I laughed at her insane logic. “They’re both the same guy. Just want to put that out there before I agree to go.”
Her eyes lit up as a grin spread across her face. “You’ll see. So you’ll go with me then?”
I released a breath and closed my eyes. “Yes. I’ll go with you,” I promised, doing my best to sound disappointed.
Her squeals of delight filled the air and I couldn’t shake the feeling of anticipation welling within me. I didn’t want to be excited to see Jack in his element…but I was. But I’d be damned if I was going to admit it.
THREE
Our apartment was only a few blocks from campus, so we walked everywhere we could. In the grand scheme of things, it was much easier than dealing with the parking situation. There were too many cars and never enough spaces. Not to mention the fact that the price of a semester parking pass cost more than my first camera. This is partly why my parents refused to let me bring my car to school. So I sit at school, car-less. And my car sits at home, driver-less.
The lights of the stadium caught my eye before anything else did. The tall fixtures beamed in every direction, giving the school the appearance that it was lit up from the inside out. I stopped quickly and dropped to my knees, unwinding the camera’s thick black strap from around my wrist. I removed the lens cap and tucked it into the back pocket of my jeans. Melissa, used to my photographing ways, had already noticed my absence and silently waited for me.
I brought the viewfinder to my right eye and closed the left, as strands of my hair dangled in my line of vision. I let out an aggravated breath before gently placing my camera on the ground between my feet and twirling my long blonde mane into a knot at the back of my head. With my hair firmly out of my eyes, I angled the lens to show only the top of the baseball stadium, with the lights and the illuminated sky as the focal point. I manually adjusted the focus and the shutter speed before pressing the shutter release button and hearing the familiar click sound I’d grown to love. Satisfied with the preview on the screen, I stood up and walked over to Melissa.
“Good shot?”
I shrugged my shoulders. “We’ll see,” I said, reaching in my back pocket to fish out the lens cap.
I was still learning how to use my new digital camera. I’d saved for two full years to buy it, hoarding every bit of Christmas and birthday money from relatives and doing small photography jobs for local businesses and high school seniors. Oftentimes I thought the picture on the camera’s small preview screen looked gorgeous, only to find out it was blurry or nowhere near as pretty once it was full-sized on my computer monitor. But I was learning.
We walked side by side toward the stadium’s entrance. Melissa wasn’t joking when she said it was a spectacle. The line to get in exceeded the length of the field and spilled out into the parking lot. We took our place at the end and I removed my lens cap once again, mesmerized by the sea of orange and dark blue that engulfed us. Everyone was decked out in our school colors, some wearing mock baseball jerseys with players’ names on the back. I laughed to myself at the sheer number of “Carter, 23” shirts I saw and couldn’t resist photographing a few.
“Cassie, come on! You can do that once we sit!” Melissa urged, scanning the seat numbers on our tickets.
I followed obediently behind her. “Don’t most of the students sit in the bleachers?” I pointed toward left field.
“Depends on what you’re trying to see.” Melissa batted her long black eyelashes.
“Oh no. What have you done?” My legs began to tremble as I watched Melissa lead me all the way down the stairs to the front row, closest to the field.
She turned around, grinning from ear to ear. “Here we are,” she announced before plopping down and looking left into the team’s dugout.
I turned my head as well and realized we were practically in the freaking dugout. I leaned toward Melissa, almost knocking some poor guy’s drink in his lap. “Sorry,” I said quickly before squatting next to her. “I am not sitting here!”
“Yes, you are. These are our seats and the game’s sold out.” She smiled innocently and patted the empty seat next to her.
I scowled. “At least switch seats with me then. I don’t want to be the one closest to their dugout.”
“Fine,” she said before hopping up and flipping her hair.
I begrudgingly sat and slinked down into my seat, trying to conceal myself behind Melissa’s tiny frame. “I didn’t want Jack to know I was here. Now there’s no way he won’t see me.”
“This isn’t about you. You’re thinking too much.” She sloughed me off with a wave of her hand.