The next day bright and early, there was a knock on your window. The sun had barely come up and yet someone had the audacity to knock on your window. Whoever it was clearly had no idea how much you hate mornings, especially Saturday mornings.
You lifted your face up from between your pillows to see that Benny was standing right outside your window. Though you hadn't changed your clothes, your hair was all down and framing the sides of your face.
You panicked, reaching down to pick up a hat from the floor. You quickly slapped it on your head, tucking your hair in as you raced to the window. You pulled up the glass pane and revealed Benny, practically trying to pull you out of your window.
"Hey, what're you doing?" You smacked his hands away, climbing out of the window yourself.
"Come on, you gotta see this." He shouted, taking off down the street, and motioning for you to follow him.
"See what? Benny what's this all about?" You brushed off your flannel which was now covered in dirt from your window sill.
You walked up to the middle of the street where he was standing, and looked up. The sunrise was beautiful. You'd never seen a sunrise like this before.
"Wow. Is it like this every morning?" You asked Benny, who was just as entranced by the sky as you were.
"Nah, usually only happens every few months. I get up every morning around the same time just to see if it's good like this." He replied, never taking his eyes from the beautiful scene in front of him.
"How can you get up so early every morning? Don't you like to sleep?" You joked, dropping your tone when you looked back at your house.
The front door opened, and Mikey stepped out, pulling his jacket on before your mom followed. He gave her a peck on the lips before walking to his car, which you hadn't even noticed was parked there until just now.
"Is that your dad?" Benny asked innocently. He honestly hadn't known anything about your family life, you hadn't told him because you thought you might slip up and spill your secret.
You sighed as you watched him drive away. "No. That's my mom's new boyfriend Mikey." You said, in a sarcastic sounding tone.
"I'm gonna take a guess and say you don't like him." He came up behind you with his hands on his hips.
"Not really no. But it doesn't have as much to do with him personally. I just don't like the idea of having any other guy but my dad in the house." You confessed. It was true. Although Mikey didn't seem like a great guy, the main reason you didn't want him around was because you thought he might try and replace your dad.
"I don't mean to be all in your business Mack, but uh, I've never seen your dad. Does he not come around?"
You were hesitant to answer him, but you figured he would have to know about it eventually.
"He uh, he died when I was ten. Lung cancer. He used to smoke all the time." You pressed you lips into a thin line, the thought of your dad suddenly putting a lump in your throat. You had to do everything you could to keep from crying.
"I'm sorry. You must hate that your mom even has a new boyfriend." He patted you on the back and you nodded.
"You don't even know the half of it. He seems to be a real loser too." You heaved your shoulders up and down as you sighed. The only thing you wanted was to just go back to bed. All this was just too irritating. You didn't blame Benny, you actually really appreciated the fact that he thought to wake you up. However, seeing Mikey leave the house was not exactly your ideal morning.
"That sucks, I'm sorry. Hey if you want, we could go do something to take your mind off of it?" he suggested, making you finally turn to face him.
"Well where'd you have in mind?"
-
About twenty minutes later, you and Benny were out at the Sandlot. Benny was batting and you were in out field just catching all his hits. As much as you liked playing with the boys, there was something so relaxing about it just being you and Benny. He was by far the sweetest kid on the team, and always made sure everyone was having a good time. Not to mention the fact you like him. Not that he needs to know that.
You came out of your thoughts when you heard a loud crack from across the field. He'd hit it harder that time and it looked like it was going over the fence. You still ran back to see if you could get it, but it wasn't to any use, the ball flew right over your head.
You ran back to Benny to see if he had another ball, and if you could have a turn batting.
"Hey that was my only ball, we might have to grab another one." He dropped the bat, and got ready to run back to your shared neighborhood, but you stopped him.
"You don't have to, I could just hop the fence and get it." You turned to go get the ball, but he grabbed your arm, stopping you in your tracks.
"No, you can't." He rushed out, keeping you from going any further.
"Why not?"
"There's a Beast back there. It ate one kid already. Trust me it's not safe." He seems pretty serious, still you thought he must've been kidding.
