Pitcher (Aaron Nola Phillies)

Belong

As we walked into the locker room side by side a strange feeling took over me. It was as though I belonged. All my life  I've always felt different from everyone else. But when I walked Into that locker room filled with people that respected me people that treated me like I was the most normal person they've ever met. They treat me like one of them, they treat me like one of the guys. My teammates protect me so I will protect them. This is what team is. They're all love like  brothers to me. Of course I have an actual younger brother but we don't necessarily understand each other. At least not like this. 

"You ok kid?" Aaron asked interrupting my thoughts.

"Yeah I'm just thinking about how much I feel like a part of this team."

"We definitely lucked out on our team." 

"The trouble makers are here!" Tyler yelled, I gave him a death glare. Tyler and I hadn't talked much but he seemed nice enough. He was super skinny which honestly confused me about how he hit home runs. He had these mysterious green eyes which I couldn't figure out.

"What's the deal? You guys benches for something? What did you do" Cody asked. 

"We aren't in trouble, we didn't do anything." I said rolling my eyes. 

"Then what was coach saying?" I nudged Aaron to speak as I froze.

"Oh, uh, he was just saying something random not really baseball related. He was really just checking on if we knew something. It's private really."

"Guys? There's definitely something you aren't telling us." Tyler said stepping close to us as though he were interrogating us. 

"Coach was just telling us we could date if we wanted. It's not that exciting!" I finally spoke up immeaditly regretting it the second they all began laughing. 

"Aaron and Abbie sitting in a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" They all teased.

"You guys are so mature."Aaron said sarcastically as he rolled his eyes.

"Cmon Aaron lets go get changed. We don't have time for these people."    I pulled him to our lockers and we got changed fast. After we were done changing I took his hands in mine and told him what to do.

"Listen Aar, you need to be careful today. They're probably pretty pissed at you for fighting yesterday so just play it safe." He nodded and began to go get warm.

"That reminds me, how's your leg?" Aaron asked while he was starting to pitch in the bullpen. I was just standing off to the side watching. My leg ached a bit but it wasn't that bad. I have a high pain tolerance so it didn't matter.  

"Better it's still not perfect but it'll get better." He smiled and before I could say a word, he picked me up and took me onto the field. Carlos who was catching today, immeaditly stood up and yelled at Aaron. 

"Aaron! You have a game to get ready for!" We both yelled. 

"Yeah but I'm warm and I need to be distracted by something." Aaron carried me  on the field, his hands under my legs my arms around his neck.  There were fans at the field already. The Phillies fans cheered and the giants fans just stared. Our teammates who were getting for fielding practice all just laughed as he carried me. 

"Aar you gotta get back to practicing." 

"Fine!" He took me back to the bullpen and set me down. After he warmed up for a while he was ready. I was nervous that he'd get hurt I had a feeling he would.