Emery's Story

Ch. 20

This is for @paomarie...who kindly asked for an update! :)

"Ah, Mark could only get seven tickets Emmy. That means Nixon doesn't have a ticket." Amber states, not at all sorry about the limited tickets.
"Why? Who's all going?" I ask.
"Uncle M, Aunt Hadley, Jackson, Bridget, Harris, me and you."
I turn to Nixon, "I can stay here if you want."
"No, you go. I have a moving crew coming today anyway. Just call me when you get back here and I'll pick you up."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, go see your team play."
Alright, thanks." I say, honestly feeling bad and a little sad that there wasn't a ticket for him.
He kisses me sweetly until Amber starts to fake gag. I pull back and roll my eyes at Amber.
"See you later."
"Yep." I agree. I watch him leave and turn to Amber. "Enough of the attitude, seriously it's getting old." I don't wait for a response and go to my room getting ready for the game. I get out my lucky Detroit Tigers t-shirt that I've have since I was in middle school. It's original color was navy blue is now a light grey blue.  The front says Tigers and it has the Detroit D on the back. I put it on and a pair of ripped dark skinny jeans and grasp my faded blue Detroit tigers hat and I slip on blue flip flops and leave my room.
I meet Amber coming out of her room. "Ready?" I ask.
"Yeah."
"Let's get over to my parents house, I want to get to the field early."
"Sounds like a plan. Your brother is picking us up though, so call him."
"Which one?"
"Harris."
I take out my phone and as I'm about to dial I hear the familiar car horn. I put my phone back in my pocket and follow Amber out the door. Harris is waiting in his midnight blue range rover, smiling excitedly.
I hop in the front seat and Amber gets in behind me. Harris pulls away and heads towards our parents house.  "Are you as pumped as I am?" Harris asks.
"Hell yeah! I can't wait until my Tigers take down your A's."
"Oh, you're so full of shit! My A's will annihilate your Tigers."
"You need to eat shit! My babies are taking home the win baby!"
"What's the bet?" He asks.
"The usual?" I smirk.
"The usual bet." He nods, laughing. I start laughing thinking about our last bet.
"Come on! No more bets!" Amber cries. "My outfit got ruined last time." She whines.
"Come on, Amber! Are you in or not!" I yell, laughing with Harris about the loss of her clothes. The usual bet is making the other person dress up in whatever you want them to wear all day long. The last bet Harris lost I dressed him in Amber's clothes since mine wouldn't come close to fitting him. I chose Amber's 'Pretty Women' hooker outfit complete with a red curly wig. I made him wear it to the family barbeque and Amber hasn't let go of the ruined outfit. However, I'm convinced I did her a favor.
We pull up to our parents house and hop out racing to the door. It's something we've always done since we were kids. Harris wins of course with his freakishly long legs and goes running inside. Laughing Amber and I run after him going straight to the kitchen. By the time we get there Harris already has his head in the refrigerator looking for something to eat. Knowing my mom only stocks healthy foods, I run to the junk food stash I know my dad keeps. I grab the Snickers bar and bag of Doritos and dig in.
"Why the hell are there only fruits and vegetables to eat in here?"
"Moms trying to get dad to eat better." I answer, while stuffing my face.
"Then where did you get that?" he asks, laughing at the junk food I found.
"I said she's trying, not that she's succeeding."
Just then my parents come into the kitchen with my dad kissing on my mom's neck. This is a common occurrence so we're used to it. "You kids ready to go?" Mom asks.
"Yeah, let's go! I'm starving." I reply, munching on a chip.
"Where did you get all that junk?" Mom asks, suspiciously.
I look at dad who's behind my mom shaking his head and waving his hands. "I brought them with me." I say, but it comes out sounding like a question.
"Yeah, sure you did." Mom responds, knowingly and turns to dad, whispering something to him.
He whines back. "Please, babe."
"No." She answers him. "Let's go, I know Emmy wants to get there early as usual." Mom remarks, smiling my way
