June 5, 2021

The next morning I got up early so I could have enough time to help Gran up at her bakery, and still go to the sandlot with the boys.

Around 7:30 Benny came to the bakery and got the same thing as always. Once he paid for it we both said our goodbyes to Gran, we walked back to his house to give his mom and sister their food.

As we got to his house his little sister, who was about 6 years old, ran out of the front door yelling "Benny!" When she got to where he could reach her, he bent down low enough to pick her up and spun around once then set her down.

"Ella, this is my little sister Lilly... Lilly, this is my new friend Ella."

Lilly giggled and whispered quietly to Benny "is she your girlfriend?"

Benny, who was now squatted down next to her with one hand on her left shoulder, laughed and shook his head. "No Lilly. We're just friends."

I smiled at her and she blushed a little bit. Her skin was olive, she had black hair that stopped at her shoulders, and the same sparkling brown eyes as Benny. They had the same nose too.

Lilly whispered something into Bennys that I couldn't hear which made him look at me for a second before looking back at her and saying "Yes she is".

I gave him a confused smile but he just ignored it.

"Where's mom Lilly?" Benny asked while standing back up on his feet.

"She's inside making a list to go to the grocery store later."

"Go take her this." He said handing her the bag with the muffin and piece of bread in it. "Ella and I are going to play baseball."

She nodded, hugged him one last time then ran back inside with the food.

We waited until she got back inside then started walking to the sand lot.

Half way there I decided to say something because there was an awkward silence again.

"What did Lilly say when she whispered in your ear?"

For a moment he didn't respond, he just looked down at the ground and shook his head with a hint of a smile forming on his lips.

"She said you were pretty." He said finally, looking back up from the ground at me.

I blushed big time and he definitely saw it because he started to laugh even harder. I joined in the laughter.

Although it wasn't a short walk, I was still glad it wasn't awkward anymore after I said that. When we finally arrived at the sandlot the boys were already throwing the ball around but stopped when they saw Benny and I walk through the gate. They all jogged over to us then we walked over to the dug out so Benny and I could set our stuff down and the boys could take a short break before we started playing.

Right as we were all about to go take our places on the field, Jake FaceTimed me.

"Who's that?" Benny said leaning over to look down at my phone on the bench.

"Oh, it's just Jake." I said ignoring the call.

"Who's Jake?" Said Squints said wiggling his eye brows at me.

"Yeah, yeah. Who's Jake?" Said Yeah Yeah doing the same thing as Squints.

"My boyfriend from Texas." I said while putting my hair into a ponytail.

All the boys either choked on their water or stopped their conversations to turn and stare at me.

When I finally realized that they were all staring at me, a confused look came over my face.

"What?" I said looking around at all of them.

"You gotta answer that." Said Ham walking over to my phone and picking it up.

"Hey!" I said reaching out to grab my phone from his hands but instead he jerked the phone away and answered the call.

"Why hello there Jake." He said in a terrible British accent.

"Give me the phone Ham!" I said reaching for the phone again but I missed.

I couldn't see him but I heard Jake say "Who are you? Where's Ella?" In an angry tone.

"Calm down dip shit she's right here." Ham said rolling his eyes turning the phone towards me.

Finally he handed me the phone and walked back to his spot on the bench.

"Ella? Who was that?"

"Just one of the baseball guys I told you about." I said laughing slightly.

"Baseball boys?" He said with a questioning look on his face. "You never told me about any baseball boys!"

"Oh shoot your right, um... well... I'll introduce you to them." I said turning the camera around and pointing it at Benny first then moving around to the rest of the boys in the dug out introducing them "That's Benny, DeNunez, Smalls, Squints, Yeah Yeah, Timmy and Tommy, and Bertram." They all smiled and waved as I said their names, besides Ham who just flipped him off.

Jake didn't say anything. All he did was sit there staring at the phone with a mad expression on his face, until finally he said "So that's what you've been doing all the times you didn't answer my calls? Hanging out with other boys? I can't believe you."

