Play Ball

Two Benches

Friday

Travis is awake and doing alright. Julien got out of the hospital two days ago and he's been recovering at home.

School let out a few hours ago for the weekend. The weather has been getting warmer recently, and I really just want to get out and walk tonight. When I first moved here, Alyssa told me about the trails that surround the entirety of the school. The school is encircled by woods, and there's even a river that the trails pass by.

Alyssa and I went there about two weeks ago, but it ended up being a lot colder than we thought so we didn't stay long. Today it's warmer, but there's also a chance of rain so I'm bringing an umbrella with me.

My aunt Allison is gonna pick me up in about an hour and a half in the parking lot. I just wanna sit on one of the benches near the river and maybe read or something.

I've been here since school ended and had to stay to work on a group project, and we just wrapped it up so I put my backpack and things in my locker and grab my umbrella, book, and phone.

I take off towards the woods on the East side of the school. Once I reach the end of the parking lot, I cross the soccer field, and reach the edge of the woods.

I see the trail beginning where Alyssa and I started a few weeks ago and begin walking. I've always loved nature. Our house in Minnesota was surrounded by trees so when we moved out here into a house with only one tree in the front yard, I've been aching to come out here.

After about twenty minutes I know that I must be getting close to the river. And right after I think that, I start to hear the rush of the water. I'd love to go swimming in the river one day, but it's prohibited by the school.

I start to see the clearing by the river, and then something stops me from going any farther. I hear the voice of someone in the direction I'm going. Slowly I begin to move forward again, and I can hear someone talking. I see the two benches, and someone is sitting on the left one, holding a phone to their ear.

"Dad I- it was a mistake I know but the team and Jacob needed me to help. I didn't have a choice," they say.

Crap. I recognize that it's Tim's voice.

This sounds like a private conversation so I should turn back around. I do so and slowly start to make my way back when I step on a branch and it makes a cracking noise.

Shit.

Tim stops talking, and I know he heard me. Regretfully I start to turn around slowly. His eyes lock with mine and I expect an angry expression to cross his face. But none does.

He turns back around towards the river and says into the phone, "Dad, I gotta go."

He lowers his phone and puts it into his pocket. I stand there, not knowing what to do.

I know I shouldn't, but I wonder how his arm is. I mean, I don't want him to suck or something now in our games if he has a hurt arm.

With determination, I take off towards the benches. He hears me coming towards him, and snaps, "What the hell are you doing?"

Okay, obviously I'm still not welcome with him, but I sit down on the bench to the right anyways.

He scowls, "Are you deaf? Get the hell out of here!"

"We're on school property, you don't own it. You wanna leave, then leave. I don't give a crap, but I'm gonna read," I say. He shouldn't dish it out if he can't take it.

"Not if your book is at the bottom of the river," he threatens.

"Would you put me at the bottom of the river too? It would put me out of the misery of having to listen to any more of your complaining."

He raises an eyebrow and says, "Don't tempt me."

I don't say anything in response. I'll admit I definitely do have fear being out here alone with him. He could absolutely kill me if he wanted to because I have no weapons and he's bigger than me. And, despite having been called the karate kid, I've never taken a class.

His phone buzzes and he looks at it. Frustration seems to cross his face.

In order to break the awkwardness in the air, and to try and get his mind off of possibly killing me, I ask, "So does your arm need to be amputated or what?"

He looks at me in annoyance, and doesn't answer. He puts his phone back into his pocket and doesn't say anything for a while. I open my book and attempt to read, but end up looking at him out of the side of my eye like every ten seconds.

Why's he not leaving? He despises me, and I know that just my presence here is killing him.

A few more minutes go by, and I realize that I'm not actually reading. My eyes are looking at the words but not comprehending what they are saying.

He's just looking out at the river. Then, he takes in a breath and asks, "Why were you so fucking annoyingly insistent on joining the team?" He still doesn't look at me, and he actually seems quite annoyed with himself that he actually just talked to me.

I answer his question with a question of my own. "Why were and are you so fucking annoyed about me being on the team?"

He doesn't respond. He just slowly shifts his gaze to his hands in his lap. Then he get's up and leaves. Just like that. Without a word or even a look back in my direction.

At Home

"Ryan got into a fight today at school," Allison says as we walk into the door that goes through the garage.

"What?!" I ask.

"Apparently he wanted to shoot hoops at recess with a basketball, but there were none left so he grabbed someone elses and the kid obviously wasn't happy and started yelling at Ryan to give it back. So then Ryan got mad and pushed the kid to the ground and they started hitting each other," she says, and then sighs.

"Are you kidding?! Well where is he now?" I ask.

"I'm gonna pick him up right now. He's at Ians house," she says, referring to whom I assume is a friend Ryan. I just nod, but I'm actually really shocked. It's really out of character for him to do something like this. He's always been a pretty chill kid.

"Wait, why didn't you call me earlier? Shouldn't he be at home right now?"

"Well I knew you wanted to take your walk, and with the whole thing with your first game I thought you could just have some time to yourself," she explains.

"Yeah but Allison, Ryan hit a kid. I mean, that's not like him at all, we gotta figure out what's going on with him," I say. "Who even is this Ian kid? I've never heard of him."

"I think he's a relatively new friend of Ryan's. Ian's on his baseball team, so they know each other from there," she says.

"What's his last name?" I ask, just out of curiosity.

She takes in a breath while she tries to think of the name and then says, "I think it's like Rott... or something."