Page 15 of Fake Dates and Home Plates (Way Off Base #1)

Chapter Fifteen

Theo

Before leaving Henley’s apartment, I send a text message to Bash saying I needed to talk. He responds immediately, telling me just to head over. Unfortunately for me, when I walk into the apartment, I can hear he’s not alone.

He and a couple of our teammates are spread throughout the living room, remotes to game consoles in their hands. All of them are talking shit and cussing each other out, so I’m guessing I missed something pivotal.

“Oh, hey, Theo,” Ezra says before hitting Lukas on the back of his head.

They both live in the building, with Lukas living just down the hall from Sunny and Bash, so I’m not too surprised to see them here.

A chorus of greetings echoes around me as I find an empty seat near the TV. Leaning back, I run a hand down my face.

I’m so fucking pissed, and I hate that I have no idea how to help Henley with her Dakota problem.

She wants to let it go, and I want to respect that, but I also think she knows deep down, he’s not going to stop.

At least not until he’s taken things way too far.

The texts and trolling are his stepping stones.

Sleeping with her teammate? That dude is fucked in the head.

“What’s going on, man?” Bash asks.

I huff out an exhale.

“I want to kick someone’s ass, but I’m not sure my girlfriend will be happy if I do,” I tell them.

“Do it anyway and then beg for forgiveness on your knees, if you know what I mean,” Ezra says, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

Can’t deny the idea is appealing, but I’m trying to earn Henley’s trust right now, and that doesn’t seem like it would benefit me much.

Lukas tosses one of Sunny’s throw pillows at him, but Ezra catches it with a smile.

“I’m guessing you mean Dakota? Is Henley okay?” Bash brings us back on topic with his questions.

Nodding, I clench my fists. “He won’t leave her alone. Today at lunch, I think she probably got at least twenty notifications just from him. Every time she blocks him, he just finds another way.”

My teammates all make different sounds of annoyance; none of us care for the guy, and knowing just how fucking intense he’s being makes it worse.

Lukas’ face twists into a grimace. “Maybe Ezra’s on to something. We beat his ass, and you can apologize later.”

As much as I want to, I know we can’t resort to violence. We’ll end up hospitalizing him and catching criminal charges. All the romance books I’ve read would definitely have the love interest go that route, but this isn’t a fictional story. We’d all be off the team.

“Sadly, I don’t think it’s an option,” I say regretfully.

We sit in silence for a few minutes, their video game forgotten.

“If we can’t fuck him up, we need to find a way to fuck with him,” Ezra announces.

He’s a sophomore, but he fit in with us easily when he joined the team as a walk-on last season. He’s a damn good shortstop, and his batting average is insane. Despite not having much field time last year, he stayed dedicated, and I’m almost sure he’ll be in the starting lineup this season.

With all his body art, plus that he rides a motorcycle, he has no trouble scoring off the field either. Ezra’s brought around so many different people, we can’t keep up anymore.

Lukas grabs his phone and starts scrolling through it. “He seems like a player who believes in superstitions. There’s got to be something we can find.”

It only takes him a few seconds before he’s showing us his screen. “His lucky bat.”

I remember that now. He’s talked about it at parties before. It’s the same wooden bat he’s had since Little League.

Bash slaps a hand on the arm of the couch. “That’s right. I heard him telling someone once that it has to be in the dugout while he’s playing, but it stays in his locker to keep it safe. I bet it’s there now, even though training hasn’t started.”

All my teammates are looking around the room at each other then back at me. Wherever this is going is either borderline insane or completely fucking illegal. Possibly both.

“So we steal the fucking bat. There’s probably no one at the field, considering it's nowhere close to the season,” Ezra says with a manic look in his eye.

Bash and Lukas immediately agree, all in on the plan, but I’m hesitant.

Dakota is already acting unhinged, and this could cause him to lose it. He seems like the type to check up on his things regularly and would notice it missing sooner rather than later.

But also…he deserves it. If his behavior escalates, maybe we can just beat the hell out of him and call it a day.

“They probably have cameras everywhere; we’d be caught eventually,” I say. It should be obvious.

They all roll their eyes, disappointed in my logical contribution. Clearly, being the voice of reason is inconveniencing their criminal plans.

“I might have something that can help with that,” Bash says as he jumps up and gestures for us to follow.

