Sorry, I thought my update would be a lot sooner than it was...
After what he figured had been about an hour of hitting into the backstop, Roxas decided to take a little break. Dropping his bat, he plopped down on home plate and pulled out his phone. 10:07.
Eh. He's slept long enough.
To: Sora
From: Roxas
Dude. Get out of bed. I wanna actually play with another human being.
Snapping his phone shut, he tossed it off to the side and leaned back on his hands, letting his head roll back and his eyes shut. Sora wouldn't be answering for at least another ten minutes. Sora loved his sleep and all.
Suddenly, Roxas had the strangest feeling that he wasn't alone.
Eyes snapping open, Roxas scrambled to his feet and glanced around. Huh. No one there…
Wait a sec…
There. By the trees behind the 1st base side dugout. He definitely saw someone there… A girl, maybe?
That's weird...
Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Roxas looked back at his phone, which was now lit up on the ground. Casting one last glance back towards the trees, he walked back over to the phone and checked the message.
To: Roxas
From: Sora
way to wake me up, rox. be there in a bit. blue or red gatorade?
To: Sora
From: Roxas
Blue sounds good.
Stowing his phone in his back pocket, he looked back over by the other dugout. Nothing.
He scratched the back of his head, a confused expression on his face.
Huh. Maybe I imagined her…
----------
True to his word, Sora showed up about 15 minutes later, bat bag over his shoulder, cooler in hand. After setting his stuff down and pulling out his glove, Sora made his way out into the field about 20 feet from Roxas, who now had his glove on.
"Man, I still don't know why you make me come here so early," Sora said, yawning as he said the word 'early'. After a minute of stretching, he tossed the ball to Roxas, who caught it and threw it back, shaking his arms out a bit.
"You'd think you'd wanna sleep in at least a little bit after last night," Sora continued, "I mean, we were at Tidus's until, what, three in the morning?" He threw the ball a little wide, making Roxas have to snag it with a neat backhanded catch.
"Yeah, well, we can't all sleep as much as you, Sora," he joked, throwing another perfect throw to Sora. "Besides, I need the practice."
Sora caught the ball thrown to him and let his arms fall down at his sides, an incredulous expression on his face. "Rox, you've been the best on the team since...." Sora paused thoughtfully, calculating. "…Forever! You. Don't. Need. Practice." He emphasized the last word with another throw, harder than the last few.
Roxas sighed. There was no point trying to argue with Sora right now. Most likely Sora would forget the conversation within the hour, anyway.
He wasn't very comfortable when people started talking about how good he was. He knew he was good, but honestly, he thought he could be much better. And geez, people didn't need to make such a big deal about it…
"So, is Kairi stopping by today?" Roxas asked, steering the conversation away from himself, which he always did whenever anyone started talking about his baseball skills.
"Yup, she said she'd be up around 12:30." A goofy smile and blush showed up on Sora's face, just as it usually did whenever anyone mentioned Kairi. He had just recently worked up the courage to ask Kairi out, who had immediately grinned and said yes, kissed him full on the lips, then proceeded to ask him what the heck took him so long.
Roxas, along with the rest of their friends, had all breathed a collective sigh of relief whenever they had found out. They had all been annoyed to no end by Sora and Kairi's endless flirting-and-nothing-coming-of-it. Now that they were officially together, Roxas was happy for his best friend (and himself, due to a betting pool between himself, Tidus, Hayner, and Riku).
Sora tossed a grounder to Roxas, who scooped it up effortlessly and threw it back.
Roxas considered asking Sora if he knew anything about the mysterious girl he had seen that morning, but he decided against it.
"Geez, you guys have no life, I swear!"
Both Roxas and Sora turned towards the voice. A older boy with long, silver hair was making his way to the field.
"Ha ha, funny, Riku…wait, RIKU?! What're you doing here?!" Sora shouted.
Riku smirked, making his way over to them with hands in his pockets. "Gee, thanks for the welcome. I feel so loved."
"B-but I thought you were staying up at DIU* for summer classes!" Sora stammered. Riku laughed. (*DIU = Destiny Islands University)
"I am. I'm just here for the weekend." Riku turned to Roxas. "So, you guys gonna spend your whole summer here again?" he asked, nodding at the field.
