Only You

He'd never been happy, never really cared about anything, always just followed the "norm". Why should he care about other people? Why try to please anyone? They won't be there later on in life; he wouldn't know them in the future when life really began to matter, right?

Wrong.

"Ben! Ben! What are you doing?" A girl screamed from down the street as she came running up to the boy; just to bump into him, causing them both to hit the ground.

A smile broke out on the boy's face as she laughed. She mattered. There was just something about her that would probably always make her different from everyone else, that made him like her.

"What are you doing Ben? It's summer! Let's go swimming!"

Sighing, Ben stood up and pulled the girl with him, holding her still so he could keep her attention.

"Jennie, I don't like swimming; I hate ice cream; candy is good for nothing but cavities; and I see absolutely no point what-so-ever in mindlessly eating watermelon all day in a bathing suit."

Jennie stood for a moment, just staring into her blunt friend's face. No doubt trying to think of a comeback to his dis on all her favorite summer activities.

"Hah!" she laughed loudly, causing Ben to let her go, "haha! It's opposite day! I knew you secretly loved it all, let's go!" Ben grinned as Jennie drug him out of the park he was in and toward his house. He guessed that she already had her suit on beneath her clothes. Just like she probably forgot just what park it was that he was walking through. He didn't get upset though, he couldn't. Instead, he chuckled and quietly obliged as she pulled him up his front steps and straight into his house.

"Hey Mom!" Jennie called as she trotted up the stairs to Ben's room, Ben himself following sluggishly behind her.

"Hello Jennie," Ben's mother laughed as she was cooking dinner, already well accustomed with the young girl's eccentric attitude. As she cooked, she silently wondered when her son would finally ask the girl to be his girlfriend. They had been friends for over three years now and it was no secret that he liked her. Besides, were going into their senior year of high school, so he didn't have much longer.

"Ooh!"

"What?" Ben asked with a small smile.

"Wear the blue ones! I like those," she answered with a smile the size of a watermelon rhine.

"Okay," he laughed, "I'll wear the blue ones."

A couple of days after their swimming session, Ben walked into Jennie kissing some guy from his American History class the year before. Instead of saying anything, interrupting them or making any noises at all, he casually walked out, saying goodbye to Jennie's mother on his way. He didn't know why it bothered him so much, but it did and so his summer adventures with Jennie came to a screeching halt.

For nearly two weeks, Ben stayed couped up in his room doing absolutely nothing at all. Most of the time when his mother walked in, she would find him in some kind of tranced state staring at a wall in his blue swim trunks. Never really understanding, she would say her piece and shut the door quietly. One day, she brought him a pile of clothes he needed to put away and he didn't even acknowledge her presence, just stared at his laptop screen with a blank face. That's the day she knew she had to do something.

"Jennie? Yes, hello dear, how're you? That's lovely. I was wondering if you'd like to come over for dinner tonight? Oh, yes, thank you. Goodbye dear. Oh, wait, Jennie, would you mind bringing your laptop with you? Okay, yes, thank you. See you soon." Ben's mother hung up the phone and smiled widely, already knowing how the remainder of the evening would go.

"Ben? Come down here Ben!"

With a sigh, the sullen boy picked himself up roughly and slung his door open, stomping down the stairs moodily. He never smiled anymore. The only one that could make him smile was Jennie, but she was with another guy, so not even she could now. Yeah, he knew that they weren't "together", but that didn't changed the fact that he liked her. Nothing ever would, and now the he realized the feelings he had experienced the day he saw her kissing the American History guy, he wasn't sure if he like the feelings so much anymore.

Ben looked into the kitchen where his mother should have been, and without a word, turned around and headed back up the stairs for his bedroom.

"Ben!" Jennie called behind him, all the playfulness she usually held gone from her voice. "Ben, wait!" This just made him speed up as he trotted into his room, almost getting the door closed. Of course not, he thought, I can never really get what I want.

With a sigh, he swallowed his anger and let her into the room, sitting down in the middle of the floor with his laptop once again. He was looking up colleges as far away from this town as he could find. This is why I never talk to people, he thought bitterly. They always ruined his plans for his future.

Jennie plopped her own laptop in her lap noisily, making Ben look up at her in surprise. Where had that come from?

"Looking for colleges, huh?" He just looked back down and ignored her. Why did she care? "Me too!" she answered with a smile as if he had answered with the same lopsided smile he always gave when she spoke to him. With a sigh, he clicked on a link to a college in the United Kingdom.

"I found this really cool college in Glasgow." Ben quickly shook his head and canceled out of the site. Not there. "What about one close to home? Is that the kind you're looking for?" Silence was her answer, but she refused to give up. "Not me," she answered his silence, "I'm looking for one far away so I can get away from all the old memories that no longer matter because they were all in the past." She said, hoping it got across to him exactly what she was trying to say.

He wanted to say that he got it, that he understood perfectly that he didn't matter anymore, that she would move on from their past together and be okay. But he felt as if he couldn't talk to her anymore. Just as he felt he could talk to nobody else. It was the beginning all over again. Instead, he got up and flopped won on his bed with a sigh.

"So I heard you caught me and Alex making out," she said casually. Something in Ben broke at the mere mention of it, deepening his permanent frown. "Yeah, you must really like that kid," she continued, Ben resisting the urge to look up at her. "You know, I always imagined you beating the crap outta a guy if you ever caught me kissing him." Jennie looked up at Ben through her lashes, sure that would break his frown. No, it didn't.

Why was he so upset? Why was he back to not smiling at her? She really did love his smile, his laugh, him. She thought he would never like her back and that's why she accepted Alex's offer to go on a date with him. But now she saw it, now she knew. He did like her back. And he was very jealous.

She grinned as she got an idea and sent a picture to Ben's email that always made her think of him. It was even her background for her screen. When his computer made the noise telling him to check his email, she sat hers down gently and got ready.

Ben looked down at the picture curiously. Then, when he saw who it was from, he looked up and just as he did, he was tackled down on his bed and the edges of his mouth were pulled up so far, it was painful.

"See?" she said with a grin on her face. "I told you so." Ben's grew a grin of his own underneath her fingers and she let go, letting him smile up at her with his own lopsided grin.

"Yeah, only you though," he chuckled softly as he pulled her into a hug.