Only One

Chapter Eight

[edited]
Ryan's baseball game is today. I arrived at the game right when it started. I pulled into a parking space on the third base side and silently prayed to myself that a foul ball wouldn't come crashing into the windshield. Trust me, it's happened before. I had to pay for a replacement myself. That sucked even more. I grabbed my iced coffee from the cup holder and made my way out of the car. With sunglasses on my eyes, and a tank top with the school's logo, I was ready to watch a ball game. I made my way over to the bleachers taking a sip of my coffee between steps. I sat on the bottom row right behind home plate. Ryan's team was the home team obviously, so that meant they were in the field first. Ryan was on the bench. I figured he must be pitching later on in the game.

I spotted the rest of his family on the second set of bleachers behind home. They were on the top row. Parker had his friend Tyler with him. Tyler thought that it was funny to bully me at school. It obviously wasn't. I still get nightmares sometimes. I even saw Ashleigh, who is the youngest of the Brookes'.

Mrs. Brookes waved at me the minute she saw me. I did the polite thing and waved back. I didn't go sit by them though. I didn't want to. I had no intentions of sitting with Tyler or Parker. I saw someone sit down next to me from the corner of my eye. It was Tyler.

"I'm not in the mood to talk to you right now. So let's save both of us the time and just leave me alone," I say, focusing on the game.

"Where's the fun in that? Why don't you come sit down with us. I'm sure Parker would love to talk to you. Oh wait, he wouldn't. Because he doesn't like you." Tyler laughed at his own sick joke. I didn't cringe. I didn't cry. I didn't say anything. I've learned not to. I looked to my right and saw that Ryan was standing at the opening of the dugout leaning against a pole. I decided to walk over. Standing by Ryan is a lot better than sitting by Tyler.

"Howdie," I greet, leaning on the other side of the skinny pole.

"Howdie partner," he laughs, adjusting his baseball cap. "Was Tyler giving you crap again?" I nod my head.

"It's fine though. It doesn't bother me anymore. I've learned to ignore it," I explain with a faint smile. I look down and notice that he had a bag of seeds in one hand. To make it even better they were jumbo seeds. I took the bag from him and poured some into my hand.

"Hey, hey, hey!" He protested, "give those back!"

"But they're jumbo!" I whine. "You can't let me go without seeds. Every baseball player needs them!"

"She isn't wrong Ryan!" I hear Drake yell from the bench.

"See? even Drake agrees with me," I say.

He shakes his head. "Fine. Now go before we both get yelled at."

"Fine," I roll my eyes and take a step back. "Tuck in your shirt Ryan. It isn't supposed to be out."

"Okay Mom." he rolls his eyes at me and I turn away laughing. I look up and see Parker looking at me. I sat down quickly as I could trying to hide the redness that was forming on my cheeks. I watched the game silently eating the seeds I stole from Ryan and sipping the remains of my coffee.