One True Thing (17 page)

“Jenna!” Madame calls from across the room. “May I see you?”

“Oh, right,” I say, reaching into my bag. “I still have her keys.”

“I’ll meet you at the game in an hour,” Nina says, slinging her bag over her shoulder.

“Okay. I’ll text if I’m going to be late.”

I walk over to Madame where she’s fiddling with the stereo at the back of the room. “Sorry,” I say, holding the keys out to her. “I forgot to give these back to you.”

“Thank you,” she says, putting them in the pocket of her skirt.

I turn to go, but she keeps talking.

“So everything was fine last night?” she asks.

I glance over at the mirror, thinking about how Ty’s face looked in it at the moment he came. The way his eyes closed and his fingers grasped my hips until the tips were white. “Yes Madame.” I know my face is red—I just hope she thinks it’s from the workout.

Madame tilts her head to look at me. “Your boyfriend—he is very beautiful, no?”

My heart skips a beat. Why does she want to know? “Tyler? I guess so. I think so.”

“I think he could be a dancer with those broad shoulders and slim hips.” There’s something mischievous about her eyes. When did she even see him?

I give a short laugh. “Ty’s a baseball player, not a dancer.” I glance at the clock. “In fact I have to get going if I’m going to make his game.”

Madame puts a hand on my arm as I turn toward the door. “Do you know the phrase about the ‘eye in the sky’? About how it sees everything?” She juts her chin toward the ceiling in the corner of the room.

I look back and see a small brown glass dome on the ceiling and I feel like I want to throw up. A camera. Why didn’t I think of that? Of course she’s got cameras in here—they came with the alarm system. “Oh my God.” I put both hands together. She’s going to drop me from the program I know it. I feel beads of cold sweat appear on my forehead. “I’m so so sorry. I didn’t mean for anything to happen! It’s just that I hadn’t seen him for a few days and—”

“It is okay,” Madame says gently, interrupting my rant. Her eyes look distant and a tiny smile plays around her lips. “I too once had a beautiful boy of my own. They are very hard to resist.”

I feel like I want to die. Did she see everything? The thought of her sitting down and watching the whole tape makes me want to run. “Did you…?”

She shakes her head and smiles sadly. “I did not watch the tape. Once I knew what I was seeing I erased the feed. Not to worry.”

“I’m so sorry! It will never happen again.”

Madame laughs. “I doubt that. I did get a look at your beautiful boy. That sort of passion cannot be tamed. It is the same passion that belongs to your dance.” She glances over at the camera. “But the next time, you may want to choose your location more carefully.”


                    
 

“On the security camera?” Nina practically shouts. “Holy shit!”

I look around to make sure nobody near us in the stands is listening. “I know. I wasn’t even thinking. Madame said that she didn’t watch it and that she erased the tape but…”

“I bet she did,” Nina says. “I bet she sat there and watched the whole thing. Was it graphic?”

I nod, thinking about all of the things we did last night. “Very.”

“Awesome,” she says.

“Not awesome! What if somebody sees it?”

“I was kidding. I’m sure she got rid of it. Don’t worry.” She glances around us. “Did you guys do it, right there on the floor?”

I shake my head. “Against the mirrors.”

Her eyes get huge. “Oh my God. That’s insane.”

“I just…” I smile. “I just missed him so much. It’s like I can’t get enough of him.” I look out into the outfield where Ty’s standing, slightly crouched down, his glove against his knee. I’ve been so preoccupied with what happened with Madame that I’ve barely been paying any attention to the game. Just then there’s a pop and the ball sails off in his direction, but Ty’s too far back. Keeping one eye on the ball he sprints toward the infield, diving at the last second with his glove stretched out to snag the ball just before it hits the ground. There’s a cheer all around us as the team jogs in from the outfield and Ty drops the ball on the empty pitcher’s mound before he disappears into the dugout.

The pitcher on the mound throws a few practice balls and then the announcer comes over the loudspeaker. “Batting first this inning—number sixteen, Tyler Branch!”

There’s a wave of clapping and cheering and then silence as Ty approaches the plate and swings the bat a few times. There’s a blur and a thwack as the ball hits the catcher’s mitt. “Ball one,” the umpire says as the pitcher gets ready for number two. He winds up and lets it go, but Ty doesn’t move as the ump calls ball two. I can see Ty twitching a little as the next one sends up a puff of dirt before it hits the glove for ball three.

“They’re going to walk him,” Nina says, her eyes on Ty.

The next pitch looks low too, but Ty swings at it anyway, pounding the base with his bat when the umpire calls the first strike.

“Why is he swinging?” the guy behind us says loudly. “He could have been on base by now!”

Ty sets the bat on his shoulder again and watches the pitcher, swinging at a ball that was so outside the catcher had to reach to get it.

“What the hell?” People around us are getting louder as the ump calls a full count – three balls and two strikes.

“He’s going to be horrible to live with if he strikes out,” I say to Nina. Ty doesn’t get violent or anything when a game doesn’t go his way, he’s just off and angry for the next twenty-four hours. Luckily that doesn’t happen very often.

I cross my fingers as a hush falls over the stadium. I’m so nervous for Ty that I can’t imagine how he feels with every eye in the place on him. The pitcher winds up and the white ball races toward Ty. It feels like he’s waiting too long, but then he swings and meets the ball with a loud crack of the bat. Everyone’s on their feet as the ball sails over the outstretched hand of the outfielder and over the low fence that separates this field from the next one. The announcer plays a few bars of “Charge” as Ty rounds the bases, surrounded by Mitch and the rest of the guys as he crosses home plate.

“That’s the third homer this week,” the guy behind us says, clapping loudly.

“I heard he’s getting scouted for sure,” the other guy says.

