Page 32 of The Shake Off

“No, Parker, I’m not. Read your emails. I’ve fucked up and Coach has pulled me. I’m supposed to go for more X-rays later, in case they missed something the first time. Fat lot of good that will be. They need to be X-raying my head, not my shoulder. You should leave. You don’t want to catch the yips from me.”

The tightness which had been sitting on my chest and squeezing my ribs together suddenly became too much, and before I could stop it, the pressure barreled up. I tried to hold in the sob, but it was like trying to get toothpaste back in the tube: impossible.

“Oh, buddy.” Parker wrapped his arm around my shoulder and pulled me into him while my frustration and humiliation flowed out of me until I became a sniveling mess. “Dude, we can fix this.”

“How?” I wailed, praying there was no-one in the vicinity to hear me, or witness me ugly cry.

Parker read my thoughts as I glanced toward the door to the cages. “No one’s around. Yours was the only car in the lot when I drove in; everyone else stayed in bed.”

“Sensible.”

Wiping my sleeve across my nose, I caught the disgusted look on Parker’s face as he peered down at his tear-and-snot-soaked shoulder. Only then did I manage the first smile I’d given all week.

“Sorry, man. I’ll get you a clean shirt.”

“Don’t worry about it,” he grinned back at me. “We have more important things to do, like figuring out how to fix your pitch.”

I sighed, falling back into my funk. “Yeah, good luck with that.”

He spun me around and grabbed both my shoulders. I braced myself for a slap to the face, but it never came. “Ace, we’re gonna fucking fix it. I don’t care what we have to do, but we’re fixing it.”

“Parker, I hear you. I do. It’s been five days, and I’m getting worse. I can’t seem to get it out of my head.”

I nearly,nearlysaid Payton, but it didn’t matter because we both knew exactly what I was talking about, and Parker’s argument was exactly the same as it had been the last fifty times we’d talked about this.

“Dude, just go and find another girl to sleep with. You’re Ace Fucking Watson. I passed ten signs on the way spelling it out in big black letters, and right now, they all want to console you and make you feel better, so please just let one do it, and you can go back to being the genius pitcher we all know you are.”

I looked at him with exactly the same expression I’d worn the last fifty times. “I can’t. It doesn’t work like that.”

“How? How do you know? This has never happened before.”

“I don’t know how I know; I just know. Payton was the cause of this, therefore only Payton can fix this.” It might have been skewed logic that only made sense to me, but I’d never been good at math.

“Then go and talk to her again.”

“She slammed the door in my face.”

“I know. That’s why I saidagain. And this time, don’t do it by sneaking out. You’re lucky you didn’t get caught.”

I moved Parker’s hands off my shoulders and gripped his instead. It had only been three days, but I also knew that it wasn’t just me affected, it was Parker, too. If Riley became starting pitcher, then Parker would need to build up a relationship with him like we had together. They’d need to learn new plays, new signals, body language, and that didn’t happen overnight.

“Parker, I’m sorry man, I really am. I’m trying to figure it out.”

“Please figure it out sooner rather than later.” He picked up his bucket, and pointed at the one I was still filling. “Come on, let’s get out of here. Whether you’re pitching tonight or not, you still need to ice your shoulder.”

I nodded and did what I was told because I didn’t have the energy for a fight.

“Did the others come in with you?” I asked, following him out of the cages and leaving the buckets of balls neatly lined up along the wall with the rest.

Parker shook his head. “Nope. Lux was making breakfast, and Tan hadn’t woken up yet. He feels bad, you know.”

“What?”

“Tan, he feels bad about this. Thinks it’s partly his fault.”

I scoffed. “Why?”

“Because if he hadn’t been teasing you about her, then none of this would have happened.” It took Parker a second to realize I’d stopped walking next to him, and spun around to find me staring at him. “What are you doing?”

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