It didn't take me that long to reach Ben's front door after leaving my house and crossing my driveway to get to his house. I rang the doorbell as I stood on the porch of the Morgan's house and waited for the door to open up, which it did a few seconds later. Ben smiled at me and told me to come inside as he stepped aside so I could walk into the house. I had thought that Mrs. Morgan might be home, but then I realized that she had probably gone to Kate's soccer game so that meant that he was home alone since his dad had probably gone to Kate's game as well.
Ben's younger brother was either at Kate's game too or he was hanging out with one of his friends. Or he was shut up in his room playing video games, but that usually was only after school and he usually had one of his friends over so I knew that he wouldn't come out to see who was at the door. So, Ben was most likely home alone, but even if he wasn't, we wouldn't be bothered.
Ben told me to wait by the door while he got his keys and wallet. I watched him disappear up the staircase that was at the start of the hallway where his Dad's office, the laundry room, the entrance into the garage, and a bathroom were after the staircase ended. The staircase took up most of the beginning of the hallway so there wasn't much to see if you didn't already know what was down there. If it was your first time in the Morgan house, then you'd have to walk further down the hallway to see what there was in it. I had been in this house many times before, so I pretty much knew where everything was.
I looked around the big open room. The entryway was small, but it was connected to the family room, which had a big sectional in the corner. Part of the black couch was in front of the window and the television stood opposite from the window, which took up most of the wall. The television wasn't as big as the window, but the entertainment center it was sitting in was. I felt someone lick my hand and I looked down to see the Morgan's golden retriever, Blondie, looking up at me. She was panting and wagging her tail, looking happy to see me.
I squatted down to get to her level and pet her. She started licking my face and I tried to move my face away by leaning back, which made me fall back onto my butt. I laughed and then scratched her behind her ears as I sat on the wooden floor. I always liked hanging out at Kate's house more since they had a dog. I had always wanted a dog, but Dad would never let us get one.
"I think she loves you more than she does her own family," Ben said as he came back down the staircase and Blondie laid down to roll over so I could rub her belly.
"It's probably because I give her the best belly rubs," I said looking up at him as he got closer to us while rubbing Blondie's stomach. He smiled and then said, "You probably give her longer ones than we do since you don't see her as often as we do."
"That's very true. I'm always happy to see her since I don't have a dog. I know you guys love her, but I'm sure sometimes you don't want to be bothered by her when you're trying to do something that prevents you from paying attention to her," I replied. Ben nodded his head and then said, "That's true. Sometimes she can be annoying, but we love her anyways."
"Are you ready to go?" I asked him, giving Blondie one last rub on her belly before standing up as Ben leaned down to rub his dog on her stomach for a few seconds before he stood back up and looked over at me. Blondie got off the floor and then ran off, most likely to find her ball, satisfied with the love she had just gotten.
"Yeah, we should go. I'm sure you know where she went off to. She probably also loves you more because you play ball with her more often than we do," Ben said as he went over to the front door and opened it up. I nodded my head in agreement.
He let me go out the door first before following me and then shutting the door. I walked over to his car, which was red just like mine, as Ben locked the door to his house and then came over to join me, where I was waiting by his car for him to unlock it.
When I heard his car unlock as he was walking over, I opened up the passenger door and then got inside. I closed the door once I was all the way in Ben's car and then set my small light gray purse on the floor of the car as Ben's door on his side of the car opened up. I put on my seatbelt as Ben got into his car and shut his door. He put on his seatbelt and then put the key to his car into the ignition.
"So, what are we going to do?" I asked him as he started up his car. We had never decided on what we were actually going to do so I had told him that I'd leave the decision up to him. He hadn't told me yet what he had decided on for us to do today.
"How does bowling sound?" Ben asked glancing at me for a second and then looking behind him as he started backing out of the driveway.
"That sounds good to me. I'll probably kick your ass though," I said.
"Oh no you're not. If I remember right, you were really bad at bowling," Ben replied looking over at me and winking.
