June 11, 2021

I woke up to the sound of my alarm clock going off at 6:00 am. I reached for my phone that was charging on my nightstand to check my texts and snaps to see I had gotten a text from Benny.

All the boys are going to the pool today if you want to join.

Sounds like fun :)

I got out of bed and went over to the drawer full of my baiting suits and picked out my favorite bikini. It had a navy blue top and white bottoms.

I quickly put it on and pulled on an extra big black t-shirt and white Nike shorts over it. I packed my drawstring bag with sunglasses, sunscreen, my Polaroid, $20, and dry clothes just in case then I ran downstairs to eat breakfast.

"Where are you going?" Dad asked while leaning against the kitchen counter, taking a sip of his coffee.

"To the pool with the boys," I said grabbing a piece of bacon off a plate.

"Do you need a ride? I don't want you walking alone in a baiting suit." He said with a serious expression on his face.

"No, it's okay. I'll ask Benny if I can walk with him." I said taking my phone out to text him.

My dad just smiled and took another sip of coffee.

"What?" I asked.

"Nothing." A smirk grew on his face.

"Really? We've been over this. Bennys just a friend. I'm with Jake." I said texting Benny.

Hey, can I walk with you? My dad doesn't want me walking alone in a baiting suit.

"Yeah, I know." He said, his mood darkening.

"What? What's wrong with Jake?" I said setting my phone down.

"Nothings wrong with Jake..." he said setting his coffee down and walking over towards the bacon to grab a piece for himself. "...he's just a little..."

"A little what?" I said crossing my arms.

"What do the kids call it these days?" He said setting his elbows on the counter and taking a bite of bacon. "Oh! Clingy!"

"He is not-"

Before I could finish my sentence, my phone buzzed so I checked it.

Sounds good. I'll pick you up :)

Kk!

"You know what. Never mind." I said taking a seat at the island in the middle of the kitchen.

I ate two pieces of bacon and an egg before Benny knocked on the door. As I stood up my dad shot up from the couch.

"I'll get it!" He jogged towards the door.

"Oh god. Don't embarrass me." I said picking up my bag and throwing it over my shoulders.

"I'm not embarrassing!" He said as he opened the door. "You must be Benny!"

"Yes sir, that's me." He said reaching out to shake my dad's hand.

"Ella you're right! He is cute." He said turning to wink at me.

I walked over to the door and saw Benny blush a little.

"See. Embarrassing."

I slipped my sandals on then walked out the door and grabbed Bennys arm so he'd follow me.

"It was nice meeting you, sir," Benny said as I was dragging him away.

"You too! And Ella, remember, if a guy's checking you out what do you do?" My dad yelled, making me let go of Benny and turn around to face him.

"Nose, throat, balls." I said laughing.

"That's my girl." He said waving. "Have fun! But not too much fun!"

I rolled my eyes and started walking away, Benny following quickly behind me.

"Sorry, he's embarrassing."

He just smiled and looked at me until I noticed and looked back at him.

"What?" I said nervously laughing.

"You think I'm cute?" He said in a snobby voice.

I rolled my eyes again.

The pool wasn't as far as I thought. The rest of the boys were already there so all we had to do was pay and go find where they put their stuff.

As soon as Benny and I walked into the pool area we spotted the boys. They were easy to find because they were the loudest. DeNunez and Bertram were hitting the beach ball back and forth, Ham was at the concession stand, and the rest of the boys were playing a very loud game of Marco Polo. There weren't many other people there besides a couple of college girls who were laying on the tanning chairs.

We found where the boys put their stuff and set our stuff down. Benny kicked his flip flops to the side and quickly took his shirt off. As soon as he did my eyes went wide and I quickly looked back down at my stuff on the floor. He had abs, which didn't surprise me very much, but I was still a little shocked.

"Do you want me to wait for you?" He said looking back at me.

"No, it's okay. I'll catch up." And with that, he sprinted towards the pool and cannonballed in. He splashed Ham who was walking back with his nachos and a coke.

"Hey! Watch where your jumping dip shit. You almost made me drop my nachos!" He said then rolled his eyes while shaking his head.

