PREY — The Neighbourhood

My knuckles began to twist around the wooden baseball bat, blotting my hands with stains of white from the pressure of my fingers tightening.

In front of me, Kenny DeNuenz was pitching his worst curveballs in attempts to teach me how to hit them. I groaned loudly as another one vanished past me without even being near the bat hovering in the air.

"Don't worry doll face, you'll get it eventually, curveballs are hard," He said kindly.

"Too bad I can't hit a single one, I bet Benny doesn't struggle with this," I sighed in displeased agony.

It was true; I had begun hanging around the sandlot my first week living here and would often watch the way the game would swallow Benny's every sense. I could almost guarantee that one of Kenny's curve balls would be nothing to him and that he'd manage to smash it out of the park effortlessly.

"Yeah she's right, I probably could." Benny smirked, taking his turn to bat as I stepped off the base to take a break.

"I can't hit a DeNuenz curve ball!" called out Bertram as he attempted to spare my feelings. I felt a slight warmth at the thought of Bertram trying to be kind to me.

"Yeah-yeah neither can I Lina, I can, however, try to catch it in my mouth," Yeah-yeah said from across the field mischievously.

"Shut up Yeah-yeah, you just have a lot of practice catching things in your mouth." Said, Benny, as he took his position to hit the ball.

He dug the heels of his feet into the asphalt, dust slowly pooling at his ankles. His eyes locked on the ball Kenny was spinning in the palm of his hand. The ball was about to be pitched as the dark-skinned boy continued to build the impact of the throw. Benny snickered at the sight of Kenny ultimately attempting to strike him out.

"Make it your worst, DeNuenz," He spoke in a challenging demeanor.

"You got it, Rodriguez." Kenny laughed, releasing the ball, a hard knock of wood pierced the atmosphere as we were all alerted of Benny's bat being swung.

He managed to exile the ball—as I predicted, across the large metal fence blocking Mister Mertles house. I heard faint stories about him from the boys about them meeting his dog last summer, all of them still ranting about how Squints was a drama queen that convinced them that Mister Mertle was some scary old man with a gigantic murderous guard dog.

I never failed to laugh as they would all break into arguments over the topic, everyone sending accusing glares at Squints.

The boys started packing up their belongings as we called it a night once twilight resurfaced. I, however, had decided to find an excuse not to go home.

As Benny, Smalls, and I lived so close to each other, it had been a routine for us to walk home the same way. Ham would walk a few miles with us then turn the corner to his house.

As Benny finished packing his belongings, he waited for me to make my way home with them.

"You coming, Canada?" He asked, waiting for Ham and Smalls.

I shrugged my shoulders in response, "I don't know, I don't want to go home yet."

Benny told the guys to leave and turned back to where I was currently standing; the center of the field.

"Why don't you wanna go home, Elena?" He asked curiously.

"I don't know, I just wanna go meet some new people, explore, be stupid, I don't really have a reason," I explained as his face scrunched in confusion.

"What about your mom? She won't be very happy to see you out so late and
won't let you—"

"—Benny," I cut him off abruptly. "I don't care."

He appeared baffled at my response. It was adorable to see him so surprised that I was rebelling against my curfew.

"I don't want you to get into trouble, so I'll walk home with you then leave," I declared.

"No," Benny sighed. "I'll go with you for a walk."

"At this time of night? It's going to be nine," I asked, fearing for the perfect reputation he probably had with his parents.

It wouldn't be so bad if he came. . . Just to engage in a little trouble. I thought with small guilt.

"Nah, I don't care, my mom will probably be a little mad but nothing big, my mom trusts me," He explained, his amber orbs being absorbed by the crystallized starlight aligning the sky.

"Fine, let's do something stupid." I announced, tugging him by his wrist as the feeling of intoxication danced in my head as I thought about the small contact of skin. I obviously didn't show him it bothered me as I continued to securely grip his wrist between my slender fingers.

✱✱✱

Darkness dipped further into the sky as we walked around the neighborhood. Benny couldn't stop singing random kid songs causing me to stride down the street appearing like a madman with my exasperated cackling spilling from my lips.

"Stop, I don't want to hear anymore Disney songs," I cried clutching my stomach.

"I can show you the world. . ."  he sang, gently tugging his index finger across my cheeks while pretending to serenade me. I couldn't contain myself as he got into it by flapping his eyelids closed as the lyrics spewed from him.

"You know, you look like Aladdin." I declared, causing him to jokingly push me off the sidewalk.

"Shut up, you look like the monkey," His beautiful laughter pouring into the atmosphere like drizzles of rain in a droit.

Our laughter came to a halt as I explained I needed to buy some candy at Vincent's drug mart. He said he'd wait outside for me, taking a seat on a gravel pillar located in the parking lot.

I entered the store grabbing a small bag of sour keys and Skittles. As I searched for an item to get Benny, two girls who appeared to be my age approached me. One with scarlet waves of hair and winged eyeliner, and the other with waves of raven hair and a very exposing outfit.

"Hey, are you Elena?" the raven-haired girl asked.

"Depends on who's asking," I replied nonchalantly, scanning the store for items. The girls laughed at this comment, and still managed to spark up some kind of conversation.

