Senior Year Box Set

“Don’t get your hopes up just yet. The critical prerequisite is for me to figure out what I want. I still love David, but until I get my life together, I don’t want to risk potentially hurting him again. For now, the best we can be is friends. We’ve drifted apart over the last year, and I intend to make sure that doesn’t continue. If we’re ever going to have more, our relationship has to be built on friendship. At the very least, I want that. Someday, if I’m worthy, I can talk to him about possibly more,” Tami said.

On the friendship front, I agreed with her. More? I still had serious doubts. The little voice in the back of my head was pleased she had finally admitted that her stalking and the like had been a problem.

That was a big step for us. Not because I believed in some kind of fantasy ending in the future, but because it was necessary before we could become better friends. Maybe she would begin to talk to me instead of making an end run every time she wanted to know or tell me something. If she could do that, it might pave the way for more.

I’d started to realize that high school would soon be coming to a close, and many friendships would come to an end unless I worked to make sure they didn’t. My time wasn’t infinite, so I had to decide who was worth the effort. Of my childhood friends, only Tami remained standing. Jeff had died, and Alan and I would never be civil again. Tami had been my best friend. That might not be true now, but I wasn’t ready to give up on her.

“Come on, Duke. Let’s go say ‘hi’ to our guest,” I urged him.

He bounced off the bed, ready to face the day. If his tail was any indication of his emotions, I envied his happiness.

◊◊◊

Duke announced my arrival. Mom rubbed his ears as Tami got up and hugged me.

“I see you two decided to enjoy the weather,” I said.

“Your mom and I needed to have a talk, and she was afraid your dad would spy on us,” Tami shared conspiratorially.

“Dad would never!” I said in mock horror.

Mom laughed at that. I knew she and Dad were a team as far as my brother and I were concerned. But I never did figure out how they convinced us to tell them everything while we were growing up, and yet we never discovered that they kept stuff from us.

“Girls just need to have their talks,” Mom deflected.

“I take it Dad’s making breakfast,” I said.

“He’s making a frittata,” Mom said.

“Let me guess: he kicked you out when you offered your opinion on how he should make it,” I said.

“He wasn’t open to our input,” Tami agreed.

“I’ll go check on him and make sure he isn’t burning it,” Mom said and got up.

She thought she was so smooth. I gave my mom this round since I got to spend time with Tami, which made me happy.

“Tell me about your spring break …” Tami began.

We spent the time before breakfast catching up.

◊◊◊

Time for some baseball. We were playing the farming community of Pontiac today. It was an older hamlet built around a town square. The high school had been built on the outskirts, and we saw farm fields down the road as we pulled onto the school grounds.

Someone must have hated us. We somehow drew the bus that went to the grade school. It had a distinctive funk that would require them to power-wash the inside. I shudder to think what the sticky stuff on the seats might have been. Let’s just say it was nasty and leave it at that. When I disembarked from the great yellow wannabe garbage truck, Paul, Cassidy, and Tami were waiting for me.

“They aren’t prepared for crowds,” Paul said, falling into security mode.

Moose overheard him.

“What do you mean?”

“They have hardly any bleachers, and I’m worried about getting David from the locker room to the baseball field if it becomes a standing-room-only situation. He’ll have to navigate the crowd to get to the field,” Paul explained.

“Relax. This isn’t a big city. No one’s going to attack me walking to and from the game,” I said to dismiss his concerns.

“I’m just warning you that the layout isn’t ideal,” Paul said.

I trusted that if we had to, we would just have the team surround me, and we would be able to handle almost anything. Johan, Brock, Bryan, Tim, Don, and Wolf were all big boys. No one was going to mess with them.

We’d arrived about an hour and a half early. I had my ankles taped and then got dressed in my new Range Sports gear. The ensemble they’d sold me included socks with the Liquid Armor on the tops of my feet to protect against foul balls, as well as another set of gloves. When I put it all on, it looked like a unitard that dancers wore. I was set if I ever decided I was up for a little B&E action.

When I put my uniform on over my new gear, it looked like I was wearing a long-sleeved shirt with gloves. The gloves had given me pause when I first tried them. When you throw a baseball or football, your sense of touch is critical. I found that although these gloves cost me some feeling, the grip made up for it. Over the week, I’d gotten comfortable wearing them.