was that?” Matt asked as I watched Sunny leave through the glass doors, her long hair swaying from side to side with each step. It had been up when I first saw her, so she must have taken it down.
“Nothing.” I tried to blow him off. I refused to get into it with him, the one guy who I knew the least of all. Plus, I didn’t want him checking her out. She was barely wearing anything!
“You sounded like a dick,” he boasted, acting proud.
“I know, and I didn’t mean to be.”
“You didn’t? Girls like that anyway. You know, the meaner we are, the more they want us,” he said like he was some kind of professional on the matter.
“I’m not interested in a girl who wants to be treated like crap. And Sunny,” I said, not meaning to tell Matt her name, “she’s pissed because I was mean, and she doesn’t like it.”
“You should go after her, man.” Dayton stepped toward me, his eyes still on her before she finally disappeared out of our line of vision.
I knew he was right. I should be chasing after her, telling her how sorry I was and promising I’d never be mean to her again. But I didn’t. My stomach was tied up in knots. I was in unfamiliar territory here—wanting this girl but not knowing how to go about it. All of my fears kept me rooted firmly in place.
My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I pulled it out, praying it wasn’t my dad. Chance’s name flashed on the screen, and I swore my face must have looked like a schoolgirl with a crush.
“Gotta take this,” I said with a grin as I sprinted outside for some privacy.
“My man. What’s up? How’s ball?” I said as I answered and searched for an empty place to talk, where no one would eavesdrop or accidentally overhear.
“Why are you making my life so difficult?” Chance asked, and I furrowed my brow in confusion.
“Come again?”
“My life. Why are you messing with it?” he said once more, and I had no idea what he was talking about.
“Uh …” I stopped walking and stood still.
“Sunny, Mac. What are you doing?”
Pulling the phone away, I breathed heavily into the air before getting back on. “What did you hear?”
“I heard you were a jerk to her last night at some party.” He sounded annoyed, and I knew that if he were here, he would be lecturing me in person.
If Chance already knew about last night, then Sunny must have been really upset when she left. She must have called Danika.
“I wasn’t a jerk per se—” I started to explain when he cut me off.
“Why are you being mean to her? I know you like her. You’ve liked her since last year. So, what’s up?”
I couldn’t very well sit here and tell my best friend that I was having a hard time letting my guard down because I was scared, so I improvised. “I don’t know. I just see her, and I turn stupid. I’m not sure why.” Lies. Lies. Lies. I knew exactly why.
“You see her, and you turn cruel. That’s not like you. Sunny doesn’t deserve that, and we both know it. What’s really going on? Talk to me, man. Is this because you didn’t get drafted?” He asked the last question quieter than the rest, his voice cracking a little under the weight of it.
It was the one topic that most of us ballplayers avoided and never talked about after the fact. It was too sensitive a subject. Too touchy. Too painful.
Looking around, I noticed a few girls staring in my direction, so I started walking again, realizing that standing in one place was going to pose a problem. “Um … I mean, yeah, that’s part of it,” I admitted reluctantly.
“Don’t think I haven’t noticed that you seem …” He paused. “How should I say this? Sadder, I guess.”
“You think I seem sadder?” I asked, hoping I sounded crazy.
When did Chance think I was sad in the first place?
“Mac, I’m your best friend. I might be distracted with my own career right now, but I know when you aren’t a hundred percent yourself. And you haven’t been since last June.”
“Why are you just saying something now then?” I asked, feeling a little disappointed that it never occurred to him to ask me if I was okay before today … especially if he’d noticed. It had been months.
“I thought you’d snap out of it. I was letting