"Listen, we heard you're new here, we like to welcome the new people to town by inviting them to a party of ours if they seem promising," the girl with what almost appeared to be flames for hair explained, coming too close to me, "you in?"

"I'll see," I said as I picked up a box of warheads, examining the label to pass time for these girls to leave, "where is it?"

"Oh, just meet us here tomorrow and we will let you carpool with us." The raven hair girl spoke up once again. They finally began to leave as I didn't bother to spruce up any more conversation.

"Bye Elena, welcome to the San Fernando Valley." Said the scarlet-haired girl as she made her exit out of the store. I didn't bother to respond.

I purchased the candy and exited the store to be faced with a worried Benny. "Were you talking to Adrianna Schaffer and Charli Santos?"

"If you're talking about the two chicks with red and black hair, then yeah, they invited me to a party to welcome me or some shit." I explained while popping a Skittle in my mouth.

"Do not go to those parties, they are filled with so many bad things li—like alcohol and drugs," Benny spoke nervously as though the thought of those items were repulsive and vile.

"Benny, you do realize that every party is filled with those types of things, right?" I laughed. A tint of rose blossomed upon his bronze cheeks causing me to have the urge to kiss the vibrant hues of pink out of them.

"I guess, I just. . . I've never been to a party or even thought about anything like that. I don't know." He explained while scratching the back of his neck.

We began walking down the path to our houses, divulging in the charcoal sky as the moon encrusted itself upon the isolated parts that didn't contain stars.

"Benny, I was thinking," I hesitated. "Why don't you come with me to your first party, as like. . . an experience or to hang out?"

It took him a while to process my offer as he began to pierce my vision with the confusion burning from his hazel orbs.

"Uh. . . I don't know if that's such a good idea, you're new to town and I'm new to that scene, that wouldn't end well on both parts," He spoke nervously.

"I've been in town for about a week, I think I've gotten the hang of things. And as for you, I can make sure you arrive and leave the party in one piece for your momma," I chuckled, as followed by his own small giggle.

"Okay, but I'm not gonna drink and all that
. . . I'm just going to see what the hype is," Benny said, his voice dripping with seriousness.

"I promise, no stupid shit." I said making a gesture that crossed my fingers across my heart.

As we arrived to our street, we were greeted by Smalls running from his house to us, a lopsided grin balanced upon his features.

"Hey guys, I was wondering if you had my glove by any chance?"

"I got it, you left the sandlot too quick and I just thought I'd bring it over to ya in the morning." Explained Benny as he pulled the beige beaten glove out of the back of his jeans.

"Dang, thanks Benny!" Exclaimed Smalls as he ran back into his house.

I laughed at the site of him waving frantically as he reached his door to his mom noticing his disappearance from home, her arms crossed over her chest standing at the front door.

"Smalls is. . . just something else." Benny laughed, intoxicating me to laugh as well.

"Definitely."

I walked him to his house, which was in fact next to mine. I couldn't decide to be sad about him living next to me making our outing short or the fact that I could see him all the time due to how close we were.

"I'm gonna go, I honestly had fun just walking around, Elena." Benny beamed at me as I turned towards my house.

"Me too," I spoke through the grin burning my cheeks.

"Can you do me a favour though," Benny called out to me before heading inside.

"Yeah, of course,"

"Don't mention the party to the boys, they will freak out." He explained. I simply nodded in his direction to indicate that I'd keep my promise of not revealing it to the boys.

We said goodbye to each other with smirks twisting our lips and our eyes mirroring a haze of amusement. I ran into my house, gliding up the stairs to my room to avoid the bombarding comments of my mother.

My room had finally began to come together as pictures of my friends were hung on my grey walls, and two large white and thin bookshelves stood on both sides of my bed instead of night stands. My room consisted of hues of grey, black, and white, the simplistic appeal to it appearing very aesthetically pleasing and easier to manage.

I plopped into my bed and started laughing as I turned up the song from Aladdin on to my phone. I laughed so hard it pierced holes into my lungs, cashing me to clutch at my ribs.

I didn't want to get too close to Benny, but I could already predict the pain I'd end up engulfing myself in when I'd fall for him. I was undoubtedly a masochist — searching for the cloying pain to spur holes and inked gunshots into my heart.

The only thing I worried about though was keeping Benny away from the life of
partying—the life I had.

I wouldn't let the pure boy to follow a path of pathetic lifestyles that were all lost causes when he had a lot going for him, he was much more than that.

Until it'd grow to be too much, I'd just remain an escape to him as I was to everyone else that clawed their way into my life unexpectedly like a hurricane; starting small without any doubt, then becoming an impacting clash of chaos.

//////a.n\\\\\\

This chapter is un-edited bc it's currently 4 am. I also made this one shorter not to bore people too much.

I forgot to mention before, since everything I'm writing here isn't entirely based off the Sandlot film, I made it that Benny, Smalls, and Elena live on a circular street that you turn into at the end of a road instead of Benny living across the street. Small insignificant detail I thought I'd clarify in case you guys thought I forgot about Benny living across the street from Smalls.

P.s

Adrianna Schaffer is played by lily Collins

Charli Santos

I couldn't find the name of this model either :/

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Comment,
Enjoy!

-nr