When Our Worlds Collide Read Free

to the pitcher’s mound. How does he move
so gracefully? I can’t take my eyes off of him as he throws out a few practice
pitches. I slide the batteries into the camera snapping a few shots of Graham
as I make my way over to Violet.
    “What was that all about? More importantly why was Graham Black
talking to you? Did I see him whisper something in your ear?” Violet rattles
off the questions scanning her inspecting green eyes between the two of us. I
should be offended by her reaction. I’m not. I’m too confused to be upset with
her.
    “Your guess is as good as mine,” I answer shrugging my
shoulders as I put the camera back up to my face. I tell myself to point the
lens anywhere else, at any other player.  
    With no surprise, I watch Graham through the eye of my
camera the entire nine innings. There is something about him that makes it hard
to look away. It’s like watching him in slow motion. As if his life depends on
every pitch he throws. The ball dances from his hand as he releases it from his
grasp. I know right then and there that he’s a rarity.
    There isn’t a good enough reason to look away from someone
like Graham.
    He’s just not something you want to miss.
     
     

 
     
     
    Chapter Two
     
    Present Day
    -Graham-
     
    “He was practically naked while his girlfriend just stood
there and watched it all go down,” Mark explains shaking his head in disbelief
at what happened over the weekend.
    I laugh not giving a fuck if I’m disrupting anyone, as
usual. Even after Mr. Stevenson has cleared his throat a handful of times in
some sort of warning, I still can’t find the want to quiet down. That never
works anyways. Mr. Stevenson should know better by now.
    Apparently Craig, the fucking idiot he is, hooked up with a
freshman’s girlfriend at a party. The kid didn’t find the humor in finding his
innocent girlfriend losing her virginity to someone who wasn’t him. They never
do, really. Craig has no shame. He never has which is why I’m not surprised.
The guy would walk around with his dick in his hand all day if it was socially
acceptable. He pulled out of the naïve freshman not even bothering to put pants
on before kicking her boyfriend’s ass.
    Craig makes the rest of us all appear to be respectful
gentlemen. There have been numerous of nights where his crude sexist humor
lands Mark and me into the pants of distraught girls.
    He’s sort of the perfect wingman.
    “Where the hell was I when this all went down?” I question
tapping my pen on the table. By the look of disdain on Mark’s face I’d say I
know exactly where I had been.
    Mark rolls his eyes drastically confirming my suspicions.
    “Balls deep in Amanda if I were to take a guess,” he utters
under his breath.
    Amanda and Mark had been hooking up during the summer.
Something happened. It’s evident through their heated exchanges and the fact
that she slapped him last week in front of everyone in the hallway. Since the
summer he’s had a look of hatred whenever she even breaths the same air as him.
It’s entertaining for the rest of us at this point. We’ve all learned to ignore
the backhanded comments and name calling. It’s safer that way.
    I look up to see Mr. Stevenson glaring his beady little eyes
at me. “Mr. Black, can you tell me the difference between the Republican and
Democratic parties here in the United States?” he asks interrupting Mark’s and
mine conversation about Craig’s latest stunt.
    I’m watching Mr. Stevenson eye me down knowing damn well
that I don’t have the answer for him. He waits patiently. This is the point
where I either bullshit my way through or own up to not knowing what the hell
is going on. Those are the only two options of my survival for this class.
    Schools complicated for me. I know that teachers aren’t
dying to have me in their classrooms. I’m not the easiest student to have
sitting in their desks. I talk out in class. I spend most of my time talking
shop with my teammates