Endless Summer (emison)

12

She trusted Emily, but she didn't trust Sydney. Ali didn't want to stir the pot by bringing up the fact she felt threatened by Sydney, usually that sort of thing didn't turn out well for her and it was time she stopped acting like a child and more like the adult she was going to become. She didn't want to bring it up to Emily because, they weren't actually dating. Sure they were a thing, at least that's what Alison hoped, so she had no authority to be possessive over Emily. She just couldn't help herself.

Ali sat next to Emily in the plastic seats of the ball park, trying to sort out her thoughts while waiting for the first pitch. She stared forward, not trusting herself to look in Emily's direction, since Sydney was right next to her. Ali felt torn, all she wanted to do was go total bitch mode on Sydney, but didn't want Emily to think differently of her. There was the possibility that Emily would totally get turned off if she thought Alison was crazy possessive and Alison wanted no part of that. So instead, her hand slowly made its way toward Emily's and carefully intertwined their fingers.

She saw Emily look down at their hands out of the corner of her eye, and shifted in her seat. Why was Emily acting so differently lately?

It was another thing Alison had thought about. It used to be she and Emily basically all over each other, one of them always having a part of their body on the other to keep some sort of contact. But now, it seemed like she was losing interest. Maybe Alison was going crazy, maybe she was overreacting. She and Emily wouldn't keep as close of a contact anymore, and Emily seemed withdrawn. The thought of Emily losing interest in her nagged Alison in the back of her head, and it only got worse when Emily suddenly pulled her hand out of Alison's.

Emily looked over at Alison, standing up in her seat. What was she doing?

"Are you going to stand up and take pride in our country or are you going to just sit there?" Emily asked.

Alison frowned, looking around as nearly everyone in ballpark began standing up if they weren't already. It dawned on her as people began removing their baseball caps, that someone was going to sing the national anthem. Quickly, Ali rose to her face and scolded herself for being concerned on why Emily let go of her hand. She continued to scold herself as someone from some choir sang the national anthem. The only sound in the whole ball park was the girl singing the national anthem, and the slight breeze that made Alison shiver slightly.

When the anthem was over, Alison sat back down as the organ music began playing again around the ball park.

"Alright everyone! Place your bets! Five dollars come on!" Christian said, shaking his baseball cap in front of everyone.

"Bets for what?" Emily asked, looking down at the cap in front of her.

"Christian likes to do this thing where everyone bets what they think the final score will be and whoever is closest gets all the money." Ali explained, as she pulled out five dollars from her wallet. It was a fun game to play even though she never won, but she had gotten close once before. She, Christian, and Noel had been doing the bet since they were in sixth grade and would come with Christian's dad. Noel and Alison's parents were never in to baseball or sports for that matter. The closest her dad got to sports was buying her the Phillie's away jersey.

Alison took the black Sharpie from Christian's outstretched hands and used her thigh as a surface to write on the money. On the money she wrote, "Ali: 7-3 Phillies". Her loopy handwritten was scrawled across Abe Lincoln's printed face. She capped the marker and put the money in the hat, not caring that she defaced a five dollar bill. She handed the marker to Emily, who wrote down her name and score. "Emily: 4-1 Phillies"

"Phillies fan?" Christian asked, as Emily placed the money in his hat.

"Um, I don't really follow all of that." Emily admitted. "Only Olympic swimming when that comes on every four years, and field hockey because one of my friends plays it."