Strike One

Chapter Six: A Meat Head, Lesbian and the Friendly Catcher walk into a bar

Whitneys Point of View

He squeezed my hand twice and told me it was a pleasure meeting me. So gentlemen like. Then he turned and walked away.

I’ve never had a moment like this in my entire life. A guy who, for once, or at least, didn’t seem to be interested in being in between the sheets with me or trying to get to know my dad. Odd. I feel odd. He turns around a couple of yards away and gives me a half wave and jogs off. He was incredibly nice, and it all seemed to be sincere - he didn’t play on any type of motives, at least not that I noticed. He was nice, and him leaving now makes me feel sad. I’m not used to these types of whip-blash emotions.

Abi approached me from behind, giving me a freight! “I thought I saw you one second with Decker and the next with Suchy, for someone who doesn’t date you sure have your pick dontcha?” She laughs. I shrugged, “Chandler was incredibly nice. Suchy, on the other hand- the first thing he said to me was, ‘we would make a good couple, 2 catchers and all.’” I spat out. Abi and I laughed really hard, and she agreed with me that it was a pathetic way to talk to me.

She leans in, “OK, so what about Decker then? I’ve never seen him talk to anyone really. He has always seemed so sweet though, at least from the couple of conversations I have had with him. He even offered to be the DD for the entire team after regionals last year when we both won. He’s a good dude,” she says. I smile, “Well, he was nice. We kind of just talked and got to know one another. He was very friendly,” I told her, trying not to give her too much info. I just don't want to spread rumors or anything to get back to anyone that doesn't need to hear how i feel about some boy on the baseball team. As far as I am concerned, this is nothing and no one should assume anything else.

She pats my shoulder, “Just be careful. I know Chandler is a nice guy and seems like a great dude — but don’t get your heart broken. I don’t think he dates, or at least that was a rumor last year. Plus, we need that pretty head of yours focused on catching softball balls at 70 miles per hour from the mound,” She tells me. It brings me back to his and my conversation about how he asked that our characters end up together, and for a brief moment - I hope they do too.

I laugh and tell her she has nothing to worry about. We kind of just hung out for the rest of the party though, I continue to notice the Suchy guy continue to try and get my attention from afar. I’m really not interested in some meat heads. So, I continue to brush him off. I noticed a couple of the baseball players were pretty hammered. One being Lucas - I only know who he is because Abi keeps telling me Lucas is hitting on her.

Lucas is handsome, but Abi seems to have no interest in him, but she is all dressed up and HAD to come to this party that was being thrown by the baseball boys. I just don’t understand what her motive was - and why she felt the need to get so dolled up if she wasn’t interested in one of them?

It finally hits me. Could she be gay? I guess I shouldn’t assume that - but I know the statistics and that a majority of women I am around interested in women. It has never once frightened me or deterred me from being their friends. I truly believe it's okay to love whoever you want. Love is, in fact, love. I just hope that if this is the case, that we build up a good enough relationship that she is not afraid to share that information with me and finds me a safe place.

I hope that my team feels that way about me. I hope I am a safe place for them in whatever they are going through. I’ve always wanted to go into criminal justice, but i have pondered the thought of social work/ or being a psychiatrist - working and helping people cope through their difficulties has always been an easy avenue for me - even if it hasn’t always been easy for me on a personal level.

Abi catches me in my thoughts - she grabs my hand gently, bringing me back to reality. “Where did you go,” Abi asks? I looked at her and smiled at her with reassurance, “Oh, geez- believe me, you don’t want to know what goes on in this pretty little head of mine. It’s dangerous and complex and even the bravest of souls don’t make it out of there unharmed,” I told her. She laughs. She looked at me with a very serious expression, “I really like Luke.” OH, OK… so she is interested in him. “Well then silly, what’s the problem he has been hitting on you all night,” I said with a bit of sarcasm!

She looks up at me with tears in her eyes and pulls me away from the party outside to a secluded area. “What’s going on,” I ask her as she is tugging at me to get further away from the party. She is now pacing in front of me, back and forth, clearly distraught. I decide to lead against the fence and let her figure out whatever mental battle she is having so she can tell me what she needs to tell me. A couple of minutes later, she looks at me, “I’m a virgin,” she blurts out. I smile, “Oh, ok. I mean, I am too - but why is that a problem? I’m confused Abi,” I deadpan. She looks at me like I’m incredibly naive and stupid. “You cannot be that oblivious. Luke is incredibly experienced - he sleeps with a different girl, which seems like every time he goes out. I don’t know, then there is Jeff,” She explains. I’m even more confused because where the hell did Jeff come into this conversation?

“Slow down Abi, explain it to me. I cannot catch up.” She smiles. “Jeff, he is a senior infielder. He’s always quiet, but he is so nice. We have study tables and share notes as we are in most of the same classes. I used to think he liked me, but I think he just thinks he thought I was always going to be in the friend zone. He’s really never dated either, at least not that I’ve noticed in the three years I’ve been here. I have kind of always been waiting for him to make a move, but he never has. So, when Luke was hitting on me tonight, I don’t know, I think I kind of like him now? God, I sound so hopelessly stupid,” Abi screams! Oh, the poor thing - she has had her hopes shattered by a boy who probably didn’t even know she was interested in the first place.

