Chapter 23

Andres
He came out of his room to head to class. Mason was standing in the hall, clad only in his underwear. His hair looked like he’d gone ten rounds with a weed whacker and lost.

“What are you doing?” Andres asked.

Mason reached for the wall to steady himself.

“Apparently, that last shot last night was a mistake,” Mason shared as he locked his jaw and sucked in a long breath. As he slowly let it out, he repeatedly mumbled, “I will not throw up.”

“Fuck,” Andres grumbled.

“What crawled up your ass?” Mason asked as he stood straight up and sucked in a deep breath through his nose.

“The coaches pulled me in yesterday. The team meeting I called was to give the team a heads-up that they’re going to come down on everyone if they don’t start following the team rules. Your little impromptu party last night couldn’t have come at a worse time.”

“Who’s going to tell them? You?” Mason asked as his lips twisted into an expression that could be called a smile but wasn’t. It was too smug and self-assured.

A rising tide of self-loathing and disgust overcame Andres. For the past couple of years, he and Mason had been a team, sort of the Butch and Sundance of debauchery. Mason compared them to Vikings. They lived to drink, fuck, and fight. A part of Andres wished he’d gone out last night, but that damned Dawson had gotten into his head.

“Crystal was there last night,” Mason said to pull him out of his thoughts. “And she was looking hot as fuck.”

“Did you talk to her? Did she ask about me?” Andres asked in rapid succession.

“She was telling everyone that her new boy toy had messed up. The word is that if he doesn’t straighten up, she’ll be looking for a replacement. Last I saw, some Sig Ep was chatting her up.”

“You didn’t answer my questions,” Andres said.

“I talked to her,” Mason said as he ran his fingers through his hair.

“Did she ask about me?”

Mason’s cocky grin was back.

“She asked about Dawson. She wanted to know why he wasn’t out with the team. I told her that the Boy Scout was with you doing some kind of circle jerk.”

Andres didn’t believe that for a minute. Mason was just playing with him. Andres felt like he had no control when it came to Crystal. He’d never wanted a woman as badly as he did her. All that let him make a fool of himself in front of Mason was knowing that when it came down to it, Mason would have his back.

“Look,” Andres said to get back on the topic of baseball. “The coaches are laying down the law this afternoon. You need to cool it for a while. If not, they’re talking about playing the younger guys to begin a rebuild.”

“Fuck that. I’ve never seen a coach not play his best players. Just relax. It’ll be fine,” Mason predicted.

“I’m telling you. Cool it. I want to get a minor league contract, not go home and move into my parents’ basement,” Andres said to paint a picture.

“You’ll be fine,” Mason said dismissively.

“I was told that there’ll be scouts at our upcoming games.”

“Bullshit. Why would we have scouts?”

“Dawson. Did you know he was drafted last year?”

“And he didn’t take it?” Mason asked with utter disbelief dripping from his lips.

“I know, right? Imagine making another movie for tens of millions instead of signing a minor-league contract with the Twins for a pittance. Where’s his sense of priority, huh?” Andres said, his voice filled with sarcasm. Then he collected himself.

“What his decision will do is give us a shot at catching on somewhere after college. When the scouts are here to look at him again, they’ll see us, too. We need to get our shit together,” Andres all but pleaded.

“Our shit is together.”

Andres felt like he was beating his head against a brick wall.

As Andres finished his morning classes and headed to lunch, the news of Matt and Crystal’s breakup had spread like pinkeye. He knew the few places where she usually had lunch and wanted to check to make sure she was okay. At least, that was his cover story.

He found her in an overpriced place that claimed their food was locally sourced, which was total bullshit because they were in the middle of LA. Their interpretation of ‘local’ stretched the limits of his belief. He was able to snag the table right behind her so he could eavesdrop on her conversation.

Crystal was trying to eat her lunch when a fraternity guy showed up.

“Hey, Babe. I hear you’re back on the market.”

Instantly, Andres’s douchebag radar was going off.

“Matt and I had a little disagreement,” Crystal conceded.

“While you guys are having your disagreement, why don’t you and I hook up?”

Andres was about to get up and karate-chop the frat boy in the liver when his thought was interrupted.

“Thanks for grabbing us a table.”

The douchebag, Andres, and Crystal all turned to see who’d said that when David Dawson sat down with her. He looked at the frat boy and nodded.

“Sup.”

Andres held in a chuckle when Skippy saw his competition.

“Call me,” was the frat boy’s parting shot as he scurried off with his tail between his legs.

David winked at Andres before Crystal turned back.

“This isn’t a good idea. Matt won’t be happy if he hears we had lunch together,” Crystal said.

David laughed. It was apparent he wasn’t worried about Matt.

“You have it all wrong. Having lunch with me will help you get Matt in line quicker than anything else. If he thinks I’m making a play for you, he’ll deliver his balls in a velvet bag to win you back. Then you can call off this faux breakup and stop the drama you’re causing.”

“You seem to think you have me figured out,” Crystal fired back.

Andres could tell by her tone that she was starting to get mad. But David just shrugged it off.

“I would never venture to guess what’s going on in any female’s head. They constantly confuse me,” he said. Then he contemplated what to say next before adding, “For example, you had a perfectly good man in my boy Andres, yet you dumped him for Matt. Why was that?”

“It’s complicated,” Crystal said, trying to evade his question.

“I’m smart enough to keep up.”

Andres sat forward, eager to hear her response.

“You’re on the baseball team. You know how bad they are. While I like Andres, I just don’t see him going anywhere. I don’t want to end up married with four kids to some guy who’s the assistant manager at a local auto parts store.”

That hit a little too close to home for Andres. His uncle owned an auto parts store, and he’d told Crystal that he worked there during summers to make extra cash.

“And you think Matt is the better catch?” David asked with a knowing look that made her hesitate before answering.

“Why wouldn’t he be? Matt will be the starting quarterback next year. In a couple of years, he’ll be in the NFL.”

“I’ll let you in on a little secret,” David said, leaning in close to Crystal. “Our baseball team had a bad outing, I’ll admit. Some internal team issues will get ironed out. When that’s done, we will win, and Andres will play professional ball.”

“That may be, but Matt looks like the safe bet right now,” Crystal said.

“Looks can be deceiving,” David said with a raised eyebrow, which earned him a hard look from Crystal.

“Are you telling me that you plan to try to unseat Matt at quarterback?”

That brought a glint to David’s eyes. Andres knew the guy was competitive. If nothing else, David had to know she would go tell Matt.

“I didn’t say any such thing. All I said was that I thought you would be better off chasing Andres than Matt,” David said. He finished his lunch and left.

’Nice,’ Andres thought. David had sidestepped her accusation with ease and had put in a good word for him. Andres mentally noted that he owed David now. It might be a big one if he started dating Crystal again.

David had left Crystal deep in thought, so Andres decided he’d better go before she saw that he’d been listening to their conversation. When he got outside, he saw David leaning against the wall, looking at something on his phone, obviously waiting for him.

“Thanks, man,” Andres said when he caught up with David.

“I personally think that Crystal is a mistake you got lucky to dodge, but I get the whole ‘the heart wants what the heart wants’ thing. Besides, you would never listen to me.”

“I look at it as ‘Crystal knows what she wants and is brave enough to go for it,’” Andres said.

“Okay.” With just that one word, David made it clear that he thought Andres was crazy. “I have to get going. My personal trainer gets mean if I’m late, and I want to be able to walk tomorrow.”

“I’m headed in the other direction. I’m going to talk to the coaches and then get in some batting practice. I’ll see you later.”