Life in Hiding

34 ~ Naked

The stadium lights are blinding.

"Now up to bat, Sage Rhodes." A
voice echoes through the stadium. My feet move me towards the batter's box. People are cheering. The wood bat in my hands feels like air as I hold it up and get into position.

"Hope you're ready, kid." The umpire says through his mask and I grin.

Hell yeah, I'm ready. This is it. This is everything I've ever wanted. The lights are so bright, I can't see the pitcher but it doesn't matter. Spreading my legs a little, I shake my bat. "Bring it."

The ball zooms in at an ungodly speed, buzzing as it connects with the catcher's mitt. What the fuck? Getting ready, I try to focus on the next pitch but I can't see it until it's flying by.

My hands grow sweaty. The crowd starts to quiet down. One more ball is thrown and I manage to time it perfectly. With all of my force, I swing the bat. Instead of making contact, I end up on my ass.

The stadium erupts into laughter.

"Strike three. You're out!" The ump looks down at me. "Go put on some clothes."

"What?" I go to tug on my jersey and touch skin. Scanning my body, I jump to my feet. "What the fuck?"

I'm naked. Totally and completely naked. Trying to run to the dugout, I'm cut off by two players.

"This is golden." Gentry Rawlings laughs, dressed in a Florida State jersey.

"He's too good for school with us. More like we're too good for him." Aspen Jones adds, wearing the same jersey as Gentry.

"That's okay." I turn to find James walking towards us in his Alabama jersey. "At least he considered going to your school."

"At least we're going to school." Aspen spits on the ground. "Pretty boy Rhodes isn't going anywhere."

Oh, God. They continue to laugh. No matter where I turn to run to, there's no escaping them. Finally I collapse on the ground, allowing their faces to drown out the lights.

A quacking duck replaces the laughter as they begin to shove me.

"Dude, wake up!" My blanket is ripped off of me as I begin to come to. "Ahh, holy shit, why are you naked?"

"My eyes burn!"

"What the hell?" I demand, pulling the blankets back over me. Silver and Sterling try to run from the room and body slam into the wall. "Why are you in here?"

"Why are you naked?" Sterling demands. "A little heads up would be nice."

Lifting the covers up, I double check that I am still naked. "I'm still dreaming." I have to be. I have no idea why but this is definitely a nightmare gone wrong.

"Newsflash, what we just saw was really real." Silver hisses. "Lock your door."

"I didn't know I was naked." I went to sleep in boxers. They had pigeons on them and everything.

"Wake up. We leave for school in 20 minutes." Sterling orders.

"We need to go back to therapy." Silver mutters.

The thought of therapy has my heart speeding up. "Um, how was that?"

They went the other day and didn't say anything about it.

"It was better than this shit show of a morning."

With that they slam my door shut. Sitting up, I try to find my boxers and come up empty handed. What a great start to my day.