Accident

I managed to avoid Sam for the rest of the day. Until baseball practice. The minute I sat down on the bench, the coach called me over.

    “Listen, Thompson. You’ve sure got the heart for this game. The strength too. But you get injured too often. You haven’t played for almost a month. I’m afraid I’m gonna have to cut you from the team.” I nodded, and blankly walked back towards the dugout. I grabbed my stuff. I still felt numb. Confused. I was being cut from the team? I walked off the field like a zombie. Dylan and Sam ran up to me.

    “What happened?” Dylan asked me.

“The coach cut me from the team.” I say, voice devoid of emotion. They both looked shocked.

“He did?” Sam asked.

“Yup. I’ve gotta go.” I walked off slowly, in the direction of the school, and sat down. Not five minutes later, Sam and Dylan joined me.

“You have to go practice.” I said, confused.

“Not anymore.” Dylan said.

“We told the coach that if he was going to cut you from the team, he had to cut us too. Or bring you back, and have all three of us play.”Sam told me. I tried to smile, but I couldn’t.

“That was stupid. Now none of us get to play.”

“Hey, we’re all in this together.”
    “Please tell me you didn’t just say that.” I said, actually smiling this time. Sam grinned.

“I have to agree with her there.”

“Yeah, but I knew it would make her smile.” Dylan laughed. I rolled my eyes.

    “Let’s just go home.”  Dylan texted mom. But once we got home, I decided I didn’t want to go inside. I grabbed my glove and tennis ball, remembering the last time I had done this. And I started to throw. The rhythm of the ball soothed me, but soon my numbness began to wear off, and I began to throw harder. Jack ditched me. The ball hit the bulls eye. My dad slapped me. Bulls eye again. Coach throwing me off the team. The ball made a loud bang as it hit the bulls eye yet again. Sam and I fighting. My arm fell. The ball left my hand and flew into the woods. I made no effort to retrieve it. Instead, I sat down on the grass. Why had I been so mad at him? He’d done absolutely nothing. Was it really him I had been mad at? Or had I been mad at myself? For not stopping mom. For being so mean to Sam. And I’d been mad because he was right. Tired of thinking, I stood up and went inside. Without pausing to talk to my mom, I walked upstairs, and buried myself under the comforters in my room.

                    Sam

    “She’s hiding in our room.” Dylan told me. “She won’t talk to anybody. Not even me.” I sighed.

    “I guess I could try to talk to her.” I walked up the stairs, and opened the door. Dani was under a mound of comforters. I sat on the edge of her bed.

    “Hey, Dani.” There was no response. “I just wanted to let you know it’s okay if you’re upset. I don’t blame you. Baseball is your life. But it doesn’t have to be. Cally showed me the poem you wrote. It was really good. You’re good at so many things, Dani. Don’t limit yourself to just one.” I stood up, and started walking towards the door.

    “Sam?” Dani said. She had thrown off a layer of comforters. I could see her tearstained face.

    “Yeah?”

    “Did you . . . did you really think it was good?” I smiled at her.

    “Yes. It was really good.” She smiled back at me, tentatively. I sat back down. “You’ll get through this, Dani.” She sighed.

    “I know. It just . . . I just . . .” She sighed. “It just feels like everything happens to me.”

    “Just remember, I’m here for you. We’re all here for you.” She hugged me.

    “I don’t know what I’d do without you.” I grinned at her.

    “I have no idea.” She rolled her eyes.

    “Narcissist.”

    “Why, thank you.” I said. She laughed. “Now, are we going downstairs, or not?”

    “I . . . Yes, let’s go.” She said. I smiled. She swung herself over the side of the bed. Her shirt was falling off one shoulder, and her hair was messy. But she smiled at me. I reached out and pulled her shirt over her shoulder.

    “Now, let’s go.” We walked down the stairs, to see Dylan and her mom. She carried herself differently, I noticed. Like there had been a weight holding her down, but she had finally lost it. But I somehow felt that Dani hadn’t lost anything today.

    She had gained something.

    Later that day, I got a text from Dani.

    Dani: Good news! Mom decided to let me and Dylan finish out the school year.

    Sam: That’s awesome!
    Dani: I know! Let’s go to the library. I wanna get a new book to read.

    Sam: K, I’ll ask my mom.

    Sam: She said yes. Does Dylan want to come?
    Dani: No, he says he wants to talk to Connor when he gets here. He and Ash are still looking for a house.

    Sam: K. Be there in a few.

I grabbed my sweatshirt, and ran over to get Dani. She got in the car with me and my mom. I will never, for the rest of my life, forget what happened next. Me and Dani were sitting in the back, talking, laughing and joking. We made a turn. And suddenly, there was a car in front of us. My mom screamed first. She swerved, and we spun. There was the sound of the tortured metal screeching, bouncing off trees, the ground, as we were tossed and turned and shaken. There was a snap, and a cold, sharp pain in my left arm. I knew I had broken it. The glass shattered, showering us. Something struck me, and I could feel warm blood trickling down the side of my face. This all happened in a matter of seconds. Except for the screaming. That went on, and on, until I finally passed out