"Yep, I can't wait for the game to start. The sooner it starts, the sooner I can win the bet." I tease Harris.
"The usual bet?" Dad asks, snickering. Clearly he hasn't forgotten Harris in drag.
"Yep." I laugh. "He's such a sucker." I reply, high fiving my dad.
Dad drives all of us in his Black Hummer, that way the rest of us can have a few drinks. We listen to music all the way to the Oakland Coliseum. We park and walk to the front gates and dad hands out our tickets. We wait in the short line and get our tickets scanned. I follow dad and Harris as we go buy beer and hot dogs. We finally make it to our seats right beside the Oakland A's dugout. We are seated by an usher, these seats are always reserved for family of the players. I see uncle Alex sitting in the aisle were in.
"Hey, uncle Alex! I didn't know you were going to be here." I say, giving him a hug.
"Hey, sweety." He replies, smiling and kissing my cheek. I lean back and let Amber and him hug and he waves to mom, dad and Harris.
"So, your here to see the beating your sons is going to take when Cabrera hits the snot out of his fastball?" I ask, trying to keep a straight face.
He gently hits me with his shoulder and chuckles. "My son is about to pitch a no hitter."
"Yeah, maybe in the bull pen." I mutter. Mark is a relief pitcher. That means when starter pitchers lose there steam, he warms up in the bullpen and comes in to close the inning or game. Mark is the best in the league, he great under pressure and more times then not he shuts down the opposing team.
"You know he's unstoppable when your here." Uncle Alex, states.
"That's only became he doesn't want to be made fun of." I joke, playfully.
"I'm sure that's only half of it." He smiles.
"Did you really have to bring it up?" I ask. "Why does he even like me? We're partially related." I point out.
"But you're not related. He's always liked you, Em. You just never noticed." He says, knowingly. "I know you won't play with him or take his feelings lightly. Thank you for that."
"But..." I say, questioning him. Knowing he wants to say more.
"But, he's knows you and he loves you. He'll compare every women he ever meets to you and they'll always fall short. I don't want that to happen to him, I want him to be happy." He replies, sadly. I know he's talking about still loving my mom and tears fill my eyes.
"I'm sorry that happened to you, but I really think someone else could love him better then I could."
"He loves you, not someone else." He shrugs.
I nod and look back to the field lost in thought, until I see Mark climbing up the fence with a baseball bat. I laugh, "If you're going to threaten me with that bat, forget it! I'm not changing."
He laughs. "I got you something."
"A bat? Honey, you shouldn't have." I tease.
He raises his eyebrow. "Fine. I guess I'll keep this bat I had Miguel Cabrera sign." He says, starting to climb back down.
"What!" I yell, rushing to the gate that he's on. I look at the bat seeing Miguel Cabrera's signature and shriek like a girl and do a happy dance. "It's mine?" I ask, in awe
He laughs. "Well, I sure as hell don't want it."
I hug him and take the bat like it's a precious jewel making my whole family laugh. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"
"You're welcome." He replies, seriously. He's about to climb down and I kiss his cheek.
"Good luck! You're going to need it." I say, winking. He laughs and climbs off the fence, going back across the field to the bullpen.
I go back to my seat with the happiest smile on my face. "Signed by Miguel Cabrera!" I shout, holding it up.
"No one cares. Sit down." Harris says, then starts to boo. I shrug and sit down.
The game was great, Miguel Cabrera hit a two run home run, but it was tied in the eighth and they brought Mark in. He shut down the tigers and Oakland got a home run in the ninth, winning by one run.
"Oh, who won the bet?" Harris asks, sarcastically.
"Whatever, finally you win Harris." We are about to leave when Mark walks up to the fence.
"Hey, Em."
"Yeah?"
"Want to meet the team?" I look at him confused. "Your team." He clarifies, smiling.
"Yes, how?" I ask.
"Climb down." He waves.
I hand him my bat and turn to climb down. He lifts me down and picks my bat back up handing it to me. I take it in one hand and he takes my hand in his and walks under the tunnel.