Pitcher (Aaron Nola Phillies)

I'm Fine

"Thanks, Austin, I needed to hear that from someone." He smiled and kissed my forehead again as we settled in for sleep. 

The next morning Austin had to force me through the door to go to practice. I told him, I told him at least a million times, there was no way, I was going to face my teammates again. 

"But Austin, I told you, I don't want to go and see them!" I said as he pulled my arm to get me down the hallway to get to the stadium. 

"Well too bad! They're your teammates and you're going to have to face them sooner or later. Besides, what better time then when you're playing baseball? How do know for sure it that it was them? What if someone else told the media and just said that they told them?" I stared back at him as though he were crazy and for all I knew, he was. 

"I do not ever base facts off of a what if." 

"I'm not saying it's a fact, I'm just mentioning it's possible." He shrugged innocently and I rolled my eyes. 

"Well anyway, it's time for the game, unfortunately."

"I knew I could persuade you to go! Besides, I'll be there too." I nodded and we drove off to the game. Austin kissed me good luck before we went our different ways. I could tell the good luck wasn't for pitching since I pitched yesterday. It was so I could survive seeing my teammates. 

"Austin, why can't you just be on my team?" 

"Because that's not how it works sweetheart. You'll be fine, ace, just takes a deep breath and breathe for a change"  He put his hands on my shoulders looked me right in the eye with those bIue eyes of his. Then like that, he pulled me into his arms and wrapped himself around me. "It'll be fine, I promise you that much. I'll always be here, cheering my ass off for you. Don't you go forgetting that, Smith."  He shook a finger at me in a way that made me chuckle a bit and he smiled as though seeing my smile magically made his day ten times better. 

Following Austin's orders, I took a deep breath before walking into the locker. It'll be fine, I am a brave strong woman. I can take a 92 mile an hour fastball to the rib, I can survive a few media rumors that my best friends possibly helped spread. As I walked I made sure to keep y eyes focused on the ground. Not wanting to look up because I knew that they were all probably staring at me and snickering. It was hard to resist the temptation to look up at them and just see what they were thinking but I couldn't, that would just make me weaker. 

"So there's our little ace, we were wondering when you'd show up!" Cameron waved to me and seemed strangely normal. I mean he was super cheerful as always but he was also not exactly acting like someone who had just spread an awful rumor about me and was trying to act all fake nice to me. He was acting like normal, happy, Cameron. I only slightly looked up at him to acknowledge his presence.  "You ok Ab?" 

"I'm  fine." 

"Aaron, what did you do to her this time?" 

"Ask my brother, oops, I mean her boyfriend." I stared at both of them, trying to put together what was going on. Cameron was clearly acting clueless and Aaron was just continuing being the rude asshole he had been for the past two weeks. I looked over towards Odubel, he was just laughing with Freddy about something, I couldn't tell what. Cody was standing in between Cameron and I and had the most confused expression ever. For a second I considered Austin's theory about Aaron and what not, but I immediately ruled it out entirely. This was all just an act they were putting on so that I would be this confused. I did, however, realize that no one else seemed to know about the cruel rumors, they had spread. I guess the media hasn't released it just yet. Given that no one seemed to know and Cameron, Cody, and Odubel were not gonna do a thing or say a word, I decided to act normal. Like there was totally no drama going on in my life. 

While we were stretching, the Marlins infielders took the field. I secretly stole a brief glance at Austin, who smiled lightly at me. I allowed myself only one more glance towards the end of practice since I had to be much more careful now. He mouthed something to me, "Do they hate you?"  Mouthed back while chewing gum so it looked like I was just chewing. "Hard to say what's going on." He nodded and got back to focusing on practice. 

It was hard, talking to my teammates like they totally hadn't just broken my heart into a million tiny pieces and destroyed any trust I had in them. But  sommehow they didn't notice the difference, I had to keep it like that, my career depended on it.