“Care to share the theory with the rest of the class?” Lauren interjected, and I shot her a questionable glance, unsure of what was about to be said.
“Oh, right.” Hair-Flipper clasped her hands together before looking at her cohorts for permission. She cleared her throat like she was about to give a presentation she’d practiced for months. “We think that Cole won’t commit to you because you’re not marriage material,” she started, and I practically choked on my laughter.
“What?” I shook my head like she was insane as the stadium erupted in cheers around us.
I glanced toward the field to see the guys jogging back toward the dugout. I hadn’t even noticed them take the field in the first place because I’d been so distracted.
“You see, there’s no point in settling down with you if you’re not the one.” She sounded so convinced in her assumption and so impressed with herself that she continued without prompting, “Cole’s going places, and he obviously doesn’t see you there with him. If he thought you were cut out to be a baseball player’s wife, you’d be a baseball player’s girlfriend first. But you’re not. And you never have been. So, it’s clear he sees no future with you, and that’s why he won’t commit.”
She wrapped up the first part of her argument with a wide smile while her doppelgängers all nodded their collective heads in response. I was actually a little stunned, a part of me wondering how much truth existed in her analysis. I’d never even gotten to marriage in my own head when it came to me and Cole, so it seemed a little far-fetched that he would be thinking that far ahead. But what if she was right? What if Cole couldn’t see a future with me, and that was why he never let me get too close?
Hair-Flipper cleared her throat to get my attention. I’d zoned out for too long, lost in my own thoughts, and I hated that I’d probably given her some sort of satisfaction about it.
“And—” she started up again.
“There’s more of this?” Lauren interrupted, and I knew she was only trying to help me. There was no way that she had missed the way I’d gone all internal and quiet.
“Well, there were two points, and I only addressed the first one,” she said, looking almost wounded.
“Oh. Well then, by all means”—Lauren waved a hand in their direction—“please continue.”
Hair-Flipper clearly wasn’t fluent in the language of sarcasm because she grew giddy. “We also think that Cole can’t let you go because he met you first. If he had met any other girl before he met you, he would be doing this with her. But he didn’t. It could have been someone else, but it just happened to be you. And now, he’s stuck on you by default.”
That exact idea was something I had considered multiple times before, but hearing it from a complete stranger stung more than when it had been born from my own thoughts. It was one thing to think it for myself on the nights I stayed up way too late, overanalyzing everything ever said between us. But it was embarrassing to learn that other people had come to the same conclusion.
It made me feel stupid.
“Anything else?” I asked, trying my best to sound bored, but I was coming unglued inside. I needed to get the hell out of this stadium and away from these Barbie lookalikes who had clearly struck a nerve. I refused to let them see how much they had gotten under my skin. Girls like them had been saying things to me for years, but this felt different somehow.
“Nope. That’s it. So, what do you think? How close are we? Pretty accurate, right?”
“Are you seriously asking her what she thinks about your half-cocked, stupid-ass theories? It’s actually embarrassing that you have nothing better to do with your time than focus on two people you don’t even know,” Lauren ranted, her tone bitchy. “You really should focus more on those shitty extensions you put in your head. They’ll probably get you kidnapped.”
“What?” She reached for a fistful of hair and ran her fingers through it. “They aren’t shitty. It’s real hair. I paid good money for these.”
Hair-Flipper looked at her friends, and they all reassured her that her luscious locks were “beautiful” and “looked real” and we were “just mean girls who are jealous.”
Right.
We are the jealous and mean ones.
“I have to go to the restroom,” I said before pushing to a stand, thankful that I was sitting at the end of the row and didn’t have to create a scene to get out.
“Don’t leave me here with the bad-hair triplets,” Lauren said loud enough for the girls behind us to hear, and I couldn’t help but laugh. They deserved it.
Hustling up the cement steps with Lauren on my heels, I made my way out of the crowded seats and into the open walkway.
“I can’t stay here,” I said as soon as we got to the top.
“I know,” Lauren said before she wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “Baseball’s so boring anyway.”
“It is not,” I argued as we headed away from the field and toward the parking lot.
I loved watching Cole play. Even though we were never officially together and even when I was mad at him, I still wanted him to succeed. There wasn’t ever a part of me that rooted for him to fail. Not even when he deserved it. And there were plenty of times when he had deserved it.
Letting out a long breath, I clicked the key fob on my car and opened the driver’s door. My mind was replaying the two theories, her words repeating on a loop.
“So”—Lauren buckled herself in—“what are we going to do about this Cole situation?”
“Do you think the helmet was for me? Be honest,” I insisted as my car revved to life. I didn’t care what her answer was. I just wanted to hear her opinion.
“I do.”
I nodded because my gut told me it was for me too. “Do you think what those girls said was true?”
“Hell no!” she argued. “Cole isn’t thinking about marriage. That was the stupidest thing I’d ever heard. He likes you. He’s always liked you. He’s just too stupid to do anything about it. And once he realizes it, it’s going to be too late.”
I didn’t say anything in response. I drove back to our apartment before realizing that I’d left the game because of Cole, but I’d gone to it because of Logan. “Think Logan will be upset that I left?”
“I’m sure you can make it up to him if he is.” She waggled her eyebrows.
A small laugh escaped. “I’m sure you’re right.”
“Promise me you’ll at least give Logan a chance.”
“I promise,” I said, and I meant it.
“One hat wave from Cole doesn’t change the past three years,” she added, and my stomach instantly dropped.
“I know,” I reluctantly agreed because she was right.
The gesture changed nothing. And I refused to be the last one to realize it.
She’s with Him
Cole
Christina had left sometime during the game. I thought she might have gone to the restroom, but she never came back. I checked her seat without getting caught by Coach whenever I ran on and off the field. I wanted to tell her to wait for me when the game ended, so I could talk to her right away. Once I realized that I wanted her, I didn’t want to wait a minute longer than necessary to tell her. But her leaving had put a pin in my plans.