Treasuring Trayce

Chapter 25

Trayce's POV:

I watch as the baseball springs from the machine and time my swing in coordination to smack it towards the left side of the batting cage.

I've lost track of how long I've been doing this but that's none of my concern. All I'm focused on is the next pitch. Nothing else. No one else. Just the next pitch.

"Oh hey buffalo" I hear a voice suddenly say behind me causing me to loose my steady focus. My bat connects with the ball at a weird angle ricocheting it straight into my shin.

Ouch.

I limp over to turn off the machine before turning around and facing a smiling Corey.

What does he want now?

"What're you doing here so early?" Corey asks with furrowed eyebrows. As I walk out of the cage and over to the hitting tee I sharply reply, "I could ask you the same thing."

Corey playfully rolls his eyes with a wide smile still plastered on his smug little face and says, "Very funny Trayce. I just got here but it looks like you've been at it for a while, is everything okay?"

Is he serious right now?

"Oh I'm dandy thanks for asking" I dismissively reply and start to hit some balls into the net. The room goes quiet aside from the rhythmic sounds of our bats connecting with the baseballs. We work diligently on our own batting and I couldn't be more thankful for the silence.

"So how've you been man I haven't really seen you lately. You're like never home" Corey states mid swing, breaking the sweet silence.

Oh no I'm home! Just avoiding you!

Despite what I really want to say, I awkwardly resort too, "Urm...I've been here a lot. Getting in some extra work, taking my mind off of things."

Corey continues to hack away at the steadily projecting baseballs and asks, "Like what?"

Can't we just go back to the peaceful quiet-time?!

I huff in both annoyance and frustration and passively state, "Oh you know! The usual, loosing a great friend of mine-"

*cough* *cough* love of my life *cough* *cough*

"-but that's no big deal don't worry about it." Corey lets out a heavy sigh and walks over to turn off the machine before turning back to me and saying, "Trayce I think it's best that we clear the air here."

I shake my head knowing that I'm being utterly unreasonable and that I caused this mess myself. "No Corey it's really fine there's nothing to clear" I state in defeat.

He walks over to me and states, "But there clearly is. I miss being friends Trayce. It's like whenever we're near each other things get tense and you always walk into another room."

I look up to see Corey's saddened eyes and my face falls in guilt. "I know and I'm sorry it's just been kinda...difficult lately but I miss being friends too."

That well known Seager smile pops right back into place and he joyfully says, "Awesome! How're things going with Rebecca? Or Becky was it? I kinda forgot."

Who?

Ohhhh the weird girl from he gala who couldn't get my name right.