Third Strike Rule

Dropped Pitch

Viviana flopped down on her hotel room bed. She had just played in her last away game of the season against Arizona State University and USC had barely managed to win five. It had been a long match and she was thankful to be heading back to Los Angeles that night. She had one more game against Stanford before she would head to the NCAA Women's Indoor Volleyball National Championship. Her whole family had gone to Green Bay for Thanksgiving and unfortunately this year she got stuck spending it with her teammates in Arizona.

Three months of focusing on herself and her sport had proved very successful for Viv. She loved having her family at all her games and loved how happy CJ was at OU. There was always a time during the day where she wondered about Nolan. It was usually in the mornings when her and Cy would leave the apartment to head to a training session. Cy was doing well and had gone back to his old self. Nolan had completely disappeared and it made Viv nervous. She had been to parties at UCLA and the most popular bars and Nolan was no where to be found. His socials were essentially ghost accounts and she was pretty sure he had deleted Snapchat all together. She had no way to contact him because he had changed his number.

Viviana worried about Nolan. It didn't matter how much he disliked Rose a divorce wasn't easy on anyone. Cody selling the Diamondback also made her nervous. She had no idea what was going on in his life and she was too scared to ask Cy. The moment she asked about Nolan word would spread that she was ready for him.

Nolan was on Viv's mind more today. It was Thanksgiving and last year he had opened up to her about this being the day his mom died. She hoped he was ok.

"Hey," Sydney greeted her teammate as she came into the room the pair were sharing. "These were left at the lobby desk for you." Sydney set the red roses on the bed next to Viv.

Viv picked them up, "Weird Cy always sends yellow roses..."

Sydney shrugs, "There wasn't a note or anything just said for V."

Viv frowned and went to text Cy but checked Instagram first. She nearly dropped her phone seeing Nolan's picture at the top of the stories. She clicked it and immediately recognized the scenery in the background. She would never forget it.

Viv shoved the phone in front of Sydney's face. Sydney was from Phoenix and would know exactly where this was, "Where is this?" Viv demands. She needed confirmation.

Sydney plays the story a few times, "I think that's the cemetary in Chandler."

"But its in Arizona?" Viv questions.

"Yes, why?" Sydney questions wondering why Viv is frantically throwing things into her backpack.

Viv looks at Sydney and smiles, "I have to go I'll be back." Viv looked the time and noted she had eight hours before the plane left.

"Viv!" Sydney calls as her teammates takes off down the halls. "Where are you going?"

"Chandler Cemetary!" Viv calls as she orders and Uber to the one place in Arizona she still knew the address to.

Viv nervously tapped in the back of the Uber as the driver weaved in and out of the Tempe traffic heading south. Finally the driver stopped in front of a gated community and pulled up to the attendant.

"Who are you here for?" The attendant asks.

Viv leans out the window, "Bellinger residents."

The attendant frowns but opens the gate. Viv hadn't been to this house since Sabrina's funeral and she really never planned to come back. She just was hoping that her hunch was right. It was probably rude of her to show up unannounced on the literally worst day in the world for anyone with the last name Bellinger.