You Can Find Me In The Space Between

Chapter Eight

Benji was running late. He thought he had given himself enough time, but nope. The pier wasn't even that far from where he was living, and yet he still managed to be late. That guy Pete had also been pretty cryptic. Benji had asked how he would recognize them, and Pete simply replied by saying 'You'll know'. Like how was that a sufficient answer? So now Benji was roaming the pier, looking for someone holding a sign that said Benji. He was wondering if maybe Pete gave up because he was too late, but then, the crowds parted and he saw him.

***

"BUTTER!" A voice yelled.

Pete, Julie, and Carlos all looked at the direction of the voice and saw someone running towards them – or rather, towards their dog. Carlos nudged Julie, "Told you it would be a good idea."

The stranger paid them no mind but went straight onto the ground and began scratching the dog. He then wrapped his arms around the dog's neck and was murmuring into his fair – Pete couldn't be sure, but it sounded something along the lines of 'I love you'?

"Hey Reggie," Julie said.

"Hey Killer," he said, eyes still glued to the dog. After a beat he jumped up. "JULIE! YOU KNOW IT'S ME?! OH MY GOSH OH MY GOSH OH MY GOSH!" He practically tackled Julie to the ground with a massive hug. Butter evidently thought it was a game and began licking Julie's face. She was not impressed.

"What about us?" Carlos said with mock hurt.

Benji opened his arms wide. "Come here little dude... or not so little dude now. Are you taller than me?!" Carlos laughed and gave Benji a quick side hug. Benji then looked at Pete. "Luke?"

"I go by Pete now, but yeah bud. Bring it in." The two embraced in a long hug, which said everything they couldn't with their words. They hadn't been apart for this long since they first met as kids.

"Right – I'm Benjamin now, or Benji, or Ben... did Michael tell you to change your name too? I keep wondering if it even really matters. I mean, I guess it's not that different – it's even the same number of letters. I wonder if he picked that on purpose. Pete hadn't noticed that, but the same was true with his name. Weird. Probably unimportant, but still weird.

The group of four all smiled at each other, thinking about how different everything was now that they had found each other, but also realizing their little family was incomplete still. "I was almost expecting Alex to be here too... wait, Carlos, you're still Carlos right?"

"Still me, Benji."

"Gotcha. So, do you have any idea about where Alex is?" Benji asked.

"Not yet, but we haven't given up. We weren't sure if Pete was the only one who came back, but this has to mean that Alex is out there somewhere too." Julie answered. "So, Ben... no doesn't quite have the same ring to it as Reg... so, Benji, give us the details on where you've been for the past six months?"

"Six months?" Benji asked. "Is that how long you've been here Pete?"

Pete nodded, looking a little confused. "Why – how long have you been here?"

"Closer to a year."

"A year! What didn't you come to the house right away?" Julie asked.

"No offense Jules, but based on how you reacted to me, I doubt you would have believed him anyway." Julie gave Pete a withering glare in response to his comment.

"I'm sure I could have been more convincing," Benji said under his breath. "Well it was weird – I woke up in Connecticut. I've never been to the East Coast... well you know, apart from our last New York adventure. I might have gotten a little distracted along the way back here. Do you know how many places claim to be the best pizza in all of America? There are a lot. So far, I've tried about 328 different slices."

"Ben! Why? How?" Carlos said. "Also, Julie you just have to say 'Ben' a few times and it's totally fine."

"Well how else will I know who has the best pizza?" Benji shrugged.

"Benji, just give us a few more details – like how did you pay for all those slices, and how did you get from Connecticut to California?" Julie said, bringing the conversation back on track.

"Oh yeah – it's kind of a weird thing. So Michael left me some money with my letter –" Benji began to say before Pete freaked out saying how unfair that was because he didn't get any money. "... well anyway, it wasn't a lot of money, but enough to get me some pizza. As I was walking down the street, I saw another pizza place, and thought 'why not' and went and got a slice there. Once I got to the third restaurant, I realized I shouldn't spend all my money on pizza. Well the guy behind me in line was all like 'hey man are you ordering something or not?', so I explained my predicament. He paid for my slice and then said he knew another great pizza place, so we went there. So now I had eaten 4 slices, which isn't a lot, but I felt bad about him buying me more. Anyway he told me he was a social media marketing manager – I remember cause he had to explain it to me a few times. So now, people pay me to travel the country and try their pizza. Occasionally other food too, and then Dan, the media guy, looks after everything."

Julie and Pete stared at Benji with open mouths.

"Wait! You're not BBites, are you?!" Carlos screamed.

"Oh yeah – have you heard of me? I'm on the internets. Some people like my stuff."

"Some people? Don't you have like 27 million followers?" Carlos replied.

Benji shrugged. "So um yeah. I loved being in the band, but this is honestly a pretty sweet way to make money. Though Dan is trying to get me to promote Pepto Bismol and exercise equipment. He says that he doesn't want people to think eating all this pizza is healthy."

Julie ignored Benji and faced Carlos. "So, is he famous?"

Carlos nodded, still dumbfounded. "Yeah, and part of that is because no one knows who he is. Totally anonymous. He's like an online food critic, and because people don't know what he looks like, and he eats everywhere from fancy restaurants to food trucks, he can always be really honest." Carlos had pulled out his phone and was looking for more details when his jaw dropped. "Dude. You're worth almost a million dollars."

Once again, Benji did nothing but shrug. "I mean, the ~brand~ has that, not me in particular. But yeah, I'm well off."

Pete leaned over to Julie, saying that's something only rich people say.

***

"So yeah, then with some help from Carlos, Jules finally heard me out." Pete gave Carlos a fist bump.

"Awesome job little man! You got the lovebirds back together," Benji said with a flirtatious wiggle of his eyebrows.

Julie pursed her lips while Pete mumbled under his breath.

"What did he say?" Benji asked Carlos.

"Oh right... Julie has two boyfriends now," Carlos answered, earning a glare from Julie.

"I don't have two boyfriends! It's just... complicated." Julie then remembered that she was talking to two boys who died and came back to life twice, after a 25 year gap the first time round, and now they had completely different personas. "Okay complicated may be an oversimplification. It just wasn't the right time to break up with Grant."

Carlos' eyes lit up as he looked past Julie's shoulder. "Well here's your chance sis." Julie was confused till she turned around and saw Grant walking towards them, and for the first time, she saw anger in his eyes.

"The most important time in a man's life is the day he is born and then the day he finds out why." - Mark Twain