One True Thing

by Lynne Jaymes

  The pitcher on the mound throws a few practice balls and then the announcer comes over the loudspeaker. “Batting first this inning—number sixteen, Tyler Branch!”

  There’s a wave of clapping and cheering and then silence as Ty approaches the plate and swings the bat a few times. There’s a blur and a thwack as the ball hits the catcher’s mitt. “Ball one,” the umpire says as the pitcher gets ready for number two. He winds up and lets it go, but Ty doesn’t move as the ump calls ball two. I can see Ty twitching a little as the next one sends up a puff of dirt before it hits the glove for ball three.

  “They’re going to walk him,” Nina says, her eyes on Ty.

  The next pitch looks low too, but Ty swings at it anyway, pounding the base with his bat when the umpire calls the first strike.

  “Why is he swinging?” the guy behind us says loudly. “He could have been on base by now!”

  Ty sets the bat on his shoulder again and watches the pitcher, swinging at a ball that was so outside the catcher had to reach to get it.

  “What the hell?” People around us are getting louder as the ump calls a full count – three balls and two strikes.

  “He’s going to be horrible to live with if he strikes out,” I say to Nina. Ty doesn’t get violent or anything when a game doesn’t go his way, he’s just off and angry for the next twenty-four hours. Luckily that doesn’t happen very often.

  I cross my fingers as a hush falls over the stadium. I’m so nervous for Ty that I can’t imagine how he feels with every eye in the place on him. The pitcher winds up and the white ball races toward Ty. It feels like he’s waiting too long, but then he swings and meets the ball with a loud crack of the bat. Everyone’s on their feet as the ball sails over the outstretched hand of the outfielder and over the low fence that separates this field from the next one. The announcer plays a few bars of “Charge” as Ty rounds the bases, surrounded by Mitch and the rest of the guys as he crosses home plate.

  “That’s the third homer this week,” the guy behind us says, clapping loudly.

  “I heard he’s getting scouted for sure,” the other guy says.

  Nina grins and elbow-bumps me and I can’t help smiling. Mitch pitches the next two innings with nobody scoring and Ty hits another ball in the last inning to land him on second base, but nobody can bat him in before the game ends with Garvin winning 6-2.

  “At least the boys will be happy,” Nina says, stretching out in the sun. It takes them forever to have their team meeting, pack up their gear and go to the locker room so we have tons of time.

  “Are you guys going to that party that Ty was talking about?”

  “Maybe,” she says, squinting in the distance. She turns and looks at me. “Not sure how welcome I’m going to be there.”

  I look at her to try and figure out what she means.

  Nina raises her eyebrows. “After what happened in the bar last time?”

  “Oh, right.” I swear I forget she’s black sometimes. “Nothing’s going to happen. You guys should come. Don’t make me be the only girl there.”

  Nina nods to the group of girls who are crowded together down by the dugout. Mostly blond, mostly tan, mostly looking for a guy who has a shot of making it into the majors. “I doubt you’ll be the only one.”

  “Even more reason to come with me. Someone has to help me fight the bitches.”

  Nina laughs. “Yeah. You should never, ever say that out loud again.”

  I grin at her. So much for my street cred. “Just come. It’ll be fine.”

  She sighs and shakes her head. “Sometimes I’m not sure it’s worth it.”

  I panic a little at her words—I don’t want to be let in on such a big secret. “What’s not worth it? Dating Mitch?”

  “What?” She looks surprised. “No! Living here—where the fact that I like a white boy is a big deal to everyone from drunk losers to some girl at the gas station acting like I’m taking her man or something.”

  “Does it happen a lot?”

  “All the time.”

  “Ty says that people in San Francisco don’t care that much about stuff like that.”

  She thinks about that for a second. “New York too,” Nina says. She slides her eyes over at me. “Can I tell you something?”

  “Sure.”

  “Mitch is looking at taking a year off before graduate school and going for an internship in New York City next year.” She pauses. “I think I’m going with him.”

