curveball || benny rodriguez

f i v e

Friday, June 30th 1962

That night at the treehouse was definitely going to be one of my favourite memories, after that night we continued to spend the days playing baseball.

When are we not playing baseball though?

It felt like summer had just only started but it's nearing the end of June already, so far all we had done was play baseball and get banned from the pool for the rest of summer, thanks to our dear old friend Squints.

He finally snapped that day, he had jumped into the deep end of the pool knowing he couldn't swim.

He knew that Wendy Peffercorn would have had to save him, Squint's crush..the girl he would swoon over. She ended up grabbing him out of the pool to give him CPR thinking he was unconscious, but he grabbed her face and kissed her...long and hard. Resulting in us getting banned.

That kid worries me.

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Tuesday, July 4th 1962

We only had one night game a year, every 4th of July. The fireworks lit up the sky well enough for us to play, that was also the only night where we would really play our best, we always thought we were famous baseball players on that night. Benny felt like that every time we played though.

I opened the front door of my house, running down to the sidewalk where I was greeted by Benny who was waiting for me. He grabbed my hand as we ran towards Small's house, Benny knocked on the door with the end of his bat. Scotty showed up at the door with a confused look on his face.

"Let's go, come on! Get your glove" Benny grinned all excited for the night game, cutie. He looked forward to this game every 4th of July.

"What's the big deal?" Smalls questioned.

"Night game, come on" Benny urged still gripping onto my hand, Smalls ran and grabbed his glove and hat. He opened the door and all three of us run through the barbecue as the other guys got up from their seats and then running behind us.

"Guys, wait up!" Ham yelled, I turned my head and see that he is grabbing food of the tables while still running towards us,I giggled at his actions. This was probably his favourite part, the food was what got him excited for the 4th of July.

We all make it to the sandlot, without wasting time we get into our positions starting the game immediately.

The fireworks began shortly after, most of the time we could never stand and watch because Benny was always there to bring our focus back. You see, these games were fun for us we played because it killed time and it also gave us a small hobby, but not to Benjamin Franklin Rodriguez.

He treated these games like they were the real thing, baseball was his life. Baseball was the only thing Benny focused on, its always been his dream to join the big leagues and play professionally when he was old enough to. Nothing was going to get in the way of his dreams.

The game went on until Benny hit the ball and sent it flying, he had dropped the bat and began running. We were no longer paying attention to where the ball had gone or the fact nobody was even attempting to get it, we diverted our focused onto the fireworks that whistled and cracked in the sky.

I had decided to bring my attention back onto the game noticing that Benny hadn't brought back our attention to the game but instead he had even stopped to watch, this was something he never did. I looked at him with a confused expression, I know my best friend and I know that he never stops the game to watch.

He just gives me a smile and engulfs his hand into my own and everyone just stood on and gawked at the bright colours in the sky. When our hands touched my heart skipped a beat, and I don't know why.

Affection like this was normal? Why am I feeling this way?