Page 11 of Room 4 Rent

Christmas Day. She told me on Christmas Day. “Merry Christmas, I sucked your best friend’s dick.”

Okay, she didn’t say it like that, but the point was made. She’d left me for my best friend, and here I was, pine tar, stuck like glue to a girl who no longer wanted the life I thought we had planned out. The one where we dreamed of me in the majors and her by my side. The one where after college, she studied to become a pediatrician, and we eventually started a family.

And then I think about what went through my mind after the game and my dad’s words ingrained in my head. “The game usually gives you what you deserve, good or bad.”

Had I deserved what she did? Had I treated her badly? I’m not sure I ever asked the question. I think I’d been so caught up in the betrayal between them that I didn’t ask any questions.

“Why him?”

Brie lets out a soft laugh, though I’m not sure why, and her blonde hair falls into her face with a breeze around us. I’m hit hard by her scent and the realization that I’m to blame for some of this. “Cason, you’re explosive on a mound. Absolutely breathtaking to watch shut down some of the greatest hitters in baseball, and I have no doubt that talent will take you as far as you want it to.” She smiles a sympathetic smile and then looks down at her phone once more. “But as far as being in a relationship with you, you’re a completely different person off the field.”

I see the truth in her words, but it doesn’t exactly sit well with me. “And he’s different? Because the last time I checked, and I know Baylor pretty fucking good, he has the same mindset.”

“He’s different. He makes time for me, and I never have to question who he’s with.”

The words hit me in the chest. Brie actually believed I had been fucking around on her because her roommate told her so. That’s the maturity I was talking about earlier. She never stopped to ask me what happened at that party, and instead, believed what she heard.

“Whatever.” I open the door to my car. “Doesn’t fucking matter now.” Closing the door, I leave her standing in the parking lot, much like the night we broke up. Only I’m the one leaving this time, and hopefully she’s left with emptiness.

---