don’t. I keep my mouth shut. Like I always do.

        I nod, my arms reaching for his waist as his arms wrap around my neck. As I press the side of my head to his chest, I’m met with the sound of his heart thumping against his chest. He rests his chin on top of my head, his arms in a tight hold around my body. Like he almost doesn’t want to let go. I wouldn’t mind.

        “Good night, Benny.”

        “Good night, Alaina. Sleep well.”

        I lean up and kiss his cheek, pulling away with a smile on my face. 

        Dani, please be awake.

JUNE 26th, 1993

Benny’s POV:

        I walked into my house, still smiling– even while I was walking home. My mom was in the kitchen, standing by the stove and making tea. I walk over, kissing her cheek and giving her a hug. She seems surprised at this, pausing in place before hugging me back.

        “Hi, sweetie… did you have fun..?” she asks, hesitating a bit.

        “Mhm,” I murmur, pulling away– still wearing my large grin that was starting to hurt my face. I guess my mom gets a clue at why I’m so happy, because she smiles and lightly hits my arm. “Benjamin! Did you do what I told you?”

        I nod my head, and she just gets even more excited. “Awh! How’d it go?” she asks, taking my hands.

        “It went good. It went really, really good, Mom,” I say, trying to hide my still growing smile. My mom makes this weird sound that’s between a laugh and a cry. “Mom..?”

        “I’m just… so happy…” she says, her mouth forming into a frown as her eyes squeeze shut.

        “Uh– Mom…”

JUNE 26th, 1993

Alaina’s POV:

        Pick up, pick up, c’mon…

        “Dani, oh my gosh, you won’t believe what just happened–”

Chapter Text

        Hi everyone!! I just realized that you guys don’t even know my name, so I’m okay with being called Chrissy :)

        Anyway, as you all know if you’ve read my author’s notes at the end of the chapters, this fic is almost over. I have one more chapter almost ready, and an additional one for a future holiday. I was thinking of waiting until that said holiday to upload it, but I’m too excited to wait.

        Now, I really want your guys’ opinions if you do end up deciding to read my future works. Do you like the 1st person POVS? Do you like the original character I made for the love interest? Should I make a sequel for this? (no promises) Should I make more Benny fics but with different seasons, like Fall or Christmas? Please let me know!! Thank you for reading, and I love you all so much. XOXO, Chrissy

Chapter Text

JULY 4th, 1993

Benny’s POV:

        “Seriosuly?!”
        “Wait, you’re kidding, right?”

        Those were the replies I got after telling my friends that we wouldn’t be doing a night game this year. I thought that they’d be disappointed, but they were overjoyed. Should I feel offended?

        “Hey, Benny, not that I care or anything, but what made you change your mind?” Bertram asks, pushing his glasses up on his nose. An echo of ‘yeah’s’ trailed through my ears as I bit the inside of my cheek to keep myself from smiling too hard.

        “Alaina and I are watching the fireworks together.”

        “Alone?”

        “Together? Just the two of you?”

        “Is it a date?”

        “I’ll let you guys know how it goes. Just go have fun for the night– watch the fireworks and try not to blow anything up. Got it?”

JULY 4th, 1993

Alaina’s POV:

        To say that everything was perfect was an understatement. Benny and I had been dating for roughly a week now. After the first awkward few days, I felt a bit more comfortable. When he was leaving my house a few days ago, I leaned in to kiss him and he completely missed the signal because he literally shook my hand. Way to go.

        Anywho, as I was cutting up fruit I almost sliced my finger off from the loud banging on the window in front of me. It was Benny, wearing a large grin on his face. I almost feel like a disappointed mother. He goes to the front door, letting himself in. “Benny, I almost–” I begin, looking down at my hands. “Oh, nevermind. I did cut myself,” I say, my tone annoyed. I go over to the sink, running my hand under cool water as a look of panic surges over Benny’s face.

        “Is it bad?” he asks, standing next to me and taking my hand into his as he examines my cut. I pull my hand back, running the cut under the sink as my other hand grabs a nearby towel. Benny disappears down into the hallway, searching through the cabinets for bandaids. He comes back with two boxes, standing next to me like a little kid who came into their mom’s room in the middle of the night to tell her that they threw up.

         I remove my hand from under the sink, holding a towel up to it as Benny opens the bandaid. I take the towel off of the cut as Benny quickly wraps the bandage around my finger. He brings it up to his lips, pressing a soft kiss on the bandage right where my cut was under.

        “Sorry… didn’t mean to scare you,” he says in a quiet tone.

        “S’fine. You didn’t mean to,” I say, knowing that there’s no way to undo what's already been done. Why waste my time?

        “Hey, when are we leaving to watch the fireworks?” I ask, distracting myself from the stinging on my finger. Benny’s hands rest on my waist, and it makes my stomach flutter every. Single. Time. “Probably around.. 8:30. So in like, ten minutes,” he says, his eyes roaming off to the clock on the wall before landing back on mine.

