June 18th, 2006

I went to bed in the sand with Tara still next to me, her arm wrapped around me. About two hours later when the moon was high I awoke and slowly lifted her arm from around me and stood up.

I went to grab a stick and when I found the tennis ball a voice came out of nowhere, "It's no use Brian; it's too late to practice now. I'm sure I haven't introduced myself…yet. My name is Brianna; don't be fooled by my appearance. I may look like I'm weak, but really underneath all this is a powerful person. You haven't seen anything yet!"

She disappeared into the woods. I took the tennis ball and smacked it yards ahead into the water.

I saw a head pop up from the water and return the tennis ball, "That's quite a swing you have there Brian." Axel said coming up beside me. "Don't let her get to you. It seems as though they're trying to get the better of you by tearing you down at something you love."

I thought about it, "It's not the game, its Beraht and Scott. The way they acted today made it seem like I just met them for the first time."

Axel continued listening, "This is something I haven't seen in a while, "So Beraht is your best friend?"

I quickly turned my head, "How did you know that?"

He laughed, "It was only a guess, but from the look you gave him earlier you looked like he was your enemy instead. The only advice I can give you on this Brian is that you let this happen whether, you win or lose, you must be careful not to hurt anyone in the process."

I nodded my head and tried putting that logic to use. I sat there until the sun started to come up.

Apparently the other team was already to go before our agreed time.

"Come on you slackers! We don't have all day!"

I laughed, "Actually we do, and we'll play as long as we need to!"

The first pitch was thrown out by Jason.

Scott swung and missed, "Don't think that'll happen again because it won't!"

The next pitch was thrown high and outside.

Scott had to duck, "Hey come now, don't be carried away by this!"

He eventually ended up striking out. We played by three outs. The bases included two palm trees and home plate being the warm spot where the sun was the hottest.

When I came up to bat that first inning I did my usual Jim Thome "point towards the fence" stance and got ready to swing. Beraht was pitching for them and knew where to pitch. Although he didn't know that I could hit left handed, so when he threw me one fast and outside I fully extended and drilled the ball in the middle sending it into the sky. Beraht watched it disappear into the sun.

"Ah shit you got lucky Brian and it won't happen again!"

"Yea right man you know me better than that!" I yelled rounding the bases.

The score was now 1-0. I was greeted at home plate by Tara who happened to bat next. Beraht was shaken up a bit but didn't make the same mistake to her. She struck out on three pitches. I knew Jason would reinsure our lead. He batted right hand, his hands choked up on the stick a ways.

"Jason, remember don't swing at anything low!" I pointed out.

He gave me thumbs up and looked back at Beraht. He went into his motion and threw one high. Fortunately that was exactly what Jason was planning and sat on it, this one going further then my home runs. The score was now 2-0. It remained this way through five innings.

"How many innings should we play?" Jason asked.

"We'll play as long as it takes for us to score!" Scott yelled. I sighed in the outfield knowing this would take a while.

Four hours later the sun started to become a distraction while batting. At this point I was a perfect 3/3 with two intentional walks. I walked to the plate and not seeing anything that the pitcher threw.

"Hey, let's delay the game a bit until the sun goes down!"

Scott and Beraht both yelled, "Oh come on, it's not that bad!"

Though they both struck out the last time they were up to bat. I dropped the bat and started to head back for the hut.

"Hey where are you going?" Scott asked.

"I told you, it's too bright to play right now, we'll pick up the game later!"

He growled underneath his breath and stomped off towards Beraht. I heard him say something to him but couldn't make it out. I heard Jason yell, "Look out Brian!"

I turned around walking back when something hit me on the head knocking me out. Jason happened to see this and ran out to me, "You bastards look what you did!"

They both laughed hysterically, "Now Jason, don't be so shrewd, that hurts when you call us that."

Jason leaped at out Scott knocking him onto the ground, "I'll make you wish you never existed!"

He took one big punch at him giving Scott a bloody nose. Scott didn't move for a second, his eyes shut.

When he came to he leaned up wiping his nose, "You're a dead man next time I see you!"

Beraht didn't say anything.

Soon I woke up, just in time to catch both of them walking off, "Scott get back here! If you think you can take out my friend you're wrong!"

He looked back at me with eyes of pure rage. "Don't get yourself involved in this Brian, this isn't your business! Just exactly as you told Jason!"

My mouth opened but nothing came out. I only looked at Jason, "How did he know that?"

