Free Scarred by Jennifer Willows

a little while at least. Although, the ride back was all his.
     
    “I thought you’re allergic to tomatoes?” Amelia asked with the gooey triangle half-way towards her mouth.
     
    “Yes, he is.” Jenny chuckled. “I remember in… what was that? Second or third grade, Ben? When your face swelled up after we did a lunch swap. I had a turkey club with tomato and lettuce, and he had PB and J on cinnamon raisin bread. I loved that bread when I was a kid, heck, I love it now.”
     
    Ben chuckled. “Yeah, it was second grade. We were in Mrs. Spenser’s class then.”
     
    Jenny hooped out loud with laughter. “Ooh, it sure was.”
     
    “But to answer your question Amelia, Peter has a Benjamin special. If the wall wasn’t covered with the banner, you’d see it on the menu. He created a pizza just for me, no tomato sauce, with beet paste and spices instead. Sounds crazy, but it almost tastes the same. That’s what others have told me anyway.”
     
    Amelia laughed and he watched he bow her head for a moment. Then she took a bite of the baked dough and he watched the cheese enviously as the molten mozzarella dangled precariously from her lips, still attached to the dough.        
     
    She made the meal look more than appealing, and he finally picked up the wedge of pizza to take his first bite.
     
    Before he finished the folded slice, there was a lot of commotion coming from the kids at the nearby table. When he looked over, there was a large cake that almost seemed to walk out on its own.
     
    “Congratulations Underdogs!” Peter called out.
     
    “Yay! Cake!” Conan cried out.
     
    As soon as the word cake was said, there were more calls from the peanut gallery of children. Even some of the parents looked tantalized by the huge decorated sheet cake Peter carried to the table.
     
    “I want some!”
     
    “Me too!”
     
    “Yay!”
     
    “Mommy can I have some? Please?”
     
    Ben chuckled. Kids were so easy to please. Adults on the other hand? Grown-ups were an entirely different animal. When did he lose that ability to take pleasure in the simple things? He thought on it for a moment, but couldn’t pinpoint the moment that he lost his natural verve for life. He just knew that sometime between the freshman year in college and the pro-circuit a handful of years later, he was another man entirely. And he wasn’t sure if he liked the newer version at this point.
     
    But the cake was served in short order. Peter sliced it up and onto plates for the bouncing children before he could blink twice.
     
    “I just want to say, good job!” Peter was all smiles and joviality. The other man's mood mirrored that of the room precisely. 
     
    The cake was practically demolished when all was said and done. There was just enough left to fit in a takeout box and Peter was kind enough to give the packages to Benjamin, though Ben offed the box to Amelia for safe keeping. He gave several high fives and a few hugs, shook a few beaming parents hands. The children all climbed into their parent’s cars to go home after the late night. Well almost all. Jenny was going to have a massive sleep over at her place and about ten of the boys would be at her place.
     
    “Hey, Amelia, give me a sec before you go!” Jenny called out and he watched her herd the menagerie of youths into her van.
     
    Ben clasped hands with Peter, who smiled then handed him a cup of tea to go. “Thanks for taking care of us. Just make sure to send me a bill tomorrow. You can email or fax into the office like usual.”
     
    “No worries, Benjamin, this one is on me.”
     
    “There was a lot of pizza eaten tonight. You better send me a bill. It can be your treat when we bring home the state championship. By the way, how did you know we won?” Peter’s son was on the team as well, but his wife was sick and didn’t come. So he had no idea when the man would have gotten the knowledge.
     
    Peter laughed. “Well, I had two banners made and when