Forth of July. One of the best nights of the year.
The only night of the year we can play baseball.
Our town likes to hold a firework show and it gives us just enough light to be able to play. We usually don't play that day so we have energy for the night game.
We only play for like half an hour but it's later in the day to play than we're used to.
It's about 5:00 pm now, 3 hours before the firework show, and I'm in the Rodriguez house kitchen helping Jen come up with some red, white, and blue food or drink to bring to the neighborhood block party barbeque. Since we're in the cul-de-sac it's extra important we bring something and since my dad's never here, people count me as apart of her household.
"What about smoothies. We could do strawberry, vanilla, and blueberry." Jen suggests.
"I think Yeah-Yeah told me his mom's doing smoothies." I tell her.
"Course she is. She always takes our ideas."
"Before we make them. She likes to plan what she's bringing like a month in advance."
"Bitch."
We're always are stuck in this position. We forget to come up with something, then spend the hours before the barbeque trying to figure it out, then struggle to get it ready in time.
"What about like bite sized snacks. We could put a strawberry, a blueberry, and a piece of cheese on a toothpick." she suggests hopefully.
"We did that last year." I say, laying my head down on the counter.
"Hey, ladies. Any luck?" Benny asks coming from his room after his shower.
"You're funny. We still have 3 three hours. We won't figure something out until 30 minutes before." I tell him, not bothering to lift my head.
"Why don't you just make something you usually make for dinner or something, then dye it red, white, and blue." Benny says.
I bring my head up from the counter and make eye contact with Jen. We're both making the same face telling me we also have the same idea.
"Pineapple casserole." We say at the same time, not breaking the eye contact but breaking into smiles.
Me and Jen's pineapple casserole is my favorite food in the history of ever. We came up with it when I was 8 and now we make it every Thanksgiving and Christmas.
"I meant like pasta. You don't need to go through the trouble of making a couple casseroles." Benny says, watching us scrambling around the kitchen to get the ingredients and measuring cups.
I freeze in place, "Go through the trouble? Benny. Benny! This is our pineapple casserole. There's no problem. Plus now we have extra time."
"Not for long. Okay!" Jen says grabbing my shoulders. "How many do you think we should make?"
"Three. One for each color and if we're lucky we'll have leftovers." I respond holding her arms.
This is serious.
"Right. We need to triple the recipe. We only have enough ingredients for one and a half."
"Okay. I'll go to the store, buy the stuff. While I'm gone look for those clear dishes with the American flag pattern we put the red, white, and blue chips and salsa in a few years back."
"Good idea. Make sure to hurry. And take my credit card." she says as she lets go of my shoulders and grabs her purse.
"You don't need to do that. I hav-"
"No. Take it. Go. No arguing." she cuts me off shoving the card in my hand.
I start for the front door when Benny reminds me of his presence.
"I'll come with you. We'll move faster."
"Yeah, okay. Let's go."
We walk out of door and run for the store. We don't need a list, I have the recipe memorized.
I beat Benny to the store by a few seconds. It's no secret that I'm the fastest on the team. I remind everyone of it every time I go to bat.
We walk in the store and Benny grabs a cart.
"What do I need to get?" he asks me, ready to bolt with the cart at any moment.
"You grab 5 cans of pineapples and 2 boxes of ritz crackers. I'll go get the 2 bags of sugar and 8 sticks of butter."
We both speed off to different parts of the store.
I go find the sugar and butter and am surprisingly able to carry all of it at once.
I find benny loading the pineapple in the cart drop all my stuff in when his hands are out of the way.
"We need anything else?" he asks me.
"Just a whisk but that's up near check out." I say as we start walking out of the isle and to the self check out area.
Lucky there's one available and Benny rushes to get it. I go into one of the cashier lines and grab the whisk.
By the time I get back to the self check out, the only thing left to scan is whisk I went and got.
"How did you do that so fast." I mumble to myself. Benny hears and laughs lightly.
"We're in a rush, gotta be speedy." he says, making the motion your arms move when your running.
I pull out my wallet and grab my debit card to pay for the groceries.
I see Benny pull his eyebrows together out of confusion in the corner of my eye.
"Don't tell your mom about this."
I grab the receipt and throw it in a nearby trash can so Jen won't know I didn't pay with her card.
We grab the bags, put away the cart in the messiest fashion possible, and run out of the store with groceries in hand.
We get back to Benny's house and Jen is prepping what ingredients we did have.
"We're back!" Benny says walking into the kitchen.
