the 'brook action threads

Benson had been looking forward to moving home for the summer for a while; he was happy to get to hang out with his brothers and even to baby-sit Salinger, who he was pretty sure was the smartest four-year old ever.  What Benson hadn't expected was that his parents would go away for Memorial Day weekend and leave the house to him and Stieg.  Stieg wanted to go to the beach with some of his friends and Benson encouraged him to go so that he could host a party for his old classmates.  Presently, he was at the grocery store buying some snack food and loading up on beer.

He wasn't watching where he was walking as he returned to his cart and wound up bumping right into someone.  "Hey, sorry about that," he said automatically before he looked down and saw that it was Mallory Pike.  "Wow, Mallory!  How are you doing?"

This was weird and he didn't quite know why it was.  He'd run into Evangeline Sullivan several times and it had never been odd.  I also never cared about her really, he reminded himself.  But Mal...is different.