Chapter 7 - Charlie

This day can't get worse. I put my head in my hand with a groan. I have a pounding headache, the left side of my face stings and it annoys me like hell. It hurts a lot and I prefer to stay at home, but of course Keith makes me drive because his hangover is way too big. Jerk.

"Fuck, I fell asleep, we have to—"

"Turn right," I interrupt. "I know where to go, smart ass, I brought her home yesterday." Oh men, I really shouldn't be talking loud. I tighten my eyes in pain for a moment.

"Your eye looks good." Keith immediately looks away when I glare at him.

"Gosh, I wonder why!" I bark at him and immediately regret it. My head feels like it's going to explode.

I feel his hand on my shoulder. "I should have stopped Taylor."

I chuckle. "You?"

"Yes me." He looks at me. I shake my head and watch the road again. It doesn't take long to stop in front of her house. "You know," he begins before getting out. "Not everything has to be meaningless and sad." He slams the door and walks to the front door. I punch the wheel, curse inwardly, stop punching the wheel when my knuckles hurt, and I sigh. Not everything is pointless, but more than half is. What's the point of making a lot of money if you die? What's the point of falling in love when your heart gets broken and what's the point of telling everything about yourself when people break your trust? There is a reason I keep things to myself.

I almost want to drive away when I see Keith hugging Jay. Still, I see she's a little uncomfortable and that makes me grin. Keith is a loser. When I honk, they both look in my direction. Jay looks briefly into my eyes before looking away. Okay?

"Keith, hurry up," I shout and raise the window again. I get a middle finger my way and ignore it. I'm really not in the mood to argue with him.

Damn where's an advil? I open the glove compartment and grab a box of pills from between the papers. I'm dying. I ignore Keith and Jay when they get in and push two pills out of the strip and swallow them with some water.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Keith looks at me quizzically when I slam the glove compartment closed just a little too hard.

I roll my eyes. "I'm doing great." I start the car and turn it onto the road.

"What time is the game?" Keith asks next to me.

"Half past five," Jay and I say in unison, making me look at her through the mirror. We stare at each other for a while, I am the first to look away and pay attention to the road again.

"So early?"

"Better than late," I mutter.

"I agree," says Jay. "If you have to play late, you're already tired before the game starts and the night is over before you're done."

"Exactly, thank you Jay for showing my little brother how stupid he is." I grin when he punches me.

"No problem," I hear her say to fuck more with Keith.

He turns to her. "Ey, I'm just sitting here."

"I can see that," she teases.

"You can't be missed, with that big head." I have to suppress my smile when I see his offended eyes. Jay can't hold back her laughter and starts to laugh. When I hear her laugh I can't hold back mine either.

"Is it 'National Bullying Keith Day' or is this just very random?" He asks. I push his head away and shake my head.

I bite my lip to stop laughing and try to focus on the road again, laughing and driving don't mix very well.

"How's your eye doing?" I hold my breath when I feel her hand on my shoulder. "Does it still hurt a lot?" I know she already knows the answer and basically I just want to say I'm about to die in pain, but I'm not going to give Keith that satisfaction.

"I'm okay, I've had worse." It's true, but Taylor hit me well this time. A warm feeling travels through my body when her thumb runs back and forth over my shoulder before pulling her hand away.

"Mm-hm, says the one who just knocked 2 pills back with some water." Keith moans in pain as I hit him in the crotch, Jay chuckles in the backseat.

"Did I say that I would survive the day without pills, Keith? I didn't think so. Anyway, who used pills when he only had a nosebleed? ' I grin dirty at him.

"It was bruised."

"Your blood?"

"Haha, very funny." I laugh at his face.

I shake my head and watch the road again. Why does he always have to brag? It only shows that he is a loser.

"I'm more curious about what the coach has to say about your eye." I look at Jay again.

I snort. "Don't make me think about it, that probably ends in running around the track with Taylor 12 times and then partner training for more bonding." I already shiver off the thoughts.

Keith laughs. "Oh and that went well the last time."

"Last time?" Jay asks curiously.

A grin appears on my face. "I punched Taylor a bloody nose."

"You have to tell her the whole story." Keith looks at me. "Let me do it."

I slap him in the chest when he wants to start. "Taylor was of course the arrogant jerk that he is, he put his foot out to trip me up, at first I ignored it."

"It's just what you can call ignoring," Keith grins. "You almost lost your shit."

I roll my eyes. "So for the next exercise, we had to push against a pillow from both sides. He missed the pillow on purpose, I already saw it coming, turned away and when he turned towards me he got my fist in his face." I can't help but grin again. "I broke his nose."

"And he your jaw."