Jason shrugged, "It's my fault this time Brian, we should've never challenged them in the first place."

I rubbed my head from the bruise given off by the coconut.

"Let's just worry about getting back alive."

Cree and Tara ran back long before our encounter took part.

"Well now Brian I hope you learned something from this!" Tara put a pack of ice on my head.

"Actually I did Tara, and we must be on the look out from now on. Jason's mouth got him in trouble and now Scott is out for revenge."

She shook her head in disbelief, "I'm sick of putting up with this, I want you to call them over here right now so we can deal this out!"

I knew I had no other choice so I got up and yelled, "Scott! We need to talk NOW!"

With in five minutes he and beraht came with Brianna and the other girl.

"This had better be good Brian; we were in the middle of our planning."

I was about to say they won when Tara broke in, "Scott please spare us, don't you realize you're hurting your friends!"

He smirked to himself, "Friends, what friends. The only people I consider to be friends are those that don't betray me!"

I looked up at him, "Scott you know as well as I do that I wouldn't do such a thing!" Again Scott smirked, "Oh bullshit Brian, if you hadn't called off the game we wouldn't be talking right now!"

I looked into his eyes, "You don't even know who I am anymore, and do you? The Scott I knew would never get so upset over a game and the same with you Beraht! You know better than to resort to violence!"

Scott glared over at Jason, "Some of us couldn't help that, now could us Jason?"

He looked back at Scott, "Don't start that again! You know it's going nowhere!"

I ended this discussion by saying, "Well Scott and Beraht you have a choice to make here, either you end this nonsense, or Jason and I will end our friendship with you."

Beraht couldn't help but lower his head, "Scott I think they're getting on to something here."

He looked disgustingly away, "Oh please you expect me to cherish our friendship over beating them and boasting about it?"

Beraht nodded his head, "Yes, I expect you to do that!"

At this time Scott had enough of everyone trying to convince him that this was going nowhere so he pulled out a gun.

"Scott what the fuck is you doing!" I yelled.

He took a step forward and raised the gun into the air and fired, "Now don't be so panicky, I expect you to cooperate with me. And if you don't there WILL be severe punishments."

Axel had heard the gun go off and came crawling to shore, "What the bloody hell was that?"

Scott looked over at him, "Oh look, he shall be the one we feast on tonight…if you're still alive that is."

In my mind I wanted to knock him over and beat him senseless. The other side of me told me that something would change. Then it occurred to me that we needed to distract them, even Beraht, though he hadn't done any harm yet.

Scott aimed the gun at me, "Well now looks like you're the one with the choice to make Brian. Either you bow down before me, or you can kiss gravity good bye because I'm about to blow you away."

I tried backing up, "Don't move!" he yelled. "If you cherish your life you will not move!"

If I could get the gun away from him I could change things, but I had to be cautious. "Scott what the hell is that!" I pointed out towards the ocean.

He turned his head for a short moment just in time for Cree to throw me Bud and for me to chuck it at Scott's head. As the coconut hit him the gun went off backwards piercing his ear. He was down on the ground and I rushed for the gun while Jason charged at Beraht knocking him down. Scott lay there in pain.

"Well Scott, I think you just made the worst decision of your life." I held the gun pointed at him. "Don't worry; I'm not going to waste any bullets on you."

Instead I held the gun up and fired all the bullets out then threw it back at Scott. He looked up at me with blood trickling down his cheek.

"I don't get it Brian, why? What did I do to deserve this?"

I looked over at Beraht who Jason still contained, "So Brian what should we do with them?"

I thought about it and took a few steps forward, "We aren't going to do anything to them, we're a foursome, and no one deserves to die."

I went over and helped Scott up, "Here take it easy, let's get you back to the hut and wrap that up."

He didn't reply, only a tear came down his face, "I know it hurts Scott." I hadn't noticed the cut above his eyebrow which some blood came out as well from.

The sun was about to set as we got Scott cleaned up.

"I don't know what exactly happened to you two."

Scott tried explaining what he remembered before I hit him with the coconut. "When we fell into the ocean, I don't remember hitting the water; instead all I saw was darkness. I tried seeing if Beraht was still alive but my vision was so messed up that I couldn't concentrate at all. I began to feel haughty and devious." He ended with, "I know I wasn't myself, I just couldn't say anything."

I let him sleep in my bed for the night so that he'd feel better about what he had almost done.