  “To New York! Wow.” I’ve never been there, but I’ve seen it in movies—loud, crowded and crazy. I can’t imagine pulling up from here and going to live there. “So you guys are going to live together?”

  Nina nods, a sheepish grin on her face. “My parents are going to freak.” Her voice gets quiet. “But I can’t let him go without me. You know, when you’re with somebody and everything just feels right? Like this was the person you’ve been looking for your whole life? It’s like that with Mitch.”

  “Oh my God—so you guys are like engaged to be engaged!”

  She looks embarrassed. “I guess so. But don’t say anything, okay? Mitch wants to keep it quiet until the season’s over.”

  “I won’t,” I say. I look beyond the bleachers and see Ty in a crowd of people outside of the gym door. It seems like my eyes go right to him, no matter how many people he’s with. “There they are.”

  Ty’s head snaps up, almost as if I’d called him and his eyes meet mine. His face breaks into a grin and he gives me a little wave, and suddenly I know exactly what Nina means. Because when I’m with Ty it feels like I’ve finally stopped looking.

  Chapter Seventeen (Ty)

  Jenna answers her door in a black skirt that barely grazes her thighs and heels so high she almost comes up to my chin.

  “Wow,” I say, taking in the carefully placed curls in her hair and the way her eyes sparkle. “You look amazing.”

  “So do you,” she says with a slightly wicked grin.

  I look down at my own jeans and t-shirt. “I always look this way.”

  “Well then, maybe I always think you look amazing.”

  I kiss her gently on the neck, inhaling the faint flowery scent she always carries. “If we weren’t supposed to be picking up Mitch and Nina I’d make us very, very late to the party.”

  Jenna laughs in that way that always turns me on. “Let’s go,” she says, spinning me around and out in to the hallway. She tugs her skirt down a little as she walks and I love the fact that she’s a tiny bit uncomfortable in something so short and I know she’s wearing it for me. She doesn’t look anything like the girl who was waving a three-foot long snake in my face just a few weeks ago.

  “I told Courtney and a couple of friends about the party and I think they’re going to meet us there,” she says.

  “Sounds good,” I say, holding the door and waiting a second as she walks through it to the parking lot. Her legs in those heels look amazing. I wonder what it would take to get her to wear them in bed?

  I grab the keys from her and drive to the party, picking up Mitch and Nina at his place on the way. When we get to the house just outside of town there are cars parked on the sidewalk as far as I can see. “I’m going to let you guys out,” I say. “Then I’ll go park and meet you.”

  “I’ll come with you,” Jenna says.

  I glance at her shoes. “Those heels were not made for walking. Go with them. I’ll only be a couple of minutes.

  I have to drive down several blocks before I find a spot at the curb. As I walk back around the corner I can hear music blasting from the open windows. Even though it’s taken me a while to get back here, I see Mitch, Nina and Jenna still standing by the front door.

  “No, man,” a guy in the doorway is telling them as I walk up the steps. “I told you already, we’re full up. Fire marshal code and all, we’re not allowed to let anyone else in.”

  “That’s bullshit,” Mitch says. He points inside. “You just let them in right ahead of us.”

&nbs
p; The guy looks over his shoulder. I don’t recognize him—he’s not on the team. “Those guys? They were already here before. I was letting them back in.”

  “Let’s go,” Nina says, taking Mitch’s arm. “It’s not worth it.”

  “Is there a problem?” I ask, walking onto the porch to stand next to Jenna.

  The guy’s eyebrows rise. “Tyler Branch! That was an awesome game you had today.”

  “Thanks,” I say, reaching for Jenna’s hand. “Is there a reason we’re all still standing on the porch?”

  The guy looks from me and Jenna back to Mitch and Nina. “Oh, uh…no, not really. We’re, uh, trying to keep things under control so that the cops don’t come, which is what I was trying to explain to your friends. But I think we can slide you guys in.” He leans toward me. “Just don’t tell anybody.”