        After a treacherous hike up a random hill that Benny brought me to, he laid his flannel down on the grass and told me to sit. There was a tree behind us, giving me access to lean my back against it. I sit down next to Benny, my hand still in his. “How do you know that people’ll do fireworks here?” I ask, turning to look at him.

        “The people who live down there always do amazing fireworks,” he says.

        “And what if this year they don’t?” I ask, though I’m only teasing. He laughs, leaning back against the tree as well.

        “Then you’ll be mad and then I’ll feel bad. Then I’ll kiss you to make it up to you,” he says in a teasing manner, his head tilting slightly as he looks at me. He then taps his cheek, signaling for me to kiss it like a spoiled child. I laugh, kissing the palm of my hand and then smearing my hand over his cheek.

        “Hey, be nice,” he says, his lips forming into a slight pout. I lean in, pecking his cheek lightly– my lips barely dusting over the skin. “What was that?? I didn’t even feel it!” he complains, only jokingly. “Again,”

        This time, I lean in, squishing his cheeks together as I press my lips to his cheek. My lipgloss gets all over his cheek, leaving a soft, glossy pink on the skin. “Much better,” he says, and I can’t tell if he noticed the gloss on his cheek or not. If he did, would he even care?

        We’re interrupted by the intimate moment by a loud ‘boom’ of fireworks going off. I look up into the sky, sparks of reds and oranges coating the soft purple and blue sky.

        As the night went on, it neared past nine o’clock. I started getting cold, and I think Benny noticed because he wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me closer. He pulled his flannel out from underneath my legs, covering my chest with it as if it were a blanket. “We’ll go home soon, okay?” he says in a soft tone, pressing a kiss against the side of my head. Moments like these make me not want to leave.

        As it neared towards the end of the fireworks, we looked up and saw a large firework, the color similar to champagne. “Thanks, Benny. I had a lot of fun tonight,” I say, turning to look at him. Apparently, he was already looking at me.

        “Yeah, of course. I’m glad you had fun. I know I did.”

        It was silent now. Not an uncomfortable silence. It was a silence I had grown accustomed to. One that I had grown to look forward to. One that I hoped would never go away.

        Benny, thank you for breaking my window that one day in May.

Chapter Text

DECEMBER 4th, 1993

Alaina’s POV:

        The soft, fluffy snow crumpled under my feet as I walked through the streets filled with bright lights– the sound of wind chimes buzzing from the wind filling my ears. I find it odd that it’s snowing already. It’s the first week of December– already. It usually doesn’t snow until January, but rarely, it’ll snow late December. I tugged on my scarf, loosening it a bit from my neck to allow myself some room to breathe. As I looked up through the small snowflakes settling on my eyelashes, I saw the familiar face that I fell in love with when I was thirteen.

        He runs up to me, almost falling on his face from the inches of snow that slowly added up over the weeks gone by. This’ll be our first Christmas together, and hopefully there will be many more to come. I’m starting to feel like an old married couple with the way I’m counting back on how long it’s been since we first met.

        He, meaning Benny.

        I think that Benny was the best thing that could’ve happened to me. 

        Benny makes me feel seen. Benny makes me feel a lot of things, to be honest. He makes me feel safe when I hear a random scratching at the door, when it’s literally just a squirrel. He makes me feel calm whenever my parents are fighting. He makes me feel seen when he tells me to keep talking, even when I think that no one’s listening. He makes me feel smart whenever he asks me how to make popcorn, even though we’ve done it several times on our various movie marathons. Benny makes me feel complete. He fills the void in my chest that I hadn’t ever come to terms with.

        As Benny finally reached me, his hand resting on my waist, the first thing he seemed to have noticed was the scarf around my neck. Well– more like his scarf around my neck. It was a muted blue color, a stitching in white that says, ‘LA Dodgers’ embroidered onto the bottom of the scarf. “Is that my scarf?” he asks, already knowing the answer, but just wanting to hear me say it. “Yes, Benny, I’m wearing your scarf,” I say in a flat tone, yet my smile gives it away.

        “Oh, is that my hair tie around your wrist? What’s that for?” I ask, returning the teasing favor as I pull up the sleeve of his jacket. I knew that there would be a hair tie of mine there– and I was right. “You know the answer to that,” he replies, and I can’t tell if his cheeks are the rosy color that they are because of the cold or because of me.

        “Are you ready to go?” Benny asks me, reminding me the whole reason why I was going to his house. His aunt is hosting a Christmas party and invited me to come. I didn’t stop teasing Benny about the fact that he told his aunt about me.

        I nod my head, taking my hand in his. His gloves, covered in snow, were making my already cold hands worse. Benny looks down at our intertwined hands, his brows furrowing. “Where’re your gloves?” he asks, already slipping his off and forcing them onto my hands.

        “Oh, I must've forgotten,” I say, looking down at his gloves– that are too big for me, on my hands. I can’t help but crack a smile, wrapping my arm around his own.

        “C’mon, let’s hurry. Your legs must be freezing,” Benny notes, looking down at the tights on my legs that were only doing so much to protect me from the cold. Benny drags me along with him, walking rather fast considering the fact that I’m wearing heels.

