Loose Ends

Chapter 16: First Love

Ricky arrived at the butcher shop and was met by an antsy, nervous Ben. It's too early for this Ricky thought but decided to see what Ben wanted to talk about and get it over with. He had enough on his mind without wondering about Ben's problems today.

"What, Ben?"

"Did Amy seem upset or unhappy when you saw her last night?"

"No. Why?"

"Just trying to figure out how mad she is at me before we talk this afternoon." Ricky rolled his eyes.

"Ben, you knew she was upset with you when she stopped taking your calls a couple weeks ago. She'll tell you how she feels about everything when you talk to her. Until then, you might as well not worry about it." Ben nodded, but Ricky could tell he was still worrying. He simply sighed and got to work. The day passed quickly for Ben simply because he knew at the end of it he would finally get to see Amy again. It had been a long four weeks. Ben practically ran out of the butcher shop at the end of his shift and jumped in his car, eager to get home. Amy was already there when he arrived. He found her in the living room.

"Hi, Amy!" he greeted her cheerfully.

"Hi, Ben." She didn't waste any time on small talk. "Go ahead and get changed and then we'll talk." He nodded and dashed upstairs for a quick shower and wardrobe change. He was back downstairs in just under twenty-five minutes. Amy couldn't help but chuckle a little at his eagerness.

"So do you wanna talk in here or we could go up to my bedroom?"

"Your bedroom would be fine." They made their way upstairs and Amy sat on his bed as he closed the door behind them before joining her. He reached to give her a kiss but she pulled away.

"We need to talk Ben and I need you to be completely open and honest with me, no matter what." He pulled back and sighed. She's still mad at me. He decided to jump right in with an apology.

"Amy, I'm sorry I didn't tell you Adrian was pregnant sooner. It's just that…"

"We'll get to that Ben," Amy interrupted him, "but that's not what I wanna talk about first." She'd gotten Ben's attention and he quit talking. "Ben, why did you decide to ask me out?" Where's that coming from?

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that out of all the girls in our school, why did you notice and ask out me?" Ben thought back and realized Amy wasn't going to like the answer, but maybe he could soften the blow if he explained himself as well.

"Alice pointed you out to me at first, but during our date we talked and I became smitten with you…" Amy didn't give him a chance to finish; his answer made her wonder about something.

"Why'd Alice point me out to you?" Ben looked at the ceiling and groaned.

"You're not gonna like the answer, Amy." She waited for him to continue.

"You know how Alice knows a lot of facts about sex?" Amy nodded. "Well, I told her I didn't want to spend my entire high school experience as a virgin and asked her who she thought would be willing to sleep with me."

"Why didn't you pick out some girl yourself?"

"Um," he began, swallowing past the lump in his throat as he remembered that fateful morning in the hallway. "Because I was interested in Grace but Alice told me I had no chance since she was a Christian with a boyfriend back then."

"So why'd Alice pick me?" Ben sighed, remembering Alice's logic for picking Amy. Be still couldn't bring himself to look Amy in the eye as he told her the truth.