Full Count (The Catcher Series Book 1) (5 page)

            “Why?” I groan as everything goes pitch black again
after he tightens his shirt around my head once more.

            “Because. I want you to do this a few times so it
’
s ingrained in your brain and muscle memory,” he coaches me.

            “Sky, why did you scream like that?” I beg to know if
I am really that God forsaken awful or if I amaze him. I just want to hear him
say something real.

            “Throw it again first, then I
’
ll
tell you,” he bargains.

            “Fine,” I agree.
Feet set. Catcher
’
s glove. seventh inning. Sky sitting behind the
backstop.

           
Then I hear the same gunshot sound as the ball
hits his glove again. “Damn, girl,” Skyler exclaims. I assume he is bringing
the ball back to me to throw again, but instead he lifts his shirt from around
my head and stands directly above me. I can feel and partially see his warm
breath clouding as he pierces me with his passionate eyes.
Breathe, Bianca.
“That…
was fucking incredible,” he convinces me.

            “It was?” I reply shakily, trying not to break eye
contact with him. This is the closest we have been since the night we got
caught at the high dive at the lake, and I don
’
t want to
move. He just helped me accomplish something in a half hour that would
’
ve taken me weeks or months with multiple coaches yelling
orders at me. All he had me do was think. Or not think. Just focus. He never
even specified what needs to be in my focus. I suppose it doesn
’
t
matter, as long as it
’
s something.

            “It was,” Skyler confirms, still not moving from
being centimeters away from me. “But you gotta practice doing this at least
once a week.”

            “
Blindfolded?
” I want to know.
No one, not even my dad, will see that as rational. He will never let me do an
exercise like that where I can
’
t see and he has a chance
of getting hurt.

            “Yes. And I can tell by the look on your face that
you think I
’
m crazy, but I
’
m not. I
’
ll do this with you if you want, but if that
’
s
what you choose, we have to keep it a secret,” he explains.

            “Why?”
I question him.

            “Because I don
’
t want anyone
telling you to stop doing it,” he tells me. “Deal?”

            I reach out, and we shake hands as I reply, “You
realize your family is going to lose the Battle of the Kids for sure now,
right? Rex
’
s brains and both of our athletic abilities.”

            “Only you guys act like that
’
s a
real thing,”
Skyler snarks at me.

            As the year goes on, Skyler and Rex attend all the
high school football games, dances, and baseball team socials. I still meet
with Skyler to practice our unique pitching technique, even in the winter; we
just move it from the park to the local YMCA. Rex started dating the girl who
went to homecoming with him, Leah Treadway, and she
’
s
constantly trying to set Skyler up with any of her friends so they can
double-date when Rex frees himself from working on projects or tutoring people
at school. None of them have their licenses yet, but we all live close enough
to each other that everyone just walks wherever they want to go. Our little
downtown is even close enough.

            Whenever I know ahead of time that a new foursome
will be hanging out at our house, I always either hide upstairs or beeline for
the park, downtown, or Tiffany
’
s house. The only reason I
’
m jealous is because I feel like I
’
m
losing my best friend and brother to a set of high school girls, which is
actually what is happening. It used to be the three of
us
, and now it
’
s the four of
them
.

4 Skyler Swanson

By the spring formal I
’
m already fucking
sick of the girls Leah and Alex keep bringing around for me. They
’
re
all stupid and fake. While they
’
re excited to attend the
formal, I am not. I don
’
t even want to go at all, and I
will do my best to get out of it completely.

            “You
’
re bailing on us?” Benny
asks one night when we
’
re at his house watching a movie.

            “It
’
s a fucking dance. Wanting
to not go is not bailing. Are you a fucking girl?” I yell as I stare at the TV
screen instead of the two sets of eyes glaring at me.

            “What are you going to do instead?” he wonders,
probably because he partially wants to join me in my master plan of not
pleasing girls by attending stupid fucking dances.

            “
I don’
t know yet, but anything
sounds better than going to another dance,” I snicker.

            Leah doesn
’
t
like this idea when Alex tells her, so she introduces me to one of her friends
from another school across town. A group of us are hanging out at the girl
’
s house the night before the dance, about to go in her hot tub
in her backyard, when the beaming brunette walks outside in a black and green
bikini. All of us guys (except for Alex who somehow has an on and off switch,
at least when he
’
s around Leah) turn all of our attention
on her as she smooths her silky caramel hair back into a ponytail while looking
at her reflection in the glass door. As half of her ass cheeks show from her
skimpy bottoms, I notice her perfectly even tan that must be a result of spring
break and her body that looks like years in the making. She has to be a athlete
wherever she goes to school. I didn
’
t realize I
’
m apparently attracted to a certain type of girl until today.
Her and Buzz both fit into my Fuck Me Now Club.

            When she approaches the hot tub, everyone moves to
make room for her as I stand up and reach out my hand to escort her inside like
I
’
m Prince Charming in a horse carriage. “The name
’
s Skyler,” I say desperately. Leah just walked us around back
and texted her friend we were here, so our introduction is a little out of
order since I
’
m already in her hot tub.

            “Makenna Wayland,” she replies with a rasp in her
voice. My immediate thought is that she better not smoke. Sitting down beside
me in the boiling water, she slides her hand onto my thigh.
Whoa.
“So
you
’
re the famous Skyler?”

