“Yeah, sorry, Vic. But that’s her.” Walter slapped my shoulder. I felt a couple more hands slap my back.
“He’s an idiot,” Jayden added before walking away.
I wanted to thank him, but the words wouldn’t come out. Whatever Daniel and I would’ve had, it wasn’t going to happen now. It should’ve been a relief, but it wasn’t. Daniel and Shelby stood close together at the end of the bleachers. I watched his shoulders slump at something she said. She caught me staring at them and grinned, slipping her hand around his waist. I turned away, not wanting or needing to see what happened next. The anger surged in my chest like a tsunami. It didn’t matter anymore. Dating wasn’t worth all the shit I’d already been through. I was done with guys for the rest of the summer. No more crap from Theo. No more pining over Daniel. I was done.
I felt a canyon form in my gut. It was over before it had the chance to start.
BOTTOM OF THE 4TH
The next week went by in a daze. Baseball was the only thing I could concentrate on. Daniel didn’t come back to the Habitat house even though his dad did. I wanted to talk to Mr. Cho, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I didn’t want to hear from Daniel’s dad what I already knew.
We lost on Tuesday but held on to sole possession of first in our district.
Theo, Andrea, and the rest of my class that went to Europe were scheduled to return late Wednesday night. Andy left me a voicemail that she’d try to get to Thursday’s game. The idea of seeing her again made me somewhat happy. And, in a way, I wanted to see Theo to figure out what was going on with our relationship or if we even had one.
But I had a game to play first.
“You a little distracted, Hudson?” Reggie asked from the other end of the dugout.
Adam laughed while Calvin answered for me, “Of course she is. Her boy toy returned last night.”
Daniel ran onto the field. Coach shook his head.
“What’s his name?” Walter asked. “Theo?”
“Yeah, that’s it,” Adam said louder than necessary. “It’s the only thing she’s been talking about this week.”
What a bunch of liars. They knew I hadn’t said a word about Theo. Just as I knew they only said anything because they were just as pissed at Daniel as I was. This was one of the many reasons I didn’t want to get involved with anyone on the team.
Mom hadn’t missed a game all week. She brought Grandma with her on Tuesday, but today she brought her friend from the Tea Room, Pepper. Yep, that was her real name. Pepper was part of Mom’s inner circle and looked as out of place in jeans as I did in formalwear. Mom and Pepper did everything together from charity bowl-a-thons (without actually bowling), to spa trips to California. Pepper had been a part of our lives for so long that I used to think she was my aunt. They waved from the stands as they sat with Reggie’s mom.
Mom didn’t come to my games, softball or otherwise. The fact that she was showing up now and bringing her best friend made the universe tilt to the left instead of right.
I couldn’t let it distract me though.
Coach hit me eighth. He’d learned to hit Ollie lead off against lefties. I paced the dugout while their pitcher gave up hits to our first five batters. We were up three to nothing. Calvin stepped to the plate and I made my way to the on-deck circle.
“Hey, Victoria,” a fairly recognizable voice said behind the fence.
I didn’t turn around.
“Leave her alone, dude. She’s focusing,” Daniel snapped.
I tried to block it out, but I couldn’t. Especially with Daniel involved.
“Whatever. Mind your own business, Chinaman,” the boy said.
Everything stopped. Our dugout cleared but not onto the field. The umpires called time before I even comprehended what was going on. Then I saw Daniel knocking some guy on his ass behind the fence. Coach took off and I followed.
Reggie and I got in between Daniel and the other guy. I pushed Daniel back, my hands on his chest. His sweat soaked through his shirt, covering my batting gloves. Jayden, Ollie, and Calvin held the other guy.
“Are you okay?” I asked him.
He looked down at me with blazing eyes. “Shouldn’t you be asking your boyfriend that?”
“What?” I turned around and saw Theo cuffed by Jayden and Calvin. “Daniel, I’m so sorry. I had no idea.”
He pushed my hands off of him. “Forget it, Victoria. It’s not like –”
“You ran from me, remember? You ran back to Shelby, so don’t blame this all on me.” I walked away from him before he could say anything else.
