June 14, 2021

I woke up to my dad banging a pot and a wooden spoon together as he walked into my room.

"Wake up birthday girl! We made a special breakfast for you!" He said still banging the pot and spoon together.

"What time is it?" I asked stretching my arms.

"7:45"

I shot up out of bed and ran into the bathroom to get ready. Jake would be here soon and I didn't want to look like crap for the first time seeing him in weeks. Back in Texas, we would hang out every day. It was weird not being with him, but I had the sandlot boys to keep me distracted so it was okay.

I put on mascara and a little bit of lip gloss. Instead of straightening my hair, I curled it. It doesn't take me very long to get ready because I've been doing my hair and makeup for basically my whole life.

It took me 20 minutes to curl my hair and spray it with a ton of hair spray because my hair wasn't very thick.

I put on a blue romper with white and yellow sunflowers and spandex on underneath just to be safe. I put the necklace that Jake gave me in 7th grade on then went to brush my teeth.

I slipped on my white vans then grabbed my phone and went downstairs to eat breakfast.

As soon as my dad saw me he choked on his coffee and said "Nope. Go change."

Gran slapped him on the head with newspaper and said "Oh shut it." Then walked over to me and put both hands on my shoulders. "You look beautiful darling." She kissed me on my forehead and walked back to the kitchen.

"Thanks Gran." I said smiling.

As I walked towards the table I heard a car door shut outside. I ran to the window and saw Jake walking up to the door. Before he could get halfway up the sidewalk, I ran out the door and threw myself at him, engulfing him in a big hug. He picked me up and spun me around then sat me down. Gran took a picture of us on my Polaroid at the perfect time.

"Wow. You look-"

"Amazing? I know." I said with a smile.

"Actually I was going to say beautiful, but amazing works too." He said pulling me in to hug me again.

The car drove off towards the hotel which confused me because I thought his parents would be coming to eat breakfast with us.

"Are your parents not coming with us?" I said confusedly.

"No, they've been so caught up in working lately, so they're taking this as a vacation opportunity." He laughed.

I know he couldn't have changed much since I've only been gone for a couple of weeks, but he looked exactly like I remembered. He was much taller than me. His hair was brown and his eyes were a beautiful shade of hazel. He had on a black sweatshirt and grey sweatpants. He even smelt the same, like the cologne I got him for our first anniversary.

I took his left hand in mine, because his right one had my present in it, and we walked back inside the house.

As soon as Jake stepped into the house, Gran tightly hugged him and said "You must be Jake, it's so good to finally meet you! Ella has told me a lot about you."

He hugged her back and said "All good things I hope, it's good to meet you too Ma'am."

She let go and said "Please, call me Gran." while smiling warmly at him. "Oh, and I took this with your camera for you Pumpkin." She handed me the Polaroid picture and I smiled.

"Thank you Gran." I said.

Dad stood up from his seat at the table and walked over to Jake. "Nice to see you again Jake. Ella's been dying for you to get here."

Jake shook Dad's hand and said "Nice to see you too Sir." With a smile.

He turned back to face me "You wanna open your present?"

"Is that even a question?" I said grabbing his arm and leading him over to the couch.

As we sat down he handed it to me and I quickly grabbed the tissue paper and threw it behind me. I first pulled out a bag of all red jolly ranchers, my favorite, then a fancy black box.

I looked up at him confused but he had the cutest nervous smile on his face, so I continued to open it.

It was two bond touch bracelets.

"Oh my gosh. This is perfect." I said looking up at him with a big smile on my face.

"I told you you'd love it." He said smiling back at me.

I put one on his right wrist, and he put the other one on mine.

We went through the instructions to set them up and then tested them out to make sure they worked. I gave Jake probably about ten hugs because I was too excited.

We ate the special waffles Gran made for breakfast, then dad suggested that I showed Jake the sandlot. Jake played football, so he wasn't really into baseball, but Dad seemed like he really wanted us to go so we did. I brought my glove and an extra one for Jake because I had a feeling the boys would be there.

I held his hand the entire way there. I loved the feeling of knowing he was with me again, and I could tell he felt the same because he kept looking down at me as we walked. As we passed by Vincent's Drug store, Jake pulled me into the side alley and kissed me passionately, for what felt like forever.

"What was that for?" I said with a ridiculous girly laugh. My cheeks were red.

"I've been wanting to do that ever since I first saw you run out of the door, but I didn't want to get beat up by your dad." He laughed.

"You should've just said so." I said pecking him on the lips again.

I held onto his arm as we walked back out onto the sidewalk and towards the sandlot. As we turned into the field all of the boys jumped out and yelled "surprise!"

