long time no see

1

small's pov

it was a genius idea. was is the key word. not anymore.

well you kinda have to back up to understand. monica was the only girl like ever that was allowed to play ball with us. she was cool, she didn't care if she got dirty and boy she could hit. she wasn't scared of anything, the beast, teachers, her parents, grades, people, insults, and she would stand up for you no matter what.  and if we were being honest, everyone had a thing for her. 

benny was kind and understanding. he was the best boy on the team. baseball was his life. he and monica were tight, and if she hadn't moved away they would have gotten together and well let's be for real there would be rodriguez babies everywhere in the baseball world. squints says 11. i say 9. anyway, they would have been great.

so my genius plan was to get monica to come to a game. a game that benny was playing in. see. genius. well i didn't think about monica and benny running into eachother as they both came to see me. 

whoops.

monica pov about an hour and thirty minutes earlier

benny 'the jet' rodriguez. it was him alright. imma kill smalls. smalls was my pen pal all through junior high, high school, college and still now. he was the only one who know that i had never dated anyone, kissed anyone, had sex with anyone because, well because of benny. this sounds dumb but i want all my firsts with him. i was fine to just be alone but smalls likes to interfere. he wants me to have what he and carol do. a solid marriage. benny walked up to bat. boy he looked the same. the pitcher threw and.... pow! that ball had no chance. benny took off. he made it to third. damn, he still has it. 

benny pov same time as monica

i look up to see smalls. he does some hand siganals. 

"come. see. me. after. the. game." i whispered. we see each other after every game and go grab a beer. he does the hand signs every time. i think he just wants to make sure we get together. we are best friends. i mean im a third wheel with him and carol, his wife, but we all get along fine and grab dinner once a week. it was a hot summer day in july. it reminded me of the summers we had as kids, at the sandlot. and monica. monica was my childhood sweetheart. and well still is my sweetheart. i haven't seen her since that summer but i know that she is gorgeous. all my buddies make fun of me cause i have never "gone to the other side" but i don't want to. not without monica. sounds dumb but that's how i feel. 

- after the game -

we won. i had changed and was heading up to see smalls. i was looking down at a letter i had gotten from my coach. just a get together on thursday night with him, his wife, me, and a plus one. i don't have a plus one in mind so i guess i'll go by myself like usual. 

<THUD>

"ah shit." i heard a female voice say. i looked up to see a black haired woman, late twenties squatting to get some movies she had dropped. i went over to help her. she was wearing a blue shirt and baggy jeans with her hair pulled into a claw clip and had sunglasses on the top of her head. i started to pick some of the movies up. we had gotten them all and we stood up finally facing one another. 

"monica?"

"benny?"

"hi."

"hi, how are you?" 

"good. how are you? how's your family? how's your sister?"

"oh well shannon's being shannon. my mom and dad divorced after they got into another fight so it's not really a family anymore. i'm good. you know surviving." she chuckled nervously, looking down at her feet. i remembered i was still holding her movies. 

"erm here." i said thrusting them at her. 

"oh um thanks." she said taking them from my hands. we both just looked at each other for a moment, taking in the lost years. she looked down again. her long black hair falling in front of her eyes and she nervously swatted at it. "umm well it was nice to talk to you. but im meeting a friend and i have to go. i'll talk to you later maybe um bye?" she said as if were more of a question than a statement. 

"yes, of course. maybe we can do this on purpose some time." i said. that was dumb. she probably doesn't want to talk with you after all these years. you have a baseball career that might have sounded prideful. i don't know why im so nervous. 

"um sure yeah. i'll see you around." she said. 

monica pov

oh. my. gosh. he remembered me. after all these years. he was so sweet. the same old benny in the sandlot helping smalls catch his first ball. he got lucky. i mean let's be so for real. if he didn't catch that ball yeah-yeah would have laughed him out of the sandlot. out of the whole city. country even. but that is beside the point. my childhood crush. my now crush. and i just blew him off to go see smalls. to return movies i had borrowed. ugh. i walked down to the elevator and pressed 'box view'.

it dinged at the top floor. finally. i walked straight to his office. opened the door. 

"smaaaalllss?!" i said my voice rising. but i wasn't the only one talking. i looked to see benny at the other door. smalls grinned. 

"monica."

"benny." 

"long time no see." he chuckled. i smiled. and then glared at smalls. 

"i feel like im missing something."

"we already bumped into each other smalls. and i have a feeling this wasn't an accident on your part." 

"oops." he grinned awkwardly.