June 17, 2021

I woke up the next morning to the sound of a door slamming. I shot up out of bed and looked over to the other side of the bed.

"Shit!" I whispered then slapped my hand over my mouth.

Benny was still here. We must have fallen asleep while watching the pitch-perfect movies on my laptop last night. He looked so peaceful, I almost didn't want to wake him.

After staring at him in shock for a few more seconds, I decided to wake him up before my dad or Gran came in and saw him.

"Benny..." I said poking his cheek.

When he didn't wake up I decided to shake his arm. "Benny! Wake up."

He groaned. "Five more minutes mom."

I rolled my eyes then shook him again.

"Benny!"

Finally, he opened his eyes and looked over at me.

"Ella? What are you doing in my room?" he sat up, rubbing his eyes.

"I'm not in your room..." I said laughing awkwardly.

"What do you mean?" he looked around the room. When he realized where he was his eyes went wide. "Oh shit!"

"Yeah..."

"My mom's gonna kill me." he said getting out of the bed.

His hair was messy and his eyes were barely open. He ran over to where his shoes were and slipped them on then looked at me.

"What do we do?" he said nervously.

"What do you mean?" I asked with a confused look on my face.

"Your dad, he's gonna see me and think we did something bad..." he said scratching his neck.

"Like wha- oh..." I laughed. "I mean, you could climb out the window, but-"

"Great. I'll do that." He said cutting off my sentence.

He opened the curtains and unlocked the window. He opened it then climbed out onto the roof and paused for a moment.

"You snore by the way." He said winking at me then shut the window behind him. I climbed over the bed and looked out the window he left out of and playfully flipped him off. He laughed then jumped off the roof.

I was gonna warn him about the thorns in the bushes that he would be landing on, but then he said I snored so I just let it happen. My heart dropped for a moment, then went back to normal after I saw him running towards his house.

"That boy." I said shaking my head while walking into the bathroom.

I took a shower then wrapped a towel around my hair and body. I just braided my hair because I didn't feel like blow-drying and straightening it. I brushed my teeth and put mascara on, then walked back into my room to pick out what I was gonna wear.

When I finally decided on wearing white Nike shorts and an old rock band t-shirt, I put them on and plopped back down on my bed, and opened up TikTok.

There was a soft knock on my door so I answered it with a tired "come in."

"Someone's up early." Gran said opening the door and looking at me.

I turned my phone off and propped myself up on my elbows.

"Yeah... I woke up at 6 then I couldn't go back to sleep so I just stayed up." I said trying to act as normal as possible.

"Uh-huh..." Gran said with a suspicious look on her face. "And does this have to do anything with a boy jumping off the roof and into the rose bushes?"

"You saw that?" I said laughing nervously.

"Just be glad it was me and not your dad. He left early this morning to go to the store." She said with a smile on her face.

Gran sat down on the bed, not taking her eyes off me.

"So why was he here so early this morning?" She said raising an eyebrow.

"Gran! We didn't do anything I swear! You know me better than that." I said fully sitting up.

"I wasn't saying anything about that! I just wanted to know why he went out the window instead of the front door." He laughed.

"We fell asleep last night while we were watching a movie on my laptop, and we thought Dad was still home so he went out the window." I laughed.

"Did you at least warn him about the bushes?"

"No. He said I snored so I didn't bother." I said with a smirk on my face.

She smiled as she walked back towards the door. Before she closed it all the way she poked her head back in.

"Oh, Ella?"

"Yes?"

"You do snore." She said then quickly closed the door as I threw a pillow at her.

I sat there staring at the door for a minute then rolled my eyes.

"I don't snore." I whispered to myself as I laid back down.

——————————————————————

Gran and I walked to the bakery together since dad was still at the store. I was a little worried about him because he had been gone for over two hours, but I didn't think much of it.

What really ruined my morning was when I saw Phillips sitting on the steps of the bakery since it wasn't open yet.

"Shit." I said stopping where I was before Phillips looked at me.

"What?" Gran said stopping next to me.

Phillips looked over and smiled. "Ella! Long time no see!" He stood up and stuck his phone in his pocket.

"Not long enough..." I said rolling my eyes and continuing to walk towards the bakery, Gran following behind me. "What are you doing here Phillips?"

Gran unlocked the door and the three of us walked inside.

"Well, I saw you guys were hiring and I need the extra money." He said seriously.

"And you just happened to want to work here?" I said, starting to lift the chairs of the tables and set them on the floor.

"Don't flatter yourself. This was the first place I could find with a decent pay." He said helping me set the chairs down.

"Can you work a register?" Gran asked while tying her apron.