I got scared and jumped a little, and so did Jake. We both looked at each other and laughed because we knew how stupid we probably looked. All of us walked over to the dugout, and to my surprise, it actually looked good.

The dugout was decorated with yellow and white streamers and there was a banner hanging from the roof that said "Happy Birthday Ella"

There were balloons tied to the bench and 9 presents lined up on it.

"You guys! This is so sweet thank you." I said with a big smile.

I let go of Jake's arm and hugged them one by one until I got to Benny.

"Good job, you actually looked surprised!" He whispered in my ear.

"Because I am, I was not expecting this." I said genuinely surprised.

He smiled and hugged me but let go when Jake walked over. I was a little scared about the two of them meeting, but thankfully they just smiled at each other and nodded.

The only one who had a problem with Jake right now was Ham.

"Heeey... it's jakey wakey!" Ham said smacking Jake on the butt, which made Jake jump.

"Yeah... I guess that's me." Jake said in the fakest nice voice I had ever heard.

I laughed and said "Ham, leave the boy alone. He's trying to be nice for once."

Timmy ran up to me and grabbed my arm, his little brother following him.

"Come and open your presents!" Timmy said .

"Open your presents!" Tommy copied.

They pulled me towards the dugout and led me to a chair they must have brought from one of their houses that had a sign on it that said "birthday Gurl" on it.

I sat down on the chair and Jake leaned against the wall next to me. I could tell he was a little tense for some reason so I looked up at him and held his hand. He looked down at me and smiled.

Squints handed me his gift first. I ripped the wrapping paper off to find a box of peanut M&M's.

"Thanks squints." I smiled.

He smiled back and pushed his glasses up.

Each of the boys lined up with the rest of the gifts. Bertram got me sour patch kids, Timmy and Tommy got me a cute see-through water bottle with my name on it, DeNunez got me a $15 gift card to Starbucks, yeah yeah got me skittles, Smalls got me softball themed sticker pack, and Ham gave me $5 for the bet I won at the beginning of the summer.

I thought Bennys gift was the sweetest. He got me a sketchbook. I was surprised that he got me something so thoughtful, but at the same time, I wasn't because he was sweet like that.

I stood up from the chair and hugged Benny. "Thank you." I said in his ear as he hugged me back.

"Of course." He said with a smile.

I thanked all the guys once again with hugs. Squints tried to get me to kiss him on the cheek but Jake didn't let that happen...

After I opened all the presents and fit them into one bag, I thought it would be fun to play some baseball.

"You any good?" Benny said walking up to Jake.

"Yeah, I practice a lot with Ella at the batting cages and stuff." Jake said.

"Nice, you wanna bat first?"

"Sure."

Benny handed Jake the bat and we all walked out onto the field. As Jake got ready to bat at home plate Ham said "you sure you're ready for this hot stuff?"

"I think I'll manage." Jake said looking over at me and winking which made me blush and Ham roll his eyes.

"Play Ball!" Ham yelled as he put his headgear on and squat down into a catching position.

DeNunez wound up, and threw the ball. Jake swung and missed.

"That's strike one buttercup." Ham said laughing.

Jake ignored him and got ready to bat again.

Right before DeNunez wound up and threw the ball, Ham decided to mess with Jake like he did to me when I was batting.

As soon as the ball left DeNunez's hand, Ham said "don't mess up."

Sure enough, Jake missed again.

"Isn't that like a foul or something?" Jake yelled while turning around and pointing the bat at Ham.

"I think that's basketball princess." Ham said standing up.

"Hey what's your problem man?" Jake said raising his voice.

Benny ran over and put a hand on Jake's shoulder.

"Calm down dude. That's just what Ham does." Benny said trying to break them up. "He does it to me too."

Jake turned back around to face DeNunez and Ham got back into position.

When Benny knew nothing bad was going to happen, he jogged back over to me and whispered "are you sure he's not on his period?"

I laughed quietly so Jake wouldn't hear.

DeNunez threw the ball again and this time, Jake hit it. It flew out to Smalls who missed it and Jake ran to first base.

Jake was fast. Probably almost as fast as Benny, but of course not that fast.

Smalls quickly picked up the ball and threw it to Bertram who was on second base but Jake got there before he caught it.

I was next up to bat. I got in place, knees bent, my left foot slightly in front of my

right, raised the bat and focused on DeNunez's body language.

He wound up again, and threw me his heater.

I waited for the perfect time to swing, then stepped into it swung with all my strength.

"Crack"

The ball went flying through the air and over the fence.

Jake smiled and clapped

"That's my girl!" He said running to third then back to Home.

I got high fives from all the guys as I ran the bases. When I got to home, Jake was waiting for me and engulfed me in a big hug.