When he opens the door to Sunny’s room, we all protest, but he waves us off. “It’ll be fine. When I tell her why we were in her room, she’ll be thrilled. She’s been talking about inviting Henley over for dinner since game night. Pretty sure she’s obsessed with your girl.”

Great.

I actually love the idea of my friends liking my girlfriend and wanting to hang out with her, but the idea of sharing her limited time—that, I don’t like so much.

I’ve never seen Sunny’s room before. When they host, her door is almost always locked, and we’re all forced to use Bash’s bathroom. I’m not sure what I expected.

I’ve known the girl just as long as I’ve known her brother. I’ve gone to the mall with them and watched her pick out girly shit to decorate their apartment. I’ve seen her screech over a spider then cry when Bash tried—and failed—to kill it with his shoe.

But I’m completely thrown off guard by her chosen bedroom decor.

The walls are painted a matte charcoal, though you can barely see it, because horror movie posters cover almost every inch. On the bed, there are throw pillows with popular scary movie villains' faces.

“What the fuck?” Ezra voices for all of us.

“Sunny is a bit of a horror movie enthusiast. You name it, she’s seen it.

Even if it’s terrible or a spoof, she will watch it,” Bash explains.

“Our parents had her see a therapist in elementary school because the only way she could go to sleep was by rewatching the same slasher film every night for three months.”

I don’t think I’ll ever look at the girl the same again. I might be a bit frightened of her now.

“Now help me look through these boxes. She’s bound to have some costumes and masks in here somewhere,” he says as he grabs a plastic tote labeled ‘props’ from the top of her closet.

I’m reaching for the next one when I hear a scream. I’ve never heard a guy make a sound like that, and I immediately assume someone’s been stabbed by a prop knife Sunny must keep around for shits and giggles.

Turning around abruptly to see what’s happened, I nearly drop the tote on my head.

“What the fuck!” Bash shouts before slamming the lid back on.

He’s not quick enough to stop Ezra, though. The sneaky fuck quickly grabs the lid and steps out of Bash’s reach.

Not that he has to worry, because instead of reaching for him, Bash covers his eyes with both hands. “Get me some fucking bleach. I’d rather never see again than remember what I’ve just found.”

When Ezra whistles, I can’t help but look down. My cheeks heat instantly, and I’m seconding the call for bleach.

“Damn. Your sister is a kinky—” Ezra’s sentence is cut off with Bash’s fist to his stomach.

“Shut. The. Fuck. Up.” Bash’s voice is scary.

I’ve heard him use the protective brother tone before, but this sounds much more dangerous.

Grabbing the lid from Ezra, he slams it down on the storage tote before putting it back on the shelf in Sunny’s closet.

“No one is to speak of this ever again, or I will cut your balls off and make you wear them like a saggy unicorn horn.”

We all stare at him, taken aback by his threat. I’ve never heard the word unicorn spoken so menacingly. When I look over at Lukas, he appears to be catatonic. He isn’t blinking or moving; he is completely in shock.

Poor dude. He’s been crushing on Sunny since the minute he met her, and now, he’s just seen her collection of sex toys. Lukas has done his best to hide it, but the way he can’t seem to form a coherent thought around her most of the time kind of gives it away.

At least Bash doesn’t seem to notice. I’m not sure I could save him. I don’t know how he’s going to erase the sight of a whip and a massive dildo, along with many other objects of interest, from his brain.

“Someone else needs to check the rest of them. If I see anything else like that knowing it belongs to my sister, I’m going to need to check myself into a facility,” Bash says, his face a little green.

Ezra volunteers for the job and earns himself another punch to the gut.

“Theo, you do it. You’re too fucking googly-eyed over your girlfriend to be a perv about it.”

Great, I get to be the one to see if his sister is hoarding more sexual paraphernalia than a sex ship. Cool, love my teammates so much.

Then again, they are helping me commit a crime, so I guess this isn’t much of an ask in return.

The tote I nearly dropped when Bash panicked is filled with masks, saving us any additional trauma. Thank goodness.

We each pick one and return the box to its place on the shelf. After leaving the room, we talk out our plan. I borrow some black joggers and a hoodie from Bash while the other two head to their own places to change.

Once it gets dark, we’re ready to dish out a little payback.