TWINS- sandlot love story

10|Long Way Home

Jessie Denunez

I could tell that Benny wanted to talk to me but with Squints pretending to drown, Philips locking me down in a conversation, and the guys getting thrown out of the pool made it real hard for us to have time to talk.

Thank fully, Wendy and the other lifeguards didn't kick me out since we're friends but I still left with the guys because I wasn't just not going to leave with them.

The main thing that sycked was that I barely got to hang out with them. On the way over to the pool I was still a little quiet and I wasn't bossing everyone around making sure no one was forgetting anything or that everyone knew where our stuff would be. I kind of just let them do their own thing. And while I was putting my stuff down I noticed Philips and he came over to say Hi. What I was hoping would be a short conversation ended up taking 20 whole minutes. It was really just him asking how my day was then talking about himself for the rest of the time, but I wasn't shocked at that. That was how every one of our conversations worked, him pretending to be interested in me then going on and on about himself, in an almost bragging manner. Sure it was interesting sometimes but most of the time he would just drone on and on about the same things over and over again. He's all I got a need haircut, I got a new bat, Me, Me, Me, Me. So honestly I was glad to have been pulled away from the conversation.

I walked out about a minute after the guys had gotten thrown out, which I don't get why they were all thrown out it was really just Squints, but they all waited for me while collecting themselves. I had all my stuff and I was completely dry due to Philips stopping me from even getting close to the pool. I checked on Kenny to make sure he had everything and we all set off on our trip home after a short yet eventful pool day.

I was yet again walking on the complete opposite side of where Benny was standing. I was just too embarrassed, I couldn't face him if he tried to talk to me. I was barely paying attention as we started to cut through a short cut to our streets I heard Benny call my name.

"Jessie," I didn't know if should've stopped or kept going. "Wait, please. I gotta talk to you." This time I knew I had to stop and I turned slightly to face him. His hair was wet and messy, slightly covering his forehead and he hadn't put his shirt on. He was simply holding it in his hand because he was soaked and it was too hot anyways. That left him to be half naked with his slightly toned abs and biceps om display for me to avoid looking at.

"Benny, I-" He stopped me before I could even start.

"Just please, walk with me this way. please" He just stared at me, in a pleading way and I almost immediately gave in. I looked at him and nodded then yelled out to Kenny.

"Ken, I'm going this way alright? You don't gotta wait up, I have keys." He just threw a thumbs up and kept on walking down the path. Benny and I turned to take the long way as he had requested.

For the first few steps we took them immediately silence until we both had enough.

"What was that this morning?"

"I'm sorry about this morning."

We spoke at the same time, so I let him get his point out first considering he was the one who asked me to talk. I knew that we had to get down to the point considering the "longer" way only added about two minutes to the shortcut we usually take so we would catch up to the guys in no time.

"I'm sorry about this morning. I don't know what happened and I'm-" I had to cut him off. I really didn't want to hear why he didn't want to be seen with his arm around me.

"It's fine, I don't care, really. Everyone gets embarrassed every now and then and I'm sure you didn't even mean to put your arm around me. It's fine" That hurt just coming out of my mouth but I knew it was true. he couldn't have put his arm around me on purpose.

At this point we were silent and still walking, I held my head down still embarrassed by the thought. I could tell Benny had to say something by the way he kept opening his mouth, taking a breath, and closing it again. I just crossed my arms and looked at him, the way he was silenced showed me that I had to have been right otherwise he would've said some thing. He just walked beside me and scratched his head thinking. It's like he wanted to say something but simply couldn't. Maybe he was scared about us being stuck in this awkward stage where we were barely speaking.

"Benny, I know you wanna say something, but if its about this little awkwardness that feel between us today don't worry about it. let's just put this all behind us, alright?" This was definitely not how I wanted this conversation to go but hey friendship is better than avoidance. We were already nearing our streets and I could see the guys parting ways so we weren't far behind, benny was still quite and I was ready for him to just ask if we could catch up with the guys real quick. But instead he stopped me.

"Jess wait," He grabbed onto my arm before I could continue walking. "I wasn't embarrassed earlier when the guys saw us I was just scared."

"Of what the guys seeing us like that or something?" At this point I was getting a little irritated, I just didn't get what he was saying.

"Not exactly, I was scared of what they would say." What the hell was that supposed to mean?

"What? scared they would make fun of you or something?" I couldn't believe what was coming out of his mouth. He was embarrassed, whether he liked to admit it or not. I could feel tears threatening to spill out but I couldn't let him see me cry. "Real nice, Benny. Real nice" I started to walk away again, I couldn't cry in front of him.

"Jessie, wait! That's not what I meant." I wanted to walk away, I was so hurt but I couldn't part of me wanted to listen to him and part of me wanted to yell at him.

"Than what do you mean? Because I sure don't know what you're trying to tell me here. Are you embarrassed, are you scared? What? What is it, hmm?" Can you tell which part of me is coming out. I was trying so hard to hold my tears in.

"Jessie, I like you. I like you a lot and I was just scared that maybe the guys would say something. not that they would make fun of me that they would tell you that i liked you. And I didn't mean to run off the way I did earlier, I thought it would freak you out or something the way I was holding you and I don't know if you were even comfortable with me hugging you like that all night. I was scared that I would maybe scare you off or something and that you wouldn't like me back." At this point he was finally looking at me. I was shocked, I could barely take in what he had just said to me and I couldn't tell if it were real or not.

"You what?" I couldn't tell if I was dreaming or not and if I was this would be an awesome time to wake up.

" I like you, Jessie. I really really like you," He was looking at me and I held eye contact with him as long as I could. I didn't know what to say.

"You like me?" I was stunned.

"Yeah, and I'm really hoping that you like me back."

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CONFESSIONNNNN!!! The next part should be getting posted sometime this week.