Waiting It Out - Benny Rodriguez - Book 1

Red, White, and Blue Eve

"AYO, WHAT UP RODRIGUEZES!"

I'm obviously walking into their house for dinner.

"AYE!" Jen drags out as I walk into the kitchen. "Your boyfriend is doing god-knows-what in is room."

"That's his problem. We're gonna be too busy for me to pay attention to him." I tell her.

"Yes. Okay. What are you thinking?" she asks me as she takes a sip of her wine.

"Doesn't kinda feel weird that we're trying to be responsible this time?" I ask her.

"A little." she answers.

"Same. Anyway. Our red, white, and blue casseroles were good last year but I feel like they might take too much time if we get behind. We started pretty early considering our usual prep time" I agree.

"It might look bad if we do the same thing two years in a row." she says.

"I'm pretty sure Mrs. McClennan already looks down on us but whatever. We could do the same thing every year if we had a classic but we've never had one that good."

She nods in agreement.

A classic is what we call one of the dishes, drinks, or activities that everyone expects to be out during the 4th of July barbeque on our cul-de-sac. 

Like Mrs. Porter's dark chocolate bars that I had an emotional affair with last year. Or Mrs. Timmons doing her face painting.

She's been doing that shit since I was like 3.

"I think you know what it's come to." she tells me with a somber face.

"Help us." I mumble under my breath.

"GOOGLE!" we shout at the same time while heading to the couch with our phones.

Since we can't come up with anything in our pea-sized brains, we're turning to the glory that is the internet.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Benny walked out later to find us quietly sitting in the living room on our phones.

"Wha-"

"Shh!" Jen cuts him off.

He shuts up and sits at my legs before going on his own phone. I'm sitting on a chair on the opposite wall of the couch so he's facing his mom while leaning back on my legs.

"What about red, white, and blue popsicles with like strawberries and stuff frozen in them?" Jen suggests after a few minutes.

"I know us well enough that we shouldn't go through all the trouble of that." I say and she goes back to looking after agreeing.

We'd either forget about it and not have anything to put or give up half way through.

"Y'all are just overthinking it." Benny says.

"What're talking about, Pecos Bill?" I ask, the name-calling in reference to his "y'all" thing.

"Just do something simple." he explains. "Like red, white, and blue jell-o cups."

Me and Jen's eyes widen at his suggestion.

"I'll check." she states before jumping off the couch and walking into the kitchen to see if we have jell-o in those colors.

I lean down to Benny and kiss his cheek from behind as a thank you.

He turns around and gets on his knees as I lean back in the chair.

"What?" I ask him.

"You missed." he tells me.

"What do you mean?"

He doesn't answer and instead leans forward and kisses me on my lips.

I kiss back but pull back by letting my head fall back to rest on the chair.

"Why'd you pull away?" he pouts.

"You're mom's is right over there." I answer.

"So?"

"I'm not in the mood to make out with you in front of her."

He groans and lays his head on my right thigh.

"We can just go to my room." he says.

"And tell her what?"

"I needed to tell you something." he suggests.

"You don't have anything to tell me." I point out.

He looks up at me with a face saying otherwise.

"Do you?" I ask.

"Little bit."

"What the fuck do I not know? We don't go 3 hours without seeing each other."

"I got a job."

I didn't know he'd be able to get something so quickly. He wasn't looking for that long and most places won't hire anyone under 16.

Key word: most.

"Rino's?" I ask and he nods.

"That's what I was doing when you came in." he tells me. "Tony offered me a job a few days ago when I told him I might want one soon but we were still fixing Smalls' problems so I thought I'd just tell you once I got it."

"When do you start?" I ask.

"Day after tomorrow."

"What position?"

"Seater."

"How often you gonna work?"

"I'm opting for night shifts on weekdays but he says he'll let me be flexible. Probably just 3 days a week."

"When do the night shifts even start?"

"He said 5 - 7 so I'll still be able to go to the sandlot I just might have to leave early."

That checks out. The place is open til 11 and employees probably stay half an hour past that.

"Sick. Now we just have to find me a job." I say.