Smile (Kris Bryant)

Chapter Four| Sore

Kris

I show up to Wrigley early a Tuesday morning for another training session with Alexandria. I head to the workout room and see that I beat her in for once. That has never happened before, I hope everything is okay. All the stations and warm ups were set up but it didn't look like anyone had been here for a while She was probably just filling up her water bottle or something. I stretch out and eventually she joins me in the corner. I stop what I was doing and look at her until she gives me that "what" look.

"Why exactly are you wearing a long sleeved t-shirt in May? It's like 90 degrees outside" I ask pointing to the Nike under armor shirt she was sporting. I mean she looked really great in it, like so great, but again, not the point.

"Because it's cute" she claims and I raise my eyebrow.

"You know what's not cute, heat exhaustion" I tease and she laughs. She stops laughing but the smile stays on her face as we look at each other.

"I'm swear I'm fine. Really. Lets get started" she insists. I let it go but her situation keeps getting weirder and weirder. Today we worked on legs, getting them strong and flexible. We did one leg squats, weighted squats, leg presses, lunges, a bunch of other stuff to work on leg strength.

As a cool down she showed me a bunch of stretches to relax the muscles if they ever feel fatigued or start cramping. By the end of the workout my legs were jello and I sat on the floor leaning against the wall trying to get the feeling back into them. I try to massage them but it was not help really, they were too tired. She sits next to me and tosses me a towel so I can clean up. We finally catch our breath allowing us to regroup ourselves.

"Are you tired" I ask a bit shocked she was actually sitting down. She usually never gets tired. Then again she was wearing a tight ass long sleeved shirt in May so I would be concerned if she wasn't tired.

"Yeah, today was a intense workout" she admits before taking a swig of water. She sprays some on her face and I watch it drip off. It was like it was in slow motion, like a magazine or something. She was not making this easy for me. "Okay, I think we're done for today" she concludes.

"You think? I don't even know how I'm going to play tonight" I laugh.

"Yeahhhh I got a little carried away today" she admits.

"Don't worry, I still had fun.

So Anthony and I are about to go grab some lunch, you want to come" I ask. Us three usually hang out around here but Anthony and I haven't hung out with her outside of here. It's been a month and she still hasn't been seen outside of Wrigley.

"I don't know..." she trails off.

"Do you have other lunch plans?"

"Nope."

"Are you hungry?"

"Starving."

"Then what's stoping you" I ask.

"I... I guess I can come" she says not so sure of her answer. I smile at her and she smiles back at me as we just look at each other for a while. We help each other off the floor before washing up and meeting Anthony at Panera. She changes into another long sleeved shirt and now I'm really confused. It's one thing to have one long sleeved shirt in May, but two in one day? Something is most definitely wrong.

I keep my thoughts to myself because I just got her to come out with me and didn't want to scare her away, but it still weighed heavy in my mind. If there was something wrong I needed to make sure I was in a position to help, not make things worse.

After ordering we sit down with our food and share a bunch of laughs. I learned that she really was the coolest girl in the world and Anthony wasn't lying about that. Hours pass and we were having so much fun. That is until Anthony opens his big fat mouth.

"When are we going to meet your fiancé" Anthony asks and she tenses up beside me. I wanted to know too but she was like a flower. To get to the center let one pedal fall at a time, not just rip it's fucking head off.

"I ummm... uh not sure" she stutters rubbing her arm. She seemed to get flustered and I didn't have a good feeling about this.

"You should bring him to a game" Anthony suggests.

"He's not a people person. Plus baseball isn't his thing" she claims.

"Still. I've known you for two years and I've never seen nor heard of this guy. You've been engaged for four years and I figured I would have seen him around" he says.

"Can we please talk about something else" she whispers and it falls silent. Her eyes turned a dark grey and I got that bad feeling in the pit of my stomach again. I did not like this at all.

"How about you arm wrestle Anthony again because I'm dying to see this" I suggest and she smiles up at me. That made me feel better. They arm wrestle and Anthony loses yet again. I can tell he was trying because his face was red which made it that much better that he lost. I buy her a celebratory cookie as Anthony tried to repair his pride. After a little she looks at her phone and her face drops. Her breathing picks up and it looks like she was about to cry.

"Oh god, I didn't realize how late it was getting. I need to get home" she says quickly packing her things up and getting up. Whoever "needs" to get home?

"Oh, okay. I'll walk you to your car" I offer and she stops to smile at me. I walk her there, very quickly, and she starts to get in the car. I grab her arm to stop her and ask a question and she lets out a horrid scream when my hand wraps around her. I let go of her arm and give her a "what the hell just happened" look. We look at each other for a while and I see her breathing pick up again.

"What the hell was that" I finally ask. That scream just shook me to my core. That was like she was scared I was going to do something to her or that something did happen to her.

"I'm just sore" she says slowly.

"No, no you're not. You're hurt. Like actually injured" I insist. No one screams like that unless something is really wrong. And there was, I just knew it.

"I'm fine" she insists.

"I don't believe you" I argue.

"I... I... I have to go" she says hoping in her car trying to end this conversation. She sticks her keys in the ignition before I rest my hand on her car so she won't speed away. Not yet.

"Wait, please don't leave. I have to know something, just tell me you're safe and I'll let everything go" I beg. I just need to hear her say that she's going to be okay and I'll step down.

"I gotta go" she whispers. She pulls off and I run my fingers through my hair. Oh I did not like this one bit.