Theo shrugged away from the guys. He smiled as I approached. All I wanted to do was slap that smile off his face. A rock pitted in my stomach. The umpires yelled at Coach to get our team back on the field or forfeit. Calvin grabbed my arm and we hustled back to the game. My mind wasn’t anywhere near the field.
Any fight we had left disappeared. We got slaughtered.
“What’s your sudden damage, Victoria?” Theo snapped at me in the parking lot after Coach chewed us out for getting our asses handed to us on a platter.
I threw my duffel at his feet. “Me? You want to blame this on me? How is this my fault?”
“So he wasn’t from China. Big deal.”
“Christ, Theo, you get pissed if someone thinks you go to Ladue instead of Xavier.” I stepped close enough to see that his pupils were huge. “Holy moley. You’re high. When did this start?”
He laughed. “Again, big deal. I smoked a little weed when we got back.”
“Go home, Theo. Call me when the real you turns up.” I snatched my bag from the ground.
He grabbed my arm. “Oh no, you don’t. I’ve been gone a month and my girlfriend won’t even kiss me? Now that’s just not right.”
“Go home.” I yanked my arm away. “What the hell happened to you? And what makes you think we’re even still together after you cheated on me?”
My car was on the other side of the parking lot. I walked as fast as I could to get away from Theo. He ran up behind me and grabbed my arm again, turning me around.
“Damn it, Victoria. Why are you acting like this?” He leaned closer to me. “Why are you being such a bitch?”
“Leave her alone, man,” Adam said as he strolled up behind Theo. Heather was to his left. Reggie and Calvin were on his right.
Theo didn’t turn around. “This is between me and my girlfriend.”
“Not anymore.” Calvin slapped his hands and rubbed them together. “First you insult Daniel, then you get too aggressive with our third baseman. I think you need to haul ass outta our park, bubba.”
“Daniel?” Theo laughed. “That chink was the guy you’ve been giving ‘rides’ to all summer? Now it makes sense. Oh, Victoria, when your father finds out, he’s going to be so disappointed.”
That giant lump that always forms in my throat at the mention of my father appeared. “Leave, Theo,” I whispered. I was so incredibly tired. “We can talk about this when you aren’t flying in the clouds.”
“Yeah, I’ll leave.” He leaned in to kiss me, but I turned my head and he only got cheek. His lips hovered at my ear long enough to add, “I hope I’m there when your daddy finds out his little girl’s humping a Chinaman.”
Theo shoved me away and stumbled to his car.
“Should that dude be driving?” Heather asked.
“Probably not.” Adam rubbed her arm. He added in a quiet monotone in the general direction of Theo, “No. Wait, stop.” Theo revved his engine and sped away. “Nothing we can do about it now.”
Reggie watched Theo disappear. “You okay, Vic?”
“Yeah.” I shrugged. “I’m sorry, guys. He’s not like that normally. He’s never been a big drinker and I’ve never seen him get high like this before. I don’t get it.”
“Speaking of getting your drink on, there’s a party tonight,” Calvin said, wiggling his eyebrows up and down. “Come out with us, Vic. It’ll be fun.”
“I don’t drink.”
Not after the last time. I shuddered at the memory.
“Good, then you can drive.” Reggie gave Adam a high-five, then added, “Either way, it’ll be a rocking good time.”
This was the first time they’d asked me to go to a party with them. I glanced back to where Theo disappeared. Daniel and Shelby crossed into my thoughts. A distraction was what I needed from my train wreck of a life. What harm could a party do?
I picked Reggie and Calvin up at eight-thirty. Daniel was the only person I’d spent any time with on the team. Other than that one trip to Hansen’s, I really didn’t know what most of the guys were like off the field.
Calvin gave me directions from the backseat while Reggie kept messing with the radio. He thought he could sing every hip-hop song he found. He was wrong.
The party wasn’t too far from Grandma’s house in a nice stretch along Chipenhawk Road. The houses were all brick and looked exactly the same. We had to park two blocks away. Reggie sang the entire way there.
