"Ah, welcome back, Sunshine. How was the road trip? Anything new to tell me?" Lauren asks as soon as she opens up her front door and she sounds snarky as hell because she knows exactly what's new.
"Don't be like that, Lauren, you know what happened," I reply as I enter her apartment. She shuts the door behind me.
"What I meant was," she turns to me, "Did you get your shit together and realize your feelings?"
"Oh, right. About that..."
"You're the worst when it comes to this. You know that, don't you?"
"Yes, I know. I'm awful. But I can't just figure this out within the span of a few days, Lauren." She just sighs and shakes her head. I love her, I really do. But it's just unrealistic for her to expect me to know how I feel in such a short time.
"I'm sorry. Feelings are a bitch," she says and I nod in agreement. "But I think you should just take your mind off the whole situation." She raises her brows like she has an idea and I groan internally because she always thinks she has a good idea and usually, it's not that great.
"Dear God, what is it?"
"There's this doctor from my hospital. He's kind of cute, and I'm only saying kind of because I'm engaged. Anyway, he's also pretty single. Maybe if I set you two up on a date for Saturday night, you can see if being with anybody else makes you feel different than with Kris, then that'll help you with your mess that you call feelings."
"That's literally the worst idea I've-"
"Okay," Lauren cuts me off, "It's settled. I'll talk to him tomorrow and I'll call you when I get off. Sound like a plan?"
"No."
"I want the best for you, Mallory. I think this will be good for you," she tries to tell me and I just don't want any of it because I think I'm fine. I don't need to go on a date to figure out how I feel. I'm fine, I'm fine. I'm fine.
***
Kris
"Welcome back," Sarah says as soon as I get off the bus. I just give her a weak smile.
"I didn't know you'd be waiting," I tell her, and honestly, I wish she hadn't been waiting. Sarah is a good person and she's great and all but I can't deal with her at the moment, I just can't do it. I already feel like shit about what happened with Mallory. I shouldn't have let that happen, I shouldn't have shown up at her hotel room because I was pissed off at something Sarah said and I just needed to talk to somebody. But talking isn't something we did, and it's going to ruin things that were starting to get better between us. And Mallory's not fucking helping walking around the clubhouse acting like nothing happened, I'm not fucking helping trying to act like everything's okay, and Sarah's not going to fucking help by just being in my life, trying to keep the old spark alive that started last September.
Nobody's fucking helping, and it makes me want to die.
"I wanted to surprise you. Are you busy tonight? I was thinking we can maybe go out and do something."
Ah, yes, because this is exactly what I need.
"I don't know, Sarah. I'm kind of tired."
I hope she buys it.
"Fine. Well, you can come over later if you want. I'll be home," she says and leans up to kiss my cheek. She turns and walks back to her car and I sigh before going back over to mine and place my head on the steering wheel once I get inside.
What did I drag myself into?
***
"Kristopher," Anthony says after our 6-2 win against the Phillies, "if you don't win MVP this year, I'll most definitely start a riot."
"Don't get ahead of yourself, it's May," I tell him after I roll my eyes.
I go over to my locker, talk to a few reporters, do the same post-game ritual that we all do. I glance over and see Mallory talking to Hendricks and she steps away for a few seconds to take a phone call.
Stop thinking about her, you idiot.
I'm trying not to.
Kyle comes over to me to tell me good game after the reporters leave me alone and he brings up something I most definitely didn't want to hear.
"You know, I'm kind of glad Mallory's actually going out with somebody tomorrow. She's been stressed lately, she needs to take her mind off things."
"Wait- what?"
"You didn't hear? She's going on a date tomorrow. I hear she really likes the guy."
"I- No, I didn't hear that- She didn't even mention she was seeing anyone..."
"Well, whatever it is, I hope they're both happy."
"Christ, Kyle, they're not going to fall in love after one date. It's just... Not realistic. At all. You need to actually spend a shit ton of time with somebody to fall in love. I've spent so much time with her, and not even I'm falling in love with her."
Kyle raises a brow. "I'm just fucking with you, Kris. I never said anything about her falling in love. But hey, it's nice to know how you feel about her." Kyle chuckles slightly and I look at him.
"I- Wait, okay, hold on. Do you know?"
"I'm not an idiot, Kris, of course I know what happened. But hey, it's about goddamn time that-"
"Goddammit. You're the only person who knows. Right?"
Kyle nods. "To my knowledge. But hey, keep telling yourself that you're not in love with her. Make yourself believe it." And with that, Kyle walks away, and I just sigh.
I seriously fucked up everything.
A/N
OHMYGOD
a lot has happened since i last updated something holy shit.
but there is one thing that i will address
WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS!!
i wrote something about that in my story Ten Things You Need to Know (shameless self promo) so go and read that if you want, but to sum it up, I still can't believe it. We did it.
Another thing, Kristopher Lee Bryant is the NL MVP and I could not be more proud
and my boy kyle was nominated for Cy Young and even though he didn't win, i'm still SUCH a proud girlfriend bc that is my mans and i love him ??? so much??? ugh okay anyway
it's been a while. I'm sorry. I've had no inspiration, and I try not to let it go so long without getting something out, and on top of no inspiration, i've just been really busy and ahhh
but i will be trying to get some more updates out by next friday (december 2nd) because i'll be leaving for a dc trip and i want to have some stuff out before i leave
although, i'll try to prewrite some chapters so i can maybe publish them while i'm away
anyway i'm talking too much rn lol
but i hope you guys enjoyed this! vote, comment, have a beautiful day bc i love you
YOU ARE READING
wonderwall ♔ k. bryant
Fanfiction"You're an asshole. You know that?" "Tell me something I don't know, Sunshine."
