Batting practice started at 2:00, but when Beth and her dad pulled up at 1:45, the cages were abandoned, only the kid at the window, a fellow sophomore named Hugh that Beth only sort of knew, was the other soul present. “You wanna take a few pitches while we wait for the guys?” Richard asked as Beth took a seat on one of the benches. There really was no reason for her to be there at all, but her dad liked for her to come so that if none of the other coaches showed up, he’d have someone to make comments to. He had no idea her previous trips had all been made in order to take advantage of an opportunity to stare at Sammy.
“You want me to get in there and hit a few pitches? Are you crazy, Dad? I haven’t played ball since I was four.” Beth had scarring memories of being awful at tee-ball, of skipping around the outfield collecting flowers and not paying attention to the game at all, of knocking the tee over every time she went to bat.
“Sure, why not? There’s no one here yet. It might be… fun. You used to have a pretty powerful swing. I wonder if you still do. I’m sure Hugh will crank the speed of the machine down for you, won’t you, Hugh?”
“Uh, yes sir,” the pimple-faced kid with dark hair said. “How are you, Beth?” he asked, not quite meeting her eyes.
“I’m fine, Hugh. How are you?” she asked, realizing he definitely wouldn’t have been present last night at her humiliation by the creek. As far as she knew, Hugh didn’t have a lot of friends and spent most of his time either working or at home with his older parents.
“I’m good. Go ahead. I’ll go turn the machine on.”
Beth was shaking her head as she stood, but the twinkle in her dad’s eyes made her reach for the bat he was offering. She adjusted her tank top, the one she’d let Ryan convince her to wear, and pulled down at the frayed him of her shorts. This was a really stupid idea.
Even though the machine was turned way down, and the pitches were basically lobbed in her direction, it took Beth a minute to get used to the feel of the bat in her hands. She took her father’s directions and bent her knees, shifting her weight and keeping her back elbow up. On the third pitch, she connected. The ball bounced along the ground toward second base and easily would’ve been collected by the shortstop if there had been one in the cage with her, but by the fourth pitch, she had it figured out. This one hit the back net, hard, making Hugh jump a little bit.
“Nice one!” Richard shouted. “Turn it up a little, Hugh, won’t you?”
Beth fully expected the shift in speeds to throw her off, but it didn’t. She hit the next pitch hard as well, and after several similar swings, Hugh was turning the machine up again. The pitches still weren’t coming nearly as fast as the ones the boys would hit, but Beth couldn’t help but smile when she consecutively hit every pitch that came her way. By the time the machine was empty, she had a huge grin on her face. Until the clapping started.
Slowly, Beth turned her head to see half of the baseball team standing by her dad, cheering. Her face heated up, and she was certain her eyes were larger than the baseballs that still littered the cage as they slowly rolled back to be collected. “Oh, my God,” she muttered, hurrying for the door to the cage. She knew none of them would say anything rude to her in front of her dad, but they’d collect their remarks for later and spew them out at her the next time they had the opportunity.
“Who’d have known our scorekeeper was the best hitter on our team?” Robby said loudly as she hurried past the line of boys to hand her dad the bat.
“Damn, can we put her in the line up?” Kyle asked.
Beth didn’t look up at them, assuming they were all just sucking up to her dad. She took her seat back on the bench as her dad complimented her as well. All she wanted to do was sink into the wood and become part of the seating.
Her dad started talking to the team, getting them organized, and Beth was happy their attention shifted, at least for a few minutes. She dared to look back to see who exactly had witnessed her time in the cages and was glad Shane hadn’t slunk his way there yet. Doors slamming behind her had her head whipping around, and Marcus and Tom sauntered over. Lucky for her, they’d get the news second hand as well.
Richard was standing several feet away, talking about what they needed to work on, so when Tom walked by and stooped to whisper in her ear, her dad never noticed. “I didn’t know little piggies could have such nice tits. You should wear that shirt all the time.”
Beth’s face flamed red as she pulled her arms up over her chest. Tom chuckled and blended in with the rest of the team, and Beth wanted to go sit in her dad’s truck, but it had to be a hundred degrees in there, and he had the keys, so she couldn’t even turn it on. Cursing Ryan’s name for convincing her to wear this stupid shirt, she dropped her head and willed herself out off of the bench, out of that town, to another dimension.
“Hey, Beth.”