  I glance at Mitch who shrugs. “Thanks man,” I say.

  “Yeah,” Mitch says, pushing past him. “Thanks.”

  The front of the house opens up into the living room that’s crowded, but not so crowded that you’d turn people away. A few people are dancing in the middle of the room, but most are draped over the couches and chairs waiting to get drunk enough to dance.

  “What the hell was that all about?” Jenna asks.

  “What do you think?” Nina says, but she doesn’t look mad, just tired. She glances at me but I don’t react. “Same old shit.”

  Jenna folds her arms across her chest. “I don’t think I even want to stay.”

  I love how mad she is for Nina. “We’re here. Let’s hang out for a little while and then we can bail.”

  Nina looks at me for a long moment and I can almost hear what she’s thinking. “I need a drink,” is all she says, so we follow her through the house and into the large open kitchen where the keg is standing in the corner surrounded by guys holding red plastic cups.

  Mitch and I walk over to get some beer, but I can still feel the anger radiating off of him.

  “You okay?” I ask.

  “Yeah,” he says, his tone short. “I love looking like a pussy in front of my girlfriend.”

  “You didn’t look like a pussy.”

  He turns to face me. “Yeah, I did. There was no way that asshole was going to let the two of us in here and then you come along, Mr. Big Dick and save the day.”

  It feels like he’s punched me in the stomach. “I didn’t mean it to come off that way.”

  “Well, it does.”

  “Look,” I say. “This is the first year that anything’s gone right for me. I spent two years at a crappy community college playing mediocre ball and working my ass off just to get a shot at something big. If people are starting to notice, then good for them. All I wanted was to have a nice night out with Jenna, blow off some steam and hang out with my friends. I’m sorry if that makes me an asshole.”

  Mitch doesn’t say anything, just leans down to the tap and pours out two beers. “I know you didn’t mean it,” he says finally, glancing over at the girls on the other side of the room. “But this is how it’s going to be for the rest of my life. I need to learn to handle fuckwads like that on my own.”

  I look over at Nina. With her curly hair and dark skin—next to Jenna, she’s easily the most beautiful girl in the place. “Jenna told me you guys were going to move next year.”

  “Yep,” he says, waiting for me to fill my cups. “As soon as the year is over I’m out of here. Lucky for me Nina agreed to come with me.” He takes a sip of his beer. “I’m going to marry that girl and we’re going to have a mess of little brown babies and I’ll fuck with anyone who stands in the way of that.”

  “Wow,” I say. It’s amazing to me that he’s so sure of himself, so sure about Nina and what he wants for the future. I look at Jenna and can’t imagine being without her, but it still feels like we both have so much to do—Jenna wants her dance career and I’m on the verge of finally making something happen with baseball. And I’d have so much to say to her before we could even begin to get to that point.

  “Wow, what?” Mitch asks suspiciously. “Wow, you don’t think we should do it?”

  “No! You guys are good together. You totally should.” I say, as we walk slowly over to the girls. “Just ‘wow’, I didn’t realize you were such an adult.”

  He grins. “We grow up fast in Texas. Half my high school class is married already.”

  “I can’t even,” I say as we hand the girls their beers.

  “You can’t what?” Jenna demands, looking up from her phone.

  “Nothing,” Mitch says.

  “Hmpf,” she says. She holds up her phone. “Courtney’s here somewhere—out back I think. I should go find her.”

  “Let’s go,” I say, grabbing her free hand and leading her through the crowd to the back door. I feel all the guys at the keg watching as we pass them and I squeeze her hand, knowing it’s me she’s going home with at the end of the night.

  “Jenna!” her roommate calls from her place in front of a Ping-Pong table covered in red cups. She staggers over to us and drapes one arm around Jenna’s neck. “What took you so long?”

  “We’re not late,” Jenna says. “But you’re wasted.”

  “Apparently,” Courtney says, glancing back at the table. “I royally suck at beer pong.” She sways unsteadily on her feet.

