Page 47 of When Ellie Falls in Love

Which was apparently easier said than done.

Sadie stood on the mound, trying to get the catcher to understand she wanted a fastball, not a curveball. She couldn’t prove it, but she was more than convinced Abigail had told everyone on the team tonotlisten to her. It was as if no one on the team cared that they weren't going to the playoffs if they didn’t win their current game. They only needed to win two more games to make it to playoffs. If everyone would work together, they could do it.

She threw the fastball, but the catcher dropped it. Sadie groaned, resisting the urge to yell at her teammate. From the sideline, Charlie yelled for Sadie to come in from the field. Sadie gritted her teeth, knowing she was about to be kicked off the mound and be replaced by Abigail.

“What’s wrong?” Charlie crossed her arms over her chest. “That’s the fourth walk this game. This isn’t you.”

“It’s Tori. She’s giving me calls, I throw them, but she positions for something else. She’s throwing the game on purpose.”

Charlie shook her head, and Sadie knew she believed her even if she wouldn’t say that. She pointed to the dugout, and Sadie groaned.

“Charlie, please. Don’t.”

“Sadie,” she snapped, “if it were Abigail on the mound, I’d be doing the same thing. We need to win this game, and if you being on the mound is stopping us, then I have to do what’s best for the team.”

“This issonot fair.”

Sadie stormed off to the dugout, ripping her glove off as she hit it against the wall. Hurrying past her teammates, she found an empty spot on the bench. She didn’t dare look over at the metal bleachers beside the dugout. Both her mom and Ellie were there, and Sadie couldn’t face either of them.

Especially not Ellie.

She’d invited Ellie to the game in Portland a few weeks ago over one of their frequent late-night text conversations. They usually weren’t too in-depth, mostly memes and videos to avoid the conversation going anywhere else. Not that Sadie didn’t want that. She was just still scared to tell Ellie how she felt.

Because currently, she felt like a loser.

“Hey.”

She snapped her head toward Ellie’s voice. Ellie was smiling against the other side of the wire fence that was at the end of the dugout. Sadie wanted to ignore her, but it wasn’t Ellie’s fault they were losing the game.

No, it’s allmyfault.

Standing, Sadie walked over to the fence.

“Hey.”

“I wanted to make sure you were okay.”

Sadie snorted a laugh as she crossed her arms over her chest. “My team is losing because of me, and we’re probably not going to make it to state, so no. I’m not okay. Thanks for asking.”

Ellie visibly cringed, and Sadie instantly regretted being snippy with her. “I’m sorry. I’ll leave you alone then.”

Without another word, Ellie turned and walked away. Sadie felt her stomach drop as she watched her go and called out, “Ellie.”

But Ellie didn’t turn around. She kept walking to the bleachers and back to her spot beside Delaney. She kept her eyes forward to avoid looking in Sadie’s direction. Sadie hated herself for upsetting her; Ellie didn’t deserve that. Despite wanting to apologize, she knew the middle of a ballgame wasn’t the time.

Sulking back to the bench, she plopped down as the rest of her teammates came off the field at the end of the inning. Abigail had three strikeouts in a row and was gloating about it. As usual. She picked up her water bottle and walked over to Sadie, staring down at her.

“See,that’show you’resupposedto pitch.”

Sadie tried to ignore Abigail and not engage with her. They’d had more than enough verbal square offs the last few weeks that Sadie honestly wasn’t up for more.

But Abigail didn’t seem to think the same.

“I see your littlegirlfriendis here.”

“She’s not my girlfriend.”

“No, that cold shoulder she just gave you proved that,” Abigail smirked. “Yeah, I saw that while on the mound. I guess you can’t keep anyone. Not Trevor, and definitely notEllie.”

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