She had no idea how many minutes had passed as she sat in her cocoon of shame, but Beth cautiously tilted her head up to see Michael looking down at her. Behind him, the sounds of multiple bats connecting with pitches and the loud banter of boys being boys, chiding each other and occasionally cheering when someone made a good hit, convinced her they’d moved on from her expedition. “Hey, Michael. How’s it going?” She didn’t know what else to say. She needed to thank him, but she also didn’t want to think about what had happened the night before--at all.
“I got a few hits. Nothing like you.” He dropped down on the bench, though he left a wide space between them, and Beth imagined he didn’t want to be associated with her either. “Hey, I just wanted to say… I’m really sorry about what happened last night. Those guys are such jerks. And they just go along with everything Shane has to say. I’m not even sure why I decided to go out there.”
“Why did you?” She asked the question before she even thought about saying anything else, like thank you.
“Well, when Halley asked me for a ride, I didn’t want to say no. I mean, I know she’s not the nicest. But… it’s hard to tell her no.” He shrugged, his cheeks pinking a bit.
“You gave Halley a ride out there?”
“Yeah. I saw her standing on the square by herself, right after everyone left, and I asked her if she was okay. She asked if I knew where they were going, and I told her. I said I probably wouldn’t exactly be invited, but… she said not to worry about that. I figured no one would give me a hard time for showing up once they saw Halley was with me. And they didn’t. But then….”
He didn’t need to say more. “Thanks for saying what you said last night. I appreciate it.”
“I said it because it’s true, Beth. I don’t know why you let what they have to say get to you. It’s not true. They just do it because they know it bothers you. If it didn’t bother you….”
“I know.” He was essentially saying the same thing Ryan had told her earlier. And then she realized how it was connected to what Halley had said the night before. She didn’t get it earlier, but now that she’d heard it a third time, it was beginning to sink in. “What happened after I left?”
“Oh, uh, nothing. I mean—Halley came over a few minutes later and said she was getting a ride back with Sammy so I left.”
Beth realized she hadn’t even noticed if Sammy was there. Glancing around, she decided that was because he wasn’t. “Where is he?”
“I don’t know. Maybe he’s running late. Shane isn’t here yet either.”
Beth assumed her dad’s agitated look had something to do with that. “Was Sammy plastered last night, too?”
“I really don’t know. After you left, I became the butt of all of the jokes pretty quickly, so I took off.”
“Oh, sorry.” She meant it. She didn’t intend for him to get made fun of because of her.
“No, it’s not your fault. I didn’t mean that. It would’ve happened whether I’d said anything or not. I’m not exactly one of them, you know.”
She did know. Michael really was a nice guy. It was too bad she wasn’t attracted to him at all and couldn’t date him even if she wanted to. She thought about Lexy. Should she bring that up?
“Hey, maybe we could hang out sometime, if you’re not busy.” His brown eyes shifted from the bench to her face and back again.
Was Michael asking her out? “Oh, yeah. Maybe. Except… you’d probably get an even harder time from that gang of assholes if you were purposely hanging out with me.”
“I really don’t care about that, Beth.”
She could see in his eyes when she dared to meet them that he meant it. “Okay. But… you should know… Michael, I have a friend who has an enormous crush on you. I could never… hurt her or anything.”
Confusion washed over his face for a moment, and he tipped his head to the side, like he wasn’t quite sure what she was talking about. “Okay…” he said slowly.
“So maybe we could all hang out, then, you could see if maybe you like her.”
“I don’t like any of your friends, Beth. Not like that.”
The sound of Shane’s car behind her had Beth turning around. He was wearing dark sunglasses, but other than that, he looked like his normal cocky self. Her dad rushed over to talk to him, his arms folded, and Shane looked defensive for the first time Beth could remember.
“Beth?”
“Right.” She turned back to face Michael. “Sorry. Uh, maybe you’ll like her if you get to know her better?”
“Maybe.” Michael shifted, his long legs rising up off of the bench one at a time. “Okay. If you’ll be there, then that’s fine with me.” He gave her another small smile and then got up to join the rest of his teammates outside of the cage he’d been assigned to. Beth watched him for a second, puzzled. Had she done the right thing?
Another vehicle pulled in, and Sammy got out, looking like hell. His dad was behind the driver’s seat, and he had an expression on his face bordering between rage and lunacy. Beth turned around quickly, not wanting to make eye contact with either of them, but when a small smile began to spread across her face, she let it. If that’s what dating Carly, or Halley, or both of them got you, maybe Sammy Burk had learned his lesson.