with options and variables and choices and free will.
I should have reassured her or comforted her somehow, like I knew she would do if the roles were reversed and it was me admitting those things.
But I didn’t. I couldn’t. Instead, I pulled her front door open, walked through it, and closed it behind me, desperate to get away and leaving Sunny to do the one thing she hated … be alone.
What the Hell Just Happened?
Sunny
I
fought the urge to run after Mac and drag him back into my apartment, kicking and screaming if I had to. I’d clearly struck a nerve or triggered him somehow, and I hated that I was letting him walk away without at least trying to work through it. I knew that he was sensitive about getting drafted, but I hadn’t understood just how much it affected him until he looked like he was about to throw up.
It hurt, watching him walk out my door, but Mac Davies was a runner. I’d already figured that out last year. So, I let him go. And then I kicked myself for it because even though Mac liked to run away, there was a part of him that needed to be chased. I sensed it even if he didn’t.
Grabbing my keys from the counter, I tore open my door and slammed it hard behind me without meaning to as I looked left and right, not knowing which way he had gone.
“Oh my God, can you stop with the slamming doors already?” A head popped out from next door; jet-black hair with bright green stripes, pulled into a ponytail, accompanied a frowning female face.
The girl with the hair lives right next door to me? I was too preoccupied to be excited.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to,” I apologized. “I’m Sunny. I live right here,” I overexplained as I pointed toward my front door.
“Gathered that much,” she said, her tone sarcastic as she took a step inside the hallway and stopped the door from closing with her foot. Her clothes reminded me of something Billie Eilish might wear, all edgy and punk-like. I looked at her with appreciation, knowing that I could never pull off an outfit like that. “Are you looking for the disgruntled baseball player?”
“How’d you know?”
She didn’t look like the kind of girl who cared about athletes, let alone even knew who they were. But then again, this was the Fullton State baseball team, and Mac was … well, he had a reputation whether he wanted one or not.
“Everyone knows who Mac Davies is.”
“Did you see which way he went?” I needed to get to him before he called for a ride and I missed my chance.
“Lovers’ quarrel?” She picked at her nails, pretending not to be interested. She was though.
“What? No. We’re just friends,” I stumbled over my words, making them sound like a lie.
“Even I know that Mac doesn’t have friends who are girls, and I couldn’t care less about the guy. Unless you’re doing his homework or writing his papers for him, which can’t be right because Mac’s smart and gets all As,” she waxed on.
I wondered how she knew that Mac got all As in his classes. Even I hadn’t known that. I couldn’t get distracted with her though because I was running out of time.
“Just tell me which way he went. Please.”
Her thumb jerked to the right, and I took off running.
“Thank you!”
“The name’s Rocky, by the way!” she yelled toward me, and I shouted back, “It fits you.” She looked like a Rocky, and I was going to make her my friend—but not until after I found Mac.
I hit the exit door with my arms extended, and it flew open, smacking with a loud crash into the wall of the building. I was like a tiny bull in a china shop. Or maybe more like a top spinning out of control.
“Mac!” I yelled his name into the night air, hoping that wherever he was, he might hear me and stop leaving.
The parking lot had plenty of streetlights that illuminated the space, but outside of it was pitch-black. Mac could be anywhere, and I’d never even see him. With my luck, he was probably in a car, halfway back to the baseball house by now.
I stopped running and blew out a long breath before shouting one last time, “MAC!” realizing that I was probably waking up the whole apartment complex.
“Sunny?” I heard him say my name like a question from somewhere in the distance.
I