I'll admit, things were a little weird between Noah and me since that night. But we didn't mention it and slowly worked to get things back to normal. Everything was relatively usual by the time we went out for a picnic the next Saturday. I wanted to do something nice for Marco, so I gave him a break from working in the kitchen by making all the food this time- with Lee's help course. It was Lee's idea to play a game of baseball while we were at the park. Sounds good to me. We borrowed our neighbour's baseball mitt, ball, and bat; lucky they had all those things laying around. With all our gear and picnic basket in hand, the four of us headed off to the park not too far from our apartment building.
I spread the big pink blanket on the grass under a tall oak tree. While I did that, Lee promptly pulled out the food and laid it out in a somewhat organized fashion. Noah and Marco didn't hesitate to make themselves comfortable, with the brothers sitting on one side of the blanket, and Marco and I on the other. After we ate a fair amount of the food, Noah and Lee got up to go bat the ball around. We watched for a little while, just enjoying ourselves. Lee tossed Noah the ball, which he batted pretty hard. It went flying and Noah flashed me an elated grin. "You see that, Elle?! Am I on a roll today or what?" "Yep. Nice job, Noah!" I clapped my hands. Lee smirked cockily. "You fall in love with him again?" "Oh Lee, stop. Honestly!" I retorted, though I knew it was all in light-hearted fun.
They went back to playing their two-person game and I eventually pulled out the box with the desserts. I took off the lid and held it up for Marco. "Here, wanna try some chocolate cookies? Lee helped me make them this time, so I hope they're good." "Sure," Marco immediately picked one out and bit into it. My eyes patiently yet anxiously awaited his verdict. Soon enough he smiled back at me only the way he can. "It's great! You guys did a really good job." "Awe, thanks, Marco. I was so hoping you'd like them." "I like anything you make, Elle," he replied, making me blush.
Or at least I was until my phone started vibrating. One check of the screen revealed "Blocked Caller". Marco saw my sudden white-washed expression, peered down at my phone, and frowned intently. When I did nothing, he gently snatched it up from me and denied the call. Then he set my phone back down onto the pink blanket and looked my way. At the sight of my not-happy face, Marco's hand reached up to rub my shoulder. This made my head turn to his direction, where I found him giving me a comforting, protective smile. Of course I smiled back- how could I not when he looks at me like that? His fingers moved from my shoulder up to my cheek which he caressed lightly. That high feeling was just beginning to return from the other night when all of a sudden…..
"Hey, Marco! Hurry it up! You're next at bat! Get your ass up here!" I'm not sure if Noah saw us or not, but I think he legitimately meant this. "Alright, I'm coming," Marco stood up and gave me another heart-fluttering grin. "Here I go. Wish me luck." "Kay; knock it out of here," I grinned back. With one last look at each other, Marco hurried over to where Noah handed him the bat. Then he got in position to go catch the ball should Marco hit it.
Lee threw it, and of course Marco hit a homerun. "Whoa! Nice one, dude!" Lee watched the ball fly over them. From the moment he realized he hit it, Marco's head spun towards me excitedly. "You see that, Elle?!" "Of course! Wouldn't miss it for the world," I cheered back merrily. "Did you fall in love with him again?" Lee asked again with as much teasing and seriousness as before. My lips instantly parted before my brain had time to catch up. "Yea-….. O-Ouh! Come on, Lee! Stop teasing me!"
What was that? My mouth almost answered without my mind even realizing what I was saying….. There wasn't much time to think about that though. "Get up here, Elle! It's your turn!" Noah and Marco encouraged me to come up to bat. Macro handed me the bat and joined Noah out behind Lee. "Come on!" "Go for it, Elle!" To my utter shock, I actually somehow managed to hit the ball- albeit not as hard- when Lee threw it at me. The boys seemed just as surprised as I was. But that didn't last long. "You did it!" "Nice hit, babe!" My eyes opened and I saw them all smiling at me- at me and each other. Noah and Marco started bantering one another about something and Lee complained that the wanted a turn at batting. It wasn't for very long, but I watched them all for a simple, brief moment; just letting myself enjoy the essence of the scene.
How could I possibly have known at the time that this was one of the last playful, carefree moments we'd all share together like this?