****
Jerking awake, I sat up and got to my feet. What the hell? The clock read a little after midnight. Picking up my phone, I knew it was late. However, I had to know if she was okay. Texting Mercy, I asked if she was sleeping.
Immediately, I got a response back. She was up, had a bad dream. Thinking back, I remembered driving her home. She made it fine. But the dream was like an alternative ending. We’d gotten ambushed by something.
Shaking off the feeling, I texted her back, ‘Me too. Try to get some sleep. I’ll see U in the AM.’
‘U 2.’ I got back from her.
In my bathroom, I surveyed my clothes. I just had this feeling that I would find dirt on them. Nothing. Using my hand, I probed the back of my head for a goose egg that should be there. Again, nothing.
Heading back into my room, I chucked off the feeling you get when your dream seems so real. I even looked out on the street at my car. It was where I remembered leaving it.
Shedding my clothes, I closed the book that was on my bed and got in. Tomorrow was another day and hopefully, that was the end of that nightmare.
The next day at school when I saw Mercy, I reached for her hand. She let me take it. “Did you sleep okay?” I asked, letting the full extent of my concern show through.
Looking up and dancing her head side to side, she said, “If you don’t consider the horror of a nightmare I had right before you texted me, it was okay.” Smiling she added, “Don’t ask. I like horror movies, so I brought this on myself.” Her laugh was sweet. And from that, I knew she was fine.
“I love horror movies too. But I think I’ll lay off for a while,” I mused.
She giggled this time, which was even cuter. When we reached her classroom, I said, “I want to have lunch with you, but after yesterday’s debacle.” Trailing off, I didn’t finish what didn’t need to be said.
“You’re still welcome to sit with us,” she said, giving me the go ahead and ducked into her classroom.
A hard slap on my back had me turning. “How you feeling this morning slugger?” Flynn said, winking at me before walking away. My hand throbbed for a second under his scrutiny. Flexing it, I hoped I would be able to grip the ball okay. I was fighting for the starter position. And Flynn was going to be hard to beat.
“Ignore him,” Luke said from my left side. “Is your hand okay?” He seemed to look me over as if our friendship hadn’t changed when his best friend had stepped onto campus the first day.
“I’m fine,” I lied. My hand still hurt but not enough to complain about.
“All right,” Luke said. “See you at lunch.”
He patted my shoulder again, and stalked off. Flexing my hand again, it felt like some of the ache was leaving my hand. I hoped it would be gone by practice.
Something in me said I should take things slow with Mercy, that perhaps I was moving too fast before. Even though she’d given me signals that she was interested, I didn’t pursue her hard. That meant I didn’t sit with her at lunch. She smiled when I walked passed and I smiled too, but I didn’t take the bait. Instead, I sat with my usual group of friend across the way.
“I see you left your girl unprotected,” Bellman chided.
“Leave it, Bellman, unless you want a face full of my fist,” I growled.
Never one to back down, the guy didn’t take the hint. “I got twenty that says McCallister can bag her before Bowman here,” Bellman said to no one in particular.
I found myself only half paying attention to the guys around me. Transfixed, I watched Mercy talking to her friends. Doug and Tim were back and Maggie and Mercy were engaged in conversation that had them all in fits of hysteria.
“Who would bet against me?” Flynn said.
“I would,” Luke said. “My money’s on Bowman.”
“That’s fucked up man. I thought you had my back,” Flynn said.
A ruckus of laughter rained around me. With my lunch finished, I stood and walked away. I had to do something. It was like a war inside me. A part of me said sit and be patient. The other said, go for what you want. The latter led me away from the table. Chucking my tray on top of the trash can, I walked to her table.
“Where are you going Bowman?” Flynn asked.
Not answering, I figured he’d soon find out.
“Mercy, can I talk to you,” I asked, when I stepped over to her table.
“Sure,” she said. “Mags, I’ll see you later.”
“Uh, huh,” Maggie said giving us both looks like she was certain what we were up to.
Taking her hand, I saw Tim’s frown from my approach deepen. The guy ought to give up. She wasn’t interested. Couldn’t he see that? It was still warm out, so I walked with her over to the bleachers. They were blissfully clear of students. Taking a seat, I urged her to sit right next to me.
“Sorry to interrupt your lunch but, for some reason, I just felt the need to make sure you were okay. I think my own dream rattled me.”
That got me a blush. Catching me off guard, she stood and did a little twirl. “Now you know I’m fine.” She was more than fine. She was extraordinary. Her brown hair was lit up with golden strands in the sunlight. Her eyes had greens, brown and gold in them that I could now see. Her lips were pink and full and begged to be kissed. Sitting and looking at me like she was waiting for me to do just that, I leaned in.
“Well, well, well. I didn’t think I’d find you two here,” Flynn said, with him stood the girl from yesterday. She smirked at us. Taking her hand, he led her further behind us up in the bleachers.
Rolling her eyes at the interfering couple, I knew the moment had died and Flynn had killed it. The son of a bitch had to know we walked over here. It would have been obvious. Apparently, he took Bellman’s bet seriously. “He’s a total jackass,” she muttered as we made our way back to the quad.
After school, I didn’t see her. She didn’t have practice today. I concentrated on throwing the best pitches I could. Following the rules, I let Flynn, my catcher of the day, call the plays. There would be one more round tomorrow before coach announced the starting lineup.