Down under

Forgone Days

"What's up with you two?" Becky asks as she sips on her cola. 

"I don't know. He's weird don't you think?" I reply wiping my baseball bat thinking of nobody but Sebastian.

We were in the town's stadium as this is usually our chill spot on Sundays. It used to be mine and my father's before he died, now my best friend comes here with me. 

He was a strong willed man. Very strict, confident and of high principal. He was short tempered and did some wrong in his life but he was not a bad man. 

He became a retired army veteran just before I was born and wore his pride like a wall, a brick wall that could not be shaken. His shrewd intellect, precise eye and rash anger led to a tarnished reputation amongst his friends and family. Most of them wanting him dead.

The most dominating sight of the small stadium is the field itself, the green diamond surrounded the the brown of dirt surrounded by the different green of the grass into the outfield. It smelt like rain and I loved the way it brought me back home. I used to cry whenever I entered this place for it always reminded me of him. 

We used to play every Sunday and after he would get me a raspberry milkshake. I got over it eventually but my heart still sinks whenever I think of the past.

"Daddy! Daddy! I got it" I scream jumping up and down. 

My dad had thrown the ball, making a home run but the ball was nowhere to be seen. We spent almost half an hour looking for it and part of me thinks he replaced it on purpose so I could be the one to find it first. I let out a toothless grin when he kisses my temple shuffling my hair. "Well done champ. Today we might as well get ice cream" I celebrate jumping up and down releasing countless of giggles as he takes my hand.

My mother never allowed me to take ice cream. Mostly due to the fact that I had no incisors and I was 8 years old. I struggle to carry my father's bat as he whistles.

"Daddy?" I ask

"Yes princess"

"Will you stay with me forever?"

"And then he dares to ask how I made it to college" Becky continues as I drift off from memory lane.

"Were you even listening? You know what. Don't answer that" She says throwing the Pepsi bottle across the field.

Part of me wants to scream at her to pick it up but I need to relieve myself from the self-obsession I have with this place. She looks at me intently and decides to keep quiet, walking to the bottle and slowly picking it up.

I loved her for the fact that she didn't cross boundaries. 

"Do you think this Danny guy is good for me?" she asks when she halts in front of me.
"I don't think so Becky. He only talks to you when he wants to fuck and has more time for his female friends" I reply as we walk towards the bleachers.

She nods in agreement pressing her lips in a thin line.

"I think I'm pregnant"

"Are you serious?!" I exclaim dropping the bat in the process "What the hell Becky? Don't you use protection anymore??"

"He said he loved me Kate. And the instructor guy said that it would be more intense if we don't use it"

"Oh for fucks sake Becky. You honestly believed all that?"

"I did. And now I don't know who the father is" she replies wiping off a stray tear.

"And how do you know you're pregnant? I thought you drank the pills I've been giving you since March" I ask picking up my father's bat.

"I do. But there was a horn-bill at the top of our house last Saturday"

"And? That doesn't relate to pregnancy in any way"

"It does!! That's how a true pregnancy test is released stupid. I know more than you can imagine you know"

I laugh as Rebecca looks at me with an angry stare. She honestly isn't the brightest of the bunch.

"Tell me again how you made it to college?"