Extra Innings - 9. Chapter 9

Things began to pass by rather quickly after that encounter with Vincente in our dorm. He was spending most of his time either with the his new frat or with the tennis team, so while he was still officially living with me, he also didn’t spend a lot of time there and didn’t even sleep there all that often. That both disturbed and relieved me, as it meant I didn’t have to deal with him freaking out again, but I was worried about when it would finally happen.

Going home was going to be great, it was hard to imagine that I’d already been gone from home for over two months now, and that this was my first trip home since the beginning of the semester. Of course, there’d been a lot going on since then, but it was still pretty exciting to be headed back, especially to get some of the comforts of home after a couple months of campus life. I couldn’t wait to see Dad again, and I knew that I’d be seeing Alex at some point as well.

By the time that Thursday afternoon rolled around and I was going through my final class before the long weekend, I was completely ready to get going and get out of Walla Walla. Everything was happening so quickly in my courses and I couldn’t begin to figure out how I was supposed to get all my papers done, even with the extended weekend off to get a good start on them. I suppose that was what happens when you leave them until November to get started, but I had been busy with baseball and everything with the fraternity, so it wasn’t like it was totally my fault that I hadn’t gotten much work done. I’d have to figure out how to balance all my time and activities if I wanted to keep playing baseball for the school.

It was starting to become pretty cold out, and I needed to get some clothes that would keep me warm once the rain and snow started. I know that I probably should have done all that packing in September, but it was so warm then and I hadn’t thought about the fact that winters are always pretty rainy and miserable once got into the winter months. I was wondering how that would impact our practices; we’d still been doing full practices out on the field for the team, but if it was raining all winter that would become more difficult; the rain and the stadium lights would make it really hard to see the ball, and that could be a safety issue. Hopefully we’d get all of that sorted out once the Thanksgiving break was over, maybe it’d be time for us to start doing indoor training in the gym or fitness centre, or working on other things that didn’t involve hard skills.

Dad showed up to drive me home just before dinner on Thursday. I had already packed up everything that I needed to bring home and was waiting in the lobby talking to Heather about what her plans were for the holidays.

“I’m really jealous that you’re able to go home for the weekend Devin, I’m way too far away from home to do that, plus I’ve got all my responsibilities as an RA for the kids who are also staying here, so I’ll probably spend most of my weekend in my room studying and doing all the other stuff I do normally. No vacations for me, but that’s fine, I knew that it’d be like that if I decided to take on the job. Still… if I could I’d love to be able to go home and see my friends and family for a couple days. I hope you really get to enjoy it, but maybe next year you’ll want to stay here instead.”

I nodded my head at her and asked

“Why did you come out all this way? I know you said you were from Iowa, so there had to have been other schools closer to home you could have gone to, was there anything about Whitman that made you want to come here instead of those other schools?”

Heather smiled back, and she looked a little bit like she was daydreaming before she collected herself and answered.

“It’s funny Devin. I actually came out this way because I wanted to go to school in a place with better weather than back home. Winters back home are cold, snowy and much more brutal than here. Of course, that was before I learned I’d be swimming to my classes from all the rain… so I guess I didn’t really get better weather, just warmer haha.”

I laughed at that and turned around when I felt a tap on my shoulder. It was Dad, and of course he was soaking wet since it was pouring rain. I hoped that it didn’t make the drive here any worse than it had to be, but that probably meant we wouldn’t be home until later in the evening, so I should have eaten a snack before he came to get me. I’m sure I could last until we got home though, and I didn’t want to ruin my appetite since Dad’s cooking, even as leftovers, was still better than some of the snack food here.

I grabbed my bags and we both started to run towards the car. Thankfully Dad was able to park close to the residence because he was just picking me up. Once I got to the car I threw my bags into the back seat of the truck, then got in next to him. Dad slid into the driver’s seat and got the car started, and immediately turned the heat on to make the trip home at least a little bit more bearable.

For the first half hour of the trip we were both pretty quiet; Dad wanted to focus on the road and I was lost in thought, thinking about what I was going to do with my time and whether I’d even have enough time to see the people I wanted to see before I had to get back to work with my school stuff. I was thinking about the fact that there was at least going to be one Thanksgiving dinner with dad that would take up a bit of time, so I knew I wouldn’t get to do much tomorrow night. I’d have to see Alex as well, which would be more time I couldn’t use to work on papers and depending on how it went, I might not be in the mood to do anything useful afterwards either. That was starting to get me nervous since there were only a few weeks left until the end of term, and some of the papers at least were due before then.

