the summer of bruce yamada

four

                          BRUCE YAMADA

here they were. in this car thats heat was rising. the music played quietly. bruce was just still trying to figure out more about vance.

"robin and finney?" bruce asked.

"hm?" finney replied for both of them.

"uh i went to grab n go and i heard that vance—"

"carved his pinball score in a guys arm?" robin finished his sentence. bruce only nodded and kept his head down looking at his lap.

"so its true?"

"mhm. he would've got arrested again if it wasn't for the fact that he ran."

"he has been arrested before?"

"three times" finney anwsered.
"i thought it was four?" robin questioned
"no"
"yes"

they began to try to decide which was which. but bruce didn't care he just knew he needed to push these feelings deep down, and never bring them back up again.

                           VANCE HOPPER

vance walked back into the grab in go his older sister worked at. he saw 'his' pinball machine and dug through his pockets to get a quarter. no quarter.

"wyomi get me a quarter." vance said stopping at the register.

his sister gave him a look as if she expected more. he scoffed and rolled his eyes knowing what it was.

"please." he said. clearly not sincere.

she smiled and handed him a few quarters. he walked over to his pinball machine and started flicking around the things in the pinball machine.

"vance, you know what was crazy?" the cashier or his sister said as she laughed to herself.

"a little girl came in here asking about you! she heard something about you and wanted to clarify."

"wait what?" he asked, still eyes glued to his pinball machine.

she just shrugged and started to take out bills counting them. vance wanted to find out more and he wanted to keep playing for longer but he told robin he would go with him to all the baseball games for finney.

a part of him started thinking it was also because of bruce.

FINNEY BLAKE

the car ride was weird. at first atleast. but it got even stranger when bruce suddenly wanted to know about vance. of course they filled him in and suddenly he look mortified.

i mean finney couldn't blame him, vance hopper was the scariest guy in this area. known for being in jail for three or four times at 17. he kicked ass because he knew how too. somehow he was friends with him.

when they got to the baseball field there was only finney, robin, and bruce. finney pushed open the gate and bruce and robin walked behind him quickly.

finney showed bruce the spare bats, baseballs, and mitts. he wanted too see how good bruce actually was. maybe he'd make it too finneys team. or maybe even better.

"bruce, what were you when you played baseball."

"i was the batter!"

with that finney handed bruce a bat and grabbed a a baseball.

"were you any good?"

"i think so. they called me the golden boy out there."

"well lets see."

robin waited near the bleachers as finney and bruce lined up in their baseball positions. after they finally got lined up, bruce brought the bat back up to get ready to swing.

finney threw the first ball, bruce swung to hit it and missed he was kind of astonished.

finney threw the next, bruce swung once more which missed again. bruce was never bad. why was he missing it now?

finney threw the ball again. bruce focused. the ball seemed to approach at slow motion. he swung the bat over and it connected with the ball sending it flying over the gate. bruce let out a sigh of relief. finney seemed a bit disappointed.

"jeez finn, your arm is mint!"

finney smiled at the compliment. mint. his arm was mint he usually didn't pitch too good so if his coach saw, he'd be amazed.

finney turned back and saw robin and vance talking next to the bleachers. it caught bruces attention where he was looking and he looked weirded out. not scared— something though. wasn't pleasent

"that just reminded me! my dad was gonna take me grocery— uh shopping today so i got to get home really fast." bruce nervously excused. he didn't even say bye to vance or robin, just left after saying bye to me.

finney walked over to robin and vance.

"where did bruce go?"

"he had to go grocery shopping."

"pss sure or maybe he is a bit scared."

"of?"

"you! he asked us about you when we were on the way here. some shit about you carving something in a kids arm."

vances face shifted a little.

"well whatever."