I smiled and laughed as I felt my heart beat faster and I tried to ignore it. It hadn't even been ten minutes since I had started hanging out with Ben and I was already getting butterflies in my stomach just from him winking at me. I didn't need my heart distracting me and changing the tone of my voice. That wasn't going to be good for me if the tone of my voice changed because Ben would most definitely know that something was up with me. I wasn't going to give away my crush to the very person I had a crush on. He'd probably wouldn't want to hang out with me if he found out I had a crush on him because that would just be awkward.
Even though it would be hard to keep my true feelings for Ben hidden from him, I was actually starting to like the idea of hanging out with him more. It was nice to hang out with someone different, someone new.
"How do you know I haven't gotten better?" I said smiling at him when he looked over at me again as I watched him. He smiled back at me before looking back at the road.
"Have you gone bowling since the last time we went with our families?" Ben asked. Our families hadn't bowled together since I was about ten since we usually just now had dinner with each other at someone's house, but I had been bowling since then with my friends.
"Yes I've gone with my friends a couple times since we last went with our families and I think I've gotten a lot better since we last played together," I replied as I looked away from him and looked out the window to see how far away from the bowling alley we were. I looked back at him though when he started speaking again.
"I guess I'll just have to see for myself if you're any better," Ben said looking over again and smiling at me. I smiled back before he looked back at the road.
The bowling alley was only ten minutes from the neighborhood we lived in, so it wasn't too much longer before Ben was pulling into the parking lot for the bowling alley. He found a parking spot easily and turned off the car. We got out of his car and then headed over to the front door to the bowling alley as I heard Ben's car lock. Ben beat me to the front door, I could tell he was trying to walk faster than me, so he could open up the door for me, which made me feel like this was a date and he was trying to impress me.
But I needed to remember that we were just two friends hanging out and this wasn't a date. He was probably just being nice. I told him thanks as I passed by him and walked into the building. He followed in after me and we walked over to the counter.
When Ben offered to pay, I didn't object this time. I told him I would pay for myself next time we hung out. It seemed like a better idea to just let him pay for me this time, so we weren't spending any of our time together fighting. And anyways, I figured I could switch off between paying for myself and letting him pay for me instead of fighting about it with him every time we hung out with each other.
I'd rather spend time getting to know him than fighting with him so as long as he let me pay every other time then I had no problem letting him pay every once in awhile. After Ben had paid and we both had gotten shoes to bowl in, we headed over to the lane we would be playing in and sat down in a chair to change our shoes.
"Do you want to flip a coin to see who goes first?" Ben asked. I looked up at him after tying my shoes and stood up. He had already been looking at me by the time I looked at him.
"Sure, that's fine with me. Do you have a coin handy or do I need to give you one?" I asked walking over to him. He was standing near the machine that would record our scores. I noticed that he had already entered our names in and that the machine was all ready for us to start playing. It was just a matter of who was going to go first.
"I've got one. Thanks though. Heads or tails?" he asked watching me. I put my hands into my back pockets as I said, "Heads."
Ben flipped the coin in his hand and covered it in his hand after it landed. He came closer to me and revealed what the coin had landed on. It was tails. Looks like Ben was going first. He smiled at me and then put the coin into his back pocket. After that he went over to grab a ball and then got closer to the lane so he could throw the ball. I sat down in the chair I had been sitting in before and waited for Ben to take his turn. While I waited for him to finish his turn, I moved my purse to the other seat beside me so Ben would be able to reach it if he needed to.
He had been sitting in the chair one over from mine when we had been putting on our shoes so now my purse would be in the middle of both of us if we were both sitting down at the same time. I didn't need anyone stealing my purse, which is the reason why I had moved my purse. When I looked over at Ben, I saw that he was just throwing the ball. I leaned to my right a little bit to see how many pins he knocked down. It was all of them.
That didn't look good for me. Hopefully I hadn't gotten worse since the last time I had bowled. Ben turned around with a huge grin on his face as he walked over to me and sat down next to me.
"Don't get cocky on me. You've still got a long way to go before the game is over. Just because you got a strike doesn't mean it's going to keep going that way. Plus, you haven't seen my skills. I could end up getting a strike and then another one and then another one and so on," I said.
"Well it's your turn now so step on up and grab yourself a ball. Let's see what you got," he replied still grinning at me. I rolled my eyes, which made him laugh at me. It was just playful teasing, but I definitely was going to play my best. I didn't care if I had a crush on him. He wasn't going to win so easily. I stood up and said, "Keep an eye on my purse. I moved it closer to you so you could grab it easily if someone tries to take it."
