Pitcher (Aaron Nola Phillies)

My Fault

This time it was my turn to panic in the dugout. Although I wasn't nearly as anxious as Aaron, I was still extremely nervous at least compared to my typical self. I sat in the dugout, hiding my fears.  It was nearly impossible acting normal but somehow no one noticed. You see, it wasn't just that  I didn't want to see Aaron get hurt, it was knowing that it would be my fault. If any of these boys were to get hurt, it'd be because they "encourage me"to ruin the MLB. And Aaron did not help himself last night. He gave them a million reasons to hate him last night. It had become very clear to me that Aaron had a lower pain tolerance than me. So if he gets hit, he's in trouble. As soon as he got ready to go to the plate to bat I sat down between Cameron and Cody. They both acknowledged me and then went back to watching the game. My heart was beating so loud I felt like they could hear it. I took a deep breath to stay calm but I knew it wouldn't do a thing. 

"You ok Abigail?" Cody asked finally noticing how uncomfortable I was. 

"Yeah I'm fine." The pitcher through pitch I closed my eyes, waiting to hear the sound of Aaron getting hit. 

"You don't seem that ok." 

"I am, it's just I'm a bit nervous about Nola."

"Why?"

"Because the pitcher might hit him and he'll be badly hurt." I said it like it was the most obvious thing although to almost everyone it wasn't.

"He's  not gonna hit him." 

"Oh yeah well tell me that while I'm beating the pitcher up." 

"Even if he does Aaron will be fine."

"No he won't,I know him better and he's not as tough as the rest of us."

"Why do you care so much?" 

"No reason." I watched as the pitcher got ready to through his the third pitch, the other two had been strikes, maybe he wasn't gonna hit Aaron. No, he was tricking him into thinking he wouldn't get hit! How dare he?! Immeaditly realizing what was about to happen, I ran to the top of the steps, fists clenched. 

"Abigail!" Yelled Cody but there was no way I wasn't beating this pitcher up. I watched the ball leave his hand. 

"Aaron!" I screamed as I watched in horror as the ball hit him right in the eye. Aaron fell to the ground, clutching his eye. There wasn't an once of hesitation in me when I ran onto the field. I sprinted to the pitcher, fists still clenched. 

"How dare you hurt him?!" I yelled at him, I could feel my teammates surrounding me. "He's innocent!" I landed the perfect punch right in his jaw he stepped back with his hand on his jaw. When he removed his hand I realized his mouth was filled with blood. I smiled and pushed my teammates out of the way so I could get to Aaron. He was still lying on the ground. His hand still clutched over his eye. 

"Aaron!" I sat down at his side brushing his hair off his face. I gently removed his hand from his eye, revealing a black eye. The trainer emerged to help get him off the field.

"Abigail." His right eye fluttered open as he spoke weakly. 

"Yes Aar?"

"Can you take me off the field?" I nodded as he closed his eye. I carried him just how he had carried me and blinked back tears as I did. My teammates stood behind on the field, silently. There was no doubt I was ejected which didn't matter since either way I was going to help Aaron. It pained me so much to seem him so hurt. The trainer motioned towards the parking lot where I assumed there'd be an ambulance. Sure enough there was an ambulance in the parking lot, lights flashing and all. They pulled a stretcher to me. I gently set him onto it, he was still asleep. They rushed him into the ambulance. I just stood behind to shocked to move.  One of the emts came up to me just as they were about to leave.

"Are you gonna come? He needs some support before his family arrives." I nodded and got in. Aaron looked so different when he was hurt. His eye was a mess and he looked weak. I took a shaky breath as I stared at him. I'd never seen him so weak. I could feel my eyes and throat burning with tears. You are a brave strong baseball player, you will not cry! He's a brave strong baseball player he'll be fine! Please Aaron, please be fine!  

" Yeah I gotta Aaron Nola. He was injured in the game. He's lucky he survived. Get a room ready. I think he's gotta concussion." I overheard one of the emts speaking into a phone. Lucky he survived. My Aaron, my sweet sweet Aaron nearly died and it was  all my fault. My eyes drifted to Aaron, who still slept. I grabbed his hand and he intertwined our fingers, at least he can do that. 

"Get him out! Hurry! We gotta professional baseball player in our hands!" A doctor emerging from the hospital yelled. Everyone responded quickly and rushed him through the hospital, me following close behind. They stopped at some sort of examining room. The doctor came up to me and motioned towards the waiting room.

"Will you let me see him?" I asked him as I began to leave.

"We'll retrieve you when it's we've taken the tests." Tests? What tests?

"Thank you." I walked into the emergency room. There were family members everywhere. I saw kids falling asleep and playing games, some were crying. There were troubled parents who looked anxious. Some of the people looked to  be the significant others of the patients. Everyone of them had the same expression as me, worry. I was pretty sure we were all thinking the same thing, is he/she ok? I took a seat and fiddled with my warmup jacket. I was still in uniform I hoped people wouldn't recognize me. There was a tv in the corner it had the game on.my teammates were all miserable. They played awful, the opposing pitcher was ejected and replaced by some super good reliever. They wouldn't stop showing Aaron getting hit, me throwing the punch, it was a good punch.

"This is smiths second fight in two days. Both times were in defense of Nola." The commenter said as they showed picture of my lunch last night.

"Some may think that she's too violent, but I think she's sweet for helping Nola so much."

"Yeah they pretty much opposites when it comes to personalities. But they both pitch similarly and both attended LSU. I find their friendship very sweet and heartwarming." 

"Here's a picture of them yesterday, Aaron was having a breakdown about her possibly getting hurt and she cheered him." They showed the picture of us yesterday. For the first time I looked really sweet and kind. What had Aaron done to me? What had I done to him?