I knew Jake was protective over me and he was already scared that I would leave and meet someone else while I was here, but I didn't think he would get this mad at me just for hanging out with boys who are mostly younger than me.

"Ooo! Is someone jealous?" Said Squints who was now behind me standing on the bench so he could be in the camera as well. Jake just looked annoyed and didn't say anything.

"Look, most of them are way younger than me. You have nothing to worry about."

"Most of them? Which ones are older than you?" He said with his phone now on his desk so I could see him sitting in his chair with his arms crossed.

"Benny and DeNunez." I said my voice getting a little softer. "They're both a couple months older than me."

All of a sudden he just smiled and laughed.

"What?" I said a little angry.

When he didn't answer me and just kept laughing I said "what's so funny?"

He looked at the camera and said "Nothing, I'm sorry." Then stopped laughing.

"Look I gotta go. We'll talk about this later." I said then hung up before he could say anything else.

I tossed my phone back onto the bench then just looked at it for a second. I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned to see Benny.

"You okay?"

I took a deep breath and said "yeah, I'm fine." Then let out the breath and reached down to grab my glove that I had dropped earlier due to Ham taking my phone. His hand dropped off my shoulder when I bent down to get the glove, so he stuck them both in his pockets with his shoulders still raised a little bit.

"I'm not very good at girl problems, but you can always talk to me." He said, our eyes meeting as I stood back up.

I could've sworn I saw him blush for a second when our eyes met but he quickly looked down at his feet.

"Thanks Benny." I said smiling.

We played for two hours in the scorching sun, then finally took a break.

Like the day before, the boys all went to the dug out and each grabbed sodas from the cooler.

While Ham and Bertram had a contest to see who could chug their soda the fastest, I checked my phone to see two missed calls and five text messages from Jake. I didn't call him back or reply. All I did was sigh and plop down onto the edge of the bench next to Benny who quickly noticed something was up.

"He seems like an ass." Benny said after taking a sip of coke.

"Who?" I asked even though I new exactly who he was talking about.

"You know who I'm talking about." He sad shifting his body so he was facing me.

"Jake? He's just protective." I said trying to convince myself that what I said was the truth. "We've been dating for almost 2 years. He's really the only boyfriend I've had."

"Two years?" Benny said his eyes widening in disbelief.

"Yeah. We were best friends since kindergarten and then it just kinda happened."

"Wow. I've never had a girlfriend before. Even if I did it wouldn't last for two years. I'd probably mess something up." He said then laughed nervously.

"I don't believe that." I said shifting my body so I was facing him as well.

"Believe what?"

"That you've never had a girlfriend before."

"Why not?"

"I don't know..." I said shrugging my shoulders "I just thought you were the type to always have girls chasing after you."

"Oh no. Definitely not." He said shaking his head and laughing.

"Well have you at least ever kissed someone?" I said still surprised.

"Does my mom count?" He said with a huge smile on his face that made me burst out laughing.

After I calmed down a bit I decided to pick on him.

"Benny Rodriguez has never kissed anyone before... wow" I said with a huge smirk on my face

"Hey! Don't hate. I'm just... taking life slow okay?" After he said that I could tell he was trying to not laugh which made me laugh even harder than before.

"What are you two laughing at?" DeNunez said walking over to us and leaning against the railing across from us.

"Oh nothing... just that-" before I could finish my sentence Benny slapped his hand over my mouth which made me jump.

"No no. Let's not tell everyone. It's embarrassing." He said slowly removing his hand from my face.

"Fine I won't tell him." I said putting my hands up as if I was surrendering.

"Oh come on Benny. You know me." DeNunez said trying to persuade him.

Before Benny could reject I quickly blurted out "Bennys never kissed anyone before!"

All the boys stopped their conversations and turned to look at the three of us.

Benny quickly swung around to face me again and said "Really? Say it louder would you? I think all of China heard you!"

"Oh come on Benny it's not that bad! Neither have any of us." DeNunez said trying to make Benny feel better.

