Curve Ball

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?!” the man shouted at Tommi as he leaned against the wall and covered his eyes with his hands. The hood of his jacket fell off of his head to reveal a mullet that Tommi thought was absolutely repulsive. She studied the young man in front of her as she watched him rub at his eyes, not feeling the least bit of sympathy towards him.

“I don’t know if you’re just standing there or not because I can’t fucking see, but if you wouldn’t mind could you get me a wet washcloth?” he snapped at her.

“What are you doing in my house?” she snapped back, her hands on her hips.

“I live here,” he answered. “You must be Tommi.”

“Yeah…” she trailed off as she walked to the sink and grabbed a dishrag and ran it under the water.

“Nice to meet you,” he said sarcastically.

“Do you want this washcloth or not, asshole?” she asked before throwing it at him. “I thought you were a fucking burglar.”

“If I was a ‘fucking burglar’ the first place I would go to wouldn’t be the fridge,” he muttered to himself. He dabbed at his eyes for a few minutes as they stood in silence.

Tommi stood a few feet away from the brunette as she crossed her arms over her chest, not uttering a word. She watched as the helpless man tried to get the pepper spray out of his burning eyes and she proceeded to stand motionless in her place as she heard her dad’s footsteps pounding down the stairs.

“What is going on down here?” Alan asked as he entered the kitchen. He had his pajamas on and his house slippers on, his eyes half shut and his dark hair a mess. He looked over at the young man in front of Tommi and went over to him. “John, are you okay?”

“Is John okay?!” Tommi exclaimed as she threw her arms up in frustration. “I’m the one that got woken up at midnight by a strange man in the house!”

“Are you the one that got sprayed with pepper spray?” John asked rudely, his eyes still shut. When Tommi didn’t respond he shrugged his shoulders, irritation dripping from his voice. “I didn’t think so.”

“Stop it you two,” Alan said as he walked John over to a chair and sat him down. “I should have told Tommy about why you’re here.”

“Yeah, you should have,” Tommi agreed, her tone clipped. “So, explain.”

“John moved in with me about six months back when he needed a place to stay,” Alan explained, crossing his arms over his chest. Tommi knew that her father didn’t want to go through this now, but as long as Tommi was awake and upset he didn’t have a choice, and he knew that. “And I didn’t want your mother finding out because I didn’t think she would approve of me taking in a stranger, so I never told either one of you.”

“Oh,” she said as she crossed her arms over her chest. She rolled her eyes. “Well, you should’ve.”

It was quiet between the three of them before Tommi shook her head. She wasn’t in the mood to ask questions about the bum that was in her kitchen, so she turned on her heel and started down the hallway towards the stairs. “Well, I’m going back to bed. Keep it down, please. Goodnight.”

And that was the last thing said as she headed up the stairs and went into her room, shutting the door loudly behind her.

+

The next morning Tommi climbed out of bed, and after grabbing a sweatshirt she left her room and headed down the stairs to grab some breakfast before her morning jog. She had been playing softball since she was in third grade and she was going to try out for the softball team at the new high school she would be attending, and before tryouts she wanted to make sure that she was in shape and ready to work her ass off. She was going to try and get a run in every morning, watch what she ate, and work out whenever she was just sitting around the house with nothing to do. She was determined to be the best on the Raiders team, just like she was on her old softball team.

When she entered the kitchen she saw John at the kitchen table with a bowl of Lucky Charms in front of him. She noticed that his eyes were still red from last night but shrugged it off as she made her way to the pantry. She opened the door and stared inside for a few seconds before grabbing a granola bar and walking over to the table. She plopped down on the chair across from John, who looked up at her and smiled slightly. Tommi didn’t return the smile as she glanced down at her breakfast.

“Morning,” he said as if nothing happened last night.

“Morning,” Tommi replied, her tone clipped and short as she unwrapped her breakfast. She didn’t care if he was trying to be nice to her, she still didn’t like him. She didn’t like his stupid mullet or his jeans that hugged his chicken legs or his small smile that he just sent her way. She had no idea why her dad would offer to take someone like him in and if she would have known that he was living there she would have reconsidered the idea of moving.

“So, about last night,” John began before he was cut off by Tommi.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Tommi interrupted. “It’s over so get over it. You’re not blind, are you?”

“No,” he said slowly, his voice full of confusion.

“Didn’t think so,” she stated. “So there’s nothing to talk about.”

“I was going to apologize, but okay,” he mumbled as he scratched the back of his neck.

Tommi rolled her eyes and took a bite of her granola bar as she watched John pick up her school schedule and look it over. He looked up at her and raised an eyebrow.

“What?” she sighed as she glared at him. After last night’s events she wasn’t up to having a conversation this morning, and even if she did want to have a conversation, her person of choice wouldn’t have been John.

“Honors chemistry, honors English, honors government, and calculus?” he chuckled as he read off her schedule. “Mommy raised a smart girl, I see.”

“Stay out of my business,” she snapped as she pulled her schedule out of his hands. “What classes I’m taking doesn’t concern you.”

“Fine, fine,” he said as he put his hands up defensively. “I don’t know why you hate me so much. Just because I scared you last night?”

“No, because I didn’t know you were here and I came here to spend time with my dad, not to hang out with some bum who is living in the basement,” Tommi shrugged as she stood up from her seat. She took the last bite of her granola bar and tossed the wrapper in the garbage before turning to John. “Now, if you’ll excuse me I’m going to get ready to go on a morning jog.”

John rolled his eyes at her and nodded before looking down at his bowl of cereal as Tommi headed up the stairs towards her room.

+

After jogging around the neighborhood Tommi entered back into her father’s house to see that no one was inside, not even John. She pulled her headphones out of her ears and turned her iPod off as she walked down the hallway and saw John and her dad outside in the backyard with tools and wood all around them. Tommi cocked her head to the side and walked to the back door before opening it and looking at her dad and John.

“Hey, sweetie,” Alan said as he looked up at his daughter. “John said you were on a run.”

“Yeah, I was,” Tommi answered. “I was wondering if you would want to go out to lunch or something in a little bit? I just have to shower and get ready, but it won’t take long. I promise.”

“I would love to, but John and I have had this deck planned for weeks and we really wanted to get started,” he said as he looked at the tools and planks of wood around him

“Oh,” Tommi said, and she wasn’t sure she could feel any more rejected by her father. “Well, do you want to throw the softball later? I need to get ready for tryouts.”

“We probably will be working on this all day, Tommi,” he said, rejecting her once again. “Sorry, dear.”

Tommi nodded her head before looking at John and narrowing her eyes at him. He looked over at her and sighed, knowing that he had pissed her off which is something he didn’t want to do. She already didn’t like him and he had no idea why she was being so rude to him. He was trying to make conversation and be friends and apologize, but she didn’t want anything to do with him and that was clear. And he would be lying to himself if he said he wasn’t getting fed up with it.