ʟᴏᴠɪɴɢ ᴛʜᴇ ᴇɴᴇᴍʏ - ʙ.ʀ ғᴀɴғɪᴄ

19 | ᴄᴏɴꜰᴇssɪᴏɴ

•july 4, 2021•

My grounding was finally over and I was excited to play with the boys again. Tonight was their annual night game, and they were nice enough to invite me.

I hadn't talked to Benny since our interaction a few days ago. He hadn't been answering me at all which I thought was odd. But I couldn't stop thinking about him.

I threw on some jeans, a red t-shirt, my white converse, and wrapped a blue bandanna with white stars around my head.

I put my phone and my sensor pod in my pockets, slid my glove on my hand, and headed out. Luke followed closely behind me.

"How's Benny?" he asked.

"Um, he's fine," I murmured.

"You sound unsure about that. What's wrong?"

I shrugged. "He just hasn't been answering me."

"Oh, I'm sorry, Em. Maybe he's been busy?"

"I don't think so. He usually answers me right away."

"Hm..." Luke hummed. "Maybe he got his phone taken away."

"Maybe. Listen, I don't wanna talk about this right now. Let's just focus on baseball."

Luke zipped his mouth and we continued walking. There was a small party in our neighborhood going on.

Kids were laughing as they ran around with sparklers in their hands. Others were eating food off of the many tables.

The adults were just hanging around talking, our dad being one of them. We waved to him and he sent us a smile.

"Have fun!" he yelled. "Love you guys!"

"Love you too!" Luke and I both yelled back.

Suddenly, a kid ran straight into my legs. I quickly skidded to a stop and looked down at them.

I could barely make out the girl's face under the dim streetlights, but I realized that it was Benny's little sister.

"Oh, hi, Emmy!" she squealed as she hugged me. "I haven't seen you in forever!"

I chuckled and ran my hand through her hair. She looked back up at me.

"Are you going to see Ben?"

I nodded. "Yup. They invited me to their night game."

"Oh, that sounds fun!"

"Wanna come with?" I asked.

She shook her head. "No, it's okay. I have my friends over here. Thank you though!"

"Of course. You have fun."

She gave me one last hug before running off. Luke looked back at her before continuing to walk.

"Who was that?" he asked.

"Benny's little sister, Jasmine."

"Ah, I see." he nodded.

We shortly arrived at the sandlot and saw the boys already playing a game. Smalls was the first one to notice us since he was the closest to the entrance/exit.

"Oh, hey guys!" he chirped.

"Hey man," I replied as I smacked my hand into his, Luke following my action after.

"We're just playing a short game, but we'll be done soon. Then we can start the real game under the fireworks."

"Sounds good."

Luke and I walked around everyone and over to the dugout. We sat down and Luke nudged my shoulder.

"There's your lover boy." he swooned.