23. An Invite
An Invite
Kodi
“Fuck them Nasties!” Brooker shouted and the others shouted back, “Fuck ’em up, up, up.”
“Dastards gonna light ’em.”
“Cannon balls blow!”
“Do they always do this?” I asked Rosa, Jimenez’s wife, who gratefully kept me company on the plane ride to Nashville. We were waiting in a private room for them to pull our luggage and Brooker decided now was the time to hype the team up.
“They do,” Rosa said with a sigh. “Unless it’s a red-eye. I think Christenson is the only one who’s a morning bird.”
“That tracks. But not Kean?”
“Well, he sorta grumbles on a regular basis, so it’s hard to tell.”
I threw my head back and laughed. She was right, even though over the last week, I’d gotten a lot more words out of him than before.
He actually responded to one of my emails with a whole paragraph instead of an emoji.
Though that was about Lindsey, so it makes sense he was more motivated to respond.
“What’re you two laughing about?” Jimenez asked, leaving the parade of rowdy boys to wrap his arms around his wife. “You making fun of me?”
“What makes you think we’re talking about you, huh?” Rosa said, her attitude going up a notch as she gave her husband shit.
“That’s 'cause anytime someone is looking Jimenez’s way, they’re making fun of him,” Brooker said, joining our little circle. As soon as he stepped next to me, Kean got up from where he was waiting to stand on my other side.
I rolled my eyes and pretended he wasn’t there.
Kean and I might not’ve butt heads this week, but his attitude towards Brooker hasn’t exactly improved.
Just the other day I happened by them in the hallway and Kean was glaring at him so hard, I thought laser vision might become a thing for a second.
Then as soon as Kean saw me, he pushed Brooker out of the way to talk to me about travel arrangements.
“Oh, shut up, man.” Jimenez reached around Rosa and smacked at Brooker’s shoulder.
Rosa murmured something in Spanish and Kean leaned over to whisper to her. Also in Spanish.
“I didn’t know you spoke Spanish,” I said to him while Rosa chuckled at whatever it was he said.
“My dad was stationed in the DR for a while, so I learned most of it there while I was young. The rest I picked up while playing. Brooker’s the only adult on the team who’s not multilingual.”
“Okay, bitch,” Brooker said. “Not all of us got to live abroad growing up.”
“Calling it living abroad makes it sound glamorous. I was on base most of the time.”
“Well I grew up in Ohio, so …” Brooker stretched out the word, shrugging.
“Cut him some slack, Kean. He’s trying,” Rosa said, reaching over to pinch Brooker’s cheek.
“Trying?” Jimenez scoffed. “Love, you should hear how this man butchers the language.”
“He’s gotta learn somehow.”
“All right, all right, let’s stop talking about my poor language skills and start talking about where we’re going tonight.”
“Brooker,” Kean said in a warning tone.
“You need to get that stick out of your ass somehow, let’s go out and get you relaxed.” Brooker moved over to throw an arm around Kean’s shoulder. “It’ll be good for you. Just one drink, some nachos or shit, then in bed by … eleven? That’s early enough, right?”
“In what world is eleven early?”
“Okay, fine, you can leave at ten.”
“That’s still late.”
“Oh, come on,” Brooker muttered. The group was silent for a moment, Kean’s disinterest in going out acting like a wet blanket. I looked over to him, noticing how his frown deepened. It made me curious if Kean didn’t like being the Debbie Downer, but it was just his knee-jerk reaction to everything.
“I think you should go,” I suggested and everyone’s heads snapped up.
“Really?” Kean said, while Brooker pumped his fist and said, “Fuck, yeah.”
“Yeah. Maybe not stay out as late as Brooker would. But … I don’t know, bonding with your teammates before a game is good for you.”
“Then what about you?” Kean asked and everything went blank; my thoughts, the ambient noise in the room, everything.
“What?”
“You’re a part of the team, too. So are you gonna go?”
“Oh, well … I don’t know if that’s …” I stammered, caught off guard by the invitation. An invitation from Kean of all people.
“I’ll only go if you go,” he said, shrugging.
Brooker immediately stepped up to me, hands clasped together. “You’ve gotta come out, Kodi. This is the closest he’s ever gotten to going out with us, unless Cap forces him. I wanna see drunk Kean so bad. Please, please, please.”
“I’m not going to get drunk,” Kean reminded him, but Brooker waved him off, focusing his big, puppy-dog eyes at me.
“Come on, Kodi. Please.”
Kean let out a heavy sigh, shaking his head. “I’m sorry, Kodi. I didn’t mean to —”
“No, it’s okay. I’ll go.”
“Yes! Guys, we’re going out with Kean!” Brooker said, running over to the rest of the boys, who exploded in cheers.
“So fucking dramatic,” Kean muttered under his breath, before turning to me. “I didn’t think he was gonna pressure you that much. If you don’t wanna go, that’s fine. But …” Kean paused, chewing at his lip. “But I’d like it if you did.”
Oh. That was … different. Very different for Kean.
And it made my heart skip a beat.
“It’s not a problem. I’m sure it’ll be fun,” I said, even as nerves made everything buzz.