"Yeah of course I will," he smiled at me. And just like that my heart started beating fast again. I tried my best to not give my feelings for him away, so I turned around and headed over to grab a ball from where they were sitting.
After stepping up to the lane and giving myself a few seconds to think about my move, I threw my ball into the lane and watched it travel down towards the pins. I swear I held my breath as I waited for the ball to come into contact with the pins. And when the ball hit the pins, I got a strike. Ben groaned behind me and I turned around with a smug look on my face. He should have known that his memory of a ten year old me bowling wasn't going to be the same as the sixteen year old me. I had definitely gotten a lot better than I had been when I was ten. So, if Ben thought this was going to be an easy game, then he was very mistaken.
"Now don't you get cocky on me," Ben said as we passed by each other.
"Don't use my own words against me. You're just mad because I'm not as bad as you remember. I did warn you," I said smiling at him. He shook his head and then went to grab a ball. I sat down and waited for him to take his next turn.
"Well this doesn't mean you're going to win," he replied.
"I guess we'll just have to wait and see if I do or if I don't win," I said smiling at him. He got ready to throw his ball and then a few seconds later it was rolling down the land. And then it knocked down all his pins. When Ben turned around, he was grinning from ear to ear.
"You've got some pressure on you now," Ben said.
"Yeah, yeah. So how come you didn't go to Kate's game?" I asked him, getting up from the chair I was sitting in and going over to grab a ball.
"I went last weekend, so I get this one off," Ben replied.
I stepped up to the lane again and got ready to throw the ball. When I was ready to throw the ball, I tossed it down the lane and watched it travel towards the pins for the second time. I really was hoping that I was going to get a strike, but if I didn't then I hoped that I could knock down the rest of the pins in my second throw. A few seconds later, my ball hit the first pin and the rest went down. That was a relief, but I couldn't get my hopes too high up and think that this was going to keep on happening. I didn't want to screw up my score by getting too cocky and thinking that I was going to keep getting strikes.
"That was lucky," Ben said as I turned around. He didn't look to thrilled that I had gotten another strike since the pressure was back on him again.
"Yeah I guess it was. Where's Nathan?" I asked him, going to sit back down.
"At a friend's house. He went to Kate's game last Sunday as well so this weekend he could skip it if he wanted to," Ben answered as he went to pick out a ball.
"Do you have to go every other weekend?" I asked him as he got ready to throw his ball.
Ben didn't answer right away so I figured he was focusing on how he was going to throw his ball. So, I waited until he was finished throwing his ball. This time he didn't get a strike, but with his second throw he hit all the rest of his pins down. I had a feeling that I wasn't going to get a strike this time, but I was still going to try my very best to hit all the pins down. Ben came back down to sit down in his chair, but I didn't get up right away since I wanted to know his answer.
"Yeah, but I sometimes show up more than I have to especially when I have nothing else to do. I like watching Kate play soccer. She's pretty good," Ben said looking over at me.
"You're such a great brother," I replied.
"Ryan's a good brother too. I think he's just having a harder time accepting that you're growing up and there's nothing that he can do about it," Ben said smiling at me. I nodded my head and then said, "Yeah, I guess. I just wish he didn't try to tell me what to do."
A few hours later our game was finished and we decided to get something to eat since we both had grown hungrier the more we had bowled. It had been a close game by a couple of points, but Ben had fortunately won this time. I vowed to beat him next time we decided to go bowling again. Thankfully Ben didn't rub it my face for longer than he needed to like Ryan usually did. Ryan loved to win so when he did win, he rubbed it in everyone's faces and then when he lost, he was a sore loser about it. After leaving the bowling alley and getting into Ben's car, we headed to a burger restaurant that wasn't too far away.
"You are definitely a lot better than I remember. I thought you were going to beat me," Ben said as he backed out of the parking space and headed over to exit the parking lot.
"Thanks. And I'm going to beat you next time we go bowling," I replied looking over at him and smiling as he did the same. We were quiet for a few minutes as he drove to the restaurant.