Benny just laughed then swam over to the other guys who greeted him by splashing him in the face.

I watched as Ham walked over to me, sat his food and drink on the table next to us then sat down.

"You wanna nacho?" He asked looking at me.

"No, I'm okay, thanks." I said laughing.

"Good. I wasn't gonna give you one anyway."

"Hey. Remember, you still owe me from that bet." I said as I took my shirt off.

I was a very confident person so wearing a baiting suit in front of boys didn't really scare me. I was in good shape anyways. My stomach and waist were skinny, I had a nice butt, and my chest wasn't very big at all.

Ham looked over at me and his face turned red. He automatically looked back down at his food.

"Oh come on, that was ages ago!" He said stuffing a chip in his mouth.

As I was taking my pants off, another group of guys walked in. They all looked my age.

"Who are they?" I said staring at the tallest one. He had dirty blonde hair and a red letterman jacket on with blue swim trunks.

"Oh shit." Ham said his mouth full of food "that's Phillips. He's an ass licker. Trust me, we whooped him and his whole crew last summer in a game of baseball. Total wussies."

I laughed then turned to get into the pool just to see all the guys, except Bertram whose eyes were still closed from their game of Marco Polo, staring at me. Tommy had his jaw dropped, but Timmy pushed it back up so his mouth would close without taking his eyes off me. Bertram ran into Benny then opened his eyes while saying "Marc...Woah." and looked at me.

I sat down on the edge of the pool, took my hair out of a bun, and shook my head so my hair would fall perfectly and not look like a mess.

"What are you looking at?" I said kicking my foot and splashing them which made them all look away and get into a splash war with each other until someone behind me said: "hey there."

I turned to see who it was just to see Phillips standing behind me. I stood back up and turned to face him.

"Um, hi." I said nervously.

I'm not gonna lie, he was pretty good looking.

"You're new, I've never seen you around before." He said taking off his jacket and throwing it to one of his friends to hold.

"Yeah, I'm just here for the summer." I said looking down at my feet so I wouldn't stare.

"So why's a pretty girl like you hanging out with a bunch of slobs?" He said crossing his arms.

Right before I could defend them I felt a wet hand on my back and turned my head to see Benny, who had a look on his face I've never seen him make before. I could've sworn his eyes turned red for a second. His hand came off of my back and he stepped in front of me as if he was protecting me for some reason.

"What do you want Phillips?" He said, his voice lowering.

"Relax, Benjamin, I was just talking to this cute girl behind you." He said with a smirk on his face.

"She has a name." He snapped.

"Well, I was about to get it before you so rudely interrupted our conversation."

Pretty soon the rest of the boys were standing either beside me or behind me, including Ham who had already finished his nachos.

I put my hand on Bennys shoulder, trying to get him to look at me, but it's like his eyes were glued on Phillips.

"Benny," I said, still trying to get him to look away from Phillips, but it didn't work.

I stepped in front of Benny, facing him.

"Hey," I said softly. "They aren't worth it."

Finally, his eyes tore away from Phillips, who still had an annoying smirk on his face, and looked down at me.

His eyes softened when they met mine.

"Let's just get back in the water, okay?" I said, my voice still soft.

I was used to dealing with boys who were about to fight, thanks to Jake.

Bennys eyes were still locked with mine as he, and the rest of the boys, started to back up towards the table Ham was sitting at before.

Benny was turned around facing the other way with my hand on his back when Phillips said: "What's the matter Benny? Upset that your new girlfriend is too hot for you?"

Benny turned back around and walked quickly towards Phillips who was turned around, receiving high fives from his friends, and shoved him into them. When Phillips had caught his balance again, he was about to throw a punch before I ran in between them again.

"Stop!" I said raising my voice, staring back and forth between both of them. "You're acting like idiots." I turned towards Phillips who was staring daggers a Benny and said "Just leave us alone and we'll stay out of your way." And with that, Phillips and his jock friends walked slowly to the other side of the pool.

"Until next time pretty lady." Phillips said walking backward and winking at me.

