Page 57 of Foul Territory

NotYourAverageJoe19

You make it sound like it’s aneasy thing to do.

FaeAtHeart

It isn’t, but you can do it.

Practice on me. Tell me how you feel…when you get a message from me.

NotYourAverageJoe19

Do you remember when Aster wrote the first letter to Vincent?

FaeAtHeart

The one that made him realize she was his fated mate?

NotYourAverageJoe19

Yeah. It feels like that.

11

KOA

“How’s the planning going for Nash’s party? Are you and Syd playing nice?” Hart asks as we run laps around the field before practice starts.

“We’re making it work.” If you could call her giving me orders via text, and icing me out from the rest of her life making things work.She's been colder than usual lately. It makes me think the moment in her bedroom got to her as much as it did me. I was very close to showing her what would happen if I lost control.

The fact she is opening up to a stranger on the internet more than me is showing me just how much work I have ahead of me if I want to get her back. And I do want her back.

“The party is this weekend.”

“I’m aware.” The last week flew by with all our away games and classes. I hardly had any time to construct a plan to get back in her good graces. It didn’t stop the memory of her in her tiny sleep shorts and tank top from playing on an endless loop in my mind.

I can still feel the softness of her hips in my hands and her warm vanilla scent still lingers in the air reminding me what it felt like to be close to her, even if it was only for a moment.

I admire her in the stands as we make the final stretch down the third base line on our last lap. She has her hair braided and twisted on the top of her head and a handmade headband keeping her bangs off of her face. She’s wearing another pair of loose patterned pants and a cropped shirt.

She is temptation personified.

“I’m surprised Syd showed up today,” I say, lifting the front of my workout tank and wiping the sweat off my face and head as we walk into the dugout.

“Lauren made her come. She said something about us not having very many practices left and coming to them is not the same without her. They also need to work out the details about the food for the party.”

It makes sense that it took Lauren strong-arming her to get her to show up. She’s been coming to our practices less and less since the new semester started.

She claims her classes and the extra hours spent in the lab are taking up more of her time but I know she’s been avoiding me as much as possible. I hate it, but I’m not mad at her for it. It’s my fault.

I tend to run cold or colder with her. When you love someone you can’t be with, it’s hard to know how to react around them. When we’re together my natural instinct is to touch her. I want to hold her hand, kiss her forehead, wrap my armsaround her waist, and breathe her in until she is my only source of oxygen.

But I can’t because I promised her brother I wouldn’t. At thirteen, I didn’t think anything of it. It was a decision that allowed me to stay friends with both of the Pierce siblings.

It worked for awhile but as we got older and baseball took over more of my life, I could feel Sydney slipping further away. She retreated more to herself, focusing on getting her scholarship to Newhouse.

And me…I waited as long as I could until I couldn’t take it anymore. I didn’t go to her graduation night with the intention of having sex. I wanted to talk to her. I barely had the chance to say two words to her the whole night.

She looked like a dream laid out on her bed. All I could think about was making her mine permanently. Instead I held her for as long as I could before everything went to shit in the morning.