"Good, we're ready to start." she says taking the bag from my hands and starts unloading.
"Oh. I got you that whisk you said you needed last night." I tell her before she finds it.
"Great. You paid with my credit card right?" she asks giving me an intense stare.
"Yes, yes." I say, giving her the card back.
I look back at Benny to see him smiling at me.
Not in a 'I know you're lying ' or a 'I'm gonna tease you about this later' way. Just a genuine 'I'm admiring you' smile.
Ever since Wendy told me about him staring at me at the pool, I've been paying more attention to him. Not like I wasn't before. I'm paying more attention to his body language and how he looks at me in different situations. Let's just say, I'm fairly confident for February 12.
I wink at him before turning back around and going into full all-hands-on-deck mode.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We were able to finish a good 45 minutes before we needed to bring the food out and now me and Jen are sitting at the island, talking and drinking fruit punch we found in her fridge that expires the day after tomorrow. Might as well enjoy it.
Benny's out surveying the foods and drinks that're already out, seeing what we should and shouldn't eat so we don't waste time before the game.
"What was that thing between the two of you earlier?" Jen asks me with a knowing smile.
"What thing?" I feel like I've asked that 2,000 times since the beginning of summer.
"The I'm-in-love-with-you-and-want-to-tell-you-so-bad look Benny gave you after you guys got back." Jen said, mocking Benny's voice.
"You're asking the wrong person. I didn't make the face."
"Not that I saw but I'll bet good money you were giving him that same look back."
"What kinda money?" I ask with curiosity.
Benny comes back through the door ready with a full report.
"Okay, so, Mrs. McClellan made smoothies," who could've guessed, "Mr. Porter's grilling hot dogs, Mrs. Timmons made these bite sized cookie things, and Mrs. Palledorous is painting faces. That's all that was out so far."
"I know where I'm stopping." I said in reference to the face painting.
"What're you gonna get?" Jen asked me.
"Maybe a patriotic unicorn." I say with a fake young girl's voice making them both laugh. "In all seriousness, probably some red, white, and blue stars near my hair line on the side of my face."
"You should get going if you want to get it before the night game." Benny says taking a sip of my fruit punch.
"Wait. Before you guys run off help me get these casseroles on the table." Jen says getting up.
Jen and Mrs. Timmons always share a table so neither need to worry about taking too much space up and setting up their own tables.
We each grab a casserole and head out to the table to set them out.
"You guys excited for the night game?" Mrs. Timmons asked me and Benny when we set down the casseroles.
"Always." I respond as Benny grabs one of her cookies and bites into it.
He gives me the other half and we walk over to Mrs. Palledorous' table.
"Hello." I greet her, sitting in the chair opposite her.
"Hi, dear. What do you want tonight."
I explain the concept to her and she does it within 10 minutes. Benny's just standing beside me, watching my face carefully.
After she's done I thank her and we go off to find what else has been put out since Benny looked around.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It's about five minutes til the fireworks start and I'm over at the Porter's table eating some dark chocolate bar thing Mrs. Porter made that I've absolutely fallen in love with.
As I'm about to take another bite, I feel Benny grab my arm and make me run with him.
I wait to til we get to the sandlot to finish eating so I didn't puke during the run here.
"Ham, make sure to tell your mother I love her." I say making the boys laugh. "Wait, Benny. I don't have my glove. You dragged me off before I could get it."
"I grabbed it before we came here." he says pulling out of his pocket and giving it to me.
"How in American apple pie did you fit that in your pocket?" I ask him seriously but he laughs it off ask a joke and runs off to get in position.
That's totally not gonna bother me the rest of the night.
Benny goes up to bat and the fireworks start right before we start. I hear the ball hit the bat and it goes flying. I follow it with my eyes until the fireworks catch my gaze.
I've always liked fireworks. The explosion of color is truly mesmerizing to me. I even like the sound of the firework bursting.
As I'm watching I hear footsteps running up to me. I know it's Benny hitting third base so I look over and grab his right forearm with my right hand as he passes.
I look him in the eyes not sure what to say.
"Just... relax."
I know Benny will go on to bigger and better games one day but I need him to enjoy his childhood just a little bit. Baseball means the world the this idiot, but he means the world to me. I might never say that but I need to do something that shows him he does, even if he doesn't pick up on it.
I break the eye contact to look down at our hands. My right hand is still gently gripping his right forearm. I slowly walk closer to him and watch my left hand interlock with his right.
I glance back at him to see him still watching me.
I look back up at the fireworks but I never feel his stare leave me.