"Yeah right, no way there's a Beast. Just hold on I'll get the ball." You tried to release your arm from his grip but he wouldn't let you move.
"No really Mack, it's not a joke. I've seen it."
"Benny I know when someone is trying to scare me, its not gonna work." You sassed. If there was an actual beast you would've heard about it by now.
"Mack. Trust me you do not wanna go over there. There's this.... Thing over there. Its like a giant gorilla dog. I can show you from the tree house, come on." He pulled your arm in the direction of the playground area where the tree house stood. You both climbed up and he pointed to the edge that over looked the yard behind the fence.
"Go see for yourself." He nodded toward you one more time, before you took the last step over to the ledge. At this point you were a little bit scared, but you figured he might just have Ham or someone waiting to jump out and scare you. Boy were you wrong. You could not explain the horror you felt after hearing the beast growling. When you finally looked down you were met with a terrifying face of a dog you thought might've been six feet tall.
You jumped back and tripped, landing on your butt. Benny just laughed at you. No one ever believed it at first, but after the first encounter they were all just as terrified.
"I told you so." He gave you a hand up and you stood, still slightly shaking in fear of the dog on the other side of the wall you'd been walking by every day.
"What even is that thing? And where the heck did they get it?" You sped out, trying to keep your cool after being scared shitless.
"Well uh, there is a story, but squints likes to tell it so I'll wait for him." He patted you on the back before climbing out of the tree house.
When you guys were back on the field, you decided you both were kinda tired. As you were walking home, you told him about how you don't do mornings well, to which he apologized for waking you up.
"Don't be sorry, that was really cool. Just maybe come by later after I've had more sleep, then we can head back out." He nodded, and waved goodbye before walking toward his house.
When you walked in, your mom was sitting over by the table with a cup of coffee.
"Ellis, there you are. I was wondering where you'd run off to this morning." She set down the newspaper she's been reading, and walked over to you, giving you her morning hug.
"Yeah, uh, me and Benny went out to play some ball." You neglected to tell her the whole 'watching the sunrise' thing. Knowing your mom she would probably make it into something it wasn't. You also steered clear of mentioning Mikey in any way. Figured that might lead to a conversation you didn't want to take part in.
"That sounds fun. I'm glad you made a good friend." She paused, but you could tell she was leading up to something else. "I picked something up for you at the store yesterday. I figured you might want to start wearing them soon."
You gave her a confused look, watching as she pulled a bra out of a paper bag, holding it up for you to see. You cringed at the sight of it, all padded and lacey. What the heck did she think you were going to do with that?
"Mom, we talked about this, I don't wear stuff like that. I don't like it. And besides, I can't play ball in it." You knew there was no way out of this situation, at least there wasn't one now.
"That's fine, I just thought you might like to try it on, see how it looks. At least for me, since I took the time to pick it up for you." She held it out to you and you picked it up with the tip of your fingers, as if it was a contaminated object.
"Okay, I will. But I'm not wearing it any time soon." You gave her your word that you would at least try it, and that was good enough for her to excuse you back to your room.
Going down the hallway though, you got even more tired, trying your best to stay awake on the way to your bed.
As soon as you got there though, you practically passed out. You were not going to do anything else before you took a well deserved nap.
-
You woke up much later, with a much better functioning brain. Sleep was key.
You figured you'd do what your mom said and try on the stupid bra she got you. You sat up and yanked off your shirt, leaving on the jeans you were wearing. You stripped yourself of your sporting bra before putting on the weird girly one. It felt so different, but you couldn't say it actually felt bad. You weren't able to say it looked too awful either.
You stood up and began to observe yourself in the mirror. You honestly didn't look half bad. It was really, really weird. You actually looked like a girl, and a pretty decent one at that. You kept on having your little fashion show in the mirror, observing different angels of yourself.
Meanwhile in the other side of the house, Benny came to the front door to see if you were ready to go play. Of course your mom being the person she is, invited him in.
"So you're the famous Benny I keep hearing about."
He just smiled and nodded politely.
