The Hitting Zone
chapter-639

"I guess it wasn't that big of a deal." Noah grumbled Wednesday evening over dinner.

"Noah, he said he had something else to attend to." Dad reminded him.

It was five days after watching the Friday night game. Five days since I've seen Jeremy. He and the whole A's team had put on a show Friday night, hitting home run after home run. For a total of eight! Two came from Maberry and one came from Jeremy. It was a great game to finish off a great day.

Saturday, Mom stuck true to her idea, keeping me isolated on the couch. I only got up to go to the restroom. Everything else was taken care of by her. Whenever I was hungry, she brought me food. Every hour she would bring a bag of ice for me to use for twenty minutes. She even got my textbook from my room after I told her I was bored of watching tv. I had never been looked after so attentively. Not even during my stay at the hospital.

All the boys would come and go, checking in on me occasionally. Mitchell came in to say a few words before joining the twins outside. Zeke and Noah came back right before lunch. Noah plopped down beside the couch and told me all about the game that I missed.

Sunday followed a similar pattern of me laying on the couch while everyone else got to play. Mitchell came over again to spend a few hours catching for the twins while Noah and Zeke left for the park to meet up with Julian and Andy. However, I didn't feel left out. I woke up from a short nap to find all of them crowded into the living room, watching the A's game while eating lunch. Seeing that I was awake, Noah ran to get me my plate of food and returned promptly. I did feel a little guilty taking up a full couch while most of them were spread out on the floor, but no one seemed to care.

A couple of days off my foot really did help my leg heal. The bruise was less blue and more green with a tinge of yellow. Wednesday after lunch, Noah and I walked around our neighborhood just so I could get used to the boot being off. It's when we got home that afternoon that we found out Jeremy wasn't abled to come over.

He had tried calling me after his game apparently, but I didn't have my phone on me when we were outside, so he ended up leaving a message with Dad. Something had come up after his game and he wouldn't be coming over for dinner.

"I'm just saying...he's about to go on a ten day road trip." Noah pointed out. "Don't say something is important to you and then bail for almost two weeks."

"Noah." Dad warned.

"He's not entirely wrong." Mom pointed out. "It's important to keep the promises and commitments you make."

"Mary." Dad said, exasperated.

"It's not really a big deal." I spoke up. "Jeremy is busy. He also has a life outside of me." I looked around the table, making eye contact with everyone, except for the twins, who were out on another trip. "You guys would be my priority too. Like if something were to happen to one of you, I would skip a dinner with him too."

"Do you think something may have happened to his family?" Dad frowned.

I shrugged. "Maybe. That, or his girlfriend, Rose."

Noah sighed. "You're right." Dinner became a little more peaceful with Noah being settled.

After taking another Spanish quiz Thursday morning, we met up with Zeke to head home. My cellphone rang just as I had set the volume back on. I was slightly worried about Jeremy because I haven't heard from him, but now he's calling me.

"Hello." I answered just as we got in the car.

Noah glanced at me. I mouthed 'Jeremy' and he nodded, getting in the front with Zeke.

"Hey...Jake..." Jeremy sounded exhausted.

"You sound tired." I told him blatantly.

"I didn't get much sleep before it was time to catch my flight." He yawned.

"Oh. So you caught your flight. Was your emergency handled?"

He let out a heavy sigh. "It won't be solved overnight, but it's not your problem so don't worry about it. I just wanted to make sure you weren't mad at me for bailing on dinner."

"It's okay, I understand. Life happens." I reassured him. "We can get dinner when you get back or something. You have it tough with the season going on." I paused for a second before asking. "Are you going to play in tonight's game? You sound tired."

He yawned again. "Ahh, I'll probably decide after taking a nap for a couple of hours. See how I feel then. The manager might want to rest me too so it depends."

"I'll let you go. Have a good rest." I told him.

"Thanks." He said softly, sounding like he was drifting off to sleep already.

I could only hope that he was in his hotel room and not some public space when I hung up.

"What'd he say?" Noah asked.

"He was just checking on me. He made his flight, but doesn't sound like he got any sleep. Don't know if he'll play tonight." I gave Noah and Zeke the rundown.

Zeke had just reached the house and put the car in park. "It's better if he just takes a rest day. We don't want the A's to overuse him so soon."

"Yea!" Noah agreed. He looked back at me. "Text him that he should just take the night off to rest."

I tapped the message out on my phone and pressed send. Hopefully the text won't wake him.

We exited the car and went inside the house. Dad was the only one home with Mom meeting with clients for lunch. "I ordered takeout for lunch. Should be here in a few." He told us.

With some spare time, the three of us went upstairs to drop off our backpacks. I also got started on the exercises that Dr. Shanfield wanted me to do. I didn't have any extra pain than before so it was safe to say that my leg was healing. I would watch tonight's softball game, but Saturday I would get to play again. Even if it was just to be the designated home run hitter.

Because we had the softball game in the evening, we weren't in the position to watch the A's game. Noah looked up the stats afterwards though and confirmed that Jeremy didn't play in their game tonight. He didn't text me back until Friday morning and it was just a simple, 'I'm feeling better' text. Which was good, I guess. Nevertheless, I was worried about why he was losing sleep.

Jeremy didn't say, so I didn't ask.

He was back in the lineup Friday night so I guess it wasn't a huge deal. Or...maybe it was? He did say it was a problem that couldn't be solved overnight.

I could only sit back and watch him play his games over the next few days.