FWB Friends With Baseball

Superstition.

Jailyn~

Taking a seat at General Mitchell Airport, I pull my carry-on around, propping my feet up on it. The anticipation of being in Tokyo in these next twenty-four hours doesn't make the time go any faster. The next sixteen or so hours of flights ahead of me takes away some of the excitement of going to the games. While I've never had an issue with flying, it's not the ideal way to have to spend my entire day. Rolling my eyes at myself, it's a bit trivial to be thinking like this as I'm on my way to do something very few ever even come close to in their lifetimes. Forget the top one percent of athletes. This is the top point oh-one percent of athletes, if even.

Pulling my phone out of my sweatpants pocket, I pop one of my earbuds in as I hit play, opening up my contacts to text Christian. "Hey, All-Star."

Within minutes, Christian replies, "Christian: Hey Olympian ;) You at the airport?"

"Yeah, waiting to board my connection to Minneapolis. What are you up to?" Hitting send, I go back to scroll on Instagram. Carly's post and story are the first that pops up, making me chuckle at the image of her ticket to Tokyo and her two-seventies. "C.Bradford: See y'all soon." The purple devil emoji, finishing her caption. Double tapping the image, Christian's name pops back up.

"Christian: Currently, at my house getting ready before heading to Dodger Stadium."

"Oh yeah, I'm probably not going to be able to watch much of this series," I send back, joking, knowing full well he knows my pretty valid excuse.

"Christian: I'll pretend not to be disappointed," He teases back at first before another message comes through, "You've got a pretty solid excuse. That, and I don't expect you, or anyone, to catch all 162."

Smiling to myself, I nod as I reply, "So? I feel like an unsupportive bestie if I don't."

Nearly as soon as it says delivered, it says seen, and the typing bubble pops back up. Neither one of us are planning on leaving the chat. "Christian: OMG! We're besties?!" I can't help but laugh to myself as I picture him typing that out, let alone hearing the satire in his tone as I read it. Sending back three eye-rolling emojis, he's already typing again. "Christian: How long until your flight?"

"Little less than an hour, then it's an hour and fifteen to MN. I'll have about an hour and 15 minutes there until the 12-hour flight to Haneda. So it's going to be a long day."

The message is left on read a moment before his name pops up on my screen, wanting to FaceTime.

"Hey," I say smiling, "Sorry if I look rough, didn't think it was necessary to look my best for like sixteen hours of travel."

"Shut up, you look fine," He tells me, his smile making mine grow. It doesn't take long for me to notice his messy hair and lack of a shirt over his shoulders. He's still in bed.

"I thought you'd said you were getting ready to go?"

Christian chuckles, holding his arm behind his head, "I don't know if you realize, but timezones are a thing. It's just after six, right now, JJ." His light teasing earns him an eye roll as he laughs.

"I'm aware timezones are a thing, asshole. I also know what you'd already said previously. Why you gotta lie to me, Yeli?"

Christian just smiles, returning my eye roll over my accusation, knowing I'm teasing. "Technically, getting up is part of getting ready. That, and I did want to catch you before your flight."

"Oh yeah?" I ask before adding, "Just in case the plane goes down?"

"Ha, ha," Christian says, shaking his head, "I guess partially. There's also no real telling when we'll get the chance to talk again. My guess is you're going to be busy most of the time. I'd like to talk to my self-proclaimed bestie before I can't anymore."