The Hitting Zone
chapter-512

"What? What did you just say?" Dave got up from the couch in a hurry.

Kyle shrugged, nonchalant about the matter. "Marie and I broke up." His lips thinned as he sucked them in. "Well, technically, I broke up with her."

Dave reached for his twin, putting his hands on his shoulders. "I can hear what you're saying, but I'm not understanding." He started to shake his twin. "Why did you dump her? What is wrong with you? I thought you were taking some time to hang out with her?"

Kyle shrugged again. "Well, you thought wrong." He shook Dave off and came to the couch, sitting down on the other side of Noah, grabbing what was left in the cookie bag. "Wow. Mom's going to be mad that you guys ate all the cookies."

"I don't get why you broke up with Marie either." Noah voiced out. "Is she mad? Like really mad?"

"Who cares." Kyle pulled out a cookie and started to eat. "There are more important things in life."

"Like what??" Dave stood in front of Kyle. "I really don't get what's going on with you. You've been weird since the game. Today you decide to go hang with Marie. And now you come home single? You can't possibly be my brother."

"If I'm not your brother, then who am I?" Kyle snorted. "Who else would look exactly like you?"

Dave threw up his hands in distressed. "A clone. A cyborg. An imposter! Kyle, you aren't a heartbreaker, so why are you acting like one now?"

"You seem more upset about this than I am." Kyle finished off a cookie and pulled out another one.

"Shouldn't you be upset?" Noah asked, and I nodded. This doesn't seem like Kyle at all.

Kyle patted Noah on the head like a puppy. "You'll understand when you get older. For now, just know, I'm the one that broke it off. Obviously since I did it, I won't be the one that's upset."

"Marie is upset?"

Kyle looked a little guilty but was quick to brush it off. "Yea, but she'll get over it. Just a minor setback."

Dave was bewildered. "Are you sure about this?"

"I thought it through." Kyle said confidently. "There will always be time for girls later on. But for high school baseball, I only get four years. Only one left. I don't want my senior year be like this one, where I sat in the pen for the championship game."

"Is that why you broke up with her? Because your mad that you didn't play in the game yesterday?" Dave started to raise his voice.

Kyle frowned. "Weren't you the one that told me that I needed to know where my priorities lie?"

Dave's eyes widened. "Now you listen to me? After the season is over?? Are you crazy?"

"No. I'm obviously looking to be even better for next year." He rubbed his ears. "Why do you have to be so loud? It's just a breakup. These things happen. We should be more concerned with what to do over the summer. I have some schools I'm interested in visiting on top of some other pitching camps we should try." He pulled out his phone. "I've been looking into this one camp in Texas. A week long, high intensity, results-driven camp. They guarantee that every kid that comes will be able to reach 90mph." He pulled up the page and showed Dave.

Dave was even more flabbergasted. "Who the hell are you??"

"LANGUAGE!" Mrs. Atkins voice carried, coming from the garage door. She soon arrived to the tense situation between the twins. She glanced at me and Noah and saw that we were innocent bystanders. "What's going on? Dave, are you being mean to Kyle again?? We talked about this. There's more to life than baseball and it's okay to have other interests. Give him a break."

"Mom! He broke up with Marie!" Dave continued to yell.

"Oh." She blinked, surprised. "That's unexpected." She looked at Kyle. "Are you okay?"

Kyle nodded, finished another cookie. "I'm good. Just realizing I want to put more attention to baseball. Do you think I can do some college visits this summer? I don't want to wait until the last minute like Zeke."

Mrs. Atkins was even more surprised. "Sure. We can start planning out everyone's summer activities this weekend."

"Cool." He got up and showed her his phone. "I'm also interested in going to this week-long camp. I'd it possible?"

"$1500?!?" She gasped. "Kyle...there's just-"

"Don't say no just yet, Mom." Kyle cut her off. "This is an investment in my future so let's think about it."

She shook her head slowly. "I'm sorry, Kyle. There's just limited funds."

"How? Noah can't even play travel ball this summer. And Zeke won't be doing his usual camps. He'll probably be training with his college team soon enough if he doesn't decide to go pro."

She looked unsure. "Well, let me talk it over with your dad first. I'm sure Noah and Jake will want to do camps too. They can't spend their whole summer in the house. We'll try to come up with a satisfactory amount for everyone."

"Is that the sound of my wallet vanishing?" Mr. Atkins asked, coming through the garage door.

"Dad!" Kyle rushed over and gave him the same spiel about this pitching camp.

Mr. Atkins slowly nodded. "I'm sure we'll be able to work something out."

"Wayne." Mary warned. "We can't just say yes to every expenditure the boys come up with. We know nothing about this camp. Who runs it? Where? For how long? What's the itinerary like? I just told Kyle, we'll talk about it over the weekend. Let's find out how much we can afford."

Mr. Atkins nodded.

"Is anyone else concerned that Kyle dumped his girlfriend?" Dave asked, exasperated.

Mr. Atkins was caught by surprise. "You broke up with Marie? Why?"

Kyle waved his hand. "It's no big deal. It's a normal occurrence in high school."

Mr. Atkins looked unsure. "Okay, but I'd like to hear more over dinner. Go get Zeke and tell him to make his pick."

"Sure!" Kyle took off.

"Did you boys finish the bag of cookies??" Mrs. Atkins finally noticed the empty bag on the couch. She picked it up and gave Noah a look.

"Mom, you saw Kyle eating them. Why do you have to look at me like that?" Noah said, turning away.

"Because I know my boys." She said.

Dave snorted. "If you know so much, then why are you letting Kyle run wild?"

Mrs. Atkins gave a small, somewhat sad, smile. "It's part of growing up. Some lessons you have to learn in person. I can't dictate you boys too much. If he doesn't want to date, then that's fine." She looked at Noah. "What I can control is how many cookies you'll be getting for lunch. Which is now, none." She left the room, taking the empty bag to the trash in the kitchen.

"Aw, Mom." Noah went out to follow, and to put in his complaints.