Invisible String [T.S-E.S BOOK ONE]

21

August 10th, 2013

Eleanor sat on the couch of Hawk's apartment, watching the clock tick. Her head was foggy with a drug induced haze. By her calculations the pills would wear off just enough in time for her to play well in the game, but not enough to completely take away the high. She called it: Addict Math.

She had prepared herself to scale back in the weeks leading up to this trip. Hiding her relapse from Alex and Kelley was one thing, hell she could probably hide it from Taylor pretty easily, but Hawk was an entirely different thing. He knew her better than she knew herself. He'd clock her quickly. So she cut herself off just enough to not look suspicious. If he asked, it was anxiety medicine.

"Slate!" Izzy called from the kitchen where she and Hawk were making lunch. "Taylor's calling!"

She jumped off the couch, plastering on the best fake sober expression that she could and ignoring the fact that she didn't know how her phone ended up in the kitchen.

She answered the phone on speaker, mentally pulling herself together. "Hi baby. You're on speaker with Iz and Pat."

"Hey guys!" Taylor's cheery, yet out of breath, voice filled the kitchen. "How annoying is it that we're all finally in the same state, but still not together."

"So fucking annoying!" Patrick groaned, tossing popcorn into his mouth. "You're lucky two of us called out of work to go to your show." He tossed a piece at Eleanor.

Eleanor would've tried harder to get out of the game that weekend, but after the disaster a couple weeks ago, they were down a lot of players and couldn't afford to be down any more. The Cubs roster was stacked and Pat had never missed a game even when benched, so they'd let him miss out on their series with the Cardinals. It was an easy win anyway and good experience for their back up.

Izzy's internship was in Chicago so she was doing fine.

"Yeah, am I going to see my girlfriend at all?" Taylor joked. Eleanor's heart sank, the guilt of her state of mind setting in. But she pushed it away. It felt too good.

"I'll be there after the show, I swear." Eleanor chuckled, putting on a good show.

"Yes and I can't wait to see you." El blew a kiss into the phone.

"Gross!" Hawk groaned. "Stop being gay in my kitchen!"

Eleanor laughed and smacked his shoulder.

"We're still good to come by early, right?" Izzy asked, picking up the phone and ignoring Hawk and El who were 'fighting' with popcorn.

Taylor had a huge surprise for them, so she'd told them to get there early and hang with her in her dressing room. "Yeah just get here like two hours early and Jonathan will let you in." There was a pause. "The idiots are throwing stuff at each other, aren't they?"

"Oh yeah." Izzy laughed, watching her siblings destroy her and Hawk's hard work on lunch. "The tomato soup is now popcorn and tomato soup."

Taylor giggled. "That's disgusting."

"They're disgusting." Izzy agreed, hearing a door slam on Taylor's end. "Where the hell are you?"

"Uh...it's not important." Taylor spoke quickly. "I'll see you in a couple hours. Tell my girlfriend I love her when she's done throwing shit at her brother."

Izzy laughed again, picking up a stray piece of popcorn and throwing it at her siblings. "I will, see you later."

She hung up the phone and threw another stray piece of popcorn. "Hey!" They froze in place, Turing to their younger sister. Izzy trained her focus on Eleanor. "Your girlfriend says she loves you." She focused on both of them. "Now eat, Eleanor needs to be at the field soon."