Most of the guys were already inside. I also noticed some of the girls that played on the softball field in our park.
The house was like Daniel’s, bigger on the inside than it looked on the outside. The interior was decorated with old-fashioned furniture meant to look authentic. It just looked ancient.
“Hey, you’re Vic, right?” a blonde softball girl asked me after I walked into the living room. I’d seen her pitch one day after our game ended. She wasn’t bad.
“Yeah.”
“I wish you were on our team. We could use a third baseman.” She laughed and spilled her beer, just missing her leg. “Why aren’t you playing softball anyway?”
A twist to my favorite question. “Because I wanted to play baseball.”
“Angel, why are you wasting your time talking to her?” Reggie asked, flinging his arm over the girl’s shoulder. “I am so much more interesting.”
“You’re an idiot, Reg,” she said, giggling that annoying flirtatious giggle a lot of girls use.
“Come on. Let’s get me a beer. That tap set up in the kitchen?” Reggie led her toward the back of the house.
I looked around for Calvin. He was on the couch with two other guys building a beer can pyramid. I shook my head. Boys could be so juvenile. It didn’t take Reggie and Calvin any time at all to forget who drove them.
Why did I bother to come here? I don’t know anybody.
“Well, well, well. Look who’s slumming in the city?”
My entire body turned to ice at the sound of the voice I’d known since kindergarten. Please tell me I’m in a bad horror movie.
“Vicky,” he continued, “what’re you doing here when there is finer meat back home?”
I turned around to face him. Erik Perday had once been my best friend. We did everything together. Then we didn’t. Around the beginning of eighth grade, things changed. I don’t know why, they just did. Suddenly he was mean to me, calling me names and punching me for no reason. He acted more like a ten year old. At Scott Swisher’s birthday blowout our junior year, I got wasted.
And I slept with Erik Perday.
The following Monday, Erik acted like we were some hot new couple. We weren’t. When I told him I’d made a mistake and that I regretted what had happened, he told the entire school I was easy and would screw any guy that walked. I countered that Erik had a small dick. Most people didn’t care either way. I wasn’t popular enough to matter, which was fine by me.
“What do you want, Erik?” I asked.
“Looking to score, Vicky?” He sneered. Erik wasn’t ugly. Usually. His surfer boy hair and constantly tan body made some girls swoon. But his bad attitude made them want to throw up. When he sneered, he looked like an evil cartoon villain.
“Shut up.” I turned to walk away from him.
His hand landed like an anvil on my shoulder. “Don’t you want to get a taste of me instead, Vicky? I recall you enjoyed it more than you’ll admit.”
I shivered and tried to shrug his hand off my shoulder.
“Is there a problem?” Jayden asked as he walked into view. Calvin stood behind him.
“Who the fuck are you?” Erik asked. Still, his hand didn’t move. “You know what, don’t answer that. I don’t care.”
“Let go of her,” said the last guy who needed to see this.
I tried to spin out of Erik’s death grip unsuccessfully. Daniel stood behind Erik with his fists clenched.
“Go away, loser,” Erik snapped. He looked around, realizing he was outnumbered. “This has nothing to do with any of you.” He glared down at me. “Where’s Theo, anyway? He get tired of your lies already?”
“Man, you need a hearing aid ‘cause you sure don’t listen,” Reggie joined in. He looked over to Jayden who hadn’t taken his eyes off Erik. “This boy must have forgotten to clean his ears. I’m pretty sure I heard Daniel tell him to let go.”
“Yeah, I heard that too,” Jayden said. “Did you hear it, Cal?”
“Yep.”
“Daniel, kung fu his ass,” Reggie shouted, then added to Erik, “Boy, you better let Vic go. Now.”
“Who are these losers?” Erik asked me.
“Her friends,” Jayden answered. He smiled at Erik and it wasn’t friendly.
Erik squeezed my shoulder. It hurt like hell and must have shown on my face. Daniel grabbed Erik and yanked him to the floor, slamming his knuckles into Erik’s mouth. Jayden stopped Daniel before his fist could do more damage.
