Keeping Score by Alyssa Kale

Author:Alyssa Kale [Kale, Alyssa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Alyssa Kale
Published: 2020-10-05T18:30:00+00:00

20

* * *

BRAXTON

We’re just about an hour out from the first pitch being thrown, and I’m in the zone. We baseball guys tend to be superstitious, even when we insist we aren’t. Each of us has a routine, a specific way we go about our business on game day. I admit that I drink from a specific cup in the morning and drive a particular route to the stadium. Aces’ starting catcher, for instance, wears the same T-shirt under his uniform every game. We’ve all seen it; it’s worn out and has holes all through it, but he swears by it.

Once we’re at the stadium, it’s no different. I have to tune everyone out, lose myself in a playlist full of random music from all genres—rap, classical, country, pop, boy band, all of it. It’s a full two and a half hours long, and I listen all the way through before each game. When I first arrived, I expected to be hazed for my routine, for the veteran players to think I was a schmuck for needing to clear my head. Thankfully, they were all consumed with their own routines, so they didn’t take much notice.

I tell myself it’s also why I wanted Sophie here tonight. It isn’t because I haven’t seen her in a few days, or because I miss her smile in any way.

Tonight is different than most nights. For the third time in my career, I don’t focus on my teammates or the other team. Instead, I look up into the stands where Sophie and Laura sit. This is the second game she’s been to this season, and I quite like her being here. She’s sitting next to my sister in the same seats she had with her dad. Her seat.

“Lee, did you just look up into the stands? What the fuck, man?” Spencer grumbles. He knows I broke my focus and my ritual. Baseball players are very superstitious and breaking any part of game day ritual is bad luck.

I rub the back of my head. “Uhhh, yeah, I guess I did.”

“What are we looking at? Your mom and sister here? Wait. Isn’t that the chick from the bar? You hit that?”

When I turn to glare at him, he holds his hands up in surrender while laughing. “Whoa, dude. Don’t kill me. You seein’ her now? Got yourself a little pussy-whipped?”

Without giving me an opportunity to respond, he jogs off laughing like he’s heard the best joke of all time. He’s not wrong. This woman has consumed my thoughts. Not only does she take my attention off baseball for the first time since—well, ever—but she’s on my mind constantly. I don’t hate it. I mean, I love baseball, but for once, I don’t mind spending time with someone not baseball related. Tonight, I plan to tell her how I’m feeling. I want her to know this friends setup isn’t working for me.

When we’re at the bottom of the ninth, it doesn’t look like I’ll be batting again,

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