the rookie | andrew benintendi

xiii | high school

"We'll see you guys soon, right?" Andrew questioned, looking over at Luke. Luke and Luna were on there way out to the airport, as they were flying back home that afternoon.

"Yeah, of course," Luke said, running a hand through his dirty blonde hair. "Thanks for letting us stay here, Ari. My little sister is going to die when she finds out we were staying with you."

Ari laughed. "No problem. Tell her I said hi."

He smiled. "I will."

"Thanks again, Ari," Luna said, smiling at Ari. After Andrew had talked to her, she had become more friendly and Ari had begun to enjoy her company. She suspected Luna knew about Ari and Andrew, but if she did she hadn't said anything about it. "Hopefully when we visit again you'll let us stay here."

"Yeah, of course," Ari said. "You're always welcome."

"We really appreciate it," Luke said. "We should go. We want plenty of time to get on our flight."

Luna nodded, picking up her bag. "We'll see you soon," she told them.

"Have a safe flight," Andrew said, closing the door behind Luke and Luna. As soon as the door was shut, Ari sighed.

"Finally," she muttered, kissing Andrew's cheek before walking off to the living room.

Andrew chuckled before following her. He sat down on the couch next to her, wincing slightly at the pain in his knee as she flipped through the channels. Once she had decided on one, she looked over at him, having noticed his pained expression.

"How does it feel?" she questioned, leaning into his side.

"It's alright," he responded, wrapping an arm around her waist. "It still hurts, but it's getting better. Hopefully, I'll be able to start exercising soon."

"Yeah," Ari agreed with a sigh. "Y'know, I wish we could tell others about us. God, my mom would be over the moon if she found out. I haven't had a boyfriend since middle school, and those aren't even real relationships."

"Really?" Andrew questioned. "I thought you would have been in a different relationship at one point."

"It was part of the not dating teammate's thing. People in high school either loved me or hated me for playing baseball. I never really felt comfortable dating anyone when that happened," she explained. "I was focused on proving myself, not on relationships that probably won't last."

"Yeah, that makes sense." He reached up, running a hand through his hair. "I had a girlfriend junior year. We were together for a few months, but it wasn't very serious. We both agreed to just be friends."

Ari laughed, his words reminding him of someone. "Oh my god, I had almost forgotten about Jack," she said, hiding her face in her hands for a moment as she laughed before looking up at Andrew. "I grew up playing baseball with this guy, Jack Ulrich. We played baseball together in middle school, but he was a year above me so we only played a season together before he graduated. We kept in touch and he was so excited when I finally got to high school. He made me work out with him every day before the season started and we got really close because of it.

"Freshman year, just a day or two before baseball tryouts, I got hurt. It was so stupid. I was playing soccer inside with my sister, which was a horrible idea in the first place, but I ended up losing my toenail." Andrew visibly winced at the thought. "It was the most painful thing I've ever experienced, and I missed the whole season because of it. Jack begged and begged our coach, but was only able to convince him to let me manage, which of course I agreed to do.

"One day the team was joking around about prom because it was that weekend and some of the guys were still trying to find dates. Jake told me that the next year when he was a junior and I was a sophomore, he would take me to prom. None of us thought there were any feelings involved in the statement so it became an inside joke.

"Halfway through my sophomore year, Jake pulls me aside after a workout. Now, Jake had taken a shower so he at least looked presentable but I looked horrible. My hair was a mess and it was sticking to my skin because of the sweat and it was just gross but anyway he pulls me aside, looks me dead in the eye, and says, "I think I'm in love with you." Now I'm standing here and I can literally feel sweat rolling down my neck as I stand there, staring at him. It was the most awkward thing I have ever experienced besides a teammate walking in on me but that's a whole other story.

"Anyway, I eventually told him that we should just stay friends because obviously, I didn't have feelings for him. He understood and things luckily weren't awkward after that. So, the few weeks before prom rolls around and my teammates were being suspicious at practice. I could tell they were hiding something from me but I had absolutely no clue what it was.

"After practice, I pack up my things in the dugout and I turn around and five of my teammates are holding up signs saying "Prom?" and Jake is standing in front of them with a huge smile on his face. So I walk towards him and he holds me a piece of paper that made all these references to how we were just going as friends, and I swear it used the word 'friend' about thirty times.

"For some reason, I found this hilarious. I was laughing for a good minute or two before I could even give him an answer. Of course, I said yes and we did end up going together that year and the next, but not before the friend thing became a joke on the team."

"Have you kept in touch with him?" Andrew asked after she had completed her long story.

She shook her head. "Nope. We lost touch when he graduated. I think he's in the Rays organization."

"So he must have been good in high school, then," Andrew said.

"Yeah, he was," Ari answered, smiling. "He was the best player on our team, though he always told me that I was way better than him."

Andrew hummed, nodding. "He seems like a nice guy."

"He really is."

That afternoon, when Ari scrolled through Instagram while in the locker room waiting for their last game against the Kansas City Royals, she saw a post that almost made her drop her phone. Andrew, who noticed this, looking over at her.

"Jake just got called up."

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the injury thing was actually something that happened to my dad in his freshman year of high school lmao

11.02.17