Once we were back on the highway headed for home, Dad broached the silence.

“How have you been son? Classes and everything going well? I haven’t heard from you in a little while, you used to call home once a week or so, but it’s been almost a month since I’d heard anything from you.”

I realized he was right. Of course, I’d been busy, but there was also the fact that I didn’t feel like I needed him as much anymore. Those first few weeks in September were the first time I’d been living without him, and the homesickness was hard to deal with. I’d been texting Alex of course, but that’s different from talking to your dad and having him remind you about why you chose to go to college instead of staying at home with the rest of the people he graduated with. I guess I needed to hear that I was making the right decision at the time, but now that things were going pretty well I just wanted to get to work and make everything happen. Being really busy certainly didn’t help my ability to keep in contact, and I sort of thought he didn’t want me to call as much anyway; those last few conversations were really short and he didn’t seem as interested in hearing about what was going on.

“I’m sorry, Things have been busy with school. I made it onto the baseball team, and a fraternity has decided to recruit me as part of their pledge class this year, so I’ve had a lot to do.”

Dad raised his eyebrows but kept his eyes on the road.

“Sounds like you’re almost too busy, are you taking care of all your classes, or am I about to find out that you’re behind and doing poorly?” He asked.

I actually wasn’t too sure how I was doing in my classes. The professors hadn’t been clear on how they would return papers, and while there were a few things I’d gotten back, all the practical stuff that was done during the classes were being marked and I had no idea about how well I did there, I responded to Dad.

“I don’t think I’m doing badly. Hard to tell, professors don’t tell us much about our in-class work, and the papers haven’t been too bad so far. If I was failing or something they’d tell me right?”

Dad just grunted and we sort of left the conversation about my grades at that. I knew he had more concerns, but he was thankfully leaving them alone. Probably meant he was going to ask me more over the weekend, probably right when I started doing some of the work that I had to do. That’d be typical of him to get on my case right when I was trying to get things done.

“Things have been going well with baseball.” I ventured, hoping that the change of subject would get Dad to start talking to me again. I didn’t want him to be angry since I really didn’t see what the problem was. Things weren’t as easy as high school, but it wasn’t like I was going to fail anything.

“I’ve been practicing with the team a lot, hopefully I’ll be able to get some one on one time with one of the catchers and the pitching coach in order to prepare for the 2013 season.” I said. Again, nothing from Dad.

“Good. Nice to know you’re still playing and that last year didn’t stop you from enjoying a sport you’re really good at.” Dad said, ending the silence on his terms this time.

Dad still seemed like he was mad about my grades not being as good as he’d want them to be, so I just got quiet and started thinking about what I’d do when I got some spare time. Before I knew it we were returning home and Dad pulled us into the driveway.

When we got back in, we headed straight to the kitchen to get dinner going. I knew it’d be microwaved leftovers of some kind because it was already eight in the evening, but that was fine because I knew Dad would have cooked something really good that would take to being reheated well. At this point, I didn’t really care, I was starving and just wanted to eat something before I unpacked and started getting everything ready for the next part of the weekend.

Dad had made some of his tortellini with meat sauce, so instead of microwaving it we re-fried it up on the stove in a hot pan with butter. It wasn’t healthy at all, but it was Thanksgiving and I was going to enjoy it instead of worrying about what Coach would think. I was pretty sure the rest of the team was going to be doing the exact same thing, and I’d be working out every day so it wasn’t like I was going to be totally abandoning my conditioning for baseball.

Even though it was re-fried, the pasta was amazing and I went to my room feeling full and relaxed. I didn’t do very much work, mostly just setting everything up and writing out some outlines for some of the work that I had to do in English class, as well as thinking about the conditioning journal that was set by my physical training course.

At around eleven at night I picked up my phone and texted Alex to see what he was doing over the Thanksgiving break.

‘Hey Alex, how are you? How’s things been lately? Any plans for the long weekend?’

A few moments later, my phone started vibrating to signal a response.

‘Been busy with school, glad to have the weekend off and not have to worry too much. Looking forward to seeing you, when are you free this weekend?’

