We Come Alive 5

"I Love You..."

Monday afternoon after school, the twenty baseball players gathered together onto the field for their first practice in almost three weeks. They knew they'd gotten a new coach but when they saw him on the field standing beside Ricky, they saw he was a lot more intimidating than they first imagined.

Ethan shifted his weight on his feet as he glanced over at Jose. "This is gonna suck." He whispered.

Jose nodded his head agreeing. "Yeah. It is."

Ricky blew his whistle and got all of their attention. When he counted them mentally and saw they were all there, he begun speaking. "Alright, listen up! We got a new coach and I'm the assistant coach."

"You got demoted?" Stephen chuckled.

Ricky didn't reply to him. "This is the new baseball coach, Coach Hurst. He's going to coach y'all for the rest of the season."

Hurst looked over the players through his sunglasses that just mirrored them and hid his eyes. "If y'all want to play baseball, then this is the place to be." He said roughly. "If you want to win, we can win. But if you're here just to goof around, you'll be packing your bags and going home."

"What is this?" Baylor scoffed, his SnapBack hiding his face. "Boot camp?"

Hurst stopped and looked right at Baylor. "What's your name?"

"Baylor Santos, sir." Baylor smirked, pushing his SnapBack up so they could make eye contact. He could see out of the corner of his eye Clover gasp when she saw his black eye.

Hurst walked towards Baylor and stopped a foot in front of him. "Tough guy, huh? I don't know what you thought this would be, or who was your coach before, but I break tough guys."

Baylor smiled, his body aching when he crossed his arms. "I can take a beating, if that's what you're offering. I'm not worried about whatever you want to do to make yourself feel like a big tough man."

Hurst glared at Baylor. "I want all of you running fifty laps around the plates. You can thank your buddy Santos here."

Baylor held eye contact with Hurst, but when Hurst didn't look away, Baylor walked off with his teammates. Hurst walked over to Ricky who was just watching silently.

"What happened to him?" Hurst asked. "What's with the bruises?"

Ricky shrugged, watching Baylor lead the pack around the bases. "Don't know. He's a confusing one. Many have tried to get inside to see what's with him, few have managed to even scratch the surface."

~*~

After practice all of the baseball, basketball, and track players along with the cheerleaders were heading home. Two of those athletes being Jessica and Stephen walking home in their awkward silence. They'd been trying to mend their relationship ever since the baseball tournament, walking home together everyday, but nothing seemed to be changing.

"How's the new coach?" Jessica asked, her voice barely over a whisper.

Stephen shrugged, looking down at the ground as he walked. "He's okay. Kinda harsh, but okay. Just glad to be playing again."

Jessica looked up at him and smiled, but he didn't look at her. "I know you are." She said, dropping her smile and looking forward. "Are you okay? You seem distant."

"Just a lot on my mind." Stephen admitted, handing her her bags as they stopped outside her house. "The same thing that's probably always on your mind. Us."

Jessica dropped her bags down on the grass and looked up at Stephen, her hands planted on his chest so he'd finally look at her for the first time in their walk home. They looked at one another, the memories flooding their minds. Neither one of them wanted to say what they wanted to, their minds knowing what was going to happen next, but their hearts not wanting to accept it. The butterflies that use to fill their stomach when they were around one another were gone, now just a sinking feeling. Almost like those same butterflies died.

"I love you." She whispered. "With all my heart."

"I love you too," he confessed, "but what if that's all we have in common."

Stephen reached up and wiped away the tear that rolled down her cheek. "What're we doing? We're trying to salvage something that's clearly too damaged for repair. We..." Stephen tried to look for something to say, but there was nothing to say.

Jessica stepped away from him and turned away. She wiped her tears away and sniffled. "So this is it.
We're over."

Stephen went to touch her and comfort her, but then pulled his hand back. "We can still be friends."

"You don't want to be friends." Jessica scoffed, turning around and facing him. "You just want to make me feel better and that's not gonna help. You're not gonna want to see my face everyday and I'm not gonna want to listen to you and your friends talk about you moving on."

Stephen shook his head. "My friends wouldn't do that to your face."

"They did it to Mila!" Jessica reminded him. "They use to talk about Diego sleeping with other girls like she wasn't sitting right there. After we broke up the first time, all of your friends use to look at me like I was the worst person on Earth. Stephen, don't defend your friends when you know they're not the best of people. The second we walk away, we're really done."

Stephen went to shout at her or defend his friends, but she was right. The moment he told them they broke up, they'd automatically be on his side and drop Jessica like they didn't know her in the first place.

"I'm sorry." He whispered. "I'm...that's all I can say."

Jessica used the tips of her fingers to wipe her tears away. "How did we get here?" She looked up at Stephen, but all he could do was shrug. He had no answers. "I have to go. I need to...go." She whispered, picking up her bags and walking towards her door.

Stephen watched her, his heart sinking as she walked inside. "Bye." He whispered, knowing she didn't hear him.

Stephen slowly walked home, his thoughts floating around in his head, but it didn't fully seem real until he got home and told his mom. She tried to comfort him as he finally let his emotions out and cried on the couch. He hadn't experienced real heartbreak before, but he didn't know it was like getting your heart ripped out.