The Line Drive

twenty

Dane

"Fuck!" Noah steps out of the way as my pitch comes close to smoking him in the elbow. We're doing batting practice in a cage together, and my mind hasn't been in practice at all this morning. This is the second time that I've thrown something that's almost hit Noah. "What's your deal, man?"

"Sorry." I mutter. My father yelling at me for my low grades had ground my brain to a fucking halt. I couldn't get his words out of my mind. You're being fucking useless! I'm not paying for your stupid degree if  you're just going to be failing your goddamn classes. 

"You alright?" Noah asks.

"Just tired." I tell him. My chest squeezes and I feel mildly sick as I lie to Noah. I'm ready for practice to be over so I can go to the safe haven that is the newspaper office and spend some quiet time with Mackenzie. I'm not sure how she'd resisted asking me questions about my phone call with my father last night, but I was thankful for it. 

I can tell that Noah doesn't believe me in the slightest. "Just-- be a little more careful, man." 

"I will." I promise. "Ready?" 

Noah nods and I throw another ball. Noah gets off a solid hit and I duck behind the protective L-screen as the ball flies towards me. 

Luckily, we make it through the rest of practice without me injuring anyone. I can tell that Noah is keeping an eye on me, but I ignore him. I don't have the energy to explain myself to him right now. 

"What're you up to today?" Noah asks. We're getting dressed after showering. Kingsley is putting on his shoes next to us and looks up at me to see my answer.

"More comp sci." I tell him. 

"So you're out on mini-golf?" 

"Fuck, that was today." 

"Yeah." Noah eyes me. "Are you sure you're okay?" 

"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine." I sit down next to Kingsley to pull my shoes on. "Gonna have to skip mini-golf though."

"I kind of figured." Noah says. "Way to be responsible for once, bro." I roll my eyes. "Bet Mackenzie makes it really easy though." 

"Noah--" I say in warning. 

"Just saying." Noah smirks. "You did  spend Friday night with her." 

"I don't think spending a Friday night with someone means that you're interested in them." I say defensively, perhaps a little too defensively because Noah's smirk grows into a full blown grin. 

"Doesn't mean that you're not interested in them though." 

"She's my tutor." 

"That's kind of hot." Kingsley offers.  I elbow him and Kingsley raises his hands up in defeat. 

"There's nothing between me and Mackenzie." I tell Noah. 

"But she's still off limits to the whole team?" He asks. I know that he's poking all my buttons on purpose.

"Yes!" I say vehemently. Mackenzie is too nice and too smart for the baseball team. She's too nice and too smart for me, and I consider myself one of the better ones.

 "I hope you have fun today!" Noah tells me with a little too much joy as I sling my bag over my shoulder. 

"Go fuck yourself." I reply, which only causes him to laugh as I walk out of the locker room. 

I walk to the student center, realizing that I'm starving, and forgot my protein shake, but that none of the food places open until 11AM on the weekend.