I texted back right away, not wanting to miss the chance to catch up properly with Alex.

‘I can probably meet up with you tomorrow, is there any time that you’re free then? That’d be the best for me, since Dad’s going to want me for dinner tomorrow and I’ve got a lot of other stuff to do for school this weekend.’

A short pause, and I decided to go to the washroom and get myself totally ready for bed. By the time I got back, I checked my phone and still no response. Eleven-thirty; I needed to go to bed soon, but I did want to see if we could get things figured out for when I would be seeing Alex before I went to bed. I decided that he probably wasn’t going to respond tonight and just to let it be, so I plugged my phone into its charger and set my alarm for my usual six-thirty wake up time. Just because I was on vacation didn’t mean I should give up on my routine and the running that I’d been getting used to doing on campus.

It was dark when I woke up the following morning. Being November, I expected as much, but the house seemed colder than my residence on campus had been. It felt odd, knowing I was home but not really feeling at home anymore. I suppose that was part of growing up, and I was so used to my campus residence that everything else would seem a bit different and odd by comparison. I quickly checked my phone; no messages. No surprises there, Alex likes his sleep in days, and six-thirty was never something he would be interested in doing.

I changed into my workout gear from the college; sweatpants and a sweatshirt with the team logo on them, and in the team colours. Everything fit really well, and I knew that it would be comfortable enough for me to go on one of my longer runs today. Before we left, the team trainer left everyone with a personalized plan for how they should be working out over the next little while. I’d have to talk to my sports class professor about this, since we had to keep up with the workout plans our partners made for us at the beginning of the semester as part of our final project, and my two programs were definitely in conflict with each other. For now, I had been working off the team plan and that meant that today I was supposed to go on a four mile run.

One of the few things I have that cost a lot of money are my headphones, they’re some of the professional ones that wrap around the ear and are really hard to dislodge, so when I’m running I don’t have to worry about the earbuds falling out while I run. I also went and got one of those running armbands so that my phone wasn’t too far away from me. It was a pain in the ass when I first got it, I couldn’t figure out how to run without having the wire flying all over the place, but now that I’ve gotten used to it I can’t imagine running without my music.

I started stretching on my front lawn while plugging in my music. I wanted to start today with a bit of energy, and I was happy when my phone randomly selected some Theory of a Deadman. Not that it was high energy or anything, but for some reason I always felt better listening to their music.

I decided to run a couple laps around my neighbourhood today. Normally I’d want to run a route that was a bit more interesting, but with this being the first time I had been back in town since the Summer, I was actually a little interested to see if anything had changed. I also knew that this way I could stay on the sidewalks and not have to worry about traffic or anything along the route.

Looking around town during my run, nothing had changed. I hadn’t really expected anything to seriously change, there wasn’t anyone around and no one really moved to Colfax, so there wasn’t any reason for anything to change. The only difference was that most of the trees had lost their leaves, and you could tell who cared about where they lived because they were the ones that swept up the leaves on their property. Everyone else just left the leaves alone and waited for the rain or wind to take them away somewhere.

By the time I finished my run, it was getting close to seven-thirty in the morning, which was great timing since Dad would be getting up and making breakfast for himself, so I could hopefully have a bit of whatever he made. We weren’t big on cereal and stuff like that in my house. I mean, we’d do it if we were in a hurry, but Dad always liked making things like eggs and toast, more filling meals than just a bowl of Cheerios or something else like that. Probably better for me as well, and I know Dad did try to keep our food options healthy when he could.

When I stepped back in the house I could hear the smell of some kind of meat frying on the stove, and I was excited to see what it was that Dad had decided to make for himself. Even though it was Thanksgiving, Dad still had to go in for a half day, so I would have the place to myself until just after lunch. Dad knew that I went for morning runs, but it was nice of him to set a plate of scrambled eggs and bacon for me, waiting for me to sit down at the table. The food was getting a little cold, but I ate quickly and devoured the meal before me, taking a few breaks in my eating to sip on the milk and orange juice Dad put out with the food.

After Dad left I went to go shower and get myself ready for the day. I thought about it and decided just to wear my college clothes for the rest of the day; Dad wasn’t going to want me to dress fancy when it was just the two of us, and I wasn’t really expecting to see anyone else today anyway. After my shower I went to check my phone again. Alex had finally sent a message to me.

