to do it with a time limit.
Tonight, I’d go over to Chance’s and pray like hell he still wanted me the same way that I wanted him—for forever.
I Have My Answer
Chance
I sat in the kitchen of my parents’ house, just like I’d been doing every night we didn’t have a game. I’d been avoiding going home to the baseball house, trying to escape what being alone with my thoughts did to me. It wasn’t pretty. I tended to spin out pretty badly, creating a narrative that ended with Danika and Jared together and me alone for the rest of my life with only baseball to love. Not to mention the fact that it was too tempting to want to head over to Danika’s apartment and sit in the parking lot like a fucking psycho.
“So, I gave her space. Told her to take her time and figure out if she could do this or not,” I said finally, explaining what was going on between Danika and me to my parents.
Danika hadn’t been at a home game since the day of my worst game ever, so my mom knew something was up between us even though I hadn’t wanted to talk about it. Until now.
“That was smart,” my mom said. “It must have been hard, but it really was the right thing to do.”
“But it’s been two weeks. I haven’t heard from her in two weeks,” I said, grabbing my hair and pulling at it.
“Chance, your mom has always told you that this lifestyle isn’t for everyone,” my dad chimed in. “You asked her to think it all over, and she obviously is. You can’t be mad at her for doing what you asked her to.”
“Your dad’s right. Plus, it’s better that you know it now instead of when it’s too late,” my mom added, and it was exactly what I’d said to Danika.
“Do you guys think that she couldn’t handle it?” I asked, suddenly worried about their answer.
If my parents thought that Danika wasn’t cut out for this life, I knew that it would subconsciously affect the way I felt about her. I would still want to be with her, but something would always linger in the deep recesses of my mind and hold me back.
“I actually think she’d be great. She’s so unaffected by the girls in the stands. She seems very confident and trusting. Those things are really important because they come into play,” my mom said.
I hadn’t even thought about what it must be like for her during the games. Danika had never mentioned other girls being mean to her or anyone confronting her.
“Are the girls mean to her? Do they talk shit to her?” I said before apologizing for swearing even though I knew they didn’t care.
“Put a dollar in the swear jar,” Jacey piped up from the living room, and I pointed in her direction, my mouth wide open.
“We have a swear jar?” I asked, annoyed that she could hear me in the first place.
“We do now,” Jacey shouted back. “Double for you.”
“Oh my God, stop listening,” I shouted.
“I can’t help it, loudmouth!”
I snarled, “Go to bed!”
“You go to bed!”
“Do something,” I complained to my parents, who sat there, shaking their heads. “Doesn’t she have an off button?”
“You could always go to your own house. You know, the one where you live,” Jacey said.
I snapped my mouth shut instead of fighting back as my dad laughed. That girl always had to have the last word.
“Mom,” I said, directing the conversation back to the topic at hand, “are the girls mean to Danika?”
She shook her head. “I haven’t heard anything, but she doesn’t even pay attention. I mean, she doesn’t even look around or try to listen in. She’s completely focused on you and chatting with me. I was not like that when I was her age.” My mom gave both me and my dad an uncomfortable grin. “I was constantly on guard.”
“To be fair, the girls were pretty awful to you, Kitten,” my dad added, defending my mom.
“Well, you did sleep with half the school,” she said before wincing as she looked at me. “Sorry, Chance.”
“I already knew all of this,” I groaned, not wanting to think about my dad screwing his way through Fullton State.
Thankfully, my phone buzzed, and I looked at it. A text message from Danika sat there, asking if we could talk.
“Look.” I turned the phone toward my mom. “I gotta go.”
I instantly hated that I was at my parents’, so far