Rey was growing bored while under quarantine, at least she had inventions to work on, but she missed her friends Finn and Poe.

She was working on tuning up BB-8, the droid that she invented. She was concentrating on tightening one of the little droid's bolts, suddenly her brow furrowed as she heard a commotion next door.

"Stay here, BB-8," she said, standing from her desk and leaving her room.

She climbed down stairs and opened the door. She looked around outside, making sure that no one was around. In her hurry she'd forgotten her mask inside. As she looked over at the vacant house next door to her parents house, she saw that a family was moving in. She had heard that the house had been sold, but she wasn't expecting someone to move in while everyone was under quarantine because of the coronavirus, but it made since that they would want to be in a nice house during a stay at home order.

With nothing else to do, she watched as the older couple moved a few boxes into the house. She was about to leave when she saw a young man carrying a large box into the house. He was tall and handsome with shoulder-length black hair and dark eyes. Rey couldn't take her eyes off of him.

She wanted to talk to him, but how could she with the social distancing rules?

As he came back out of the house to grab another box, he stopped as he saw her. His jaw dropped slightly as he stared at her and she found herself blushing.

"Welcome to the neighborhood," she said shyly as she stepped down from her porch onto the sidewalk.

"Thank you," he said, coming towards him.

Rey backed up as he got a little too close. "We have to stay six feet apart, remember?"

He laughed nervously, taking a small step back so that there was now eight feet between them. "I'm Ben, by the way."

She smiled. "Rey." She reached out her hand for a handshake, before quickly retracting it as she remembered that shaking hands wasn't a good idea right now.

"Ben," his mother called.

He turned to look at his mother before turning back to Rey. "Maybe I'll see you around?"

She nodded. "I think that's inevitable."

He looked at her intently. "Really?"

"Well I live in the house next to yours," she replied gesturing to the house beside her.

"Oh, right," he said awkwardly.

"But why don't we meet here on the sidewalk tomorrow."

"That sounds great, if you don't have somewhere else to go." He ran his fingers through his hair nervously.

Rey smiled. "Of course I don't we're under a stay at home order."

"Right. Of course," he stared at the ground nervously. "See you then."

~*~

The next day Rey came out to the sidewalk, this time she brought her mask. While she was waiting for Ben, she took a piece of chalk and drew two lines six feet apart, so they could talk but still keep the social distance rules.

A few moments later, Ben came over to join her. "I forgot my mask," he said as he noticed that she was wearing one. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a mask, before pulling it over his face.

He looked down noticing the lines she'd drawn and took his place.

"Unpacked yet?"

"No, but hopefully we'll be done soon, especially since we're all stuck at home anyway."

Rey nodded. "Do you like it here?"

Even through his mask she could tell that he was smiling. "Well, I made a friend on the first day I came here so that's a good start."

Rey laughed and he joined her.

"So when the quarantine is over what's the first thing you're going to do?"

"I don't know, maybe go see a movie or go out to get some ice cream," she answered.

"That sounds nice. Maybe...maybe after...you know... maybe I could treat you to a movie," he mumbled looking at the ground.

Rey blushed. "Are you asking me out... for a date?"

"Yes...I mean no, I mean if you want to?"

Rey smiled behind her mask, she had to admit that she was kind of hoping that he would ask her out. "I would love to, Ben."

He looked both surprised and relieved at the same time.

"I can't wait," she said.

"Me either," he answered.

"Until then I usually go for a walk around this time of day, we can go together if you want."

"That sounds great, I'll try to stay a few feet away."

She nodded. "I have just the thing, wait right here."

She went inside and grabbed her walking stick, it was exactly six feet tall. She came over to him and passed him one end of the stick. "We can't hold hands, but we can do the next best thing."

He smiled, taking one end of the stick while she held the other, keeping them six feet apart.

As they she imagined that she was holding his hand and she looked forward to the day that she could.