Rounding Third - Michelle Lynn Page 0,9
she stops for a second in the doorway. Her hand covers the doorknob, her body stiffening like a statue.
“Go ahead,” I urge her, walking up so my front meets her back.
Her shoulders slump, but she proceeds forward. I follow her in and shut the door behind me.
“This is your room,” she states as a fact. “Still organized.” She smiles over her shoulder at me.
“Military preacher son. Stopped fighting it.” I lean against my desk, crossing my arms over my chest. I love having her in my space.
“Do you mind?” She moves toward a collage of pictures on my corkboard.
“Not at all.” I wait for her to look over Spence and my parents until she finds herself.
“Crosby…” Her voice breaks, and her hand moves to brush on the picture taken after Beltline won state our senior year. She had just jumped in my arms, and we’re smiling at one another. My best memory in two years. It was stuffed away in a box from when we moved from Beltline until my dad found it.
She turns around, and the wetness in her eyes grips my heart. My stomach churns because I’m to blame for her misery. She should be happy and smiling every minute of every day. That’s the Ella I remember, not this one where my mere existence in her life saddens her natural glow.
“We were quite the couple,” I say.
But she remains quiet.
“Where’s Spencer?” she asks, changing the subject.
“He’s here. Another reason I came to Ridgemont. To be near him.”
Her eyes widen, and a genuine smile fills her face. “I can’t wait to see him.”
Spencer and Ella had an odd connection. In high school, Spencer was quiet and reserved. He and Ella formed a friendship through video games, which made me mad with jealousy because she’d spend her time with him when she came over.
“Ariel is here, too.”
My mouth drops open.
“All four of us are at the same university? Who would have thought?”
She nods. “I helped Mom and Dad move her in today.”
“Where?”
She sits down on the bed, and I’m enjoying this easy conversation. There are no expectations or hurt from the past lurking in our words.
“Musselman Hall. It’s in the small group area of campus. A cluster of dorms for freshmen.”
“You have to be shitting me! Spencer’s there, on the second floor.” I slide my desk chair out and sit down.
“Would they even recognize each other? I mean, they ran in different circles back then.”
“I’m not sure.” I fail to divulge that Spencer has loved Ariel for as long as I’ve loved Ella.
The room grows silent, and I wish I’d never agreed to separate from each other. I haven’t healed from that accident any better without her.
“What’s your major?” she asks, picking up an econ book from my nightstand. She thumbs through it like the subject interests her.
“Business. Finance,” I say.
She nods, continuing to check out the book. “Economics interests you?” She shuts the book and places it back on the nightstand. “It’s weird, you know? I feel comfortable around you, but at the same time, I don’t. Like…”
“Like being among your personal things in a foreign place?” It’s how I felt after I moved to Colorado.
“More like, I’m in my home among someone else’s things.” Her eyes scan the room, looking at my baseball posters and the Millcreek Junior College flag. “There’s so much I don’t know about you.”
I pick up the baseball from my desk and toss it back and forth in my hands, needing something to do before I rush over to the bed and beg her to be mine again.
“You know the core of me. More than anyone else.”
I stare directly at her, but she diverts her eyes faster than a scared child. She rises to her feet, and my heart aches because she’s leaving me.
“I should find Jen.”
Right as she says it, a couple starts arguing outside my door.
“You fucking bitch!” Jen yells.
Ella’s footsteps move quickly. She grips the knob and swings the door open.
“Jen?” Ella wraps her arms around her friend’s half-naked body.
“Seriously, she hit me.” Jen’s hand rubs her cheek.
My eyes scan to find a purple-haired girl standing in the doorway across from mine. She’s got a cocky smirk, and her eyes are pinned directly on Jen.
“He’s mine. Get out.” The girl’s eyes seek out the shirtless guy in limbo between the two women.
“Sorry, I must have missed the sign when his dick was in me,” Jen spits back. Her eyes narrow on the guy.
He’s built, but he’s an inch or two