"She seems just as friendly as Kaylee." Kyle scoffed from behind .
I glanced back at him.
His eyes were still on the girl. "She looks a bit familiar." He realized in an instant who she was. "Wasn’t she sitting with your cousin? So she might be one of your other cousins?"
I gave a small nod. I glanced across the table and saw the girl picking up a few more desserts and left the line with her plate.
"Well isn’t she just a ball of sunshine." He muttered. He gave a small pat on the shoulder. "If any of them start to give you a hard ti or make you uncomfortable, don’t be afraid to just turn around and leave. You don’t owe them anything."
I nodded, happy that Kyle cared enough to watch out for . We may have had a small rough patch at one point, but it’s really blown by now. Whether that’s sticking up for in the sumr camp or having my back right now.
I moved along the table and grabbed a few more desserts before following Noah and the twins to a small corner of the room.
"Why didn’t we just go back to our seats?" I asked them.
Dave looked at like I was dumb. "And let Mom see how many sweets we grabbed? I think not."
Noah nodded along. "Right?! Plus, Zeke is there too. I don’t want to die during thanksgiving break."
What they said makes sense. I started to try all the snacks I grabbed. Bitting one, then a different one. I guess I was going too slow, because Noah started to help himself to my half-eaten desserts, giving a serious review of each one.
Getting a dry throat, I told them I was going to go to the beverage table. The three of them all asked to co back with an extra water for them. I agreed and moved through the crowd towards the table. I grabbed four waters, tucking them in my left arm and pressing it against my body so I wouldn’t drop them.
Turning back to go the way I ca, I knocked into soone and dropped the water bottles. "Sorry!" I hurried to pick up the waters that were trying to roll away from . One. Two. Three. Where’s the fourth?
"Here." A girl’s voice said clearly, with a small edge to it.
I looked up and saw my cousin from earlier. She was a bit taller than , holding out one of the bottles. She gave it a small shake. "Are you going to take it or not?"
I swallowed and took it from her, adding it to my arms.
Her lips twisted as she looked down at . She turned away.
"Um, thanks." I hurried to say before she walked away. Though she didn’t co off as ’nice’, I thought about how Kyle compared her to Kaylee. Kaylee was a different kind of ’nice’ too.
She stopped and glanced back at . "You don’t hate ?"
I blinked, a little confused. "Why...would I hate you?"
She took a step towards and squinted. "You recognize , right?"
I blushed, a little embarrassed. "Yea..." But I don’t rember your na so please don’t ask .
The gloominess around her lightened up a little. "I think what my dad did was wrong. My mom too." Her shoulders sagged and an air of depression quickly took over.
I didn’t know what to say. It’s not like I could tell her ’it’s fine’ or ’it’s okay’, because it really wasn’t. I shifted from foot to foot.
"Jake!" Jeremy made a tily appearance, with Rose by his side. He was imdiately caught by surprise seeing that I was with our cousin. "Oh, hey Gabby." He looked a little stiff.
Gabby. A na for the face.
Jeremy looked between each of us before asking , "Is everything okay?"
Gabby had a look of hurt flash across her face, before snorting. "We aren’t all bad." She turned around and briskly walked away.
Jeremy frowned, watching her go before turning to . "She didn’t say anything an to you, did she?"
I squeezed the water closer to my body. "No. She helped picked up the water I dropped."
Jeremy ran his fingers through his hair, looking a little relieved.
Rose tugged on his arm. "You probably upset her by asking that outright."
Jeremy shrugged, a little embarrassed. "I was worried." He looked to . "I didn’t know she would be here."
"That was my idea." Rose told . "No Jack. Just your Aunt Ilene, and your cousins: Carson, Gabby, and Makenna. I was going to warn you, but didn’t think you would run into one another when sitting at different tables."
I glanced to where Gabby was headed. "Is she going to be okay?"
"I’ll check on her later." Jeremy sighed. He left Rose and picked two of the waters out of my arms. "For now, I’ll walk you back to Noah and say hi to him and the others."
"Okay." I smiled up at him. "Congratulations, again."
He chuckled. "Thanks." We made small talk as I showed him where Noah and the twins were eating desserts. We passed out the waters and he stuck around with Rose, talking about baseball.
***
[Gabby POV]
I don’t like it here anymore. This stadium, this town, this family. Nothing feels right. Nothing feels real. The cousin I looked up to as I grew up is no longer who he used to be. The sa goes for my family. No one was the sa. I want to go back to the way things used to be, but know that it wasn’t right either.
I walked away from Jeremy as soon as he practically accused of bullying his little brother. I couldn’t stand his look of concern. Concern that I was doing sothing wrong. He should know better than that.
I left the banquet and went for a short walk all the way down the hall until security turned around. Just outside the banquet was Jeremy, talking with a teammate. I struggled between going over or just putting my head down and ignoring him. I didn’t get the chance to choose.
Jeremy noticed right away and said a few words to his teammate before approaching . He ran his fingers through his hair like he normally does when he’s stressed. Is it ? Am I making him stressed?
"Sorry, Gabby. I didn’t an to scare you away from Jake like that." He told .
I crossed my arms across my chest. "You don’t scare . I chose to leave. I can tell when I’m unwanted."
Jeremy sighed. "You’re not unwanted."
"Really?" I sneered. "When’s the last ti you called back or replied to my text? You obviously don’t want around now that you have a real younger brother."
Jeremy was stunned by my outburst. "What? No. No. I’ve just...been busy."
"Don’t lie to yourself and don’t lie to ." I rolled my eyes. "Even when you were struggling in the minors, you would always get back to within a day. Now...it’s been weeks. I get it. My parents are shitty people so that makes a shitty person."
"No!" Jeremy raised his voice at , making flinch. He cleared his throat and spoke normally. "No, Gabby, it isn’t like that. I really am busy. Plus, I don’t know how to make this relationship work right now." He sighed. "Your parents have made things complicated. We used to be as close as siblings, but now I don’t know what to do, okay?"
"Then why are you punishing for what they did?" I asked. "You’re ignoring them and therefore ignoring us. Consciously or subconsciously." I bit my lip and lowered my voice. "I miss having you to talk to. Dad’s always mad and Mom’s constantly nagging . Carson is distant and Makenna is unbelievably naive."
Jery pulled into a hug. "Hey, hey, it’s going to be okay. Everything will start working itself out soon. I just needed so ti to cool off. I didn’t an to take it out on you guys."
My eyes started to sting. "I’m scared that you’re going to leave us for Jake. I know it’s selfish, but-"
He chuckled. "I’m not leaving one for the other. I’m adding Jake to the family I have. You can add him too."
Reviews
All reviews (0)