           
What the fuck? She knows we aren
’
t alone right? I mean, this hot tub is at capacity.
“Famous?”
I chuckle, glancing at Leah knowing that she obviously talked me up to this
girl. I try to play it as cool as apparently Leah made me sound. “Yeah, I guess
you could say that.”

            “He
’
s not usually this
conceited,” Leah tries telling her.

            “Yeah, he
’
s usually worse,” Benny
mumbles, and everyone erupts in laughter.

            “I
’
ve heard all about him,” her
voice trails off but her eyes remain on my chiseled chest. She
’
s
making my body heat more than the hot tub. Usually I don
’
t
mind being devoured like a shoe sale at the mall, but the way Makenna is
looking at me is like a lion preying on a piece of meat, just waiting for the
right time to pounce and tear it up. I have to admit I
’
m a
little turned on.

            Within a few minutes she tones it down, and after
about a half hour of us cooking like noodles, we escape into her basement to
dry off and change. When I open the guest bedroom door, I see a girl changing
across the room.

            “Sorry!” I call as I slam the door shut to wait for
her to come out.
Why didn
’
t she lock it?

            A few seconds later the door opens again, and I
’
m pulled inside. Makenna is in her silky bra and thong
underwear as she closes the door and locks it behind her.
I guess she wanted
me to walk in on her.

            “No need to apologize,” she beams. Before I can even
make my next move, her hand around my neck pulls us together. I
’
ve
only kissed two other girls before Makenna, and they both felt dry and
meaningless. Every time I near a girl in an intimate way, it feels forced and
very unnatural. It
’
s not that I don
’
t
like girls; fuck, I love them. But I just never feel anything more than
physical attraction. I can never open up to anyone the way I see Alex do with
Leah. I don
’
t know if it
’
s because I
feel like my first kiss got robbed; it should
’
ve been with
Buzz at the lake or in the park the dozens of times she
’
s
pitched to me blindfolded. Instead it was cliche and insignificant at the end
of the night with my homecoming date. Timing with Buzz is never right even
though the sparks are always there. It
’
s the complete
opposite from any time I
’
m ever with another girl; with
Buzz I feel everything but never do anything. With those girls I do stuff even
though I don
’
t feel anything. My actual Fuck Me Now Club
is still at zero. At the moment, Makenna is a decent kisser, so I play along
and kiss back; I think I might as well enjoy the hot body in front of me. She
guides us back towards the queen bed in the center of the room where she
slithers her long legs around me, pulling me on top of her.
Okay, she
’
s clearly experienced. Thanks for the heads up, Leah.
The
more she runs her hands over my back and ab muscles, the more I want to be
touched. To make this happen, I somehow flip a switch into a new state of mind:
if you touch her, she
’
ll touch you.

            I reach under her ass and squeeze my hand before
pulling her to switch places with me; I want her on top to see what she will
do. Keeping one hand on her ass to massage it, I run the other one across her
bare back, slowly moving it to her front as she allows for some space between
our chests. Her breath deepens as I caress one of her breasts, so I know she
likes it. Then she does something she must know I will like. She starts rocking
against me, her southern lady part pressing on my hardness beneath her. I
’
m only fifteen and very inexperienced in the bedroom, so it
’
s a little like the World Series came early this year. I can
’
t imagine what sex will feel like.

            Makenna is very convincing; therefore, I end up
taking her to the formal the next day. It helps that Alex is going with a date,
too. Just like homecoming, we line up in another backyard to take stupid
fucking pictures with our dates like it
’
s someone
’
s wedding.
Where
’
s Buzz
making silly gestures behind our moms like she did at homecoming?
I wonder,
beginning to look around. We
’
re down the street at Benny
’
s house, but literally everyone is here except for her. Our
dads hang out by the outdoor bar with drinks in their hands - drinks meaning
sodas; our parents do not condone underage drinking, so they don
’
t
keep any alcohol in any of our houses except for Beth
’
s
wine, which is disgusting. Buzz and I tried it once. The moms are, of course,
busy taking our pictures like paparazzi, and our younger siblings are literally
running around the outside of the house screaming. If they weren
’
t
as tall as they are, I would think they are all five year olds being obnoxious
for no reason. But then I see that Sam has a giant super soaker antagonizing
Tiffany, Baylee, and Savannah. While it may seem to everyone in the backyard
that our entire group is in attendance, I notice that one is not. I know at
homecoming she was upset after seeing me with my date because Benny made a
quick comment about it in the car on the way to school, but I can
’
t
be certain that
’
s why she didn
’
t come
today.

Me:
Where you at?

            I wait for Buzz
’
s response as we
take one more group photo. Then my phone vibrates in my pocket and Makenna
feels it, squirming to glare at me. Quickly I step away from the group to pull
it out and read it, completely ignoring Makenna
’
s bitch
face.

Buzz Ferrari:
Home.

Me:
Why didn
’
t you
come? Everyone is wondering where you are.

Buzz Ferrari:
Liar.
No one even
noticed.

Me:
I did.

            That night after the dance, Alex
’
s
mom Beth picks us up to take us to their house to sleep over. We have baseball
practice in the morning, so we aren
’
t planning on staying
up too late. Once the guys each see Buzz passed out on the living room couch on
the main level, they journey to the basement. I
’
m torn on
whether or not to wake her up and make sure she
’
s okay or
leave her alone like she
’
s just my best friend
’
s sister. She
’
s right that no one else
noticed her absence before the dance, but why am I the only one that did? I
shouldn
’
t be the only one to care about her, but as we get
older it seems as though she continues to push away from everyone.