Covered By Her Scars

45

Sofia

"This is it ladies. For some of you," Coach K looks at me, "it's your last run. So make it worth something. Make all your effort and hard work this year matter. It's all you have left."

Why do I want to cry?

Softball has been the biggest part of my life. It the one thing that I could go to and not have pain follow me.

It brought me so much glee knowing that Luke would be proud of me for playing.

All of the painful practices, the throwing up- it's gonna be fucking worth it.

It has to be.

"Captains," Coach K gestures for Alyssa and I to talk.

I glance at Alyssa, and she doesn't look like she wants to talk right now.

Her eyes are shiny, a drop falling through her waterline.

I clear my throat, "The last couple years of my life have been rough to say the least."

Alyssa gives me a weak smile.

"But softball has been the one thing that's never let me down. It sounds so stupid to other people when I say that I love softball, or that softball is my escape, but you never know how it feels until you've been playing the sport for 13 years."

I laugh, but it's not filled with humor, just sorrow, "13 years. Now I don't even know if I'll be playing softball next year- but what I do know is that I want this year to fucking matter. I want to leave this school knowing that we were the best. And I want to beat the boys."

Chuckles and laughs lighten the locker room.

"One more time, let's win."

"TIGERS ON 3 THATS 1... 2... 3 TIGERS!!" We yell and run out of the locker room.

The fresh air fills my lungs as we run into the pep rally.

Mo bomba is playing-

How is the principal letting them play that?

"LETS GO." Students chant from around us as we make our way to the the middle where the baseball team is.

When we get closer we all go find our game partners.

"Hey partner," Coal grabs my hand and spins me around to face him.

"Hi." I murmur before kissing him.

His face lights up with a smile, "Look at us now."

I sigh, "Look at us now,"

I repeat it softly.

"What's wrong?" Coal furrows his eyebrows at my face.

I shake my head, "Nothing I'm happy- It's just sad that it's our last game. I mean after next week, we might never all be in the same place again."

"Don't think about that right now okay? We have games to win." Coal smirks.

"Oh yeah? Well if we both win, the deciding factor will be who wins by the most." I give a mischievous smile.

"Yeah, so don't get your hopes up." He retorts back.

"Sorry to burst your bubble but we're going to win!" I chime, stepping backwards from him but he pulls me in closer.

"We'll see about that." He whispers huskily into my ear.

Oh lord.

I squeal and push him away.