The Jacket Snatcher

Chapter 51- Undressing

Luke tries to climb into my bunk again, but I block his way.

"Watching the movie was great, but I think sleeping beside my germs all night in a confined space is pushing your luck," I say.

He pouts. "Fine."

Then, too swift for me to dodge, he ducks down, leaves a peck on my lips, and scampers away.

"If you end up sick, I am sonot taking care of you!" I call as he retreats.

Tuning out the boys who are still awake in the back lounge, I fall asleep as we pull onto the open road on our way to Phoenix.

When we arrive, I wake up to find myself feeling much better than the day before. Already, the soreness in my body is leaving and I am fairly sure I don't have a fever anymore. I still feel a bit worn down, but I definitely feel up to following the boys around like usual. We sit around most of the time anyway.

Once inside the venue, however, the boys start to get restless.

"We haven't had a proper kick around or anything in weeks," Calum moans as he lies on his back on the ground, tossing a tennis ball into the air and catching it repeatedly.

"We don't have a soccer ball," Ashton says.

That's when Calum suddenly sits up board straight. "Louis or Niall have to have one!"

He jumps up and disappears from the room. No one says anything or really does anything but sit there before he's back again a couple minutes later. He comes through the door with slouched shoulders and a sour face.

"They said Paul hid all their balls because they kept breaking lights and stuff."

He drops dramatically back to the floor and starts his incessant tennis ball throwing.

"You know, there are more sports than just soccer. Why don't you play a game with that tennis ball or something?" I say, unable to stand his sulking for another moment.

He stops throwing and lifts his head up to peer at me.

"Like what?"

I shrug. "I don't know. Find an empty wall and play wallball."

"That's not a real sport." He lays his head back down.

"Then find something that resembles a bat and go play baseball. I don't care! Just quit whining!" I swear sometimes I feel like their mom.

"That's it!" he launches to his feet and flees from the room again. When he returns this time, he's carrying a broom and is followed by Niall, Louis, and Harry. "Now the teams will be even," he says with a proud smile.

After some intense coaxing of Michael, we finally make our way to the back parking lot to play. We find a relatively open space between the buses that is also pretty private because of the buses. Once divided into two teams, Calum and Louis (the team captains) flip for sides.

My team, which includes Calum, Ashton, Harry, and myself, ends up batting. They decide I should bat first for our team-I guess to get my strikeout out of the way.

"Go easy on me," I say to Luke as he steps up to pitch. "I'm still feeling a little sick."

He smirks. "We play to win, babe."

Louis hollers his agreement from the outfield, and I hold up my broom to bat. It doesn't go well. After throwing a ball the first time, Luke quickly strikes me out. I glare at him as I hand off the bat to Harry. He just shrugs with a smirk.

Harry does better than me. He at least gets a hit, but also gets tagged out at first. He comes to join me in the reject line, chuckling as he walks up.