Sister to Jonas

9th Inning

Joe's POV

It's the final inning of our RBI Baseball game, and I'm losing by one run. Not a great place to be right now, because even if I do manage to tie up the game or get ahead, the home team Dodgers get their last at bats. This is the moment where letting Brexley's team have home field advantage could really bite me in the ass.

"You're going to have to start by swinging the bat," Brexley says annoyingly as I let a perfect pitch go right past me.

"Shut up," I tell her crossly, trying to focus as hard as I can as the next ball comes.

I crack this one out to center field for a single, which is always a nice feeling. At least I have a base runner, and with no outs? Even better.

"Aah," Brexley says, clearly a little irritated at the fact that I got on base. Sucks to be her, I guess.

I successfully steal second on the next pitch, although narrowly, I have to admit. The next one is a ball inside, and then I ground out to the pitcher. Pitiful. What a useless waste of an out, but at least my runner is in scoring position. I have no choice but to use this to my advantage, because if I don't, I lose. I want to at least force Brex and her Dodgers to bat, because I can't let her win this easily. I refuse to.

I lay down an immaculate bunt to send my runner to third and get another one on first, setting myself up spectacularly to score. There's only one out, and as long as I can get the ball out of the infield, I'm golden. Doesn't even matter if it's a looping fly ball to the outfield; I can tag up and at least score the guy on third.

"Don't get cocky now, Joe," Brexley says in a sing-song voice, as if reading my mind. I don't even bother to respond.

The next pitch is a beauty, right where I like it to be in this game, and I send it flying out to center field. Not far enough to leave the playing field, but far enough where I can tag up. Perfect. When it's caught, I send my runner on third base home as Brexley controls a throw to the plate. Though at first I think I'm going to be safe by a mile, I start to get scared. The throw is coming in quickly, and the Dodgers aren't cutting the ball off. It might beat my guy to home.

"No, no, no, no, no!" I scream as my guy tries to dive into home plate and the ball arrives at nearly that exact second.

"LET'S GO!" Brexley screeches in my ear as she gets the out call from the umpire, and the game ends with a Dodgers win.

"WHAT?" I yell at the screen incredulously. No way did this game really end like this.

Whipping the controller onto the couch, I roll myself onto the floor face down and in a heap. Brexley is still cheering herself next to me, and all I am is pissed off.

"This game is rigged," I mumble into the floor, and my sister just laughs.

"Such a sore loser," she teases, and I raise my head to glare at her. "Joe, seriously, it's just a video game."

"Yeah, you should talk! You're the one celebrating!" I say angrily.

"Why are you getting so worked up over this? You were literally blaring your team's home run song and being obnoxious before! And I know if you would've won you would've been celebrating!" she says, firing up a little bit herself.

"Have you ever heard of being a gracious winner? Apparently not!" I yell back.

"You're being so stupid right now. How about not being ultra competitive over every little thing? How about just having some fun once in a while?" she screams at me.

"I do have fun! I'm not ultra competitive, I-" I try to say back, but she cuts me off.

"Do you know what, I'm not doing this right now. This is why I can't ever do this type of stuff with you, because this is how you act," Brexley says, shaking her head at me.

"I'm not acting like anything!" I tell her, and she waves me off.

"Just stop it, Joe. I'm going by Nick's. I'll see you later," she says in a flat tone, grabbing her coat, phone, and car keys while striding towards the door.

"Brex," I call after her, but she ignores me and slams the door behind her.

Fantastic. This is just shaping up to be a fantastic day. Now what the hell am I supposed to do? Brexley and I rarely fight, so this is a strange occurrence, and I don't really know how to handle it. I guess I'm just going to have to try and apologize when she gets home later, because there's not much else I can do. She's right; I really am stupid sometimes.