The silent reverie was broken by the sound of three sets of feet on the ladder. “Oh, my God!” was about all Beth could understand, but she knew she’d be filled in soon enough.
“She did look like a ghost, just standing there all still,” Lexy agreed. Beth reached over and flipped the ball button on the scoring machine and then recorded the pitch in the scorebook. The girls resumed their seats, and Beth shushed them, afraid Mr. Cooper would get on to them as well.
“She was beautiful, though.” The revelation came from Andi, but Beth kept her eyes forward, locked on the game. Just what she needed—another gorgeous girl to swoop in and make her feel like a loser.
“Her lips are so red and pouty…. Her eyes are gold,” Lexy added.
“Do you have a crush on her?” Andi laughed, elbowing the other girl.
“Maybe&helli
The sound of his voice caught her off guard, and goose flesh sprung up all over her arms. If it wasn’t for the sound of her friends “oh, my God-ing” to her left, Beth would’ve thought she was asleep, that the question had only taken place in a dream.She turned her head to see Sammy standing in the dimly lit parking spot, the moon illuminating his perfect face as he waited for a response. Behind him, Robby and Michael lingered, their arms crossed as they watched, a goofy grin on Robby’s face while Michael looked much more serious.“What was that?” Beth asked, still unable to process what was happening. How in the world was it possible that Sammy was actually asking her out? If this was true, it was a miracle form heaven….“I said, would you go out with me? I mean… I want to go ask Carly out, but these two assholes keep telling me there’s not a girl in
Evelyn was up when they snuck in the back door; even her dad tried to avoid making any noise for fear it would wake Beth’s younger sisters, Dani and Lavender, and Evelyn would come undone. But Lavender, who was three and named after her mother’s favorite color, was standing in the kitchen in her Rugrats nightgown while Evelyn filled a sippy cup with tap water.“We won!” Richard announced, patting Lavender’s head. She smiled up at him but didn’t say anything, and Evelyn shushed all of them.“Don’t wake Dani up,” she insisted. Her sisters’ room was far away from where they were standing, across from the living room, in the front part of the house, away from the kitchen, nestled between the parlor and her parents’ bedroom. It was as if whoever designed this house had no blueprints and just started walling spaces off.“Sorry,” Richard replied, op
Beth couldn’t see anything out the window from this angle except a dark street through the branches of her mother’s prized redbud tree.Ryan stealthily stood and crept to his front window, flipping off the lamp by the side of his bed as he did so, leaving his room in near darkness, except for the glow from his aquarium in the back corner. His room was only half the size of Beth’s but still ample sized for a teenage boy.She heard more giggling, though it seemed to be fading away. Beth reminded herself that she was no longer afraid of the dark or what might lurk there and waited patiently for Ryan to drop the shades and return. He turned his light back on and took a seat, taking his time to reveal what he’d discovered, from Beth’s perspective. “It’s Olive and Johnny.”“What?” Beth craned her neck back out the window, unable to believe what she was hearing from
A thousand stars filled the sky directly above her head and despite the uncomfortableness of Brittany’s windshield digging into the back of her head, Beth was happy to be out in the solace of the woods next to Muddy Creek. The scene on the square had been too much, and her friends had decided this was a better location to spend their Saturday night, despite the fact that Lexy had practically needed to be peeled off of the window as she drooled over Michael’s truck parked two cars over. Their location was across town, near to where the creek broke off from the bigger Spring Creek, and out here in the woods, it was easy to lose oneself in nature and forget about everything else. Almost.“It’s not… the end of the world,” Brittany offered, sitting next to Beth. Andi and Lexy were sitting on the bumper, which had to have been made of corrugated steel the car was so old. &ldq
Before the girls could pile back into the car, the sound of an engine behind them on the road had them all swiveling around. It was followed by another, until at least four, maybe five more vehicles were parked nearby. Clearly oblivious to the four girls huddled around the late model Ford, a stream of laughing teens poured from each car, and Beth recognized many of the voices.“Did they follow us?” Lexy asked, quietly.“No, dumbass,” Andi admonished, shaking her head. “We are on their turf now. This is where they come to party.”“You knew that, and you let me drive out here anyway?” Brittany asked. “Does your uncle, the sheriff know that?”Andi shrugged, and ignoring her question, replied, “You can thank me later.”“Huh?” But before Andi could answer Brittany’s inquiry, she realized Kyle was amo
Lexy had no younger brothers or sisters, so she was the best choice for sleepovers, especially since her parents’ bedroom was in the back of their expansive one-story house, and Lexy’s room was near the living room, toward the middle of the house. It didn’t hurt that she had her own bathroom, and her older sister was away at college, so they were generally undisturbed and it didn’t bother her parents if they stayed up super late making macaroni and cheese with music playing on the radio while they slumped on the sofa, as they were doing the night of Halley’s revelation that she was the enemy.Beth stared at her half-eaten bowl of pasta and fought the urge to vomit that had been testing her will power and gut strength all night long, ever since she’d first seen Sammy and Carly together, something that, in retrospect, didn’t seem so bad now that she had seen him with Halley.“It’s not
Lexy’s parents had let them sleep in so that by the time Beth got home the next day, it was past noon, and her family was already back from church. “Did you have fun at Lexy’s church?” Evelyn asked as Beth dragged herself to the stairs.“Uh, yeah, it was great,” Beth lied. She wondered why her mom even cared. It’s not like she made her go to church with her own family every Sunday.“I sure hope you didn’t wear that,” Evelyn muttered as Beth pulled the door to the stairs open.Beth glanced down at her cut-off jeans. “No, I changed. We went back to Lexy’s house to get our stuff. I didn’t want to wear a dress all day.”“Good idea. Although, maybe you should consider changing your outfit for batting practice. Those shorts aren’t exactly flattering on your backside.” Evelyn made the comment and then headed
Batting practice started at 2:00, but when Beth and her dad pulled up at 1:45, the cages were abandoned, only the kid at the window, a fellow sophomore named Hugh that Beth only sort of knew, was the other soul present. “You wanna take a few pitches while we wait for the guys?” Richard asked as Beth took a seat on one of the benches. There really was no reason for her to be there at all, but her dad liked for her to come so that if none of the other coaches showed up, he’d have someone to make comments to. He had no idea her previous trips had all been made in order to take advantage of an opportunity to stare at Sammy.“You want me to get in there and hit a few pitches? Are you crazy, Dad? I haven’t played ball since I was four.” Beth had scarring memories of being awful at tee-ball, of skipping around the outfield collecting flowers and not paying attention to the game at all, of knocking the tee over every time she