"Well, no, but I'm a fast learner." He said while pulling on the collar of his letterman jacket.

"Good. You're hired." She said, turning and going into the kitchen.

"What?" I said running behind the counter and chasing after her into the kitchen. "Do I even get a say in this?"

"Nope."

"But Phillips is a total jackass!" I said loudly.

"I heard that!" He yelled from the other room.

"Good!" I yelled back.

"Be nice. We need the extra help since Gillian quit and went to that stupid steak house place." Gran said getting out ingredients to make fresh cookies.

"Damn steak house." I said annoyed.

"Just go teach him how to work the register please."

I rolled my eyes then went back out and grabbed my apron. I didn't bother asking Gran for help because I was too stubborn when I was angry with her.

"Need some help with that princess?" Phillips said crossing his arms and watching me struggle to tie it around my waist.

"Not from you. And don't call me that, it's weird." I said still struggling.

He scoffed, then came up behind me and grabbed the ribbon from my hands and tied it together.

"Look, you don't have to like me, but I really need this job." He said quietly.

I turned to look at him for a minute, but when our eyes met I gave in. He looked like he was actually being serious for once, and his eyes were full of stress.

I walked over to where the extra aprons were and grabbed one. As I walked back over and handed it to him I put a soft smile on my face.

"Thanks." He said taking the apron and putting it over his head then turning around for me to help him tie it.

I hesitated for a second, but then reached down and made the two ribbons tie into a perfect bow.

"Scratch the register, I need help with the cookies." Gran said, bursting out of the kitchen doors. "You two work on the cookies and I'll do the register." She reached down and flipped the switch to turn on the light to the case that we put all the food in.

Phillips and I walked into the kitchen and quickly got to work.

At first, it was a little awkward, since I was supposed to hate him and all, but after we started talking about baseball, he seemed to genuinely be a nice guy. Then again, I had a problem with falling for the nice guy act.

"So why don't you and the sandlot boys get along?" I asked since I've been dying to know ever since that day at the pool.

"I honestly don't know..." he said, focused on rolling the cookie dough. "We've just always been rivals I guess. Benny and I used to be best friends though, then he met those dweebs and stopped talking to me."

"Hey! Those dweebs are my friends." I said playfully.

"Right," he said laughing "sorry." He looked up at me for a moment then focused his attention back on rolling out the dough.

"That's probably good." I said walking over to the side of the table he was on. "Now we just have to cut them out."

I held out the circle cookie cutter towards him. When he grabbed it, his hand tout he'd mine which sent chills through my body, but I didn't let that show. We looked at each other awkwardly, then I quickly turned away and walked back over to where I was making muffins.

"Hey you know those cheesy movie scenes where the characters throw flour at each other?" He said with a mischievous look on his face.

"Don't you dare!" I said pointing my spatula at him.

"Fine, I won't do it." He said with his hands in the air.

"Thank you." I turned around for a second to grab the chocolate chips, but as soon as I turned around he threw a handful of flour at me. I screamed.

"Oops, it slipped." He said laughing.

I grabbed the spatula that had muffin batter all over it and flung it at him, getting it all over his face and apron.

"Oops, it slipped." I said mocking him.

"I do not sound like that!" He said in an offended tone while wiping the batter off his left eye.

"You kinda do." I said laughing at him.

He took his pointer finger and scrapped more batter off his cheek then licked it.

"Needs more brown sugar." He said smirking and walking to his side of the table.

I squinted my eyes at him. "Haha very funny. My muffins are perfect." I said scooping some of the batter off the spatula with my finger then licking it. "Damn it."

He just laughed at me.

The rest of the day wasn't bad at all. Phillips was actually nice when he wasn't with the rest of his idiot friends. Really the only bad part was when Gran yelled at us about the mess we made, but we both died laughing when she left the kitchen.

At 3 pm, Gran decided to close up the shop since people didn't come in very much after lunchtime. She still stayed late to clean out the extra food that wasn't bought and sweep the floors like always. Dad would just pick her up later.

"Let me walk you home." Phillips said with kind eyes.

"I don't know, if Benny sees you..."

"Benny doesn't scare me." He said crossing his arms.

"That's not what I'm worried about." I said giving him the side-eyes.

"If we do run into him, I'll be on my best behavior." He said looking down at me.

I hesitated, then held out my pinky. "Pinky swear." I said seriously.

"Really? That's for five-year-olds Ella." He said looking at me like I was stupid.

"It's not for five-year-olds!" I said offended.

"Fine." He reached out and locked his pinky with mine then let go and we headed towards my house.

The whole way there I was nervous that Benny or one of the other boys would see us, but thankfully they didn't. I guess they played later than normal today.

