Chapter 28 I am Flirting with Her
-Drew-
Getting to be on this travel team has been an amazing experience, and I’m glad that my parents heard Coach out about the opportunity.
I was offered a room with one of the other players who lived more centrally to get to all the tournaments, so I’ve had to catch up with my friends via text messages all summer.
Craig checks in the most, letting me know he has a girlfriend now from the next town over, and she happens to be friends with Meg’s new boyfriend.
He’d asked me if that was weird, and I’d told him the truth, that it wasn’t.
Meg and I can be friends; we’d had our fun, and it had fizzled out.
High school relationships aren’t meant to last anyway, right?
I’ve also been texting Annie. We both signed up for AP English senior year and have been working our way through the reading list. We’d gone back and forth, complaining about the books.
We’d started on different books at the beginning, but then decided we should read the same book so we could complain to someone who could understand our pain.
To be honest with myself, I would have put off the reading until I got home from this travel season, but when Annie had texted asking me if I’d started, I made quick work of ordering the list to my temporary home for the summer.
I wanted a reason to keep catching up with her.
Her messages slowed down this week. She said her family was going on a cruise as a last family vacation before Miles headed to university.
So, I wasn’t expecting to hear from her much over the next week. I was going to miss her messages.
***
At practice, it was hot, like stupid hot, and a lot of us had already taken off our jerseys when practice ended, trying to cool down.
My temporary roommate, John, was asking some of the guys if they wanted to meet at his house because he has a pool.
Most of the team agreed to head over. When I grab my phone, I can see I have two missed texts, so I swipe and open the app.
I am not prepared for the photo from Annie.
She looks so fucking good, sitting in a little red bikini holding up a tropical drink with the pool behind her.
If I wasn’t already shocked at the sight of Annie almost naked on my phone, I would have been faster to read her message that follows the picture.
What do I think? Hot as hell is what I’m thinking, but I don’t think Annie meant to send me this picture.
I’m actually pissed when I think about who she could have meant to send it to.
I take a deep breath in and out, thinking about how I want to respond.
I send her a quick reply trying to play it off.
She doesn’t answer right away, and I check the time of when she sent the photo.
The timestamp says it was over thirty minutes ago.
I make to lock my phone again, about to join the guys, when it vibrates in my hand.
I see the notification with her name, and I can't fight the smile at her return message. I can almost see her face when she realized that she sent that picture to me. I want to ease her mind, because if I know Annie, she is trying to figure out how she is going to cover up this mistake. I realize that I’ll just return a picture.
I hit the button to take a picture, and I flex my bicep as I take it.
I look up from my phone, and a few of the guys are watching me.
“I’m texting a girl back home.” They laugh.
A few ask if I should take their picture to see who she likes more.
I give them the bird and look back at my phone when it finally vibrates again with a new message.
I know I smile at her reply of saving my photo and I confess in return that I've already set hers as my lockscreen. We exchange a few more messages and this feels like we are flirting. True to my word, I’ve made the picture my lock screen.
I will enjoy getting to see a bikini-clad Annie every time I go to open my phone.
The guy next to me notices the picture. “Is that your girl? Well, damn, she is fucking hot, man. If she stops being interested in you, give her my number.” I don’t correct him about the fact that he called Annie ‘mine.’ I don’t want to give him any ideas, and I like the idea of thinking of her as mine.
“No way in Hell, dude.” I throw back, causing him to laugh.
But he’s right; she is fucking hot, and I need to keep her focused on me and not on whoever this photo had originally been meant for.
***
I wait a few days and then text her a photo of me and a few of the guys in the dugout.
We are all dressed in our jerseys, smiling to capture the moment after a big win at a tournament.
I play up the reason for the text being about the tournament win and not the fact that I want to talk with her.
Or the fact that I’d love to get another photo of her.
Drew
Just won the second to last tournament of the summer
Annie Campbell
That is amazing
PS: Nice Photo
A photo of Annie appears in the thread. She is in a red formal mini dress.
God, she looks good in red with her summer-tanned skin still sporting her freckles across her cheeks.
She’s got her hair done in curls and she has on a touch of makeup.
She must be going to some formal dinner on the cruise.
She is beautiful in this photo, there is no denying it.
But I have seen Annie in person, and I know I prefer her with hair pulled back and not a stitch of makeup to be seen.
Drew
I think you need to wear that to homecoming
Annie Campbell
Maybe I will
Don’t tell anyone that I’m repeating
Drew
It will be our secret
Annie Campbell
Headed to dinner
Text later
We do text again later and over the next few days.
In fact, we’ve texted more than we’ve texted all summer, and none of it has been related to the summer reading.
She has far surpassed my messages with Craig now.
We don’t send any more photos, but we flirt through our messages.
I find myself counting down the days to get home.
I want to see her in person. Will our flirting lead to what I have been daydreaming about?
I want to touch her tanned skin, and I want her to let me kiss her.
I’ll ask her on a date this time before anyone else can get in my way.
I’m so ready to be done playing baseball, which isn’t something I’ve ever thought before in my life.