"Nice hit Ella!" Benny said as Jake set me down. He walked up to me and fist-bumped me.

We played for hours, taking breaks every now and then. Jake was actually being good. He didn't argue with anyone but Ham. Benny on the other hand was being much quieter than normal. When I asked him what was wrong he just put on a fake smile and said he was fine.

When the sun started to set, we called it a day. I thanked them all again for making this birthday not suck, then Jake and I went back to Gran's house.

Just like I thought, Gran and dad had made a cake, and my favorite, Gran's homemade pizza. Jake stayed with us for dinner and cake then by the time he was about to leave, it was midnight and both Gran and Dad went to bed, so he called his parents and told him he was just gonna spend the night.

We went up to my room and I plopped onto my bed. Jake looked around then closed the door. The first thing he saw was my picture wall, so he went to look at it.

"You spend a lot of time with them don't you?" He asked.

"Yeah, we basically play baseball at the sandlot every day." I said while tapping through all the embarrassing photos my friends from Texas posted of me on their Snapchat stories. They did it every year on my birthday. I didn't hate it though, I kind of liked the attention.

"I'm gonna use the bathroom, I'll be right back." Jake said reaching into his pocket looking for something I couldn't see.

"Okay. I'll be here." I said still tapping through the photos, then laughing at one of my friend Hailey and I when we were in kindergarten.

He was in there for a while so I quietly got up and walked over to the door to press my ear against it.

"You okay in there?" I said knocking on the door.

I heard him sniff very loudly, so I opened the door.

"Jake? Are you-"

Then I saw it.

"Shit." He said sniffling.

"Are you doing cocaine in my bathroom?" I said easing my voice.

"What? No... I-"

"Don't you dare lie to me Jacob." I said, my face turning slightly red from anger.

"Okay fine, yes I'm doing lines in your bathroom... but it's not that bad I swear." He said trying to calm me down.

"I can't believe you right now." I said walking out of the bathroom and towards the door of my bedroom.

"Hey..." he said following me "I said, HEY!"

He grabbed my wrist tight before I could open the door and yanked me back towards him.

"Ow! Jake stop your hurting me!" I said trying to get away from him.

His grip was too tight, he wouldn't let go.

"What is your problem?" He said, his voice shaking in anger.

"You! You're my problem! You treat me and my friends like shit and then you go and do cocaine in my bathroom!" I said whisper-yelling so I wouldn't wake anyone up.

"Oh, so I'm the problem now?" He said raising his voice.

"Jake please be quiet." I said tears forming in my eyes.

"No! You're the one who's been hanging out with Benny and those little shits every day. If anything you're the problem!" He said still shaking.

I stood there staring at him, tears falling from my eyes. I couldn't believe this was the same Jake that I knew.

"Let me go." I said through my teeth with pure hate.

When he didn't let me go, I did something I never thought I would have to do to him. I picked up my free hand and swung at him as hard as I could.

He blocked it.

"You bitch." He said now holding both my wrists as tight as he could.

The pain from his grasp was terrible, but I didn't show it.

"I don't even know who you are anymore." I said about to break down in tears.

He let go of me. I looked at my wrists which were both bruised.

I looked back up at him with pure anger in my eyes.

"I hate you." I said shoving him onto the bed.

He quickly got back up and punched my right cheek so hard it started bleeding.

As soon as he did, his eyes shot open. I dropped to my knees.

"Ella... oh my god... I'm sorry." He said trying to help me up.

I pushed him away again and stayed on the ground.

"Leave." I said quietly, staring at the ground.

When he didn't move I looked up at him and yelled "Get out of this house! We're done!" And threw the bond touch bracelet at him.

I didn't care who woke up anymore. The guy standing in front of me was not the Jake I fell in love with, and I never wanted to see him again.

He picked up the bracelet and just stared at it.

"Go!" I screamed at him while standing back up.

Finally, he walked out of my room, slamming the door behind him, and ran down the stairs and out the front door.

Gran must've woken up from my yelling because she busted into my room with one of my dad's baseball bats, which she quickly dropped when she saw me.

She quickly ran over to me and I fell into her arms. She led me over to the bed and we both down. She didn't let go of me until she saw my wrists.

"What happened?" She said with a face full of fear.

"He's never done it before..." I couldn't finish my sentence. I was crying too hard.

"Shhhh it's okay." She said bringing me back in for a hug while she stroked my hair.

We sat like that for an hour. We didn't speak at all. She just comforted me while I cried the most I ever had since mom died.

After I finally calmed down a little bit I said: "Gran, can you stay with me?"

"Of course Pumpkin."

We both got ourselves situated in bed. Gran fell asleep before I did. I didn't think I could sleep. My mind was still processing what had just happened. It all went down so fast.