Benny Rodriguez; 1962

That Sounds Perfect

July 3rd, 1962

"I'll be back in an hour, I'm gonna take your dad to the airport okay?"

"Oh, okay."

"Are you okay honey? You look kind of pale."

"Oh yeah, I'm fine." Scotty waves her off and she seems suspicious.

"You sure?"

"I'm fine mom, really."

"Okay." She walks over to me and hugs me and then hugs Scotty.

"Listen, Scott. While I'm gone you're the man of the house, understand?"

"Yeah."

"Bella, help your mom around the house." He pats me on the back and walks over to stand next to mom.

"Will do. Where are you going again?"

"Chicago, for a week. We'll take another stab at catch when I get back." Scottys eyes light up and he smiles

"Okay."

~~~~~~

"Oh, man."

"Bitchin"

"Nah, it ain't."

"Oh come on, maybe two or three guys in history ever busted the guts out of a ball."

"Didn't Bella do that at one point?"

"I don't remember."

"What are we going to do now?" I ask and everyone looks around and feel for their pockets.

"Anybody got any money?"

"I think I have some but I don't know how much it is."

"Do you have any extra cents laying around, Smalls?"

"No but I have a ball."

"Since when?"

"Oh, I don't know." I look into his eyes and he instantly looks away and blinks a lot.

"We don't have a ball, don't even think about it."

"But there's tons of them in his room!"

"Those are signed by the Babe, you idiot!"

"The Babe?"

"Babe Ruth!" Me and all the boys scream at him and he looks genuinely confused.

"Oh, why do you guys always talk about him?"

"Go home, Scotty. Figure it out."

"Fine." He grumbles and walks out of the sandlot.

"Let's go find glass bottles and turn them in, we can get a ball then."

"Alright." We split up and walk separate ways and Benny follows behind me. By the time I get to the drug store I have four bottles and there's about three laying behind the store.

"Why aren't you talking?" I look at him and he looks confused. Why does everyone look confused today?

"I don't know."

"Hm." I continue walking and I pick up more bottles. I can't help but be scared that my hair looks bad or that he's looking at my butt. We haven't necessarily talked about anything other than when we kissed and I think that sort of proved everything he said we could take things slow if I wanted, I told him it didn't matter.

~~~~~~
"Hey, guys! I know who the Babe is now, she-he plays baseball." Did he really just call Babe Ruth 'she'?

"Alright Scotty, go to your spot." I'm sitting in the dugout drawing random designs on a piece of paper and it's really starting to get boring. I love Baseball but man if I'm not exhausted.