Alexithymia // J.M.

S I X

Halie's P.O.V.

The next day after school, I meet Jonah in the halls and head out to the baseball field with him.

"Wait, so what position do you play again?" I ask.

"Pitcher."

"They're the ones that throw the ball right?"

"Yes." He laughs.

"Wow, I actually knew something." I laugh.

We arrive at the field and he turns toward the field. I look towards the bleachers and see a girl on the bleachers. She waves for me to come over. I hesitantly walk over to her, fiddling with the cigarettes in my hoodie pocket.

"I've never seen you here before." She says as I sit down next to her.

"It's my first time coming to a practice." I say.

"Well, I'm Jamie-Rose, but you can call me Jamie. Just so you know, not much really happens during these practices."

"I assumed so," I say. "I'm Halie by the way."

"Oh so you're Halie, the girl Jonah ditched us all for yesterday."

"Yeah," I say nervously. "Why? What'd he say?"

"Oh not much. Just said he'd met a girl over the weekend. I'm assuming he invited you here?"

I nod. "Who are you here for?"

"I'm just here for my ride. You see, I have to wait through these practices so I can give James, my twin, a ride home."

"Wait," I pause. "You and James are twins? But you seem like such a decent person."

She laughs. "I get that a lot. Trust me, though, once you get to know James, he's really not that terrible of a person."

"Could've fooled me," I roll my eyes, taking a cigarette and my lighter out from my hoodie pocket. "Do you mind?"

"Nah, go ahead."

I put the cigarette between my lips and light it. "But anyway, why is he such an asshole?"

She sighs. "Freshman year, James and I got involved with the wrong kind of people. I got away pretty quick but he on the other hand found a girl within that group so he stayed. Five months later, he found out she had been cheating on him for the past 3 months. He was heartbroken. He left that group but the ways never left him. That's why he is the way he is."

"Wow," I blow out some smoke. "I didn't know any of that."

"Yeah, since then he's never been keen on letting people see that side."

* * *

I see the team starting to pack up and I decide I should do the same.

"Wait!" Jamie says as I go to leave. "Could we maybe exchange numbers? I really don't have many girl friends and you seem pretty cool."

"Yeah totally," I say and hand her my phone as she hands me hers. "I don't really have many friends either."

Someone yells, "Jamie, hurry your ass up," and we look over to see James standing at the bottom of the stands. She flips him off, hands me my phone back, and grabs her backpack.

We take off down the steps and meet the guys at the bottom.

"And who's this?" James says as he eyes me up and down. Jamie smacks him in the stomach, grabs him by his ear and pulls him away. I hear her say to him, "I swear if you try to get with her I will personally kill you."

"I didn't know you smoked." Jonah says to me as we begin walking.

I throw the cigarette to the ground and put it out with the toe of my shoe. "There's a lot of things you don't know about me."

"Oh yeah, like what?" He smirks.

"That's for you to find out," I smirk. "Wait, is this your truck?"

"Yeah, it's not the best and its kinda beat up but-"

"No, this is amazing!" I squeal.

I get in and look around.

"Really? You think?"

"Yes! I used to have my own beat up truck that used to be my dads. It broke down back in July." I frown.

"If you don't mind me asking," He starts the car and drives away. "What happened to your dad? I noticed you said it used to be his truck."

I sigh. "My dad and my brother died in a car accident the day I was born."

"Oh shit. I'm sorry."

I shake my head. "It's fine."