Eyes On You // Benny Rodriguez

Part 1

Who knew that one summer returning to my old home town would change my life forever, and it all started with a simple accident.

"Y/n!! Come downstairs and help me unpack the boxes!" Dad yelled up at me from downstairs

"Coming one sec!" The moving truck came in just yesterday will all our boxes and things from our old house back in Michigan, and now we have to go through the troubles of getting things unpacked so our house is actually and home and not a storage unit. 

We have only been here for less than 24 hours and I can already tell there is going to be a lot getting used to. The heat for the most part, and making friends before school starts up again is gonna be a challenge, but hopefully my new step brother Scotty Smalls can help me out with that, and maybe even get me with his guy friends, unless they are nerdy like him.

I've known Scotty for a pretty long time actually. We were friends until our parents met each other and... well here we are as step siblings. Mom sadly died shortly after I was born. Dad really never speaks to much about it so I don't know exactly was happened, just that I barely made it out into the world before she passed. So it's been Dad and I my whole life

I am excited though because California is where my Grandparents live. That's mainly the whole reason we are back because my grandma is really getting sick, so Dad wanted to come back and be there with her. 

We lived here four years ago before moving to Michigan with the Smalls'. I was only ten, but that age wasn't the best part of my life.

"Y/N!!" 

I ran downstairs forgetting the fact Dad called me down there

"Sorry, I was brushing my hair" I said frantically. I realized right after I said that how awful of an excuse that was.

"Well were unpacking boxes not going to a beauty pageant, I think your hair will survive" he said to me with a weirded tone

I didn't say anything and just walked over to a box sitting in the living room before I could make eye contact again, another that I'm not the best at, dealing with eye contact

I heard my Dad sigh and walk over to a box in the kitchen as I remained looking away

I started digging through the box of what looked like junk until I felt the ridges on a ball with the tip of my middle finger. I clasped my hand around the ball and pulled it out through the other things. It was my Dads baseball that Babe Ruth had signed. I love this ball, it's the whole reason I even got into baseball in the first place. 

One day Dad sat me down with him and played some old tapes of Babe ruth. My favorite has always been where he points up at the center field bleachers, and no one knew it at the time, but he was calling his shot. Low and behold next pitch came, he swung and there the ball went, right where he pointed. That's the same day he also showed me the ball for the first time. I was in love with baseball after that moment, and I still am. Dad got the ball from his Dad so maybe one day he will pass it down to me

"Hey is that my ball?" Dad said as he came walking over. "I've been looking all over for that thing, I thought it got lost in the moving process"

I turned around to face him and handed him the ball with a small smile on my face

I heard the front door open as Scotty and his mom walked inside

"Boy is it hot out there" Mom said wiping the sweat off her forehead. "This is a lot different than Michigan"

I never had a problem calling her Mom because I've known her for a pretty long time, and even before her and my Dad got married she was the biggest mother figure I had.