Page 15 of The Best Friend and the Shortstop

“Yeah, well, I don’t ask her to do that.” I squeeze my eyes shut as soon as the words come out because what a dick thing to say. And I don’t mean it.

Cole gets up and shakes his head, looking down at me.

“You don’t get it, man. You don’t have to ask her.” He leaves me with what I already know and goes to his room, shutting the door.

Great. More time by myself with my thoughts.

I grab the TV remote, flip the setting to put the Cubs game on and turn the volume down to a low mumble. It makes me feel less alone.

My phone buzzes in my pocket so I shift and pull it out to see a text from Nikki, and all I can do is laugh to myself. Of course she’s texting now, when my head’s a mess with thoughts of her. I’m sure if Cole were still out here he’d bust a gut at the irony. Or he’d call it fate or some annoying shit that probably has some truth to it.

NIKKI: Hey, I need help getting my numbers to line up. Do you have a sec?

I breathe out and weigh the time, 10:14, against my instincts. I could say I’m almost asleep. It’s a practice night so not weird that I’d knock off early. But then she’d spend the next however many hours on YouTube trying to figure out what she’s doing wrong in the accounting software.

I hit the call icon and bring my phone to my ear.

“Oh, thank God,” she answers.

I chuckle.

“That bad, huh?” I carry my beer into the kitchen and drop it in the sink. I barely took a sip and if this is as rough as I expect it is, I’m going to need to head over there.

“Alex, I don’t even know how I did this, but I somehow copied everything twice, and now it looks like my fake company is embezzling money or . . . I don’t know, printing their own! Can you help?”

I smirk at her exasperated tone. I can picture her pacing, hands gesticulating as she points and blames the computer. She’s a wiz on that soundboard. I don’t know how none of that translates to other technology.

“Okay, hit pause and do not touch anything else. I’ll be there in two.”

“Thank you. And I won’t even talk near my computer. I swear it’s listening and doing things to screw with me.” She hangs up and I stare at the ended call screen, amused.

I glance at Cole’s shut door and chew at my mouth for a few seconds. I’m glad he left and isn’t here to see this. I’m sure he’d have a full evaluation of how I’m about to go running over when Nikki calls. But that’s nothing new. Which again, he’d probably point that out too.

I lock up, jump in the car, and make it to the visitor lot for Nikki’s dorm in minutes. She has her door propped open when I arrive, so I close it behind me. She’s sitting cross-legged in the middle of her bed, rubbing her temples and staring at her screen.

“Are you trying to mentally bend it to your will?”

She blinks up with wide eyes and gritted teeth.

“Oh, I’m willing things at it. Like, to catch on fire.” She nudges her laptop so the screen faces me.

“I wouldn’t recommend that. This building is pretty old and it would go up like that,” I say with a finger snap before taking her computer and sitting at the end of her bed with my back against the wall. I prop the computer on my lap and gesture with my head for her to scoot next to me.

“Come learn,” I say.

“Ugh, do I have to? Can’t you just . . . I don’t know. Do it?” She flits her fingers at her computer as if sprinkling magic at it, and I laugh out once.

“You know my stance on cheating,” I lob back at her. She rolls her eyes and utters, “Cheaters never win,” in the whiniest voice she can muster. Funny how that mantra I have thrown at her our whole lives every time she tries to cheat at Uno or board games has a whole different connotation now. There’s a different kind of cheater in my life.

The short silence left in the void indicates Nikki might realize this new double-meaning too. After a few quiet seconds, she drags her body over to me, her face sour. Flopping on her stomach, she shoves a pillow under her chest and arms to help support her upper body as she lies next to me and peers at the computer screen.

“This isn’t going to be as hard as you think,” I begin, clicking open a window at the top right of the screen. Nikki’s head bops up and she taps on where I clicked.

“Wait a second, there’s stuff in there? Like . . . how would I ever know to click on that?” she gripes.

I peer down at her, my mouth a sarcastic tight line.

“I suspect that this was probably covered in one of those slideshows you slept through.”

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