ARDENT: BENNY RODRIGUEZ

☙ chapter nine.

Benny laid sprawled out at the bottom of the bed, an open textbook was perched in front of him while his eyes seemingly scanned over the printed words. Cree was settled at the top of the bed, her body propped up against the headboard, legs lazily draped across Benny's lap while she idly scribbled a rough sketch into her drawing book. It had been a month since their first kiss, a moment that was permanently drilled into Benny's brain and made him deeply blush anytime he recalled the events of that day.

It had also been a month since they officially confirmed the status of their relationship; transitioning them from friends to boyfriend and girlfriend. It was all anew for the both of them, this was the first relationship either one of them had ever been in but they comfortably settled into it, still learning about the requirements that came along with being in a committed relationship. But, even with that everything between them was currently going fairly well.

Upon them now being officially together, they began spending more time with each other; getting to know each other's idiosyncrasies, learning about one another's pasts, likes and dislikes, all of it. They were pleasantly surprised by how both of their lives were similar in comparison but was also still vaguely different to a fault. Cree liked Benny, she liked having someone that she felt implicitly comfortable enough with to be vulnerable around. She hadn't had that in her life prior to meeting Benny. Sure, she had Camryn but there were times where she felt as if she couldn't always vocalize her feelings to her sister, in fear that she would only be chastised or called ungrateful given everything that Camryn had to endure to keep them afloat over the years.

Benny — he was just simply easier to talk to. Whenever they had in depth conversations he always listened attentively, gave nonverbal gestures such as head nods to inform her that he was still actively listening, and even provided her with non-accusatory comments of reflection of his own afterwards. Cree adored Benny so much, and the feeling was wholly reciprocated.

Benny was unaware that he could develop feelings of affection for someone so quickly. He never thought he would pique interest in anything other than baseball, until Cree. Her presence alone provided him with enough comfort to help him cede throughout the entire day whenever he was feeling sullen. She was amazing, made him laugh heartily, provided him with a new profound confidence that he was unaware of that he previously lacked, and overall just made him genuinely happy.

While both Benny and Cree both flaunted blithely at their recent companionship, they had both agreed to refrain from informing their friends and family about their relationship. Their mutual decision to keep their relationship discrete came from both of them not wanting unwarranted opinions from others. Cree knew that if her older sister were to find out about Benny, that she would only chide her and say that she didn't need a boyfriend right now, and that being in a relationship would only strife as a distraction to her schoolwork.

Benny, his parents were adamant that he keep his attention devoted on baseball. While he knew that his parents were lenient on some things, he didn't want to risk that chance of them finding out and possibly restrict him from seeing Cree. He also didn't disclose about his relationship with her to the guys. They just wanted this to stay their thing for the moment, wanted to maintain the peace of knowing that they were together and didn't have to be concerned about the opinions of outsiders. They liked this being their own little secret.

However, with them sneaking around sometimes it made it very difficult for them to hang out outside of school. Either the guys were always dragging Benny along in whatever mischievous adventures they enthralled in that day, or he was playing ball with them down at the sandlot. Cree well, she had more of an advantage due to the fact that she had the house to herself for a few hours every weekend. So, on Saturday's, precisely at 8:30 after Camryn hurriedly scurries out of the front door and walks over to her car, Benny would wait for approximately five minutes; ten at the most (sometimes she would forget something at home and would quickly drive back to retrieve it), before eventually making his way over to Cree's house.