Nina grins and elbow-bumps me and I can’t help smiling. Mitch pitches the next two innings with nobody scoring and Ty hits another ball in the last inning to land him on second base, but nobody can bat him in before the game ends with Garvin winning 6-2.

“At least the boys will be happy,” Nina says, stretching out in the sun. It takes them forever to have their team meeting, pack up their gear and go to the locker room so we have tons of time.

“Are you guys going to that party that Ty was talking about?”

“Maybe,” she says, squinting in the distance. She turns and looks at me. “Not sure how welcome I’m going to be there.”

I look at her to try and figure out what she means.

Nina raises her eyebrows. “After what happened in the bar last time?”

“Oh, right.” I swear I forget she’s black sometimes. “Nothing’s going to happen. You guys should come. Don’t make me be the only girl there.”

Nina nods to the group of girls who are crowded together down by the dugout. Mostly blond, mostly tan, mostly looking for a guy who has a shot of making it into the majors. “I doubt you’ll be the only one.”

“Even more reason to come with me. Someone has to help me fight the bitches.”

Nina laughs. “Yeah. You should never, ever say that out loud again.”

I grin at her. So much for my street cred. “Just come. It’ll be fine.”

She sighs and shakes her head. “Sometimes I’m not sure it’s worth it.”

I panic a little at her words—I don’t want to be let in on such a big secret. “What’s not worth it? Dating Mitch?”

“What?” She looks surprised. “No! Living here—where the fact that I like a white boy is a big deal to everyone from drunk losers to some girl at the gas station acting like I’m taking her man or something.”

“Does it happen a lot?”

“All the time.”

“Ty says that people in San Francisco don’t care that much about stuff like that.”

She thinks about that for a second. “New York too,” Nina says. She slides her eyes over at me. “Can I tell you something?”

“Sure.”

“Mitch is looking at taking a year off before graduate school and going for an internship in New York City next year.” She pauses. “I think I’m going with him.”

“To New York! Wow.” I’ve never been there, but I’ve seen it in movies—loud, crowded and crazy. I can’t imagine pulling up from here and going to live there. “So you guys are going to live together?”

Nina nods, a sheepish grin on her face. “My parents are going to freak.” Her voice gets quiet. “But I can’t let him go without me. You know, when you’re with somebody and everything just feels right? Like this was the person you’ve been looking for your whole life? It’s like that with Mitch.”

“Oh my God—so you guys are like engaged to be engaged!”

She looks embarrassed. “I guess so. But don’t say anything, okay? Mitch wants to keep it quiet until the season’s over.”

“I won’t,” I say. I look beyond the bleachers and see Ty in a crowd of people outside of the gym door. It seems like my eyes go right to him, no matter how many people he’s with. “There they are.”

Ty’s head snaps up, almost as if I’d called him and his eyes meet mine. His face breaks into a grin and he gives me a little wave, and suddenly I know exactly what Nina means. Because when I’m with Ty it feels like I’ve finally stopped looking.

Chapter Seventeen (Ty)

Jenna answers her door in a black skirt that barely grazes her thighs and heels so high she almost comes up to my chin.

“Wow,” I say, taking in the carefully placed curls in her hair and the way her eyes sparkle. “You look amazing.”

“So do you,” she says with a slightly wicked grin.

I look down at my own jeans and t-shirt. “I always look this way.”

“Well then, maybe I always think you look amazing.”

I kiss her gently on the neck, inhaling the faint flowery scent she always carries. “If we weren’t supposed to be picking up Mitch and Nina I’d make us very, very late to the party.”

Jenna laughs in that way that always turns me on. “Let’s go,” she says, spinning me around and out in to the hallway. She tugs her skirt down a little as she walks and I love the fact that she’s a tiny bit uncomfortable in something so short and I know she’s wearing it for me. She doesn’t look anything like the girl who was waving a three-foot long snake in my face just a few weeks ago.

“I told Courtney and a couple of friends about the party and I think they’re going to meet us there,” she says.

“Sounds good,” I say, holding the door and waiting a second as she walks through it to the parking lot. Her legs in those heels look amazing. I wonder what it would take to get her to wear them in bed?

I grab the keys from her and drive to the party, picking up Mitch and Nina at his place on the way. When we get to the house just outside of town there are cars parked on the sidewalk as far as I can see. “I’m going to let you guys out,” I say. “Then I’ll go park and meet you.”

“I’ll come with you,” Jenna says.

I glance at her shoes. “Those heels were not made for walking. Go with them. I’ll only be a couple of minutes.

I have to drive down several blocks before I find a spot at the curb. As I walk back around the corner I can hear music blasting from the open windows. Even though it’s taken me a while to get back here, I see Mitch, Nina and Jenna still standing by the front door.

“No, man,” a guy in the doorway is telling them as I walk up the steps. “I told you already, we’re full up. Fire marshal code and all, we’re not allowed to let anyone else in.”

“That’s bullshit,” Mitch says. He points inside. “You just let them in right ahead of us.”

The guy looks over his shoulder. I don’t recognize him—he’s not on the team. “Those guys? They were already here before. I was letting them
back
in.”

“Let’s go,” Nina says, taking Mitch’s arm. “It’s not worth it.”

“Is there a problem?” I ask, walking onto the porch to stand next to Jenna.

The guy’s eyebrows rise. “Tyler Branch! That was an awesome game you had today.”

“Thanks,” I say, reaching for Jenna’s hand. “Is there a reason we’re all still standing on the porch?”

The guy looks from me and Jenna back to Mitch and Nina. “Oh, uh…no, not really. We’re, uh, trying to keep things under control so that the cops don’t come, which is what I was trying to explain to your friends. But I think we can slide you guys in.” He leans toward me. “Just don’t tell anybody.”