Foul Ball

It was a very rare and balmy seventy-three degrees the next day for practice, and my whole team seemed to be playing better under the cheerful glow of the Colorado sun. I didn't mind the rain and the cold, but with the springtime came extra rain, and sometimes sunshine is all anyone ever needed to get past that painful hump of a soggy winter.

"Dalton!" Coach Harris yelled from where he'd been sitting on the outside bleachers, scowling at us in between shouts. "Keep your eye on that ball, son, and hit it out of the park."

"Yessir," Dalton said, spitting in the dirt. I winked at him, crouched into position, reeled my arm back, and rocketed the ball towards Dalton.

For a second, I thought he might actually miss, but he didn't. In fact, he did hit it out of the park. Or, more specifically, the playing field.

"Shit," Coach said as the ball soared over the fence and missed a random girl's head by about three centimeters, landing directly in front of her feet. The girl stopped short, reaching out a hand to stop her friend as well, and that's when I noticed the friend was Macey, and she was looking right at me.

"I got it," I called, taking this opportunity to see Macey before she tried to dodge me. Behind me, I heard the coach yell at us to take a break. I'd tried calling her and even texting her last night after our awkward meal to apologize and make amends, but she hadn't bothered to respond.

"Jayce," Macey said as I jogged up to the two girls, playing it cool. "I thought someone was supposed to catch the flying ball."

"They are," I said, swiping up the ball from the ground. "So why didn't you?" I shot Macey's friend a polite smile, but as always, I couldn't tear my focus away from Macey. "About last night," I started, and she shook her head as if to stop me before I could embarrass her.

"Jayce, this is my roommate Kylie," she said, abruptly changing the subject. "Ky, this is "

"Oh, I know who you are," Kylie said, cutting Macey off. "You're Jayce Gregory."

"Something like that," I said, looking back at Macey. Under the warm glow of the afternoon sunlight, her hair shined in the light, that perfectly done-up braid flowing over one shoulder, stunning topaz eyes focused on my face. I couldn't read her expression. Was it anger? Humiliation? Apathy?

Friends. You're just friends. Stop digging into this.

"We should go," Macey said, averting her attention away from me and back to Kylie. "I'm going to be late for class." She turned to go, but in a split-second moment of panic, I spoke up.

"Come to the game," I said, reaching out and taking hold of Macey's arm, stopping her in her tracks. She turned to face me, pulling her arm away, nose wrinkled like she smelled something bad.

"I don't like sports," she said as if that was that. Kylie stood by awkwardly, looking like she wasn't sure whether she should stick around and wait for her friend or just leave and give us some privacy. "I know," I said. "But you haven't seen me play."

"And you believe that if I watch you hit a ball around, I'll suddenly enjoy it?" Macey asked, and I couldn't hold back a chuckle. Fire and ice, this girl. I loved it.

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"It's hard to say," I told her honestly. "But a lot of the girls show up just to watch the team play. Most of them don't even understand the game."

"Ky, I'll meet you in the classroom," Macey said, peering around me to look at her roommate. Kylie nodded, shot me one last quizzical look, then left.

"Jayce," Macey said patiently, turning back to me. "If I wanted to watch baseball just to check out the players, I would have done so already. However, I didn't have an interest before, and I certainly still don't now." She turned again to go, but I clasped my hands together and fell to my knees in front of her, drawing in snickers and stares from the students walking past. Macey looked down at me, blue eyes growing wide. "Get off the ground," she hissed, and I shook my head. "Not until you say you'll come."

"This isn't a romantic comedy, Jayce," Macey said, and while I hadn't thought it was possible for her to flush redder, she managed to do it. "You'll have to do better than that." She turned once more to walk away, so I clambered to my feet to go after her, ignoring the sneers from those around us.

"Macey," I said, reaching out to pull her to a stop. "Is this about last night?"

"What?" she seemed taken aback like she hadn't even considered it. "Last night?"

"We agreed just to be friends," I reminded her. "Did I ruin it? I thought it's what you wanted."

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"Jayce," Macey said, shaking her head. "I'm a big girl, okay? It has nothing to do with that. I just..." she faltered, looking away from me. "I don't know if I have the time for this, okay? I need to focus on school and work and everything else that I can't seem to focus on when you're around. I already told you this."

"You told me you didn't want anything serious, but you never told me we couldn't be friends, Macey."

She opened her mouth like she wanted to say something, anything, but then she closed it again, and I knew the thought had been locked down and buried. "Jayce, I have to go, okay? Enjoy practice."

"Gregory!" Coach shouted from across the field. "You're up! The break is over."

I stopped walking, torn between turning around and following Macey. I took a step back and then another.

"One game," I called to her departing back. "Just one game, Macey, and I won't ever ask you again if you hate it."

For a moment, I was sure she would ignore me, but then she slowed her pace and glanced back at me over her shoulder.

"One game," she agreed. "And then you'll leave me be."

"I can't promise that," I yelled as she began to walk again. "Because we're friends, aren't we?" Behind me, Dalton yelled something in my general direction that could have been an insult, but I ignored him. "Tomorrow," I shouted, and Macey didn't even slow. "Tomorrow at noon, be here! Any good friend would be!"