𝐈𝐃𝐈𝐎𝐓, Benny Rodriguez

6

{3rd person P.O.V.}

Adina walked out of the house, in a pair of shorts and a sweater. She pressed the chain against her skin, making sure I still had it on her. When her mother passed, she had been allowed to take six pieces of jewelry, the necklace was one of them. It had been passed down from Adina's great grandmother, to Adina's grandmother, to Adina's mom, and now to her. It was special to her to say the least.

"Hey." Jordan smiled.

"Hey." Adina sighed happily, Jordan pecked Adina's lips before he sat down on his bike seat.

"C'mon, get on." Adina climbed behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist. As Jordan peddled, Adina wondered where they were going. She knew they were meeting up with his friends and going somewhere but she didn't know where.

After meeting up with Jordan's friends, them whistling at the two, they continued to ride until Adina started to see familiar objects and turns. Why were they going to the sandlot? More importantly, why was Adina going with them? She didn't have anything to do with baseball rivalry. To be fair, she didn't understand their rivalry. Jordan didn't think anyone in that group, besides Benny, was good at baseball. So what? Why should they care about his opinion?

"Oh god." Adina muttered. She closed my eyes and placed her head on Jordan's back. When they came to a stop, Adina opened her eyes and looked up at the group. Her arms were still around Jordan's waist. Just having Jordan and his friends at the sandlot made Benny angry, but seeing Adina latch onto Jordan like leach made him furious beyond belief.

"Besides Rodriguez, none of you guys should be able to touch a baseball." Adina snaked her hands away from his waist and picked up her head from laying on his back. He didn't seem to notice.

"C'mon Phillips we'll take you on right here, right now!" Ham shouted.

"Yeah!" All the others shouted.

"We play on a real diamond field Porter, your not good enough to lick the dust off our cleats." Adina rolled her eyes, she was already tired of their silly bickering.

Their bickering went on for a couple moments until Ham said the most insulting thing you could say to a guy. It was an insult to both girls and guys, although most boy's seemed to thing it was only offensive to other guys. To be honest, the insult didn't even make a lot of sense. At least not to Adina.

"You play ball like a girl!" Adina rolled her eyes, she wished she could show Ham that not all girl's were bad at sports. The worst part was, Ham knew that Adina wasn't bad at baseball too. Adina believed she was arguably better at baseball than Ham was.

"What did you just say?" Jordan asked, disbelief flooded his voice as his tongue poked his inner cheek.

"You heard me Phillips!" Ham yelled back.

"You guys..against us. Tomorrow. Our field." They nodded and Adina wrapped her hands back around his waist as he sped off, glaring Ham down.

Adina didn't like the way Jordan spoke to her brother and their friends, and she wanted to tell him so. However, despite how rude he had been, she didn't wanna embarrass him in front of his friends. His friends would probably think that Adina being mad at him was the funniest thing in the world, and Jordan might even pretend to act tough and pretend he didn't care. But Adina would know that his tough act wasn't him. It was a character he played so everyone would like him.

Adina told Jordan that she wanted to go home and to drop her off there. He asked her why, parting from his friends to do so. Adina didn't answer him and she didn't give him an answer for the rest of the ride home.

~

Adina's phone started to ring after dinner that night. Her dad was working late, so she couldn't ask him for advice. Her Dad would always explain the boy's side of relationships, to try and help Adina understand the other side. She wished she could ask her mom for advice, and she certainly wasn't asking Diana. Diana and Scotty spoke about random things at dinner, Adina hadn't paid attention to their conversation enough to even understand what they were talking about.

"Adina?" It was Jordan. "What happened today? What's up with you?" Adina sighed as Benny flashed through her memories. This wasn't fair. It wasn't fair to Benny, or to Jordan, or to herself. She wasn't happy.

"Well you were an asshole to my friends and my brother for no reason today." Adina heard Jordan sit up quickly, his bed sheets rustling beneath him.

"What? I didn't say anything to him!" Jordan shouted defensively.

"Not directly." Adina muttered, but Jordan heard it anyways.

"Okay, I'm sorry." Adina gulped, she knew it was a genuine apology but it wasn't fair to try and force herself to be with someone she'd never be happy with. It wasn't fair to Jordan since she was only faking her happiness with him. It wasn't fair to Benny, because she was unknowingly still giving him signs that she liked him and that was confusing.

"I-I'm sorry Jordan, but I don't think we should be together." Adina pinched her thigh, trying to get her breathing to steady and not sound as shaky.

"Adina, I really am sorry, I..." Adina sighed shakily.

"I know Jordan..." She blinked rapidly, trying to get the tears in her eyes to miraculously disappear. "I hope you win your little competition tomorrow." Adina quickly hung up the phone before she could hear Jordan's protests. She felt terrible for what she'd done to Jordan, but it would've been worse to continue lying to him and herself.

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Word Count:965