"Excuse me!" Squints said as if he was offended by something. "I kissed Wendy Peffercorn last summer! Remember?"

"Dude. She was literally giving you mouth to mouth and then you kissed her." Ham said punching Squints shoulder. "Plus she threw us all out of the pool right after!"

I put my hand over my mouth and started laughing again.

"Yeah, yeah! They wouldn't let us go back in there for the rest of the summer you numb nuts." Yeah Yeah said punching him on the other shoulder.

"No way." I said removing my hand from my face. "Squints has kissed a girl before all of you?"

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?" Squints said with a hand on his chest.

Everyone but Squints laughed

After about 20 minutes of us all making fun of each other and laughing, we all somehow ended up sitting on the floor. I noticed Benny staring at me out of the corner of my eye. I turned to look at him and once again, our eyes locked. For a moment neither of us looked away. My heart started racing then I remembered about Jake. I quickly blinked twice while turning my head away from him and focusing my attention back on the group.

Sooner or later an hour had already gone by. We were all too caught up in making each other laugh we had lost track of time.

I heard my phone buzz again so I stood up and walked over to where my stuff was. I noticed the time when I picked up my phone and my eyes widened.

"Guys it's been an hour since we all sat down to take a break." I said showing them all the time one my phone.

It was 11:28

"Let's go play then!" Bertram said.

All the guys got up excitedly and raced to their spots on the field. I didn't even bother to see who texted me, instead I grabbed the bat and walked over to Benny who was just about to step out of the dug out. I came up behind him and quickly said "I'll race you!" Then took off towards home plate. Benny quickly caught on to what I said and took off following close behind me. My heart raced with excitement as he caught up to me. I knew he would win, but it was still fun to challenge him anyways. Everyone watched as we raced, half the boys yelling "Go Ella!" And the other half yelling "Go Benny!"

I some how had got the lead and was about to win when I felt two arms grab my waist, quickly stopping me from running and picking me up and making me drop the bat.

I laughed like an idiot as I said "Hey! Put me down!"

Right after I said that I heard Bennys voice in my ear say "Alright! What ever you say." Then next thing I know I was sitting on the ground and Benny was already on home plate.

I looked at Benny with a playful smile and said "That wasn't fair!"

"Oh really? Neither was the ten second head start you gave yourself!" Benny said with both his hands resting on his knees and his head looking up at me with one eye squinted and the other open. He had a devilish smile on his face that gave me even more butterflies than I already had. I just rolled my eyes, trying to hide the fact that I was definitely blushing.

I don't know what I was about him, but he made me forget all about Jake. I hadn't even known him for a week and he was already leaving a mark on me.

As I stood up Smalls yelled "Stop flirting so we can play already!" from the outfield.

I looked over at him with my mouth dropped open then looked at Benny who had turned his head to face me at the same time. We both just laughed.

"I've only known you guys for two days! We were

not flirting. We're just friends."

I walked over to where I had dropped the bat, picked it up and walked to home base to hand it to Benny. We were both still out of breath and laughing.

As we played the game I couldn't help but keep catching glimpses of Benny. He was just beautiful I guess. I don't know.

Sooner or later the sun started to set so we all grabbed our stuff, some of the guys grabbed another soda, then we all went home. Benny and I of course being the last two left walking again. We said our goodbyes and walked to our houses. I don't know why but I had a feeling he was still looking at me so I turned back around and sure enough, he was.

I smiled then yelled "night Benny!"

"Night Ella!" He returned then walked inside his house.

As I walked back inside the house, I found dad asleep on the couch. He did this a lot, I'm not sure why. He said it helps his back or something. I grabbed a blanket from the basket of blankets by the tv and laid it over him so he wouldn't get cold, turned off the tv and went up stairs.

I took a shower because I felt disgusting then changed into a white Nike sports bra, and grey sweatpants. I brushed my teeth then laid down. As soon as my head hit my pillow I drifted into a deep sleep.