“Get out of here,” Jayden said, his voice as calm as the sea before a hurricane. “Or I’ll let Daniel kung fu your ass. Trust me, you don’t want that.”
Erik wiped the blood that dripped from the corner of his mouth. Jayden stood over him with Daniel at his back. The room was deadly quiet. Everyone watched as Erik crab-crawled away from Jayden and Daniel. He rose, keeping his eyes on the boys, and backed out of the house. The chatter erupted as soon as the door banged shut.
Daniel took off toward the kitchen without looking at me. I started to follow him until I saw Shelby smiling in the hallway. I hadn’t noticed her there. I collapsed on the arm of the nearest chair.
“You okay?” Jayden asked.
I nodded, then took a swig of soda Reggie handed me.
“Then go talk to Daniel.”
“Why?” I looked up at Jayden’s looming figure.
He crossed his arms. “Just go.”
Surely Jayden knew that there was no way I had a chance with Daniel now that Shelby was back. “Shelby’s here.”
“So.”
I stared at him, really taking in his expression. Jayden usually had only one: focus. His muscles and attitude were intimidating, but his dark brown eyes were open and honest. Whatever he thought about me playing baseball, it didn’t matter at this moment. He was being a friend.
Shelby laughed in the hallway, her eyes on me. I followed as she headed toward the kitchen. Before I crossed the threshold, I took a deep breath and thought about what I needed to say to Daniel. Then I overheard what Shelby had to say to him.
“Come on, Danny. Let’s get high and really party.” Her voice was higher than I’d expected.
“You know I don’t do that crap, Shel. And neither should you. Do you want to end up in rehab again? That’s where my parents are going to ship you.” He sounded tired, not lovey dovey.
She laughed. I suspected she was already high. “They ain’t my parents, Danny. They can’t commit me.”
“I know that, but they are trying to help –”
“Oh, whatever.” I could almost see her roll her eyes.
“Don’t be like that.”
“I don’t want their help. I don’t need their help. And I don’t need your attitude either.”
“Then why’d you show up at my house then, huh? It wasn’t because that dude beat the snot out of you, was it? You told me you wanted to get clean.” Daniel’s irritation laced through his words.
“Well, I don’t.”
“Then leave.”
; “Fine.” She paused, waiting for him to stop her. “Fine, I will.”
She pushed by me in the hall. I waited for Daniel to come after her. When he didn’t, I went into the kitchen to find him. He leaned against the sink, looking out the window. I watched him as quietly as I could. He smacked the ceramic sink hard with his right hand then spun toward me.
“Oh,” he said when he saw me there.
“I just … um … I just wanted to thank you. For helping me out back there.” God, I felt like a moron.
“You mean with your other boyfriend.” He stated it as cold, hard fact.
I threw my hands up. I couldn’t take this from him. Not now. “Forget it.”
“Wait.” He walked up to me and stopped, leaving little room for escape. “I’m sorry. That was …”
“Mean?”
“Out of line. I don’t know who that guy was. Or what he meant to you. I shouldn’t have said anything.”
“You haven’t said anything to me for a while.” I leaned closer, tilting my head up toward him.
“I know.”
“Are you …” I swallowed the lump in my throat. “Are you and Shelby …”
“No.”
“Do you want to …”
He put his hands on my hips. “No.”
“Then why have you been treating me like a leper?” I linked my fingers into the belt loops of his jeans.
“Are you still dating Theo?”
“Officially, yes. Unofficially, no.”
He pulled back. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
I dropped my hands and stared at the floor. “I haven’t broken up with him.” I glanced up to see if there was any emotion in his eyes and added, “Yet.”
He cupped my face in his warm hands. It felt so good, so natural. “Yet?”
All I could do was nod. I put my hands back on his hips. I was breaking my promise to myself to not get involved with Daniel, but the truth was I missed him more that I ever missed Theo.
“Okay.” He smiled. “I can deal with that. But, tell me, when’s ‘yet’ going to happen?”
“As soon as I see him again.”
“Or talk to him?”
Extra Innings Page 8
