The Hitting Zone
chapter-698

With everyone working to clean up the field, the time spent was less than I thought it would take. As a group we headed for the parking lot and started to go to our separate cars.

"I'm going to go home and shower real quick." Garret said after sniffing himself.

"Same." Mitchell agreed.

About half of the guys echoed similar sentiments.

"Go home and shower if you want." Zeke said. "If you can't or don't want to go home, then just come straight to our house."

Everyone got in their cars and we left the park.

"Man, I'm exhausted." Dave slumped in the front passenger seat. "Chasing those long fly balls in the sixth inning was killer." He rubbed his right shoulder with his left hand.

"Did you hurt yourself when you flipped over the fence?" Kyle frowned, clearly concerned. His concern made the rest of us concerned as we looked at Dave.

Dave shook his head. "Nothing serious. Just going to be sore tomorrow."

"Make sure to ice when we get home." Zeke told him. Then he glanced back at Kyle. "You too. You both have to do better in taking care of yourselves. Offer Bryce and Brian ice too when they show up." Zeke pulled into the driveway.

"I don't think I should ice when I'm not in pain." Kyle brushed Zeke's suggestion off. "I'll just take a warm shower and do some stretches."

Zeke turned the car off. "Okay. As long as you know what you're doing."

We all got out of the car, bringing our bags with us. A few of the guys that chose to come straight to our house walked up the driveway and followed us into the house.

Zeke went to the living room to turn on a baseball game. Dave went to the kitchen to get a bag of ice, offering one to Bryce, who was one of the few to follow us straight home. Kyle went to his room to shower, while Noah and I went to our own room.

"Do you want to shower first? Or want me to shower first?" Noah asked me as he put his baseball bag down.

I set my bag down next to all my spare bats that were still leaning against the desk. "Up to you." I pulled my phone off the charger and found that I had a missed call from Jeremy. "Hey, what time do the A's play today?" I asked.

"Probably right about now." Noah said after checking the time. "It's 7pm in Boston. Why? Did Jeremy text you?"

I shook my head. "No. Just a missed call. I'll text him back instead of calling back." I started to type, sending Jeremy a message that I was out playing baseball when I missed his call and that he could call back after his game when he was free.

"You go shower first." Noah laid down in the middle of our room and started to do some pushups. "I want to add in a little more work."

"Okay..." I let him be.

After my shower, Noah went to take his while I joined the others downstairs. The A's game was on the tv and everyone was packed in the living room. It was hard to find a spot to sit.

"Hungry?" Zeke came up from behind me and asked. He was holding two giant plastic bowls. One was filled with pretzels and the other had chips.

I shook my head. "Nah. I'll wait for the pizza."

"Mom said it should be here soon." Zeke passed the bowls to Mahki and they started to move throughout the room with each guy taking a handful. "Go find a seat and watch the game."

I glanced at the packed room.

"Want to help me set up instead?" Zeke offered.

"Jake!" Bryce yelled my name while pointing at the TV. "Look! It's Jeremy."

I glanced at the screen that was zoomed in on Jeremy's face as he stepped up to bat.

"I'll stay here." I told Zeke. Then made my way through the living room, finding an open spot just in front of the couch near Bryce and Dave.

"You know, I was worried about Patterson when he fell into that slump this past week." Bryce started to talk a mile a minute as soon as I sat down. "I was wondering if it would be weird to call you guys to ask about it. But then I saw that game a couple days ago where he mentioned you and Noah!" He laughed. "It's surreal to hear your name out of his mouth."

"What's this now?" Dave leaned forward. "Jeremy talked about Noah and Jake?"

"You didn't know?" Bryce asked.

Dave was bewildered. "I don't even know what you're talking about."

"You didn't even see the game?" Bryce asked.

"What game? I've been at a pitching camp all week." Dave looked at me. "What's he talking about?"

"Noah and I called Jeremy to ask about his slump." I explained. "Noah threatened to call Rose if he didn't get better. And then he did. In the postgame interview he mentioned us."

"You got to see the game at camp?" Dave asked.

I nodded. "We had a tv in the common area."

"So everyone knew...that Jeremy's your brother..?" Dave asked, unsure. I nodded. "And you were okay with that?"

I shrugged. "It's not like I can hide it. Everyone at school knows and Jeremy has a tendency to talk about us on camera. He mentioned Zeke after the draft, right? So a few of the players figured it out on their own."

Dave smiled and reached over to mess up my hair. "You've gotten so mature."

"Jake has always been mature!" Bryce claimed. "So serious all the time." He pulled me into a tight hug. "He needs to continue to be this little so he can be Bambi forever."

I shoved him away, unwilling to be in such an enclosed space.

"Hey! Leave Jake alone!" Noah practically jumped on Bryce as he joined us.

Bryce pushed him out of his lap. "Get off. You're so heavy and your hair is wet."

Noah shook his head back and forth, getting us wet with little water droplets from his hair.

"He's like a dog." Bryce wiped his face. "I never understood how Jake can like Noah so much since they're so different. But now I see. Noah must resemble a therapy dog for Jake."

Noah tackled Bryce and started to playfully hit him.

"I'm kidding! I'm kidding!" Bryce hollered. "Get off of me!"

"You kids are so rowdy." Garret walked into the living room, speaking over everyone else.

"It's just Noah and Bryce." Mahki spoke up. "The rest of us have been watching the game."

"What's the score?" Garret squeezed into a tight spot on the big couch.

The room filled up with the guys. It only got more chaotic after the pizza arrived. Everyone stacked their plates with pizza and grabbed a water bottle that Zeke had set out. It was a fun evening: watching the game, eating more than we should, and talking about our summer break. It felt like no time had passed between the championship game and now.