Delayed Penalty (Crossing the Line, #1)(22)

When I got back into her room, Ami smiled. "That guy is super weird."

Laughing, I took a seat next to her. "You have no idea."

Ami was lying in the bed, slouched to one side with the remote in her hand, looking for something to watch. That was when she turned it to baseball, which was kind of weird to me since it was on in the middle of January.

Ami frowned. "My brother was a baseball player."

"Brother?" She must have sensed my confusion. They said her parents were gone. Where was this brother at?

"Yeah…he…" Ami's eyes dropped from mine and she swallowed. "My parents…he was just about to sign with the Angels. Baseball was his life and had been since he was old enough to hold the bat. My parents and Taylor, his girlfriend, were with him on that plane…it crashed en route to California."

Well f*ck. As if this girl's life couldn't get any worse.

I didn't say anything. What could I say?

The sadness in her voice made me want to hug the shit out of her. I wasn't sure what it was about the girl, but she turned me into a big mushball, and I was constantly looking for ways to make anything I could easier for her.

That f*cking douche of a doctor came back, him and his smell. "It's time to go…Mase."

Mase? He really was trying to get under my skin. Only family and friends called me that. He was neither, and it was clear he never would be.

Ami glared at the doctor and rolled her eyes. "I let you guys prod at me all day long. The least you can do is let my friend stay."

Fuck yeah.

The doctor, even though he was a doctor, was hardly mature and rolled his eyes. He eventually left.

"Why did he call you Mase? I thought your name was Evan."

"Oh, well my friends and family call me Mase." I shrugged, watching her again. "My dad started calling me it when I was a kid and it stuck."

Ami gave a nod and glanced back at the television. A half smile formed on her lips, maybe a distant memory.

"Why did you come to Chicago?" I asked.

"Needed a new life I guess." There was an emptiness behind every word. Somehow I managed to stop staring and looked out the window. It was snowing again.

Ami looked over, too, but watched the wall as she spoke. "After my family was killed, there was nothing left. My boyfriend moved away and went to college without me, and I came here hoping for a new start. Apparently..." She shifted, adjusting her blanket and smiled, looking up with in amusement, "...I'm off to a great start."

"And a new haircut."

A giggle escaped her lips, the sound echoing throughout the room. I smiled.

"Why'd your boyfriend leave?" Oh lord. Shut up already. Honestly, I couldn't imagine anyone leaving this girl.

"His sister was my brother's girlfriend, the one who was on the plane. I guess it was too much for him."

We sat in silence. I wasn't sure I should say anything else. I wasn't exactly off to a great start. The lack of conversation after that seemed to evoke emotions both of us were trying to suppress.

That was when Ami started to cry, attempting to hide her tears by looking the other way, and despite my conscience telling me to leave her alone, I moved to console her.

I knew then, with my arms wrapped around her, there was no way I could continue to be around her with the way she was consuming my every thought. There also wasn't a goddamn thing I was willing to do about it.

"I'm sorry," I whispered into her hair.

"Why?" She brought her eyes to meet mine. "You have no reason to be sorry. You saved me."

"There are shitty people out there, Ami," I mumbled, hoping I wasn't about to reveal too much. "There are good ones, too."

"Funny, my brother used to say things like that to me." Brushing her tears away, she took a deep breath and smiled. "Andrew was always looking for the good side, the sunny side. Which was funny because he was this hot shot baseball player, pitcher, number five." She gave me a smile as though she knew I'd laugh at the way she described him like a sports announcer.

It felt so surreal hearing her talk. For over two weeks, I talked to her, wondering if this moment would ever come, if she would actually talk to me.

Ami went on to explain that Andrew, her brother, was just starting out in his career and skipped out on college, much like me, and was just about to sign for his pro career. And then the plane crash happened. A chance at a lifetime never fulfilled.

I had a really hard time with it when I learned about what happened to Ami's older brother. He was the exact same age as me. My first thoughts when she had told me went back to when I entered the draft and how my family was with me. What if something like that had happened?

Why did I get to live my dream and Andrew didn't?

Why did shit like this happen?

Why them?

When she told me, I was sad. She was young, he was young, and I couldn't imagine the pain she went through.

To save myself the embarrassing part of getting choked up through her story, I didn't speak. It frustrated me, consumed me even, but I was finally starting to understand why I attached myself to her. I wanted to protect her.

For everyone out there each day, each year, is arguably different than the last, bringing with it different struggles, highs, lows, new friends, and fading friends. In five days, in twenty minutes, in a second, everything about that year could change.