Trailer Girl | 1

nine

"You'd rather risk losing your friend?"

"John's a dick too, and I don't see you rushing to get him out of your life for good." She argues.

"My dad doesn't do this to me." Miller tells her, looking at the light bruise on her cheek. "He's hit me when we were training, but he's never beaten me to the point that I had to lie about where the bruises came from. He doesn't physically abuse me like your father does."

"I don't want to talk about this." She says as she lays on her back again. "And I don't have to explain myself to you. Don't worry about me and Eric. Everything's fine."

Letty goes to Eric's house after school the next day, and she's not exactly in the best mood after having seen him making out with some girl up against the lockers. But she made a promise, and she intends to keep it. Plus, she knows it'll put her in a better mood.

As soon as the brunette walks in the front door at the Matthews' house, she sees Eric laughing at Cory. "No, I'm totally in my mind." The younger boy insists, making his brother laugh even more.

"Yeah, one of the best pitchers in major league baseball is in our house." Eric's nodding as he speaks sarcastically.

Mr. Matthews walks in from the kitchen then, and he's not alone as he enters the living room, looking at his sons. "Guys, somebody here I'd like you to meet." He tells his boys, and Jim Abbott walks in behind him.

Letty looks over at the two boys and chuckles at the stunned looks on their faces. And then the phone falls out of Eric's hand, landing on the couch cushion.

"Oh my God, Mr. Matthews, I think you killed 'em." Letty muses, and Jim chuckles as he looks over at the brunette.

"Cory, Eric — wouldn't you like to meet Jim Abbott?" Their father asks, but they still just sit there and stare at the man.

"Hey, if they don't — can I?"

Jim takes a step forward then, offering the teenage girl his hand. "It's nice to meet you. Are you a fan..." He trails off, not having caught her name.

"Letty." She tells him, reaching out to shake his hand. "Not as big a fan as they are, apparently, but I've been watching baseball since I was little. My friends and I have always been big fans of the Phillies."

The two boys suddenly start screaming, and Letty jumps as she turns to look at them. Cory runs around the couch as his brother quickly gets to his feet.

"Hi, guys." Jim steps forward, moving to shake Eric's hand. "How are you doing? You must be Cory." He turns to the younger boy, shaking his hand as well.

"I'm whoever you want me to be." Cory says, a wide smile on his face.

"Your dad's told me a lot about you." He says as Eric suddenly pulls Letty to his side. He's still excited, and trying not to freak out.

The teenage girl chuckles as she looks up at her best friend, turning her body so that she's facing him. Her fingers curl around the buttons on the open flannel that he's wearing, and his hand balls up into a fist around her shirt as it rests on her lower back.

"He has?" Cory asks, still wide-eyed with surprise. "But how did he— How did Dad— Why are you in my house?"

"Cory, don't bug the man with a lot of little boy questions." Eric speaks up, gaining Jim's attention. "So, Jim, why are you in our house?" He asks, making his voice sound deeper, and the brunette at his side turns her head and buries her face in his shoulder so she won't laugh at him.

"Well, I heard that Cory here wants to be in the big leagues someday." Jim says, looking back at the younger of the two Matthews boys.

"Who, me? Nah, stupid idea." Cory shakes his head, still looking up at the pro baseball player that he idolizes. "I gave up on that. Guys like me don't make it to the majors."

"As much as I'd love to stick around down here," Letty looks up at Eric again, gaining his attention. "I promised I'd paint with Morgan after my shift today. She wants me to teach her how to make a rose." She tells him, and he nods as he reluctantly lets go of her.

"She's in her room." Eric says, and she offers him a small smile before moving away from him.

A little while later, the teenage boy makes his way upstairs, and he hears Letty trying to tell Morgan that her painting does look as good as the one that she made. She's trying to explain that it just takes some practice, and Letty's been doing it a lot longer than the little one.

"Well, I think it's beautiful." Eric says as he kneels down in front of the girls, and his sister looks up at him.

"You do?" Morgan asks, and he nods.

"Of course I do." He smiles. "Yours looks different than Letty's, but that just makes it unique. And there's nothing cooler than that."

"Really?"

"You don't want to be like everyone else, do you?" Letty asks her. "Then everyone's roses would look the same. And that's no fun."

"I wanna go show Mommy!"

"Be careful with the paint!" The brunette calls after her as she runs out of the room, and Eric chuckles as he looks down at his best friend.

"How's it going, Picasso?" He asks, and she takes a deep breath as she gets to her feet.

"We're gonna need a bigger tarp next time, that's for sure." She tells him, and he smiles as he looks at her. "But it was fun. And I think I did okay."

"Yeah?"

"I'm more of a sketchpad kind of amateur artist." She nods. "But still, it's decent." Letty says as she looks at the painting in her hand. 

"I think it looks great." He tells her as he looks down at the single red rose on the white page. It has small thorns on the green stem; he likes the smaller details that she added to her painting.

"It's yours." She holds the paper out toward him, and he takes it.

"Are you sure?" Eric asks, and she nods.

"With Morgan's interest piqued, I'm seeing a lot of roses in my future." The brunette says, and he smiles as he looks at it. "Maybe I'll see if I can get her out of her Belle obsession just long enough to paint a daisy...or a sunflower. She likes yellow, doesn't she?"

"You really like art, don't you?" He asks as his gaze returns to her, and she nods.

"I do, yeah. It's a good distraction, and sometimes I get to make something I'm actually kinda proud of." She tells him.

"You should be proud. It's beautiful." Eric says, and she smiles as she looks up at him.