awake, she lived in a state of fierce denial, isolating everyone around her—most of all, me.
All I wanted was to feel understood. I needed to be told that it wasn’t wrong of me to live my own life and make my own decisions. I never wanted to follow in my dad’s footsteps, but no one seemed to give a shit about that. There were hundreds of times when my mom should have taken my side, but she never did. And even though I knew it was because she was afraid of my father, I secretly hated her for it.
So, when it came to Sunny, I longed to be better and give her more than the shitty hand I’d been dealt. I knew she deserved it, and I wanted to try.
“Hayley,” I started, diving headfirst into my personal hell.
Sunny’s blue eyes narrowed as she snarled, “Your ex-girlfriend I’m assuming?”
“Yeah. How much do you know about what happened between us?” I asked because I knew how quickly word had spread after she dumped me. It’d felt like the entire campus had heard within five minutes of it happening. Granted, it was three years ago, but Sunny would have been here at Fullton at the time.
“I’m not sure. I mean, I heard some things about her breaking up with you, but I never knew what was the truth or not. And I didn’t go to many baseball games back then, so I wasn’t there when it allegedly happened.”
“Did you only start going to games once Danika met Chance?” I asked even though it seemed too far-fetched to be true. You see, everyone went to our baseball games even if you knew nothing about the sport. We were the Fullton State team to watch. If you picked one sport to support, it was ours.
“No, but I went to more games once they were together. I’ve gone to a handful over the years but not that often or anything.”
“Why not?”
She laughed. “I didn’t have a reason to go to the games. It’s not like I had a boyfriend on the team. Plus, you guys play a lot. That’s a big commitment.”
I smirked. “True. We do have a shit-ton of games.”
“Tell me what happened.” Sunny’s expression turned thoughtful, her eyes inquiring, as she was desperate to hear this tale.
In order to tell her about Hayley though, I had to go back in time even further and fill her in on things I’d never told any other girl before. Ever.
“When I came here as a freshman, it was my first taste of real freedom, you know what I mean?” I asked, wondering if she’d felt the way I had when I got here. Maybe she had already been able to do whatever she wanted during high school, so college hadn’t been that much of a transition for her. I had no idea.
“Of course. We don’t live with our parents anymore. We can go grocery shopping at two in the morning if we want to, and no one can tell us no! We can get Taco Bell at midnight. Or doughnuts at four a.m. when it opens and they’re still warm.”
“I’m sensing a trend here,” I said, as everything she’d just mentioned revolved around some sort of food or snack.
“I wasn’t allowed to do those things when I lived at home. But I can now. See? Freedom.”
Smiling, I couldn’t disagree. “That is freedom.”
“But it’s not what you’re talking about, is it?”
“Not the same, no.”
“Okay. Go on. I’m listening,” she encouraged.
“All right. So, my dad, uh,” I stuttered, but it was too late to stop, “he isn’t the easiest guy to get along with. We have nothing in common. He’s very controlling. And he runs with a certain kind of crowd back in Arizona. That’s where I’m from.”
“I knew that part. Arizona, I mean. Are you from a crime family?” She was serious, and I looked at her like she was insane. “They totally have crime families in Arizona, right? That’s where they all go to ‘retire.’ ” She used air quotes around the word.
Laughing, I shook my head. “A crime family? You’ve been hanging out with Danika for too long. No, I meant, rich people. My dad runs with all the bigwigs in our area. Politicians, CEOs. That kind of thing. He works in taxes and finance. Handles a lot of big money.”
“Ah, okay. That makes more sense,” she said, tucking a leg up underneath her, and I wondered how girls could sit that way and be comfortable.
“When