"My jaw was only blue, Taylor couldn't even hit straight anymore." Now Keith is rolling his eyes. "Sorry I fight better than you." I tease, pinching his leg.

"Really something to be proud of," he mumbles.

"What did you say?" I put my hand to my ear.

Keith ignores me and turns back to Jay. "Did you ever got into a fight?" I almost want to brake hard to get the smile off his face, but I can see that Jay isn't wearing her seat belt, so I breath in and out a few times.

Speaking of Jay. She stares away from Keith and fiddles with her shirt. She doesn't want to talk about it, I can see that Keith is blind, how does he not see that she's uncomfortable, ah right, he's a boy.

"Being shy," Keith teases, nudging her knee. "How many blue eyes do you have on your counter?"

I roll my eyes because of Keith's blindness. "Shut up Keith."

He glares at me. "I can ask —"

"Tell me about the fight with Elordi." Keith can never shut up about how hard Elordi flew backwards when Keith hit him. It wasn't even a fair fight, but hey, I've always kept my mouth shut about it.

"Well Elordi had kissed Andrew's girlfriend and like a good friend that I was -" I zone out. Don't hear him talk anymore, simply because I don't care. I've heard it too many times. Hitting a freshman isn't funny, wow, how exciting.

My eyes moved to Jay for a moment, to my surprise she was already looking at me. Is she listening to Keith or does she not give a shit either? I quickly look at the road again, feeling hot from her intense stare. Do I have something on my face?

-------

Nice. Just nice. I put my cap better on my head and rolled my eyes behind my hand. The coach's words don't bother me. We go through the final strategies before the game starts and oh boy coach Lewis is not happy with Taylor and me's brawl.

I couldn't take the grin off my face when I saw him. His eye is worse than mine, the entire left side of his face was swollen and his right eyebrow had a cut that had also turned blue. I hope it hurts like hell. That's not gonna be a girl for him tonight.

"Did you understand that?" Coach Lewis is shouting at us.

"Yes, coach," I say right away, so I don't piss him off.

"Yeah," Taylor mutters, who seems to have a worse headache than I do.

Coach grabs him by the collar and pulls him up a bit so that Taylor looks directly at him. "What did you say boy? Did you understand that?" I grin, what a fucking idiot.

Taylor swallows. "Yes coach, it won't happen again."

"I hope so for you." Coach pushes Taylor back, who stumbles over his own feet. "Let this be a warning to both of you. If this happens again, you will both sit on the bench for the next 3 matches and I let freshmen try." I nod at him, knowing he won't do that to me. Taylor, on the other hand, plays in a position that is easy to take over.

"I want your asses on the field, now and if I see that you don't give 100% at this training, you can run 2 laps, fully sprinting." Coach Lewis still looks furious and turns around with a grunt. I hope Taylor tears something.

Taylor looks at me with fire in his eyes. "I'll get you, Davis."

"Game on, Taylor Scott, Game on." Keith takes my arm and pulls me away from him.

"Stop, this," he hisses at me.

"Tsss" I pushed him away. "You don't really think I'd jump him, do you?" Keith snorts.

"Well I don't know, Charlie, lately you've been so... so worked up." I roll my eyes again and look at Jay, who was listening to us, I know she did, because she looks like she's been caught when my eyes land on her.

"What do you think," I ask.

"What?" She's playing dumb, so I raise an eyebrow. "Fine, I guess you wouldn't create a scene just after the coach's words."

"Thank you," I say, grinning smugly at Keith.

"Whatever," he mumbles. "Andrew let's go." He runs away. I hear Jay take a deep breath when he's gone.

"What? Don't you like my brother's attention?" I ask. I pick up my bat from the ground and look at her. She seems to have doubts about something. Still, she shakes her head and picks up the ball from the ground.

"I'll throw."

"Ay, rookie, bring it on." I swing my bat back and forth a few times until she's ready. Her first ball is a fastball, which I just managed to hit.

"Here's a slider." Oh God. I focus, see the ball coming towards me at full speed. I estimated the ball well and hit it. Mmm, she practiced on this, the ball wasn't perfect, but because she throws with much strength, the ball turns out pretty great.

"Why don't we start with our normal routine?" I ask when she threw about 10 balls at me, of which I only hit 4. Man, this girl is a good pitcher.

"I want to throw to warm up and you have to practice on the curve balls." She's so different when she plays baseball. "Besides, I don't really feel like running."

I roll my eyes. "All baseball players have to run." I throw my bat and walk over to take the ball from her hands. "We're just going to start with the first exercises."

Jay sighs. "Fine."

We throw our stuff at the dugout, grab some pawns and walk onto the field, where the boys are already busy running back and forth.