        “Why’re you wearing heels?” he asks, trying to cover his laugh as he sees me struggling.

        “Benny, please not now. I’m already struggling as is,” I plead, saying what both of us were thinking. Before I could even get another word out, Benny bends down and grabs me by the waist– throwing me over his shoulder. I let out a small ‘ oof,’ holding onto the fabric of his jacket for dear life.

        “You better not drop me,” I say, my voice a little shaky.

        “I won’t, mi amor,” he says in a teasing tone. Despite the tone of his voice when he said it, the corny Spanish phrases he sneaks into his sentences never fails to make me smile. I can feel his hands holding onto the back of my thighs, his cold fingers pressing into the fabric of my tights.

        When we make it to his house, he sets me down on his porch and dusts the snow off of my hair and outfit. His mom almost makes me slip from how loud and excited she is. “Awh! My babies’ first Christmas together!!”

        “Mom…” Benny says, and again, I can’t tell if his cheeks are red from embarrassment or from the cold.

        When we got into the car, Benny’s parents sat in the front while Benny and I sat in the back. Benny’s mom grabbed us a blanket, since apparently the warm air in the car wasn’t working. She was not kidding. It was almost colder in the car than it was outside.

        The drive to Benny’s aunt’s house was about 30 minutes. During those 30 minutes, I tried to hide the sound of my teeth chattering. Benny gave me his jacket, but then I just felt guilty. I had his scarf, his blanket, his jacket, you name it. He didn’t complain. Not once.

        When we arrived in the driveway, my jaw nearly dropped. The house was gorgeous. I can’t even begin to imagine what the inside’ll look like. “Hopefully it’s warm inside,” I say, stepping out of the car as my teeth just chattered even more.

        “It will be, don’t worry. I can get you some hot chocolate, okay?” Benny says, his arm around my waist. As we walked up the driveway, I had to bite back a laugh as Benny’s dad almost slipped on the ice. Benny did the same, but instead of laughing like a normal person, he doubled over and brought me with him. He fell onto the ice on his back, and I fell flat on my ass. Thanks.

        Benny’s dad reached out and grabbed my hand, pulling me up and leaving his son to fend for himself.

        As we entered the house, I was met with kids running around couches, adults laughing with a glass of champagne in their hand, a large tree in the entryway, and Benny’s aunt coming to greet us. She starts with Mrs. Rodriguez, then Mr. Rodriguez, then Benny, and then finally me. She takes my hands, a bright smile on her face.

        “It’s so nice to meet you, sweetie! Remind me of your name again?” she asks, all of her attention now focused on me.

        “Alaina Vaughn, Miss,” I say, smiling.

        “Well it’s so nice to meet you. I’m Charlotte, please come in. Oh for heaven’s sake, just call me Auntie!” she exclaims, and I can’t help but feel a bit awkward at calling her that. As I step inside, I almost feel as if I’m defrosting from the warm air. Benny’s aunt disappears off into the crowd, along with Mr. and Mrs. Rodriguez.

        Benny takes my– or more like his jacket off for me, hanging it in the closet– along with his gloves and scarf.

        Throughout the night, I had been left to babysit three little kids with Benny, walked in on by those three kids while making out with Benny, and had one of those kids call me mom. Where are their parents?

        As Benny and I walked downstairs, we were suddenly stopped by Benny’s aunt in the archway leading into the sitting area. She had this smile on her face. This eerie smile on her face. She looks up, pointing at the mistletoe that I don’t remember seeing when I first walked in. I laugh, tapping Benny’s arm and telling him to look up.

        “Yeah, you think you’re real funny, don’t you, Aunt Charlotte?” Benny says, smirking slightly.

        “Yup! You know what to do!” she says, already getting her camera ready. I can’t help but let a laugh slip past my lips as one of my hands goes to cup Benny’s cheek, the other resting on his arm. Benny leans down, one of his hands on my neck as the other hand rests on my waist. As our lips touch, Benny’s aunt makes this weird squawking noise as she takes a polaroid photo. She shakes the photo to get it to develop faster before shoving it in my hands, giggling as she walks away to go find another victim.

        I look at the photo, seeing Benny and I slowly come into frame. I smile, tucking the photo away in the pocket of my cardigan. I feel a pair of tiny hands on the back of my legs, shoving me back against Benny. I look down and it seems to be one of Benny’s younger cousins. She smiles at me, showing me her two missing front teeth.

        Benny’s family has never failed to make me feel welcome. Not once.

        As we stepped into the car, Benny immediately covered me with the blanket. He sits next to me, his hand in mine. There was soft music playing in the background from the radio, as well as Benny’s parents in conversation. Benny leans in closer to me, whispering, “Are you warm yet?”

        I nod, smiling as I turn my head to look at him. His face is right next to mine, and I can smell his cologne clearly. He presses his lips against my cheek, his arm wrapping around my shoulder and pulling me closer to his side.

        “I love you, Alaina.”

        “I love you too.”

        THE END.