CHAPTER TWO: ONE JOB
"ONE JOB, CABRERA," Anthony seethed, gripping his phone a little tighter as he held it up to his ear.
He sat on his bed, surrounded by his batting gloves, bats, and other things he was supposed to have in his bag so he could get to the training facility on time to hear last minute speeches that were thrown together for them because the owners wanted to keep them engaged.
"It's not my fault she hates you," Oswaldo replied calmly. "You're the one that messed that up."
Anthony would never admit it, but Oswaldo was by far his best friend. He had no idea why the two of them got along so well, especially after Oswaldo had heard Val, Lila, and Alix's side of the infamous story, but somehow they did.
They could stay up for hours eating pizza and playing FIFA but they could also talk about the meaning of life or ex-girlfriends, and then go right back to eating pizza and playing FIFA.
"One fucking job," he muttered, running a hand through his hair.
"Watch it, I'm your only friend."
"I have a lot of friends," Anthony argued.
"No you don't," Oswaldo said. "Let's be honest here, I'm your best friend."
"One job, Cabrera," Anthony repeated.
"Do you know how much I'm risking just talking to you?"
"Don't start that again," Anthony groaned, flopping back onto his bed. "Lila and Alix don't hate me that much."
"Yes they do," his friend told him. "They hate you a lot. I'd say out of the three of them, Val hates you the least."
"You're a gem, Cabrera," he snarked sarcastically.
"Even Kristin and Xandra hate you," Oswaldo went on, completely ignoring Anthony's previous comment.
"And I hate you."
"Shouldn't you bet at the stadium already?" he asked. "Aren't the managers, Stanton, and Judge coming today?"
"Yeah, to give us some bullshit speech about..." Anthony trailed off, trying to remember what the purpose was the visit for. "Bullshit, probably."
"Ward doesn't do bullshit," Oswaldo assured him.
"The others?"
"Have fun small fry."
"Cabrera-" Oswaldo hung up before Anthony could even let out the string of curse words he had prepared.
ೃ⁀➷ ANTHONY VOLPE
_____
"So what if I asked Oswaldo to talk to Val?" Anthony placed his hands on his knees and leaned forward on the couch to stare at the camera.
The two had met in the minors, before Oswaldo had met Lila or Val, and they had instantly connected for no reason other then the fact that could evenly match each other in FIFA
"She has me blocked on everything, but I know she talks shit about me," he said, face falling just a little when the words came out of his mouth. "People don't know it's me she's talking about, but I know, because, well, it's obvious but that's not the point!"
He clapped his hands together and glanced down at his phone.
"So yeah, I offered Oswaldo Cabrera 200 dollars to get my ex to like me again, what's wrong with that?"
Nobody said anything as he considered his words again.
"So much is wrong with that," he muttered to himself.
It was his fault, and he knew it. But he couldn't let her go.
Not after all the things they had together.
"Uh, Boone, and Judge, and other Judge, and Stanton are coming in today," he sputtered out as a way to change the subject quickly, the corner of his lips tugging at a smile. "I think they want to inspire us, and maybe it'll be fun. I'm really excited to meet Judge. Oswaldo says he's cool and he also says it's really easy to get him to like you. He'll like me. Everybody likes me."
Except Val, Lila, Alix, and their army of blondes.
All in good time.
_____
"I HATE KIDS," Luce muttered, tucking a piece of short brown hair behind her ear.
"I don't know if that's a good thing to be hearing you, but ok," Giancarlo joked. "And they're not kids."
"Fuck you."
The trio, plus Boone, was sitting in an old office in the Triple AAA facility, waiting for the players to show up. None of them wanted to be there, but Cashman wanted them to inspire players, because apparently playing in the minors for the New York Yankees wasn't enough for them.
"I'm only here because Cashbitch and the whore want me to figure out what players to invite to camp," Luce said. "I should be sleeping, not here, in heels, and a suit, talking to morons who just learned to swing a fucking bat."
"He wants us to inspire them, to be their best," Boone said.
"Yeah," Aaron said and nodded in agreement. "It's important to make sure that the youth-"
"If you say inspire one more time I will slit your throat," Luce said with a fake smile.
"Fair enough," Boone agreed with a nod.
"Good answer."
The door to the room opened and one of the secretaries walked in.
"They're ready for you now," she said while a smile that wasn't returned by anybody else in the room.
Aaron got up, helped his wife to her feet, and walked out to meet his new little brother.
🌺 🌊🥂
╰┈➤ ❝ LOTTIE'S NOTES ❞
plot stuff (yay) and fun stuff for me (yay).
i hate this but idrc bc i'm me, soooooo...
also if you watched the video above, baby g looks jus like big g. like that eyebrow raise is identical.
anywaysss, hope you enjoyed!
comment and vote!
love ya,
- lottie.
published: 6/12/23
republished: 8/23/23