"How are you so fast and still hate to run?" I look questioningly at Jay.

"What's the fun of running?" Well... Well nothing.

"It's good for your condition." She rolls her eyes at my answer. I would have done that too.

We stop somewhere in the middle. I take off my shirt and throw it on the ground, next to some balls. It's way too hot today. Jay does keep her shirt on and re-ties her shoelaces.

"Ready?" I ask, while I am already in the first position. Slightly dropped to my knees, index and middle fingers hit the grass. Also called Stance sprint.

The first few times we trained together we started with split squat jumps, but then we could no longer complete the sprints. So now we do all the sprints first and then the stretch exercises. Of course we stretch before running, we don't want to tear something.

"Yeah." Jay comes up next to me. "Countdown."

I grin. "3... 2... 1.... Go." We both dart forward, of course she runs past me and wins easily. She's truly a racing monster. The first few times I had to run against her I was still confident that I was going to win because I started in front, but then in the end, she accelerated and ran past me without blinking.

Jay smiles as she jogs past me back to our starting pawn. "It never gets boring beating you."

I roll my eyes. "Try that in a game."

"Is that a challenge?" She looks over her shoulder.

"You have to look in front of you first." I laugh when she trips over Jake's leg and falls face first on the grass.

"Asshole," she mutters. Jake pulls her up with a grin.

"Listen to your captain, she's right." I see Jay roll her eyes again. Jeez, this girl really is a bitch when she plays baseball.

We repeat the exercise a few times and move on to the next. It doesn't take long before Jay's shirt is on the grass next to mine and we are bathing in sweat. Still, we finished all the exercises. What struck me were the bruises that were scattered all over her upper body. I looked away before she could see me looking. They weren't as blue as they used to be, but they were there.

I noticed a bruise on her ribs, the spot was still big and blue and I wonder if these are baseball bruises. Which seems unlikely to me. I kept quiet about it, she would cut me off anyway If I would bring it up. I did wonder if I was the only one who saw them. Is there someone who is...? I dismissed that thought as quickly as possible. It made me sick. No, that is not possible.

Jay tosses her water bottle away and catches the ball almost without looking. She throws it back to me, how can she have so little trouble with this?

"Loosen your arm, lean back a bit," she says when she sees me struggle. Can we do the striking again? Like what we did at the beginning? She stares at me. "Charlie."

"Fine, I'll try." I hate this exercise, even if it is a good one. I throw the ball back. How does she make it look so easy?

"How do I loosen up?" I end up asking in frustration.

"It's called; practise." Jay smiles when she sees my gaze. "It really is."

"What a shitty exercise." I catch the ball and throw it back. I see Keith walking up to us with Andrew. Andrew just wipes his face with a towel.

"It looks like it's going well."

"Keith, leave us alone," I say, my teeth clenched. "I'm not in the mood for you bullshit."

"Ouch," I hear him say, making me roll my eyes. "I just came to say we're invited to a party and I came to ask if you guys are coming tonight." He mostly talks to Jay, which makes me more angry. In a feint, I threw the ball at him at full speed. Because he is a catcher he can just catch it, but it still hurts. He curses and shakes his hand wildly.

"Look, those are great throws," I hear Jay say, a grin is slowly appearing on my face, but then I remember again that I'm angry.

"That party you're talking about from Gabby, I was invited a week ago, and I said that to you fools back then!" Keith rolls his eyes and looks at Jay.

"Are you coming too?"

Andrew grins at my annoyed face. "Miller?"

At this point I'm also looking at her. She spins another ball in her hand. "I don't really party."

"Well, there you have it Keith, go away and let us train." He ignores me again. Really, this guy.

"Please, it's going to be fun," he insists. "Everyone is there." I think that's the problem.

"I will think about it., alright?" Jay looks at me and throws the ball. I barely caught it.

"Keith," I say again. 'Fuck off!'

"Okay! I'll get out of your hair, Jesus." He turns around and walks away.

Andrew chuckles. "Good luck." He winks at Jay and then quickly follows Keith.

"Sorry to say it, but you really have bad taste," I said grumpiler than I wanted to. Jay straightens up, her eyes narrow. Why do I always have to be such an asshole? I sigh. "Throw the ball, forget I said anything."

She comes over to me. Oh god, I did it, now she's gonna hit me. I swallow. Jay hits the ball in my hand but doesn't let go yet.

"Can you keep something to yourself?" I look at her questioningly. "Can you?"

"What the hell am I supposed to keep to myself?" I frown. Don't hit me... Don't hit me... Don't hit. I close my eyes.

"I'm gay." My eyes shoot open and I stare at her. She's... gay? Wait what?