I didn't respond. All I did was watch him with my arms crossed and make sure he got as far away from us as possible. After I was sure he wouldn't turn back around and say something else I turned back to look at Benny who was obviously still furious. I put my hand on his chest, which was quickly rising and falling.

"You okay?" I asked with a concerned look on my face.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He said looking back down at me. "Thanks for stopping that."

"Of course." I said smiling at him.

I felt his heartbeat slow down and let my hand fall back to my side.

"Let's go have fun. Just ignore him if he comes back."

After Benny calmed down completely we all got in the pool. Half the boys went back to playing Marco Polo, and the rest of us played volleyball with the beach ball.

Halfway through the time we were there, we all got popsicles from the concession stand and took a bunch of Polaroid pictures for my wall. I was trying my best to keep Benny away from Phillips so I wouldn't have to stop another fight.

After swimming for about three hours my hands started to wrinkle so I got out and dried off. I'm guessing the rest of the boys were getting tired as well because they followed me back to our area and wrapped themselves in towels as well. As I suspected, the clothes I had on before were drenched so I looked in my bag to grab my clean clothes.

"Shit!" I said, making Benny look in my direction.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"I forgot to bring extra clothes, and mine are soaked." I said setting my bag down. "I could've sworn I packed them."

"Here, my shirts dry." He said picking it up and handing it to me.

"No, it's fine... you don't have to." I said wrapping the towel around me even more because I was cold.

"Ella, You're shivering. Just take the shirt, I don't need it." He said handing me the shirt.

"Thanks." I said pressing my lips together and forming a smile.

I put the shirt on then put my wet clothes into my bag. His shirt went almost all the way to my knees, since he was about a foot taller than me, and It still smelled like him too.

On our way back to our houses I stayed with Benny the whole time. I could tell he was still a little upset about the whole Phillips issue, but he wasn't nearly as angry as he was when he was looking at Phillips.

I wanted to know why they hated each other so much, but I didn't bother making him angry again. To be honest, I was kind of scared, I've never seen Benny that angry before.

When it was finally just Benny and I left, I checked my phone and saw that it was almost 12:30 and I had to be at the bakery soon.

"Shoot, I gotta go... I promised Gran I would help her decorate a cake for a customer's birthday!" I said as I started jogging towards my house, then realized I still had his shirt on.

"Oh! You need your shirt back." I said as I stopped and started to take the bag off my back.

"No, it's fine. Keep it." He said with a smile. "It looks better on you anyway."

"Are you sure?" I asked picking my bag back up.

"Yeah, I never really wear it anyways."

I picked my bag back up and jogged back up to him. He had his towel around his neck and water was still dripping from his hair. I gave him a quick hug which surprised him,

but he still hugged me back.

"I'll see you tomorrow." I said jogging backward and smiling at him.

"See you tomorrow." He said smiling back at me.

I turned towards my house while still jogging and went inside.

As I was running towards the stairs my dad saw me.

"Hey!" He said with a smirk on his face. "That's a new shirt."

"What do you mean? I've had it forever?" I said nervously smiling at him.

"Whatever you say." He said rolling his eyes and turning his head back to look at the tv.

I darted up the stairs and into my room then jumped in the shower so I wouldn't smell like chlorine. I braided my hair again so it wouldn't be frizzy when it dried then did my mascara and put on a pink T-shirt and Jean shorts. I slipped on my white vans then put grabbed my phone and ran downstairs and out the door.

As I rode my bike there, a truck with the windows down started slowing down next to me, I looked over to see Phillips and his idiot friends.

One of them whistled at me so I gave them the finger.

"Calm down! I just wanna know your name!" Phillips yelled sticking his head out the window.

"It's Ella." I yelled.

"Nice to meet you, Ella." The friend who whistled at me yelled.

Thankfully they sped away after that.

When I got to the bakery I locked up my bike in the bike rack and ran in the doors and behind the counter.

Gran must have heard me come in because she came out of the kitchen to help me put my apron on. I could never tie it myself.

"Glad you could make it pumpkin." She said pinching my nose.

"Thanks, Gran." I laughed.