On July 15th, 2000, Reagan Sullivan was officially 10 years old. The last school year before she would be going to middle school with her two best friends, Ethan and Benny. It was also another year where she wished for her father.
She never had him in her life. Ever since she was born, her father packed up his things and left. Not wanting to experience fatherhood life.
Maria Sullivan, Reagan's mother, always tried her best to not have her daughter feeling down about her deadbeat father, so she did things with her that a father would with their daughter. She also didn't want Reagan to have the last name in hopes to find her father, so she had Reagan's last name to Sullivan, which is Maria's maiden name. Reagan appreciated from the start that she always had her mother.
For Reagan's 10th birthday, she didn't want anything big like usual, so what Maria did was invite the most important people in her daughter's life, her two best friends.
In the late afternoon, Maria sat on the bench with her sister, Margaret, as they watched Reagan run around with Benny and Ethan. They were playing a game of tag, which in their opinion, Reagan was best at.
"Tag! You're it!" Young Reagan laughs at young Benny, whose eyes widen but then smiled. As he gave her the impression that he was gonna chase her, Reagan squeals before running in the other direction. Young Ethan watched as he hid behind the bushes. He watched as Benny was catching up to Reagan, eventually knocking her down to the ground. Inside of saying she was it, he began to tickle her, causing the girl to let out a laugh.
The two Sullivan sisters looked at each other with bright smiles on their faces. From the start, they always knew that Benny and Reagan had a connection. Well, she's had a connection with both boys, but with Benny, it's a different type of connection.
Ethan eventually joins, throwing himself on his two friends, causing them to let out a groan and yelling, "Ethan!" But he didn't care, and neither did Reagan and Benny. The three friends rolled around in the grass before Maria yelled for presents.
Reagan immediately pushes the two boys off, running to where her mother and aunt were at. Ethan and Benny join, both of them on each side of Reagan. They watch as Maria hands Reagan a small wrapped box. Reagan smiles at her mother before ripping open the box.
She gasps. Inside the box was a video camera. She's been wanting that ever since she was 8. When she was that age, her grandmother told her how memories were important, that they should be kept, so she's been asking her mother for a video camera, and she has finally got one.
"Thank you! Thank you!" Reagan wraps her arms around her mother who laughs, returning the hug.
"Anything for you, mija." Maria smiles at her daughter. "But I think you should hug your tia as well. She did help pay for it."
The young Sullivan girl turns around to embrace her aunt. "Thank you, tia! I love it!"
Margaret smiles.
Reagan turns to her best friends. "How awesome is this! Now we can make memories with this baby!"
As Reagan goes on about how cool the video camera was, Benny stares in awe with a bright smile, staring at the young brunette. They may be young, but boy, he definitely knew he was in love with her. Ethan, noticing his friend was staring, nudges his side. Benny winces before glaring at Ethan. The Morgan boy gives an innocent smile in return.
"Well, come on!" Reagan grabs her best friends by their arm, pulling them off the grass. Reagan flips open the camera, facing the lens towards her and the boys. "Hello world, welcome to the daily life of Reagan Sullivan. I'm your host, Reagan Sullivan, and these are my two and only best friends, Benny Weir and Ethan Morgan!"
The two boys glanced at each other before snatching the video camera out of Reagan's hands, facing the lens towards them as Reagan tried to reach for the video camera back. "We are your new hosts, Benny Weir and Ethan Morgan." Benny greets, pushing the video camera further away from Reagan. "Today is a special young lady's birthday, the ex-host, Reagan Sullivan."
Benny faces the camera towards the girl who huffs. "I'm still the host, Benjamin, you just took my video camera, and you're too tall for me to reach it."
Ethan now takes ahold of the camera. "Ooh, using the full name. You know that's not good."
"Shush, Ethan!" Benny exclaims at his friend.
"While the two have a lover's spat, I'll tell you a little more about myself--" Before he could say anything else, Reagan and Benny tackles Ethan to the ground, wrestling for the video camera.
"Okay!" Maria grabs the video camera from the children's hands, facing the lens towards her. "While you three best friends fight, I'm gonna give you a little message. Happy birthday, sweetie. Mommy will always love you."
*
Fifteen-year-old Reagan pauses the video on her mother. Tears form in her eyes as she stares at the frozen video of her mother.
"I got the pizza. Is there--everything okay?"
Reagan quickly wipes her tears and looks away from the tv to meet Benny's eyes. "Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm just getting emotional."
Benny looks at the tv screen and sighs when he saw Maria. He sets down the pizza on the coffee table before joining Reagan on the floor.
The two sat in silence before Reagan spoke. "I almost forgot how beautiful she was." She examines her mother through the screen, making a mental note of her features. Her beautiful brown wavy hair, her perfect smile, the way the sun makes her brown eyes look caramel brown.
"I think you look a lot like her." Reagan looks over at the Weir boy who was smiling at her. "You both have the same smile. It's uncanny." Reagan sniffles as she looks back over at her mother once more before she felt a hand on her cheek, causing her to turn her head back at Benny.
"Thanks, Benny." Reagan smiles.
They sat in silence once again, not daring to say anything. They just stared into each other's eyes.
But sadly, the moment was ruined as the front door opened, forcing Benny to retract his hand, Reagan missing his touch already.
"Mija, I'm home. Can you--" Her aunt, Margaret, stops at the door as she sees her niece and Benny on the floor. "Well, hello, Benny. I'm surprised to see you here." She glances over at her niece who looks down with a blush.
"H-Hi, Ms. Sullivan." Benny quickly stands up to shake the woman's hand. "It's nice to see you again."
"And you as well." Margaret smiles at the boy. "Actually, would you mind helping me with the groceries?"
Benny doesn't say anything as he nods before heading out to fetch the groceries.
Margaret clears her throat, causing Reagan to look up. She saw the look her aunt gave her, so she quickly stands. "I'm sorry, tia. I was going to tell you that I invited Benny over, but--"
"No. No. Don't worry. I'm not mad." Margaret reassures the girl. "I'm actually glad that I'm seeing you back with him and Ethan. The two of you dating yet?" She smirks.
"Tia!" Reagan blushes more.
"Oh, come on! I still have my faith in you two."
"I-It's complicated. I just became friends with him again, and I don't want to ruin our friendship by a mistake of me thinking he likes me back." Reagan says.
Margaret sighs. "Okay. We don't have to talk about it now. You just have your time with your friend."
Reagan smiles at her aunt. "Thank you."
The Sullivan woman nods before saying goodnight to Benny who entered the house with all the groceries. "Where do I put these?"
Reagan laughs. "Come on, Benjamin. Let's take a trip to the kitchen." She grabs a few of the bags out of his hands, leading him to the kitchen.
The rest of the night was filled with laughter and memories. But the night ended with the two teens cuddled up on the couch with a movie playing in the background.