Based on my 1st Prize Winner for Best Screenplay at the 2009 Rhode Island International Film Festival.
"Brokeback Mountain" meets "Bull Durham". Brad Hawley realizes his dream of playing professional baseball when the New Orleans Breakers draft him...
"I think I've always known." Brad admitted to Ashley as they walked along a trail. "I was confused at first. I mean, I had crushes on girls when I was a kid. I was about twelve when I started to figure things out."
Earlier, when Ashley handed Brad his cell phone to take Taylor's call, he trembled so badly, he could barely hold it in his hands. The best he could muster when he spoke to Taylor was, in a quivering voice, "Call you back."
He stood by the pool in the Cosgrove backyard, about to have a mental breakdown, but Ashley intervened and calmed him down. "Everything is going to be fine." She had him towel off and get changed.
****
Ashley had driven him to Rockwell Park, which was beyond the outfield walls of Muzzy Field. It was a place she liked to retreat to -- hiking the trail that she and Brad were walking would often clear her mind. She thought it might do Brad some good.
Although he was silent in the car, he began to open up as they walked. They stopped on the foot bridge along the path and watched the waters of the Pequabuck River -- more of a brook, really -- flow through the park, out through the center of town -- and beyond.
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"My gaydar failed me. I feel so stupid." Ashley admitted. She was almost as ashamed as Brad was, disconcerted by how forward she had been with him, as she had successfully been with other players who billeted in the Cosgrove home.
"Don't be," He reassured her. "You're not the first. I've had some very, very attractive girls try."
"It took you a while to stop kissing me at J. Tim's that night."
"You kissed me." Brad corrected. "I wondered about that. I guess I had to make it look good for the boys. Y'know?"
"What do you do when girls hit on you?"
"Well, let's see," He thought, "we go on a couple of dates."
"Wait," Ashley responded, placing a hand on top of his, "you have dated girls?"
Brad nodded, "And I feel bad because I'm leading them on, but after a couple of dates, I hit them with," he went on, rattling off a litany of excuses. "I don't feel the connection. We're not compatible. I'm just not into seeing anyone at the moment. I don't think it's working out."
Ashley, "I'm in a relationship."
"Well, no, because that would imply I was cheating."
Ashley understood and nodded. She held out her hand and wiggled her fingers at him. "Come on, let me see him."
Brad removed his cell phone from his pocket and showed her a photo of Taylor. "Hey, he's adorable!" Ashley exclaimed.
"That he is."
"I mean it," she added. "And so young looking!"
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