Roxas nodded, tossing the ball up in the air to himself. "Yeah, most likely. We've done it every year before, so why stop now?" He took off his glove, holding it under his arm as he turned the ball around in his hands. "Though I think it's mostly just gonna be me, Sora, and Kairi this summer. Everyone else seems like they've got a lot going on."
Sora nodded. "Yup. Tidus and Wakka are gonna be training with the DIU blitzball team. Selphie's spending the summer at her aunt's house…"
Roxas nodded, adding, "Axel and Larxene are still in Twilight Town, and I honestly don't want to think about what they're doing…" Riku made a face, while Sora shuddered.
"Oh, and Demyx got a job lifeguarding at Atlantica Water Parks."
"How, I will never know," Sora joked, laughing.
Roxas laughed too, then said, "Pence has summer photography classes, and Olette convinced Hayner to do an internship with her with Ansem the Wise."
Riku scowled. "Hayner really needs to man up and ask her out already! It's so obvious that they like each other."
"I know, right? It's almost as obvious as lover-boy over here was," Roxas said, smirking at Sora. Riku laughed while Sora's face reddened.
"Geez, you guys are never gonna let me live that down, are you?" Sora grumbled.
"Nah," Riku replied, smirking. "So, Roxas, anyone catch your eye yet?" He raised an eyebrow expectantly.
Roxas rolled his eyes. "No, not really."
Dating wasn't really important to him right now. He was too busy concentrating on baseball to find a girlfriend. Besides, he honestly didn't like anyone like that at the moment.
And he was perfectly content that way.
"Dude, we need to find you someone," Sora said, crossing his arms. Riku nodded.
"I agree. What about Xion? I know she's in Twilight Town over the summer, but she's had a thing for you for a while now, hasn't she?"
Roxas looked down at the ball in his hands, frowning. He remained silent.
Sora knew this was a sensitive area with Roxas, so he immediately jumped in and changed the subject.
"Ugh, I'm hungry! And all I brought was Gatorade…" he glanced disappointedly over at his cooler, which contained no food, sadly.
Riku rolled his eyes, then pointed a thumb over his shoulder. "Well, I'm hungry as all hell, so I was gonna head to Mushu's. Wanna come?."
Sora nodded excitedly. "Yeah! I haven't had Chinese food in forever!"
Riku looked over at Roxas. "You coming?"
Roxas shook his head, turning the ball over in his hands. "Nah. I ate this morning. I'll just hang here until you guys get back."
Riku shrugged. "Whatever you say. I'll try to save you something, but no guarantees that this fat ass won't eat it." He pointed at Sora, who wore an indignant look on his face.
"Geez, that was one time!"
"One time? Try everytime."
Roxas watched them leave, bickering all the way. When they were out of sight, he walked over to home plate and sat down. He put his elbows on his knees and rubbed his face with his hands.
He just had to mention Xion, didn't he?
Roxas had known Xion since they were around 7 years old. Her parents were great friends with his parents, since they all went to college together. Xion didn't go to the same school as Roxas and the others; she went to an all-girls private school on the higher-income residential side of Radiant Garden. But even so, she and Roxas had always spent time together, since their parents had each other over so much.
Roxas had long since picked up on the fact that Xion had a crush on him. But he couldn't return the feelings. He had come to think of her as a little sister. He cared about her deeply, and was very protective of her. But he couldn't make himself care about her in that way.
And he hated himself for it.
Roxas was glad that she was spending the summer in Twilight Town. He cared about her, but he hated the feeling of guilt that washed over him everytime she hugged him, or smiled at him in that special way, or said something hinting towards her feelings. So he was glad to be away from it for a while.
But she had told him before she left that when she got back, she needed to talk to him.
He knew what was coming, and he didn't know what to do.
He groaned, rubbing the back of his neck, his head between his knees.
Shit...
"Are you ok?"
Guess who? :]
Not that great of a chapter, but it's a work in progress.
Reviews are always appreciated and showered with imaginary pineapple.
