Curveball [BL]

14 || Carmen

Juda and Nico clean up real nice when they're actually trying. They shaved in the mirror together, laughing and nudging each other like a bunch of school boys before dressing up for their night out. Carmen watched them fondly, completely unhurried.

They go out for tacos and margaritas, an addictive combination. Juda doesn't drink, whereas Carmen and Nico share an enormous glass the size of their heads. They barely manage to finish it before they're piling into the car and headed for the beach.

Too much giggling, too much touching, but they're not drunk - tipsy at best. They're just having fun, a whole fucking ton of it.

Carmen doesn't worry about the two days they have left, the eight hour drive home, nor how much he doesn't want to leave. They've barely been here a day and he's already had more fun than he has in months. Baseball's his whole fucking life, and Carmen wouldn't trade it for anything, but he doesn't realize how much of his life he truly dedicates to it until now.

He has friends outside of Juda and Nico, but he never sees them. They're slowly fading into school friends, and it's hard to stomach sometimes. He wants a life outside of baseball. He wants to have enough energy after school and practice to be able to have genuine fun, but that's hardly the case.

He never wanted to date before, never even thought about it, but he thinks it's something he wants now. As they stumble out of Juda's poor parking job and run out to the beach, Carmen really thinks it's something he wants now.

He still doesn't have the time or all the energy he'd like to have to date someone, but he thinks if someone were to understand, it would be Nico and Juda. They live his life just as much as he does, and he knows they would understand they couldn't have frequent dates like other couples, an open relationship like other couples, privacy that other couples have.

Baseball is everything to him, but for him, they're baseball.

Carmen pauses at the end of the shore, bare feet meeting the wet sand. Nico's still running, yelling in fear as Juda shucks off his shoes and chases him into the water. They're idiots, soaking their clothes like this, but as Carmen watches them from a short distance, he knows they're his idiots.

He's not stupid enough to run after them, but he can sit down and watch them, so he does. He watches Juda catch up with Nico, grabbing him by the waist and hoisting him in the air. He listens to their laughter carry to his ears, Nico's suddenly cutting off when Juda drops him under water. He feels the sand between his toes as he leans over his knees and just watches.

This could be his life.

This. Them. It could be his life. He's sure of it.