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“I said I did, didn’t I?’ Craig asked, then looked over his shoulder and said, “I gotta get back, recess is almost over, but wait here and I’ll walk inside after… okay?”
I nodded as he started jogging backward toward the other kids in the field. When he shot me a grin and turned to break out into a run, I lifted my camera and began to shoot. I shot pictures of Craig and the baseball kids until the bell rang, then I gathered my things and waited for Craig to meet up with me.
“Ready?” Craig shouted, and I began walking to meet him. I didn’t want to be late for class.
I fell into step beside him, suddenly unsure of what to say as we followed the herd inside the school.
“Were you taking pictures of us playing?” Craig asked, his question causing me to look up and search his face.
What if he thought it was creepy that I did that? Oh, gosh, I didn’t want him to make fun of me, or think I was a weirdo for taking pictures of him.
“Um, yeah, I took some of you guys,” I replied nervously.
Craig’s grin flashed again and my stomach eased when he said, “Cool! If you have any good action shots of me, can I have ‘em? My mom likes to make scrapbooks and stuff, and she doesn’t have any of me practicing at school. She loves that stuff. Says she wants a record of how I got to the Majors.”
“Sure,” I replied, excited at the thought of my pictures going into Craig’s scrapbook. I would be like a real photographer… “I can email them right to your house, if you give me an email address.”
“Awesome, I’ll find out from my mom and let you know tomorrow.” He stopped and pointed at Ms. Wilson’s door. “Well, this is me, I have science this hour. What do you have?”
“Math,” I replied, moving to the side as some girls pushed passed me, giggling.
“Bummer,” Craig replied. “See ya later, Gwen.”
“Okay,” I said quietly, watching him walk into the classroom, laughing with some guys as he joined them by the desks.
I smiled to myself as I walked to class, but I knew I’d have to keep my crush on Craig a secret. He didn’t look at me that way, so if I wanted to be his friend, I had to pretend that I just liked him as a friend too. And, I couldn’t let Gaby find out, she’d tease me and tell her friends… who would tell the boys and Craig’s brother, and it would get back to him. No, I needed to keep my feelings to myself, and be happy that I get to spend time with him, and get to know him better than the silly girls in class who made fools of themselves whenever they talk to him.
I was gonna be the best friend he ever had.
Chapter Three ~ Craig
Present Day (20 years old)
“C’mon, Liam!” I shouted as I rolled the baseball around in my palm, “Hurry up.”
“Keep your pants on,” my catcher, Liam said as he jogged to his position behind home plate, puling his mask down over his face.
He crouched down and brought his glove out in front of him, indicating he was ready for me to start warming up. I perfected my stance, breathing in deeply and letting my mind clear. I blocked out the sound of the guys warming up behind me, and the fans filing into their seats in anticipation of the scrimmage. When I felt completely and utterly focused, I bent my knee, brought my arms in close, and exhaled as I threw the pitch.
Liam and I had been a team since our freshman year at USC, and were not only inseparable on the field, but were roommates and best friends as well. We met each other when we both attended a campus tour during our senior year of high school. We’d been lucky enough to room together that night, and had discovered that we were both interested in playing baseball for USC. He and I spent most of the weekend together, meeting the coaches and touring the school, as well as attending a party at Sigma Tau.
Gwen had been with me that weekend, checking out the campus. Gwen, Liam, and I had gone to the party with Gwen’s friend, Aliyah. That was the night everything changed between Gwen and me, and unfortunately, we hadn’t been able to get our relationship back on track.
Thinking about Gwen broke my concentration momentarily, and I looked up into the bleachers to see her sitting in her usual seat. Even though we were no longer the friends we used to be, Gwen kept the promise she’d made to me when we were kids, and never missed a home game.
I watched as she raised her camera to take pictures of the team, her blonde hair blowing wildly behind her, and felt the usual pang of loss. I missed being able to talk to her whenever I wanted. Nowadays, I was lucky if she made eye contact with me on campus. And I lived for the vacations and family stuff that allowed us to carpool home, even though she was never as engaged as I wanted her to be, I still tried.
“Craig, you alright, man?” Liam called out, breaking me from my thoughts.
I turned my attention back to him and gave a brisk nod, before bringing my focus back where it needed to be.
We were all on our game, and beat the other team by two runs. It was a sweet victory, since they were our rivals. It didn’t matter that it was just a scrimmage, we took competition seriously and we were planning to celebrate at the Sig Tau house that night. Of course, we would have been partying at the frat house either way, but it was much more fun to celebrate a victory, than to nurse a loss.
Liam and I shared a place a block over from the Sig Tau house, which made it easy to attend all of the necessary functions without actually living in the house and having to deal with the non-stop party. We both needed to maintain our grades in order to keep our scholarships, and were glad to have a quiet place to get away when we needed to study.
“Ready in twenty?” Liam asked as he made a beeline for the shower.
“Thirty?” I countered.
