the devil's change up (m) | complete

You were sitting against the cool metal bleachers located inside the dugout. You scowled out at the field as you watched the players prance around on the hunter green turf, cleats pattering with each step. Their orange, clay-stained uniforms passed by one after another, only seeming to do so in order to taunt you with painful memories.

You hated your shift with the baseball team — absolutely despised it.

You were a part of your college's athletic training program, so that meant you were inevitably going to be around the various sports teams that your school had. This was usually no problem for you. After all, athletic training was what you wanted to do for a career. You had loved sports and fitness since you were a young kid, and that was why your mandatory hours of having to observe the actual graduated and professional athletic trainers that worked with your school's numerous sports teams didn't actually feel like a hassle. It was more than helpful, getting advice on their experiences within the field. But again, you actually liked observation hours. You didn't find them boring or tedious. You enjoyed your time with the football team, swim team, basketball team, hell even the fucking crew team — but not the baseball team.

You watched them through narrowed eyes as they shuffled along the front of the dugout, picking up their bats that sat along the fence so they could head over to the pitching machines. You felt such resentment bubble inside of your chest. It wasn't their fault, you knew this. But seeing them get to do what you never got the chance to in college was more than enough to leave you a little bitter.

"Do you always have to sigh every five minutes like you're on a bad date when we're out here?" Jimin asked from his seat next to you on the bleachers.

The athletic program had groups of four to seven students in each observational unit across the various sports teams. Because it was mandatory that you cycle through all of the teams, the same four to seven people in each unit stayed together, even once your cycle with a given sport was up. That was how you met Jimin at the beginning of last semester. You bonded on the first day of football team observations over how shit last year's playoffs were given the fact that there were two SEC teams in the championship. After that he quickly became one of your closest friends that you'd made while in college. Your personalities just clicked, so much so that the two of you even agreed to move in together once the leases for your apartments ended in a few months. However, it was because of this that he had been so quick to pick up on your disdain for observing the baseball team (And also the softball team earlier in the semester. However, their season had already ended due to their lack of wins not allowing them access to the championship tournament).

"I would rather go on a hundred bad dates in a row than be out here," You finally answered.

"Is it really so bad just watching them?"

"Fucking miserable."

Jimin let a tiny puff of air push past his lips. "God, now you have me sighing."

"Good." You smiled. "We can be annoyed together."

He rolled his eyes, standing up to lean against the fence at the front of the dugout. "Nope, I'm not involving myself in your pity party."

"Pity party?" You scoffed, joining him in resting along the fence. "It's called venting." You felt your lips purse as you looked out at the field once more, the sinking sun that signaled the end of the day began to turn the sky orange, that feeling of longing suddenly beating so fiercely in your chest.

Admittedly you understood why Jimin wasn't giving in to your attempts of trying to get him to be pissed off with you. After all, this was your issue to get over, and he didn't want to slow you down in that process by enabling you. But honestly being out here was a lot harder than you wanted to admit to anyone. It was almost pathetic how much annoyance you held for this place. You let your eyes slide along the field. The turf, the clay, the sound of the bats clinging in the distance, they all managed to elicit a dull ache inside of you. However, nothing as much as what you finally let your sights settle on. You bared down on your bottom lip as it stared back at you. All of the pain and misery that it caused you those many years ago colliding inside of your head.