Notes: Annie belongs to me. The first chapter was going to be a one-off, but I watched The Sandlot Kids the other day and Mike Vitar was so blessed in that. (Before anyone points it out, the British title is Sandlot Kids and I'm British, hence I said it that way!)
Dedication: Stepherz for being a kick-ass chica, Joyful for not pounding me into the ground last night, (or maybe the night before) when I probably deserved it, and Vix just for being.
Part 2I sit outside my door feeling like a fool. Since it's Friday night, the halls are almost empty, everyone's watched the game and are now out on dates.
Which means that I could be sitting out here for a very long time.
"Luis, hey." A soft voice says.
"Hey, Annie." I reply, with a close approximation of happiness.
She takes a seat next to me against my door. "You stood me up."
"We had plans?" I ask. I don't remember making any, but it's possible, my mind's been on other things recently.
"Yeah, we did." She takes my hand. "At lunch today I randomly decided to come watch your game. After making one decision, I thought I was up to making a second one. We were meant get something to eat or something afterwards."
"But you didn't actually tell me?" I ask. Annie likes to try out ESP, you have to be on the ball with her.
"No." She admits. "I guess you're not up to mind reading today?"
"Not really." I rest my head on her shoulder. "Did you see them together?"
She nods and strokes my hair. "Hence I'm here… aside from you standing me up."
Annie's been wonderful over the past few weeks. She's my best friend, at one point she was my best friend outside the Ducks, but now she owns that title full-stop. Some people don't like her because of her abrasive nature. She's – and this is in her own words – the most honest person you'll ever meet. Sometimes she just forgets to be tactful too.
And before it gets assumed, no, I don't have any romantic interest in her. I never have, and she has none in me. I can state that for a fact because she's a lesbian.
"So why are we sitting outside your room?" She asks.
"Left my key in the locker room." I reply shortly.
"Ok. You wanna go to my room? I can probably pay Kelsey to go out."
I shrug. I don't really want to do anything recently.
"Do you want to talk about it?" She offers.
I've done nothing but share my betrayed feelings with Annie. She must be sick of hearing about it. I know I'm sick of thinking about it. "Tell me what's new with you?"
"You sure?"
"Yeah, let's hear about you for a change."
"Ok! Well, where to start? Um, right, remember Donna the bush-pig?"
I nod. That's Annie's first ever girlfriend. Not a great learning experience by all accounts. She lied, cheated, she even stole from her. All this was a year ago, and Annie's not even close to forgiving her.
"Well, she has called every single day, luckily I've been with you most of the time, but Kelsey's getting really sick of taking messages. So I called her, just to say 'leave me alone you psychopathic wench!' and when she picked up she started bawling her eyes out, apologising for being such a nut bag!" Annie snorts is disgust. "She's a lunatic. Then, ooh, this makes me so mad! You know what she said? I swear I'm going to kill her for this one, I really am…"
I love hearing Annie talk, she gets so riled up. "What did she say?"
"Ooh! I'm so mad I can barely say it! It's sick and twisted. I'm going to kill her, I really am!"
"What did she say to you?" I repeat. If that wench hurt Annie I'm going to kill her.
"You won't believe this."
Sometimes Annie overcompensates a point. "Share."
"Oooh!" Annie hits her head against the door for punctuation, it swings open and we both tumble in.
"You didn't think to check if the door was locked?" She asks in amusement.
"Oops." I reply, getting to my feet, a smile on my face. My first smile in quite awhile. "How's your head?"
"My head?" She takes my hand and hauls herself to her feet.
"From where you hit it against the door?" I remind her. "Maybe you have a concussion, since you don't even remember."
She sticks her tongue out at me and closes the door behind us. "My head's fine. So where was I?"
"You were taking forty-five minutes to remind me that we hate Donna, then you were going to give a new example of why we're so proud of this decision." I reply taking a seat on my bed.
She rummages through my CD's trying to find something to listen to. Annie has to have mood music when telling a secret. She chooses "Caught Out There" by Kelis (aka, the I HATE YOU SO MUCH RIGHT NOW! song).
It's a good indication that Donna has really pulled out all the stops to get Annie back.
"Ooh! I hate her!" She rages. "And I've never hated anyone. Never. I really wanted to get through life without hating anyone. It was going to be my answer when I got to the Pearly Gates. God or one of the Saints can ask, 'Hey, Joanna,' – because they would call me Joanna, as opposed to Annie – 'Hey Joanna, what are you proud of in this life?' And then I'd say, 'Well, gosh, I've never hated anybody' and in I'd go."
I hide a grin. Only Annie would start thinking of answers to questions like that now. "If it makes you feel any better, you're going to get in."
"Yeah, but now my answer is blown. I need a new one."
I jab her in the ribs gently. "We were ranting about Donna, not the meaning of life." I remind her.
"Oh yeah. Well… I don't want to say it, it's just so creepy."
"You don't have to." But I'd really appreciate it if she did. After all this build-up, I really want to know what Donna's said this time.
She curses a couple of times and hurls a few more insults Donna's way. "She gave me the 'I'm dying' line. And I fell for it!"
"She what!" God. How low can humans stoop?
"Yeah." Annie nods, deeply annoyed. "And I kinda believed it, I mean, she was weepy and pathetic and saying sorry. But part of me didn't, and I felt really guilty about it."
"So how did you find out that she was lying?" I know her well enough to know that she wouldn't get this pissed off without being certain it was a lie.
"I called her Mom and told her that I was praying for them. She asked what the devil I was talking about, so I told her – part of me knew what her reaction was about, the other half was worried that maybe Donna was being honourable and protecting her Mom from the truth. Her Mom said that she went to see a doctor with Donna a week or so ago, aside from a nasty bout of food poisoning, Donna's in tip-top health."
She sighs deeply and flops back on my bed. "All women are insane."
"I'll second that." I lean down and join her and we stare at the lightbulb until we see purple dots in front of our eyes.
"Why can't I just be straight?" She moans. "I don't really want to be, but if I was I could date you and life would be so much easier."
"Grass is always greener."
"I hate green."
I give her a look. "What kind of comment was that while I'm trying to be philosophical?"
"Bite me, Mendoza. I was just trying to get the last word in."
"Well, you failed."
"No I didn't."
"Yes you did."
"Did not"
"Did too!"
"Did not"
"Did too!"
And on it goes for quite awhile. Halfway through the evening I realise that she's really cheered me up.