"So I know your last name, but I've never heard anyone call you by your first." I said trying to take my mind off of what the guys would think if they saw me with him.

"I guess we'll never know." He said shrugging his shoulders.

"Oh come on! You made me tell you mine when I was riding my bike that one day." I said playfully punching his arm.

"Fine." He sighed. "It's Logan."

"Logan Phillips." I said trying to annoy him. "Wow. Never would've guessed that. I thought it would be like Gabe or something."

"Gabe? Really?" He said with a disgusted look on his face. "All Gabes are ugly."

I looked up at him with a funny look on my face that practically said "that's the point". Then started laughing when his jaw dropped.

"You know you're not that bad when you aren't with your idiot friends." I said in the nicest way possible.

"I don't know if that's a compliment or not but I'll take it." He laughed.

"It's a compliment." I smiled up at him. "You should act like this more often, maybe the sandlot boys wouldn't hate you."

"Maybe." He said as we got to the front of my house.

"See you tomorrow then I guess." I smiled at him.

"See you tomorrow." He laughed while walking backward.

"Logan." I laughed as he turned in the other direction.

He didn't look back, he just flipped me off and kept walking.

As I got inside I saw Dad looking out the window.

"You have got to stop spying on me." I joked.

"I wouldn't have to if you didn't keep meeting so many new guys here!" He said closing the blinds.

I rolled my eyes then walked up the stairs and into my room. I took my hair down and took another shower to get the flour out of my hair, then put on spandex and the first shirt I could find.

When I had just gotten comfortable in bed, there was a knock on my door. I sighed.

"Who is it?" I asked with my eyes closed.

"Housekeeping." They replied with a high-pitched voice, but you could tell it was fake.

"Hi Benny." I laughed, then he opened the door.

"How'd you know it was me?" He said surprised.

"Because you're the only person dumb enough to think I would actually fall for that." I said, watching him as he sat down on the bed.

"Don't hate, I think my impression was amazing." He said, defending himself.

"Whatever helps you sleep at night." I said smiling at him.

He scooted himself back so he was leaning on the pillows next to me. "How was work?"

"Interesting..." I said, my voice getting quiet.

"What do you mean?" He looked at me confusedly.

"Don't freak out, okay?" I said, debating in my head if I should tell him about Phillips... or Logan.

"Did Jake stop by again?" He said, hate growing in his eyes.

"No! But Phill... Logan... did." I said regretting the words right as they came out of my mouth.

"Logan? You're on a first-name basis now?" He said with a weird look on his face.

"Well I'm gonna have to if he's gonna be working with me up at the bakery." I said.

"He's what?" Benny said with his eyes wide.

"Yeah..." I was trying to figure out what was going on in his head again. He looked mad, but also like he didn't want to be mad.

"That douche bag! He just wants to get into your pants." He said angrily.

"You don't know that!" I said defending Phillips.

"Why are you defending him? He's a world-class ass whole!" He said raising his voice.

"He was actually nice to me today."

"Because he wants to get with you to hurt me, that's what Phillips does." I could tell he was angry, but I wasn't sure why.

"It's not like I could've done anything to stop it. Gran hired him, not me." I said raising my voice back at him. "And maybe he just needs money! That's why people get jobs!"

"Not Phillips! His parents are as rich as it gets. He's full of bull shit and you know it." He said standing up.

At this point he was basically yelling at me. I was scared, but I knew he wouldn't hurt me.

My eyes started watering, and he noticed right away.

"I'm sorry... I didn't mean to yell, he's just-"

"It's fine Benny, you should go." I said quietly, not making eye contact with him.

"Ella..." He said sitting back down.

"Dinners about to be ready. You should really leave." I said holding back my tears.

"Okay." He said softly, then got up and walked out my door. I waited until I heard the front door close, then I burst into tears. I knew he wasn't being rude to me, but I hate when people yell at me now. I just can't stand it. It reminds me too much of my birthday night.

When I finished crying, I got a makeup wipe and took off my mascara since it was dripping down my face, then pulled myself together and went downstairs to eat dinner.

Everyone was quieter that night. We had spaghetti like we did every Friday night, but I barely ate any.

I felt bad for kicking Benny out. He was just trying to look out for me and I knew that. Plus what he said about Phillips was most likely true, I just didn't want to admit that to myself.

After dinner, I cleaned my plate off then went up to my room. I didn't have to work tomorrow, so normally I would just go to the sandlot, but it might be awkward after Benny and I's argument.

I fell asleep around 9 after watching a couple episodes of The 100, which I had just started watching and was now obsessed with it. I knew in the morning I would end up going to the sandlot anyways to apologize, but for now I just wanted to sleep.