Page 27 of The Change Up
“So what’s the story between you two?” Niko asks, startling me from where I’ve been not so subtly watching Cody throw pitches.
“Wh-what do you mean?” I stumble the words out, embarrassed that I was caught watching him. I was really hoping the sunglasses would help shield my eyes better.
He chuckles. “C’mon. Don’t bullshit me.”
“Excuse me?” My eyes widen at this blatant comment.
“You watch him a lot, yeah? You might try to hide it and keep up this hatred facade, but you suck at it. Because you don’t stare at him like most girls stare at him.”
Turning toward him, I steel my shoulders and put on my battle face. “What’s that supposed to mean? How exactly do I stare at him, Niko?”
“You stare at him like there’s a story to tell. Other girls watch him because they want him to give them attention, hoping to get him in their beds. You look at him, like…like…”
“Like he hurt me?” Shock laces Niko’s eyes at my own admission. He wasn’t expecting me to say that. I imagine Niko was waiting for me to admit my love for Cody Jacobs just like every other girl on this campus. There might’ve been a time when I would’ve loved him, but the first cut is the deepest, and I won’t be forgetting what he did to me.
“Because he did, Niko. Then I had to sit back and watch him develop a flirty, brotherly, whatever friendship with my best friend. I thought things would start to change and that he wouldn’t constantly be in my presence, but life said ‘watch this’ as my professor assigned me the task of covering the baseball team this semester when I shouldn’t even be covering sports. I can’t fucking escape him.”
I watch as Niko’s eyes widen—no doubt because I said fuck—but I was swept up in the heat of things.
“Shit, Chloe, I had no idea it was that deep.”
“No one does.” I sigh, feeling the moisture gather in my eyes. I will myself not to start crying right here on the baseball field. “Everyone thinks I have this infatuation with him, when sure, maybe at one time I did, but there’s so much more than that.”
Niko watches me, and I feel his eyes bore into me, like he’s reading my soul. I want to cringe under his assessment, but I don’t. I straighten my shoulders and walk past him. When I think he’s going to let me pass, I feel his arm reach out and his hand lightly wrap around my wrist. I glance over his shoulder and see that we’ve garnered the attention of some of the guys throwing in the outfield—Cody being one of them.
“Does he know how you feel about him?”
I shake my head. “There’s nothing to tell. Our story is over, and I just want to get through this semester.”
We wrapped up our three games at LSU bringing home three wins. There’s nothing I love better than to sweep a series. It’s such an accomplishment against a damn good team.
But then we came home and swept another series against a team from New York. I love the early season games because we don’t have to travel too much or too far away. Whoever is in charge of the schedule tries to make teams from the north travel to us so we don’t have to play in the snow. That shit sucks, especially when we aren’t used to the frigid temps.
At least tomorrow we head to College Station to take on Texas A&M for a Wednesday night game. It’s a late one which means we’ll do a short overnight trip and leave early Thursday morning.
Now we are getting to the point where we will have one game during the week before a three-game series against a different team. Once the season is in full swing, it becomes a lot.
Early morning practices, classes all day, traveling, meetings with the media or the team in the mix. I love it, and I wouldn’t change it, but damn it’s exhausting.
“You look like actual shit. Do you even sleep?” Brynn—my oh-so-honest friend—says from beside me. Narrowing my eyes into slits, I just glare at her. “Okayyy, we are not in the mood. Good thing I’m the freaking best and brought you this.”
She brings the arm I didn’t realize was behind her back to her front, and in her hand is a large coffee.
“Have I told you lately how much I love you?”
“Not lately.”
“Well, I do.” Taking a sip of the coffee, a smile spreads across my face. “You’re the best.”
She quirks her eyebrows letting me know she knows she’s the best. “How’s the season going?”
“Not bad at all. We look pretty good. It’s just getting used to the schedule. It always takes me a couple of weeks to adjust.”
She lets out a soft chuckle. “Yeah, Chloe has been walking around looking like a zombie.”
“I’m sure she’s a cute zombie,” I mumble, not quietly enough, though, because Brynn’s eyebrows hit her hairline, and she stares me down.
“What was that?”
