The Girl That Made Baseball

22

Finally, the week Jess was supposed to leave came.

As she moved in between her closet and suitcase on her bed, shoving clothes into it, Benny sat at her desk.

"You'll have to call me, you know that, right?" Benny asked

"Yeah I know, Benny" Jess laughed while putting one of his old shirts in her suit case.

"I want you to have something" Benny said

"Oh good-" Jess started

"Here" Benny held out his homemade jersey Jenny and Veronica, his mom and older sister, had made for him a few years ago. It had the number 30 on both the sleeves with 'RODRIGUEZ' on the back. It was a button up.

It was a nice shirt, really, one that Benny wore all the time.

"You actually want to give this to me?" Jess took the shirt into her hands and looked at the letters, raising an eyebrow

"It's getting small for me anyway" Benny shrugged

Jess folded it nicely and put it in her bag.

"Everyone around towns started calling you the jet" Benny laughed

"Oh yeah?" Jess laughed along "Hand me those pictures would ya?" Jess asked

Benny collected all 4 of the pictures on her desk, his personally like the one of just him and Jess the best

He handed the girl the pictures before sitting back down at her desk

Jess neatly put them in her bag,
on top of all her clothes, then she walked over to her dresser where her baseball signed by the entire team sat in a plastic case

She put it in her bag and zipped it up.

"I guess I got everything" Jess sat on her bed and folded her hands in between her legs

"I guess. What day do you leave?" Benny asked

"Day after tomorrow" Jess sighed

"And then school starts back up" Benny also sighed

"This summers been a real good
one, Benny. Thank you, really" Jess said

"I think you can thank the whole team for that, Jess" Benny laughed

"Maybe" Jess chuckled "Hey, I have something I wanna give you" Jess said

"What? Why?" Benny asked, confused

Jess walked over to her dresser and pulled out a chain. It didn't have a charm or anything on it, it was just a plain silver chain. She dropped it in the boys hands

"Why would you want me to-" Benny started

"I have things to remember you by, now you can remember me" Jess said

Benny handed the girl the chain and she put it around his neck, once it was on he tucked it in his shirt.

That night, Benny had stayed the night, and ate dinner with the family, talking baseball with Alex and occasionally talking to Reagan.

Jess' parents really had no problem with Benny sleeping in her room, because they never thought they'd ever get together. They'd been raised as if they were siblings.

Benny slept in her bed that night, the two not daring to touch each other, probably because they were both to afraid.

"Benny" Jess whispered

"What?" Benny replied, flipping his body over to face her

"I'm glad I didn't die too" Jess whispered