“Good to know,” he murmured, gesturing to the stack of pizzas. “I got extra mushroom.”
“We’re not supposed to have anyone over when my uncle isn’t here,” Chloe said, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth as she clearly debated letting him stay, most likely for the pizza but he was okay with that.
“And I’ll be gone before he gets home,” Cole promised.
For a moment, she stood there and then…
“Why are you really doing this?”
“Because we’re going to be friends,” he said, deciding that it was only right that she knew.
“We are?” she asked slowly, clearly not seeing the benefits of being his friend, but she would.
“Yes, we are,” Cole said with a firm nod as he gestured to the spot on the couch next to him.
“And why are we going to be friends?” Chloe asked, sitting down next to him with a resigned sigh.
“Great friends,” Cole corrected her, making her lips twitch.
“Sorry. Why are we going to be great friends?” Chloe asked as she helped herself to a slice of double-mushroom pizza, her favorite from what he’d seen in the cafeteria.
“Because I’m adorable,” Cole said with a sad shake of his head, because really, what else mattered?
That was followed by a blank stare and a mumbled, “This is so sad.”
“Fine. How about the fact that it entertains you when your sister attacks me, which means that by being my friend, that I would be able to provide you with endless hours of entertainment?” Cole said, watching as she thought it over, hoping that she said yes, because he was honestly running out of ideas to make this better for her.
Nodding, Chloe said, “There is that,” as she nibbled on her pizza but they both knew that it was because he was adorable even if she didn’t want to admit it yet.
Chapter 28
She would not puke…
She would not puke…
She would not…
Oh, she was definitely going to puke, Mikey thought as she somehow managed to force her trembling arms to keep moving, but it wasn’t easy. After nearly two weeks of this, she would have thought that she would be used to this by now, but she would be wrong, very wrong. Every day was worse than the last and she honestly wasn’t sure how much more abuse her body could take.
The first day, he’d made them sprint back to the school where he had them do fifty pushups for not making it to practice early. That had been followed by making them sprint back to the fields, doing another fifty pushups before they finally were able to get to the warmup that he had planned for the day, which had been worse, so much worse than anything that she could have possibly imagined.
Every day, he pushed them for more, made them run more laps, pushups, sit-ups, and some evil combination of pushups, squats, and jumps that were quickly destroying her will to live. By the time that they actually moved onto practice, her arms and legs would be trembling and she’d have to force herself to find the willpower to go on.
Not sure how many more pushup/squat/jumping thingies that she could do, Mikey struggled to get back on her feet and–
Damn near cried when the coach blew the whistle for them to stop. Truly thankful that it was finally over, Mikey moved to take a step toward the bench to grab her glove only to end up biting back a whimper when Coach Dilmore yelled, “Ten laps!”
Repeating all those useless mantras that had been getting her through this, Mikey forced herself to run to the fence and move her butt. It took her a little longer than everyone else, but she finally managed to finish. Gasping for air, she once again headed to the benches only to end up biting back a groan when Coach Dilmore said, “Campbell, give me five more laps for coming in last!”
Knowing that she really didn’t have a choice, she ran/stumbled back to the fence line and after sending up a few silent prayers, she forced herself to run. She ignored the way that her legs trembled and the stitch in her side threatening to drop her on her butt and forced herself to keep going, knowing that if she slowed down or stopped that he would make it worse for her.
By the time she was done, Mikey was gasping for air and forced to grab hold of the chain-link fence to stop herself from falling over. Deciding that she hated running more than those pushup/squat/jumping thingies, she dropped her head as she gasped for air only to find herself looking up when Coach Dilmore said, “You’re weak, Campbell. Better work on that if you want to stay on this team.”
Nodding, because what else was she going to do? Mikey forced herself to push away from the fence and headed back to the bench. For a moment, she considered grabbing some water but thought better of it since it would probably earn her more laps. Reminding herself that she had a plan, one that didn’t involve puking or passing out, she grabbed her glove and forced herself to head to right field.
Once she was there, Mikey…was bored out of her mind within seconds. She watched as the coach grabbed a bat and gestured for the pitcher, his son, to start throwing. She watched as the pitcher threw the ball, noting that he was decent, but predictable. He channeled every throw, shifting his feet when he threw a curveball, adjusting his baseball cap for every fastball, and–
“Campbell!” came the shout that had her jerking her attention back to the coach only to end up grunting in pain when something slammed into her head, knocking her on her butt and had her deciding that perhaps she should have been paying attention to the ball instead.