"Have your parents ever mentioned a woman named Andrea Stevens?" I asked Ben a few minutes later. Ben's parents had been friends with my father long before he had married my mother so I thought there was a good chance that they might know who she was.
"I'm not sure. You'll have to ask them if you want a better answer because I don't recognize the name, but that doesn't mean that they haven't mentioned her before. I just might not have been listening at the time," Ben replied glancing over at me and then back at the road.
"Oh okay. I'll have to remember to ask them the next time I'm at your house," I said glancing at the time. It was just after noon. We had only bowled one game so we could go get something to eat around lunch time. I was glad that we were going someplace different to eat because the food at the bowling alley wasn't all that great.
"Why do you want to know if my parents have mentioned her before?" Ben asked as he pulled into the parking lot of the burger joint. He drove around until he found a parking spot.
Once he had found a parking spot, he pulled into it and then turned off his car. I got out of the car after he unlocked it and then waited for him to join me at the back of the car as I heard his car door shut and the car lock. I looked over at him and saw him walking over to me. We walked over to the entrance of the restaurant and Ben opened up the door me again. I walked inside with him following right behind me.
We had to wait just a couple of minutes before we got a table, but I didn't get the chance to answer his question just yet. I decided to just wait until after we were seated at a table so we wouldn't get interrupted so quickly. The hostess would probably be back any minute now to come sit us at a table.
"Her son wants to talk to my father about his mother. Apparently she died when he was really young and he wants to know more about her, but my dad says he doesn't know them," I said after we had sat down at a table the hostess had brought us over to and then started to look over the menu so we could decide what we wanted to eat for lunch.
"You think your dad's lying, don't you?" Ben asked as I was trying to decide between two things on the menu. I looked up at him and saw that his menu was sitting on the table. He had probably decided on what he wanted to eat already.
The menu wasn't that big so it wouldn't be hard to choose from, but when there were two things on the menu that sounded good to you then you had a hard time choosing what you wanted to eat. They had burgers, of course, as well as some sandwiches. I was trying to decide if I wanted a cheeseburger or if I wanted one of their club sandwiches. It was hard to choose between a cheeseburger or a club sandwich since I loved both so when I had the option between choosing between one of them, I always had a hard time deciding between them. When I had finally decided on what I wanted, which was a cheeseburger, I answered Ben back.
"Yeah I do. My mom thought she was an ex-girlfriend of my father's when I had first talked to her about Andrea and her son. And she seemed pretty certain about that until this morning when my dad told me not to talk to her son anymore," I replied as our waitress came over to our table and took our orders. She left and then came back with our drinks a few minutes later.
"Why do you think your dad would tell you that he doesn't know the son or his mother?" Ben asked me as I started drinking my chocolate shake.
"I didn't realize it when I had first meet him, but later on after I thought about it, I kind of thought he looked like my father, but Nick, that's his name by the way, didn't mention anything about my dad being his dad. So, either it's a coincidence that he looks like my dad or that's why my dad doesn't want me talking to him," I replied.
"Really? You think he could be-" Ben started to say before he got interrupted by a loudly obnoxious girl, who was coming over to our table and looked very familiar, but I couldn't really place her at the moment. She had screamed out Ben's name very excitedly, which is what had made Ben stop talking and look for who had called out his name.
"Ben! Oh my gosh, it's been forever since I've seen you! How are you?" she asked grinning very widely. I looked over at Ben and saw that he didn't look to happy to see this girl, whoever she was. I looked at her again to try and figure out why she seemed so familiar with me. She had blonde platinum hair, which I'm pretty sure she dyed because no one normally had that shade of blonde of hair she had on her head, brown eyes, a thin figure, and seemed to be a couple inches shorter than me. She was wearing a pink top that had a good amount of cleavage showing and blue jeans, both very tight on her body. I figured that's the way she wanted it though.
I'm sure she wanted to show off her body so boys would notice her, which probably worked because she looked hot. She definitely looked like she could be a girl that Ben would possibly date. And that's when it clicked, this girl was Rachel, Ben's ex-girlfriend. She had been the one who had broken his heart worse than all his other girlfriends that Kate had apparently ranted about a couple of times to me when they had been dating each other, which is probably why Ben didn't look so happy to see her.