“It’s a cool name,” the catcher defended after a moment.
I shook my head, threw my hands in the air, and motioned for Zach to deal with it.
He did so with pleasure, managing to suppress his laughter for the moment. “This all deals with gayness and aversion to it, so you think referencing snakes…”
“Snakes aren’t gay!” Joey looked worried. “Are they?”
Zach didn’t say anything, just kept giving him a look.
Joey sighed. “Snakes are so gay.”
“Happens to the best of us,” Zach consoled in a not very consoling way.
To the outside observer, Zach didn’t seem very bi. Whatever that meant. Maybe they thought he’d only come out to take the heat off me. Maybe just seeing him with girls made them believe he was “cured” or something stupid like that.
Ugh.
There was a lot of stuff I wasn’t good at or outright sucked at. However, I knew how to play ball. I knew how to lead a team. On field from the pitcher’s mound and when we weren’t playing too. Not to brag, and by that I meant I don’t want to sound like I’m bragging but I’m bragging a little, I made captain as a junior. And now that I had experience, I was going to be even better at it.
Unless I didn’t get to be captain at all.
I wanted this year to be more of the same. But more of the same with the good parts. Not more of this.
I also wanted to move forward, not be stuck in the past.
3.Expecting the Unexpected
Always a good plan around Ryan.
Ryan
Dad and I were out at the diner to have dinner.
Would that be hard to say, a tongue twister? Diner, dinner, diner, dinner, no. Don’t say that out loud. My father might think I’m having a stroke. Anyway, it was important to spend time with the old man because family and father-son bonding and college soon, but we weren’t really thinking about that one yet, so I didn’t panic.
We were eating here definitely for one of those reasons and not because neither of us wanted to cook.
“Wouldn’t salt mining be easy?” I wondered after we ordered, hand idly tracing a pattern on the shiny tabletop.
“Hmm.” He thought about it. “I’d say, not even in the top 10.”
Oh, audience participation! Totally wasn’t expecting that. We weresobonding. “The top ten hardest occupations?” I asked for clarification. “Or easiest?”
“Top ten weirdest conversation starters from you,” he told me plainly; I couldn’t tell if him taking a sip of his drink was on accident or purposeful, but he wasn’t drinking tea.
Didn’t know why to be offended: because he was calling me weird or because this wasn’t good enough to make the hall of fame. Then again, I didn’t need areasonto be offended.
“I’m trying to have a meaningful conversation with my dear old dad,” I told him reproachfully.
“Never heard you call me that.”
Hmm. “Well, minus the dear part.” Old Dad. Yeah, much better.
“You were saying?” he asked like I proved his point. What a rude person and if I had any rude or bad qualities, which I don’t, I would have gotten them from him.
“I was going to ask you about your day.” Because I’m a young, awesome son. “Did you have a tough day at the salt mines? Where does that come from?”
He didn’t answer, just watched me evenly.
