9 Innings of Love: A Savannah Banana's and Party Animals Love Story

Chapter 3

Tanner's POV:

The sound of Dalton's truck horn brought me back to reality from thinking back to the interaction I had last season with Olivia. I went outside to see Dalton starting to take his things out of his truck. "Hey Dalton, it's been a couple months." I said as I went in for a hug. He smiled and turned to hug me back. "Yeah dude, it has. I'm excited to get this season started." We began to bring in all of Dalton's stuff and eventually had everything in the apartment. It was way easier to move things around now since I had another person to help. 

Dalton had got to our place around noon, and we finished moving and unpacking for the most part around 6pm. We were both exhausted and starving, so we decided to get some food at a local place by the beach. After we ate we sat on the beach for a while just relaxing and watching the sun set. We usually tried to come to the beach when we had a day off just to relax. We sat in silence until Dalton began to talk about the drive from Nashville. He said the drive was fine but Olivia was getting a little sassy in the car. "Well can you blame her though? She completely forgot today was the day you guys were leaving. How did she forget anyways?" I said as I turned to Dalton. "I'm not sure, she said she wrote it on her calendar. I'm just happy she had her 30 million bags packed when I got there. She tried to make me carry all of them from her apartment to my car." 

He paused, and then continued before I could say anything "That's not what she was being sassy about though." I turned to look at him again. "What's wrong? Did you guys get into a fight or something? Did you bring up that rule again that she hates. It's kinda useless though Dalt because you know she's going to have friends on the te-" I started before he cut me off, still staring out into the ocean. "No Tanner it wasn't about that, well it kinda was. It was more about You and Olivia." I felt my face turn red when he said that. What did he mean it was about me and Olivia? Nothing was going on between us. Maybe she told him she likes me and Dalton freaked? No that couldn't be right since she's still dating Kevin. I think Dalton noticed how quiet I was when he nudged my shoulder. "Dude, you okay? Did you hear what I said about you and Olivia?" Apparently Dalton had been talking to me the whole time I was mentally freaking out. I shook my head no and he started explaining again. 

"Remember last season when Olivia was super mean towards you for no real reason? I guess she didn't like how you acted and that's why she didn't like you. That's all I could really get out of her though before she made me stop talking about it." He turned his head to look at me. "Don't worry about it though bro, just be yourself this season and maybe she'll come around. It's a new tour, who knows what'll happen. I made her promise me though to not be so mean to you. I told her I wanted the two of you to get along or else it'll be a long season." When Dalton finished I honestly didn't know what to say. I mean, I couldn't help but try to reflect on how I acted towards her last season. I don't think I was ever rude or mean to her. Except that night when Kevin was screaming at her, and I said something I shouldn't have said. Even after that though I apologized and we made up. I'm not sure what she meant by how I acted last season.

My head was spinning trying to figure out where I went wrong. Dalton must've noticed my quietness again because he snapped his fingers in front of my face to get my attention. "Dude" He said making me turn my head towards him. "Like I said, don't worry about it this season. Just be yourself. It's been months since you two saw each other. I'm sure you both have changed, even a little. Remember when you were a Banana for the Summer League when you first started in Banana Land? You changed a lot since then especially since you started as a Party Animal for the first time last year. I'm not saying it was a bad change either, we all grew and had positive changes. We're all going to push ourselves this season to be the best players we can be." 

Dalton was right, I have changed a lot since I first came to Banana Land. I'm just going to keep being myself, and maybe acting a little extra nice to Olivia. I don't want her to hate me this season, definitely the opposite. Once again I can't tell Dalton any of this since that's his cousin. The only person who knows about my feelings for Olivia last year is Bryson Bloomer, the 3rd Baseman for the Party Animals. I honestly didn't even tell him, he kinda just figured it out on his own. He mentioned it one day after a game towards the end of the season. I played it off as if I didn't like Olivia, but I wasn't going to convince him. I made him swear though to not tell anyone on either team, or any of the staff. I haven't talked to Bloomer about her since the end of the season last year, but with Dalton saying all this, I need to talk to somebody. Maybe I'll have a chance to talk to Bloomer by ourselves on Monday. He could probably give me some advice as to what I should do with the Olivia situation.

I finally responded to Dalton. "Yeah, I'll just be myself and maybe we'll get along better this season." I wanted to change the subject so we didn't have to talk about Olivia anymore. I asked Dalton about the songs he's been writing and recording. Whenever he records them he sends me a clip to get my opinion. He started talking about what he did with his music in the off season. He said some of his inspiration came from his break-up with his ex-girlfriend, Katie. I only met her twice I think, she seemed nice. I'm not sure why they broke up, I didn't want to bring it up. If Dalton brought it up though then I would talk to him about it. After he was finished talking about his music, he turned to me again. "So, any girls in Tinder Thomas' love life?" It was weird hearing him call me that again. Nobody called me that in the off season, not that I was complaining though. I just have to get used to hearing it again I guess. I was digging a hole in the sand with my feet. "Uh, no not really. I went on like one date back in Jacksonville, but that's it. I haven't really been using Tinder either. I just feel like if God wants my special someone in my life he'll put her here when I'm ready. Until then though, I have to be patient and wait." Dalton was nodding his head when I finished. "I like that Tan, maybe this season we'll both get girlfriends. If it's in god's timing that is. Who knows, we might even get to meet them on Monday." I started to laugh. "You're quite the optimist, aren't you?" Dalton and I started laughing again. When we finally stopped we just continued to watch the sun go down until it started to get really dark. We went back to the apartment and went to bed. We still had some things we wanted to do tomorrow since it would be Sunday. Monday we would be in full Banana Land mode. 

Thank you for again for reading! Make sure to share with any other Banana Ball friends you might have! I hope everyone is enjoying the story so far! If you have any suggestions please let me know. 

I'm Sorry this chapter was super short. The next two that I already have done are going to be much longer (about 5,000 words each). The story is also going to start picking up at a faster pace now that we got the beginning all set up. I'm super excited to post the chapter for Friday, be sure to come back at 8pm EST for Chapter 4!