“Abi, you have to tell Jeff. You only like Luke because. He is showing you interest and giving you attention. It’s the type of attention you want from Jeff. It’s okay to feel like that - you’ve kept your feelings bottled up for a while now, so I’m sure it probably feels good to get off your chest. I honestly thought you might be gay. Hahaha,” I laughed at her. She slugs my arm, “Why would you want to date me Whitters?” Now we are both laughing uncontrollably. It feels good to have a genuine good laugh with a dear friend.

“Excuse me.” Abi and I both snap our heads back towards the party and see Jeff appearing closer to us. “I’m sorry, I just wanted to make sure you both were OK. I also noticed Luke had left and so had you Abi, so I had to make sure… umm, I ugh, I just needed to make sure you were OK is all,” explains Jeff. I smiled, he wanted to make sure she didn’t leave with him. He must have been watching Luke hit on her all night and obviously was concerned that Luke was going to take his girl. I laugh, “Nah, not our girl Abi - she is way too good to be one of many. I mean am I right,” I say, trying to get him to admit that he has feelings for her. “Yeah, she is special,” Jeff admits.

I realize I am now the third wheel here now, and I decide to make myself disappear. I grab Abi’s hand and let her know she is ok. She nods at me, and I walk away. When I look back at her, she was sitting along the fence with Jeff, and they were talking. My heart soars for her - she is an amazing soul and deserves a gentleman… not a Luke.

I walk into the house and, of course, I am immediately greeted by Nick Suchy. “Hi Nick, but I’m going to make sure the girls are all okay before I blow this popsicle stand,” I say. He chuckled, “So you are a blower?” I quickly turned to give him a hideous look of absolute disgust. This kid reminds me of generic TV shows where the guy tries way too hard and thinks he's cool when he isn’t. This is only real life. I cannot believe he doesn’t hear himself and the way he speaks.

Luke walks up and places his arm around my shoulder and looks at Nick, “Beat it Freshmen!” Nick puffs out his chest, “What are you going to do about it,” Nick threatens. Luke removes his arm from my shoulder and puts me behind him and stands about a solid inch above Nick and gets in his face. This isn’t good. Both of them are staring at one another’s shoulders, shrugging up and down, both waiting to pounce.

Suddenly, Chandler speeds across the room and shoves Luke back, nearly knocking him and me over in the process. He looks at me and makes sure I’m OK, but then grabs Luke by the shoulders and tells him to go home. He insists he starts walking and that he will catch up. Luke looks at Chandler, “Deck he was going to try something, I had to protect her,” he confesses, “I saw he had pills in his back pocket, I had to make sure she was OK.”

Chandler looks at me, “Did you drink anything?” I shake my head no. He looks at Luke, takes Whitney and starts walking home. I will be right behind you. Luke grabs my arms and drags me literally out of the party. We pass Jeff as he is walking into the house hanging up his cell phone, having clearly been talking with someone - it must have been Chandler telling him what was going on. We went outside, “Lucas, you saw Nick had a pill,” I asked? He shakes his head yes, “I heard him say he was going to make a bet he could get you to go home with him by the end of the night. I sobered up after i heard that,” he again confesses.

I looked down at my feet, “You know you don’t need to protect me, but I appreciate you looking out for me. But I can promise there isn’t a chance in hell I would have gone home willingly with Suchy,” I explained. “That’s good to hear”. I jumped at Chandler sneaking up behind us. He grabs my shoulders and looks at me, “Are you OK?”

I shook my head, yes. What is happening? Why did he come back? He sighs and removes his hands from my shoulders, and I suddenly feel like I’ve lost part of my body with his absence. We started walking toward my dorm, “Luke texted me after he heard what Suchy said. I called Jeff and told him I was on my way and to keep an eye on him and Abi.” It all makes sense. Jeff came outside. He claimed he was watching Luke flirt with Abi all night… Luke interrupted my inner dialogue, “I told Jeff to use my flirting with Abi as an excuse to go and speak to Abi. We all know he is in love with her but won't do anything about it, and tonight I think we finally got him to admit it to himself.” I look at him, “So you flirting with Abi was a game?”

“No. Abi is awesome, and I thoroughly would have loved hooking up with her given the chance - so, I mean it wasn't all ill placed I can assure you,” he winks at me. “You are an interesting human full of hormones, aren’t you?” We all laugh. The rest of the walk we talked. The three of us talked about where the coolest place we played travel ball at, mine being the OKC against the junior Olympic team. I couldn’t top Luke though he played in Hawaii and Chandler even got to play overseas for a couple of tournaments one summer.

We approach the dorm I live in, and Luke gives me a side hug, “I’m glad you didn’t get date raped.” Then he says, “It sounded better in my head, ugh - ill catch you later.” He turns and walks away, leaving Chandler and me together. Chandler looks down at his feet then peers up at me, “I’m sorry I left the party. If I had stayed, then Suchy wouldn’t have even considered pulling something so stupid,” he regrets. I shook my head, “It wasn’t your fault. He is a sleeve ball. I appreciate you coming back, although I don’t like being a needy woman - I can usually hold my own,” I explained. He smiles, “Alright, well Monica, get some sleep. Alright?” I smile and again thank him - i go to turn around and he grabs my arm, “Can I give you a hug?” I nodded.

He brings me in for an embrace and my nose is intoxicated with his deep woods smell. It’s breath taking and I’m literally dreaming about what it would be like to sleep in his clothes and smell that wonderful scent all the time. This might be my absolute favorite smell in the entire world. He pulls apart and rubs his hands down my arms and grabs my hands, “Sleep well.”

With a beautiful smile, he turns and walks away, meeting up with Lucas to head back to their apartment.