"Yeah I guess so. So, uh. Is Mack home?" he rubbed the back of his neck, hoping he didn't just sound really awkward.
"Yeah, just go on in, it's the last room in the hallway to your left." She spoke, turning back around to continue preparing hers and probably Mikey's lunch.
Benny got a weird feeling just then but he shook it off, starting down the hallway to your room. The door was halfway open so he just walked on in.
At the sound of the door you turned around to see Benny, frozen in pure fear. His eyes went super wide before he just slammed the door shut. He just saw you in a bra. A stupid, idiotic bra. He knew. There was no way he didn't. Not to mention the fact that your hair was down.
You pulled on a shirt as fast as you could, racing to the door and hoping he didn't run out. Thankfully, he was still there, so you pulled him in before shutting the door.
His eyes were still just as wide as before and his jaw was dropped. He looked like he'd just seen a ghost.
"Benny say something." You shook his shoulders when he didn't move a muscle.
"You-You're a girl, Mack, YOU'RE A GIRL?" He sputtered out. You let go of him and started pacing, deciding on the words you would use to tell him what you probably should've told him already.
"Benny I can explain, okay. I just.... You know what sit down." You pushed him down on your bed, moving to sit beside him. You tried to gather more words, but he just kept staring at..... well you know what.
"Hey, would you stop staring?" You grabbed a pillow from your bed and hugged it against your body.
"Mack, you're a girl."
"Yeah I know I'm a Girl. You think I didn't know that already? Listen Benny, you can't tell any of the boys okay? You have to keep this a secret." You practically begged him. He looked you in the eyes for the first time since he'd been here.
"Mack, why didn't you tell me?" he looked almost like a kicked puppy. You knew you had screwed up then and there. "I wouldn't have told anyone."
"It's not that I didn't want to tell you, believe me I really wanted to. But I couldn't take a chance on losing what I found. You have no idea what it's like to be someone like me. It's really hard." You stopped, looking at your glove and bat in the corner of your room. "Benny, for as long as I could remember, baseball has been my entire life. But I grew up in a town where everyone knew I was a girl. They always told me a girl shouldn't be able to play. That's why I started dressing and acting the way that I did. I wanted to show them that I could be strong and tough like a boy, therefore I should get to play on a team. It didn't help though, in fact it actually made everything worse. Kids at my school and in my town bullied me for it. I just thought if no one in this town knew what I was, they might be a lot more willing to except me." By this point, your eyes were glassed over. Your gaze was still fixed on the bat and glove in the corner.
You suddenly felt a hand on your shoulder, so you focused your tear filled eyes on the person it belonged to. His face showed sympathy, and sadness for you. You were about to try and stand up, but he pulled you into a hug, wrapping his arms tightly around you. You instantly reciprocated it, holding him tightly for dear life. You could've sworn, while you were clinging to him, a tear fell down your face for the first time since your dad died.
After a few minutes of him just holding you there, you broke apart, wiping at your glassy eyes. Benny kept his arms somewhat around you, trying to comfort you in any way he could.
"I'm uh, sorry you had to-" you were cut off before you could barely even begin to speak.
"Don't be sorry. It's okay. I know what it's like to be the kid that no one understands. Trust me when I say I'm not gonna tell the other boys. But also trust me when I say you can talk to me anytime." He had to have been the sweetest boy you'd ever met.
You smiled your cheeky smile at him and nodded in thanks and acknowledgement of what he just said. You felt a single tear fall down your face, but before you could reach up to wipe it away, Benny brought his hand to the side of your face, using his thumb to do it for you. You closed your eyes for a moment, relishing in the feeling of his hand being on your face. All of a sudden you were brought back to reality, and forgot that the boys were probably waiting for you guys.
"We should get going." You spoke gently, standing up and going over to the window. "You can go and I'll catch up, I gotta change really quick."
Benny nodded and stood up, meeting you at the window. He opened the sliding glass frame and gave you a small peck on the cheek before hopping out the window and running in the opposite direction.
You knew he would keep his promise and not tell the boys. You knew you could trust him. He was a good boy with good intentions, and you could tell he was an honest one as well.