Page 124 of The Strike Zone

“Can you just tell me if he’s going to be okay?”

She nodded. “No, I cannot.”

Cool. I thumbed behind me. “I’ll just be sitting over here then.”

I plodded over to the chairs. I had my pick, they were all empty.

I decided on one near the side, not in direct eyeline of the desk but close enough that I’d be able to tell if there was any news. I thought someone from the Lions might be here, too, at least one of the coaches, but maybe they’d be coming once the game was done.

I slumped down and checked my phone again.

Scout: I’m at the hospital, I came to check on Parker.

Alice: Is he okay?

Scout: They won’t let me in. I don’t know what happened. Do you?

Alice: On the slo-mo the commentators said it looks like a groin injury, but from the way he went down I think it’s a little further north

Scout: North? What does that mean?

Alice: *eggplant emoji*

Ohgod.Poor Parker. The thought of how hard the hit must have been had my legs crossing.

Alice: He sure will appreciate having you to kiss his injury better *smirk emoji*

Scout: *eye roll emoji*

Scout: What did Ava want?

Alice: Don’t know, I told her you’d had an emergency and had to leave.

Scout: Thank you. I owe you.

I shut off my phone and rested my head back against the wall. The nurse didn’t look like she had any news, or knew any more. It was so quiet here it was hard to believe we were in a hospital, the windows were thick enough that I could barely hear the sirens or city traffic.

There weren’t even any TVs to muffle out the sound of silence, or the distant beeping of machines. If I listened carefully enough, I’d probably be able to make out the frantic beating in my chest, which sounded a lot like this was my fault.

I swiped a tear away, searching around for a tissue before I gave up and used my sleeve instead. What a mess. Picking up my phone again, I opened the Lion social app. From the last post on TikTok it appeared the Lions had won the first game against the Mets; Robson Barry had taken over as catcher, and the final score came in at 10–5 to the Lions. And a Lions win was always guaranteed to bring out the haters.

One of my favorite things to do when I needed cheering up was respond. Clicking into the last post, there were nearly three thousand comments already, and I scrolled through until I found exactly what I was looking for.

I was quietly giggling to myself, when the elevator pinged and out sprinted Tanner, almost as quickly as I had. He skidded to a stop in front of the desk, followed by Lux and Ace at a much more casual pace. From the grass stains on their pants, it was clear they’d come straight from the game.

“Hello? Nurse?” Tanner slapped the desk, hoping to get her attention, but her back was turned and she didn’t appear to be in any hurry to acknowledge new visitors. “Is Parker King here?”

“They won’t tell you anything unless you’re family,” I said, walking over to them.

The three of them spun around, Ace pulled me into a hug, which is when I noticed how pale he was.

“Scout, how long have you been here?”

“I dunno, an hour maybe. It took me a little while to get here.”

“Do you know how he is?”

I shook my head. “She wouldn’t tell me anything. Just said I had to sit down. I don’t think she’s a baseball fan.”

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