Love Is Hell

It all started because of her brother. His name was Joey, and her name was Carolina -Lina for short- and they were twins, born on April nineteenth. He was on a baseball team when they were fourteen, and they always met up at the ball diamond for games every Wednesday morning. Lina was the only one in their family who could ever go to Joey’s games because her mom worked too much. One day, Joey’s team was short too many members. They were going to have to forfeit because his friend got grounded for smoking weed in the school bathroom. They needed to win that game in order to have a chance in the championship later in the summer. Lina knew how much her brother wanted to be in the championship, so she filled in for the kid who smoked pot. Joey’s team won the championship that summer.

It’s so funny how things work out, how things can happen just because one little thing happened, say, two years ago. If the boy who smoked pot hadn’t been trying to impress a girl by buying drugs, he wouldn’t have gotten hooked. If he hadn’t gotten hooked, he wouldn’t have had to smoke on the last day of school, and if he didn’t have to smoke on the last day of school he wouldn’t have gotten caught. If he didn’t get caught, he wouldn’t have gotten grounded from his baseball game, and if he didn’t get grounded Lina wouldn’t have had to fill in. If Lina hadn’t filled in for Joey’s teammate, she wouldn’t have gotten to run a home-run. If she hadn’t run a home-run, Joey’s team wouldn’t have won the game. If they hadn’t won the game, Lina and her brother wouldn’t have started dancing with his teammates at the end of the ninth inning when it started raining. If Lina hadn’t danced in the rain, she wouldn’t have tripped on a stray baseball bat lying in the mud.

If Garrett Nickelsen’s cousin’s plane flight had been scheduled a few hours earlier or later, he wouldn’t have gotten in Phoenix on Tuesday evening. If he hadn’t gotten into Phoenix Tuesday at exactly 6:37 p.m., he wouldn’t have seen baseball teams practicing and asked to attend a game. If he hadn’t asked to attend a game, Garrett never would have taken him to Joey’s game Wednesday morning, where he saw the lone girl on the field run an entire home-run by herself. If his cousin hadn’t started choking on a piece of popcorn, Garrett wouldn’t have been standing by the dugout to buy his cousin a water bottle.

And if Lina hadn’t tripped, Garrett wouldn’t have needed to help her up. If Garrett hadn’t helped her up, he wouldn’t have seen how lovely he thought her smile was, and Lina wouldn’t have seen how lovely she thought his eyes were.