Page 33 of Chasing Elliott
Once I reach the bottom step, I am able to start making out what the voices were saying, but the sound of glass crashing freezes me on the spot in the hallway.
“You bastard,” my mom yells as I hear the unmistakable sound of skin hitting skin. Shescreams as I hear something collide with the wall.
“You will not take my kids from me, do you hear me?” My father seethes and I growfrightened by his tone of voice. Suddenly, I see a shadow approach,but my feet don’t carry meanywhere.
I slowly scan my eyes up my father’s legs, to his torso, and finally to his flushed face. Before I have the chance to dart back up to the safety of my room, his hands roughly grab my forearms as he picks me up off the ground.
I quickly shoot up, out of breath as I put a hand on my chest to try and steady myself. Iclosed my eyes tightly, trying to shake the memory from my head when I realized I had woken Kara who was asleep on my lap just moments before.
“What’s wrong, babe?” She asked softly as she pushed herself up to sit and wrapped an arm around my shoulders, using her free hand to push some of the hair away from my face. Itook a deep breath as I opened my eyes to stare straight ahead, afraid of what I may say if Ilooked at her.
“Just a nightmare,” I mumbled, which made Kara sigh as she squeezed my shoulder gently.
“Need some coffee?” Kara removed her arm from around me as she stood to face me. Inodded gratefully as she slipped into the kitchen to brew us a pot.
I put my elbows on my knees and rested my head in my hands, gripping my hair in my fists. It had been ages since I’d had a nightmare about that night, or any of the horrible nights that came after. My throat clenched as I heard footsteps approaching and looked up to see Karawalking back to me.
“It’s okay, honey,” she whispered as she sat down, putting a hand on my back. “They’ll go away, they always do.”
I forced a smile on my face and nodded, but before either of us could utter another word, my phone started buzzing on the table. I reached for it and flipped it over to see that it was Cooper texting me.
Benny: I’m on my way, beautiful.
“Shit,” I rushed out as I quickly jumped to my feet, running towards the stairs to head up to my room. I heard Kara laughing as I closed the door behind me.
I stripped out of my clothes from the night before and threw on a pair of red leggings and matching sports bra, putting on a cropped black tee. Jogging over to my dresser, I slipped into apair of socks and was just putting on my tennis shoes when I heard a knock on the front door. Ihastily brushed out my hair and threw it up in a very messy bun before heading to my bathroom to brush my teeth.
As I exited my room and ran down the stairs, I saw Cooper standing by the door wearing a pair of basketball shorts and form fitting white tee with a plain black baseball cap covering his brown hair. I smiled as I walked over to him and he reached for my hand, pulling me into his chest.
“Ready to show me what you got?”
“I don’t get it,” Cooper grumbled as I came strolling out of the batting cage with a grin on my face as I held the bat out for him to take. “You haven’t done this in like, what, three or four years? And yet you’re doing a hell of a lot better than me.”
“It’s because I don’t think about the hot guy watching me from behind the fence,” I told him with a wink which caused him to chuckle, but he seemed genuinely bothered. I sighed and wrapped my arms around him before pushing myself on the balls of my feet to press a kiss to his lips.
When I pulled away he smiled at me, a new confidence seeming to pour out of him. Hestrolled into the batting cage as I closed the door behind him and folded my arms over my chest as I watched him bat.
The machine was set to give both of us ten balls, each at eighty-five miles per hour, every time we went up to bat. Cooper insisted on keeping the speed at sixty-five for my benefit, but Iknew I’d be fine. Swinging the bat and hitting the ball was like riding a bike for me and even then, I was always the fourth batter because I was always the home run hitter on my team.
Cooper hit five out of the ten and his shoulders slumped. I sighed as I pulled the gate open and walked in, ignoring his surprised expression as he watched me approach. I smiled as I took the bat from him and stood on the other side of the plate. This is where swinging opposites came in handy: he could look at me head on rather than my back to try and mimic my movements.
“Your feet aren’t spread far enough apart,” I started to tell him as I got in my stance. “Ifyou want to keep your left foot pointed out like that, you’re going to have to put more spacebetween them. Now, if you want to keep your feet square to the plate, then you don’t have to worry so much about your spacing.
“The only other pointer I have for you is to keep your elbow up two seconds longer than you normally would. You keep falling under the ball rather than connecting with it.”
Cooper looked a little taken aback but he seemed genuinely interested in what I had to say. Getting out of my stance, I held the bat out to him and he quickly took it, taking all thepointers I had given him which caused me to smile.
I walked around the plate to stand behind him and put my hands on his hips as I placed one foot between his legs to push his left one a little further away from his right. I wrapped an arm around his waist and put my other hand on his right elbow, tilting it up slightly before telling him to swing.
Once I was satisfied with his posture, I smiled and slapped his ass which made him laugh loudly before I exited the cage. Closing the door behind me, I looked at the button that sat in front of me which started up the machine.
“Ready, Benny?” I asked as I bit my lip, taking note of how much more relaxed helooked compared to before.
“I think so,” Cooper said, confidence lacing his voice.
Smiling, I hit the button and the first ball came flying out of the machine and I nodded as I heard the sound of metal cracking when the ball came into contact with the sweet spot on the bat.
Cooper hit ten for ten and once he hit the last one, he slowly turned around to me with a giant grin on his face. I reciprocated his smile and giggled as he came running my way, tearing open the door to reach me. He wasted no time in wrapping his arms around my waist which caused mine to go around his neck as he lifted and spun me in a circle.
