Never Said I Didn't Chapter 22

Chapter 22

I’m up, and Jasper hands me the yellow plastic kids’ bat. Bella took the other team, the traitor, and pitches the wiffle ball right at my head. The ref, Alice, is sitting behind me eating a bag of chips, staying dry, laughing.

“You gonna call anything here? A warning? Something?”

“Nah, you deserved it.”

“For what?” I bellow.

She shrugs. “Being pretty?” I can’t believe I’m going to have to spend time with her in college.

I hmph and return my attention to my girl who is cackling at something the first baseman said. It’s some guy I don’t know, wearing a wet, white undershirt that’s clinging to him. I hold the bat between my knees and pull my shirt off. I gotta compete somehow with this tool.

“Nice, dong, Cullen.” Alice. She is so annoying. How anyone in student government ever listened to her is beyond me.

Once she sees the bat’s placement, Bella belly laughs, doubling over, clutching her stomach. Well, she was a good girlfriend before we got here.

I pull the bat from my thighs and point it straight at her. It’s coming to you, Bella, that’s right. I situate myself, and just as she releases the ball, a stream of water hits me right in the crotch. It reaches high around my back and crashes down on my head, soaking me. I swing when I think the ball’s in the right spot and take off to first.

I have no idea where the ball is, but I know I connected. I run like hell. I can’t stop laughing because Bella’s shrieking orders at her lame-ass team, and I’m barreling them down as I round second, then third, sliding as I go as though the ground’s covered in slippery moss.

I head home. A sharp spray hits my face—someone’s aiming one of the toys directly at me to destroy my vision—but I don’t play light ever. I play hard and run through it.

As I reach home, Bella slams into me, taking us both down. She’s on top of me, her front pressed to my back, and everyone is shouting and laughing at us. I turn beneath her, capturing her in a kiss. Her smile’s touching mine when I’m done. She doesn’t even have the ball. “You’re safe. Baseball players are nuts,” Alice says.