‘After lunch is fine, I’ll see you at my place?’

I sent a quick response back saying that would be fine and went to work on some of the homework I still had left. I was supposed to be finalizing my essay about the importance and effects of foreshadowing in the book, and I wasn’t able to come up with anything that I felt I hadn’t already said. Not good, I was short on my word count and had already made the arguments I wanted to make. I’d have to figure out a way of going back and adding more to each argument, I guessed. But then I’d have to re-read the book to find something that supported my viewpoint… I guess this is why the professor had said we should start on the paper earlier than later, she must have known that something like this would happen with most of us, and I couldn’t even go talk to my teammates about this because they were all over the country trying to enjoy their Thanksgiving breaks...that, or they were desperately trying to finish their essays like me.

After eating lunch, I grabbed my bike and rode over to Alex’s place. I could have driven, but I wanted to get a bit more exercise in today after doing the run this morning, and it was a short enough distance that it wasn’t going to exhaust me to get there.

When I arrived, Alex opened the door and let me in. I took my shoes off and we both headed up to Alex’s room. When we got there, I wandered over to his bed like I normally did whenever I was at his place, and as usual he joined me. This time it didn’t feel as good as it normally did, I didn’t feel warm from him being there.

I idly held onto him while he talked about some of the different things that had been happening in high school this year, and I kind of nodded off and tried to figure out why this wasn’t feeling as good as it used to. It felt different than it did when I was around Bryce, and I was getting nervous about what I was supposed to say about what Bryce and I had done. Even though it was really hot to hook up with a college guy, I had cheated, and now I had to explain that to someone who was still in high school.

Alex seemed to have noticed that things weren’t right between us. He turned around in my embrace and looked up at me, searching for any hint of what it was that was pushing us apart.

“You’re awfully quiet today Devin, what’s going on?”

I thought about making some excuse, some reason for why I wasn’t being my normal self, but I realized this was for the best and that we both needed to move on. I sighed and replied to Alex’s loaded question.

“Look, Alex, I…” I faltered, not sure how to phrase it. “I told you I met Bryce right? The catcher on my baseball team?”

He nodded, not fully comprehending.

“He and I, we’ve gotten pretty close. I’m sorry. I didn’t want to hurt you.”

I turned away from him so I didn’t have to watch his reaction, but I could still feel him try to both push me away and cling tighter to me. After a few moments, the room got colder somehow and I felt him push me away entirely.

“Leave.”

He wouldn’t look at me, and I didn’t know what to say to make it right. The halls of his house never felt this unforgiving and dark before, and I hurt when he didn’t see me out. I got back on my bike and pedaled away, not looking back until I got home.

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I didn’t do much that afternoon. I tried to do work, and I found that as long as I was thinking about Frankenstein, I didn’t have to think about Alex, which was fitting in a way because he probably saw me as a monster right now.

Dad called me down for dinner, and I sat at the table while he carved the small turkey. It was pretty extravagant for us to have a turkey with the fixings, but Dad was a traditionalist and I wasn’t going to complain about indulging.

Dinner was quiet today, both of us focusing on the food spread in front of us. I didn’t want to talk about my day anyways, and I knew Dad had been pretty busy with work and then cooking everything, so I was grateful for the chance to have some peace and quiet for as long as it would last.

Thankfully, the food was a good distraction. Everything was really well done, and all the extras like cranberry sauce helped make up for the fact that there wasn’t really anyone to share it with us.

“How come you didn’t invite Alex to dinner? I thought you were looking forward to seeing him.” My dad said between bites of turkey and mashed potatoes.

I looked down into my plate and started mixing up my good without thinking about it.

“He’s busy, couldn’t make it today.” I lied, not wanting to get into today’s fight.

Dad didn’t notice either, he just carried on. “Well, I’m sure you’ll see him sometime this weekend, lots of time for that sort of thing and you two are pretty determined when you want to be.”

I finished dinner and put my dishes away in the kitchen. Dad would take care of cleaning tonight, and instead I headed up to my room, suddenly feeling very tired and ashamed of how things went down with Alex today.

Dad’s words kept ringing in my ears. ‘I thought you were looking forward to seeing him’. I had been, I guess I still was, but he was mad at me and I didn’t know how to fix it. I was tossing and turning in my bed, I couldn’t get comfortable and eventually dozed off to sleep.