  “I think you might want to switch to water,” Jenna says, pulling her up straight.

  “That’s no fun.”

  “I saw some bottles of water on the counter by the keg. I’ll go get one,” I say.

  “Thanks,” Jenna says. She points to some patio chairs by the fire pit. “We’re going to head over there.”

  Rowan’s standing at the keg with a full cup of beer as I walk back into the kitchen. “Hey, man,” I say, giving him a high five.

  “Hey,” he says. “I saw you two after the game. I guess things worked out with the girlfriend.”

  “Yeah,” I say, mulling the word over in my head. We haven’t talked about it, but I guess Jenna is my girlfriend. That word doesn’t fill me with the dread it did at one point. “She’s out back with her roommate.” I look around, but it doesn’t look like he’s talking to anyone. “Come on.”

  I see Jenna sitting on someone’s lap when we walk back into the backyard and I get a flash of something. Jealousy? Anger? She’s laughing at something he’s said and her skin is glowing in the light from the fire.

  “Ty!” she calls, when I reach them. “This is my friend Stewart from back home.” I recognize the tall guy from the student union that day and gay or not, I don’t like the way he’s holding her around the waist.

  “Good to meet you,” Stewart says, leaning forward to shake my hand. Jenna makes no move to get up, which pisses me off a little more.

  “Ty went home with me a couple weeks ago and got the full-on Gramps experience,” she says.

  “And he still stuck around?” Stewart says with mock surprise.

  Jenna smacks him playfully on the arm. Which I also don’t like. “Of course he did.”

  “Here you go,” I say, handing Courtney her water.

  “Thanks.” She sits up straight when she sees Rowan behind me, suddenly looking a lot more sober. “Who’s your friend?”

  I step to one side. “Rowan, this is Courtney.”

  There’s a glint in her eye as she shakes his hand, but I don’t miss Rowan’s glance at Stewart and I relax a little. It’s obviously not the first time the two of them have met.

  Jenna doesn’t miss it either. “Hey, Ty. Play you a game of basketball?”

  “What?” I ask, looking around the backyard. There’s a cement patio at the end of the lot with a hoop hanging on the side of the garage. “Basketball? Now?”

  “Sure. Courtney’s in good hands here. What? Are you scared?” She downs the last of the beer in her cup.

  “Scared? That I’ll hurt you maybe.”

  “Sounds like them’s fightin’ words,” Stewart says with an exaggerated accent.

&n
bsp; Jenna jumps off his lap and grabs my hand. “Let’s go, big shot.”

  She marches me over to the empty court and picks a basketball up off the grass, bouncing it a few times.

  Jenna looks so sexy bouncing a basketball in high heels and a short skirt that I can’t stop grinning.

  “Okay—one-on-one,” she says. “First one to twenty wins.”

  “In those shoes?”

  Jenna does a quick side step and deftly bounces the ball between her legs. I have never been so turned on playing basketball in my life. “Dancers have to be able to do everything in heels,” she says, giving her eyebrows a suggestive wiggle.

  “I’ll keep that in mind,” I say, reaching for the ball, but she twists out of my reach. I realize this might be harder than I thought. I’ve got a definite height advantage, but she’s got a quickness that’s going to be hard to match.

  “Think fast,” she says, darting around me and taking a shot from fifteen feet back. The ball doesn’t even hit the rim, just sails right through. “Ooh!” she yells, both hands in the air. “Three points!”

  “Not so fast,” I say, grabbing the ball on the rebound and tossing it over her head. “There’s the answer shot.”

  “Traveling,” she says, pointing to my feet.

  “What?” I ask, looking down.

  “Traveling,” she insists. She smacks the ball out of my hand but before she can take a shot I grab her around the waist and spin her in the other direction. “Interference!” she says, laughing and kicking her feet. “No fair.”

  I put her down and kiss her on the lips, wishing we were maybe somewhere a little more private.