The Journal

Chapter Six - Scared Half To Death

Alex decided to treat himself to a weekend of rest, so he showered and went to bed at 9:00.

His comfort was disrupted around 5 in the morning when his bedroom's smoke detector went off, shaking him awake.

Across the hall, he could hear Sarah scream. He himself was also startled. He got out of bed to see what was going on.

"Alex! What's going on?" Sam yelled from the end of the hall.

"I don't know!" Alex replied.

"There's no time to figure anything out!" Sarah panicked. "We have to go!"

The kids ran down the hallway, quickly getting their dad and going to the front yard.

Christopher called 911 just in case.

A few minutes later, a firetruck pulled up to the Bentley family's house. Out came a teenage boy, who seemed a round Alex and Sam's ages.

"Uh, hello." the boy said. "Is there a problem?"

Alex was suddenly silenced by the boy's beauty. The boy's green eyes glistening in the moonlight.

"Yes." Christopher replied. "We were woken up a little bit ago by Alex's smoke alarm going off." He gestured to his second son.

"Hmm." the boy said. "Maybe Alex and I should go investigate to be safe?"

"Uh... okay." Alex muttered.

The boys went into the house, making sure to be careful.

"So, what's your name?" Alex asked.

"Benjamin," the boy replied. "But you can call me Ben or Benji."

"Okay, Benji. What's your job in the fire department?"

"I'm only an intern," Benji said, embarrassed. "I'm 15, so I can't be in the actual department."

"Oh cool."

The boys walked through every room, making sure that nothing was burning (obviously), and right as they were about to exit, Benji grabbed Alex's arm.

"Okay, so I don't know if you're into this kind of stuff," Benji murmured, flustered, and looking at the ground. "But here's my number if you ever wanted to talk."

Benji pulled out a small piece of paper with his phone number on it and handed it to Alex.

"Oh, thanks." Alex replied, taking the paper. "See you around."

Benji went outside to tell Sam, Christopher, and Sarah that the house was fine, then promptly left.

The family settled back in bed, knowing they would only be asleep for another half hour at most.

Instead of going back to bed, Alex opened the MyJournal app.

MyJournal Entry #10
Okay, so big news: Some really cute guy named Benji gave me his number. OMG he's adorable. His curly brown hair perfectly compliments his green eyes, and his eyes gimmer beautifully in the moonlight. Speaking of moonlight, that's how we met. Around 5 this morning, my smoke detector went off and we all got out and called the fire department. Benji's an intern there and we went inside alone (AAAAAA) to check everything to make sure nothing was burning. Then he gave me his number on a sticky note and left. He's also tall, a year older, seems shy, and he was the one that flirted with ME. So yeah, he's probably gay. Like, who would say "I don't know if you're into that stuff, but here's my number if you wanna talk" and NOT be queer? I'm not out of the closet yet because I don't know what I am, and I don't know if my friends would accept me if I came out to them. I'm sure Kayla would, since they're bi and go by she/they pronouns, but I don't know if Ethan and Josh would be okay with it. My life is such a mess. Anyways, its like 5:50 now, sk I have to at least try to go to bed before my alarm goes off. Alex out 🤙