“Oh, I don’t know. I don’t want to interrupt. It seems like you guys already have the party going and everything.”
“Stop. Come on. Seriously, there is plenty of tea and cups to go around. It’s always nice to have more people.” He started to walk toward the party, glancing over his shoulder once with bright eyes and a pleading smile—a smile that was impossible to say no to.
Though my shoes felt like they’d been pumped with lead, I followed him toward the parking lot. The music became louder, and I don’t know if it was a sign from above, or just the right timing, but when a song by Khalid came on, I figured this was where I needed to be. Surrounded by a group of people with great taste in music.
“Hey, guys!” Brody called with his hands cupped around his mouth. He had climbed onto the bed of one of the pick up trucks. Everyone looked up at him, but a few of them locked their eyes on me, probably realizing they’d never seen me before. “I think I have a new recruit!” He turned around to lower the volume of the music, then he faced me, extending an arm and offering a hand. I placed mine in his, my heart clamoring, mind rattling. This is so fucking crazy.
“This is Kandy Jennings. She’s a new student athlete here. A pitcher for our softball team and she’s super interested in MPA!”
Everyone cheered and hooted and hollered and I couldn’t help myself. I blushed, but made sure to wave to let them know that this group had indeed intrigued me.
Brody wrapped an arm around my shoulder and pulled me into him. The contact had thrown me for a loop and as badly as I wanted to push away, I didn’t. For one, he smelled nice. Really, really nice. And two, he was kind and had welcomed me in with open arms. It would have been absolutely rude of me to shove him off.
His smell was different than Cane’s. Where Cane’s was manly and crisp, Brody’s was earthy and ripe, like he’d just hit his peak of becoming a man. He had the kind of musk that could drive a woman crazy—a scent only an athletic guy could pull off and make sexy.
“Welcome, Kandy!” One of the girls up front yelled.
“See—told you it’d be cool.” Brody finally pulled his arm away, and the lost weight made me feel too vulnerable.
Right now, he was my MPA guide. I didn’t want to be left alone in this pool of athletes, though they all seemed pretty nice. I was fresh meat, easy to rope in and demolish. Brody hopped off the truck and I sat first before climbing off.
A girl met up with us. Her hair was blond and bouncy and her smile was wide. “Hey, I’m Lidia, one of the coaches. It’s really nice to have you, Kandy.” She handed me one of the brown cups. “The tea is really good, but if you wanna add a little honey, I have some in my car. Just let me know.”
“Thank you.” I smiled at her then sipped the tea. Brody’s eyes expanded when I swung mine over to him, like he was waiting for me to tell him how it was.
“Well?” he mused.
“You were right. It is pretty good.”
“See! Good! I think she’s good on the honey, Lidia. Thanks,” Brody said.
“Cool!” Lidia walked off and returned to the group of people standing by a red pick-up truck. I noticed she was standing with a girl who had a pink cast on her arm. I knew exactly who she was without having to take a guess. I’d seen many pictures of her when I searched for Notre Dame softball.
Sophie Banks. She looked at me with a light scowl, like she knew who I was too. The volume of the music was turned back up again and I looked away, toward the speaker.
Some of the athletes started dancing. Since school hadn’t started yet and some of them were probably only getting into conditioning, there wasn’t much to talk about academically, other than majors and classes. Dancing and head-bobbing felt like the right thing to do.
“So how is the meditating performed?” I asked Brody, who had been lightly bobbing his head to a song by Miguel.
“Oh! Okay, so we choose a partner or two, take a few blankets to the grass over there, and we ask a few of the questions from the prompts the coaches type up. Sometimes we ask things like, ‘was your day okay?’ and then follow up with ‘how could it have been better?’ if someone has had a bad or negative day. At first it’s weird asking the questions and answering them, but you get used to it. Plus the questions they tell us to ask always lead to genuine conversations. We switch partners every meeting, that way we can get to know someone new. Honestly though, most of us stick with the people we connect to the most. It’s easier that way, when the person actually knows what you’re going through and can comment on it. It feels great to get certain things off your chest.”