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“Wait, don’t do it yet.” Trina’s hand on my arm made me freeze.
“Why?”
“Because you need to think about this from Charlotte’s side.” Her eyes slanted down with sympathy as she gazed over at my baby sister sitting on the bleachers. “Didn’t her best friend move away last year?”
I shot her a look. “Yeah, Hunter had to move to Texas with his mom. But that was months ago. She’s fine now.”
“Is she?” Trina’s gaze swept back to meet mine. “I think you forget sometimes that your sister is a lot shyer than you. She doesn’t make friends easily. Can you imagine if you didn’t have us around for your sophomore year? Maybe, Charlotte is just desperate for friends right now and Sarah is filling that void. I’m not sure that banning her from being around Sarah is going to help.”
Trina’s words took the fight right out of me. My shoulders slumped and I leaned back against the fence, studying my sister from afar. I hadn’t considered that Charlotte might be lonely. I guess I’d been so caught up in my own worries about school that it’d escaped my notice. It made sense, now that I thought about it. Charlotte had never had a big group of friends. She hadn’t needed that, when she had Hunter around. But now she was being forced to put herself back out there.
But it made things all the more complicated. How did I keep my sister’s life from unraveling while helping her to find better friends? The kind that didn’t get drunk during a Monday night study session? At this point in time, I had no answers.
“Well, guys, I’d better get back to practice.”
I turned my head to see Jayden putting the bat back over his shoulder. Our gazes met and he winked, causing my cheek
s to blaze red hot. I distracted myself with staring down at my Icee and finishing the last few swallows.
“You guys are coming to cheer us on tomorrow, right?” Jayden asked, walking backwards toward the field. “We’ll need the support if we’re going to put Silver Lake in their place.”
“We’ll be here,” Collin answered firmly.
“And Amanda could use a few cheerleaders, too.” He flashed me an ornery grin when I dared to look up from my Icee. “It takes a lot to keep us boys in line.”
“Oh, don’t worry,” I said, cocking my hip. The feistiness was flaring up inside me again. “I’ve already got that in the bag now that I’ve figured out the announcer’s booth. Cross me, and I’ll start blaring my mom’s old Celine Dion CD over the speakers during practices. One hour of that and you’ll be crawling back to me on your knees with an apology.”
“No, please, anything but that.”
He shuddered in terror, then shot me a quick grin before running off to rejoin practice. I watched him go, feeling a little too proud of putting him in his place. It always felt like a victory when I could dish it back to Jayden.
“You guys were totally flirting,” Audrey whispered in my ear. “Don’t think we missed that.”
I shook my head and brushed her off. No matter how much she teased, I was not letting her get to me. For now, my attention was solely going to be focused on my sister still sitting on the benches across the way.
Trina’s words had opened my eyes to a whole new set of problems I hadn’t even realized I had. Maybe Charlotte’s issues weren’t the normal teenage rebellion kind of stuff. If she really was lonely, I was going to have to put in some extra effort to help her find her place again.
Either way, I’d figure it out. Mom and Dad counted on me to keep things running smoothly at home when they were extra busy at the restaurant.
I could handle this.
And anything else my senior year wanted to throw at me.
Chapter Nine
I hadn’t realized how much fun a baseball game could be. From the salty scent of nachos and popcorn in the air, to the tinking sound of the metal bat whenever someone made contact with a pitch, it was kind of addicting. As Coach Morgan stood at first base, waving his hands and making strange signs to his hitters, I remained in the dugout with the rest of the team and recorded every stat on his clipboard.
It was satisfying, in a way. And a good distraction. Although my heart still ached to be on the track, I wasn’t missing the meet nearly as much as I’d expected.
It just needed to stay that way.
That really wasn’t so hard, especially when Jayden was at bat. It didn’t matter that he was the most annoying guy on the planet, even I had to admit that he looked good in a baseball uniform. Like, drool-worthy good.
The white pants hugged his rear end in a way that made it hard for a girl to look away. The white jersey with the number twelve stitched on the back in black showed off his muscular and toned arms. Top it off with a matching white cap, and I could understand why girls from the school flocked to these games. Baseball uniforms were way more attractive than track suits.
Especially on Jayden Paul.
I had to pinch myself hard on the arm to redirect my attention to the game and not just to the player standing next to home plate. Audrey’s teasing must’ve been getting to me. I could practically feel her glancing over at me from the bleachers where my friends sat, wagging her eyebrows.
