Chapter 5

Sunday, October Twelfth/Monday, October Thirteenth

Game Four

Sunday afternoon, right around noontime, I got a call from my Mom in Medford. She told me it was raining there-that there was a chance the game that night might be canceled. This wasn't entirely unwelcome news; not having to pitch John Burkett, who's never beaten the Yankees in his career, would be a good thing.

A few hours after I got off the phone with Mom, there was a knock on my door. I went to open it. It was Melanie.

"What the hell do you want?" I blurted out.

"Well," she said with a coy little grin, backing me into the room, "I thought you might be up for round two."

"You are kidding, right?"

"No, why would I?"

"Look, I made this mistake once. I'm not going to make it again."

"Why was it a mistake?" she asked innocently. "I had a very good time. I thought you did, too."

"Oh, you know damn well why it was a mistake," I spat out. "You go to bed with me, and you couldn't wait to tell Callie, could you?"

"I told her how good you were. Figured it might make her wake up."

"You're full of shit. I don't know what kind of game you're playing, Melanie, but you're playing one."

"The only game I'm playing, Mitchell Zarelli, is sex. I like sex. I found out the other day that you're good at it."

"Well, you're going to have to find someone else that's good at it. Look, me sleeping with you hurt Callie badly."

"That's her problem, Mitch! How many fucking opportunities has she had with you? You're turning down sex because of misguided loyalty to a girl who is not only out of her fucking mind, but also treats you like shit. You're her 'friend'--which means you're the one that squires her little Princessness around when she's in between boyfriends. What do you get out of it?"

"It's not a question of what I get out of it," I sighed. "It's a question of what's in my heart. I can't hurt Callie."

"You didn't think of that on Friday."

"You're right, I didn't, and I was wrong. I didn't think that she'd be upset-I should have."

"WHY?" she howled. "Her being upset was completely irrational!"

"Not completely," I contended. "If you weren't her best friend, yes. She's confused, I know that. But I can see some of it. Look, it's just a bad idea."

She just looked at me and shook her head. "You're as crazy as she is." Then she turned to leave-and that's when we both noticed. We'd never closed the door when she came into the room. And there, standing in the hallway, was Callie.

Melanie blanched for a second, then regained her composure. "So, you saw?" she said to Callie. "You saw him get all noble? On your behalf, remember. And what are you going to do about it? My guess is you're going to stomp all over his heart, just like you've been doing for a year." She snorted. "You two deserve each other." Then she was gone.

Callie stood there for a minute, just looking at me. I waved her into the room. She entered, and closed the door behind her. "I saw her," Callie said hesitantly, "leaving her room. I saw how she was dressed." Mel had been dressed to kill-and definitely dressed to turn a guy on. "I just knew she was coming down here. I followed her. I figured you two would, you know... again. So I followed her." She let out a bitter little laugh. "Don't ask me what I was going to do if I found you two together." She looked up at me, a pathetic look on her face. "Thank you," she whispered. "And I'm sorry."

"For what, and for what?"

"Well, thank you for not. You know. With Melanie." She took a breath. "And I'm sorry for overreacting in the first place-it's true, I don't have any claim on you, and you should sleep with whoever you want. I'm sorry that I spied on you today. And I'm sorry I've been such a bitch."

"You're not a bitch," I protested.

"I realized something. After the other day. I was upset for a lot of reasons, but mostly because you let me down. Now, that's because I was holding you to an impossible standard. But, what I realized afterwards, was that this was the first time you've ever even come close to letting me down. I've known you for over a year, and not once, in all that time, have you treated me like anything other than gold." She looked down. "Which is what I'm most sorry about. Taking you for granted."

I didn't know what to say to that, but that was OK, because she wasn't done. "I don't know if I can ever be what you want me to be. But I do not want to lose your friendship. That's too important to me." She looked up at me. "And Melanie was right. I was going to try something underhanded to get out of sleeping with you if you won the bet. I'm not going to do that. I promise. If you win, I'll go through with it-and let the chips fall where they may."

"Callie? Why does it bother you so much?"

She gave me a sad little smile. "That is a long involved story that really doesn't have a lot to do with you. Well, it does, but not really. I know I'm not making much sense." She inhaled deeply. "Maybe someday I'll tell you. And maybe someday I'll get over it. But not right now. OK?"

"OK," I said. "You hungry?"

"Famished," she said.

"Let's get some dinner. And I don't mean dorm food, either."

"Great idea!"

We went out to eat, keeping the conversation light and easy, away from any explosive topics. We enjoyed each other's company immensely-like we always did.

When we got back, we found out the game had, indeed, been canceled due to rain. Callie said, "Well, might as well catch up on studying." She left, and I did study, feeling a little better.

Callie was at my door at noon the next day. It was a holiday, Columbus Day, so there were no classes. "Lunch?" she said as I opened the door. We went, ate, then returned to my room.

We chatted for a while, again about normal everyday stuff, then she brought it up.

"You showed me something yesterday," she started.

"Huh?"

"You showed me something." She swallowed hard. "Look, it's true. I have no claims on you. But you still turned Mel down, out of consideration for me." She got a disgusted look on her face. "I've known guys that wouldn't have turned her down if we were fucking engaged."

"You don't trust guys much, do you?"

"Try not at all." She looked down. "Listen. I was thinking about what Tim said the other day-about girls keeping guys at arms' length if they don't turn the girl on, even if everything else works. I think he's got a point. However, I don't think it really applies to me. And I know it doesn't apply to us specifically. Look, you know what I was like around here last year. I was basically a bedhopper."

"I didn't think it was that bad."

"Well, in seeing how I reacted to you and Mel-well, I was thinking that me jumping from bed to bed must have hurt you. But I didn't figure out how you felt about me until the year was almost over."

"I know that."

"Oh. OK. Well, anyway, I wasn't turning sex down last year, not much. So, you see-the criteria for a guy making my panties wet, as Tim put it, are probably much more forgiving than most girls. It's not that I don't want to go to bed with you. It was never that." She took a breath. "Have you ever had a relationship?"

"Two," I told her.

"OK. I've had three. I wasn't a bedhopper until I got here. Before last year, in high school, I'd been to bed with three guys, and I was in relationships with every single one of them. The first one was sophomore year. We went out for six months. He got my virginity. Once he got that, he lost interest. The second one, I went out with for most of junior year, and into that summer. Him I caught in bed with my best friend."